The clock is ticking!!!

I can't believe the family wedding is almost here! We leave for Germany next Wednesday and I still have to hem my dress!

But at least it appears to be acceptable and all I have to do is hem it.

I went out to my parents' house last weekend so my mother could pin it up for me. That poor woman had to lie on the floor for I bet a half hour getting it to just the right length.

Luckily Wilbur was a good boy and spent hours chewing on Kissy Pooh's collection of marrow bones. Kissy Pooh, on the other hand, was a very ungracious hostess and shunned any attempts on his part to become friends.

She sulked upstairs, downstairs, and on the porch. And finally the time came when Wilbur, with tail wagging madly, tried to play with Kissie Pooh and she lunged at him in a very nasty way and sent him running with his tail between his legs.

I swear I saw my dad smirk but I'll let it go.





This is Wilbur after spending hours chewing on the big juicy bone we bought for him on Sunday.

He was beyond exhausted.


Actually he's just about the most relaxed dog I've ever met. He's sleeping beside me right now, and all I have to do is pick up his head, give him tons of big smoochy kisses, and he never wakes up!!!

But he's very needy and doesn't want us out of his sight. Luckily while we're gone, Vet Tech Girl will be taking care of him and he adores her.

I'll try not to worry too much while we're gone.


Chlorox is coming along much better than I expected. She's made several forays from the bedroom to the kitchen and thank God Wilbur, while curious, gives her her space. I spent hours this morning elbow deep, grinding raw chicken thighs (with bones), livers, and hearts and gizzards. Wilbur is on a raw diet and while it's actually very cheap it's a bit time consuming. Anyway Chlorox made several appearances all the while sneering at Wilbur, who would really like nothing more than a good cuddle with her!!!






Here is Chlorox on our bed, and it's the only place Wilbur is not allowed.









I call this shot: Camouflage.

Give a Dog a Bone (as long as the lady gets some fabric)

Wilbur arrived home early this morning from his 'Take your step-brother to work day'. Vet Tech Girl took him and Duncan to work with her last night for her 12 hour overnight shift at the vet clinic.

And what a time he had! He and Duncan shared a very large cage that allowed them to wrestle for hours, and then both of them (whether they wanted it or not!!) got a bath.


He was obviously tired so I didn't feel too horribly guilty for putting him in his crate so we could head out to the market district in search of a beef bone for him.


A couple of hundred bucks later we arrived home with a bone for Wilbur.


So how does a bone cost so much?


Actually the bone itself (and it's a nice meaty beef marrow bone covered in fat, and sinew, and blood) cost $4.26.


The rest of our money was spent on all kinds of wonderfully necessary things, such as, a beautiful amethyst pendant purchased from a Russian jeweler for me (to make up for the knee pads that I got for my 50th birthday!), a Penguins T-shirt for Hans, anchovy stuffed olives for me, a deep fried fish sandwich and beer for lunch, and a piece of fabric from an OMG!!!!!!! fabric store that's not a JoAnn's!.

I tried so hard not to go in, I really did. I told Hans that I didn't need or want anymore fabric! We're moving onto the boat in June and how much sense would that make?

So we went in.

"Boy, they're not stupid", Hans noted, upon spying the Sports Illustrated magazines and a comfy chair situated ever so invitingly just inside the door. I told him to 'sit' and thank God he's as smart as Wilbur, because he did, and after assuring him I wouldn't buy a thing I set off to explore.

What a store!!!!!! I've never seen such a selection of fabrics and everyone there is so stinking friendly (they will never get a job at JoAnn's!). They have books, notions, and tons of fun covered buttons. And if there's something you want that they don't have (I don't know how that's possible) just tell them and they will do their best to get it for you. The layout of the store is almost hypnotizing, it's that nice. I was on the second floor when one of the ladies pointed out some Sunbrella fabric to me.




Isn't this cool? I never knew Sunbrella had prints.

I bought a one yard piece of 60 inch wide fabric for $15.00.

I'm going to make a big tote/beach bag from it.


Actually I should be making cushions etc... but I don't have enough time!










Here it is at its full size along with an exhausted pit bull.

Wilbur spent an hour and a half chewing and gnawing on his juicy beef bone. He would sometimes stop mid-chew to pant like an idiot before starting to chew anew. Since then he's been pretty much comatose, so much so that Chlorox walked into the room, sniffed him, and then left.

He never budged.






And I'm so thankful that we've found a new use for the Potty Patch.


It makes a lovely $79.00 place mat.


"Didn't Duncan pee on that yesterday?" Hans observed.


"Don't ask." I replied.

Date Night

So it's been twelve days since Wilbur arrived in our lives.

Tonight Vet Tech Girl asked if she could please take him to the clinic with her for her 12 hour shift.

Being the trashy mother that I am, I agreed to it in a heartbeat!!!

This is probably because the little devil woke up around ONE AM last night and screamed for hours.

He was not hungry.

He was not cold.

He was just needy.

But we can't risk letting him out of his crate during the night just because he's decided he's lonely.

What I really don't understand is the fact that I heard all of it, and Hans slept through the whole thing!

Pssst...the word on the street is; cat poop is a rare delicacy and if you should find some, you should scarf it up before someone beats you to it!

And even if you get your butt smacked, and someone calls you a 'bad doggy' you should go for it anyway! It's that tasty.

But beware, this is what your teeth look like with kitty litter stuck in them, and for some reason no one wants to kiss you!

Here's a completely innocent puppy.

Do you really think he screams during the night thus making his mistress feel like she's spending the night in an insane asylum?

And why would anyone want to blog when they could gaze upon a beauty such as this?

I mentioned in a previous post that Hans and I are moving aboard our sail boat this June but at that time I didn't realize we were going to be bringing a dog along on the trip.

I did a bit of research and found that most dogs can be trained to go potty on board if they are trained to do so.

Enter The Potty Patch.

I bought it at PetCo to the tune of $79.00. 'Pets Love It!', is blasted across the front of the box, and it shows a happy little ankle biter (sporting a smile, I swear!) doing a wee-wee on the Potty Patch.

Pets love it? Sure they do!

About as much as I like having bamboo shoots shoved under my fingernails! At least that's the impression Wilbur has given us about this product. He's terrified of it. He side steps it, jumps over it, shivers in front of it, and all around won't poop on it!!!

Duncan on the other hand, thinks it's peachy keen! He came by for a play date today (where Wilbur, who's far too young, spent a tedious hour humping him) and took a big pee on the Potty Patch!

Tomorrow our little guy will come back home and then Hans and I are heading to the meat district where we hope to find a juicy cow femur bone (for hours of endless chewing, and not screaming, fun!!!) and maybe some advice on how to properly grind up raw chicken bones.

BTW, Chlorox is finally venturing out from the bedroom in small yet very important steps!

I thought once my kids were grown I would be able to relax.

Yes Virginia, Laura still owns a sewing machine!!

I've had this pattern lying around for a bit and I finally decided it was time to put it to use. I made view B (the striped one on the envelope) and used some of the remaining fabric I bought when we were in Ireland last year.

I realize that a more distinct contrast between the main fabric, and the top and bottom fabric would have made a nicer bag, but it's too late now!

Unfortunately I cut the handles out before reading the instructions.

Honest to God, talk about a convoluted ring-around-the rosy, no walk in the park, unbelievably stupid way to make simple purse straps!!!!!!!!!

It's no wonder people who've never sewn before, quit after working with crap like that!

But anyway, here's the front (or the back).

And the back (or the front).





























A close up of the bottom detail.



















The pattern didn't call for any type of closure but I went ahead and added a magnetic snap.



This is the inside with a simple pocket.















And did you really think I'd let you get away without a picture of Wilbur?



I think Hans and I are finally past the "Oh my God he's so cute, get the camera and take a picture!" stage.

He is adorable.

He is smart.

He is polite.

Chlorox hates him.

Tomorrow he goes to the vet to get an ouchy (inoculation) but I have a feeling he'll love the attention.

You can bet my next post will be all about him.

I interupt this sewing blog to bring you news about our new baby!

Wilbur practices his snobby 'I'm too good for everyone' look.

He loves the color orange.

He told me so!

When we move onto the boat we're hoping to have Wilbur trained to go potty on a mat. We would like to think he's young enough to learn.

This mat is supposed to be Wilbur's port-a-potty. But with the warm sun on that black background, he had other ideas!!

The futon was to be "paws off" to all poochies.

But it only took one day for me to walk in on this!

Hans, who outweighs Wilbur by about 240 pounds, said Wilbur wouldn't allow himself to be pushed off!

I was trying to make a floor pillow for Wilbur and I discovered that he likes to sew too! Chlorox (who is not at all happy with this newcomer) jealously watched from our bed as Wilbur wiggled all over his fabric.

Wiggling on fabric is her job!

Here's his floor cushion made from left over Steeler fleece.

All I know is, Wilbur's a lot better looking than Ben on any given day, and a lot nicer too!!

Can you see the smoldering eyes of an unhappy kitty cat??

A truce?

Maybe, maybe not!

When I say no, I mean no! Absolutely not! No way!

So what the hell is this thing doing in our apartment?

It looks suspiciously like a dog crate.

Chlorox wants to know what all these accessories are doing here. She doesn't need chew toys, she doesn't have any front claws so she surely doesn't want a peti-cure, and when was the last time she chewed on a Kong?

She thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon of sewing (she writhed all over the fabric) but has no idea why I felt the need to make a great big cushion from my stash of fleece. With a camo theme no less!

I think she'll find out tomorrow when Wilbur moves into his new forever home.

And yes folks, that means that when Hans and I make our move aboard The Knotty Cat this June, we're not only going to take along an elderly cat, we're going to be joined by a pit bull rescue puppy!

Life with us is never boring!

The delicate process of naming a blog

I swear, I think picking out names for my kids was a hell of a lot easier than coming up with a name for our sailing blog.

I want the blog's name to reflect Hans' and my life aboard our boat.

And so far we can't seem to agree on anything.

'Dumb and Dumber' has already been taken.

'Hans and Laura's Excellent Adventure' might not be so Excellent, and once again it's been kinda sorta taken.


There are tons of nautical terms to choose from but we really need to be careful. We probably shouldn't refer to Davy Jones' Locker or things like the Poseidon Adventure.


I'm leaning toward "Seasickness" as we must really be sick to be doing this.


Hans isn't so sure, and I have to admit that this is where the difference in our personalities really shows up. I'm going for the humorous vein and in some cases Hans doesn't quite get it. We also wonder if we should use our boat's name which is The Knotty Cat.


This is the least of our worries right now but it's really working on my mind!!!


Any ideas anyone??


Anything?

Hell's A Poppin'! Big Time!!!!!!!

I'm not even sure what "Hell's A Poppin' " means but that's how things seem to be around our apartment these days.

Hans is very busy trying to finalize the details for our trip to Germany this May for The Wedding of the Year, all the while trying to make sure all the work that needs to be accomplished on our boat gets done.

Our main sail is being repaired, the canvas people are whipping up a bimini (complete with a proper frame) to replace our red-neck awning, a new bank of batteries will be installed, and our Knotty Cat's bottom is being sandblasted to make way for the coat of barrier paint that we discovered she never had!
If anyone thinks living on a boat is cheap; it's not, it's just a house on the water, that's all!

Hans is also getting us a new cell phone plan and it literally took an entire day of phone calls to make a final decision.

As if things aren't heating up enough around here, we had a huge house fire right up the street from us last night.

We drove past just as the fire companies arrived and we could see black smoke rolling out of the garage doors on the lower part of the building. The houses on that block are built into the hill, with their garages being the lower level and then continuing into three story homes. Here are the firefighters on their ladders waaaay up in the air.

A little bit closer.

We had gone out to eat at a restaurant a couple of miles away and you could see the smoke from there.

Two hours later we came back by and the place was fully engulfed in flames. Two hours!! This was only one house so I can't even imagine how awful an even bigger fire would be.

I know it seems like we must be a couple of rubber neckers, but we didn't stop with our car, we walked back and stayed far out of the way.

Here's a video. Look at all that water! Today the smell of smoke is still very heavy in the air. Luckily no one was home at the time, and no firefighters were hurt.

Remember this little fellow?

Well holy cow, check this out!

He's coming along very nicely (look how much he's grown!) and Vet Tech Girl brought him for a visit to our apartment last night.
He's getting passed around to anyone at the clinic who will take care of him and it was her turn on the dog sitting rotation.
She brought him in and he waddled over to me, stuck his muzzle in my neck, and grunted. I laughed and said he sounded just like a pig.
"That's why his name is Wilbur," she said. "Like the pig from Charlotte's Web."
This is because in addition to the smashed orbital bone and lacerations of the face and ear, his throat and sinus cavities were damaged and he can't bark properly so he grunts. He also snores very loudly!! I found this out when he decided he'd had enough of us and fell fast asleep underneath my sewing table.

But sadly, no one wants him.

How can that be?

A small amount of sewing and a BIG announcement

My evening gown is pretty much done except for the hemming (which I hate doing!). I actually put off inserting the invisible zipper for about four days because I was just sure I would either ruin it or I would find that the fit was wrong.

Well, it went in beautifully and the fit is pretty good. I'll post pictures after it's hemmed.

Now my Big News.

It seems that Hans and I are moving onto our boat this summer. Our goal, when we bought our Knotty Cat, was that we would eventually live on board but we just weren't sure about the timing. Hans has decided the time is now.

I'm still trying to get used to the whole thing and we have a lot to do to get ready. We've decided to keep our apartment for at least the first three months just in case one or both of us decide that this was one crazy idea! But why would anyone think this is a crazy idea?

This was last month when we went down to Annapolis to remove her winter shrink wrap. It's an expensive procedure but it was certainly the winter to have it done. Can you imagine fifty or so inches of snow sitting on top of your boat? I read about some boats sinking in their slips due this problem.

Hans is peeking out of the hole we cut through so we could get aboard.

This is what she looks like without her winter coat.

We have a small TV on board and we use a digital converter to access channels.

We normally use 'bunny ears' for reception but they've disappeared. Neither of us can remember what the hell we did with them but Hans McGuyver came up with this.

It looks like a still (wouldn't that be great?) or a strange science experiment but it's just a piece of cable (with the 'pin' in the center of the connection) taped to a metal piece on the converter. With the cable propped up on these water jugs we got great reception!

Here we are in the fall of last year.

We plan on heading north this June. I've always wanted to see Cape Cod, Nantucket, etc... and I recently bought 'Of Whales and Women' written by Frank Gilbreth (author of Cheaper by the Dozen). The Gilbreth's vacationed on Nantucket every summer (and if you ever read his books you know they lived in two lighthouses, now long gone) and Frank's descriptions and humor are wonderful.

He also wrote 'Innside Nantucket' (yes I have that one too!) and it's a humorous account of his brother and sister-in-law's attempt at running a bed and breakfast back in the 50's. The Inn has changed hands and is still in operation. I found it here.

This was Chlorox's reaction when we told her she'd be living on a boat.

We can't leave her behind and she's far too attached to me to even try to live with someone else.

This is Chlorox's 'contemplative' look.

She plans on writing a book about her adventures and she's going to use this picture on her book jacket.

Small sewing update, and some overall catching up!

Last night we took full advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and went to a restaurant that had an (OMG!) outside eating area, and today we went for a big bike ride.

There's something to be said for fresh air because I'm so beat right now I feel like I just spent the whole day at the beach with my kids.

Does anyone know what I mean?

So anyway I did get around to cutting out my dress lining this evening (how did I ever manage to sew without a cat lying all over my fabric!!!!) and got it sewn together. Since it's cut on the bias I have it hanging on Sally Stitch so it can 'grow'.

Here is the front. No big deal.

But check out the back. What is that? you might wonder. It looks weird, and gives the impression of a colonial apron.

Actually, it's my dress lining with a cotton sateen insert in the back (and yes, I cut it on the bias!!).

I had to do this because I am a perspire-er (I know that's not a word and I would say sweater but that sounds like an item of clothing).

I sweat very easily.

I don't like it but I can't help it.

I despise panty hose (and won't need them with this dress anyway) and I've never worn Spanx (didn't I mention sweat?), so if I have to sit my bare skin on something, it's going to be cotton and NOT polyester!!

That's the wonderful thing about making your own clothes, and no one will ever know that cotton panel is there!

Now on to some catching up.

I feel like a heel because Gwen, over at All My Seams , nominated me for the Sunshine Award awhile back and I'm only just now acknowledging it. I was certainly surprised and I thought it was very nice of her to include me.

I should pass the award on to twelve other bloggers, however, I've found that a lot of the blogs I frequent, don't like receiving them.

So I think what I'd like to do is this; Once a month I'm going to pay tribute to a blog. It may be one that everyone has read or it may be a new one that I've stumbled upon.

So stay tuned!

And then Cyndi, at BlueBirdSwing, had a fantastic give-away for a bunch of purse patterns on her blog, and I was going to pass this info to anyone who might be interested but I didn't!!! The deadline was over right around the time I got home from Florida and it just didn't happen! But if you like purses you should take a look at her site, and I think she mentioned having another give-away at the end of this month (don't hold me to this now!!!).

Tomorrow we head back to my little swamp town to spend Easter Sunday with my parents, their obnoxious doberman Kissy Pooh, and two of my kids (Vet Tech Girl has to work). We'll also celebrate my son's birthday as twenty-seven years ago he was born on April Fool's Day which was also Good Friday, and the fact that he took forever to arrive, had to be coaxed out with 'high' forceps during which the obstetrician braced himself by placing one foot on my bed and leaning back to pull this stubborn baby out, was not a joke!

Hmmm, why do I think I'll have something to post about tomorrow night???