Texas Lady

We had another nice day today.  Since I stayed up until almost 5 AM last night (this morning?) I slept in but I knew Ronnie wanted to go shopping for some new western shirts today so I tried to wake up as soon as credible.  We went a couple of places and bought him about 4 shirts then went out for oriental food before finishing the errands.  After all the hubbub was over we came home and took the dogs out on the patio so they could play and we could take photographs.  Ronnie’s nephew came by and we had a pleasant visit while the dogs played and rolled in the grass.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we took over 500 megs of pictures.  We got one of our former foster dogs (Gino) back because his owner could no longer care for him so we have him up for adoption again.     Top photo: Zoe is standing between my feet where you can really see how tiny she is.)

Second photograph : “Are you my mama?”, says Zoe to Mimi.  Gypsy, Zoe and Mimi on the patio today.  Mimi has adopted the two new white puppies.  She must look like their mama because they both went right to her.  She even let Zoe nurse yesterday.  She corrects them and plays with them.  We’ve never seen this side of Miss Mimi so it’s been a very pleasant experience.

Bandit listens to every word that Keira says to him.  He knows she’d never lead him wrong.  Knowing  sweet Bandit he’d never tell her she was wrong.  He thinks she’s pretty damned cute.

So we have this new flyer out for Gino’s adoption.  He’s a sweet little Chihuahua boy, who has been neutered and is up to date on all shots and has been started on his monthly heartworm preventative.  All that boy needs is a furever family to love on, and a lap to lounge in.  He’s only 19 months old and weighs 5 whole pounds.

You can contact me, Cheri Lindsey, at dustyrose@verizon.net  or call 409-692-9962, or you can contact Tails in Transition Animal Rescue and talk with Ashlee 713-530-2542  Email: picklepms@gmail.com or info@tailsintransition.org   Please allow 24-48 hours for a reply as she attends college and works full time.

Our online adoption application can be found here: http://formsmarts.com/form/qx0

Got the professional photos of the new babies and they are precious with a capital P!  They’re posted at the bottom of this entry.  Both girls are doing well and growing.  Keira (big puppy) is what our vet calls “a ball of fire”.  She is rough and tumble and never runs down.  She was too rough with Zoe so I had to put them in separate crates.  I was afraid she was going to hurt Zoe in some way that couldn’t be fixed (like losing an eye or causing nerve damage) and I couldn’t allow that to happen.

I took Zoe back to the vet yesterday to get her skin rechecked and she’d gained 0.2 pounds, up to 1.1 pounds this week.  What a hefty girl, huh?  NOT!  I don’t know what Keira weighs this week but she’s getting to be a little chunk; I’d say she’s over 3 pounds now.  The main thing is that they are both alive, healthy and happy; the rest is incidental.

I did get in the sewing room one day and made some small-dog toys for the girls with bells inside.  The weren’t as easy as I expected them to be but I did sew that day long enough to find out what “didn’t” work, so hopefully I now know what will for when I go back and do some more.  Today was the day for Ronnie’s pre-ops so we were gone all day.  Since Ronnie’s surgery is late Thursday Maximus and I are going to have to miss this week’s training class, so we’re going tomorrow instead.  Wish us luck!  This will be the first time Maximus has gone to a training class by himself and I’m hoping for the best.  This is the guy who trains for obedience and socialization which are two things Max needs in the worst way.  I went to the first meeting for the 8-week course last week but we weren’t to bring our dogs so tomorrow will be the first time Max will see Jason and vice versa.  Ought to be interesting, to say the least.  I really have high hopes for this class.  This guy came highly recommended by rescue peeps who would know.  And he’s also local, like his house is less than 5 minutes away and the classes are in the next little town from our little town.  Too cool!  The last trainer was in Galveston so it took more planning and driving to make those work.  Bandit and Maximus learned to sit and down on command and “sometimes” they will stay for an infinitesimal amount of time.  LOL  Not their fault their momma (ME) stopped teaching them and only remembers “some”times to practice it with them.

My daughter brought me her laptop yesterday for repair but it wasn’t anything I could fix so I dropped it at the shop today.  When I bought the new Desktop computer I moved my new laptop into the sewing room.  The battery was completely charged up, the plug was unplugged and nobody bothered it at all.  But when I tried to boot it up it wouldn’t so I figured I was going to have a job to do to get it up and working properly again.  It is still under warranty so it’d had to be shipped to HP for repairs.  We didn’t figure it out but all the sudden it started working again by itself.  Weird shit.  But it’s still working and that’s all that matters now.  Now it’s been relegated to the sewing room and the desktop is on my desk, maybe until the new wears off and if I continue to like the desktop it may stay this way.  The desktop has a 23″ screen, the laptop 19″, so either of them will beat the 14” laptop that was in there.  It’s hard to work on embroidery design software on a little tiny screen.

On Sunday we made a trip to Houston to rescue two tiny Chihuahua sisters about 8 weeks old.  Yes, they are the cutest little beings ever!  The tiniest one, Zoe, weighs 0.9 pounds, the bigger one, Keira, weighs 2.4 pounds.  Yesterday they went for their first veterinarian visit and received a clear bill of health; they didn’t even have worms which is fairly common with puppies.  They got their first puppy shots, received worm medicine to make sure none of the little bastards are lurking in their systems, and their first heartworm prevention pill.  They’ll continue the puppy inoculations on a usual schedule.

Today we went to our vet clinic to have their photographs done by a professional photographer who donates her time and energy to rescues in the area.  She took pictures of 9 little critters today so it will be a few days before we get to see how ours turned out.  The goal now is to keep the little ones healthy and happy.  We will be re-homing Keira but keeping Zoe.  Zoe is an apple-head Chihuahua and I’ve been wanting another one ever since we got Dusty.  This one seems to have the same personality that Dusty has, too.  She is relaxed and loves to be held and cuddled….just my kind of canine.  Keira is all puppy– goes 90 MPH 24/7, rough & tumble, very vocal and playful.

On another note, I’ve been too busy to get in the sewing room again but took a trip to the fabric store today.  I’m about to embark on a new project that is a gift for a family member.  Tomorrow I have to take Fancy and Dusty to the vet for their yearly check-ups and shots so I more than likely will not get to sew tomorrow either.  Between working on computers, running errands, doctors’ appointments, and dogs to the vet I’ve had no real ME time lately.  I have just been stacking things up in the sewing room; you can barely see the tables!  LOL  But there’ll be a bunch of new “toys” to play with in time.

The new desktop PC arrived on Thursday; I’ve spent the past 2 days taking off crapware and installing my software, setting up email, iTunes, etc.  Ronnie drilled a hole in the back bottom of my desk in order to run the wires where the dogs wouldn’t eat them.  This stuff is too expensive to feed to the 4-legged children.  Luckily the dogs haven’t been interested in the computer.  They smelled of the boxes until we dragged them out to the garage but have left the PC alone.  I ordered it with 12 GB RAM knowing that I’d more than likely have to upgrade from there but it’s cheaper to buy locally than to have HP install it.  And it does need more, probably another 16 GB and I’ll be set to run my graphics programs for my embroidery machine.  I’ve printed out all the details I need to take to the store, just too lazy to do errands again today.  The good thing about retirement is there’s always tomorrow.  LOL

The UPS system arrived yesterday, charged overnight and installed today.  Works perfectly so now I don’t have to worry the next time I stitch a huge multi-stitch pattern that we may have another power dip.  I tested it by unplugging it from the wall with the machine plugged into it and turned on.  It switched to battery backup immediately and showed that I could run the machine as it was for 61 minutes.  I think that should do it!  Haven’t had time to do any sewing for a couple of days due to doctors’ appointments and errands.  Still have one more day of errands but after that I should be on GO again.  I’ve found I can think up projects a whole lot faster than I can do them.  LOL  I guess it’s that way with any hobby, really.  I’m just tickled that I found something that I love so much; it keeps me happy and motivated, and allows me to give gifts that no one else can give.  Nothing like a unique gift, no matter what it is or to whom it is given.  I have received so much in my life and it’s nice to be able to give something back, no matter how small or insignificant.  Makes me smile…….

Today was another productive day, if frustrating to a certain degree.  I decided to make the sewing machine and serger covers since I’m waiting on the UPS backup I ordered from Amazon and I don’t want to start the next embroidery design without it.  If we experience another power blip while I’m stitching out 80,000 stitches I don’t know if I’d ever go back and do it again.  That’s about 3 hours of stitching, just changing thread colors and watching the machine run.  Boring and stressful, just waiting for something to happen and this design requires 45 thread changes.  I don’t think I’ve ever done one with that many changes.  That means I have to rethread the machine 45 times just to stitch one 8″ x 8″ design.  It’s a beautiful pattern, of course, or no one would expend that much effort to stitch it.  I’d rather have insurance against a repeat of what happened with Ronnie’s shirt.  It’ll be a beautiful design and a nice gift for a family member so I don’t want to screw it up!

The machine covers are made out of the same fabric as the table skirts–I just bought extra skirts and cut them up for the cloth.  So they all match, but the room is very dark at night when the only light is from fixtures.  I didn’t have a pattern for the Babylock logo so I had to make up the embroidery pattern myself, which worked out famously, as you see.  Then I ran out of gold braid, went back to the store to pick up some more and found out they didn’t have any.  It would have cost me $40 to order it online because they only sell it in lots of 25 yards and the shipping was $11+.  I didn’t need it that bad, so I had to sit and rip out the entire spool that I’d already sewn onto the first cover I’d made.  I hate ripping out!  In fact, I don’t know anyone who likes ripping anything out.

It’s another project completed, and another point in my favor.  Score one for the home team!

Today was a productive day.  I got my friend’s blankets made and in the mail.  And she loves them.  YES!!!!!!  Another point for my side.

And I got the table skirts on.  Tomorrow I will probably start making the covers for the machines out of this same fabric.  I bought enough table skirts so I’d have matching fabric for the machine covers.  Wish me luck!

Today was a fabric shopping day.  I have been commissioned (by a rescue friend) to make blankets for her dogs.  I’ve never sewn for money before, and this will more than likely be the last time I do, so it should be interesting.  After fabric I went in for a pedicure and refill then I went grocery shopping.  Needless to say I didn’t get much done around here with all the errands on my schedule today.  Tomorrow I have one appointment, then I hope to start on these blankets.  I also have one to do (with a huge design) for a gift.  Ronnie is working a lot of hours right now with inventory so maybe this will allow me to “make hay while the sun shines”.

The blankets I mailed Monday to another friend were received well.  She loved them and I’m so happy about it.  One point for my side!

This is the project I completed today.  I stitched the two designs on the front of this shirt.  Below you see Ronnie modeling them.  He was very pleased with it even though it took me a couple of months to finish it.

In the middle of stitching the first design we had a power dip and I had to rip it out and redo the entire design.  It was very frustrating, to say the least!  Now I see why those “in the know” suggested a backup power system

( like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0019804U8/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00).

I will definitely be purchasing one in the NEAR future!  Sometimes it’s challenging enough just to stitch the designs correctly without damaging the item; I sure don’t need fluctuating power levels to screw me around (I do that to myself enough already  LOL)

I finally got to finish the last two designs on the four blankets I was working on.  I think my next project will be something besides a dog.  LOL  I’m pretty sick of looking at these because I’ve been working on them for the past couple of weeks.  I think I’ll go back and finish Ronnie’s shirt now.  He’s probably wondering what happened to it.  After I stitched the huge horse on the back I had to take a break but it’s been a long damned break, so back to the drawing board.  And on Monday these can go in the mail.

I got the clips for the table skirts in the mail yesterday…..and they were the wrong ones, so I mailed them back this morning so they can refund my money, and I ordered the ones that “ought” to fit.  Crossing my fingers on that one, but they were the largest size and, since they’re metal, they will bend if they’re not.  The ones I sent back were plastic.  Live and learn.