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End of September

Thursday, September 29, 2022 0 Animals, Crochet/Knitting, Living in Michigan, Misc. Blatherings No tags Permalink
End of September

It’s the end of September, insert Green Day reference here. It was warm and sunny and lovely right up until the equinox (photo above is the last day of summer), and then it turned cold and rainy. Temperatures have had highs in the 50s this week, and some counties near ours have already had frost. I need to get a video of the end of September garden, and I need to get started on cleaning it up as well.

I crocheted this blanket for Melissa’s mother, and have been working diligently on crochet wash cloths since then. I also have a plan for reusable cloth paper towels and about 100 other projects waiting to be started. So many projects in fact, I’ve had to write them down on a list so I don’t forget them.

At work, we had the lower driveway paved. Pi had a leg amputation and is back in the kitten room. There is a frustrating amount of calls daily for us to take in cats, and as usual every shelter and rescue in southern Michigan is completely full. People need to spay and neuter their cats.

My baby Pi

I finished The Betrayal of Anne Frank by Rosemary Sullivan and am now on The Girl with the Golden Scissors by Julia Drosten. Kirsten and Dustin came for a visit this month. I got a CPAP machine and have been sleeping a bit better thankfully. Overall, the month has gone by more quickly than I expected. I’m honestly feeling a bit “off” and I’m not sure why. Hopefully October will bring clarity.

Special Guest

Friday, July 8, 2022 0 Animals, Kitty No tags Permalink
special guest

We had a special guest over the Fourth of July weekend. Kitten Pi, who has an injured hind leg, stayed with us and brought us all kinds of joy. When he’s not playing, he’s sleeping, and he prefers to cuddle up close when he sleeps.

special guest
special guest

He’s gone on to another foster home until he’s ready for surgery. In the few days he was with us, he let me know that perhaps I can love another cat again. Pi is a special little soul, and we were lucky to have him as our special guest.

The summer is half over now, which seems incredible. I’m having a weird situation, where I have so many thoughts of so many things I’d like to do, I feel it is all overwhelming to the point where I should just go to bed. I’ve always had a list of the projects, ideas, things I want to learn about and do, but I’ve never before felt like it was all too much.

We are getting ready for our first of two in-person events at work since the pandemic. I haven’t been in a crowd in two years, so I expect this will feel a little uncomfortable.

The garden is looking pretty good. While June was exceptionally dry, we’ve had a bit of rain in July. We now have tiny tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and eggplants. The flowers look good, too.

It’s Gonna Be May

Tuesday, May 10, 2022 0 Animals, Garden, Living in Michigan, Misc. Blatherings, Weather Update No tags Permalink
It's Gonna Be May

It’s Gonna Be May? No, it already IS May, and well into it. This week May feel more like July though, with highs predicted in the 80s. I saw a meme the other day that said something like Summer? No, Outdoor Depression. With the state of the world, it’s hard to look positively on things outside your own home. I’m lucky to have happiness there.

It's Gonna Be May

While I did not manage to create my own postcards to send this year for National Postcard Week 2022, I purchased some cards from amazing artist MN John (check out her website here, postcards and stickers and all amazing!). I didn’t send out many, just enough to feel like I sort of participated this year.

It's Gonna Be May

The flower beds have been all cleaned up, though I haven’t started on the vegetable garden. I did install our tiny water feature, and this Thursday will be putting in the water plants. I’m super excited to see how it turns out. The perennials are coming right up and looking good, but nowhere like they will be in a few weeks. It’s an exciting time of year for gardeners. Just over two weeks until greenhouse day.

It's Gonna Be May - Cass

Work has generally been a giant dumpster fire of stress. Not enough staff, unhappy staff, not enough money. Typical nonprofit stuff, I suppose. Kitten season has started, and as I’ve said before, you should never give your heart to a kitten. Cass here has spend some time in my office helping me work. He’s a good boy.

Ideas on the horizon? More linocut printing, book nooks, more YouTube videos and follow up on My Michigan Garden. Gardening, reading Nature is a Human Right, and waiting for my sleep test. Hope you are having a decent spring, or at least enjoying better weather.

Misc. Blatherings

Wednesday, August 25, 2021 0 Animals, Kitty, Misc. Blatherings, Painting, Soft Pastels, watercolor No tags Permalink
misc. blatherings postcards

Time for some misc. blatherings. Can you believe we’re nearing the end of August? I did finish a sewing project, an altar cloth, for Mom. It has some decorative stitching on it. Work is a bit stressful now. I’m trying to chill out, but you know how that goes. Most of the time, I wish I was home painting.

I have been doing a little bit of painting. I’m not counting these, above, in my official paintings, so they don’t have numbers. They are small, postcard sized, trying out some new paper and new techniques. Again, I figure it is fair to show the things that aren’t working out so well and not just the good ones. Cousin Marlene sent me a pack of vintage postcards, including this one of cacti. The piece one on the left is in watercolor on watercolor postcard stock. The one on the right was my first attempt with soft pastels on sanded paper. It’s obviously not good. But, I think maybe I like pastels? Last night I started a bigger one, of the boat on the water images I did with watercolor and ink in the previous post. I don’t quite have all of the right colors but I think it’s coming together anyway. I’ll post it when it is done. It seems you need a bigger size piece for pastels, especially the Terry Ludwig variety as they are chunky.

I belong to a large number of facebook art groups. So many in fact, they are taking up all of my feed and with a lot of crap. So I have taken to hiding a lot of the artists from the groups as if it isn’t inspiring or I just don’t like that kind of art, why look at it? And horse paintings? Automatic hide. I would guess horse paintings are the number one subject for people just starting out in art. Why? I don’t care how good it is, when you’re done with it, it’s still a freaking horse.

Such sweetness of a sleeping beast. I had last Thursday and Friday off work to join an online MSU gardening conference and Maxy sure enjoyed having company on the couch. He really misses Bob during the day.

We’re going through another round of 90 degree days, so summer hasn’t quite given up yet. It’s been humid, too. I’ve had two migraines in the past week, and headaches every other day. At least we did get rain last night so the garden was saved from certain death by dehydration.

Ocqueoc Painting & Bird Updates

Tuesday, May 26, 2020 0 Animals, gouache, Living in Michigan, Painting No tags Permalink

I continue on with my gouache odyssey with this latest painting. The reference image is a photo I took of the field from my Grandparents’ place back to the woods, taken when Mom and Kirsten and I were last up north. I am pleased with how it turned out. I wish I had more time to paint.

I have also been spending some time with bird photography. Above is the female oriole, and below is a cheeky robin. We had our first hummingbird on May 21, quite late this year. Next update should be the garden expansion. We are putting in a monarch butterfly way station.

New Paintings & Misc. Updates

Tuesday, May 12, 2020 0 Animals, gouache, Living in Michigan, Painting No tags Permalink

The weather has been odd this May. The past few days have been incredibly cold, 20 degrees below average with freeze warnings. I have yet to plant anything at all. They are predicting a week from now it will be 84 degrees. So much for spring, right? In happier news, the orioles have returned. We have at least two couples and the males seem a bit territorial. The hummingbird feeder has been up the same amount of time, but no hummingbirds spotted yet. Everything is still shut down until the end of the month due to COVID-19.

This latest painting is a very small study in casein. A friend on Instagram had posted the photo of her cat and suggested it was worthy of a painting. It seemed to me to be a good opportunity to try out a new medium.

I painted this gouache from a photo I took last year of our garden for Mom for Mother’s Day.

Spring Birds

Tuesday, April 21, 2020 0 Animals, Living in Michigan, Weather Update No tags Permalink

The spring birds are here, doing their thing. Above is a yellow-rumped warbler at the suet feeder in our backyard. I’ve not seen one of these before.

The bluebirds are already nesting at the shelter, with eggs in the nestbox.

So are the tree swallows. They are really pretty birds, and they are lovely in their flight patterns. They’re not shy of dive-bombing you if you get too close to the box, though.

Temperatures have been consistently colder than normal last week and this week, and predicted into next week as well. Today’s high should be 62, and we will top out around 42 instead. It looks like we will be tracking closer to normal the beginning of May. Things are still in lockdown for COVID-19, but we’re unsure when that will end. There is pressure on Governor Whitmer to open things back up here in Michigan. Not sure what will happen with the greenhouses at this point. Everything feels rather up in the air.

Dog Training Squeaks

Monday, March 21, 2016 0 Animals, Sew Cool! No tags Permalink

Sewing for Dogs – Dog Training Squeaks

dog training squeaks

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a sewing project. This one is very quick and easy – dog training squeaks! At the shelter where I work, we do all positive-based training. Getting the attention of a dog and having it follow a specific behavior you’d like is easy if you have a bait bag (see project here), training squeaks and some patience. You can buy fancy squeaks or clickers at a pet store, but it’s so easy and cheap to make them yourself. First, you’ll need the squeak bit:

dog training squeaks

I got these on amazon (20 for $8, here).

dog training squeaks

I had some leftover (cat-themed) fleece from another project (bench covers for a large cat play pen. really.). I cut the fabric to fit, folded it on the half and sewed a curved line with a zigzag stitch. I finished off the edge with pinking shears as the fleece won’t fray. Some dogs really like chewing on a squeak, so it’s always good to have extras. And squeaks are FANTASTIC to get a pet’s attention when you want to take their photo. I keep a squeak in my purse and in each coat pocket. Also, think you don’t have a need for these if you have a cat? Think again! You can totally train your cat. Here are a few of my favorite cat training videos:

If you’ve trained your pet to do cute things via positive training techniques, post the link in the comments!

Like pet projects? More here:

Dog Belly Band Tutorial

Wet-Felted Cat Balls

Felted Catnip Christmas Trees

Happy 13th Birthday Maxy

Thursday, March 3, 2016 0 Animals, Living in Michigan No tags Permalink

maxybirthday

Today is Maxy’s 13th birthday. He was found with his mother-cat, wandering the streets of Potterville, Michigan. He wound up at the Eaton County Humane Society. I saw his photo on petfinder.com, and we adopted him. If you have extra room in your heart, I encourage you to adopt a shelter pet. Maxy brings us so much joy.