Summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime

And I can feel the heat.  Not complaining, though, since I can well-remember looking forward to this when temps hit below freezing and an early morning shift meant scraping my windshield and possibly digging out my car.

So, what am I working on?  An afghan.  A nice, cozy, warm afghan.  With no air conditioner in place yet.  I had started it several weeks ago...February?  March?  Then my interest kinda fizzled, and I couldn't think of anything I really wanted to work on.  This past week, I finally picked it up again, figuring I would do a nice square afghan, 9 12" squares...then a border.  I finished assembling it this morning, then looked at the yarn I have left, and *think* I can do 3 rows of 4 squares before a simple border.  I hope so, at least until I get a thin border of cream colour done, the rest I can do white.

I chose cream and white, a simple monochromatic afghan, using my Autumn Warmth square.

The picture, to be brutally honest, stinks, but it gives you an idea.  I plan on posting this for sale in my Etsy shop when it is finished, so hope I can manage to get much better pictures of it!

It's DECEMBER!!

It happens every year, and much as I may try to prepare for it, December always manages to take me by surprise.

After quite a long creativity dry spell, I designed two crocheted gift card holders.  One was one of those lightning bolt ideas I love so much:  I had thought of crocheting a snowman, then thought maybe a gift card holder might be nice....and then I saw exactly how it was going to close....

Made with worsted weight acrylic yarn, plastic buttons and some dimensional fabric paint.
Then I thought I would do another version, this one closes with a loop through a 'handle' that forms a pompom of sorts as well as doubles as a hanging loop.

Made with worsted weight acrylic yarn, buttons, dimensional fabric paint and size 10 crochet thread.
The pattern includes instructions for both snowmen designs and is available in my Etsy shop, click on either picture to view the listing.
*Finished gift card holders can be purchased, I have one listed here, and a few others finished that I have not yet listed (including the green ones shown here)

A tough decision

I have long feared that one day, I would have to make The Decision. 

Recently, it became that time.

Our little Westie, Daisy,  has been through a lot in her 13 1/2 years.  ACL surgery several years back (she bounced back so fast it scared me until the vet said she was fine!), last year, a uterine infection, right after Christmas time.  This meant an emergency surgery.  After doing some reading while Daisy was at the vet's, I discovered that this could have been avoided if we had had her spayed.  It wasn't a matter of money:  at first, we thought we might let her have one litter, then as time progressed, she was fine, and when she was heat, it wasn't like a cat being in heat, so we just never bothered.

Late this summer, I took her in with a urinary tract infection.  I noticed before taking her in that she had lumps in one of her mammary glands and mentioned this to the vet.  He told me "lumps in the mammary glands are not good"  which I had kind of figured, but he was going to take care of the infection, we could discuss the other later. 

About a month later, I noticed Daisy again showed signs of discomfort that she had shown with her UTI, minus the tail clamped so tightly its tip probably touched her abdomen.  I took her in, the vet felt a lump in her bladder.  An x-ray and an ultra-sound later determined it was not stones, but a large mass.  Not good news.  Without cutting her open and doing a biopsy, we couldn't know 100% for sure that it was cancer, but it was a very good chance this was.  My husband and I had discussed this: at Daisy's age, why put her through this just to be 100% sure?   When at her age, another surgery to remove it (if possible) might not be the right thing to do?  We would try to manage her pain, watch her, and when we thought it was time, we would make the call.

 The pain med/anti-inflammatory dose that she is getting no longer seems to be helping for long.  She whimpers, whines and groans while she strains...even right in front of us in the house...to eliminate.  She groans and barks outside while trying.
We are cleaning up puddles of urine and  trails of blood drops daily.

It is time.

But it is still hard, there is a part of me that wonders if it is too soon,  that if, aside from her sleeping a lot and in between the bouts of pain, there is still some quality of life.  Then I hear her groaning and watch her squirm or try to squat and part of me knows it is time.