August 4, 2009 - A day with Anna

I spent my time this morning working on getting my stitcher's book, A Stitcher's Companion by Enchanting Lair, ready for display at the county fair. I finally put the amethyst in the cover motif. It took a while to find an appropriate stone/charm, but I think this one is perfect.

I'm not sure what the rules are regarding having your name visible in the competition, but I have decided to cover mine. I used contrasting fabric and floss so that it's obviously not part of the actual design.

I even stitched the needles and the floss to the fabric so that they cannot be removed. I thought about taking everything out, but then the book is not doing its job.

The scissors were a bit of a challenge to get the stitches even and to tightly secure them into the pocket. I certainly don't want these falling out and stabbing someone in the foot! They have very sharp points!

I completely forgot to show you the frogging I did on Sunday. After completing Ocean Star, I frogged these UFO's. The first is Deftly Wrought by Midsummer Night Designs. I hate the colors. Just looking at the piece drains my will to stitch. What I decided to do with it was to frog everything but the four mini samplers. I guess it's another finish now, yes?

The second piece is Stitches Stars & Stripes by Blue Ribbon Designs. The more I looked at this piece, the more it grew out of favor. I should have taken a harder look at the chart because there are alot of solid-stitched boxes. I thought about stitching it and replacing some of the solid boxes with charms, but how many different ones could I possibly find? Add to that the fact I'm allergic to nickel, which means I'd have to buy gold-plated charms, and the price would be through the roof! No thanks! I didn't enjoy stitching this at all so it's no loss. The chart has already been RAK'd to Lisa in CA because she admired it.

I went to see my primary doc's nurse practitioner this afternoon for a checkup on the abdominal rash I have. The infected spot is healed and scarred, so I don't have to use the antibacterial ointment anymore, but Gail wants me to keep it handy-just in case! As far as the rash, my antibiotics have been extended to three weeks and I'm to call her if it gets worse. Hopefully the MRSA is gone, but she has instructed me to use the antimicrobial/antibacterial wash every three days for a while longer.

After my appointment I went back to the house to get Anna's car seat so that I could pick her up for our library date. We didn't get to go last week, so I wanted to make sure we went this week.

Anna prefers going to the Eastport branch of the library because they have a table of puzzles for her to play with. Her favorites are the two with different latches and locks. She always heads right for them after choosing her books. Today she picked out three books for herself and one board-book for Caleb. He has to have the board pages because he still rips regular ones.

While Anna played with the puzzles, Aunt Beth stitched on Hinzeit's America. Luckily I left this thread dangling because I forgot the bag with the chart and threads.

After leaving the library, we made stops at the pharmacy and the post office. On the way to the post office, I automatically turned into my sister's apartment complex. Anna yelled from the back seat, "Where are you going, Aunt Bep?" It wasn't until she said something that I realized what I'd done. I told her I just turned too early (the PO was two streets up) and got back on course. It's pretty bad when your 4-year-old niece is telling you where you want to go next! I swear I've completely lost my mind with all the running around I've had to do and lack of sleep from having Daisy here.

Anna wanted to go with me to get Kasey groomed and we were chatting almost all the way there. I pulled in to my parking space in front of Bark'n Bean (Muddy Paw Wash's new name), turned around to tell Belle (I was told Anna wasn't there today, she was Belle) that we'd arrived, and found a sleeping little girl in her car seat. She'd been quiet for the last mile of the trip, so she must have gone out like a light. Sarah warned me Anna hadn't had a nap, and they'd been to the pool this morning, so she must have been very tired to zonk out like that.

I dropped Kasey off at the BnB and took Anna home. It was way too hot to leave her in the truck and not practical to leave it running for an hour with the A/C on. I carried her in to Sarah's apartment and she woke up, but she did go down for a nap in her room.
Meanwhile, Kasey was being beautified. Here she is after her bath. Once again, Mike did a wonderful job! She's so pretty! I think she knows it, too! And, yes! Her leash says "One of us misbehaves." She picked it out herself.

For those who have been wondering, this is Daisy's war zone. The orange and turquoise fuzzy things are the fur-covered balls with tails and/or just the tails that Daisy has de-squeakified. You can also see Kasey's birthday bone (what remains), the tennis ball she killed, stuffing from several toys, and the rope/fabric toy I got from the clearance bin at BnB for her. She's already chewed through the rope. There are orange and turquoise bits all around Kasey's couch and Daisy's war zone.

Here are the remains of Kasey's birthday bone. Daisy pulled the squeaker out of him after chewing several holes in the canvas and nylon. Then she proceeded to remove the whistle from the squeaker. Thankfully she does not eat the plastic. The score in the War on Squeakers is now Daisy: 5; Squeakers: 0.

Stinky Ol' Raccoon is in hiding because Daisy discovered he had a hole in him and started pulling out his innards. Somehow Kasey has kept that thing limping along with three holes and carries him at least once a day. That's all she does, is carry him around and lay down with him. I'm not letting Daisy kill him for good!

I was really tired when I finally returned home at 5:30, so I took it easy this evening and was in bed just after midnight.