Pascal on a mat, Lentil Stew, & Happy Nim

My headache finally broke today. Hallelujah. This one was complete with lightly blurred vision and nausea.

Anyway, on to more fun stuff like Pascal on his new mat that I got on my Petsmart spending frenzy due to gift cards. Cute as ever. He will be 13 this September.

I had been thinking about the Lentil Stew recipe from Chocolate-Covered Katie for about a week now except Lentil Stew sounded too heavy. Today it finally sounded good and to be honest I need some healthier food for next week after the way I ate last week.

This is easy to make and a really great stew.

Omissions/additions:

• No celery (just forgot)
• Light on the mushrooms (too expensive - I did 2 packages of sliced)
• No tomato paste (not worth the partial open can)
• No fennel. Fennel is like cilantro or dill I think. You either like it or you can't stand it. 
• No paprika. Apparently I am out. 
• No veggie stock. Didn't seem necessary, and it wasn't. 1.5 cups water instead.
• Added 1 can coconut milk. Add when you add the spinach. Coconut milk and lentils have a flavor love-affair, they are meant to be together. 
• No lemon zest. We all know how I feel about zesting.

Nim went swimming today at Aquadog Spa. I panicked to see him limping this morning for the 2nd time this week. I panicked because:

a. he has to be active or it is bad for everyone, and
b. I don't like him hurting.

I am not sure what is going on here, but he did have a great swim. Apparently he likes to snuggle with his antler.

I hope everyone is having a productive weekend. I have too much coming due in the next two days, but I am getting stuff done.

To make matters worse, another mystery quilt calling my name! I better get the New Year's Day one finished before January 27th.

Friday, I Love You

It is icy cold. But compared to the dark and the rain of the beginning of the week I will take the cold with the clear.

I am so darn happy this week is over. I started getting behind last week and by this week I was suddenly overwhelmed.

Leela of course is never overwhelmed. 

My final straw was a flat tire two days ago and knowing I literally didn't have time to deal with it (hooray for a full-sized spare).

Last night while I watching Nim "play" far too rough with Emile because he is now pretty much a week long without proper exercise I decided the tire was being dealt with this morning and while it was in the shop that would give me at least an hour to walk
.
 The walk started ugly. I was struggling with traction since we were on very icy pavement and Nim was in rough spirits. Then I got the dreaded phone call that the tire was unfixable which meant buying two new tires. I should be beyond grateful that at least my 2 front still had enough tread that I wasn't facing all 4 new tires.

So we got even a longer walk in and nearing the end I started to see my calm and pleasant dog. And he was all full of contentment once the walk was over.

I have lots of homework, an exam, a three-day headache, and I haven't done squat on my quilt but I am already planning on next week being a better week.

Have a great weekend!

Mystery Quilt 2013 - More Sewing. Time out for dog tricks!

I am waiting for UPS to deliver my textbooks. I know they are coming today, I just don't know when.

This morning I assembled 10 of these units.

I am finding the block overall "cool" right now, so I am glad that the next sewing involves some of my warmer fabrics. I will say, I think I have a tendency towards a "cool" stash to begin with.

I seemed to be down about 10 squares for this unit. I either missed the instruction to cut them in the first place or they are hidden very well.

January's trick is going to be:

• "Jump over my Knee" (my vision is over my right knee while kneeling on my left. Eventually the word will be "knee")

This trick will be useful as a free choice on a Rally-free course as well as a trick behavior. He knows "jump" from agility, however I will not be using that word so I am starting from scratch.

Today I sat on the floor, my right leg out flat on the ground. If he advanced towards the leg he got a click, and treated on the other side of the leg. Absolutely no words or naming of the behavior at this point. No luring.

We made reasonable progress, except for Leela stealing the treats behind my back which made Nim frantic. (The cats actually know when the clicker comes out that treats are involved. You would think I would use this to train them).

December's tricks:

• "Through" (Passing through my leg from left or right heel position. I just added "through" with him facing me head-on this Saturday)
• "Paw" (Only his left paw at this time. His right paw will be trained separately and put on a different verbal cue)

"Through" is applicable to Rally-free. "Paw" is applicable to Rally-free and Canine Good Citizen (CGC). Both are being shaped without luring. I have just started added their naming today: I give the word, wait a moment, and then give the physical cue.

Hopefully more sewing later!

Mystery Quilt 2013 - More Cutting, Sewing, and Corners

The next set of cutting instructions very quickly needed post-its to keep all the measurements straight

Tiny paper and tiny fabric...you can imagine all the excitement that caused. So far one 3x3 square of fabric is unaccounted for. I suspect Leela this time, only because she was constantly getting into the piles.

Lots of different strip sets were sewn at this point. Despite "basic" sewing, it was this instruction page that about did me in. The only thing that kept me trying to re-read instructions and maintaining careful organization was knowing I couldn't go to bed until all those little pieces of fabric and paper were taken up.

Finally corners of the quilt are constructed which was very satisfying.

And sadly this is where I will stop. I really don't want to, but tomorrow starts Winter quarter of classes.

All of us need to be back on schedule.

I do plan to keep working tomorrow. This is the sort of project that is hard to store which means it is really all over the place. I am afraid if I don't at least get the top completed in the next couple of days I won't finish the quilt at all.

And I want to see how it turns out...

Mystery Quilt 2013 - Sewing Step Two, Half Square Triangles

It was so beautiful outside today it was hard to come back in! I even opened a house window for just a bit, but it got cold fast.

Nim enjoyed his Christmas toy while I did some yard work. He has been wary of the thing ever since I put it around his neck and then laughed.

Emile finally came out of his hiding place to watch out the window.

So I love doing Half Square Triangle units. Always have. They are very satisfying and fast to me.

Now I have a bunch of units complete and the next step is more cutting.

I got caught up a bit on the message boards to see how people are doing and now know that there has been some confusion around this next cutting step (I think, or it is the sewing step right after that). There have been some beautiful results out there however.

Mystery Quilt 2013 - Cutting and Sewing Step One

Hello!

Despite a rocky start this morning we are off and sewing.

In the early hours of the morning Emile shredded one receipt, one envelope, chewed more of my sewing cardboard, and dragged some of the darkest fabric off to a location I only discovered an hour ago...all presumably because the last two nights have been way off his schedule.

Given my course load and odd jobs winter quarter should be awesome for Emile.

Meanwhile Leela has taken up yoga for 2013. If there is one person in this house that can probably achieve a meditative state, it is Leela.

Cutting for the scrappy quilt version (minus the dark fabric Emile hid):

Left to right:

Dark, neutral, dark warm, warm, light warm, cool.

First stage of sewing using dark, warm, light warm:

It is super cold but clear out so we are taking a break for some yard time. More updates to come...

2013 Goals

Hello 2013!

For the first time ever I am going to try stating some new year goals. Generally I am not a big fan...I think it is the fear of failure part. But I am going to focus more on stuff that I think would enhance my life without making me feel terrible if they don't happen. So much in my life hasn't gone remotely as I envisioned, but I have still lived so much wonderful stuff.

1. Teach Nim at least one "trick" per month. These "tricks" will be towards rally-free and rally-obedience goals. I think this will be really good for me as a handler to start breaking down behaviors I am struggling with and figure out how he best learns.

2. Rally-obedience Novice title. We have one leg so far and received a lower score than his in-class performance. Time to work on nerves in the ring.

3. Road-trip again - most likely September again.

4. Once a month try and hike/walk somewhere that is not my usual places. Even better if it is somewhere completely new.

5. Finish 2 quilts.

6. Finish 2 knitting projects (I think I have been working on the same sock for 2 years).

7. Enter at least one quilt show...online or otherwise, but what I really want to do is the Duvall quilt show. It is one of my local favorites.

8. Complete this latest stage of schooling - this one is a biggie. Credit-wise I could be done by Fall 2013 at the latest, but a lot depends on my unemployment situation.

9. Do something meaningful for me when I turn 40 in February. We will see what February looks like. I am not a party person, so meaningful might be nothing at all and that would still be OK.

10. Migrate this blog to WordPress. I have been thinking about this for months but still hesitate to even make it a goal...maybe the goal is to continue to weight the options. :) There is some functionality in WordPress that I would like to have.

I think it will be fun to check in on these goals during the year. Especially since some are monthly related.

I am purposely not setting goals around some of the daunting long-term stuff. I know in my heart some of the things I still want in my life and the path to get there isn't necessarily clear to me or entirely in my control. For now that has to be OK.

Stay tuned...there should be a lot of Mystery Quilt updating going on...