What a week....

First off I want to say thank you to those of you who have been concerned about our kitty. The recovery process is really slow, but appears to be moving forward. She has had some pretty rough bouts with nausea and all that goes with that the last couple of days, so we have been learning how to deal with that. Every meal she keeps down is a step closer to her not feeling so crummy, we just have to look at it that way. She seems a little more interested in what's going on around her, so that's good. She was up investigating the pile of fabric scraps that were in my sewing room this morning:0) Her latest blood tests did show some improvement, also. It's just going to be a long, slow road, but she should eventually get well.

I did find a little time to get a little sewing in this week, aside from the two trips to the vet, the doctor's appointment that took 2 hours, the dentist appointment and worship team practice. ;0P I finished another little puppy. This one is for Amanda's friend Heather.

I also wanted to say thank you again to Amanda for the beautiful quilt! My birthday was last saturday. I apologize that I have not had a chance to properly photograph it, partly because I haven't had time to properly clean my house so that I have a good place to photograph it. Amanda posted pictures of it when she finished it at her blog here. The quilt is beautiful, it is the perfect colors to go in our bedroom, too. I have already napped under it :0) It means so much to me to have such a wonderful friend who would think of me like this. Thanks so much Amanda, I will treasure it always as I do our friendship!

Now in no particular order because I am too lazy today are some pictures from my week.

Boogie's got a brand new "do"...

I haven't updated on her in a while, so I thought I'd better get in here and let you all know what's up.
We had her in to the vet on Monday and some of her blood work looked a little better, so that was good news, however, the feedings were becoming a nightmare. We were struggling to even get close to what we were supposed to be feeding her and so we decided that we needed to have a feeding tube placed in her. We had that done yesterday. The vet thinks she has a really good chance of making it now. :0) We go back and have her blood checked again on Tuesday to see if her enzymes are coming back to where they should be. The feedings are SOOOOO much easier so far. RIDICULOUSLY easier. By comparison, Monday night we fought with her for an hour and a half to get 12cc's of food into her, never mind the two pills we were supposed to shove down her throat as well. This morning we did 30 cc's in under 3 minutes and were able to crush her pills and mix them right into the food. She will have the feeding tube for possibly up to 6 weeks and we will have to feed her 3 times a day. It may take that long before she is interested in eating on her own but we are still supposed to offer her things and see if she will try it.

When I took her in they asked about shaving her neck where the tube was going to be placed and I told them it was fine, and that we had actually talked about taking her to have some of the mats in her coat shaved out. Her coat mats pretty bad even when she is healthy. Since she has been sick, she hasn't been grooming herself at all, so you can imagine how bad they were getting, especially with all the repeated towel wrappings. They were awful! She has never been one to let us brush her, either. We keep trying, but she has never gotten used to it. We have been trying ever since she was a tiny kitten. She just attacks the brush. The nurse at the vet clinic said that they would go ahead and trim some of the biggest ones from her while she was still asleep from the surgery and I told them that was fine. When we went to pick her up, they said that when they started cutting them out they realized how bad they were and just kept cutting. LOL

Here is the funky new "do" that she will be sporting for the summer...



I am hoping to get back into the swing of getting some sewing done this weekend as I have a 3 day weekend. :)

Not much of an update...

Aeris is still sick. She still isn't eating and is jaundiced. I keep hoping she will turn around, but I'm really scared for her. We have been doing better with the feedings and we are getting the amount into her that the vet wanted us to get into her, so that is good at least. We take her back to the vet to get her blood checked again tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers, but I really don't know what to expect.

I'm just a wreck. I haven't been able to concentrate on anything craft or sewing wise at all for the last week. It all just takes too much brain power for me right now. In fact, I haven't been able to do much of anything but worry.

I'll get back to sewing one of these days, maybe.

Update on the Boogs...

Well, Aeris still isn't eating voluntarily. We had a really difficult day yesterday. We tried to give her her medication. That didn't go well at all. She wound up not getting much of it down, and what she did get down, came back up along with everything in her stomach. So then we tried to feed her again several hours later and we couldn't restrain her well enough to get anything down her. We wound up taking her back to the vet and they taught us some tricks that are at least helping to try and get some food down her. We have to wrap her up really tight in a towel with only her head sticking out. It's a little like swaddling a newborn, only one that has claws and is trying to run away when you lay them on the blanket. OY Tonight she got her back feet free and dug them into my husband's side, he's got lovely marks to show for that. They call it a "kitty burrito". :) The appetite stimulant that they gave us was in liquid form and we had to try and squeeze that into her mouth. Every time she would get a little in there she would start foaming at the mouth and shaking her head and slinging that foam everywhere. YUCK! We got pill form today. MUCH BETTER! I learned how to give pills to a cat when she was little (she had a bit of a bacterial intestinal problem when she was tiny) We are really hoping this stuff helps. She seems a little bit interested, but just not sure about eating yet. She did drink just a little bit of water this morning, so that was good. She went tinkle, too, so that's good. We usually get about 3 cc's of food into her at a time before she gets too stressed. I'd like to get about 5 in if we can. Hopefully she will start eating something on her own soon, although we may have to supplement what she is eating with the syringe feedings for a few weeks yet. This is going to be a long haul and a slow recovery for her, it's not one of those things that is just fixed in a few days. Poor Boogsie.

Feline Hepatic Lipidosis

Also known as Fatty Liver Disease. These are new words in our house this week. Our little Aeris is very, very sick. She spent Monday night and all day yesterday at the vet clinic being given IV fluids and being force fed. She doesn't look good at all. She seemed excited to be home when we brought her home last night, but she won't eat anything this morning. I'm really worried that we are going to lose her. They sent her home with strict instructions about how to force feed her and a prescription for an appetite stimulant. She did eat just a few treats last night, but nothing so far today. All she does is just lay around. If she isn't eating anything on her own by tomorrow afternoon, we have to take her back in and they may have to put a feeding tube in her and do some other tests. So, forgive me if I am MIA for a little while.
Here's booga when she was ok

It was November of 1995

when I found myself in Rangoon (Yangon), Myanmar. I was traveling with a music missions group called Carpenter's Tools International. We spent 4 days with the Myanmar national director for Youth for Christ. (Yes, there is a Youth for Christ in Myanmar) This man's name was Saw Si Hai (saw see hay) and his wife's name was Amarilla. Saw Si Hai and Amarilla lived in a tiny little house. Probably no more than 150 square feet. It was a tiny, tiny, little house divided into four rooms. It was little more than a hut in many ways. His was one of the larger, nicer ones in the area. There were 12 people living there at the time. Saw Si Hai essentially was running an orphanage out of his home. He would literally wake up some mornings and find abandoned children on his doorstep. Myanmar is a desperately impoverished nation. Granted it was nearly 13 years ago when I was there, but when I was there, there were 120 Kyats (chyats) to the American Dollar. The average wage for a worker was 500 Kyats a day. In American Dollars, that is about $4.16 a day. Even though they have nothing by our western standards, these were some of the most beautiful and giving and sweet people I have ever met. When you have very little, possessions mean nothing, people mean everything. This is how the people that we met in Myanmar live. I came home from that country with a much greater appreciation for the life that I have.

If you have been following the news at all, you are aware that a devastating cyclone has hit this region. Tens of thousands are either dead or missing. Complete villages have been wiped out. Major cities such as Rangoon, are without power, and much of the city is underwater. People are desperate for food, water, shelter and medical care. I read that food and fuel prices have increased by 400%. I can't imagine my food and fuel prices going up that much, much less what it would do to the economy. The government which essentially is a military dictatorship, is dragging their heels in helping these people. They are very slow to allow any sort of western aid into the country, for fear that they will be undermined or overthrown.

My heart is breaking for the people of Myanmar. To have been there, and walked among them, eaten with them, been invited into their homes, and to now know that they are in desperate need, and that there is little I can do, is really difficult for me. I did manage to contact YFC International and did find out that Saw Si Hai and Amarilla did survive the storm. I praise God for that! I also realize that their needs are greater than they have ever been. My husband and I plan to make a donation to YFC International, specifically for Myanmar. They have ways of getting the money to the people who really need it because they already had a presence there before the storm happened, ie donations were already coming in to help the YFC staff in Myanmar, the amount will just be increased by the donations that come in specifically for them. If you feel so inclined to make a donation, you may do so here, just specify "Myanmar Cyclone Relief".

I'm sorry to be so "off topic" but this has been weighing on me all week and I needed to share it.
I have posted a couple of pictures from my trip at the bottom of this post. They are from my pre-digital camera days. They are scanned so they are not the greatest quality in the world, but they will give a sense of what life was like there 12 years ago when I visited Myanmar.

I've been taking a bit of a crafting break...

I haven't done any real sewing since I finished the outfit last week. Sometimes I just need a few days to catch up on housework and regroup. Last weekend I polished my table and chairs, which I don't do nearly often enough. I also did a good mopping of my floor. I have laminate flooring in my kitchen and dining area and I have a tendency to just swiffer it and be done. It really needed a good mopping. Turning the chairs up, moving all the other stuff out, you know that kind of mopping. I had heard that the swiffer wet stuff wasn't good for cats, and frankly I have never been all that impressed with it. So... I looked for something else to use on my laminate. I ended up trying equal parts water, rubbing alcohol, and distilled white vinegar. It worked great! I just damp mopped it. We have really hard water in our area and I had no streaks or water spots at all! The alcohol helped it dry fast and my floor is nice and shiny. I was impressed and I will use this mixture again.

I also decided it was time to tackle cleaning out the lazy susan in my kitchen. I wanted to come up with some sort of dividers for it, so that I could divide it into "pie pieces", but I couldn't figure out what to do. I did get everything grouped together by like items anyway. I put a couple of baskets in there for some of the smaller stuff, too. I have a couple of other cabinets and a closet that I want to tackle this week, too. Let's hope I don't run out of steam, LOL.

I am also trying a new strategy to try and save money on groceries. I usually go once a week and buy for that week. I decided to try doing it for two weeks and using cash for it. I took out what I budget for groceries for two weeks and went to the store yesterday. So far, I'm impressed, but I know there are a couple more things I will have to go back for that I forgot. I only spent 10 dollars more than I usually do for one week. I was shocked! Like I said, I know I forgot a few things and they were out of one thing I needed, so I will have to go back, and I am using some of the things I already had on hand, but , wow! My only problem is storage. I just don't have a lot of room for bulk storage. Bottles of juice and pop and such. If I had the storage space, I'd think about trying to do a month at a time. It really didn't take but maybe 5-10 minutes more at the store, either. Once I get the hang of it and figure out where to store stuff, I think I could really dig this shopping only once every two weeks!
I got the idea from Dollar Stretcher.

So, that's what I have been up to this week. I think by this weekend I will be ready to sit back down at my machine and get some things accomplished.

Blossoms and bubble gum...

I think this is one of my favorite outfits that I have made so far. I am loving these fabrics together! I don't know why but this pink stripe makes me think of nothing but candy. Specifically bubble gum. It must be the color. This will hopefully be soon making its way to Associated Sewing in Waite Park. To replace the blue dress that I made that sold right away. This one is a size 6. I think it just screams spring time! LOL

"And they call it puppy love....."

I think it is ok to show these pictures now. Here is another puppy made for Amanda's little daughter who turned two this week. Please meet "Daisy"

I also finished Lexi's short set for her birthday. In my haste to get it finished and wrapped, I forgot to get a picture of it. I do have one of her opening it. The shorts are just plain elastic waist shorts and the top is modeled after this one. She is a dog lover and the fabric was red with brown puppies and light blue dog bones. I thought the fabric was really cute. She seemed to like it. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get a picture of her in it, LOL. We celebrated at Space Aliens restaurant. Sort of a high end, alien themed Chuck E. Cheese. She turned 7 this year, notice the jersey?


I am working on an outfit to put in the Pfaff store here in town soon. It is almost finished. The top is done, and the pants are almost there. I need to do the ruffles at the cuffs and the casing and elastic at the waist. Then it will be done. Hopefully I'll have pictures of this one tomorrow or this weekend. I sure wish I had someone to model these things when I get them done. I would really love to get some good pictures so that people can see the fit and how they look on someone. I'd try to get Lexi, but I don't think she'd be interested. She isn't into girly ruffles and stuff. She'd probably hate it, lol.