Toby
Tuesday Project Roundup: Where’s My AARP Discount? Edition
Projects are still continuing here at Chez Crafty; they’re just going a little more slowly now that I want to be outside, have to control the snail plague in my garden (more on that tomorrow), and need to learn how to ride a bike again (yeah).
I’m working on a denim dress that should be finished soon, but I’m much more excited about the next project in line: finding a use for some truly awesome vintage fabric my grandmother in Nebraska gave me.
Here’s the fabric:
(Approximate time from laying down of fabric to arrival of cat: 2.2 seconds)
And here’s what I’m considering making with it:
It’s a robe/housedress from what looks like the very early 70’s, to put on in the morning and putter around the house in. I could even make a matching headscarf! (Hey, I already wear muumuus; I might as well embrace my inner 80-year-old.)
My only reservation is that a robe wouldn’t get as much public wear time as a dress, and that’s a shame because the fabric is SO fabulous. So I’m still considering.
Cute Kitten Picture Monday: Wait, That’s My Kitten!
When I adopted Toby, I found him through CAWS. I was really impressed with their follow-through during the process of looking, and I even got an email about two weeks after he’d been home making sure we were all happy. Over the weekend, I got another email that his foster mom had wanted me to have, which had his baby pictures in it. Baby Toby!
Friday Unrelated Information
1. I’ll miss a post Monday, since I will be on a farm. With not a lot of internet. On the prairie. Toby and Mr. Isbell will have to be bachelors together.
2. Remember the cat veranda I was debating about getting? I got it. My dad (Toby’s “grandpa”) installed it in an ingenious fashion last night. The verdict? Best. Purchase. Ever. He’s in it right now getting the morning sun and here he was right after the installation:
Tuesday Project Roundup: I Know What I’m Wearing To County Fairs And Derbies This Season
I’m wearing gingham, like generations of farm women behind me!
My gingham has a mandarin collar and a 70’s feel (I modified the duck dress pattern), which hopefully keeps it from feeling too literally farm-like.
I’m extra pleased by how I got the checks to match on the front: They match horizontally across the collar and across the front inset, and (mostly) vertically from the inset into the body. That’s a lot of 3/8 inch checks to keep track of while cutting out.
Toby, however, was underwhelmed by it last night:
(He’s on the ironing board here. Yes, I give my cat plastic bags to play with and let him sit on the ironing board while I’m ironing. It’s a good thing he’s not a human baby.)
Planning For Spring While It Snows
I could dig up another unhappy quote about the weather, but let’s just assume I’m unhappy with it and move on to something more hopeful: Seeds.
Last year I had a patio garden and it did pretty well, so this year I’m getting more ambitious and will actually plant things in the ground. (In the blighted area where the landlord cut down all the trees last spring, actually.)
I have tomatoes and basil going as starts, and I bought seeds for the rest of the produce yesterday. So now I’m really impatient for nice weather.
(And because I have to take a picture of Toby every time I get out the camera, here he is. His new favorite toy? A plastic bag. I have some reservations giving my “baby” a plastic bag as a toy, but he’s supervised. And very smart, as you can see.)
"Privilege O f Being"
Mr. Isbell has been out of town, and yesterday night I dreamed that instead of adopting Toby, I took him back to the shelter, realized my mistake, and went to get him again only to find out that he had been “donated” to the “University Cat Research Center”. (It was a dream, but it was very ominous.)
Of course I was so relieved to wake up and see Toby sitting on my chest, but I had to think of my friend Sean: When I told him I wanted to get a cat, he said, “That will just open up whole new ways for you to be miserable!”
I understand his point. While the dream was just a dream, there are so many ways to be afraid for something you love. People can “die young, fail at love, fail of their ambitions,” cats can get lost or sick–but you have to just accept that risk, because the happiness you get tempers the fear. (Sean disagrees, of course, but he also doesn’t care for pets.)
(Title and quotes from one of my favorite Robert Hass poems.)
He Wasn’t Really Dancing
I mentioned Dancing Cats Feline Health Center on Friday, and at the risk of telling yet another cat story, I have to mention it again today. Toby had to go there last Wednesday for an eye infection; they were really nice; he didn’t mind being there (until they tried to take his temperature); and he got eye drops to clear things up.
But the drops weren’t clearing things up, so I left a message Saturday morning when they were closed, thinking I wouldn’t hear back from them over the weekend. But only an hour later the vet called and had me come in to get oral antibiotics, and called again yesterday to see if they were working. (Fortunately, they were, because it wasn’t fun for anyone involved to make sure Toby got eye drops and liquid medicine.)
But my point is: great vet, who remembers people by their cat’s name, who comes in on weekends to check messages, and who names her clinic Dancing Cats.
Tuesday Project Roundup: Brand New Bag
I got the feeling on Friday (get it, James Brown fans?) to ignore my dirty windows and screens and to work on a new bag instead. I’ve made purses for myself before, but have always been a little dissatisfied with how they turned out–too small, the zipper looked lumpy, the interfacing didn’t bond right, etc.
But I got so sick of carrying an old bag that I bought in the days of credit (that I probably just paid off) that I decided to try again. And it turned out well: It’s big enough to hold a bottle of wine, my minimum size requirement (putting wine in a purse happens more than you’d think); there’s a magnetic snap instead of a zipper; and the interfacing is just fine.
Toby likes it, too. Although he prefers his grocery bag.
Tuesday Project Roundup: Cat Hair Everywhere Edition
I started this project weeks before Toby L. Cat showed up, but I got the decorative strip pinned on and then lost all steam to finish. Last week I finally sewed the strip down and added ties to keep the sides shut.
What is it, you ask? A sewing machine cozy, of course. It keeps things like dust and cat hair out of the machine and it keeps interesting small chewable things hidden from Toby.
I’m glad I got this out of the way because I feel a project-filled weekend coming up: The navy gingham will be here soon, and yesterday I got fabric for a new summer handbag project.
Which is, of course, Toby-approved: