Kitten update

Our foster kitten is doing well. He had his first official trip to the vet; he has had his first round of kitten vaccinations, has been dewormed, and is getting ointment for his eye goobers. He has discovered a favorite hiding/nap spot, but comes out when we come in. He has leapt joyfully into play, and has been receptive when we substitute a toy instead of fingers. His favorite thing right now is a spring toy. His purr is like thunder. The vet paperwork names him Thorn (since I pulled him out of a thorn bush), but we affectionately drop the “n” and call him Thor (or little man, or kitten, or … we use a collection). To keep his dander down, we’ll use a waterless bath foam and brushing, and a few days after his shots, he’ll get his first flea treatment.

Thor with a collection of toys in front of his hiding spot

Spinning a blaze

My youngest gave me a box of yellow to orange dyed merino wool and I decided to spin it up separately rather than blend it (so many choices with these bundles of colors!)

Spinning during a walk

I like the small bundles of wool because they transport easily; I can walk with the roving loosely around my fiber hand, or I can pop the fiber into a container in my purse so I can spin while waiting.

Fiber and spindle stash in my purse
Spun and unspun Merino wool

Time cat

Izzy is not amused

Today you get a picture of a time cat, because Izzy was perfectly lined up with the grandfather clock in the background and it made me snicker. Izzy was not amused at my antics.

Cloud tassel

Every year I make bookmarks for my youngest’s teachers. The teachers love them, and my youngest gets enthused about ideas. This time she wanted herself flying through the sky, so we took her picture laying on a bench, and I Photoshopped her onto a sky with fluffy clouds (since she chose to wear her fluffy cloud sky shirt). But what to do for the tassel? I went digging through my stash, looking for white felt, but instead found some poly batting. I could work with that. To make the clouds, I cut out a oblong of batting, then melted the edges with a candle flame to reinforce the edges and make it more cloud-like.

Melting the edges of poly batting
Poly batting “clouds”
Bookmark with cloud tassel

I attached the “clouds” to the bookmarks with a length of pearlized cotton. For this blog, for safety sake, I blurred out her name and face. The bookmarks that went to the teachers were not blurred!

Shorn

Summer do time for the dogs! I usually just shave their backs for temperature sake, but Griffin’s hair was starting to form dreds, and Missy’s was getting long and scraggly, so this time I shaved them down to the toes. (I did leave their tail hair, because it was the only place that was matt free.)

Shaggy dogs
Shaved dogs

I trimmed close around their faces too, just not as close as their bodies. This helped even out Griffin’s eyebrows, as he had to have a stye removed recently and the vet shaved his eyebrow for the surgery. I’m definitely not a professional groomer, but they are much happier without their winter coats as summer temps are setting in. I do recommend getting a good quality trimmer if you’re going to do your own grooming, definitely worth the investment.