I woke up just around midnight on January 7th to discover that not one; but, both cats were at the foot of the bed. What surprised me is that they were sleeping together! As in touching!
The metadata lists 12:19am when this picture was snapped. I just had to take a picture just in case this was a rare event. By the way, I did not disturb Dan because he was still up playing games.

When I got around to viewing these pictures, I immediately noticed Chessie is so much bigger than Gracie. I was also pleased at how well these came out considering I was still half asleep and using a flash.

I have not taken a lot of pictures lately. I have been keeping ourselves busy with the office purge and more. I do have some pictures on the card in the camera that I haven't even looked at yet. I have been trying to snap a picture and there. But, it isn't easy when life gets in the way. But, by attempting to take pictures from time to time helps me stay on top of things in the way of photography. They may not be the best; but, hey! They are snapshots of time and memories. :-)

• 100 days – Week of Blocks – Octagonal Orb Block Tutorial Sewing; Quilting
  I really like this block!


• Toaster Cover Sewing; Tutorial
  Too Cute!


• ”18 Months Same as Cash!” … Really? Finances
  

  Is zero interest for 18 months REALLY zero interest? If you can walk a tightrope while juggling flaming torches, then maybe. But beware – many of these offers are fraught with conditions that will make your head spin.

Warning: Do NOT advance to the bottom of this post if you get queasy at the sight of blood and/or wounds. Thank you.

On Thurday, January 19th, around 4 PM, I started making Mini Meatloaves for dinner. These have become a favorite that I/we make once or twice a month.

I started out with the cheese. We get a block of cheese and grate it instead of buying shredded cheese. It is so much better and more delicious if we grate the cheese ourselves. Even the mozzarella for our pizzas is bought by the block and grated ourselves. It melts better and you don't have all the additives that you get with package shredded cheese. (Some of the additives in those packages are to keep the cheese separate inside the package and can be avoided if we grate cheese ourselves).

You would have thought I learned my lesson over the fiasco on Christmas Eve using a Zester. But, nope. The Christmas Eve incident was minor compared to what I did last Thursday. From now on and forevermore, I will never touch a Microplane Zester again. It will either be a box type grater or I will use Dan as slave labor ahead of time to get what I need for my meals. Most likely, it will be the latter. Ha!

Anyway, It was a disaster of epic proportions. At least, it was in my mind. I immediately went to the bathroom to take care of the wound. it was bad enough that droplets of blood ended up on the floor and onto the paper towel roll.

I had read that applying ice to a wound is not a good thing. So, I immediately applied pressure with a paper towel after giving it a quick rinse. I knew it was too small of a wound to require emergency care. But, I could not get it to stop bleeding. After about five to ten minutes, I eventually gave in and sent a message to Dan. I also said to myself "frak this, I'm going to ice the wound and see if it helps."

Dan arrived about 25 minutes later and the wound was still bleeding something awful not to mention the pain was off the charts. It was all I could do to keep from breaking down and dissolving into a puddle of tears because I was in throes of both pain and panic.

Dan agreed with my internal assessment of the wound after taking a look. I continued to apply pressure for a long time. In the meantime, Dan took over the preparations for dinner.

After about three hours or so, it finally slowed to a bleeding ooze. I made Dan take a picture for posterity sake. These pictures was taken approximately four hours after I had hurt myself. Dan then bandaged it up for me with Neosporin + Pain Relief and a bandaid. The Neosporin was primarily used to prevent the bandaid from sticking to the wound. But, I've got to tell you that the Pain Relief part did its job. Within 30 minutes, the pain went from bad to just barely there.

I'm telling you that it was fun and games. NOT!

Note: This is formerly known as Fabric / Quilty / Crafty / DIY Tuesday. I've changed it to "Tuesday's State of Affairs" until I can come up with a better generic title. Any suggestions?
First of all, I just have to give a shout out to I have a Notion store. I bought a very small item from this store for the first time not long ago. I received the item along with a refund on shipping! Needless to say, I was immensely impressed. Most businesses would have just kept the change. But, not Kelly! By the way, Kelly has a wonderful blog that I follow which often gives demonstrations and tutorials including items in the quilting world.

Now, let us move on to the state of affairs in my fabric, quilting, and sewing world. One item I have on my Finished Year List is to "finish organizing my fabrics onto “bolts” – 2 or 3 a day should get me there eventually". Well, I have been consistently organizing my fabrics onto 'bolts' every day. I have been doing at least six most days. This is what I have done so far:
Fat Quarters and Quarter yardages. Note: the ones with the key tags are quarter yardages.
Half Yardages and One Yardages (or more). Note: the Half Yardages are on your left and the other is on the right.

So far, I've been organizing the fabrics by blenders and novelties. The categories may expand as I get more fabrics onto 'bolts'.

So, what have I been doing sewing-wise? Sad to say, the Layer Cake Quilt (backing) has not been touched since before Thanksgiving. I need to get back to it. In the meantime, I have been sidetracked. I am currently working on making something for my cats.
I discovered that BOTH of my cats love flannels. They were caught several times sleeping together on two flannel shirts that were tossed on the bed. Now, you have to know my cats. They are not at all fond of one another. But, I guess flannel brings them together. Ha!

Anyway,I bought these flannels at a bargain and I am currently turning them into bed runners. The one that is ready to sew is actually an orange color with the same print as the brown. We'll see how these turn out as I am just winging it - using idea(s) and pattern(s) that are in my mind. Ha!

Rumor has it that Google Friend Connect is going away in several months. I signed up for Bloglovin to

1. provide an alternative to Feedburner (which is owned by Google) and Google Friend Connect and


2. to see if it is a better alternative to using Google Reader to follow blogs.

I shall give it several months trial and see if I like it better than Google Reader. I will also let you all know what I think of Bloglovin'.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin'
In the meantime,