Of Mice, Cats, Birds, and Stitching, Too!

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but we live in rural area. Now we are not too far out of town, but we are surrounded on all sides by fields and wooded areas. And we live in a old house. Field stone foundation, plaster walls. An old house. Which of course, means we get mice. Especially when the weather starts to turn cold. Now this year we seem to have alot of mice! I don't know if this means that we are going to have severe winter of not(I sure hope not!) We keep setting traps and we keep emptying them. We also have two cats! They apparently aren't doing their job! I have a story to tell you about that!

The orange cat we have, Copper, is very old, and I don't think he hears or smells that well any more. The princess, Periwinkle, I don't think she really knows what to do with a mouse! Until this fall. Actually, even then! Let me explain. I had gone into my kitchen to move my dishwasher back into its place. (I do not have a built-in) She was staring under the stove, but moved as I moved the dishwasher. A mouse runs out from under the stove and she chased it a little. Now by this time I am shrieking and screaming! My DD runs into the room wondering what is going on! I yell "There's a mouse!" So she is screaming, I am screaming, and Periwinkle is sitting under the table wondering what in the Blazes is going on! So all three of us end up chasing this mouse, which results in us chasing it out the door! Now, one of two things is likely to happen after this. The mouse runs out of this house never to be seen again, thanking his lucky stars that he got out of this nut house! Or he was back in again in under 15 minutes, having found a safer place to hide!

Now all this brings me to our new member of the family! I have been leaving a couple teasing hints on a couple of my groups, so without further fanfare, here is Chloe!!

A couple weeks ago, during DD's last horse back riding lesson until March, I was sitting watching her ride. I usually bring in a blanket to help ward off the chill. And since it is barn, there are always cats and kittens. I was holding a little black one but this one kept biting my nose. The owner was joking around and saying that we needed one. I replied that we had two and that they weren't helping with the mouse situation. "These ones are great mousers!" She said, selling it for all it was worth. Hubby walked in during this and said that if I wanted another one, we could get one! But that it had to stay outside! He and I looked around and found this little cutie! Long story short, (Ha!) we brought her home!She is our Great Mouse Hope! She is a lovely little tabbie with gingery/orange spots on her back and one on her tummy! We spent a couple days trying to find a name for her. We liked the idea of Radar, as she has big ears, but it wasn't quite right, but her full name is Chloe Radar Joyes! My DD came up with Chloe! As soon as we heard the name, it just clicked!
She loves to sleep on the satellite receiver, I think because it is warm! She is very playful and affectionate. She does come in and plays and sleeps, but we put her out for night in a back room that has a bed, food, water and a litter box. Eventually, she will be outside. We are planning to get her fixed when she is old enough, as we don't want more babies and it seems the responsible thing to do.
Now on to the stitching! Here is my latest installment of Castles in the Air, Part 16! Now as I am stitching this for my Mom, she has the choice of the floral or the fantasy version. So far she has picked the fantasy version. I am working on the next section right now, Part 17, the mermaid!
Here is the close-up of it!
During my DD's rowing workouts, I have been working on The Victoria Sampler's Gingerbread Stitching House. But I realized that I have never posted pictures. Here is the one side, stitching completed, except for beads and cutting (which scares the daylights out of me!)
And here is the next side. I like to have something to work on while I am there. And this is small enough to be portable. I love working with the silks! They feel so nice and I find that they do not knot much at all!
This is a sweet little finish from Brooke's Books from The Gift of Stitching magazine from the 2007 December issue. Now I just need to make the border on another piece of fabric with the year and the baby's name! I used some 28 ct evenweave that I had in my stash and tea dyed it myself. And as this was a last minute idea, I did not have the beads, so I improvised with some metallic floss that I had in my stash!
Just a couple minutes ago, I found out the the recipient of this little ornament has been born!! He was born about 10:30 am, Sunday November 28, 2010 and weighed in at about 8 pounds! I do not have all the particulars yet, but DD and I will be going to visit them tomorrow in the hospital! We cannot wait! The new mom is like a little sister me and we could not be more excited!

This next finish is from my DD!! She finished this one for her teacher! I have a little bamboo wood frame for it! Her teacher is a self-described choc-o-holic!! DD did this all herself, except for the french knots! Now she has been nosing around my stash looking for something else to work on!

Here are my bird shots! I took this one last week, and I think it is a blue bird! But I can't tell for sure. Maybe someone could let me know if they know what it is.

And I finally got some pictures of the bluejays I had seen around! There are two different ones here.

And for my parting shot, I saw all these cuties lined up on my hook and thought they were pretty neat!!

I hope that I haven't bored you with my ramblings, but we have been pretty busy around here, running around. I hope that the weather is good where everyone is and I hope to update again soon! Off to do some laundry and hopefully stitch in between loads! Be happy and safe!