12/8/14

Slow Weekend

We had a busy Saturday that started with us meeting some former neighbors at the South Store Cafe for breakfast. They moved away about a year ago, but they were in town for the birth of their daughter's first child. It was nice seeing good friends even if the visit was short. Of course, that evening we attended the dinner at the Sokol Blosser winery that I have already blogged about.

Not much was accomplished on Saturday, and so Sunday was kind of set aside for some housekeeping chores, and that meant I was dragging my feet all day. It's rather astonishing how many ways I can find to procrastinate when I have housekeeping that needs doing. 

One of the things on my list was to polish the ventilation hood above my island cooktop. I love the look of the stainless steel appliances in my kitchen, but they are a bugger to keep looking good. The ventilation hood is especially troublesome because I have to climb up on the counter to do it which (a) is scary, and (b) is awkward because I can't stand up straight and so it, (c) kills my back. 

Yesterday Mike brought in a ladder. I tried telling him that this was a job for a big strapping hunk o' man. He begged to differ (about the job, but not that he fit the description of the man). Besides, he claimed that he and Smitty had Serious Man Sh*t to do. (Sigh.) Anyway...the ladder made the job way easier, and after dragging my feet for hours, I had the job finished in about ten minutes. It's gleaming now.


While I was working on this, I happened to glance over into the dining room to find that Smitty had taken a break from helping Mike with the Serious Man Sh*t to come help me.


Once I had that done, I thought I deserved a treat, so I made some Divinity. I would have made it anyway, but now I had a good excuse. Certainly I needed the replenish my stores of glucose, right? My mother used to make this at Christmas, and I loved it as a kid. She didn't share her recipe with me before she passed away in 1997. A couple of years ago, I went in search of a good recipe. I found this Mrs. Floyd's Divinity which is a good stand-in for what my mother used to make. It's a bit of a production, but it isn't difficult.


It's pretty much pure sugar...my favorite!

This morning I was able to finish up my current Vintage Tin stitchery. Man, I'm glad to be finished with this one. I started it way back on (pauses to consult the blog) November 3, although it seems as if it was November of last year. This was a big stitchery...the biggest of this particular quilt project. It took me through 3-1/2 skeins of floss before it was finished. Miraculously, I came to the end of the last skein when I took my last stitch. So I unrolled the whole thing, and Voila!


After taking that picture, I rinsed the Sticky Fabri Solvy from the surface and then hung it to dry while I did a most dastardly deed: I took poor little, sad little, abused little, mistreated little, never-gets-any-attention-or-love Smitty to the vet for his annual immunizations. Oh. My. Gosh. You'd think he was being killed. I made this short video so that you could see for yourself just how pathetic he is. If you're on a handheld device, you'll probably have to watch this from your regular computer. Anyway...here goes:



Makes you want to cry along with him, doesn't it? He was given a clean bill of health, and he's no worse for wear. His feelings are definitely hurt, however. We've had to get extra lovin' this afternoon.

So, by the time I got back from abusing my little cat, the Vintage Tin stitchery was dry. I ironed it and trimmed it, and here it is...all ready to be sewn into the quilt when the time comes.


You can see in the image below that it extends almost the entire width of the quilt. The next one I'll do will be the one just below it in the middle.


But that will have to wait because next up is the 9th of the Quilted Snowladies. I spent part of the afternoon tracing this one out, and I'll start stitching on it tomorrow morning. It was a little hard to decide where to put the cat.


Do you see it?

Finally, I wanted to show you the beautiful mountain scene I witnessed this morning. This is Mt. St. Helens with a lenticular cloud over the top. I know about lenticular clouds, and I've seen pictures of them, but I've never seen one in the flesh, so to speak. The sun was shining on the mountain just right as I snapped this image. 


Tonight Mike and I are meeting after he gets off work. He wants to go clothes shopping for his Christmas present this year, and so I'm meeting him at one of the stores close by. We'll eat dinner out somewhere after we do our shopping.

I'm still working on the Oh Christmas Tree quilt, and I have about half of the little sparkly lights added. I'll spend the rest of the afternoon on that, and hopefully move on to another part of the quilt today.

How's your Monday going? Don't forget to check out the giveaway going on my blog right now. Enter to win a really cute fat quarter bundle.

20 comments:

Quilter Kathy said...

Congrats on finishing that large stitchery!
And on getting the kitty to the vet!
oh yah... and also on doing the man's job! LOL

quiltzyx said...

Poooooor little Smitty! Now, increase the volume 2X and repeat continuously & you'll come close to zzyzx in the car. Oy.
The stitchery looks great! And I DO see the kitty.
Nice job on the range hood. I just have a little one and time before last when I was wiping it off & about knocked off! Brute strength is not always what it's cracked up to be...

Sher S. said...

WOW!!!! poor Smitty, he sounds like he's saying "wow MOM!" how could you do this to me? He sure would of had lots of cuddles from me once home. Love your needlework, it will look great when finished. My Mom loved divinity also.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

The Tin stitchery is amazing. Oh, Smitty - you poor dear. My macho Moe does even worse and I only have to travel less than a mile up the road.

gpc said...

Oh how elegantly Smitty suffers. We used to make divinity - what a good idea! Your stitchery is fabulous as always, and that cloud is amazing!

Janarama said...

Serious man carp? That really cracked me up. Poor, poor Smitty deserves an extra treat today after having to be locked up and being examined. ;) That embroidery you did in about a month would have taken me a year to complete.

Lee said...

You continue to accomplish so much - you're amazing! How nice to hear Smitty's voice, but he does sound so very sad - I couldn't help but chuckle, I mean, it's not like he's not a traveling cat or anything. He's adorable. The divinity looks oh-so-yummy. I have a 4-H cookbook that has my Grandma's divinity in it but I can't say as I've ever made it, nor do I remember what hers tasted like. I think she made it more for my much younger cousins who lived next door.

Kate said...

Poor Smitty, he does sound quite down and out.

I love divinity, the last time I tried making it we lived in the Gulf Coast and it didn't turn out. My Mom said it was too humid. I may have to give your recipe a try.

Cath said...

I can hear your sigh of relief for finishing that stitchery piece all the way from over here!! Love the mountain photo......simply beautiful. Oh and if Smitty needs cheering up, I posted some kitty humour on my fb page (cathquilts at Bits 'n Bobs)

Snoodles said...

Haha! I forgot Moses was lying a few feet away when I played the video of Smitty. He sure perked up and stared at me...Mom, are you playing with another kitty?

Lynette said...

Yep, I see the cat in the stitchery block. :) They're so awesome added in to these. Serious Man Sh*t, huh? lol!! My man's been distracted lately, too - hard to get him to do things for me around the house that he usually snaps to. But he deserves the play with his new hobby since he works so very hard. :D

liniecat said...

Id never heard of a lenticular cloud before but gosh that must quite magical to see!
And I have always thought cooker hoods should be painted in a dust and grease deterrent substance lol For pity's sake - come on mankind - invent something!!

Tami C said...

Poor Smitty, it's a shame that he has to endure that terrible trip! My Popeye sounds just like that when he gets put into his crate for that trip!

kauanoeanuhea said...

Poor Smitty! He looks like K.C. and Tabitha do when I take them to the vet. The kitties sure can put on the sad faces! Beautiful picture of the mountain. I am coming to Portland in March; hope there will still be a lot of snow on the mountain tops.

Samplings from Spring Creek said...

So nice to meet up with friends. My Callie Mae can relate to Smitty! Beautiful photo of the mountain

Betty said...

Oh how terrible for Smitty to be so mistreated! I put my headset on before I clicked on the video so it wouldn't get my boys upset. I can certainly relate. My Greyson can barely manage a squeak most days, but on that trip to the vet he can definitely manage to sound off!

Brown Family said...

I checked with my friend about the metallic thread we use and found out it is Polyseter covered with Rice paper. It is KingStar Thread and we ordered it from Embstore.com.

I played the Smitty lament for my kitties. Max and Kirby were very interested. Max had to sniff out the speakers to see if Smitty was OK!

Kirsty said...

Poor Smitty (snigger). I played the video for Zorro who was initially extremely concerned that I had snuck a new cat into the house without him noticing (wouldn't be that hard, Z sleeps a lot). After assuring himself it wasn't real...Z went back to cleaning himself but the joke will be on him next week 'cause its his turn for his annual 'spa' treatment (<-- I find that three letter word is preferable to the one that starts with V and ends in T, if you get my meaning ;-) But I digress. I wanted to say great shot of a lenticular. I also wanted to say Woah! That's a big volcano on your doorstep! I sincerely hope you posted a zoomed in version and that Mt St Helens doesn't really loom that large on your horizon. Were you living there when she blew her side off in 1980?

Vicki said...

Awwww .... I feel for poor Smitty. At least he just mews polite protestations. When I take him to the vet, my kitty yowls as if I'm pulling out his claws and then snubs me the rest of the day.

Michele said...

The stitchery turned out great and Mr Smitty's complaining is nothing compared to what my Frankie used to do.