Snug as a Bug

Looking at this, one would assume it's the depths of winter.  Granted, last Saturday morning was a bit chilly.  However, the house was at a comfortable temperature when I found Boadicea like this.

I am also rather amused at how her dewlap hangs out like she has a little beard.  Makes her look grumpy.

Get off my lawn, you young whipper-snappers!

Between Projects

Junk basket fabrics, feather pattern
Snowflake repair, bedspread blues

Oh, so many things I want to do!  Just when I thought I was catching up with my project list, I've just added a few more items.  And I'm dreaming of two more after that.  Oy!

Currently, I'm going through my fabric to make a couple more junk baskets.  They will be the next size larger than the one I made for myself.  While digging through my fabric I found several 2" squares of the background fabric to my wonky snowflake.  Yay - I can now square it to the same size as my other snowflakes.  Maybe that will motivate me to finally sew them into something.

I've picked a pattern for a summer quilt that has been on my to-do list for years.  I plan to incorporate a fat quarter bundle I got from my sister at Christmas.  I calculated yardage for the rest of the quilt a few nights ago - and double checked my numbers.  I tend to underestimate, but I think I have the right sizes this time.  Off to the fabric store this weekend!

Top Ten Tips to Help a Sick Guinea Pig

I’ve owned guinea pigs for over 20 years.  I have hands-on experience in some areas (what to feed, dealing with UTIs, URIs or ovarian cysts) but am completely void in other issues (anything specific to boars, bloat or elongated roots).  It seems that each of my sows tries to teach me about some new illness I haven’t seen before (the latest was a bladder tumor).  I try to tell them I don’t need first-hand experience with every guinea pig illness, but guinea pigs have their own ideas.

While contemplating the guinea pig illnesses I’ve dealt with, I came up with a top 10 list of what to look out for and how to deal with a sick guinea pig:

1. Know your guinea pig’s weight.  I can’t express enough how important this is.  Invest in a kitchen scale and weigh weekly.  (My girls get weighed every time I clean the cage.)  By the time I can feel the weight difference when picking them up, the pig has lost 100g or more.  That's a lot of weight for a little critter.  I have hauled pigs to the vet with no other symptom than a significant weight loss to discover they had some sort of illness.  I go by the a 30/60/90 rule: weight fluctuation of 30g is normal, a loss 60g is worth watching, but a 90g loss is alarming.  Time to call the vet.

Junk Basket

Now that I have a nice new table runner on my end table, I needed to keep my junk from spreading all over it.  I saw this cute little fabric basket some months ago.  Perfect for containing my hand stitching supplies next to the couch.  Woo hoo!  A sewing project to try out and something useful at the end.  Love that.

I dug through my scrap 2" squares twice before I found a combination I liked.  But once I picked my squares, I whipped up the whole basket after dinner one night.  It was a quick, easy project and I'm pleased with the result.

Biscotti

I haven't made biscotti in ages.  I can tell, because I've never blogged the recipe nor posted pictures.

The recipe I have is oddly written.  It starts with a base dough, then add-ins and flavors to taste.  Our favorite combo has almonds, craisins and orange zest.  Good stuff. 

It had been so long since I made these, ended up grabbing a cup of almonds, and added a mix of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg.  It wasn't until I had already added the spices that I found my container of orange zest and recalled our favorite combo.  Oh, well.  I'll have to make that for my next batch.

Most of my recipes have notes scribbled in the margins.  At one point I was making this recipe often enough that I kept all the notes in my head.  Hmm... doesn't work so well after a long hiatus.  Something in my gut told me to use room temperature eggs, but I have no idea if that made a difference.  I did recall how sticky and gooey the dough is to handle.  I had to flour my hands and work quickly before my fingers were fully glued to the dough.  As I wrestled with it, I vaguely remember chilling the dough a bit so it was easier to handle.  Oh, well.  It still worked fine.  I need to do this a few more times and update my notes.

Preseason Husks

Reject pile for the compost and a pile of clean husks and silks.

The grocery store has had corn the last couple of weeks.  No husking bucket, though.  However, as I walked by I saw a guy picking over several ears of corn.  So I figured - what would it hurt to ask?  I told him, if he wanted to husk the corn now, I'd be more than happy to take the husks; it would make two guinea pigs very happy.  He was amused.  And accommodating.  Look what I brought home!

Once I got home, I trimmed the husks down to the clean inside leaves.  I also clipped off the dried brown ends of the silks.  Good stuff, ready to eat!  I won't bother shredding and drying this bunch - it's small enough they'll probably eat it all this week.

Hand Me Downs - Blogger's Quilt Festival

I'm entering Hand Me Downs as my second entry in this spring's Blogger's Quilt Festival.  It was really difficult to choose a category - small?  scrappy?  original design?  I ended up picking home machine quilted.

The story of this quilt really begins with a pair of quilts named Something Old, Something New and Something Borrowed, Something (Aqua) Blue that I made as a wedding gift (you can read about them here).  When I finished them, I still had a lot of the donated dress material left over.  I created this quilt for the bride's mother.  I saw a tile pattern (which I would reference if I could ever find it again!) on the internet.  The blocks were simply pieced from squares and rectangles, which I thought would work well with the scrap material I had left.

Split Rails Table Runner - Blogger's Quilt Festival

It's time for the spring Blogger's Quilt Festival!  And for once, I'm entering a brand new completed quilt that hasn't been previously posted.  Woot!

I bought way more fabric than I needed when I made placemats for my sister's family.  I had a few different patterns that I liked before I settled on the Coming Home pattern.  One of my favorite runner-ups was a split rail design.  I thought it would be pretty with these colors.  So when the placemats were done, I made a table runner for myself.