In these crazy times, you just gotta focus on the things that make you smile. Like this wee dragon and cauldron I got at the thrift store.
They don’t actually go together, but I think that they are just perfect as a pair. I found the cauldron first. Its cast iron too – basically a real cauldron in miniature. I had no idea why I needed it, but I felt I did. Then several shelves away, was the dragon. Some of you may recall that I have a little collection of dragon stuffies. I thought he would be right at home with them. And then I put him beside the cauldron. I think it was meant to be.
And if you’re wondering just how small the cauldron is…
I feel like a broken record… but incase you missed it – we are having a VERY snowy winter!!! So its not really a surprise that we’ve seen A LOT of snowbirds this winter… aka the Juncos.
Sun or cloud, wind or snow, at any given time, on any given day, there are between 10 to 30 juncos in the yard and around the feeders. This is the first time that I’ve noticed that there’s a difference between the male and female birds, with the female birds being lighter and just a touch brown.
I’m terrified one of the cats is going to bring one in any day now, because they love to hop in and out of the catio, even though I got rid of the coneflower seeds heads in there so they wouldn’t be tempted. They just love to hop along the snow drifts.
The Mourning Doves are back too… I don’t think they actually leave, but I don’t tend to seem them in January/December for some reason.
There’s something very elegant about them. And they almost always hang out in pairs.
Another regular visitor are the Starlings.
I know many consider them pests, and they can be bullies at the feeder, but I love their speckled feathers.
I love their calls too. Our first winter here, we had them nesting in our attic, and you could hear them through the ceiling. I made Dave wait until the babies fledged in spring before evicting them and boarding up their access. They seemed to have moved into the neighbours next door, so we see them around a lot, though I don’t often get pictures. Fun fact: Starlings have blue eggs, very similar to Robins.
And of course, my army of Jays are about as long as their are peanuts in the ring.
It’s always a delight to watch my bold, brash blue friends.
This has definitely been the snowiest winter I can remember in a long time. We’ve pretty much had a good covering of snow since Christmas. We’ll get a warm up for a day or two, and then bam, another storm comes through dumping several inches of fresh snow.
Now I’m not complaining, my brother, who lives three hours north of us in the snow belt, has been getting HAMMERED with snow. Check out the famous 12 ft snow wall a few towns over from him.
But it has meant that the kitties haven’t been going out as much. Well – most of the kitties
Not much but the biting cold stops this idiot from going outside. The snow bothers him not a jot.
These pics were taken over a week ago. We got a good walloping on the weekend and now there’s about double that in the catio yard (and everywhere else).
Lemmy doesn’t quite see what the birds see in the seed heads that are scattered throughout the garden.
But he does enjoy a good scratch/roll on the scratching log!
The second, smaller Kitty Cat hat is finished! And it doesn’t look much different than the first, other than it is, in fact, smaller.
I am moderately annoyed. I thought I would have enough yarn left from the original ball to eke out this one. But I was short.. by like two inches of that bottom ribbing. That’s it! I literally needed probably 20 feet or so of yarn, so I had to go out and buy another full ball.
I’m tempted to make the middle size (this was the smallest, the first, the largest) and she can just basically have a series of hats that fits her forever!! Lol.
As you saw in my clean up post, I had a big pile of scraps to deal with. Normally, when I finish a quilt, I try to cut all the leftovers (anything under 1/4 yard that is) into smaller squares and tuck them away in my scrap bins for scrap quilts.
Sadly, I’d neglected that on the last 10 quilts or so so I had quite a pile to do. After getting the room organized, I set to it and in a couple hours, I had everything cut and put away. And I thought I’d share a couple other things I do with my leftovers.
Once the quilts come off the quilting machine, we have to trim off the extra backing. There’s usually a fair bit left and I like to cut it into strips for binding.
When I have a little more time, I’ll sew the strips together, iron them, measure them and tuck them away in this binding bin.
…ready for any quilt they might happen to match!
And here’s a new thing for me. You may recall that I have bolts of solid fabric in several neutral colours. I keep these on hand for background fabric in my quilts. But that means I get quite a pile of scraps from them too.
So I decided to cut the smaller pieces into 2.5″ squares.
They are now bagged up by colour and ready to go whenever I need small squares.
Well – just because I “can” finish an embroidered block in a weekend, doesn’t mean I always will.
After Dave and I got the ginormous dresser up the stairs and I spent the rest of the day cleaning the room, I had zero energy to do much that night. We popped out for some Chinese between snow squalls, and then came home where I vegged in my chair until bedtime, while Dave watched fail videos on Youtube on the TV.
Sunday I had a bit more energy so after a finishing the room, and cooking a light dinner (chicken fajitas!), Burton and I got comfy and I started the next block.
I managed to get the stems and leaves of the centre flowers done before it was time to call it a night.
Those side flowers will go pretty quick… and then it’s onto the French Knots. This kit REALLY loves the French Knots!
Like it was for many of you, this past weekend was a good one to stay inside. The snow started Saturday morning and continued on and off into Sunday night.
You may recall that I had plans to get that giant dresser into my studio and get things organized. I was hoping Freya’s dad would be able to help Dave get it up the stairs. Dave and I can move furniture together, but given our disparity in height (I’m 5’7″, he’s 6’1″), and vast difference in strength, it’s a struggle for us. Especially when stairs are involved. Sadly, Freya’s Dad wasn’t available… so if I wanted to get into my studio any time in the near future, we had to suck it up.
It was a bit of a two-ring circus act, but we managed it with only minimal damage to walls (which are walls we have to re-do anyway).
Once it was in there, it was all on me to get the room cleaned up and everything put away and organized. Well.. me and the Ginger Mister…
Because you know he was in there, making sure I didn’t take his scratcher/observation seat out of the room.
In the end, it was a two-day job to get (almost) everything where it belonged.
There are still a couple piles of things on the cutting table I need to find homes for, some scraps that need to be cut up and filed into their appropriate boxes, and a basket of clothes that need repair/modifications… but I can get in and move around again. There are no more baskets and bins piled up in front of the closet (so I can get to the yarn stash when needed), and there’s room to set up the big ironing board when needed (I have been setting that up in the bedroom across the hall.)
I wasn’t able to get rid of all the bins, but I was able to tuck them back out of the way. And just look at this organization in those drawers.
From the other pics, you might be able to get a sense of just how big this dresser is… but I think this one really drives it home!
I can just see the top of it. It’s huge! And I’m so happy with it.
But now that everything is in there and tucked away nicely… there is one small problem?
What do Burton and I do with our basket collection now???
I’m not even close to finishing my current embroidery project. For a quick refresher, it was a kit from Missouri Star Quilt called Ingrid’s Wildflowers.
Well the other week the jerks over there came up with another kit that’s even more up my alley!
Bird, bugs AND flowers???? How could I not get it????
Like the first kit, this one comes with everything you need but the fabric.(They sell that too, but it’s a seperate cost) I especially like the needle minder. I’m adding to my collection!
My only complaint with the kits is that the colours they use a bit bold and bright. I’d prefer something more subtle.
So… I bought a bunch of different colours to give me lots of options
Of course, I can’t even think about starting this one any time soon.
Oh… and while I was ordering, this cute thing came along for the ride…
And adorable mini-quilt holder. You know… so I can make mini-quilts in my copious spare time!
Time for another thrifting adventure story. There’s a Goodwill in Strathroy, but we don’t go there as often as we do the other stores. It’s fairly small and is often very busy. But we stopped in there the other week and I immediately spied something magnificent.
If you follow any thrifting pages, you may be familiar with these Persian cats. Like my mushroom canisters, they were part of the paint your own ceramics craze of the 70s and 80s. There are several sizes and styles. You most often see them in white, but I’ve seen them done in a Blue Mountain Pottery glaze. And on the internet, I’ve seen them in all colours and coats. I, of course, have been looking for a black one… for obvious reasons…
I’ve seen pictures of black ones online, but never come across one in the flesh…er fur. When I spotted this one, I told Dave all of the above, and that I wanted one in black. His comment was, “well you can repaint it”
I said no, it wouldn’t look the same.. and I took a picture, came home and posted it in one of my Facebook groups where people share cool thrifting finds whether they actually bought the item or left it behind for someone else.
I also included the story of how I was on the hunt for a black one. SEVERAL people commented that there were no black ones – that all the ones you see online have been repainted. Several people shared ones they had repainted themselves. And of course, that got me second guessing myself.
Well, the next day, Dave was headed into Strathroy and before he left, he asked me if I needed anything. I asked him to stop by Goodwill and see if that darn cat was still there. He just laughed said “Of course”
I honestly didn’t think it would still be there. It was only$5, and if you know anything about those darn cats, like the mushroom canisters, they can sometimes go for silly prices.
But… he came home about an hour and a half later, prize in hand! So this spring, his Lordship and I have a a little art project.
Hopefully we can make it just as majestic as he is, in all his ebony glory!
Wandering Cat Studio 