December's Kittens and December's Angel

Bane says: "What? How many days until Christmas?" He's back at the shelter now and waiting for his new home.  I hope he gets there for Christmas.  What a great gift he would make! Bane and his sister Helga spent time at our home getting bigger and better.  He's cuddly, social, and happy-go-lucky.

We had four kittens go back to the shelter this week: Bane, his sister Helga, Pickle, and Pom Pom (see my previous blog post...she was immediately adopted and went to live in Jackson.)

This is a shot of Helga when she was younger.  You can tell by her ears that she's going to be a big girl.

Pickle was a tricky kitten -- we took her in six or eight weeks ago.  She was the runt of her litter and borderline feral.  She didn't trust people and hissed and hid from us the first two weeks.  Over time, though, she became more and more trusting, loving, and happy to be held.  Now, she's very sweet, purrs loudly when she's being petted, and she's looking for her home for the holidays.

Just little Lolly is left.  A few months ago, a nice older lady brought about half a dozen kittens to the shelter.  The woman was getting ready to go to Texas for some serious medical treatments, and couldn't take care of the kittens that had been born in her yard.  She had bottle fed Lolly, and was particularly concerned for her welfare.  Since Lolly was too small to stay at the shelter, I told her I'd take her home to care for her, and I have.  Lolly is oh so nice, and we have enjoyed having her here.  Another day or two, and she'll be heading back to the shelter for adoption.

December's Angel is finished -- and I've only got one angel left to go in my Raise the Roof angels series (January).  This one was fun to stitch, and it's available for purchase in my Etsy shop Letters Great and Small.  I'm printing today and getting ready to ship charts to Norden Crafts and Hoffman Distributing.

I have purchased a number of my antique samplers from Madelena in the U.K.  This is one they've got available for purchase right now, and I absolutely love it -- the colors and composition are fabulous-o.  It would not make an ideal sampler pattern, as a lot of it is specialty stitches (the sky, the flowers, the butterflies are executed in filling stitches.)  I just thought I'd share a picture of it -- if you haven't been out to Madelena, go check them out.  They've always got around 100 samplers for sale, and even if you can't afford to buy one, they are definitely fun to look at.

Christmas is much too close for comfort, don't you think?  I'm starting to pull my gifts together (I purchase some early throughout the year), and I'm busy working on pieces for my friends Jennifer and Kathy.  The 2.0+ cheaters I bought are working great, and I am blazing through the X's.  I hope you're blazing through your X's, too!