Category Archives: Pets & critters

Shelibean my craft tester – Butterfly Loom

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Last November my Bff surprised me with a special gift of a ‘Butterfly Loom’. She has one and makes beautiful motifs for a coverlet she’s making.
I’d never tried to use the loom. I wanted to try to make motifs, but I was afraid I couldn’t do them right. The other night I was surfing around youtube and looking at some craft videos and happened on a beginners video for the ‘Butterfly Loom’.
I watched it and realized that perhaps I could make butterfly loom motifs too.
When I got the loom out and sit down on our sofa, Sheli started sniffing the loom and tried to take it from me.  So being the obedient human I am, I gave him the first motif I made. When I was working on my second motif I noticed Sheli was napping with his head laying sweetly on his new motif. I tried to sneak around and take his photo, but he roused up and made an even cuter pose. I apologize for the quality of photo, I took it with a cellphone.
Seriously, it does help me to test the strength of a yarn project to give a sample piece to Sheli. He’s goes at his job of tester with gusto and seriousness. He chewed, pulled, tugged, tossed and chased the motif and it held up real well, so far, Which really surprises me considering the way the motifs are made. Just yarn wound around the toothed edge and knots tied at the meeting points.

Here’s a gallery to give you an idea of the Butterfly Loom.

I’ve made a few motifs and am getting better with each one. I’ve an idea as to how I want to use them. Hopefully, my idea will work out and if it does I’ll post a photo of what I make with them.

The weekend was really nice. The temperatures were comfortable, the sun was shining and we even opened a window or two. My husband painted our utility room. I did a smidgen of Spring cleaning in my craft room. Unfortunately the nice weather has passed. It cooled off alot during the night and our temperatures are forecast to drop way down and we may even get a dusting or two of snow this week. It’s now what we used to call pneumonia weather. Hopefully the cold front won’t last and we’ll get back to the business of warm weather and plans to enjoy the great outdoors.

I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend
and will have a wonderful week.

🙂

edited in: 4-5-2018
The other day I recieved an email via my contact form asking about where I got my butterfly loom.
I couldn’t remember where I got mine, so I asked my BFF and she said she got them from ebay. I sent a reply and said I got mine from ebay. (What I should have said was mine was a gift but came from ebay. I’m forgetful in my old age. :/ )
After I sent the reply, I went on an internet search to try and find places other than ebay that sells them.
I’ve searched, as much as my limited knowledge of the internet allows, and I found only ebay and one other website that sells butterfly looms.
I’m adding a link to the butterfly loom site on this post.
If you know of another place that sells butterfly looms, let me know in the contact form and I’ll add the link here on this post.

ButterFly Loom – https://www.butterflyloom.co.uk/

 

 

 

 

Nothin’ but blue skies from now on

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IMG_7569Yesterday, was a dreary overcast day with a heavy winds that thankfully was comfortably warm. The temp was in the high 70’s and We loved it!!! We had a really good day because my husband got an awesome report from his heart surgeon.
Even with the gray of the day we were happy and the song ‘Blue Skies’ came to our minds and we even sung a rough rendition of it off and all for the rest of the day. lol Yep, We are two old silly-hearts… and I wouldn’t have it any other way…
I stand in awe of My husband’s good nature and positive attitude through ‘it all’. He’s a peach, my fellow is. 🙂

Yesterday afternoon, we took Sheli for a short walk and he doesn’t like the leash, as you can see in the photo. He still had a jolly good romp. He loved chasing the leaves to the end of the 15 feet leash and make us run walk fast after them too. This was the first time that we didn’t have to carry Sheli back to the house from the walk. So, our little guy has finally grown stronger and has more stamina. We didn’t think that day would ever come, and it may never happen again. Sheli’s quite spoiled and enjoys being toted around, especially if a neighbor dog barks or a loud car goes by or a butterfly flies to close or or or. lolIMG_7568

We had a harsh storm last night. We were under a tornado watch most of the night. I had our emergency stuff gathered together in our safe place or what we think would be a safe place in case we had to make a mad dash for safter area of the house.
Sometime during the night, the power was off. I don’t know for how long. I just know ‘the instant silence and complete dark’ woke me up like it always does. The storm was raging thunder, lightning and rain. I was so tired that I went back to sleep after a few moments. Sometime later a loud clanky sound woke me up. The power was back on and my husband was looking out the window. He told me what I was hearing isthe utility folks outside making a lot of noise fixing the lines or something.

The sun is out today and now the ‘Blue skies’ are ‘smilin’ at me’ for real. The temperature has cooled back down in 50’s though, but it’s all good. 🙂IMG_7573

I reckon this is all for me at the moment.

Here’s hoping you all have a pleasant weekend.

🙂

Blue Skies
by Irving Berlin in 1926

Blue skies smilin’ at me
Nothin’ but blue skies do I see
Blue birds singin’ a song
Nothin’ but blue skies from now on

Never saw the sun shinin’ so bright,
never saw things goin’ so right
Noticing the days hurrying by,
when you’re in love, my how they fly by
Blue days, all of them gone
Nothin’ but blue skies from now on

(At this point in the song, depending on the version,
it changes into like a singer or artists choice…
so I’ll stop with the lyrics right here)
🙂
Maxine Sullivan – Blue Skies

🙂
spcr1

Longing for Spring & Shelibean

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IMG_7539I went outside for a few minutes yesterday afternoon. I wanted to stay out longer, but even at 65°  with the sun partly shining, the wind was still awfully sharp.

IMG_7535I noticed some of my day lilies are trying to grow.  I guess they’re longing for warm Spring weather like we humans are. Of course it’s possible these few sprouts are reconnaissance and they’re checking to see if it’s safe to grow yet or not. 😉

IMG_7518For the first time in many years I bought some flower bulbs. I don’t know what came over me, But there I was standing staring wistfully at the beautiful flowers on the packages in the display and suddenly I wanted some flower bulbs. I expressed my goofy thought to my husband and he thought it was a good idea. So I bought a couple packs of bulbs and I’ll probably buy some more as last-frost draws nearer. We also bought a few packs of seeds recently and some onions sets for the garden.  Now, once again we’re longing for the last-frost so we can play in the dirt and feel the joy of gardening.

When there was a lull in the wind gusts for a few minutes I sat in a lawn chair on my back-porch and pretended that it was Spring . Sheli sat in a chair next to me, but wasn’t happy about being outside because he doesn’t like being outdoors. There’s too many scary things going on for one little guy to take in all at once.
He became entranced for a minute watching the neighbors and I took the opportunity to get a photo of him being still.
Sheli then barked and insisted on sitting in my lap.
Yep, my little ornament is quite the guard dog. lol
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I hope you all are having a good week so far.
May the rest of your week be filled with warm
outdoor temperatures & springtime dreams.
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For Barb, I wish a cool Autumn breeze
to comfort you from Oz’s Summer heat.t110008

spcr1

Shelibean the great hunter

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Sheli bean has had a rough last month and a half. In the excited joys of play he slipped on the kitchen tile, slid into a door-facing and hurt his back leg.
We carried him to the veterinarian and she said he had a luxating patella (his knee is out of joint), but only on the hurt leg. She prescribed him a nsaid medicine for pain. She said he may need surgery someday later on.

Over the past month and a half Sheli has gotten better and better.
He’s almost back up to par, but he’s still cautious, thank goodness.

While at the vet’s office, Sheli met the first dog he’s seen since he was 7 weeks old. It was a beautiful female white boxer that was about 3 times his size. She was a very docile lovable creature. We were proud of Sheli because he wasn’t afraid and calmly sniffed noses with her.

Yesterday, Sheli reached a milestone that every puppy would be proud to claim: his first critter-capture.
Sheli was on the back-porch with my hubby. After a few minutes of running around Sheli demanded to go back in. Hubby thought Sheli had gotten scared by something. A leaf, the wind, an odd sound anything will send Sheli running for door to come inside. Anyway, hubby let him in. I was working on the laptop in the bedroom. Sheli came in the room with me, ran around a few moments and then went back to the kitchen when hubby came in…
and that’s when hubby noticed that Sheli had a katydid in his mouth…

There was a few moments of excitement and it worried us that the katydid may bite him. Fortunately, Sheli was willing to ‘trade’ the critter for a puparoni snack.
Apparently the katydid was playing opossum because he was still alive and moved his legs slightly when Sheli put him down. You can see it laying beside Sheli in the upper photo.  Hubby took the wee critter outside and set it free.

Sheli was so proud of himself.
So there you have it, Our lovely little fluffy ornament is a natural hunter after all. 🙂
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~~~

For my new blogging buddies and readers:
About Shelibean
Shelibean is a male Shichi (half shih tzu & half chihuahua)
17 months old
weighs 14 pounds (he’s a bit overweight)
He’s 100% potty-pad trained
We trim his hair & toenails ourselves
And most importantly, he’s spoiled rotten 😉
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spcr1