Lucy: Mostly healthy, YAY!

Lucy went into the vet today. Unlike last time,we just wanted to get her in for a routine check up and teeth cleaning. After seeing all the crystals that came out of her bladder last year, it was a relief to find out that her urinalysis was clean. Unfortunately, she's on prescription wet food to help with that, and wet food doesn't offer the same teeth cleaning benefits as dry food. She had to have two teeth extracted and is now one antibiotics and pain medication for a little while. Fortunately this time neither are bubble gum flavored (cats don't like that...) and we're just relieved she didn't have any bigger problems. I'm also hoping, for her sake, that we have several more sunny afternoons so she can enjoy rolling around in the sun while she gets better! Please cooperate Portland?

Thank you Crafty Wonderland!

Yeah, it's been over a week since Crafty Wonderland and I haven't blogged about it yet....gave myself a little break from blogging for the week after.  We had fun, sold some things, & made many people smile at the triangle cats. Even sold a few, the large white kitty and a little kitty went home as a mother's day gift, very cute. It a was pretty fun day. Oh, and I got rid of something like 3/4 of the box of business cards I just bought & that's pretty cool.

We sat next to cool people too: Rachel Blumberg, Hoot Hoot PDX!, and olbapi! And across Gadget Cozies, of which I had some of my own to sell. But that's okay, Gadget Cozies was friendly and leaned more toward the larger scale devices: laptops, etc., whereas my knit cozies focus on the little (easier to knit) e-readers. We used the square device to take credit cards on my phone. It was my first time with it and it was pretty cool, and kind of fun to use too! We also managed to get ourselves to the show and back by lugging all our stuff via public transit. Here's a funny picture of me right before the show, looking slightly frazzled:

And here are some more pics of my displays:

  

We managed to find time to make pom-poms for the banner too (see the first pic above)...well actually Chuck should get credit for almost all of them after getting some minimal instruction from me. He was helpful with so many things during and in the weeks before the show! I think he even had fun too. Yay! After a short, week long break from knitting too, I just started a pair of hand-knit socks for him as a thank you. It only seems fair.

Lucy is Adjusting

Chuck and I have suddenly both become very busy and Lucy is having to adjust. She gets so excited when we get home and just wants to sit on us to make sure we stay put. The poor sweetie.

 

Isn't she so cute? We wish we could spend our days with you cute kitty. You are so sweet.

Caturday Market Flowers

  

Lucy doesn't really seem to like it when I put a camera in her face and yet somehow whenever I'm taking photos in the apartment she manages to stick her nose in it. Which is okay because she's adorable. 

Anyway, I made it through the first market somehow managing to resist purchasing a bouquet but we knew that wouldn't last long. Most likely I was distracted by the vegan treats. Mainly daffodils right now, although I was also tempted by the booth selling bouquets of hellebores, and others with everlasting bouquets and wreaths. I might have been satisfied with a simple bunch of just daffodils, but this bouquet seemed like such an interesting choice of colors, purples and yellows, and for only $7!

We also bought leeks this week, a nice salad mix, and split a vegan treat from Black Sheep Bakery. I saw some lovely cabbage and bok choy, which I am going to think about finding some uses for this week so I can maybe get some of those next weekend! We went later in the day this week, and it looked like they were really selling out of goods. I think that means that Portland is really excited that the market is back!

Some little things

Chuck gets cupcakes for his birthday too, it's not just me. Since we're so close in age, I always feel a little relieved when January rolls around and he catches up to me. Chocolate Stout again with Peanut Buttercream Icing, both recipes from Vegan Cupcakes take Over the World. A very good flavor combination, although the effect I was mainly aiming for here was to pick an icing that would look more like beer foam. Works well for that too, although I sprinkled some cocoa on it. Hopefully you're not accustomed to finding bits of cocoa in your beer. This is how you know for sure it's a cupcake.

 

It's been very sunny but cold here this week. (Although, not cold enough to complain about really, when compared to the Midwest right now.) Which is perfectly fine with the cat, who has been sorely missing the sunshine. She finally got several days in a row with it this week, and now has a better handle, I hope, on her prime sun-absorption locations. She's also been obsessing over Wild Salmon treats, we are able to find our favorite brand more easily now that we're living in the northwest again. So a pro for the Northwest for Lucy is salmon treats, while the lack of sun is con. I hope they at least balance each other out.

 

And lastly, something finally clicked for me with the whole color-work/intarsia thing. I pulled out a few books on it earlier this week in an attempt to tackle it one more time, but it was the description in the new Stitch'n'Bitch Superstar Knitting book that worked for me. I decided to tackle a small heart swatch! Look at the back here, I think it looks good too. Now I don't know about working on intarsia all the time, me plus lots of bobbins sounds like a recipe for disaster, but maybe there will be a small project here and there in the near future. Maybe even an item or two for the shop, who knows!

Lucy's Never-ending Ordeals

Oh my goodness. Lucy has already been through enough! First the surgery to have the bladder stones removed. Then the teeth extractions. Then the empty apartment. Then the flight. Then then unexpected delays of said flight. Then then new apartment. Then the recovery process. That's enough stress for one kitty to last a lifetime!

So Lucy seemed to just be starting to get into some her normal behaviors again, but then a few days ago started acting withdrawn. Yesterday she was acting very uncomfortable and last night we finally found a big lump under her jaw. I wanted to take her in right away, but of course it was late at night when we discovered this. By the morning it had become moist, seemed a little warn, and was definitely visible on the side of her face. Yikes!

We just got back from an appointment with our new Portland vet. What a relief. It was declared an abscess, cause probably related to something becoming irritated when they extracted the teeth. Fortunately it was an easy fix, the vet lanced the abscess and injected her with antibiotics that will last 10 days so we don't have to mess with that liquid (bubble gum flavored!) version, or a pill. She should start to feel better soon, and for good, but I have my fingers crossed. It seems as if it will never end and I'll never get my silly lick-obsessed kitty back!