Blu Joined Beep in Pea Heaven Last Night

Our beloved Blu was not doing very well yesterday when my daughter got home from work.  

He had a blank stare and was lethargic.  

She gave him some antibiotics, a warm blanket and some snuggles and hoped for the best 

but it was not to be.  

We suspect he may have hit his head rather than being ill as it was so sudden.

Blu sustained an ankle injury when he was young and had to have surgery.  

He used to hop along on the one good foot but he never regained full use of that foot.  

He fathered LOTS of pea babies!  

Many of them this year so my daughter has some consolation 

in that she can keep one or more of his kids to carry on. 

 He was just 7 years old.  

When said daughter was living at our house she actually hatched out a few peafowl.  

Blu and Osiris hatched nearly the same time.  

Osiris preceeded him into pea Heaven.  

They hatched in her bedroom in a little styrofoam incubator, along with Jocelyn, the turkey.  

She still has that turkey and she is actually the bird that hatched the last batch of eggs from Blu's pen!

Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers.  

It has been a tough year losing our beloved Autumn cat, Beep and now Blu.

RIP Blu, I will always have a very soft spot in my heart for you!

One of my favorite photos of Blu.

~XOP~

WIP's With Friends

I can't believe it is Wednesday already!  

I have been pretty wrapped up with getting the fish quilt top and the top for the priest finished up.  Then I had to make backs for both and cut the batting.  

The baby that the fish quilt is for was born on June 22. 

 Both he and his mama are doing well.  

His name is Jack.  One of my favorite names.  

All together now, AWEEEEEE!  

He is so sweet!

I made the binding for the sea horse quilt and have it half way hand stitched down.

I did have some help though.

Cole has asserted himself as the next gen of helper cat!

I can't wait for him to find his way into the quilt room.

I'm not in a hurry for him to replace Hal in there yet though.

So that, along with planting my tomatoes and peppers, is what I have been up to.

Oh and playing with the kittens!

I am linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

Your turn, what are you working on?

Link up using the blue Linky button.

Link will close at 10am EDT

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Cha Cha Cha Cha CHANGES

It seems like last week was an amazingly crazy one!  

We put a down payment on a fifth wheel, found a truck to buy to pull it,

 and adopted 2 kittens into our life.  CrAzY!!

So apparently I have only shown the fifth wheel on my instagram account.  

We purchased a Flagstaff.  

We went to the dealer in Lansing and they did not have the model we wanted but 

were able to place an order for it.  

Apparently they make them in batches and luckily we got the last spot for this model

and it will be being made in the near future.  

They anticipate that we will have delivery the first week of August.

These photos are the stock photos from the Flagstaff website but ours will be close to this in colors.

You can see that there is a dinette rather than table and chairs. 

 We chose this for 2 reasons.  

First so there is an additional bed and second, see the drawers under the seats?  

FABRIC STORAGE!!!

When you look this direction you can see the steps on the left. 

 Those lead to the bathroom and bedroom.  It has three slide outs and is ~32 feet long.

We love that the TV and fireplace are across from the theater seating. 

 It also has an outdoor tv and grill and the awning covers most of the outside of the camper.

We love that!

So if that was not enough, hubby decided that he needed a new truck to haul said fifth wheel.  

Which of course he did!  

No, really, he actually does need a new truck as ours would pull it on level ground but never through any mountains, and it is super old.  

So what did he choose I hear you asking?

It is a Chevy (and this part is straight from hubby's mouth):  

It is a 250 HD High Country Silverado with a Duramax Diesel engine. 

 HA, I knew it was a 250 and that's about it.  It is pretty but who knew trucks cost so much!!!  YIKES!  

I think we are going to pick it up tonight.

So now we are all set to travel as soon as I retire (hopefully in 2 more years).  

Someone told me to stop spamming my FB account with kitten pictures but 

I just can not help myself, because 

KITTENS!!!

We are finding out their personalities.  

Finn is our fearless little adventurer. 

 He just can. not. stop. moving!  

Until he passes out. 

 He wants to lay on the cat bed perhaps with his brother, but not on us.  

He is very food oriented and thinks whenever you have food you MUST share.  

If you are not careful he will just walk right on to your plate and help himself!

In this photo, Cole had just climbed onto the quilt I was binding and Finn jumped on top of him!

Cole on the other hand, is amazingly cuddly.  

Whenever you pick him up he bursts into a very loud purring.  

He will seek us out and meow until we pick him up.  

That means he wants to take a nap and you need to go sit down and provide the napping location 

on your body for him. 

 He has very long legs and I think will be a very big cat.  

Someone told me he looks like a bat so Chris has started calling him Batman.  

Already "helping" me bind a quilt.

It's really difficult to photograph a black cat, especially when he closes his eyes!

I have lots more to share but need to stop for now.  Very exciting times at my house right now!

~XOP~

Meet Finnick and Cole

Yesterday I said we were getting some new additions to our family.  

We picked up 2 kittens at the Friends of Michigan Animal Rescue.  

We had planned on the little brown tabby and the 

bigger orange tabby when we were heading over there. 

 When we walked in it was overwhelming.  

Cats everywhere.  I was litterly in kitty Heaven!!  

Big greeter cats that are not adoptable but super friendly, flow into a room with yet more cats! 

 There was a tabby point Siamese named Melody that was my best friend.  

The workers said that I was the first person she had followed around like that!

She followed me around suggesting that I might want to continue to pet her and take her home.  

I really did want to take her home. 

 She was so sweet I am confident she will get a great home.  

I tried to get a photo of her but she was constantly moving.

Bless his cat loving heart, my husband said we could take her too, but I thought 2 kittens would be enough for our cat Hallie to deal with.  

Maybe I will call next week and see if she got adopted...

On to the kittens!!  

When we went there we knew we wanted this little BROWN (he is not gray) tabby.  

He is our little adventurer.  

We (and by we I mean I) have named him Finnick, Finn for short.  

He was born the end of April, I think she said the 20th 

(I don't have his paperwork with me at work).

He could not be any cuter!

We thought we were going to take an orange tabby home, but he was so stand offish. 

 Additionally, there was a litter of black cats and all of them were friendly, but this one was amazing!  He has a really LOUD purr and likes to snuggle. 

 I was so torn.  

I really wanted another ginger cat, like my Jack.  

BUT, black cats are the least adopted cats and this one was so friendly. 

 I'm pretty certain I will not regret my decision.  

He was born on March 22.  They are a month apart.  

We have named this one Cole.  

His naming was much more difficult as this was not the original kitten we had planned on. 

 I wanted Crowley (after the charming demon on Supernatural) 

but hubby liked Cole (after Cole Porter) better.  Since he let me name Finn he got his way.  

Sadly, Hallie is not at all happy with these intruders!  

The kittens are settling in nicely though and eating, drinking 

and most importantly, using the litter box!  

Hubby slept downstairs with the kittens and I slept upstairs with Hal.  

We may do this for a few more nights just to give her some rest.  

She goes outside during the day so she has a way to have some time away when she wants to.  

I hope she comes around.  

She is not attacking them just hissing, and I think this will fade over time. 

 I didn't sew at all last night as I was socializing with the new additions.  

I am totally smitten with them!

This morning when I got up and went downstairs they both came running to me and wanted my attention, which was great! 

 Cole was curled up on hubby's chest sleeping.  

Finn, the adventurer, was already up and about.  I can see their personalities already!

I will have updates as I take time to take some more pictures.  

I am thinking that I will open up the sewing room to them tonight and

 see who will be the next quilt cat (or if Hallie will claim top spot still). 

 Stay turned for the next edition of Kitten World!  

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

It has been such a busy week!  I am working on a quilt for our priest.  

Here are some progress shots.

(It was late)

I have to sew it together yet.

Additionally we had some baby pea chicks hatch out!

Our daughter took us to the Belleville Strawberry Festival on Sunday.  

So much fun!

See, there is even "fun" in the name of the slide!

I was good and did not get any, but Elephant Ears are my favorite fair food! 

 Although the GIGANTIC ribbon of potato chips loaded with goodies looked amazing!

As we were leaving the fair I spotted an animal rescue booth so I stopped.  

I have been trying to find one to volunteer at.  

I got some info from them and then asked them if they had any cats

 (cuz you know I am down 4, LOL). 

 Oh, why yes they did.  They said OVER 100!!!  And the best part?  

They had some right around the corner. 

 So you know I had to go and check it out. 

 I signaled to my husband and daughter and ran over to the tent of kittens. 

 Long story short, we are picking our 2 new kittens up tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Both are long hair tabbies. 

 One is red and one is brown.  Both are boys.

We are trying to come up with names.  

We have chosen two names but we will see when we get there if they really end up with those so I will introduce them to you tomorrow.  

The rescue is  Friends of Michigan Animal Rescue.

I. Can. Not. WAIT!!!

OK so what are you working on 

(I have a feeling it will take me time to get back into my sewing room with new babies in the house).

I am linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts and you can link up here and share what you are working on! The link will close tomorrow at 10am.

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Odds and Ends

I was asked about the closure of the Linky on WIPs With Friends each week. 

 I will typically close it around 24 hours after opening it. 

 I realized that this made it inconsistent for my followers. 

 In the future I will be closing the Linky at 10am EST.  

This should give everyone time to post their links.

On another note, hubby and I went thrifting on Wednesday and just look at this great Pyrex/AnchorHocking/Glassbake haul!!

After he cleaned it all up and laid it out this is what we brought home.  

(the cake plate I had)

The two in the center are Pyres and in great shape!

The two square pans and the bread pan are Glassbake as is the mixing bowl.  

The two casserole are Anchor Hocking. 

 Look at those white lids!!! 

 Pretty good haul for one trip I think.  

I had a full purchase card so was able to get an additional 35% off our purchase for the day too!!  

We typically go on Wednesdays when seniors (anyone over 55) gets an additional 25% off,

 but this was an exceptional score!!!

Another fun thing I thought I would share.  Remember last week when we were on farm duty?

One of the things we were supposed to do was to gather eggs.

The chickens are fairly easy, and actually so are the pea hens. 

Except for one crazy bird that I did not know about.

There is a dresser in the coop and Aurora likes to go to the top and back up against the wall to lay.

So her egg falls down the crack between the wall and the dresser.

It most often gets "stuck" in the crack, suspended above the straw provided for her to lay her eggs in.

Which ends up looking like this.

(Top photo for perspective)

That crazy bird!  

That's what I have going into the weekend.

I started cutting out a quilt for our priest that is leaving soon.

I hope to have it all cut out very soon as the weeks will be getting so busy!

I'm going to do a version of this block that I made for my Bee this month.

I am going to do rainbow pluses though.

I can show progress next week, I hope.

My Folksy Fish top is finished too, but no pictures until that baby makes his arrival and I can gift it.

Have a great weekend and let's meet back up on Monday shall we?

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends and A Giveaway

I guess I am a little late today posting, but this am has been crazy busy at work and in my house.

I have been busy trying to finish up the improv "water" I have been working on to 

fill in the spaces in the Folksy Fish baby quilt. 

I can't show the quilt in progress since the mom to be stalks my Facebook and Instagram accounts 

but I will show you an example of the "water" so you will know what I am talking about. 

 The photo isn't the best but you get the idea.  

It is dark in my hallway.

I put my design wall on the hallway wall as it is the largest space I have in my house!!

I am going to link up with Sew Fresh Quilts

Now it is your turn to link up what you have been working on.

I will leave the link open until 1pm tomorrow.

Let's see if we can get up to 20 people to link up!

I will do another giveaway if we do.

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Weekend and Giveaway Winner

I bet you are all anxious to hear who won the giveaway, right?  

It should not be a surprise that it was Kathy S!! 

 She had many of you link up.  

I will be hosting that same link up each week and 

hope you will return to link up every Wednesday with me. 

 Here is what she won.  

Two charm packs and a pattern.  

The charm packs were fabric designed by my friend in real life, Brenda.  

When RJR sent them though they were missing one fabric in the line.  

The line, One Room Schoolhouse, is so pretty though, she should still be able to make something pretty sweet with them!

I had a fun weekend.  

I met a friend and her mom for lunch on Saturday then went shopping. 

 I bought some new clothes and they were even in a smaller size.  

How fun is that?? 

 I was able to buy size 12 and it was not even tight!! 

 I then went to JAF for a visit.  

I have not stopped in there in quite some time and happened to be by a really HUGE one (two floors).  I needed to get a yard of U of M fabric and coordinating flannels

 to make a chenille blanket for someone.  

Of course I could NOT walk out of there without buying a few more things. 

 I got fabric to make 2 more chenille blankets, fabric for some Frosty the Snowman pillowcases 

and a few patterns.  

Quite the expensive trip!!

I did manage to make the binding and label for the Sea Horse quilt!  

See that mermaid?  

That is in quilting cotton but I found that same fabric in Minky and that's what I used for the back!

This is how I seem to spend quite a bit of my time when I am sitting on the couch.  

Hallie jumps up, and then lays right on me while I am doing things in this spot on the couch.

When I am sewing she has taken Autumn's place on the rag quilt.  

Not sure I could get rid of that quilt.  

It has so many memories of each cat sleeping on it while I sew.  

I have lots more to show but no more time to write. 

 I hope you had a good weekend and managed to stay cool! 

 It is supposed to be in the 90's here all week.

~XOP~