Just for grins

I've been so thrilled that Annabelle is such a playful kitten. Most kittens are playful, but she seems more so than any of the others I've had. I'm finally getting my money's worth out of every toy I've ever bought for any house cat. I've gotten so many cute things, thinking they'd entice a cat to play (Josie in particular), and they did... for maybe 10 minutes. So I have a bucket of cat toys, and I think Annabelle has played with every single one, and she continues to do so.

Here's a toy that had gotten pretty much totally ignored... until Annabelle:

Kind of a cute little feller, isn't he? Here's the treatment he gets:

Every time I open or close that door, it starts all over again. Good thing it's a tough toy!

On the other hand, some of the best toys aren't purchased. Like this:

Hope these silly kitties brought a smile to your face. They bring smiles to mine every day!

Thanksgiving morning

I glanced out the window and saw this sight this morning:

At first look, it appeared that our neighbor had quite a fire going.

But only for a split second. I woke a little further and realized it was the sun rising behind the trees, so far south already.

Deceptive. Beautiful. A gift.

I know there are many people with heavy hearts today. It is my wish that you will still find much to be thankful for, for indeed there is much. Always.

God's blessings to everyone this Thanksgiving Day!

It's that old hard water problem again...

How frustrating!

Poor Rainbow.

(Sorry for all the cat posts, folks. That's all I've taken pics of lately. Well, all that I can show you right now, anyway. ;) )

Just some cuteness

Feeling left out?

After what arrived last Wednesday, I had to get to work on it right away, because it was a big project with a short deadline. I also had to lock up Josie and Annabelle, because their help would not be... um... helpful. They were locked out of the main part of the house for several hours but had the run of the basement. They didn't make much use their basement privileges, though, and I saw a lot of this:

Yeah, that's a paw. Josie's paw. Here's a better look:

I couldn't help getting down on the floor and also snapping this:

Poor kitties. They were definitely feeling left out. And maybe a little put out. Okay, so they were put out... literally.

But the project got completed! And on time! Whew. Major WHEW!! I'll show you and tell you all about it. But not yet. Hopefully soon, but it's not up to me.

I hope you aren't feeling as left out as my cats. I especially hope you aren't feeling put out!

Back to more pattern testing.......

Look what came today!

The kitties are certainly curious! Annabelle's even reading the label to see if she can get a clue.

Now YOU have to remain curious for a while, too, 'cause I can't show you what's in the box (yet). And I'm going to have to disappear on you as I get busy working on it. I'll update when I can......... !!

Pattern testing reality

I received LiEr's pattern Saturday evening, so I've been working on it. It's going well, but sometimes I have a little too much assistance, as you can see by this photo I took a few minutes ago:

I could've (probably should've) worked on this embroidery stuff in my sewing room, but the cats aren't happy when I'm gone for too long at a time, so since this was something I could do upstairs, I did it there.

First Annabelle crawled into my lap and settled down for a nice nap. I was prepared for that, and had grabbed the claw clipper, knowing the job needed doing and thinking I'd get her when she was relaxed, hoping it'd go better than when she's more awake and squirmy. It worked! Claws were done in no time.

But, that was the end of the nap (even the shortest of cat naps go a really long ways, y'know?). She decided to help me instead of napping. First she hopped into the basket, so I grabbed the camera, thinking that'd be a really cute shot. Well, that didn't even last till I got the camera focused. She'd spied the embroidery floss and decided to go to work. Sooo helpful. Ha!  I tossed her to the floor about 10 times before finally she got the hint.

Embroidery done. For me, that's the hardest part of the testing (I think... so far, anyway). My embroidery skills are rusty, plus it takes so long. Not that there's much of it... I'm just slow. And things go so much faster on the sewing machine. But, now I'm off to the sewing room again to the fun stuff - hurray! (Poor kitties.) ;)

Soon... very soon!

I received these pattern testing supplies in the mail from LiEr yesterday. They're things I didn't have on hand or have easy access to locally.

She is very close to being finished with the pattern so I can have a go at it. I'm excited to get started making lots of pretty little things!

Also being shipped to me is a whole lot of fabric to make some pretty BIG things.  For someone very near and dear to me. For her new house. :) More on that later.

So very soon I will be VERY busy sewing. I may have to take a blog-cation for a while. So if I disappear, don't worry, I'm just otherwise occupied. I'll try to keep you updated at least occasionally, though, and of course you'll get to see the final results.

Just lounging

These pics are a couple weeks old, but still kinda fun.

Crafting with Courtney

Gosh, it's been awhile since I've done a "Crafting with Courtney" post. I guess we just haven't done a lot of crafting lately! We always manage to keep busy when she's here on Tuesdays, though, and of course our time is limited, since it's only for a while after she gets off the school bus.

Well, we did a craft project yesterday. A couple days ago, I came across this cute little tutorial here for making a tissue pouch for/with a child. Courtney chose the colors and helped with some of the cutting, etc. Here's how ours turned out:

She just happened to have brought along a little container with some sequins and other things in it, which gave her the idea of adding them to the eyes and nose. I think it was a great idea! Here you can see them a little better:

The glue wasn't dry yet, so you can see where some of it was, but hopefully it dried clear after she got it home.

Of course the tissue comes out of the kitty's mouth. :)

It was a fun project, and quick, and it filled the bill for a "Grandma, can we do a craft project?". Plus it may even be useful to keep tissues in good shape in Courtney's bookbag. Win, win!

Percinnamon

Have you ever heard of a percinnamon? Here's what one looks like:

I found some in our local grocery store last Friday. There was a little printed article attached to their bin saying how good they were and that they had a slight cinnamon flavor. If you're familiar with persimmons, you'll probably think I'm just misspelling its name. Or maybe that the store mislabeled it? Nope, the fruit itself had a sticker to prove its name (I actually wondered myself until I looked at the sticker):

However, when I Googled "Percinnamon", I found NO information on it at all. The ONLY thing I found was someone's photo on a blog, and this person said that she'd found a new variation of the persimmon. Okay.

I've never eaten a persimmon before... have you? If you're as unfamiliar with them as I was, here's a size comparison for you:

I even had to Google how to eat them. :) Apparently you eat them pretty much like you would a tomato, skin and all. Here's what I did:

Although the sticker said "Ready to eat!", I was a bit skeptical and let it sit for 3 days, because it wasn't totally orange (and I've found that many fruits that claim to be ready to eat, aren't). I'm glad I did, although it almost looks in this next photo like it's overripe. I don't know. It wasn't mushy or anything, though.

Then I cut it into wedges and ate them.

As for the flavor, I'd say this quote (by a child) that I came across regarding a persimmon is pretty accurate: "sweet, but kind of unexciting". I didn't notice any cinnamon flavor. It was indeed sweet, but I got kinda sick of it by the time I finished it. And it seemed to leave a slightly slimey feel in my mouth.

Will I buy more? Nope. There are too many other fruits I like better. And the price on this thing was $1.99... for ONE! Too pricey for what it's worth, in my book. I did get a good deal on it, however. I noticed after I got home and looked at my receipt that I was only charged 30¢. My checkout clerk thought it was an onion (in the plastic bag). ;)

Nearing the end

Remember that field of corn we watched grow all summer? Here's what was left of it early Saturday evening:

That dark spot in the middle was a drowned-out area. You can see the combine above on the far right of the photo. (BTW, click on any photo to enlarge it.) Here it is closer, unloading corn into the catch cart:

And even a little closer yet:

I managed to get a little video footage of the process, although I was losing daylight fast, so it's kinda dark. The catch cart left to be emptied into a waiting truck, and at the end of the video is where the combine is heading across the field to cut around that area in the center.

There was only one field left to combine after that one, and hopefully that will get finished today and harvest will be complete for this year. Yay!

In case you noticed the flashing red light at the neighbor's... no, it was not an emergency vehicle, but only a yard light. It's just the way the camera handled the lights. If you watch closely, you can see that the tractor and combine lights flicker a bit of red, too, just not as noticeably.

This is just so wrong!

I'm sure many of you remember all the various frost photos I posted last winter. Fog + very cold temps = frost. Normally that occurs during the winter... NOT in the fall when there are still leaves on the trees and bushes. But here ya have it, folks... frost on the lilac LEAVES from yesterday morning:

With snow in the background, no less:

Who'd have thought I'd be doing frost photos again so soon?! At least that clear sky and sunshine made it all go away. No thanks to the still-frigid temps.

Just as I suspected

It was a thirsty cat that messed up yesterday's "pretty" (not really - ugh!), pristine snow. It's the stray tomcat, whom I call Tommy. He's not mine, but I think he thinks he is, although I can't get close to him. But he likes my cat food... and my females.

Captions, anyone?

Update: There were more with the same idea throughout the day today. Here's Scoot:

She quickly gave it up, though.

There have been others, too. I just didn't manage to capture them on camera.

At least there's been some melting on the deck rail, and the pile in the birdbath has shrunk some. Thanks to the sun. The temperature didn't get much above freezing today, though. I do know I need to wash those windows yet... those spots you can see on the cats aren't snowflakes.

Why do I feel like it's been a long winter already? Maybe because I never fully recovered from last winter's seeming endlessness?

Yesterday

What a beautiful beginning to our day yesterday!

It was cold, though. At least I was smart and grabbed a coat before I went out. I figured my bathrobe just wasn't gonna be enough this time.

You've heard the old saying: "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning..."? Well here's what it was looking like by late afternoon:

Ugh. I have it on good report that the roads were very slippery, too. :(

After that it got too dark for more photos, but it kept snowing for hours. I'll maybe update this post later in the morning... if I can stand to look outside to take pics. YUCK!!

Update: Here's this morning's sunrise. Quite a different scene, huh? :(

The deck railing and birdbath look different, too. YUCK!

It looks like one of the cats tried to get a drink. Poor thing.

And look at this photo below. There's something terribly wrong with this scene, don'tcha think?!

At least the sun is shining, and hopefully that stuff will melt fast. I scooped the drift from in front of the garage, but I left the rest for the sun to take care of. I'm not in shape (or mood) for cleaning it all yet.