Use it or Loose it!

March 1st, Pippa went to the vet to be spayed and have her nails trimmed.  NO! Not de-clawed because that deforms their paws (they cut back to the first knuckle).  Personally, I think that is cruel.  The assistant did a good trim job, really short and they no longer snag in the silk duvet or ME!  But it played havoc with her ability to scamper up her cat tree!  She’s pretty intelligent, since her tummy hurts, she goes to the bottom level, looks at DH and goes “MeeeeeYOWWWWWW”; and, being a well-trained parent he gets up and lifts her to the top.  And yes, this is repeated when she wants down!  Priceless.  She always licks his hand when he sets her on the top perch.

I decided to do my March bookmark for the Forum; and, chose Jane Eborall’s Butterfly Bookmark with beads. I haven’t worked with any beads for at least six months.  And. . .well, I forgot how to add beads to a picot.  “Use it or Loose it”.  Have you noticed that if you don’t use a technique for quite a while, it is similar to re learning the technique?  It isn’t just like learning it ~ but close enough.  The doubt is there, the indecision.  Tippy-toeing into the next double stitch.  I’m using a lavender-blue (I’ll give the color when I finish and put it on the blog) thread with Diane C’s beautiful shuttle she sent and a larger one to be my “ball” shuttle.  It is a 2-shuttle pattern.  I haven’t decided about the smaller butterfly on the opposite end...but I’ll probably add that, also.  It is a time thing.

We now know tentatively from the Doctor that the great grand baby, due to arrive in June, is a girl.  No pictures as yet; but, the doctor said she wasn’t a “turtle”. A turtle is her idiom for a boy;  evidently, the baby had the wrong ‘equipment’.  A girl will be named Zella (after my Mom ~ 1914 to 1991).  A Boy will be Daniel (from the Bible).  That is about as far a part for the personality of names one could get!  LOL  My Mom was a mixture of titian-haired Rita Hayworth and Imelda Marcos. (if you know the first name, you are mature; if you know the second name, you are . . a boomer)  A good Biblical name that would embody my Mom would be Delilah!  LOL  Exotic and lovely, but very practical, talented and very assertive.  Very!  She had wanted to learn to speak French (some of her ancestry) and be a lawyer.  Of course her families economic status (and 9 children) precluded higher education; and, she married at 19.  If she’d been on the scene in the 80’s, she’d have been a lawyer!  LOL  She also wanted to sing and dance on the stage at Chautauqua.  I could write a book.  Auntie Mame had nothing on Mamma.  If the girl inherited any of her traits ~ Look out world!

Well, back to the butterfly. Let’s see how far have I gotten.  Oh!  I just did the practice piece for review at the top of Jane’s tutorial and here it is!

This is the first step of the pattern with practice  thread I had wound on shuttles.  When ever I do a pattern and get stuck, I go to one of Jane’s tutorials.  Reminds me of a song, “A little help from my friend(s)”
By next post I may have a butterfly!