All Buttoned Up

 If you read Alley’s most recent post, you know that “She” has been sewing.  As is often the case, she couldn’t find what she wanted ready-made and had to resort to making it herself.  In this case, it was a John Deere shower curtain.  In the process of making the shower curtain, she had to decide between grommets or buttonholes for the shower curtain rings to go through.  She toyed with the idea of grommets, and, even though they aren’t that expensive, compared to the price of thread, they would have added to the overall cost of the project.  One perk to making an item versus buying it is being able to do it on the cheap.

Because her sewing machine isn’t quite so advanced that it could make buttonholes automatically, the grommets may have looked more attractive.  But, thanks to an ancient Kenmore Buttonhole Attachment, she was able to zip right through them.

The attachment once belonged to MawMaw, and you can see it still does a fine job of making a professional looking buttonhole.

It’s pretty amazing that it is still working so well. MawMaw always wrote the date on things when she got them, and you can see from the inside of the box lid, this thing has been around since 1963!

Forty five years!  You can see the box hasn’t held up that well, but at least the attachment still works!   Just imagine all the items through the years that were buttoned up, thanks to this tool!  I bet there were a few groovy dresses in the sixties, some bell-bottoms in the seventies, some jackets with padded shoulders in the eighties,  and a khaki skirt with buttons down the front in the nineties.  And, I know of at least two shower curtains from the current decade!  Who knows what else this antique gadget will help to create in the future?

Kosmo

Thinking Green

Even though we try to be environmentally conscious here at The House of 9 Lives, in this case, we are thinking John Deere Green!  “She” had promised “He” when the hall bath was decorated with a french motif (click here to see pictures from before and after that decorating project) that she would also come up with a decor that was a little less “fru-fru” and more in line with his tastes.  So, she recently re-decorated the bathroom with a John Deere theme.  The base colors in the room, the yellow walls, with black trim and black and white tile were a good background for the John Deere accents.  At first, I thought the idea was a little tacky, but it has turned out really well.

 She framed some black and white tractor photos and added a few little accents to finish the look. 

 

 Because she couldn’t find a shower curtain to suit her, she decided to make her own.  She finally found John Deere fabric at Hobby Lobby and stitched up a cute curtain!

You might also notice the clever little tractor night light.  She wasn’t able to find one like she wanted at any local stores, and the ones that were available on line cost more to ship than the cost of the light itself, so, she made one!  It’s a simple light sensitive night light with a small John Deere tractor (actually an antenna topper from Cracker Barrel) glued in place. Works like a charm and looks just like She wanted it to!

So, there you have it, the John Deere bathroom of his dreams!

Alley

Recoveries

“He” has been formally “crowned”.  Recently He visited the dentist for the placement of his two permanent crowns.  Overall, the procedure has gone very well.  That is, if you don’t take into account the night he got dental floss hung under one of the temporary crowns and popped it off!  It was an easy fix, though, the next day, he visited the dentist and it was promptly put back into place! 

“She” continues to recover from dental surgery on Valentine’s day.  We all really enjoyed her being home from work to keep us company and to cuddle up with.  At first I was a little miffed that She was in MY chair, but I got used to it eventually, and now that She is back at work, I can lounge here all I want.

Also in recovery is a neighboring community.  On Sunday, our area was rocked by bad weather, and the city of Prattville was hit hard with over 800 homes and businesses damaged, and many completely destroyed.  We are thinking of our neighbors and are very thankful there were no fatalities.  We’ve been told the pictures don’t show the full devastation in the area.  Blessings to all those affected here and in other parts of the state and country.

Our problems seem quite small compared to the trauma others are dealing with. Lately we’ve been counting our blessings.  While there has been a lot of downtime, and a lot of soup consumed, there has also been a lot of lap-sitting.  And that is just fine with the feline occupants of this household.  We like downtime, just fine!  Throw in a cozy fire and we are even more content.  Hopefully, soon, there will be contentment for everyone who was affected by the tornado.

 Blossom

Happy Valentine’s Day

Who in Zee House of 9 Lives ees more qualeefied to brring you zee Valeentine’s Greeting zan zee grreat lov-air, Casanova? Casanova knows more about zee romance and zee love zen anyone else, exzept maybe zee leetle icon of Valeentine’s Day, Cupeed.

Howev-air, zee grreat Casanova does not rely on zee heart-teeped arrrows and bow to create zee feelings of love.  He merely gazes into zee eyes of zee one he targets and from zat moment on, all ees lost.

Zee Cupeed has no arrrows in hees queever zat can compete wiz zee looks Casanova geeves.

Een Celeebration of zee day of St. Valeentine, “He” presented “She” wiz a special drink zeez morning. A Cinnamon Love You a Latte. 

 

 

“He” says eef love has a taste, eet has to be Cinnamon.  So, here’s hoping your day is feeled wiz Cinnamon goodness just like zee latte!

 Wiz Love,

Casanova

Friends in High Places

Alley has gotten into the bad habit of jumping to the top of the refrigerator. She knows she isn’t supposed to do it, but she will jump onto the island and sit there for a moment staring at “He” and “She”. Then, she will spring from there to the top of the refrigerator. She will just sit there, like it is the most natural thing in the world.

Once when she got on the counter, “She” got the laser pointer out to distract Alley and make her get down. It worked great. However, I think now she’s jumping up just so the laser pointer will come out to play!  I’m not sure who is training who around here!!  Oh well, as long as Alley is doing this, it is fair to say we’ve got friends in high places!

Speaking of friends, they went to a wedding on Saturday, and it was beautiful! The Bride was radiant and the groom was handsome. The ceremony was sweet, romantic, reverent and special. The happy couple is now cruising the Western Caribbean for their honeymoon. We wish them a lifetime of happy years together!

Barny

I Hear Bells!

Wait! No, that’s the can opener! And, oh…what’s that? TUNA!  “She” is a very brave woman to open a can of tuna at The House of 9 Lives. Want to create a stampede, or something?  Boy, the smell of tuna in the house really gets everyone cranked up. It’s like she’s playing defense to get the ingredients all mixed up and put in the fridge.

So, “He” will be having tuna salad for lunch today.  They usually eat together, but She has a special afternoon planned with their special friend T.J. who is getting married tomorrow!  They are going to have a girl’s afternoon of lunch at a nice little bistro, shopping, manicures and pedicures and a lot of giggling!  She will get to feel like the Mother of the Bride, which is such an honor for her.  T.J. and D.W. are a great couple, and we all wish them years of love and happiness together. After the wedding, they are taking a honeymoon cruise!

 So, guess there are bells after all. Wedding Bells! Congratulations to the Happy Couple!

Boomer

Serving Two Masters

 Mmmmm, yarn!

All mine!

Oh! Hello!  Okay, an update on knitting.  Not too much has been going on.  It seems the knitting mojo around here has kind of worn off!  “She” does have one project on the needles though, it is the Palindrome Scarf.  This is a great cabled scarf that is actually reversible!  Who knew?  The pattern was written by the wonderful Silver, who is very talented with all things knitting.

“She” is moving slow though, and She will be lucky to have it done by next winter. She has never made a scarf for herself, and this pink yarn was calling out to her, so she decided the Palindrome must be hers!  With the pretty pink color, She wishes She could have it done in time for Valentine’s Day, but that’s not going to happen! Here’s the progress so far:

It looks complicated, but it is a really easy pattern and is going well.   The biggest roadblock to knitting lately has been reading! Every time I turn around, She has her nose stuck in a book!  She should know by now you can’t serve two masters!  With the limited amount of time She has to devote to her pastimes, there’s no way She can give each the time it deserves.  I should know this. I’m constantly torn between napping and eating!

But, I have found a way to combine my love of yarn with napping!

Back off! I might be sleeping, but no one else is getting this yarn!

Lilah