ABC's

Hello, and thank you all for your thoughtful comments on my last post! Like I said, we're so pleased to have Grayling home and it seems like he is doing much, much better. I think I'm probably watching him a little more closely than I need to, but really its not hard to give him lots of loving. We actually thought we'd lost Ursula this morning, as she fell off our balcony last night! She isn't the most graceful of cats, so I imagine she figured out how to jump up onto the railing and then fell right down the other side. I went down to our downstairs neighbour as early as I possibly could, and eventually he noticed her little tail poking out from a crawl space where she was terrified (she's the most nervous cat) and shaking. Thank goodness as we could hear raccoons fighting down below where she would have landed had she tried to escape the courtyard!

Anyway, it was making Monday here again today (with yet another lovely tea drinking interlude with Heather from Lucky Rooster) which was perfect for the cold chilly day we had. We're working towards a small shop update on Friday with some clocks and bookmarks. We found a couple of great looking alphabets (one from a vintage children's book and one using sign language) and have printed them on some cherry and mahogany bookmarks. The full alphabets will be available in the shop on Friday!

And now for some totally unrelated, but important nonetheless, links to check out...

- I read over here a both heartbreaking and inspiring story about the amazing woman who runs a feminist vegetarian restaurant and bookstore in Connecticut.

- Kate Harding on Roman Polanski, a piece I was so happy to read after hearing the many cries of 'But he's so talented!' or 'It happened so long ago!' Yes, and yes. Neither makes it ok for him to be above the law.

- The Lovely Letterbox, a mail subscription service that offers special packages and items arriving in your mailbox each month for six months!

- I love Glee. Especially Jane Lynch and almost everything Kurt has to say.

- Not a link, but I just wanted to let you all know that it is almost midnight and I am eating a giant bowl of triple chocolate ice cream.

Night!

Reunited

Oh man, its been a bit of a draining week. After attending a long birth and going to straight to work afterwards, I came home to find Grayling acting really strangely. He's a normally really sociable cat (read obsessed with being in the same room as us) and was now sleeping either in the hall closet or under my desk in the den, in the dark. Knowing that he's a really old and has had kidney problems for quite some time we knew it could potentially be really bad, which on 2 hours sleep wasn't the easiest to deal with. Kindly, our lovely friends not only drove us to the vet but took a stroll with us around Granville Island while we waited for the results. He ended up having to stay in the hospital for a couple of nights and initially it seemed like we were only getting worse case scenarios. It was particularly tough on Richard, who's had Gray-guy as a companion for the past 13yrs. The idea that we potentially had to make a decision somewhat based on economics was really difficult (ok, the economic side still has been really difficult...thank goodness for credit cards), but thankfully when the vet called us this morning we had some good news and were able to pick him up this afternoon! The difference between when we first dropped him of and now is like night and day, and although we still have to keep an eye on him for a few days, we're so so happy to have him home.

Note the GIANT paw. Not even a trick of the camera, but apparently just full of fluid. Mmmm.

Pen pals

I'm sure all of us enjoy getting a little something in the mail, a letter or a package, something made or written especially for you by a friend far away. When I was around 12 or so I had a pen pal from Germany who I dreamed of one day visiting, everything about her seemed so mysterious to me - especially her address that just seemed so far from and foreign to my own. So, over at the new Meet Me At Mikes craft forum (which I highly recommend perusing and joining) there is a crafty pen pal swap starting up. The idea is that each person joins and is then randomly assigned 2 swap partners to write to. For this first swap the theme is 'decorated envelopes', which is super manageable for those of us who are a bit busy, plus how exciting to get a letter from a crafter (possibly) over the sea from you full of inspiration and general craft goodness. You've got until September 30th to sign up, quick sticks!

M is for Making Day

In an effort to keep on top of shop stuff, we've decided to make Mondays our making day. A day entirely dedicated to building up stock, making sure we've got what we need to ship for our current orders, packaging things up, etc. I think one of the best parts about it (aside from just keeping everything together in my mind, no easy feat I can tell you) is that we can really separate this part of our daily work from other things like school for Richard and doula work for me, and not feel guilty that we're always meant to be doing something else. Today was really lovely, we both headed out for supplies (and a not so quick tea date with a friend) and then fell into a nice rhythm of making for the rest of the day. By the end of the day it felt like we'd really accomplished a lot, and it was way less stressful than it often can be trying to juggle everything. I can see making Mondays becoming quite the regular event around here.

How was everyone's weekend? Ours was lovely and relaxing, with a bit of housework and laundry thrown in for good measure (seriously, when will it ever stop??). The double feature date night was great, despite the fact that neither of us could make it through a second movie, seeing Donnie Darko on the big screen was so great. I haven't seen it in awhile and I'd forgotten how much I loved it. And Maggie Gyllenhaal, love her.