Weekend Update

I know you are all on pins and needles wondering about what happened after my lasts posts. Haha - sorry about that again. I know I was cheating, posting so many in one day and then not even really posting... but leaving you hanging. I have now posted the complete chapters of July 31st. And I think it was what I needed to do. It gave me some energy to do some more on Sunday evening.  

But first - oh the poor kitties: 

Vet visit - it was so. Traumatic. 

  

As I was hoping, this "carrier" was much easier on Swee'pea. Now, maybe it was because there was no prior association with this particular carrier as the one which ALSO takes one out to the car, and the vet, with the pokey things -but I just plonked him in and zipped it up and voila! Crated kitty. No blood (mine. nice!) Jacques had to be shoved into the other carrier. This was not so easy with my 15lb-er who immediately knew what was up and went spread eagle and I had to unhook each back paw-claw from the edge of the carrier while still hanging onto the upper portion of the cat and pushing down.  This should be an Olympic sport. It takes strength and coordination.  Shoot - they jump horses in the Olympics... cat-crating for gold - why not?!

The vet was a new one. My former vet, Dr. Connor - wonderful Dr. Conner, left the practice. :( Very sad day. But I am quite happy with the new vet. She had a similar demeanor towards cats. Calm, let's them do what they need, responds appropriately etc. I liked her. Not sure the boys liked her though.  Dr. Connor always took their temperature in the ear. This vet took it - ahem - up the rear. And you could just tell by the look on Jacques' face that this was a bit unexpected and not entirely to his liking.  But we made it through. Jacques got the rabies shot and then immediately tried to crawl into the carrier where Swee'pea was "hiding." Practically sat right on top of him.  Swee'pea got a small steroid shot for the itchies and mouth ulcers and Dr. Guth (new vet) thought that maybe he was allergic to the cat litter? Okay - well, maybe? That's definitely an easier fix than constant medication, right? So we'll give that a try. We got home, and lots of Greenies were doled out. Then all was right with the world. 

While we're on animals, I thought I'd post pics of the Mantis. I don't know if it's male or female - not exactly sure how to tell. I want to say "she" so I think I will.  She is about doubled in size by now.

Here she is, posing for her closeup: 

 

They are so cool! Their heads are reticulated (is that the right word?) They can actually turn their heads to look at you, unlike most bugs. It's a little creepy but also really really cool! 

And just in case you'd like to play find-the-bug - she's here... in this photo: 

Right here:

 

One of the real reasons I wanted to blog today is because there was progress on The Shoes!  Woohoo! But only progress. 

I neglected to mention that I had made some booboos.  There are two in this photo - can you spot them both? 

 The first is the highly uncomfortable nail-in-the-wrong-direction, quite obvious in the lower left side of the wooden shoe. The other is the inch and a half of wood I managed to chip off with more of the nail-in-the-wrong-direction technique.  This was of course, unintentional. 

I worked some more on getting the uppers nailed to the wooded part. 

And have done a pretty thorough job, except that I made the left shoe looser than the right. Can you tell? The left one is that which is currently under construction and so all is not lost. The first order of business at the moment is to fix the nail-in-the-wrong-direction situation and adhere the busted piece of wood back in place.  

 So that's where we are. The nail is gone, and the shoe is clamped. The adhesive needs 24-48 hours to cure. I'll check on it later.
In the meantime, the creative juices were still flowing.  The blouse I mentioned before of stretchy fabric is still proving to be a challenge. I tried a few things to solve the problems of turning the edges in.

 

But I didn't like the results and so have tabled this project in favor of a new one...

A new dress:

 This is a Vogue pattern from back in my college days - '95 or so.  Yes really. A 20-year-old pattern.  I really wish I still had the first dress I made with this pattern.  It was gorgeous. Beautiful burgundy-brown with great big peonies on it. Lovely.  But alas it probably made it into a thrift store bag at some point.
While this pattern is still really flattering and I have put together most of it in this brown,  I'm not sure I like it.  I've washed this red fabric and might make another one out of this.

This fabric has also been in my possession for more than 20 years. So (sew! snort - punny) enough is enough. Time to sew something out of it!  Might as well be this cute little number.