Friday Smiles 2022: Week 39

Hi again. Friday does seem to come around rather fast doesn't it, but as usual I am sure we can all think of things that have made us smile during the week.

I am happy because I have finished my Celtic Tiles blanket. It was heavy and very hot to have it piled on my lap on Tuesday night while I worked the border, but it was worth it to know it is all finished off properly. 

It has a simple border in a slightly contrasting colour which I also used to crochet the 'tiles' together using the 'flat zipper seam' which I think is neatest for this style of motifs. The border was finished with a round of surface slip stitches which gives it a nice definition.

Chris chose this pattern and bought the yarn, a cotton/acrylic mix in Aran weight, so this will be keeping his knees snug and warm on chilly evenings very soon.

I have started another small project but I will share that next week when I have done enough to show.

We had a little drama with Kim this week when he suddenly started limping around tea-time on Saturday. By Sunday he was unable (or unwilling) to walk and just held his right front paw up in a pathetic way to tell us it was hurting. However he wouldn't let me anywhere near it to investigate even when I tied a soft bandange around his muzzle so he couldn't nip me. Fortunately I had some dog painkillers that the vet gave me for Foxy, so I kept him going with those over the weekend. On Monday we managed to get an appointment with the vet and she thought he might have broken his toe. But a couple of x-rays later she said she couldn't find a break though it was quite swollen and obviously still painful. So she has given him a course of antibiotics and more painkillers and we will reassess next week when he has taken them all.

He is pretty good at taking medicine but is not keen on these bright pink antibiotics. They are huge and he needs 1 1⁄2 tablets twice a day. As you may be able to see in this picture, their colour makes them stand out in his food and he is suspicious, so I have started adding each one in a little bit of peanut butter, and they are going down well so far. I am not sure how much they are helping. He is now walking with only a slight limp but he still won't let me touch his paw and yelps if anyone or thing comes too close. So we will have to see how it goes.

Now we have made a space in the sitting room by taking away the sofa Kim used to love to lay on, but which had become too much of a climb for him to get onto, we have bought him a big memory foam bed. It arrived on Tuesday and he is getting used to it. It is plenty big enough for him to lay out on, as he doesn't curl up much these days, but he prefers to lay across it with his head over the edge.  Maybe he will lay in it better when the floor is cold in the winter.

I have been busy in my craftroom mostly making a set of six Christmas cards. But these will be entered in a challenge in October so I can't show them yet. But I also did a little bit of scrapbooking too. I have been trying to get back to making a few layouts but I never seem to have the time. 

It is just over a year since we had to say 'Good-bye' to our Paco and I started a double layout about him then, but it got shelved, and I never went back to it. So yesterday I got it out and finished the first page, and then did a second one, so these can now go in my album of 'Random things'. I have got the bug now so maybe I will manage to do some more.

Chris called me out to see the sky at the front of the house the other evening, and it was so lovely. The sun sets on the other side of the house, but these clouds were reflecting its last rays before it disappeared.

Yesterday this is the sky I woke up to, and I had to take a photo of it, because white fluffy clouds are a novelty here! Our sky is usually completely grey and overcast or just clear blue, but clouds make it look so much more interesting.

And here is one final sunset photo that was just such glorious colours, so I thought it was worth sharing.

So now I need to get this ready to post on Annie's Friday Smiles in the morning.

P.S. I prepared this on Thursday afternoon, but then last night I went out to see if there was a pretty sunset and I found this extraordinary sky. I thought it was worth adding on here today.