Meg and Meg

That look says it all! We woke her up to take a photo of her alongside my husband's new guitar (which he has named Meg, because it looks like Meg).

Yesterday morning we were woken up by her jumping around on the landing outside our bedroom door. The landing is kind of her play area. We've started shutting her out of our bedroom at night because we were being woken up by her four or five times a night as she came in and out and went exploring round the bedroom etc. Anyway, she sometimes jumps around to get our attention and to try to get us to open the door, so usually I ignore it, but yesterday morning I could just tell she had a 'friend' in with her.

I got up to find a sweet wee mouse lying by her feet and Meg looked at me all happily.

The mouse looked convincingly dead, so I herded Meg downstairs (avec mouse in her mouth) and tried to shoo her out the door but she stubbornly sat by the kitchen cupboard and HEAD FIRST started to chew the mouse. Ugh, it turned my stomach. I picked her up and carried her out the door. It was only when I'd put her out that I realised she'd dropped what was left of the mouse - its entrails, which were about a metre long! and what looked like its liver. Thankfully my husband turned up to help clear this up and I bleached the floor! Yuck.

Sister Skirt

I finished my sister's birthday skirt. It took me two weeks to pluck up the courage to make it. I knew from experience (the Eyelash skirt) that if I tried to make it when I wasn't in the mood it would be rubbish. The result is I think it's the best skirt I've ever made. This is the waist band, which I'm particularly pleased with. I wanted to improve my skirt-making techniques as it is a present for my sister's birthday so I decided to make the waist band in the same material instead of sewing on arbitrary strips as I did with Joyce and Mo's skirts, though I still think they look really cool. I also used interfacing for the first time ever (woo hoo) and I doubled-up the hem so there are no scraggly ends (sorry Joyce and Mo!). I also thought the zip was the best I've ever fitted, thanks to Anna's advice of sewing the seam first, then inserting the zip, instead of the other way round. The colours in the photos haven't turned out particularly well. The material is really vibrant, mustard and olive, it's absolutely beautiful and radiates in natural light. I found this gorgeous trim on Saturday in a little craft shop. The colours are beautiful. I don't know what I'll use it for but I couldn't resist buying it.

Happy Birthday Jacqueline

Isn't she lovely?

LOVE that jumper (I'm serious).

Christmas dresses.

Halloween. I think I'm a gypsy, but you'd have to ask my mum.

Jacqueline's the American Indian at the back.

I made this into a Father's Day card this year. Jacqueline didn't like it because her hair was messy. Should have brushed it before having her photo taken, I reckon.

Is she, or isn't she...?

Yes, she is wearing Crocs!

After much um-ing and ah-ing my husband finally persuaded me to buy them midweek. Though I love colour I decided to go for black, thinking I'd be able to wear them with anything. Unlike Anna who bought orange Crocs!I also received a backdated edition of Selvedge, and the latest edition of Selvedge in the post. The backdated edition has a feature on wool from the Scottish Borders, which is where I hail from, and it made me yearn for home, and wool, and a kilt!It's felt so wintry lately that my thoughts turned to my Winter 07 accessories, i.e. hat, scarf and mittens. I thought I'd like a new colour scheme and finally landed on black and red. Then today I priced up how much they would cost me to make: £30, and how much time it would take me to knit: too much, and I think I might stick with last year's accessories for another year instead. I finally finished my Eyelash skirt today. I only had the waist band to sew in place. I'm not sure if I like it or not. I think the material is too yellow for me. It looked greeny-olive when I bought it online. And I really need to learn how to make a proper waist band. It's my sister's birthday tomorrow, and I had promised to make her a skirt in Amy Butler's Coriander Olive, the same material I made Joyce's skirt with, but it's been late arriving, so she will be a week late getting it. I think once I've done that, and made my Paperweight Algae skirt, I really need to move onto another pattern. This one's beginning to bug me. I want to make an elasticated top like the one SouleMama made a while ago.

Hagos has gone on tour again, for a week. I dropped him at Norwich Airport this morning at 5am!! We left the house at 4.30am. And went to bed at 11pm! So, knackered.

Finally, a gratuitous photo of Meg, who is much recovered and sweet after her op: I love when her head is tucked into her feet!

The Vet

I just took Meg to the vet to be spayed and I feel dreadful. No food after 9pm last night, no water after 8am this morning. She was actually rather good about not complaining about the lack of food. Usually her food bowl always has something in it. I set my alarm for 8am this morning as the vet said to drop her off between 8.30am and 10.30am. When I got up, however, she wasn't in the house, so about 9.15am I went looking for her and found her sleeping in the long grass down the back lane, very near where she used to live. I carried her all the way home, and then it was a fight to get her into the cat carrier. She knows it means the vet's. Eventually I had to stand it on its end and drop her in from the top, but even that was difficult. The drive there wasn't so bad, though she was meowing/crying and looking at me like I'd betrayed her.

I have to pick her up between 2.30pm and 3pm. They'll call me. I feel so responsible making decisions about her health though. It seems cruel to make her go through being on heat every four weeks, and though I was initially excited about her having kittens I also soon realised the responsibility of finding good, kind homes for them. So the only option is to have her spayed, but she's such an independent, free spirit who comes and goes when she likes I also feel bad about putting her into a cat carrier and forcing her to have an operation.

I'll be so glad when I have her home again today.

UPDATE: Meg is home now and still in shock from the day. She's upstairs semi-sleeping. I feel so sorry for her. Hopefully it won't be too long before she feels like herself again.

Gemma

I finally finished Gemma's back. I'd like to claim it as the longest knitting of a jumper in history, but I know my sister-in-law has been knitting her husband a jumper for about ten years now, and Gemma has only been two and a half years - or is it three? - in the making.

I eventually went to bed this afternoon, because I was so tired. I needed a day slobbing around at home. I made dinner early at half four (vegetable pasta) and was going to watch the second half of Meet Me In St Louis when the Henin/Williams game came on TV. My sister and I are huge Wimbledon fans and have been twice (a couple of years ago for the men's finals) so I'm watching that and thinking about making my Eyelash skirt when it's finished.

Dublin!!!

This was me about five minutes after getting to the hotel in Dublin. I love hotel 'stuff'. My husband laughs at me getting so excited about it. I arrived in Dublin early afternoon and made my own way to the hotel (I was determined to get there without using a taxi, so I got the bus from the airport into Dublin then wandered around with a vague map looking for the hotel). I dropped my case off at the hotel and then went into town and did a bit of shopping.

Of course, the most exciting thing about being in a hotel is breakfast in bed:

I made Hagos go through the breakfast list every night for the following day, even though he assured me he wanted exactly the same thing every day.

On the second day we met up with our very old friend Shane (old as in how long we've known him, not old as in he's a geriatric). We first met Shane when we lived in London about twenty years ago. Last time we saw him was about ten years ago so it was SO nice when we arrived in the hotel bar and he and his girlfriend and children were waiting for us.

It reminded me that Hagos and I really need to move to be nearer to friends and family. We've had an ambition to move to Edinburgh for years. I think we'll have to throw a really big party when we eventually manage it!

The rest of the time we spent wandering around and having a really nice time being together.

My dilemma of what to do on the plane there and back was resolved by resorting to crochet again. The last time I crocheted was two years ago when I flew to Edinburgh. I don't know if the knitting needle restriction has been lifted on planes but I didn't want to chance it. This is what I made:

They're completely mindless to make but very quick. I think I'll make a few more and sew them together to make a cushion cover. Back it with some material.

I was glad that my confidence in flying had returned. Towards the end of touring with my husband's band about ten years ago I became nervous and anxious. And it took me four years to get in a plane after 9/11. But I really enjoyed flying to Dublin. It's totally amazing when the plane revs up for take off, drives really fast and then the ground just falls away. I find landing equally exciting.

Above is take off. Below is leaving the Irish coast on the way home again. Meg was as pleased to see me as she usually is. I think she was very well looked after by Karen while I was gone and probably didn't notice the change in butlers.

Today I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. I went a walk to Reepham Station this morning to have lunch and to get my sister's birthday card. I should really go to Sainsburys to get some food in but I don't feel like it. I might just light a fire and snuggle down with a film.