Name:  Oliver
Nicknames:  Pussito, Olipuss, Oli-de-puss, Kitty Man, Huzzy Huzzy, Oliman
Breed:  Domestic Short Hair
Age:  21 months
Story:  Born wild, his mamma a stray who frequented the area around a friend's office building

Oliver came to us in April of 2011 as a three week old baby kitty who had to be bottle-fed every few hours and stimulated to go to the bathroom.  The first few days he was with us were terrifying--I had never cared for a baby kitty before who was absolutely dependent upon me for everything, and I was so scared that the care we were giving him wouldn't be enough to help him make it through his early weeks. 

His little ears hadn't even started to stand up and take on the characteristic feline points, and his teeth still hadn't broken through his gums.  He had to be coaxed to drink from the tiny kitten bottle, and he cried for his mamma.  Such a tiny scrap of life, but we loved him from the start. 

After a few days we got the hang of it, and little puss started to thrive.  He was interested in everything and wanted to investigate the big new world...

When he was big enough he explored the jungle in the back garden...  with supervision, of course!

He would explore and play until he was absolutely exhausted and could fall over asleep at any moment.

As a baby his eyes were blue, like all kitty babies, but eventually they started to darken to a lovely green...

And before we knew it, he was such a big part of our household that it seemed like he had always been there!

Just look at that sweet face... and those splendid whiskers!  Who could resist?!

As time passed, Oliver came to be called more often by 'Pussito', and he grew into quite a handsome fellow...

He will never be a cuddly lap cat, but we accept him for who he is--we all have our personality quirks, right?

He loves to hang out in the back garden and is a great supervisor of all gardening endeavors...

As well as being a master climber--all the better to survey his kingdom!

Over the past two years he has developed an incredible habit...

See the red blanket behind him?  I made him that little quilt when he was a baby, and he carries it around in his mouth like a security blanket.  We find it upstairs, downstairs, under chairs, and in behind furniture.  Such a cute little quirk!

Overall it's been an amazing experience--caring for him as a little baby kitty, watching him learn how to be a big kitty and grow into the adult cat he is now.  Thank God we took him in--he probably would not have survived if our friend hadn't found him crying, motherless and alone. 

We love you, Puss Man--you're quite a boy!

As a child I loved to spend time with my Grandmother--many afternoons were spent with her in her cozy little house passing the time knitting, crocheting, sewing, and baking.  I learned many of the skills I still have today while sitting at her knee, watching her work.  Her hands were gnarled and disfigured with severe arthritis, but still she created.  It was a need and a drive that I find I too carry within me.

Gram had a variety of curiosities both in her personality and in her home.  She hated chocolate.  Can you even imagine?  When I was little (and honestly, still) I thought that was the oddest aversion.  Who on earth doesn't like chocolate?  A small but distinguished group, apparently.

She also loved owls.  Big or small, porcelaine or carved wood, realistic or stylized.  She had curio cabinets full of them throughout the house and I would stand for hours looking over her collection, discovering new details and delighting in their unique faces. 

When my Gram passed away she left me her vast owl collection.  It was carefully packed up and stored in the basement of my Mum's house for a time when I would have room to put it all out on display. Sadly, that time did not come quickly enough, and in March of last year the flood waters rose and drowned her precious collection.  

I squatted on my Mum's front lawn in freezing cold temperatures, tears rolling down my cheeks as I sorted through sodden boxes, throwing the vast majority of her treasures into a debris pile for the trash collector to haul away.  Anything submerged in flood water has been contaminated and should be discarded, but I just could not let go of everything, so I salvaged a few porcelain pieces and set them aside to be disinfected, cleaned up, and brought back to Miami with me. 

These two handsome fellows are proud flood survivors--aren't they gorgeous?  They have currently taken up residence on a high shelf in my kitchen, but took a stroll to the garden this afternoon for a bit of fresh air.

Several trips to IKEA this week (a big project is in the works) ended with a couple of great finds in the clearance department.  I found two of these great glass jars for $1 each!  A bit of scrap fabric to dress them up in shabby but cheerful fashion...

This gorgeous cross-stitched pink tea towel was also a $1 find in the IKEA clearance section...

The beautiful little Japanese bowl was a $1.99 clearance find at Ross...

And I painted the lovely little plain wood birdhouse during the holidays--it was a great Walmart find for $1.97.

A fun way to combine some great bargain finds with a couple of pieces that are very dear to my heart. 

I think of my Gram every time I'm in the garden... and she was with me today in spirit, admiring her 'beautiful babies', as she used to call her owls.

  I'll leave you with something she used to always cheerfully recite to me when I was a little girl:

Every time I end up at the beach I find my attention immediately focused at my feet, scanning the sand for the best bounty of the sea--interesting shells, sea glass, geodes, and bits of coral and pottery.  I am an intent beachcomber and always come home with my pockets full of sandy treasures.  I have jars full of shells and sea glass collected along beaches from Scotland to the Caribbean, and I can pretty much tell you where I found each and every piece.  I'm funny like that.

South Beach was insane last weekend--the 36th annual Art Deco Weekend was on and there was no parking and not much room to move around on the streets, or eve the beach! 

Everyone picked a spot and settled in...

Which was fine for a little while...

But with a view like that, and all that gorgeous turquoise water calling, who could sit still?!

I love walking barefoot along the beach, just inside the water line so the waves crash against your legs... it's so refreshing.  This weekend the water was cool and lovely, and the waves were brisk, a wonderful contrast to the sun's healing intensity beating down on my shoulders. 

There were people of every nationality and race all smiling, laughing, and playing like children, and it was a wonderful thing to walk along and drink it all in.  I find that I always feel like a child again when I'm barefoot walking along in the sand--it's okay to splash in the water, collect 'treasures', and chase seashells into the ocean as the tide pulls them back out on the currents.... pure bliss.

There were some wonderful finds...

And as usual I came home with a beach bag full of sand!

It would be so nice to capture that beach feeling and pull it out whenever I feel like it... so I pulled together a few simple materials and made a beach-inspired rustic shell bracelet.

This is so simple--if you have a few shell buttons lying around, you're pretty much set!  These snazzy pink shells are from a Canadian dollar store (my favorite!), the hemp rope is a fine to medium weight for jewelry-making, and the glass beads were from my (excessively vast) bead stash.  Really, this can be made from anything you have in your odds and ends of crafting supplies.

Essentially, the most important thing is to make sure you measure your wrist and figure out how many buttons it will take to create the bracelet (make it a bit loose so it is comfortable on your wrist!).

One strand of the hemp rope is fed through the buttons and beads, and it is knotted with the second strand of hemp rope to create a smooth line with the shell buttons laying nicely side-by-side.

The end loops are slipped over the button at the end of the opposite side of the bracelet, and it's almost unnoticeable when it is on your wrist!

A happy, sunny, colorful homage to a great day out!  And a reminder to be thankful for the joys in life--today in my hometown back in Canada the schools were cancelled due to the -39C temperature outside.  I guess I won't complain about it being a 'cool' 21C here today!

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There are 'movie moments' in all of our lives when the wide shot pans in to close-up focus...  when the world around us goes fuzzy, sounds become muted, and everything seems to happen in slow motion. 

I had one of those moments this weekend. 

Time seemed to stop, all of the ambient energy around me seemed to be drawn to my head and it washed down over me in a wave of prickling electricity.

It was Art Deco Weekend here in Miami and we gathered up our houseguests and headed down to South Beach to spend a few hours of salt water and sun worship before wandering Ocean Drive to take in all of the incredible talent and interesting vedors' wares lining the blocked-off street. 

With so much activity and so many beautiful colors, smells, and sounds swirling all around me, I have no idea what drew my attention to a whole table full of vintage post cards, other than the fact that the vendor next to the table had a really cute dog (named Winston--yes, we made friends).  I drifted over to take a look through the interesting selection and in amongst the perfunctory Yosemite National Park and NYC postcards, there was a tiny 'Canadian' section.  I thought I might find a souvenir to remind me of our journey to Niagra Falls last autumn... or maybe even something from my old university town of Halifax, NS. 

Never did I imagine what was waiting for me.

I pulled out the postcard and thought that the yellowed black and white image looked vaguely familiar.  My gaze dropped to the caption, and my knees almost gave way when I read the name. 

It was my own home town circa 1930s. 

To explain why this is such a rare scenario, remember that it would be quite normal for someone from NYC or Chicago to randomly find a vintage postcard of their home town in a city thousands of miles away.  Big cities always have souvenirs that travel far and wide, and those vintage postcards are generally quite plentiful.  My town, however, is home to only several thousand souls, and is quite small and insignificant to the rest of the world apart from its scattering of proud inhabitants.  

The buildings you see in the image mostly no longer exist--thanks in part to a fire in 1976 that swept through Main Street and took half of the buildings to the right, and the river that took all of the buildings on the left during various bouts of flooding.  My town currently is desperately trying to regain some sense of normality after the worst flood on record last March, which completely destroyed not only my own 1850s house but countless other historic homes and businesses in my area.

The shock of seeing the history that was lost, and the beauty it once held was overwhelming, and I confess it brought tears to my eyes.  Such an amazing gift, and at a time when the area is in such turmoil...  I am so thankful. 

I really enjoyed the day out and the 36th annual Art Deco Weekend, but the best part of the entire experience for me was finding that little rectangle of paper.  It is now framed and will hold a place of honor here in my Miami home, far from the mountains and river of my childhood world that will always hold such a special place in my heart.

Gracias a Dios.

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This week has been a bit crazy--my husband's relatives are here visiting so projects have been pushed to the side in favor of sharing coffees, stories, meals, and time together.  It's always fun when they come as their English is limited--so I get to break out my Rosetta Stone Spanish (mixed with what I've picked up 'en la caille').  We talk and laugh and make fun of ourselves, and generally enjoy the time spent together. 

I'm working on several half-finished projects that I have no time to photograph or otherwise document, so it's pretty quiet on the creativity front this week.  I do, however, have a wonderful mural to share. 

When I was young I took art lessons from a wonderful lady named Bernice Beaulieu McLaughlin.  She was a very versatile artist who always had paint on her jeans and time to sit and talk about whatever her juvenile pupils found interesting.  I loved my lessons in her drafty turn-of-the-century house, and marvelled at the beautiful colors she had painted her porch, the shelves full of antique books, the paintings leaning against the walls of our makeshift 'classroom' in the front room of her home, and all of the other curiosities that were always to be discovered within those four walls. 

Sadly, Bernice left us way too early.  She fell ill and was taken from us long before her time.  Her art, however, lives on, and one particular piece was in a very unexpected location--in the basement of our local hospital.

Many of you will remember that my hometown was horribly flooded last March.  It is still trying to rebuild, and many buildings (my home included) were completely destroyed.  One of the worst-affected structures was the local hospital.  The worst off were the offices and storage rooms in the basement of the original building, which laid completely submerged in water for three days last year. 

Many years ago as a student I worked in the hospital laboratory--it was a magic summer job filled with interesting days learning much more than I ever did from textbooks in hematology courses, and I got to know quite a few of the medical personnel in that area of the building, as the lab back then was also in the basement.  X-Ray was just down the hall, and there was a gentleman named Tony who was the nicest X-Ray Tech that I ever met.  He always had a smile and a kind word, and was wonderful with children and adults alike. 

Tony had an office in the basement that was little more than a broom closet, and it was a lifeless space without any window or natural light.  He came up with a wonderful idea and asked if a mural could be painted on his outside wall...  the powers-that-be agreed and Bernice came in and created the wonderful mural you see above.  Simply the illusion of the outdoors and a wonderfully fluffy kitty to keep him company must have put an even bigger smile on his face!

Tony and Bernice are both gone now, and the hospital is only working at half-capacity post-flood.  The area where that mural rests is no longer in use (in fact, it was probably ripped out after the waters subsided), and there is a new hospital in the works with construction scheduled to begin in 2015.  I believe that anyone who went through the disaster could write a whole volume entitled 'The Things we Lost in the Flood', and this is certainly a loss for both the hospital and the town. 

Today I am remembering Bernice... the wonderful person she was, the talent she shared with the world, and the many lessons she taught me. 

You will never be forgotten, dear lady. 

Never.

Hi Everyone!  My name is Sophie and I'm the newest furry member of the household.  I'm somewhere around 6 months old but my Mummy doesn't know exactly how old I am--the vet told her I was around 3 months old when I found her--I've been with her for three whole months now!

We are a family of five--there's Mummy, Daddy (he plays with me... we had a great laser pointer session just this morning!), Charlie (he's kinda big and when he gets excited he runs in circles... I have to be careful that I don't get run over by his stamping paws, but otherwise he's cool.  The humans call him a 'dog', whatever that is...), and Oliver.  Oliver has a lot of nickames, but he tends to go by 'Pussito'.  He's a big kitty--Mummy tells me that he turns two in April, and that he was just a little baby at three weeks old when they rescued him.  He's not really too sure about me at the moment and he hisses and growls a lot, but I want to be friends.  I think he'll come around... eventually.

Because I'm new I get a lot of what Mummy calls 'hand-me-downs'.  I guess that means that they belonged to the big boy before I came along, but that's okay--I enjoy playing with them anyway!  Everything is new to me!  See that red tent?  That was Oliver's but he got too big for it.  For a while he would play with me through the tent, so it got a bit torn up.  So Mummy decided that I would get my very own version... yay!

So Mummy did some stuff... not sure what everything was, but it involved a lot of cutting and sewing, and her machine scared me a bit at first but I was a big brave kitty.  She told me I was a good helper.

Pussito Checked it out first to make sure it was okay for me to try out.  He said it was too girly for him... see the lace around the doorway?  I really like that part.

I love it! 

It's so pretty, and it's just the right size for me to curl up inside and take a nap.  I did just that last night and it was really nice--Mummy put something called 'batting' in the bottom of it so it would be soft and comfortable for me.  I'm so lucky! 

Unfortunately I got a bit confused and tried to get on top of the tent.  It didn't work so well.  Mummy told me that I couldn't be like 'Snoopy'--does anyone understand that?  I don't know what she meant, but she was laughing, so I guess it wasn't so bad.

I'm kind of afraid that Pussito will change his mind and want his tent back.  I make sure to check in behind it to make sure he's not going to ambush me...  he's good at that.

See?  It's the perfect size just for me--and my toys. 

I'm not too happy with the photo because I know that black kitties don't photograph very well, but Mummy says I'm beautiful anyway.  She always tells me what a good girl I am.  I'm so glad I found her!

I think I'll go see what Mummy is up to before I go take a nap in my new tent...

Do any of you make special things for your fur babies?  Believe me, it's worth the effort--we really appreciate them!

Have a great Sunday!

Love, Sophie     >^^<

Okay... I have written this post and almost finished it THREE times in the last hour... and each time a glitch in the system of my server has deleted the entire post.

So... I am frustrated. 

I love technology, but there are days when I could take my laptop and toss it out the window into the garden.

For that reason, I am going to have a cup of tea and forget about technology for a while.  I have some knitting to work on (for myself this time, yay!), and I'm going to get lost in Downtown Abbey and knitting for a few hours.

I had the recipe and supply links all done up beautifully... but my head is pounding and I just can't do it again with the threat of losing it for time number FOUR. 

The Coles Notes version of the recipe is 1 tablespoon of oil base, 1 tsp of beeswax, 1/4 tsp of carnauba wax, 1/4 tsp of pure vitamin E oil, and 4 lip balm tubes.  Warm the oil in a small metal jug over medium-low heat and then stir in the two waxes, swirling to make them dissolve into the oil.  Remove from heat and stir in the vitamin E oil, and then carefully pour the liquid balm into the tubes.  Let the tubes stand undisturbed for at least half an hour so they set up well.

If anyone needs further instructions, please let me know and I'll send an instruction sheet :-)

Does anyone else have technology meltdown?!

It's a funny thing, winter.  I grew up in eastern Canada, where the winters were long and blisteringly cold.  The month of January seemed to linger on forever, a frigid expanse of snowy white hills rolling toward the horizon in all directions.  With the flurry of the Christmas holidays behind us, spring was the next thing to look forward to, and those months in between stretched endlessly in a sea of snowstorms, toboggans, hot chocolate, and wooly socks. 

As an adult, obviously my perspective has changed on winter.  Playing outside in the warm air is not high on my list of priorities (although maybe it should be...), so January's childhood connotations are no longer relevant.  

Now I find myself in a place where snow is non-existent.  Southern Florida isn't exactly prone to snowstorms, ergo toboggans and wooly socks are of little use here.  The hot chocolate isn't really de rigeur either, except on the odd visit to Godiva when I feel the need for a bit of decadent indulgence.  (Is anyone else in love with their dark chocolate drink?  Wow.)

The strange thing?  I miss winter.  It is so easy to look back through memory and fantasize about cold winter mornings waking up to a foot of snow blanketing the landscape in a sparkling, tinkling calm.  Days when huge fluffy flakes would fall gently past the big window in the living room of my old house and my kitties would sit in the window for hours, fascinated by the moving white landscape. 

Of course, in all of these amplified memories I omit the fact that in order to be able to leave the house I had to put on three layers of clothing, a huge down-filled coat, double-knitted mittens, a wool hat, heavy boots, wool socks (over my other socks) and a scarf wrapped around my neck enough times to break the cutting wind.  The walkway had to be shovelled in order to get to the garage (luckily my 'winter guy' would have already gotten up at 4am to plough out the main driveway), and then there was the difficult manoeuvering out of the end of the driveway over the mess that the plough had made when it went by and cleared the road in front of the house.  The car had to be started and allowed to run for 15 minutes to warm up the engine because running it cold would destroy it.  At least half an hour extra (sometimes more) had to be allowed in the morning to be able to get to work on time, over roads that were slick with black ice and snow.  The power bills in the winter would be at least $300 more than they were during the other months, and I had to invest in a heated mattress pad and turn it on to maximum power every night before going to bed--old houses are beautiful but not particularly energy-efficient.

But, having said all that, I still miss winter.  All the negative things recede to the back of my memory and I find myself longing for a few days of glorious winter.  And that being the case, I find myself fixating on snowflakes and incorporating them into a variety of projects.

I learned a beading technique many years ago to make an adorable little snowflake--and I find myself returning to it again and again.  It can be made into such a variety of items that are both beautiful and useful.  I used to sell them as keychains, necklaces, and bracelets both on my Etsy shop and at local craft markets.  They were a huge hit, and I really enjoyed making them. 

They can be done with any color combination, and are very beautiful when there is a color variation to create a unique design within the snowflake.  In the past I have done a few with hearts worked into the center, and I think I may try to do a few again this year with Valentine's Day coming right up!

If anyone is interested in trying the beading pattern, this one is somewhat similar to mine, and there are great step-by-step instructions with diagrams to help you figure out the technique and bead placement.  It may take a few attempts to become familiar with the technique, but once you get the tension right, you will get the hang of it pretty quickly!

I have also crocheted so many snowflakes in my lifetime--they are a great project and also make quick, lovely gifts!

I made a series of three of the above framed snowflakes and they were wonderful Christmas decor.  I used this pattern from Red Heart Yarn and substituted crochet cotton for the thicker yarn. 

Here we are--ten days into January. 

In Canada my family has experienced two snowstorms in the last ten days.  My Dad was out snowblowing the driveway this morning and Mum was telling me how cold it's been for the past several weeks as she has been trying to recuperate from a persistent winter virus.

Guess what I did this morning?  I put on jeans and a camisole, slid my feet into  sandals, donned a pair of sunglasses, and went on a neighborhood stroll with myfaithful companion  Charlie Rose.  The birds were singing, the sun was hot on my shoulders, and the  wind was flowing around us, rustling the heady fuschia blooms of the  bougainvillea that grows in profusion everywhere in our neighborhood.

The lesson?  Be thankful for the memories of winters past... and enjoy my  current lush, green, vibrant January. 

And keep making those snowflakes :-)

What's your current theme?  Please share it, I love inspiration!

Trapunto.  A fantastic word, wouldn't you agree?  

In Italian it means 'to embroider', but in stitching circles it is a very specific type of Italian quilting that was very popular during the 1500s and was used to embellish everything from household items to garments.  The technique migrated to the US in the 1700s and remained relatively popular up until the Civil War.

The above quilt is at the Victoria & Albert Museum and is apparently the oldest quilt known to be still in existence, having been made in Sicily sometime between 1360 and 1400.  It is constructed from linen padded with cotton wadding and quilted with brown and white linen thread.

Back in my Costume Studies days (many, many moons ago) we studied the Trapunto technique.  It can be a tedious and time-consuming endeavour, but the finished results are stunning.  (It was made more tedious and time-consuming in my case because I used a piece of fronting fabric that had WAY too high a thread count, making the quilting part of the project difficult.  It is generally advised to use a medium-weight fronting fabric and a light weight backing to make the stuffing part of the project much easier.) 

There are a lot of new ways to produce the same look, but we were taught that the original technique was always done using white linen fabric (cotton in later times), cotton wadding, and linen thread.  The materials were always white in color as the monochromatic palette accentuates the play of shadows and light on the design and creates a bas-relief of sorts, increasing visual interest and texture.

The basic technique is to first lightly draw your design onto your fronting fabric, then add your backing fabric and quilt along the design lines (without any batting in between the front and back fabric layers. Once the design is completely quilted, small slits are made in the backing fabric in the area to be stuffed, then cotton wadding is carefully added to the area to puff it out and create the three-dimensional design. Once the section is suitably stuffed, the small slit is stitched back together, and you move on to the next section for stuffing. 

 It was also common to use cording in addition to the wadding, creating intricate  designs. Any backing areas that will contain cording are slit in two areas at opposite ends of the design and the cord is fed (via a needle) through the  quilted channel from the first opening to end at the second opening. 

There are tutorials online that will give you an idea as to the basic technique, but really you can just play with your design and do it as you like!  There are very good quilting books as well, that give step-by-step instructions.

If you choose to try Trapunto quilting, the key is patience.  Take it slowly and understand from the start that this is not a one-evening project, but the end result is absolutely stunning and makes for a wonderful challenge!

Have any of you tried Trapunto Quilting?  If you have, please share! :-)