Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Ideal after Strange occasions

Look at this lovely and convincing comment I got on an old blog I did for work years ago!  Apparently PVC vases are a thing that must be sold via humorously worded spam.




An incredibly frigid vase that expands already your eyes! Made of PVC vases, this doesn’t look like much until you carry out it with invalid and watch it drink silhouette! Sturdy, unbreakable, foldable and comfortable to store. Brighten your haunt or workplace. After employment you simply, kill flowers, uninspired the vase and wrap it flat.
Features:
Manufacturer new and great quality.
Noblewoman unformed vase.
Unbreakable & collapsible, multifarious from stock bloomflower vase.
While performs the done gathering as accustomed cheap flower vases one.
Charm vase made of hard-wearing and flexible soft materials.
Absolutely fill it with copiously then it takes show improvement as a flower vase.
Fatiguing davy jones's locker layer helps it continue firmly with sprinkle in it.
After operation, just bare the vase and up it reclining in search easy carrying & store.
Portable, expandable, reusable and eco-friendly.
With narcissus & butterfly patterns.
Embellishes your desktop & room.
Can be reach-me-down alone or in a group to create marvelous centerpiece.
Also ideal in the interest of all flower-giving occasions: redone baby born, birthday, anniversary, congratulations, visiting friends & patients etc.
Just top off up the vase with water and it drive automatically peculate the fettle of a flower vase.The vase:- Looks like dear glassware- Centre color spreads in every nook the water- Is simple elucidation to carry- Intention in no way bust or tear- Is utterly stable- Conditions leaks- Is crystal clear And glossy- Is massive Object of Hospital Visits, Office Say, and a short budget corporate and throng mailing gift- Is coloful and charming,unbreakable. 
Colored plastic vasesflexible vases that artlessly take their condition when filled with water. Unyielding,unbreakable, foldable and uncomplicated to store away. Opposite patterns and colours to decide from. Vamoose your where one lives stress or workplace fulgid and colorful.
3.Ideal after:
Birthdays ,Anniversaries,Strange occasions;
Lighten up your own desk at realize find time;
Visiting friends or relatives in sickbay;
At the graveside of your loved ones

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Garden progress...

Oh hello!  I haven't been here in a while.  I've just not been in the mood to blog, but lately I've been more in the mood.  I was looking at Weebly as a possibility, but in the long run I think sticking with this is best.  I think it's best to put everything in one spot, since I'm not a big famous blogger with time to figure out a complex website system!  Haha.

I've been working a lot in the garden.  Now that we are without pets, I find that I have so much more time to get things done.  No dog walks, and no hours spend building the hateful cat fences!  Anyhow, here's what I've done the last couple of days...


Before


After

Not too shabby!  Lots of hard work though.  I've been spending a lot of time sifting compost and dirt this year.  The bed to the right had a double sifting.  I'll be building a new cucumber trellis there next, and planting them in a couple of weeks.

Today's bed did not get the second sifting.  I sifted the compost (necessary), but not the soil as I mixed it in.  NEXT YEAR!  It looks pretty damn good as is!  I planted corn, pumpkins, and zucchini. The side bit closest to the patio is where the borage has grown the last few years.  I need to extend it a bit, and maybe even toss in a few new seeds.  Borage reseeds incredibly well, but it does have a shelf life.

You can barely see the potatoes poking through in the back bed.  The oregano in the corner is taking over.  I've started to clear along the fence, so we WILL have sunflowers back there this year!  The long range forecast is for warm and dry - which bodes well for the garden!  WARM.

WARM.

WARM.

WARMMMMMMMM...

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Time for a sanity check

Heading out tomorrow for a couple of days of fresh salt air at the coast.  I will not be complete until I see Clark contemplating a sturgeon.


We're taking our bikes, and this is one of the sights along the seaside trail.  I'm sure there will be many other things to see as well.

Sad as it is to lose Syd, there are certainly benefits to being pet free while traveling.


  • We can easily stop anywhere along the way for a pee or scenic overlook without a lot of wrangling in and out of the car.
  • We can stay in any room.
  • I get to take my bicycle.
  • I'll be able to take more photos.
  • We can eat in restaurants or poke around in shops as we please.
  • Nobody will be eating rotten fish or crabs off of the beach.
Things will be just a bit more relaxed.  I wish he was still with us, but he's not.

Yesterday we took a day trip over to Port Townsend for lunch and a bit of muddling around.

Margarita!


Colorful seating


Oh Rob, why have you jilted me at the alter?


Imposing


Underground pipe peeker


It was good to get out.


I'll be back soon.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Moving on...



Oh, how we miss our Syd!  We said our goodbyes yesterday, after a very difficult couple of days with him.  I have to say, the vets at Penn Cove Veterinary Clinic are the best, especially Dr. Lark.  When we called them yesterday morning, it was looking like Dr. G would come out after work, around 5:00.  Not ideal, and to be honest we weren't sure if he would make it that long.  But there was no way we could get Syd into the car, so waiting it would be.  Dr. Lark decided he could come over on his lunch break.  It was so sad, but the time had come to end the suffering for poor Mr. Syd.

It's going to take some time to get used to the negative space and silence here at home.  We gave him the best life we could for three years, so hopefully it made up for whatever horrors he experienced before we had him.  I suspect it did.  But you don't realize how much of your life revolves around your dog until they are gone, eh?

Now we must move on though.  I've started taking a long walk every day to make up for the lack of dog walks - which frankly, didn't really resemble exercise for the last few months.  Today I walked 2.4 miles at a brisk pace.  There is hope for weight loss yet!

We had also planned to take our almost annual Darwin Day trip to the coast, but canceled last week when it became clear Syd had big problems.  Now that he's gone however, we realize we REALLY need the getaway.  We decided to go to the coast this Friday, to Long Beach.  there should be plenty of hotel rooms (even though it's lovey-dovey weekend) as we are not terribly picky - and no longer require a dog friendly room.  There's a long paved trail out there, so we're going to take our bikes.

The fresh salt air and getting away from the sad house will do wonders to help us move on.  We'll love him forever, but more than anything we're glad he's not suffering anymore.

Poor bugger.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

A difficult decision

Three years ago to the day, our wonderful dog Syd came into our lives.  Our neighbor found him, and we ended up keeping him.  He was in pretty rough shape when he got here - incredibly skinny and filthy, and he had a big bite wound on his rear end.

What a face though!  We thought he wasn't too old, but couldn't ever be sure.  He started going gray, and we decided that he had lied about his age, in case we might reject him for being older than a puppy.

Syd Barrett

The last three years have been so much fun!  We've taken him on many walks, and he loves camping. It was hard to pick out a good picture, so I just went with this one taken while we watched the sunset at Kalaloch.


Syd looking like King Dog

In the past few months he has slowed down a bit, but just seemed like a typical aging dog.  And he is, I suppose.  The last few weeks he picked up a bit of a limp, and we thought maybe it was arthritis.  Then in the last few days it got progressively worse so we decided to take him to the vet.  Long story short, he has a mast cell tumor on his upper right front leg.

So what's a person to do?

We were very sad yesterday when we got the news, and we were given a variety of options:

  1. Remove just the tumor, but no guarantee of getting it all and because of the location it might not heal very well.
  2. Remove the entire leg - better chances, but no guarantee against reoccurrence or it already having spread.
  3. Referral to a doggie oncologist, full investigation & treatment options including chemotherapy and/or radiation.
We thought about it, and decided to go with the second option.  I called the vet this morning, and in tears told him what we wanted to do.  But it turned out that they would still need to send us to the doggie oncologist (in Seattle) for the surgery.  I called, and set up an appointment for a surgical consult with the potential for immediate surgery if necessary.  I asked for an estimate, and she wouldn't tell me because she wasn't familiar with our case.  I pressed - are we talking hundreds, or thousands?

Thousands.  But just $100 for the consultation!

Michael and I thought about it, and talked about it, and have decided that we cannot in our good conscience put Syd through the trauma of surgery that would debilitate him for a few weeks without the guarantee of accomplishing much and chemo/radiation were never in consideration.  Granted, at this point we don't know the extent of the cancer but it seems much more humane to give him the best possible life for as long as possible without slicing and dicing him apart.  He is quite happy now despite his limp, and surgery would destroy that.

There seems to be societal pressure or an expectation that pet owners must go to any length to prolong their pet's life - but who is that really for?  The animal, or the human?  We were also a bit bothered by the feeling that we were getting sucked into a system that preys somewhat on people who are sad and vulnerable.  Once your dog is on the operating table for a consultation and they recommend surgery, who will say no?  It seems that the only real guarantee is the pouring of dollars into the vet's bank account.  I don't begrudge them their work, but there probably aren't very many people who can truly afford that level of treatment for their pet.

Animals don't really understand what is going on, especially if you cause sickness or harm in an attempt to save them.  What they deserve is love and comfort, and that is the path we have chosen.  We will love him, spoil him, and help him be as comfortable as possible until its time for him to go.

We love our Syd!

When Syd is feeling zany, he puts on his blankie!

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Electronic making

Today, my making consisted of electronic endeavors.  I've been investigating online video editors for work, so I messed around with a site called WeVideo.  There may be a few more of these before I'm finished.

I've never attempted much with video, other than direct uploads from my phone to Facebook or Flickr or whatever.  Today, with very little learning curve I managed to cut a video clip and add some effects.  It was really pretty easy, and WeVideo has quite a lot of tutorial videos if I want to learn more.  I could have some fun with it - they've got  music and all sorts of sound effects.  How can you go wrong with a song called "Crime Disco?"  That's not the music in this video, but it could be next...

Here's my masterpiece!


Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Yarn, and making...

I've been happily plugging away at my "age before beauty" blanket project, and I'm happy to say I'm over halfway finished!  I've been using yarn that I had on hand for most of it, and it turned out I had less purple than I thought.  Fortunately I had some lovely green and gray yarn that fits into the color scheme well.  I did order some yarn to get a contrasting color for sewing the sections together - keeping that hidden for now!  I will say it's going to work great.

I did buy a couple of other yarn skeins to mess around with.  Not sure what I'll do with this one.  It's 50% bamboo and sooooo soft!




We'll see.  I'm sure I'll think of something, or maybe I'll just carry it around with me and rub it against my face when I'm stressed out.

Sure.  That seems like a good plan.

Monday, January 5, 2015

So busy!

I tell you what, this "year of making" is really keeping me out of trouble! Well, I may be staying up too late crocheting, but you.  That's how it goes.  Here's what I've been up to the last couple of days, working on my Age Before Beauty Blanket (I almost typed algae, can you believe it?).



Oooooooh, isn't it pretty?  I'm really enjoying working with this particular yarn.  So soft!

I managed to make a bonus item today - a blackout poem!



It's hard not to be too picky about the words on the page when trying to make one of these.  However, I was unable to pass up the words "cosmic casserole."  It had to be done!

The other item of business keeping me out of trouble is the 2015 Reading Challenge.  I ran across this challenge on Facebook, and enough people were interested that I started a Goodreads group.  Group moderating is tonnes of fun!  Actually, it's not that bad, but I've already had a snippy conversation between a couple of group member.

Be nice, people.

Be nice.


Friday, January 2, 2015

Hello 2015!

2015.  That number sure has a nice sound and look, doesn't it?  I feel like this is going to be a good year.  A year with great potential.

A short time ago, I was perusing the New Book shelves at the library.  I spied a slim volume in the craft section that caught my eye.



Kim Piper Werker?!  I know that name!   I've been aware of her for quite a while, for her work with Crochet magazine and other crochet related things.  I used to follow the crafty world much closer, but have gotten away from that in the last few years.  I snagged the book - I love reading about creativity and have been on a big Lynda Barry kick lately.  I LOVE her books.

Anyhow, I started re-stalking Kim, and she posted that she had a new ebook, A Year of Making.

Intrigued!

I bought it, and am not sorry.  I am INSPIRED.  It's been so long since I've done anything creative on a regular basis.  Yes, I've been doing a lot more with my beads, and that is a good thing.  But I used to do so much more!  I used to dabble in a lot of things, and make things for people for xmas.

So I have begun my "year of making."  I love that it is low pressure, fit to your own life.  Only have a few minutes?  Make a drawing, or crochet a row or two.  I plan on including my gardening work, once the weather gets better.

Day one - I cleaned off the table in my craft room so I will have space to work!  My beads are on the desk, and I don't really want to have to move them to do other things.  So I cleaned off the desk, and then I made a collage!  I printed out the book and worksheets, and am keeping them in an old 3-ring binder.  It needed a nice cover, so voila!



Some watercolors, cut up atlas and rubber stamp catalog pages, and a rubber stamp.  Easy peasy!

This morning I was poking around on the internet, and Kim posted a link on Twitter to an easy crochet blanket on the Meet Me At Mike's blog.  It's called the Age Before Beauty blanket - and I love the concept!  Mostly because I'm not very good at following patterns (yet).  Haha.  I have quite a bit of yarn collected over the years, so today before I started crocheting I organized it by type of yarn.    It will be so much easier to find what I want now!  I have some really nice yarn, a whole lot of strange unfinished projects, and some really manky yarn that somebody gave to me.  I might have to pass some of that on to the thrift store.

I crocheted five rows today!



Did I mention I also started a Goodreads group for a 2015 Reading Challenge and it already has almost 200 people in it?  No.  I'll post about that tomorrow, or the next day.

Until then - GO MAKE SOMETHING!