Farewell, Napoleon.

July 7, 2005 - May 21, 2013

One week ago today, we lost our beloved friend, Napoleon, to kidney failure. We were with him the whole time as he passed away peacefully. It was the hardest thing that we have ever had to do, but we wanted us to be the last thing he saw. We wanted him to know that he was loved and will never be forgotten. He was part of our family and now our family went from 5 to 4. Our hearts feel like there is big hole in it and I can't even describe the pain and hurt I feel. My only solace is that I know he is no longer in pain. He was too young. But now he will be forever young sprinting through grass in doggie heaven. Until we meet again my sweet and loyal friend.We will always love you, Napoleon.

A Wonderful Long Weekend

Turkey roasted to perfection. Delicious.

Plenty of leftover Salty Honey Pie to last the whole weekend. The salty & sweet combination is just heavenly on the tongue.

I even managed to take out my tripod to take a group picture in our new backyard. 

Napoleon

Caesar

The day after Thanksgiving, I used the leftover turkey to make a hearty & comforting pot of Turkey Congee (rice porridge).

We invited a small group of family and friends over to help celebrate my DH's milestone birthday.

It was the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend.

Happy Birthday, Napoleon!

My 1st fur baby turned 6 years old today. Happy Birthday, Napoleon!

Melody decided to put aside their differences and pose for pictures with Napoleon.

There has been misunderstandings between them so they are both cautious with each other. Although, you really can't tell in these photos. This was as close as she was willing to get to Napoleon.

Melody and Caesar are best friends. Caesar is really tolerant of kids. He howls along with her when he hears her crying.

Hugs! Caesar is basking in all the attention and affection that he gets from her.

A NYC Rat is moving to Oregon.

My knitting pal, Brooke, is moving back to Oregon. I wanted to make her something to remember her time in New York City. We both admire and love Ysolda Teague's toy patterns. So when the pattern, Mousie, came out, I knew it was the perfect thing to make for her.Now, if you have ever been to NYC, you will surely have seen a rat scurrying on the sidewalk or most commonly sighted, on the subway tracks and platforms. The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn which would make a cute little mouse. I used worsted weight and he ended up looking like a mouse on steroids. He is really more the size of a NYC Rat.The NYC Rat was a welcomed addition to our household in the beginning. But he got restless and started to cause some trouble. Climbing on my shelves and getting way too close to my new set of measuring cups. (Those were a Christmas gift from my sister. So cute!)And then he was terrorizing Napoleon! I realized that the NYC Rat was just lonely and wanted some company.After realizing that the NYC Rat meant him no harm, Napoleon got pretty chummy with him.The day of his departure finally came last night. It was the last knitting group meet up that Brooke would be attending before she left next week. She was happily surprised when she pulled him out of the bag.She named him Oscar. I hope that every time Brooke looks at Oscar, she will remember her knitting pals in Brooklyn, New York. Brooke, you will be missed very much. Good Luck!

Pattern: Mousie by Ysolda Teague
Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease "Grey Heather" and Vanna's Choice "Dusty Rose"

Welcome 2009!

I took these pictures on New Year's Eve with the intentions of posting something on New Year's Eve. Yeah, it has been that busy around here. Ever since we got back, I have been on a mission to clean and organize the house. And I got to catch up on my blog reading.2008? What can I say. It went by in a blur. I had Melody on January 14, 2008 and then my life was consumed by her. I really don't remember much. I think I began to resurface when she hit 6 months and the colic went away. People say that you will forget the hardships of taking care of a newborn infant, but I still remember the colicky phase. 2008 was the Year of Melody. (Can you see her teeth? She now has been on a major teeth growth spurt. 4 on top and 3 on the bottom.) So, her FIRST birthday is coming up. Too soon, in fact! I am so unprepared because the holidays kept me really busy. My sister, Jo, will be coming from Boston to attend Melody's birthday party and she will be helping me plan the party. I don't know what I would do without my sister. She has a talent for organizing and planning parties. I sent her a frantic email 2 days ago, and she calmly emailed me back with what we need to decide on first. If you give her a party theme, she will seek out wonderful party decorations and she is a bargain hunter, too. My baby shower was a bird theme and she made the invitations herself.In these pictures, she is wearing a hand knit vest from her grandmother, my MIL. Her grandmother knit her two vests and one cardigan with a matching scarf for Christmas.I couldn't forget about the fur-babies while I was taking photos of Melody on New Year's Eve. Both the dogs rang in the New Year with us when we watched the ball drop in Times Square on the television. I was so glad to be home that night because it was freezing outside. DH has been very busy at work and just wanted to stay home and relax.
I was surprised to see this photo when I uploaded the pictures from my computer. Not sure what I did, but this was not edited at all. It made me laugh. It's like I took a picture of Caesar's aura.

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I still have pictures to take of the projects I finished in 2008. I am slowly entering them in on my Ravelry page and I am trying to take some photos when I have a few spare moments.I call this the Baby Winter Set.
These booties were made with the leftover yarn from the baby shrug. There was barely any yarn leftover to seam up the booties, so it was a close call. The Winter Bootees pattern is from She's Crafty. I bought the the pdf pattern for Issue 2.For the shrug, I made the 6-9 month size and it came out huge. She won't be able to wear it for a while. It looks like it can fit a 2 year old. But Melody is on the petite size.It is knit all in one piece, but there is seaming involved. Lots of mattress stitch. And for the seaming to look nice, you have to be able to mattress stitch in the different directions the knitting changes from the body to the sleeves. Then there is the ardous task of picking up the stitches to make the ribbing for the cuffs, lower back edging and front edging. I felt that this shrug required a lot of finishing, but I am happy with the results.
I thought about embellishing it with some simple embroidered flowers, but decided to leave it plain. I think it's good to have a simple plain shrug that is versatile with her other clothes.

Pattern: Baby Shrug (free pattern from HERE), but it's also in the book, Simply Baby.
Needle: US 8 / 5.0 mm and US 9 / 5.5 mm
Yarn: 2 balls of Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Solid in color: Linen #99
The leftover yarn was enough to make the Winter Bootees.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is enjoying themselves and eating lots of delicious food. Look at these three! Aren't they adorable? I took 200 photos and was dismayed when I loaded the photos onto my computer. Barely passable! All the shots of her smiling and clapping her hands were blurry. It's hard taking pictures of three moving things. Out of the three of them, someone inevitably was blurry. The above two pictures were the best that I could do and they were used for this year's Christmas Cards.

Below are some photos of them that I took when they were allowed to do whatever they wanted. Meaning that DH and I were not reposing them or calling their names or waving toys in the air every 30 seconds.Napoleon looked like he was ready to bolt out of there. Caesar didn't care and actually got bored or tired.

We are having a nice time visiting our families and eating lots of great food. My sister and I made our annual Christmas Eve dinner with the main event being prime rib. It was delicious. For Christmas dinner tonight, my SIL will be making dinner. I will help out any way that I can because she is 7 months pregnant.

I can't wait to head back home soon. I have not slept well at all during this trip. I think everyone around me has noticed how cranky I have been. Melody, on the other hand, has been sleeping very well. She is so exhausted from playing everyday and never even complains about taking her naps or going to bed at night. That is one nice change. Though I am worried about our drive back since the car trip to Boston was horrible for her.

Friday

Sara, these pictures are for you. Melody is wearing one of the fabric patch onesies that Sara made for her. She can finally fit them.She is so fascinated by the dogs. She tries to pet them all the time, but it's more like grabbing a fistful of fur. Napoleon is not too crazy about the fur grabbing petting, but he tolerates it for a little bit and then runs off. Caesar on the other hand adores her and doesn't really care. In fact, during this photo shoot, he was licking her leg and foot the whole time. I had to tell him to stop for a second.Notice, they both have the same expressions? Have a great weekend, everyone! Enjoy the summer while it lasts.

Do you feel lucky?

I sure felt lucky to be able to test knit one of Mochimochi Land's new patterns. The pattern is called Lucky and this little tree is not so lucky because it got crapped on by birds. See the top of the tree, underneath the birds?

Anna is a very creative toy designer. I have test knitted other toys for her, but they have always required felting. This pattern requires no felting and minimal sewing. The whole toy is knit with double pointed needles. The first bird was a little bit fiddly because it's so small, but the second bird was no problem at all. You just have to remember that you knit the birds as if knitting I-Cord, don't turn your work after each row.My faithful companion, Caesar, always obliges to model my creations. The baby model was napping at the time. Gee, if I didn't have dogs and a baby, I wonder how I would show scale? Also, Anna does note that the toy is not recommended for small children because of the small parts. I never realized how strong babies were until I had my own. Melody is 6 months old now and her strength surprises me, especially at the grocery store! She will grab or pick up anything that catches her eye. I can easily imagine her ripping the birds off the top of the tree. This toy is going in the display cabinet for looking only.
Pattern: "Lucky" from Mochimochi Land
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Brites "Limelight", Caron Simply Soft "Chocolate", Caron Simply Soft "White", Caron Simply Soft Brites "Mango", Caron Simply Soft Brites "Bluemint", Caron Simply Soft Brites "Lemonade", Red Heart Soft Yarn "Guacamole"
Needles: US 6 / 4 mm DPN's
Size: 7.5 inches tall

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We are back from our vacation. I will post some vacation photos when I get my act together. I still haven't finished unpacking my own stuff. But the rest of the family is all unpacked and settled in. As soon as we got home, we have been swamped with obligations and appointments, so we haven't had a moment to take a breath.

Someone turned 3 years old!

Today is Napoleon's birthday. I will be grilling up a steak for him and Caesar to share. 3 years ago, he was my first "baby" and now I have 3, one human and 2 fur babies. Babies and dogs bring a lot of laughter into the household.Someone else is having a bundle of joy soon, so I made this Care Bears soft book for her. Don't worry, Napoleon's paws are clean. Since both my dogs live in a Chinese household where we take off our shoes when we enter the house, they get their paws washed when they come in, too.I made my first soft book from a kit I got at Joann Fabrics, but this time, I bought fabric panels from Hayloft Fabrics. You just have to supply the batting. I used a nice cotton batting I got from Michaels. Hayloft Fabrics delivered quickly and without any problems, so I would definitely recommend them.

The only problem I had was in making the book. The panels are not printed in perfect rectangles, the sides are not straight at all, so you can't cut them out straight. In fact, some of the sides are warped, so it made lining up the panels very difficult. I did my best not to lose any of the important parts of the book when I sewed them together, like the star numbers and the pictures. It was frustrating and I almost didn't send it since I felt awful it wasn't perfect. But then I remembered that babies won't scrutinize the book for imperfections. They are just happy playing with it and putting it in their mouths.

This is the second month of the virtual quilting bee at Common Threads and I made this 14 inch quilt block for Melissa. Curves are hard, but I had a lot of fun with this block. I just don't know if it fits in with her theme. When I hung it on the wall to take pictures, it reminded me of a modern art painting. Slap it in a frame and you can hang it on your wall.

Happy Father's Day!

I took this picture 2 years ago when we went up to South Paris, Maine to pick up Caesar. The dog on the left is Napoleon's father, Rocky and Napoleon is on the right. That was the last time Napoleon saw his biological father. Normally they don't let outside dogs on the farm, but they made an exception and let Napoleon say hi to his father. It was a sweet reunion.

Have a great day, everyone! We are going to be spending Father's Day at my friends, Jen and Jason's house. I got up early and baked a batch of Snickerdoodles for the 2 fathers today. The recipe is from Martha Stewart's new cookie book. They turned out to be large cookies. It's crisp on the outside and soft & chewy on the inside. Yummy!