It has been a busy two weeks with our kitchen redo. The tile floor is down and I am very happy with it. At first I thought it might be too dark, but now that it is finished and grouted, I love it. It has been exciting seeing the changes happen. The ceiling is stripped (popcorn texture removed) and recessed lights in. And the cabinets are going to be installed on Thursday. I can't wait. 

Moby is improving. He is able to move his head and walk around without falling down. His neck is still a little wonky but he is back to hissing at little Kip. Here he is making him self comfortable on Kip's toy.

Kitchen demo started yesterday. I am happy with it already. Meals and doing dishes in the bathroom are a bit of a problem, but I am sure it will be well worth it.

I just finished making my first baby sling. It went together easily, but ended up looking kind of weird. As I didn't have a baby handy to try it out on, Kip was my guinea pig. It works pretty well.  Kip didn't want to get out - is perfect with his sore foot.

Moby is still not doing well. He is sleeping all the time and when he does get up he takes a few steps and lays down again. He is not holding up his head or moving his neck. He slept with me last night and peed on Craig's gardening clothes that he throws on the floor and also peed on Mocha's bed. I am hoping next time he will use the litter box. At least he is still eating. I hope we see some improvement tomorrow. He doesn't seem to be in pain;  I just think that he is dizzy and disorientated. It is hard to watch.

Kip on the other hand is up to his old self (if you can call four months old). Today he is walking on his foot as if a big giant never stepped in it. The world is back to being his oyster.

Both our cat and kitten have had visits to the vet within the past two days.  Moby, our 9 year old orange tabby, who is usually very active and healthy, started acting odd. At first we thought he was just unhappy about the new kitten. But  after our evening sauna/walk with the dogs we found him laying in our neighbors' driveway. I picked him up and he didn't seem hurt, but he didn't want to walk, and was holding his head crooked. The vet thought he may have feline vestibular disorder or that he ingested something toxic. They did blood work, x-rays and kept him overnight. Everything came back negative, and he is now back home sleeping a lot and not picking up his head - he is still a very sick boy. We researched vestibular disorder, and found cats can have the same symptoms if they eat the tails of "blue tailed skinks", which we have a lot of. The vet said he would have been vomiting if this were the case.  After going through this with Moby, I am convinced that keeping a cat indoors is the way to go.  


After leaving Moby at the vet, I came home to paint the trim in the doorway, and Kip, our kitten, tried to escape (he is being lured by the call of the wild).  Paint brush in hand, I tried to stop him with my foot, which I did, and he went limping away. He wouldn't walk on his poor little paw the rest of the day and cried when I touched it. Again I went on-line to research how easy it is to break your poor kitty's leg (whatever did we do before computers?). Apparently kittens' bones can be broken more easily than I thought (no they are not like rubber, as I imagined). So off again to the vet I went to get an x-ray of little Kip's leg. At this point I thought they were going to call the social worker to report me for cat abuse. Thankfully, his leg is not broken and he has forgiven me (I think...)


Hopefully Moby will recover, and we won't have any more trips to the vet this week. Here are a few pictures of my "Cats on Drugs", with a cute picture of Buddy thrown in (he is wearing his cat concern on his face).

We have been consumed with planning our kitchen renovation. What a lot of decisions! So far we have a new kitchen window.  And, Craig and I are painting our trim white.  Demolition starts Monday...can't wait!!

Not much new with quilting. I am back to making placemats for Lorin and finishing up the Apron quilt. I am also starting to machine quilt two lovely quilts for a customer.

Here are pictures of the place mats. They are pieced with hand dyed shibori fabric. I think they look like fish (I would use them as wall hangings, just sewing on a nice bead for and eye.)

Its been a busy week between finalizing plans for our kitchen renovation and getting ready for Tomatopalooza. 

Yesterday was our 8th annual tomato tasting/celebration, which we call Tomatopalooza. This year we held it at Apex Community Park. We had nearly 200 varieties of tomatoes, mostly heirlooms. The tables were covered with pink, yellow, orange, red, black, green and striped tomatoes - it was beautiful. Some people brought tomatoes and some just came to taste. Over 100 people enjoyed tasting and talking tomatoes.
People voted Black Cherry as their favorite tomato this year.

Here are some pictures of this year's event. You can also read more about Tomatopalooza in this month's Our State magazine, or check Craig's website - he is going to do a series of blog posts, including some video clips.  Many more pictures can also be found at the Tomatopalooza web site.