Guinea Pig Earrings

I made a pair of guinea pig earrings this weekend.  Years ago I bought studs to make my own Sculpey earrings, but was never inspired.  Then I saw a pair on Etsy (she has a variety of cute animals) and decided to make my own.

The guinea pigs themselves weren't difficult to make.  I've done variations of dangling guinea pigs on Christmas ornaments, so I was familiar with the basics.  Adding the post and backing were tricky.  The clay was soft and deformed easily.  I needed to do all of the pieces separately.  I was unsure how they'd look altogether until they'd been baked and I could assemble them.

I'm pleased with the results.  Aren't they cute?  I have a few more studs - I may have to make a few more.



I am linking up to Linky Tuesday.  It's so exciting to see my String Theory quilt top is featured on today's Linky post!

Weight Watching

Pinni eating hay... but not nearly enough

We are still battling Pinniped's bladder issues.  She gets better for a day or two, then gets worse.  Pinni visited the vet again last week.  The vet expressed as much sludge as possible, modified Pinni's medications and added subcues to the daily regime.  I believe Dr. Holmes is more frustrated by Pinniped's lack of progress than I am.

Pinni's attitude had been improving all week.  I had seen her eating and she begged for treats.  If I hadn't been weighing her every day (actually, three times a day), I wouldn't have realized she had been getting worse.  Guinea pigs are amazingly adept at hiding their illnesses.

Red Squirrel

The gray squirrel has been a frequent visitor to the front feeder all winter.  I've seen a red squirrel nearby, but he's not come up on the porch, let alone the feeder.  But in the last two weeks he's gotten braver.  He fits right into the feeder, much better than the gray squirrel.

Although the red squirrel has been extremely timid on the ground, he's been as bold as brass in the feeder.  I was standing a foot away from the window when I took these (terrible) shots.  The gray squirrel would have been long gone if I got that close.  Look at him peeking in.  What a cheeky fellow!

Tea Goodies

I hosted a Tea on Sunday.  Family and friends descended on my house with all sorts of food and we spent the afternoon sharing stories, drinking tea and eating all sorts of delicious stuff. 

The Tea is everyone's to try out new recipes.  We've learned to convert dishes to gluten- or dairy-free to accommodate peoples' allergies, with mixed results.  We've had cookies that crumbled or spread out and bars that imploded and the mix-ins sunk to the bottom.

This time we had a lot of great cookies, most of them gluten free.  There were  meringues,  coconut macaroons, cardamom snaps, mocha tea cookies and maple cookies.  I was so relieved the mocha cookies didn't fall apart.  I have also discovered that using almond meal in the macaroons is a delicious addition. 

So Sick

Pinniped was in for a recheck early March. The calcification is still near her spine, but seemed to have shrunk.  Good news.

However, Pinni didn't seem so well after the visit.  I wrote it off to stress, since the vet noticed nothing wrong.  But one week later, her weight took a nose dive and she sat all puffy in the corner.  I was lucky to get a vet appointment that evening:  Pinni had a raging bladder infection.

It has been a terrible uphill battle.   She improved the first two days on medication, then they seemed to stop working.  The vet switched antibiotics and adjusted the painkillers last week.  Pinni lost so much weight in one day, I set up an infirmary next to my desk so I could monitor her input and output as I worked. 

After weeks of a downward spiral, Pinni is showing some improvement.  There's still the occasional whimpering when peeing and the general puffiness of pain.  But we've had weight gain.  There's the schnoz that goes every time I pick her up.  There's genuine interest in greens and veggies.  I have to seriously wrangle this pig to get pills into her.  I'll take a fighting pig any day, no matter how aggravating.  If Pinniped's pissed enough to tell me NO and spit pills at me, she has to be feeling better.

String Theory

I finished sewing together my string blocks.  Look at that!  The first few rows had looked disjointed.  But once I assembled more rows, it came together.  I need to work on my precision - several of the black strips moved when I initially stitched them to the paper.  When I finished off the square, I should have aligned on the fabric, not on the paper.  Next time I'll do better.

I had thought to add borders to make this throw or twin sized.  But when I added the grey edges, I realized it's about baby quilt size (36x48").  I could just bind it as is.  So far opinions have been split between stopping now or adding borders.  I even had a vote to bind it as a wall hanging.  Oh, the choices!  Finish it or add on?

Regardless, this will be my second homeless quilt.  I need to start finding owners for these quilts.

Bowl Cozies

I'm not fond of the microwave over the stove, especially when pulling out hot food at eye level.  Grabbing a plate isn't too bad (with or without an oven mitt), but a hot bowl can be difficult to handle. 

Evidently others have had this problem, too, and invented the bowl cozy.  Neat!  It requires all cotton material, batting and thread.  The thread and batting I had on hand weren't all cotton, so I had to purchase some.  Then I found the french fries material.  That's what happens when you go shopping when you're hungry.  I already had the coffee/tea mug material.  I think they work well together.

String Explosion

Onto the next scrappy project!

This time I'm working through my leftover strips of fabric.  I found a pattern than I liked, modified it a bit, and then proceeded to trash my sewing room.

Just look at the mess!  There are bits of material covering the table and every single chair.  I wade through scraps of fabric and paper whenever I cross the room.  There are little pieces of cloth tracked all over the house.  And I'm hosting a tea on Sunday.  Ack!

My goal was to get rid of the scrap material, which is a slightly backward approach.  The focus was on the block rather than the final quilt.  I cut paper and the black middle strip for sixteen squares, thinking I should have enough material to cover that.  After sewing together a few blocks, I calculated that there was enough scrap to make about 48 blocks.  The quilt grew from wall-hanging size to throw-quilt size.