This photo was taken through the window, and so you can see the reflection of our new living room lamp off there on the right. Our old one quit working, and we were without light in the living room for a couple of months trying to decide which lamp we should buy to replace it. After stumbling around in the dark long enough, Mike finally saw the light, so to speak, and found one exactly like the old one. It works.
Naturally, the morning started out with the usual catalepsy. They will sit and stare at one another until this human is nearly catatonic with boredom.
It's hard to know what Smitty's motivation is. He'll sit outside her door for hours watching and waiting. When he sees her, he can become so excited that his front feet actually leave the floor in a little leap of delight. This morning, he sat for so long that I finally went in with the two of them. We sat like this for the longest time.
After a while, I held Maggie on my lap...and let me say that Maggie can swear like a little sailor too. I'm having to tell her no, and give her a little tap on the head with my finger as extra incentive to be more polite. She complies, and then we sit some more. This morning, I sat and held her and petted her for quite a while. Becoming bored with that, I set her on the floor beside me and reached for Smitty to do the same.
I figure he needs to know he's still lovable even in her presence. But when I did that, the caterwauling started and, naturally, we had to stop for the morning. He'll go take his morning nap downstairs eventually, and then I'll let her out to explore the house for a while.
She is becoming more curious and checking out the house a little more, but she's very timid and her confidence is fragile. One little move from me, or one little noise from somewhere, and she retreats under the couch or back into her room. It's slow-going, let me tell you. I'm hoping it'll be like my experience of learning to ride a bike. One day I couldn't ride it, and the next I could. Maybe one day I'll open the door, and all the bad blood will have disappeared...naturally.
The metallic thread quilting is all finished on the Quilting Snowladies, and I couldn't be more proud of that metallic thread for how it performed. Honestly, it behaved perfectly...far better than cats. There might have been one episode of breakage on the whole quilt, but I'm not even sure about that. Just FYI, this is the thread I was using, and now I'm a Superior threads convert all the way.
It's hard to see in this next image, but it turned out so pretty and gives off the nicest little bit of sparkle.
It's not a very good image. I took it next to the living room windows, where I have pretty good natural light; but I had to stand on the coffee table to get up high enough, and you can see that I was at a bit of a tilt...which is kind of natural for me. Here's a close-up of an individual block, but it's hard to capture the sparkle of the thread in a photograph.
It's looking pretty good from the back too.
When I laid the quilt out on the floor, I thought I might coax my newest quilt inspector out from her under-the-couch retreat, but no dice.
And by the way...I was saying the other day that I wished someone would invent a photo editing red-eye removal tool for pets. My friend Dana noted that with Maggie's blue eyes, the red-eye removal tool for humans would work. It doesn't work in all of my pictures, but oftentimes it does! Very cool!
The four 10-minute bursts on the treadmill helped me to meet my 10,000 step goal yesterday too. Yahoo!
Only, not so fast there, Cowgirl, because when I got on the treadmill this morning for the first of four bursts, my knee was hurting so much that I had to stop after three minutes. I'm going to ice it when I finish here, and I've taken some Aleve. Hopefully, I'm not benched for the day, but it's still a bummer. I'll give it another try again in a little while, and I'll probably slow down with the pace.
Naturally, I spent some time doing embroidery this morning. When I'd taken it this far, it was enough for the day.
And now the last of it is within the confines of this little hoop, so I should have no problem finishing it tomorrow.
The ice still has me housebound, and so there's plenty of time for sewing. I had an appointment in the city tomorrow, but I've rescheduled that. The only other thing on my calendar for the week is my walk with Sue on Friday morning. Naturally, that will all depend on the ice situation.
Today I'll switch off to my "natural" color of cotton quilting thread and start quilting the embroidered blocks for the Quilting Snowladies. I think those will go pretty quickly. It seems like a good day for laundry too, so off I go...naturally.
10 comments:
I'm glad that progress is being made. Perhaps try Smitty on your lap first so he realizes he's still top cat? When my two get too crazy rolling around on the floor I just yell "hey". Two kitties stop in mid-roll and stare at me and then wander off to do other things.
Maggie's expression seems to be saying "Really, the camera again? Get that thing away from me." :)
Too bad you are still iced in but nice that you are making the best of it. But I don't see any new baked or cooked goods coming from your confinement yet.
It looks like she's not taking her eyes off of him but it's nice to see them in the same room. I still believe they're going to be best friends, she's young and can hold her own with him hopefully. I'm glad the red eye thing worked, her eyes are beautiful. Maybe Mike should sit on the floor and see if they'll come to him since she likes him so much.
It sounds like you are coddling those worthless cats. Here at Kitten U, we regularly suffer through punishments of baby food, treats, stroking and play therapy. Once when I bit the toe of a servant, she said OW! so loud I ran and hid, and then I was punished with baby food. That said, I personally like to use a bite hold on my brother's neck when he takes up the servant's time with his neediness. Admittedly it doesn't really change his behavior, but I enjoy doing it.
Respectfully,
Molly the Foster Kitten
I zeroed in on that thread! My all-time fave (for the last 4+ years!!)! I usually order 2 at a time, since it's the ONLY metallic I use now. Your pieces are beautiful and I do hope you aren't ice-bound so long you run out of projects!!!
VERY impressed at your 10,000 steps! I rarely make it and my fitness bank shows its disdain by lowering my 'goal' every few days. Soon it will reward me for staying in bed all day. :) On the Cat Front, I understand how Smitty feels, truly. It took me years to adjust to my little sister, but now, in our 60s, I've decided she can stay in the family.
Congrats on the 10,000 steps. I try to remember to keep my phone in my pocket at work to count mine. Today I got 2931 steps at work, even though I didn't do any laps around the office. They were mostly from my desk to the printers in the other room. But not too bad for me. Yesterday was a bad knee day, so only got about 1891. I think, at home, it's 51 steps from my bedroom at the back to my chair in the living room. Not sure quite how they figure that, but I'll take it!
Oh my, gpc made me laugh about letting her little sister stay in the family! I'm the baby in mine, & with sisters that are 9 & 13 years older, I was almost an only child. I like the idea of giving the Smitster some shoozing first. Guess it's all just a balancing act.
The quilting must look very cool & sparkly in person. It looks great on my laptop!!
They are slowly coming around! Sorry that your knee gave you problems. I like the metallic snowflakes. Hopefully you will not be house bound much longer !
Give them time, It will work out. How does one know that 10,000 steps is the right choice for them? Seems everyone is working toward that - I know my limits and adjust.
So glad the kitties are forming a treaty of sorts, wouldn't it be fun to know what they were up to in their "alone" time? I do love your quilt the quilting is fantastic. Glad to know the Superior Metallic is cooperative.
Hope the kitty team building exercises start going more smoothly. But it looks like you've made a lot of progress. The Snow Ladies are looking very glamorous. Happy stitching this week.
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