Day 65 - Foster Kitten Friday

I am so excited for the return of Foster Friday. With the shelter being closed because of the pandemic I was certain I wouldn't get the chance to do any fostering this year. While having multiple cruises cancelled made me sad, having my foster season cancelled broke my heart.

But no more. We've got kitties!

Since they are baby babies - all weighing under a pound each - I got to pick their names. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme. Sound familiar? Like Simon and Garfunkel's Scarborough Fair! It's taken them a couple days to settle in but they are doing great. As trying to corral four of them is a little hard, right now they're spending most of their time in their pop up pen. (It's like a playpen but for animals. It's this one here on Amazon.)

At first they just snuggled up in their little bed but then they started wanting to escape.

Potential prison escapees.

Alert the warden. We have Sage over the wall.

They took to the litter box well and are liking their gruel. Gruel is how we transition them from formula to real cat food. It's a canned cat food/jar baby food/kitten formula mixture put into a bottle. It's messy but it fills their bellies and helps them grow big and strong.

Thyme went after it so much he twisted off the lid
and dumped it all over me.

Parsley thinks it's pretty darn yummy.

I attempted to try and get them all into the same picture. It didn't work so well. 

Rosemary says hello.

What, one kitty is missing? Oh yeah, he stepped on my phone with my camera open as I was trying to get them lined up on the couch.

Who just took 18 pictures? Someone with a gray belly!

Want to help contribute to the work I do with foster kittens? I have an Amazon wish list right here. These are the things I use again and again, year after year. With daily laundry and frequent cleaning, items have to be replaced often. I’d love anything you’d be willing to send my way!

As hard as I tried to put them in order (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme) I had to give up. Herding cats is like, well, herding cats.

Left to right: Sage, Rosemary, Parsley, Thyme.

 A very Happy Foster Friday!

Day 64 - Being Aware

It was six months ago that we circumnavigated the globe by air, sea, and land.

It was an amazing trip with so many new experiences packed into those 31 days. (You can read about our adventures here. When you get to the bottom of the page click on “Newer Post” to get to the next day.)

But now our world has gotten so much smaller. It looks like it’ll be oh-so-tiny for us for a while so when we do get out (like with today's dr. appointment for Ed) I try very hard to be aware of my surroundings. Of new things. Of old things I’ve never seen before. 

If not for the awareness I would have missed these beautiful red hot pokers standing tall and proud just down the street from us. I'm sure they’ve been there in years past but I wasn’t aware enough to notice.

You can ignore the dirt spots on my car window.

Day 63 - Frankenstein Mask Making

Today I felt like Frankenstein working in his lab. (Except I was working with fabric and creating new face masks and not a monster.)

As my daughter is back to work full time she’s finding wearing a mask eight hours a day bothersome for her ears. While I planned on making some ear savers for her, I decided on a new design instead. Why? Well, Ed needed a back up mask, too. Since he’s the one-handed man, I needed to do something similar to what I made him last time. But the ear parts on the last mask were bothering him. And then I had one mask I had made myself with old elastic that wasn’t fitting right. Then I had an inquiry about a mask for one-handed folks so I figured I might as well roll all of those things into one.

Sooo...
Skip the ear savers I made.
Make a pleated mask like this one I made.
But add a nose wire like this one I made.
With fabric measurements like I used on this one.
Not with the ear loops I made here.
Do one with the Harry Potter fabric my daughter requested and one with the fabric my hubby requested and several more fabrics for someone else.

With lots of elastic.
And a camera rolling for one of them so I can possibly use it for a Tutorial Tuesday. 

While working around the schedule of four little bottle baby kitties who need their foster mama.

Just call me the mad scientist.

How to Make a Clear Vinyl Bag - Tutorial Tuesday

If you're looking for a decorative bag to hold all those items you need to take with you when you leave the house nowadays - mask, hand sanitizer, wipes, and spray - today's Tutorial Tuesday project is for you.

For this project you will need:

• 2  pieces of fabric 
• 2 pieces of clear vinyl, each measuring . There are several different gauges of vinyl. 12 gauge is a good choice.
• Piece of Velcro. 
• Painter's tape or Teflon sewing machine foot
• glue stick
• Clover Wonder Clips
• Iron
• Sewing machine
• Matching thread
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting ruler
• Cutting mat

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

The pattern is now available in my Etsy shop as a digital download with the written directions, and step-by-step photos. Click to get your copy today!

Looking for more travel ideas? Check out some of my other projects!

You can find the step-by-step how to directions for making this homemade clear vinyl bag sewing project right here:

Looking for mask patterns? I've got ya covered right here!

Day 61 - Almost Like Christmas

I would cruise 365 days a year if I could. But there are two things holding me back:

1. Our daughter. She lives in the next town over and one of my favorite things in the world is hanging out with her.
2. Foster Cats. After we had to put our kitty down several years back I started taking in foster kitties. Whenever we’re home, I get baby kittens who aren't yet old enough to adopt and help them get big and strong and ready for adoption. 

As we all know there is now a third reason I’m not always cruising. The dang pandemic has shut down the cruise lines. It’s also shut down hanging with my daughter and shut down the local feline shelter I work with.

But today one of those things changed. Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus and yes Deb, kitties still need temporary mamas. While the Simply Cats shelter is closed to the public, they did have something for me. Well, somethings - as in more than one.

Here's a peek at just one of the little bottle babies I'm transitioning from formula to gruel. Messy, messy. But oh so cute.

All is right with the world when you have this
little one staring up at you on a rainy Monday.

Want to help contribute to the work I do with foster kittens? I have an Amazon wish list right here. These are the things I use again and again, year after year. With daily laundry and frequent cleaning, items have to be replaced often. I’d love anything you’d be willing to send my way!

Day 60 - Definitely Not Dew Kissed

As I was picking kale in the garden I got a handful of squishy wetness. Could the leaves have been kissed by the morning dew? Nope. Maybe the day's rain had collected in the leaves? Nope.

Nothing but disgusting ickiness. Gross, nasty aphids.

Where are my ladybugs when I need them?

Day 59 - Two is Too Many

I typically skip breakfast. Occasionally I'll have some Greek yogurt when I get up but for the most part I usually head into the sewing room first thing in the morning. I'll work a while and then come break time eat the yogurt. But today when I woke up I was feeling like I wanted a breakfast burrito. We had the spicy Mexican chorizo. We had the eggs. We had tortillas and cheese.

We also had a husband who decided he was making himself bacon and eggs at the exact same moment a wife was cooking her breakfast at the stove.

At the old stove with not all burners working properly.
Under an old oven hood with a fan that makes a horrendous racket.
On what used to be nonstick pans. He Who Shall Not Be Named long ago scratched the heck out of them, turning them into stick pans.

Under normal conditions having two people cooking separate breakfasts at the same time in front of the stove would be difficult. Add in weeks of living under stay at home orders? Having those two people doing it with the barely working burners, a noisy fan, and crappy pans? Yeah, not so good. I think I see some new purchases in my near future to make kitchen life more manageable. (Probably should keep the hubby, though.)

But despite the morning hiccups, the breakfast burrito was pretty darn good.

Yeah, that's a Halloween plate. Don't judge.