Z is For Zippity Doo Da!

I actually started something, a month long something, and finished it! Zippity doo da! The A-to-Z challenge was lots of fun. I'm now looking forward to next year's challenge.

Just because the month is over, though, doesn't mean that I won't continue to discover new blogs. There are still a lot of blogs on the list that I haven't gotten to yet. I intend to use the list as a sort of blog library. I'll pick one or two each week and check them out.

It could take me a good long while to make it through the list. I'm sure I'll find blogs that I'll regularly follow, and some that just aren't for me. But I can't imagine I'll run out of material!

I also hope that all of you who have visited me this month continue to come by. I normally post every one or two weeks, which will feel like a vacation after this month. :)

Thanks to everyone who visited me throughout the challenge, and thanks to everyone I visited who worked just as hard as I did to put up a post every day.

Y is For Yelp

We've had our cat since she was a kitten, about 10 years now. She's always been very gentle and affectionate. She even lets little kids pick her up non-too-gently or pull her tail.

That's why I let out a loud "Yelp!" last night. I guess I moved in my sleep, and laid my foot on top of her while she was sleeping at the foot of my bed. I must have really startled her, because she jumped up and bit me so hard that it made me scream.  I think I was more startled than hurt, though.

It scared both of us. While I was wondering what happened, she scampered off to another room. She has never done anything like this before.

I guess I can forgive her. I don't think I would like someone's foot coming down on top of me in my sleep either.

Here is a picture of my little sweetheart.

Cat

X is For X-cited

Yes, I know I spelled it wrong. But I couldn't think of a real X word, plus I am very excited. It's less than a week until I go to visit my grand-daughter for 10 days!

I visit her every year at this time because her school has what they call an Elders Tea. The kids are supposed to invite someone special to them for an afternoon of musical entertainment and then tea and cookies.

We even get a formal invitation.

It's a really fun afternoon. We both get all dressed up for it. Plus I get to spend 10 whole days doing special activities with my grand-daughter.

I am very, very X-cited! I can't wait to go on this trip!

Cat

W is For Wirework

Along with my beadwork, I've been teaching myself to do wirework. I can do the basics pretty well right now, make a loop, a wrapped loop, and make a pair of earwires.

One wireworker who I really admire is Nicole Hanna. Just looking at her designs keeps me inspired to continue learning, so that one day my wire designs can be as nice as hers.

Here is a sample of one of her designs. This one is a pendant.

And this is one of her bracelets.

Doesn't she do absolutely beautiful work? You can visit her shop, linked above, if you want to see more of it.

Cat

V is For Vintage

There is a vintage shop on Etsy that I just love to look through.  It's called Scrappy Puppy Vintage, and the reason I love it is that the owner makes up some really funny stories for the items he sells. Also, he uses his profits for medical research, so here's your chance to help out and get something for yourself at the same time.

He actually makes you believe that you  need these "poison" stickers, because he comes up with so many good uses for them.

He also finds some really unusual things. How cute are these kissing duck salt and pepper shakers?

I think I may be the other person he talks about in the description of this piece who still uses pencils. I like them better than pens because I make a lot of mistakes and I can erase. This is a very cute pencil sharpener, and I may claim it for myself.

Visit the Scrappy Puppy Vintage shop yourself, and often, as you never know what you will find there.

Cat

U is For UFO

In the craft world, we use UFO to mean Unfinished Object.

UFO's are all those projects sitting around the house that you were soooo excited to start, and then pooped out on halfway through. But someday I will finish them! That's why they haven't been torn apart to salvage the materials.

I looked around, and just within easy reach of me I have five unfinished projects. One was a birthday gift for my daughter. TWO years ago. Maybe I'll finish it up and give it to her this year. Boy, will she be surprised if I do.

Do you have any half-finished projects sitting around your house? Do you think you'll ever finish them?

Cat

T is For Tardy

Sorry, I'm late with my T post.

I am very much a procrastinator, and I'm surprised that I've even made it this far into the alphabet. I am enjoying this, though, so even though I was tardy with one day I am going to continue and finish the challenge.

Cat

S is For Sad

Yes, I am sad today. My partner works a job which takes him out of town for six months each year. I am taking him to the airport in four hours, and then we will begin our six months apart.

With phones, Facebook, Skype, and all the other technological advances these days, we will still be able to keep in touch, but it isn't the same. There is no warm body to hold during a phone conversation, and a picture just isn't the same as a hug.

So, goodbye for now my best friend. I look forward to many cuddles six long months from now.

Cat

R is For RebelMouse

One of my online friends showed me a new site called RebelMouse. I haven't really learned how to use it to it's best advantage yet, but I like it so far.

 When you sign up, you link it to one, or all, of your social networking sites. It takes your content from those sites, pulls it all together, and lets you add tags. Once your content is on RebelMouse, you can leave it as it is, edit the headlines and/or the notes, or remove content you don't want. You can also add new content manually. You can have as many separate RebelMouse pages as you want. This is my first RebelMouse page.

I like that since it's so new, the owners are very accessible, and respond quickly to every email I send them. I also like the look of the page. I think it draws viewers in. What I'm not so pleased with is that it's difficult to get a feel for how to navigate around at first, but once you do, it's a lot of fun to play with.

It can be used as a blog, a gallery for your designs, or anything else you can think of. There are upgraded features for a fee, but I don't think I need those for now. Paid services can wait until I figure out how I can use RebelMouse to drive business. For right now, I'm just fooling around with it and seeing what it can do.

Do you like the look of it and the way it's set up? Do you think you would use it?

Cat

Q is For Quilts

One of the new commenters on my blog this month, Nita, has a quilting blog, and that got me started thinking about buying quilts for my two new grandbabies coming.

I've always loved quilts. They are beautiful, and so much love and work goes in to them. Even if they are small baby quilts, they can be kept as wall-hangings after the baby has grown out of them.

Large quilts do a great job of keeping you warm on cold nights. They can be handed down as family keepsakes.

Quilts can be made out of quilt blocks, or they can be made of materials that have special meaning to you. Maybe your collection of T-shirts that you never wear any more, or a babies old clothing.

You should check out Nita's blog. It has a lot of information about making quilts that I never knew before.

Cat