Here I go again

I have no idea how I held down a job for most of my life. It seems the least project any more can eat up my time and mental energy. Lately I've been discombobulated over several things: Max, mainly, and how he's doing. For a while it seemed he was starving--have I talked of this? I can't remember. I read online that a cat should get 20 calories a day per pound of ideal weight. Max should be about 16 pounds--he's lost three; down to 19 now. So that's 320 calories a day. We started out giving him two 3 oz. cans of Fancy Feast, but the flavors he prefers are in the 70-75 calorie range. Not good. (I know Fancy Feast is far from being the best food for cats, but it's all he'll eat right now, and I'm more concerned with him actually eating than whether or not he's eating the most nutritional food.) Anyway, we upped his intake to three cans; that still doesn't give him the proper calorie count, and he was waking me at 4 a.m., demanding food. (By demanding, I mean biting whatever bits of me happened to stick out from under the covers. And when nothing does, he's even tried biting me through the covers. That's after head-bumping and pawing gets no response.) So-o-o, after I realized I was exhausted from not getting enough sleep--and emotional; did I mention emotional? I'm crying at the drop of a hat. And no, I won't shut him out of the room--I upped his food to 3 1/2 cans. Even at 85 calories a can, and there are a few that he likes in that area, he still doesn't make 320 calories. But it satisfies him, and I no longer feel like a bad parent. 

The next thing that's kept me occupied is the Highland Lakes Lawn and Garden Show, and next week that'll be over. Yay! I got volunteered for the committee. (Actually, the truth is that I was complicit in that. I can't put it all off on Sammye. And she has totally worked her butt off on this show. This is me, being honest, y'all. So appreciate, hear?) 

Since I had no idea how time-consuming it was gonna be, I won't apologize for my complicity, but it won't happen again. And honestly my fellow committee-members have put in far more time than I have, so I shouldn't complain. The last thing I have to do--until the actual show, that is--is make a poster announcing the speakers. I worked on it a while yesterday, but my studio is so messy I couldn't even get to my cutting table, which honestly I often use as a work surface. But I did find some cool pics online and got permission to use them. 

Yuccas near Marble Falls, TX

Indian Blankets and Black-eyed Susans

Indian Blanket

The artist is Mary Saxton Griffin. Great photos, and they'll look terrific interspersed with my speaker info.

So today I work in the yard. I've got bushes to cut back, seeds to plant, and weeds to kill. And Tom's building a bottle tree. I've had everyone saving wine bottles for me--if I depended on our wine consumption we'd never have enough. Here's a pic of one that's near where we used to live. 

And finally I have done a few felted things. Nothing I've listed in the shop yet, but I thought I'd show them here. These are simple to do, yet I make them difficult. First because my vision is much larger than the actual, and I do try to realize my vision. When I speak of larger than, I mean actually larger than--my vision, I mean. The project's so much smaller. I  wanted to put flowers on the soles of the flip flops, but when I tried, they looked like blobs of color rather than flowers cuz the medium was so small. Anyway sometimes the vision doesn't become actual, so you have to go with what you've got.

The flower on the toe of this flip flop is a bead I had in my stash. And the coloration at the toe on the one below was my attempt at adding a wee circle of actual felt (rather than roving). It was so small, it almost disintegrated. Oh, well, live and learn. 

This next one I'll probably lose money on. The button cost almost two and a half bucks and the hair pin's probably not worth more than two.  

And the last one. Not my fave. What can I say? I fiddled and fiddled and fiddled with it and am still not satisfied, but it'll have to do.
And that's it. Gotta date for breakfast with the hub, so I'll see you guys later.

Ta.