A Happy Birthday

This is Mrs. Wilberforce. Today is her 15^th birthday.

Which according to the various cat-age calculators available on the Internet  makes her the equivalent of a human in their mid to late seventies. There is nothing left of her but the essential cat - bones and sinew, fur and whiskers, and a purr. She is an old gray-haired lady for sure.

Of course, she was gray-haired when we got her at 8 weeks old. Some folks just go gray early.

The first time I saw her, she was in a little cage at our local humane society. She and her brothers had all been neutered that day, and she was the only one awake. She was walking around on top of the pile of kittens, and as soon as she saw me she put one little white-gloved paw through the bars. I was a goner.

She is quite shy, and hides when other people are around. 

My friend Marcia maintains I made up this cat, though she had to give in and believe in her the day we were on Skype, and there was the elusive Mrs. W in my lap. Of course, you have seen her before, because she is very good at helping demonstrate things I bring home from yard sales.

She's helpful when I am writing, or sewing.

She likes to be up high.

At our last house, she loved to hang out on the roof. And she insisted that the hubs climb a ladder to fetch her down.

She has possibly the softest fur in the world. Like rabbit fur. Her nickname is Bunny.

Mrs. Wilberforce has been through quite a bit. Nearly five years ago she went into kidney failure, and we thought we would have to let her go then. The x-rays the vet took revealed that she was born with only one kidney, and that one wasn’t working very well. But we started giving her sub-cutaneous fluids nearly every day and she responded amazingly well. 

At first it was SO hard to stick a needle in her, I cried, she cowered. But now, after almost five years, we’re both unbelievably blasé. The whole process takes about three minutes, she chows down on a little canned kitty food, and we’re done.

At her last check up, we found she now has a serious heart murmur. She takes thyroid pills too. One of the things I love about pets is that unlike humans, they never complain about their ailments. She can no longer do everything she could do in her early years—she was a mighty huntress of gnats; if one landed on the wall she would leap straight up six or more feet and take it out—but she gets around just fine.

She is my role model, exactly what I want to be when I am her age. I’m doing really well in the gray hair department!

Best Boy

We had to say goodbye to our wonderful Edward this week. It was very hard.

He went in for a minor procedure that required anesthesia. Our vet called in the early afternoon to say he was having a hard time waking up and to pick him up a little later than arranged. When we got there, he still couldn’t walk. She had done an EKG and an x-ray, and it appeared that one of the drugs was probably the culprit. So she recommended we take him to the emergency clinic where they could administer an antidote and get him back on his feet.

However, the emergency vet discovered that unbeknownst to any of us, he had a tumor on his spleen, and that it had started bleeding. His morning procedure didn’t cause it, just coincidental. She said that there was a chance that the bleeding would start to clot and the blood be reabsorbed, so we settled in to be with him and wait.

Unfortunately that best-case-scenario did not happen. After about 7 hours we had to let him go, before his deteriorating situation caused him too much distress.

Edward was a very special dog. As much as I love them all, he was that dog that you get once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky. 

From the day we brought him home, he was simply and purely a good boy. Housebroken at 9 weeks, easy to train, no serious issues. He was the last of nine puppies, 

and the folks we got him from said he was very shy and would hide when people came to choose a puppy. But I know he wasn’t hiding, he was just waiting for us.

He was the perfect little brother for our dog Lizzie, never taking her assertive ways amiss. I had to laugh at the description in my journal of her teaching him that all the toys in the house were hers. 

Once he was showing the proper respect, she let him have his own nylabones and rope toys. 

Ironically, we lost her in exactly the same way, a tumor on her spleen.

Edward was the perfect big brother for our Zoë. When we were somewhat past missing Lizzie, Zoë came along and immediately started whooping his ass. He loved it. 

I’m sure he also loved that he was big enough to jump over the barriers that kept her in the kitchen when those puppy teeth got too tiresome!

It’s part of our contract with these loving creatures that one day we will have to say goodbye. 

But before that day they bring so much love and joyfulness that the bargain is worth it. One of my favorite quotes is from the song “Two for the Road,” where it says, “Every day that you are mine will be a lovely day.” We forget sometimes to pay attention to the loveliness. Edward always reminded me, and so will his memory. 

Bag It. Amen.

First weekend in March has become one of our favorites, and the reason is simple:

Church Rummage Sales with One-Price Bags!

Not that we didn’t enjoy the other church rummage sale without bags to stuff…but we didn’t buy anything there. Though we did check out all the merchandise.

The sale at Morningside Methodist is one we look forward to all year. Well organized, the stuff is clean, super nice ladies running the show. It’s big enough to find some treasures but not so huge that you’re overwhelmed and just want to run away. (Though I suspect it might be overwhelming for the organizers!) And for $5 they hand you a Trader Joe’s bag to fill as you will. If you ever want to try upcycling clothing, this is the kind of sale to watch out for.  

So what went into my Morningside bag? I started on the textiles aisle (told you it was well organized!) and into the bottom of the bag went this gorgeous piece of embroidered fabric.

Over four yards, already washed, and the fabric itself is either all cotton or a cotton and linen blend. It's probably a decorator fabric, but not so heavy it can't be used for apparel. I’m playing with ideas for it.

Next I found a set of four brand new Crate & Barrel placemats in an interesting cotton weave. Three of them had an inexplicable cord attached to one end, I suppose so you can roll them neatly for storage.

But then you have this cord on the table or making a lump if you hide it under the mat. Cords have now been removed, but they are cute. I'll use them for something else.

A vintage table runner of filet crochet was buried among the bedspreads and pillowcases. Hoping to use it in an upcycle, because I love the donkey!

On to the racks and tables of clothing. (I apologize for all the wrinkles in the pictures. Things that have been stuffed into bags come out that way!) We like to support local industry,

so into the bag went a buttery yellow linen vest and floral skirt. (I'm getting ready to start combining several linen things and see what happens.)

Found a cute shirt of lavender cotton that fits (but didn’t get photographed) and another linen shirt to play with.

A soft, creamy turtleneck sweater went in. 

The fabric tag said it was made of “55% seide & 45% kaschmir” and while I don’t read German, I figured that much cashmere couldn’t be bad. Turns out ‘seide’ is silk!

I love the beadwork on this sweater vest. My original thought was I’d upcycle it somehow, but the darned thing actually fits. So with total disregard for what is considered fashionable, I plan to wear it.

My bag was getting pretty full by now. Judy had found only a pair of flipflops, so in they went. And then one last cruise of a clothing rack revealed a fabulous painted jacket.

Probably too wild and crazy for many people, but I love it! In fact, I like it so much that bright and early Saturday morning I did some remodeling on it for a more comfy fit. Added orange vintage buttons, then pulled this scarf from my stash 

and went to work making it into a pleat in the back. I didn’t even cut the scarf, just doubled it since it's such a lightweight piece.

In all, my bag held 11 pieces. No, make that 14 if we count the placemats separately. Which averages out to about 35¢ each. Hooray for bag sales!

I would have been more than happy with that one sale for the weekend, but another church had a huge sale on Saturday. We’ve been to this one before, and it truly is overwhelming. Thousands and thousands of items, hundreds of people, and noise like you wouldn’t believe (made worse by the loud rock music they insist on playing). But because we’ve been here before, I knew the last two hours they cut prices to half…and that you can stuff a bag with clothing for two bucks. Of course they give you one of those little plastic grocery-type bags, but with the proper techniques you can get a fair amount in one. The proper technique is to tightly roll each piece, and the amount I got in was 11 pieces!

Even though things were pretty picked over when I arrived there were still hundreds of pieces of clothing. I found a cotton shirt for the hubs,

some sweaters for upcycling, including a Ralph Lauren lambswool

and a cashmere blend sweater set.

I just have to find a way to re-use this piece. Those squirrels!

Another linen shirt for upcycling.

A heavy linen eggplant-purple shirt that fits as is, but I have some ideas for embellishing.

This linen tunic is a European brand and looks unworn. Its retail price was likely about $70.

I thought I was finished, then found a rack of scarves near the exit. Most were pretty sad, but the large red and black ones went in my bag

And somehow no one had picked up the luscious raspberry-and-cream colored cashmere and silk.

So, two bucks divided by eleven…about 18¢ each.

Amen to that!