Flower Coaster

It has been a long while since I last wrote; I hope you are all keeping well. I am still here and I have been working on my needlework; just that I blog less nowadays.

I crocheted a few flower coasters for co-workers. I made 7 of these, all different color, but forgot to take pictures before giving them away. I did two more today and I remember my camera – pretty, are they?
They are so easy to make, just three rounds and you have a 4" coaster.

I found this pattern from one of my old books. I used 5mm hook and worsted weight cotton yarn. If you want the pattern contact me by leaving a comment with your email address.

Clearwater, Florida

I finally get round to sew my summer top. New Look pattern 6976; it requires a lot of bias tape. Lucky I have various sizes of bias tape maker from Clover, so I made my own and didn’t have to spend much on sewing notions.
I finished the sewing just in time for our getaway last week to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We headed north and drove through a storm. It was so scary. We could hardly see where we were going. There were thunders and lightning and they were so close to our car. The lightning bolts were striking down either side of the highway, with the light and the crack happened at the same time.

Once we passed the storm it was Florida weather again; hot and sunny with blue sky and white clouds. Our destination: Clearwater on the west coast of Florida, just west of Tampa.

One of the reasons we chose Clearwater was because it is pet friendly. This is the doggie beach at Fort De Soto County Park.

You could tell Poppy loved it, right? She was ready to go for her second swim before we finished setting up camp!

I purchased a few craft things on my travel, going to try them out now.

Thank you for visiting. Have a great weekend.

A natural swimmer

I want to tell you a story about Poppy and water. It happened when Poppy was very little. I was playing with Poppy one day and I noticed that there’s skin between her toes. I pointed it out to my husband and asked if Poppy has webbed feet. “O yeah” he said “Let’s find out if she is a natural swimmer.” So off we went to the seaside.

The sea was a bit choppy that day and there was a strong wind, so I decided to stay on land. I was a bit concerned that the sea might be too rough for Poppy, but hubby reassured me “Don’t worry. I got her. We’ll be fine.” He picked her up in his arms, carrying her like a baby and started walking into the water. Poppy was only eight weeks old. She was so tiny, all peaches and cream, and just a fluffy ball of fur.

Delray Beach seaside is fairly shallow. You have to walk quite a distance before the water is anywhere near your waist. I was arranging the beach towels and getting comfortable. When I looked up, hubby was far away and the water was about chest deep. He had just stopped and turned around to face me. I looked behind him and to my horror saw a huge wave with foamy white caps rushing towards him. I waved. He waved back. I pointed towards the big open sea. He didn’t see me, by then his attention was on little Poppy and had no idea what was coming. Exasperated, I got up and run to the water’s edge, cupping both hands around my mouth and shouted as loud as I could, “… the wave… hold on to her…”

Too late. The big wave washed over hubby and knocked him off balance. They both went under. When he found his footing and emerged from the water Poppy was gone. There were white foams all around him but no sign of Poppy. He pushed the white foams away to look under the water, no good. He dived under to search but came up empty handed.

Seconds ticked away. I feared the worse. The white foams had died down, and then a few feet away from hubby, out popped a little head and Poppy surfaced. Yeah, she’s a natural swimmer alright. She swam ashore, walked with me to where our bags and beach towels were, planted her butt on solid ground, and that was it. Poppy was done for. She had this fear of water, and whenever we go to the seaside again she wouldn’t even walk on wet sands.

A dog with webbed feet should love water, not to fear it. We have to do something to fix this. Over the following weeks and months, I would get up very early and take Poppy to the beach. I didn’t force her into the water I just let her follow me off leash. Gradually over time she was prepared to walk on the wet sands… let the water touched her toes… this went on for about a year. One day, as usual, we went to the seaside, but this time instead of following me, Poppy rushed pass and hopped into the sea and the water was as high as her chest! I knew then at that moment Poppy has overcome her fear.

Now, you simply can’t stop Poppy from having fun in the sea.

Our furry daughter is 6 years old today. Happy birthday Poppy.

Baby Pink Cardigan

I have finished the little cardigan a while back but didn’t have a chance to take a photo of it. We have a lot of rain lately.
Now that Tropical Depression Bonnie is moving away, we have good weather today. The baby jacket is very cute.

I am slowly establishing a routine for my craft again, so hopefully I will have more projects to show. Till next time, hope all is well with you and yours, have a great weekend.

Wild Life in Our Garden: a rent free tenant

It is summer. In Florida that means thunder storms and heavy showers. One day, my husband let Poppy out after they got rained in for a whole afternoon. Poppy rushed to the back of the house. She sniffed around the orchid room, lifted her nose, and started barking at the side of the roof.

The orchid room is an enclosed area with trellis doors, walls and roof which was heavily covered with vines. My husband couldn’t see anything, so he went inside the orchid room and looked up. Would you believe it? A raccoon has decided the best place to keep dry from the rain was the side of our house.

Despite Poppy’s loud barks the raccoon refused to move and carried on napping. That night my husband put a trap out and the raccoon simply couldn’t refuse the fish dinner we put inside the trap.

Raccoons have very sharp claws and they could do serious damage to our property so we don’t like having them around. We don't mind other animals, they live in the yards and stay away from the house. Creatures like this baby opossum can be our rent free tenant. They are cute when they are little, aren’t they?

Back to Normal

My husband’s uncle and auntie came and stayed with us for a week. They are both 60 this year and are celebrating their 40 years’ wedding anniversary. My husband and I booked time off work, took them to places, wine and dine them every night… and really pushed the boat out to make their visit in Florida special and memorable.

Here is a picture of them enjoying the airboat ride to see the Everglades. They were sitting at the left back row, the uncle in green shirt and the auntie was hidden by the man in blue.
We have done this so many times now that I was happy to wait in the car and to do some knitting. This is what I managed to do while entertaining the relatives. I’ve done the left front, working on the back…just the right front and two little sleeves to go.

When it was time for the uncle and auntie to say goodbye they gave me a surprise gift.

A money box decorated with an abacus for addition, a little drawer to keep the coins, so neat.

After a week back to work, this is the first weekend when things are back to normal. I have my first chance of spending some times in my craft room this morning. I selected my next project, knitting a swatch to test the gauge right now.

Thank you for visiting. Have a great weekend.

Poppy got expelled

Long time no blog. I still tried to keep up with blog reading but I have not been able to find time to write the posts I have in mind. Poppy has been a concern over the last few weeks.
Florida is in the rainy season now. When the season changes from dry to wet, the garden comes alive. Trees, plants, grass, weeds…suddenly wake up and sprouting new growth in earnest. The place is buzzing with flying insects, crawling bugs, snakes, furry creatures… before I knew it, Poppy was bitten by a bug on her butt. It happened last year and like last year Poppy made the little area worse by licking it and turned it into a sore patch.

One Monday morning 7:30am I dropped Poppy off at the Doggie Day Camp, they sent us home. They refused Poppy because of the hot spot on her butt. I had to take a sick day and stay home with her. Luckily my husband was working from home the rest of that week, so Poppy was able to stay home with daddy.

My husband and I know the drill now. We gave Poppy a summer hair cut, shaved and applied medication on the sore area, put an e-collar on Poppy and she healed quickly. So a week later off to Doggie Day Camp she went.

My husband was travelling this time, so I was relying on Doggie Day Camp to care for Poppy while I was at work. All was well until mid-week. When I collected Poppy in the evening, they told me that Poppy bitted an assistant. Not deep. She nipped the skin and drew blood. Poppy was expelled. I can’t believe it: Poppy got kick out from Doggie Day Care the second time.

I have no friends or families live nearby who could help. Luckily someone we met a few times who does dog walking as a hobby came to my rescue.

Over the weekend we went to see Doggie Day Camp and found out what happened. Poppy didn’t want to play with the other dogs in the big play room and she didn’t want to go back to her own cubicle. She was in a smaller relief room and when staff wanted to move her, Poppy told them no by going for the hand.

Their in-house dog trainer came to speak with us. She asked all sorts of questions…any changes in routines, food, medication, how we interact with Poppy, dog personalities…at the end she concluded that we should not use her crate as a punishment. Poppy is a commend dog. Staffs have to tell Poppy what they want her to do. They cannot man-handle her and should use treat to reward Poppy when she goes to her room. She gave Poppy a reprieve.

My husband said to Poppy, “Come on girl. You’ve been given a second chance, don’t blow it, ok?”