Calico's Whimsy

Happy Holidays...and Other Ramblings

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:48:00 +0000

It was brought to my attention (Thanks Carol!) that I've been neglecting this old blog, and well, I guess I have! So here I am getting in a post right before the end of 2011.
Doesn't it always seem like life seemed simpler when looking back on it? Be it last week, last month, last year or even last decade...things just seemed easier. I know it's not true but our minds have a way of filtering out the hectic-ness of life as time goes on even though if I think hard enough...it has always been there, just in different forms.
Since my last post at the end of July, my oldest sone turned 9 in August, we took our longest and farthest road trip to date in our trailer in early Sept (will blog about it at some point), we started another year of homeschooling that has been the most challenging one thus far (1st and 3rd grade) and finally, the boys are neck deep in hockey (ice and roller).
Anybody that is a mom will know that most of the time, when life with kids gets busy, our needs get put on the back burner and there they stay until we have that ever-elusive moment to ourselves. I haven't picked up a crochet hook since August, haven't browsed a scrapbooking sight or forum since long before that, have a stack of magazines collecting dust, house hasn't had a deep cleaning since...well, too long! About a month ago, I picked up a little cross stitching project and carved out a little piece a time each night to work on it before my eyelids got heavy and I'm actually almost done with it! Oh how I miss having time to craft!
Unfortunately, one of the things I let slip out of my life recently is my daily walk on the greenbelt. I have made time just about everyday for the last 16 years to take my dog(s) for a walk because they loved it so. I used to tell myself I walked everyday because my dog needed the exercise and I was doing it for them and my kids needed exercise. I told myself after losing Kayla that I would continue to walk everyday but lo-and-behold once life got busy, the walks stopped. I realize now that I need those walks. They are my sanity, my therapy...they keep me grounded and allow time to take a deep breath and appreciate how lucky I am. I need to find a way to fit those walks back into my life. They aren't the same without my Kayla and the ache is still there when I walk the path that I shared with her for 13 years but it's also soothing in a way.
As the end of the year approaches, it is time once again to reflect on our current lives and make changes to improve the areas that need it. New year resolutions....here I come!

Landscaping 101: Our New Tree!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:23:00 +0000

Moving on in our landscaping project, we planted a tree! I'm just as thrilled as can be with this as I've wanted a large, beautiful tree with intense fall color in my front yard for 16 years! I finally have one and I'm just tickled! This tree is small now but will grow 3-5 ft per year and turns bright red in the fall. Autumn Blaze Maple is it's name!

The tree was going to be the last thing we did in our project after our rock and planter work was done but we got caught up in the moment. It was kind of like when you go to the shelter just to 'look' when you're thinking about getting a new dog and you end up bringing one home the same day. The same thing happened when we went to 'look' at trees. We found one and just had to bring it home!

The days this month have just been downright scorchers so G decided to wait until dusk to plant our tree without the blazing afternoon sun on him.
And to work he went.

Still working as the sun sets.

Mixing compost...
adding fertilizer...
..and putting some stakes for support.
2 hours from start to finish and our tree was in it's new home!

The next day we gave it another good soaking and admired it's beauty! (I will mention that, in hindsight, G feels we should have planted the tree about 3 feet further from the house and closer to the center of our yard, but I think it looks just fine!)

A nice addition, don't you think?

There's something else very special about this tree. In 2006 when our pup Candy died, we had requested her ashes. We had always meant to do something special with them but just couldn't figure out what, so they've been sitting on our bookshelf for 4.5 years. When Kayla died last month we decided not to obtain her ashes but instead I had saved a Ziploc bag full of her hair from the last few times I brushed her. Before placing the tree in it's hole we put Candy's ashes and Kayla's hair in first, directly under the tree. Kayla lived her whole life in this house and Candy lived about 11 years in it, so it makes me happy that a part of them will always be here even if someday we move away.

See also:
Landscaping 101: The Beginning
Landscaping 101: Power Tools

New Project Tote!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 16:34:00 +0000

I'm just so excited about my new project tote for my crochet that I have to share! Since I just recently picked up my crocheting hobby again after many years, my stash of yarn is quite small but I know how quickly it can grow. With the help of my friend Christie, I now have all my crochet supplies, projects, hooks, etc organized online at Ravelry but needed to organize them, physically as well. I was planning on browsing Esty for some helpful organizers when I came across this adorably bright, inexpensive, totally me...tote! I found it at Target in the back-to-school section along with some pencil cases.

I didn't set out to find a project tote at Target but when the boys and I were browsing the school section in search of cool erasers, I saw these pencil cases and thought "those would be great for my hooks"!At $1.99 each, I snatched up three of them. I haven't found a use for the cute one with the owl print but I loved it so much, I just had to have it!

I thought I would use the clear one for my crochet hooks.

And this one with an extra pocket in front is perfect for my circular knitting needles, DPN's, stitch holders, guage, etc.

On to the tote! After finding the pencil cases, this tote just caught my eye! It appears to have a plastic look to it but when you touch it, it's quite soft and sublte. It's light-weight and seems very well made and I just knew I could make it work as a current project carrying case.

The front pocket is deep and has plenty of room but for now I only need it for my scissors, tape measure and current hook. It could be used to store a phone, snacks and wallet, too.

The main area will easily hold my six skeins of yarn and my afghan the size it is now with room to spare. As my afghan gets larger, It may not be able to hold all 6 colors of yarn but It just may if I do some creative cramming.

It has a padded pocket for holding a laptop but it can also hold my zippered hook cases or even some crochet books or mags!

A cute little apple embelsihment hanging on the front for hanging keys or just to look cute!

And finally a pocket on both sides for holding water bottles! $24.99 I do love a bargain!

Totally off the subject of totes but on the subject of owls...I found this iron-on transfer at JoAnn's the other day and I'm now on the lookout for the perfect sweatshirt or t-shirt to iron it onto! I think it is just the most adorable thing ever and I'm just loving all the owl- themed items I'm seeing everywhere these days! Love, Love, Love cute owls in all shapes, sizes and colors!

Landscaping 101: Power Tools!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 13:52:00 +0000

The first thing to be removed in our yard was this pine tree that was planted by me in a poor spot many years ago. If you care to know why it makes me sad to see this tree go, you can read about it HERE. Despite my sadness to see this tree go, it was a necessary step in our landscaping project for obvious reasons.

Enter new power tool #1- The Chainsaw (lithium battery-operated no less)! Why do something with a hand saw when you can do it much quicker with a power tool?

Going...
going....
Gone!
Within minutes the tree was a lifeless pile of branches. The whiskey barrel it was planted in still needs to be uprooted and I don't think that will happen without the aide of some sort of power tool.

G teaching the boys all about the coolness of his new toy and some rules of safety!
Now, what to do with all those branches??? We could bundle them up with string and set them out for the trash, or

Enter new power tool #2 - The Wood Chipper! G got a awesome deal on this barely-used chipper on Craigslist.
It smelled like Christmas with all that pine going through the chipper!

And in no time, our tree was reduced to mulch. Well, not all of it yet because the bag won't hold our entire tree but once we get our planter done, we will fill it with this mulch and chipper the rest of the tree.

Landscaping 101: The Beginning!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 03:19:00 +0000

We are embarking on a landscaping project at our house right now and this is what it looks like in the beginning! Ugh! This will be a do-it-ourselves project so we'll see where it takes us.

Admittedly, we've let the weeds get a bit out of control because why pull weeds when we need to do so much more. We are not going to do a major overhaul but we are hoping to remove that pine tree and do some sort of planter in front of our bay window, replace that old gray rock along our driveway with new rock and some nice plants/flowers and some sort of edging. Some weed control in our lawn and our driveway. And finally, a new tree! Wish us luck...G and I have different opinions of what we want so hopefully we can end up with something we can both live with!

Embroidery!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 15:50:00 +0000

I want to mention that this post was created in Feb but never got published so here it is...quite late! On to embroidery....The only type of embroidery I have ever done in the past was cross stitching. Just before Christmas of last year (2010), I thought I would try my hand at some stitches other than the cross stitch. So I purchased a couple of books in addition to receiving some for Christmas.
Lots of fun ideas in the Doodle Stitch books pictured above. I instantly fell in love with this cute little pattern and jumped right in to make my first embroidery project containing so cross stitches...

Not perfect, especially at this close-up view but I love it all the same!

My second project was made for my friend Christie that had admired the pattern in one of my books. It's not perfect either but she has it displayed in her craft room and that makes me proud!

The above projects were all I've done so far with the embroidery aspect of crafting and I have now moved full throttle into crocheting! I have completed one afghan and will be posting pics of my newest one soon!

Butterflies, Pawprint and Stitching Therapy!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:40:00 +0000

It's been 1 month now that Kayla has been gone and I thought I'd post about some of the things that have given me comfort while my heart heals from her absence. First...it's butterflies...specifically yellow Swallowtail butterflies. Right after leaving the vet for the last time without my pup, the first thing I did was go on a long walk by myself on the bike-path where I walked Kayla everyday. Shortly after I began my walk, a Swallowtail butterfly fluttered right up to me almost running into my face. I've seen butterflies many times in my life but there was something special about that one that made me feel comfort....a sign you might say that Kayla's energy was still with me. I've continued to see at least one but usually many more yellow Swallowtails fly across my backyard and on the bikepath every single day since then and I think of Kayla every time :)

Later that same day, G and I met up after my walk and spent the afternoon drinking coffee, shopping and reminiscing with both smiles and tears about our sweet pup. While looking for some votive candle holders, G spotted these and asked me what I thought of them (not knowing of my butterfly encounter earlier on). Well of course I loved them! A sign, I tell ya! We bought two of them and whenever we light up our battery operated votive flames, I think fondly of my two pup angels, Kayla and Candy(The pup that inspired the creation of this blog in 2007) !

While shopping for cross-stitching patterns one evening, I came across this one and just had to buy it! I hope to work on it sometime soon or maybe save it for a mid-winter project when there are no real butterflies to enjoy.

Next, there's the subject of Kayla's pawprint from our vet. They asked me if I wanted a memorial pawprint of Kayla and of course I said yes. When I went to pick it up, I was pleasantly surprised because I thought it was going to be an ink pawprint on paper, hehehe...this is much better. I thought it was nice but I knew I could make it so much better. So with a little paint, decoupage, silk flowers, beads and of course some butterflies, I turned it into this...

On the back, I wrote this...

And finally, I've been crocheting again! During Kayla's last week while I was spending a lot of time sitting by her side, I had this desire to crochet an afghan. I've been crocheting as far back in time as I can remember but I haven't made a blanket for a loooooong time. So, even though Kayla is not with us anymore, I find it very therapuetic to crochet this blanket that I started when she was still by my side. She always loved my afghans (and quilts) and she even had a few of her own.

At some point in the near future, not sure when yet...I will start her scrapbook. I've already started it in a sense by going through my photo archives and tagging her photos but WOW, I took a lot of photos of that girl in 13.5 years!!!!

Closing My Store!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:32:00 +0000

It looks like another chapter of my life is coming to an end and I regret to announce the closing of my store, Calico's Digital Designs. I haven't designed anything new in over a year and even though I do still get sales, they are few and not enough to support the cost of the hosting site. I'd like to extend a huge Thank You to all that have supported my store by purchasing my products. I will be having a Going Out of Business sale from Wed, July 13 thru Sun, July 17th with all products marked down 75%!

Goodbye Kayla

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 03:41:00 +0000

This post is one that I write with a heavy heart. Kayla put up a good fight but her cancer finally got the best of her and we said our final goodbye to her this morning (June 21, 2011). After 4 great days in a row, she went downhill Sat morning (June 18) and really never recovered for more than brief moments here and there where she would attempt to get up and walk into another room. She rested comfortably the rest of the time watching the comings and goings around her. She ate a little bit of food Sunday morning but refused any offered her after that (even New York strip!). It is never an easy decision to euthanize a beloved pet, and we struggled with it up until the very last moment. With confirmation from Dr C. that it was indeed the right time, we decided to go ahead with it. Her quality of life was depleting rapidly before our eyes.
We feel so blessed to have had her gentle soul grace our lives for 13 1/2 years. We love you and will miss you sweet Kayla girl!!!
The two photos above were the last ones I took of her on one of her good days...9 days before her passing. This is how I want to remember her, in the yard stalking flying bugs to catch and doing a pretty good job at it!

Kayla Update and Other Life Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:44:00 +0000

It's been 4 weeks and 3 days since surgery and I won't lie, it's been a trying month. Kayla seems to be on a schedule of 3 good days followed by one bad day. Her good days are really good with her acting pretty much the way she did before surgery, ravenous appetite (but still as picky as ever so I have to keep her meals exciting), walking her 3/4 mile walk on the greenbelt and just enjoying life. When she has a bad day, it gets pretty bad and each time we think she won't make it through the day (or night). She gets very lethargic to the point of not being able to walk much or at all. If she does try to walk she has episodes of breathing difficulty (from another underlying issue called Laryngeal Paralysis) So, on her bad days, we just keep her calm and let her sleep through it. It is emotionally trying and it is taking it's toll on G and I. For anyone who has gone through watching a pet with cancer live out it's last weeks knows what I'm talking about. You are constantly asking yourself if today is the day you should humanely end her suffering or do we hold on and let her enjoy some more good days. Are we being selfish? Are we being fair to her? What would she want if she could talk?
We called our vet to ask advice and he said everyone needs to make that decision on their own. He did tell us that he personally thinks 3 good days to 1 bad is still something to hold onto but her breathing difficulty does change things a bit. We need to keep her as calm and cool as much as possible to prevent those episodes. One day at a time, I suppose.
Today is one of her bad days and it happened after only 2 good days (and those two good days were not as good as they have been) so I suspect her bad days will increase and our vet tells us we will know when it's time. These photos were taken last week on one of her good days!

On another topic, I thew my back out a week-and-a-half ago and ended up with back spasms that debilitated me for 24 hrs until I was able to get an Rx for a muscle relaxer. I have never had that kind of pain and hope never to again, period. I am now seeing a physical therapist and have gone from taking the muscle relaxer and alternating 600mg Ibuprofen and Tylenol every 3 hours to now only taking 400 mg of Ibupr0fen every six hours. I'm not 100% but I've come a long way. Sad thing is, I went through this same thing 2 years ago (only not near as painful) and was told if I strengthen my core muscles, it won't happen again. Guess what they are telling me this time? Yep, same thing but this time I'm going to listen. If it's the last thing I do, I will do my daily back exercises from now on...I swear! (and just between you and I, I'm holding onto the remaining muscle relaxers just in case!)
There are a few other medical issues going on with my family that I don't wish to discuss but just need to put it in writing so when I look back on this period of time, I will remember why I pretty much let everything go in my life except the essentials...eating, laundry and keeping things as normal for the boys as I can so I don't ooze my emotional stress onto them. After all it IS summer break and they want to do fun things and I don't blame them!
The current situation has temporarily caused me to lose interest in my photography, scrapbooking and cross-stitching hobbies, but I have been trying to go through the motions (with photography and cross-stitching anyway) to save my sanity. I will share my latest cross-stitch project soon. I took some fun pics of the boys in the kiddie pool! Who knew a 6 and 8 year old could still have fun in a kiddie pool? :)

Kudos to you if you made it through this whole post!

Kayla's Recovery...2 Weeks Post-op!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Fri, 27 May 2011 12:06:00 +0000

I'll start off by saying Kayla is doing great 2 weeks after her emergency surgery! Her physical recovery was quick and her staples where taken out 10 days post-op. Her emotional recovery, however has taken a bit longer, poor gal. It's evident it was a traumatic experience. Probably not the surgery itself but most likely the events leading up to it. She is continuing to get back to her same 'old' self each day.
On a less cheerful note, the pathology report of the mass on her spleen has come back and it was a malignant tumor (Hemangiosarcoma) :( It was not the news we were hoping for but Dr. C prepared us that it was most likely going to be the outcome, so I guess you can say we were not too surprised. We have 3 months (or less) to continue to spoil her rotten and that we will!

Back to th subject of her emotional recovery. It was strange. 3 day post-op she seemed to be doing wonderfully but things started to decline. The only way to describe her behavior was doggy dementia. We were very concerned because she kept trying to "hide" in small areas, seemed confused, pacing, panting, not wanting to lay in her favorite spots. She pretty much had to be coaxed into laying down on her dog bed in wich she would immediately plop down and fall into a deep sleep. The only thing that was normal was her appetite and that was huge. When it was time to eat she would really perk up! We brought her to the vet and he checked her out and said because of all her blood loss prior to surgery and the fact that she is old, we just needed to give her more time, more rest and lots of TLC while her blood repairs itself.
One week after surgery, G was talking to a friend at work whose dog had gone through the same thing. He said "Give Kayla some steak to help boost her iron and her emotional spirits". Great idea! So, that is what we did, along with some canned liver dog food. Now considering G and I have been non-red-meat-eaters for 20+ years, this was a real treat for her to smell a steak cooking on our grill.

She has continued to enjoy steak each day along with a wonderful variety of canned food. She has only eaten dry dog food for 13 years (with a few table scraps mixed in over the last 6 months) so she is loving this new diet and eating with great gusto!

In between meals, she still seemed down and not herself. Call it doggy depression, post traumatic stress or a combination of the two. We just wanted her old happy self back. She didn't want to let us out of her sight but G thought she needed some good old fresh air. Despite my hesitation, he put her out in the backyard by herself to see what she would do. She doesn't prefer to be out in the yard by herself on her best day unless it's on her terms and if she chooses to lay on the deck so I thought it would make things worse. Well, I was wrong. After several minutes of pacing with her head hanging low, she started lifting her head, sniffing the air and eventually layed down on the deck and enjoyed the fresh air...eventually falling asleep out there. That was definitely a turning point in her emotional recovery!

Another thing she enjoyed prior to surgery was a daily 3/4 mile walk on the greenbelt. 9 days post-op I took her on half the distance of her favorite walk so she could get caught up on her neighborhood sniffs. It was slow going but went well. After her staples came out, Dr C said I could continue to walk her, letting her set the pace.

She has slowly started relaxing in all her favorite spots again (with a little help from us getting her on higher things like the ottoman, her favorite chair and the foot of our bed). She doesn't seem to pace as much and even did well being left by herself. Emotional recovery takes time...even for humans!
How am I doing? Actually, surprisingly well. It was rough going there through the surgery and such but I guess when you see your dog aging you start to prepare yourself for the end even if you don't think you are. It helps knowing that Kayla has lived a life of a doggy queen for 13.5 years so I guess you can say I'm at peace with it as much as one can be.
Do we regret putting her through the surgery? Not one bit! Seeing her sleeping on the grass, eating steak, getting more kisses than she ever thought possible has been worth it! I'm guessing if you could ask her, she would say she doesn't regret it either!

She is old, her body is failing and when she lets us know she's had enough...we will let her go...

3 days post-op update

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:54:00 +0000

Kayla has been taking it easy over the weekend and we have all been taking it easy right along with her. It's been rainy and chilly so that made it even easier to be lazy. As I write this, it's 7 am, 3 days post-op and Kayla is doing great. She woke me up at 6:15 whining to start her day as she usually does so she is getting back to her old self. I let her out to do her duty and then she ate a great breakfast laced with all her meds so she is good to go. She is back to following me everywhere I go however I do have the stairs blocked for now so if I have to go upstairs or downstairs, she just waits patiently for my return. After 1 week of recovery I can start taking her on her daily walks on the greenbelt again, a therapy we have both missed terribly.

Kayla's Emergency Vet Surgery

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sat, 14 May 2011 21:37:00 +0000

I've had so many things I've been wanting to blog about but this was not one of them :(
Yesterday, Friday (the 13th....but who pays attention to that!) Kayla went to the vet for a routine check-up/vaccines and ended up on the surgical table for a spleen-ectomy. She is home now, one day later but is still very week from blood loss. We are giving here plenty of rest, pain meds and major amounts of TLC!!! The photo above was taken with my iphone right before they whisked her away for a blood transfusion, chest x-ray and surgery. My heart was in my feet for she is old (13 1/2) the vet had a grim outlook and we had decided that if during surgery there was indication of cancer we would not bring her back out of it. I had to say my goodbyes in this sterile room by myself...just in case she didn't return to us. Heart-wrenching to say the least.
But, I'm thrilled to say she did come out of it and if you want to know more details leading up to the surgery, you can read all the details below.
I had noticed for about a week she wasn't herself but she's old, has bad hips and a few other minor issues that come with age so I was concerned but not enough to make a special trip to the vet. I had made her an appt about a week prior (just coincidence) for yesterday (Friday) at 4 for her yearly checkup and shots. Despite seeming a bit under the weather for a week, yesterday(Friday) she was acting stranger than usual when she woke up. I told G she seemed to be acting like she was drunk..really wobbly and wouldn't eat. Rewind to a couple of nights prior she seemed restless in the night so I let her lie on the deck for awhile to cool off. Upon coming in she seemed to lose her footing going up the stairs and was limping a bit the next day. She has terrible arthritis so this is not unusual for her to have days of more pain in her hips so I figured she was just down because of that. I gave her some pain meds on Thursday and she seemed to get better. Back to yesterday morning, I just decided that I would keep an eye on her since she already had an appt set for 4 pm I would mention her behavior to the vet, then.
When I got there they asked how she was doing and I, nonchalantly told them she had been acting lethargic all day. Katie, the tech took one look at her gums saw they were pure white and she said "Ooh, this is a problem, she's bleeding out somewhere". Gulp! She told Dr C and they whisked her into the back to do an ultrasound of her belly. I felt so bad that I didn't take her in earlier in the day :( Long story short he said there was a large mass on her spleen and part of it had ruptured causing blood loss and she was in shock. He said there was a good chance the mass could be malignant but he wouldn't know unless he went in, surgically. He also said it could be as simple as a hematoma(large bruise) but since he is not an x-ray technician and we would be hard pressed to find one nearby that hasn't gone home for the night, he just couldn't be sure. He said there were a few options but none were very good.
1. Euthanize her.
2.Take her home and keep her comfortable until she dies which could be that night or in a week, no way to know for sure.
3. Do a chest x-ray to see if the cancer has spread the lungs and if so, then no point in doing surgery. If lungs are clear, go in and take a look at her spleen. He said he would know right away if there was a problem because there would be lesions everywhere in her abdomen, liver etc. and if that was the case he would not revive her, but if it was localized to her spleen he would just remove her spleen and bring her back to recover.
I was unable to make the decision so I called G at work and handed my phone to the Dr C so he could explain it all again to G who is always more level-headed when it comes to making heart-wrenching decisions like these.
He chose option 3. He simply said he couldn't euthanize Kayla based on what 'might' be cancer and unless he knew for sure he couldn't live with that decision.
I was given some time alone with her to say my goodbyes and take her picture. Then I went home to wait. Dr C held off putting her under anesthesia until G could get there and see her before surgery. Have I mentioned how much I love my vet and his assistant? They are the best and have known Kayla since she was 8 weeks old!
He started with a blood transfusion (from blood donated by one of Dr C's dogs!) Chest x-ray was clear so he proceeded with surgery. We sat at home and waited.....absolutely nerve-wracking! Would we see Kayla again or would she journey to Rainbow Bridge...
We finally got the call and the vet said she was coming out of anesthesia. Other than the masses on her spleen (the small one had ruptured but the large one hadn't yet), he didn't see anything else so he just removed her spleen and said she could come home the next day.
He will still send her spleen off to have it biopsied just so we will know what to expect as far as her health in the coming months but for now, we get to take her home and spoil her for a while longer :) Updates to follow!

Cross Stitching!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 14:53:00 +0000

I thought I would share a hobby of mine I've re-visited this past year. I did my first cross-stitching project sometime before I had kids so it was 8-10 years ago. I only did one project and sort of forgot about it. That was the time of my life when I quilted, crocheted, paper scrapped and had a lot more time on my hands. Then I had kids, have not quilted since, barely touched crochet, switched to digital scrapbooking and have a lot LESS time on my hands!

Then, around my birthday of last year (April 2010) I just had this sudden urge to go to the craft store and look at some cross-stitching kits. Since I had recently become interested in 'backyard birding' I immediately fell in love with this pattern kit from Dimensions called Bird Seasons.

I brought it home and immediately started working on it. H and R had never seen such a craft and watched me intently as I began each tiny stitch. I think they thought it was something I would finish in an afternoon, lol! I told them my hope was to get in done in under a year(in my heart I was just hoping I would just finish it, period) . It was 3 times larger than the first project I did so I knew it would be a challenge. I'm the queen of unfinished projects!

Here are some close-up shots of each set of birds.

Some details of the flowers
And I'm happy to say I finished it on December 23, 2010...8 months after I started it :)

Then I had it framed.

I chose a reverse bevel on the matting but in hindsight I wish I had chosen a regular bevel. But I'm proud of how it turned out AND of the fact that I finished it!

My cross-stitching passion didn't end with the finish of that project. As a matter of fact, I put several more bird kits on my Christmas list this past Christmas. Then, as a totally sweet surprise from my dear friend Christie aka The Digital Daisy, I received these two adorable Christmas Ornament stitch kits that I hope to have finished by Christmas 2011!

My dear son, H gave me this kit for Christmas. More super colorful birds that I can't wait to work on!
And finally, this adorable kit was given to me by my other son, R. More adorable birds!
I decided to work on this one first because it is a stamped project and I had never done a stamped cross-stitch before. Turns out, I did NOT like the fabric it was stamped on. I had the hardest time pulling the needle through and my hand was getting very fatigued. I finally made the decision to start the project over on 28 ct. Eavenweave. It was like stitching through butter. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the new one compare to the original one. (The new one is smaller due to tighter weave fabric)

Here is my progress so far on this one. I have slowed down a bit since my Photography Workshop has started but I hope I will pick up on it again soon after.

Oh, and I haven't done any scrapbooking layouts since last November-ish but I hope to get back to that again sometime, too.

Photography Workshop!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:34:00 +0000

I was one of the 50 lucky people to get into Karen Russell's next Photography Workshop.
It sold out in under a minute but G registered for me because he's really fast at entering info ;).
It starts tomorrow, 1-31-11.
I'm really excited to see what I learn.
I LOVE to learn about photography!
Did I mention I'm really excited about this 9 week workshop?
I'll share my photos...the good, the bad, the ugly....maybe ;)

My New Macbook Pro!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 15:39:00 +0000

I've always been a pc person but now I'm a Mac girl! G (as I'm now going to refer to my hubby) got a 15" Macbook Pro from his work and convinced me I needed one, too. Well, when the fan broke on the IBM laptop I was using, instead of fixing it, he surprised me with my very own 13" Macbook Pro. I have to say...I now understand the term "Once you go Mac, you never go back"! They are awwwwww-some!
We still have a couple other non-Mac laptops in the house that are used primarily by H and R (my 8 and 6 year olds). I've still been homeschooling on the non-Mac laptop since I have to share it with H and R. (not ready for them to get too comfy with "my" new toy just yet, lol!). And I still prefer to use the non-Mac laptop if I'm surfing while eating. Not quite ready to get crumbs in the keyboard of my precious new Mac just yet. There are some great fun things to play with. The favorite for the boys is Photo Booth with all sorts of fun ways to to make yourself look goofy with the built in camera. My favorite is iMovie '11. The boys had to do presentations about themselves for their online school so I jumped right into iMovie and made a couple little bios of the boys to present to their class for their "Stars of the week" presentations. So fun! Here they are if you'd like to watch:

Croup :(

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:08:00 +0000

R has Croup and I feel bad for him. Croup is most common in kids under the age of 3 but Riley has a tendency to get it pretty bad even now, at age 6. He managed to skip it last winter but we weren't so lucky this winter. He usually gets it bad enough that we have to treat it with a dose of steroids (which I hate having to do). Hope he feels better soon! G didn't sleep a wink last night because when the boys get sick, he stays up most of the night keeping a watchful eye on them checking temps, listening to their breathing, giving them meds and most of all worrying about them. Lucky for me he's a night owl and has always been the nighttime caretaker of the boys from day 1 (except when I was nursing but even then, he gave them bottles whenever he could). I take over after 5 am since I'm the morning person of the house.

Our 2010 Christmas Card

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 05:13:00 +0000

Happy New Year!
2011 New Year Blog-olutions...
1. Give this Blog a facelift- CHECK
2. Start posting to this blog again-CHECK
3. Continue posting to this blog regularly- that remains to be seen but I'm gonna try!

Anyway, thought I'd share the Christmas card I sent out this year. Better late than never. I really do have tons to blog about it's just that I've been going through a bit of a needlework phase and when I have a minute or two, I want to work on that rather than blog. I will try to share more about that soon.

Layout Credit:
Candy Cane Alpha-Marie Rosendo
Vellum Swirls and Background from Christmas Story kit-Kitty Designs
Everything else from Jolly Holiday kit-Weeds & Wildflowers

Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 14:45:00 +0000

I know I'm doing some shopping today, what about you???? Oh, and even though the stuff in my store is old, I went ahead and put everything on sale for 50% off until Tuesday November 9th. Enjoy your day shopping and scrapping!!!!

Happy Halloween!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 13:58:00 +0000

For those that celebrate Halloween, I want to send out good wishes for a safe, fun and ghoulishly scary day! I happen to be one of those people that rates Halloween right up there as my favorite holiday! If I didn't have young kids, I would spend the day watching a scary movie marathon eating roasted pumpkin seeds and working on something creative. However, I DO have young kids (still sleeping at the moment) that are sooooo excited to go Trick-or-Treating tonight they can hardly stand it. They don't know what they're going to do to make the time pass today. We will carve pumpkins at some point and I will roast the seeds but beyond that, I haven't decided. For dinner we will pick up a Jack-O-Lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's and then junk ourselves out on candy right before bed! Who wouldn't love this day, lol!

CREDITS: Tricky Treat doodles by Kate Hadfield

Denver Zoo Animals!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 14:22:00 +0000

Saturday, October 9th I had the pleasure of going on an "Early Morning Photo Safari" at the Denver zoo! I've often wanted to spend some time taking photos of the animals so when I saw this opportunity in the Zoo newsletter, I signed right up. I often take my boys to the zoo and have lots of snapshots of the animals but I wanted to try out my new Sigma 50-500mm OS lens and get up close and personal with the animals. Since it's a big lens and heavy(4lbs) I borrowed a monopod from a friend and loved it. I will probably purchase one a some point.
It was just me with 24 other people and we had the zoo to ourselves for 2 hours before it opened to the public with that golden morning light! We had the choice of going out on our own or following the Zoo's photographer, Dave Parsons. I started out with the group but ended up lagging behind and being pretty much on my own. Since I love to photograph birds I was hoping to come home with a lot more bird photos than I ended up with but 6 hours and 600 photos later I was too exhausted (and starving) by the time I got to Bird World. I WILL go back again and the next time I will hit the birds first! I did come across a few birds that I blogged about over at Calico's Nest.
As a "still learning" photographer, I take way more bad photos than good ones but I'm proud of the progress I'm making so far. Yes, part of it has to do with having nice (and expensive!) equipment but I've learned other important things such as capturing catchlights (or eye glints) in the eyes. I REALLY tried to focus on that in these pictures but the light and the animals were not always cooperative. Catchlights bring life to a face. I still struggle with composition. I TRY to get good composition when I take the shot however, I usually always have to crop the photo post- op to get the composition better. Another thing I struggle with is metering. Most of the photos I deleted were victims of over or underexposure. Still struggling with that one so I have no advice to offer. Below, I've posted a few pics I took but if you would like to see all my favorites from the day, you can view them HERE! Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Kayla!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Kayla

My sweet, fluffy-muffin, furry-girl celebrated her 13th birthday today! The boys put together a nice little party for her complete with wrapped dog treats in hand-made birthday paper and a banner with her name on it. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her while she ripped open her treats. No pictures of the party since it all happened so fast but I did make her suffer through a photo shoot with a pumpkin just because she's always a willing participant! Eventually I'll make a scrapbook page of these :)

Time for a blog re-design and re-direction!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 22:16:00 +0000

I've decided to switch gears with this blog so you may notice some changes coming soon. First I'm going to change the name. When I first created this blog I did so as a means to share the digital scrapbook kits I designed. Well, those of you who have followed me since those early days have come to realize that I haven't created anything new for probably a year or so. Life became more demanding and I never was one for organizing my time well. I always felt my designing time was too limited for me to be creative. I lost my designing mojo and sadly, it never returned :( Plus, I missed scrapping! Designing took away all my scrapping time.
I now use this blog primarily to share my digital layouts...infrequent as they may be. I've been thinking that since my interests change often I want this blog to reflect whatever it is I may feel like blogging about. Hence the decision to give this old blog a new direction. It will soon become a place for me to share anything I happen to be involved in at any given time. Some examples may include, craft projects, photography, homeschooling adventures, my dog, my boys, scrapbooking layouts (of course!) and anything I find interesting enough to pass along. So, that being said, I hope if you subscribe to this blog you will continue to do so and if it no longer interests you, I'll totally understand!!!! As a side note, my store is still up and running with all my old kits.

First Theater Movie Layout!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:10:00 +0000

The boys will be 6 and 8 this summer and I finally took them to see a movie in the theater and in 3D no less! I don't know what they enjoyed more, the big screen, the 3D effect, the movie itself, or the snacks! It was fun but I ended up with a big old headache after and felt a little motion sickness the rest of the day from the 3D. I will take Dramamine next time :)

Credits: Kit- Movie Night Collab by Holly Designs and Kate Hadfiled! Adorable kit!!

Layouts to share!

noreply@blogger.com (Calico) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:24:00 +0000

It seems that once I joined Flickr, I started neglecting my blogs! I need to remember to do both so I'm doing some catch-up posting today. I have done a few layouts since I last posted in Feb but not as many as I would like. Enjoy!

Credits:
Kit-Brain Freeze-Connie Prince
Cluster frames by Gunhild Storeide

Credits:
Template 159- Yin Designs
Kit and Alpha-Grungy Athlete(colors altered) by Calico's Digital Designs
Green paper-Misty Cato-Thanksgiving Solids
Font- Stencil Std

Credits:
Template-2 many photos 1 by Janet Philips
Kit- Recess by Heather Roselli
Alpha- Backyard Explorer by GET Designs
Stitching- Pixie stitches by Wendy Page

Credits:
Template 190 by Yin Designs
Doodles by Kate Hadfield
Paper and Ribbons-Sunrise Sorbet by Elie Lash