Sleeping next to the fire has been a popular activity recently.  We managed to capture this photo early one morning.  I don't think the dog even knows he is using the cat a pillow.  Can you see the tail sticking up out of the sleeping bag?  That is Loki's tail.  I rescued to boy brother cats and of the two, Loki is the one that thinks he is a dog.  In fact, his nickname is Big Dog. 
It is hilarious how this cat treats our dog, who could eat the cat if he felt like it!  Luckily, I trained the dog into a sense of brotherhood/part of pack mentality with the cats.  So, Bo mostly puts up with it when Loki cleans him.  The funniest though is when Loki does what we now refer to as a "drive-by".  Let me set the scene for you.  The dog is standing in the middle of a room looking to the humans for attention(biscuits).  It is a quiet and still moment.  All of sudden (from another room usually)  there is a flash of black as Loki runs in, jumps up and gives Bo 2 smacks to the nose or chest!  It is always with a closed paw, no claws are out or I'd have gotten Bo Doggles a long time ago.  Loki finishes this acrobatic feat with a jump down and a look at Bo that says, "Yeah, you're mine!".  Humans and dog are usually too stunned to do anything but laugh and wonder at the cat's audacity.

Me and My Brothers under the Huppah

I've been working away on quilts, some for clients and some even for me.  I have been finishing up our wedding quilts.  When we married in 2007, my husband tie-dyed many things for the event.  The first was my wedding dress - it was so pretty and I was so proud not to have achieved that homemade dorky look.  He dyed the shirts for my brothers to wear, (my husband was dashing in a western morning coat with tails). He also tie-dyed our Huppah covering and lots of fabric for people to sign.  Well, 4 years later, I now have a queen-sized quilt made from the Huppah and a wall quilt that incorporated all of the guest's well wishes for our future into a dahlia pattern.  And it's all in the colors of my wedding!  What a way to remember a great day! I'll post photos soon (I still need to bind the wall quilt). 

Crazy Week

It's a good thing I was feeling caught up last week. It enabled me to say, "Sure I'll do a cake and cater a wedding for complete strangers with 6 days notice for 11/11/11!" All I can say is that people are funny and YES, I am quite a sucker. The wedding went wonderfully from all reports and everyone loved the food.
I am quite exhausted right now. It was seriously windy last night. The wind has not been bad for a few years now so the newcomers did not even have a clue as to what wind might be. All the area gulches lost power for about 12 hours because of downed poles. We had one tree go down. As Sid drove to town, he saw lots of trees down and lots of people wandering around outside looking for things that they left out last night. Sid got to explain to these newcomers about the Wind Gods up here and their demands for sacrifice. Our hatches were battened down and it still felt like we might loose a roof or 2.
I remember the first wind we experienced many years ago. It was shortly after moving up to the mountains and we had a very sleepless night. (That house really rocked and swayed) We headed off for work the next day and came upon some tin roofing somewhere in the driveway. My husband & I both turned around to see if our new rental had a tin roof. Luckily for us, the roof was shingled. We certainly had a good laugh until we realized that someone else was in need of new roofing.
There are many of us up here who can cuss a blue streak and put many a pirate to shame. The absolute worst cuss word around these parts though is a 4 letter starting with W---. Mention that one word and you will get all the locals riled up. I'll talk to you all in January about our other 4 letter swear word that rhymes with tow.