Saturday, January 9, 2010

Making the Furbaby Comfy and Safe

So as I'll post in a day or so on A Cup of Tea with Friends, my military life blog, the new king bed we got for Christmas was delivered on Thursday. It made the mattress higher than usual (about 2.5-feet to the top of the mattress) and now the puppy's steps are too short for him to get on and off easily. Well, last night, the poor guy was trying to climb down using the steps and lost his footing and completely fell off the bed, nearly hitting his head on the crib we'd set up in there recently. It woke me up (since I haven't been sleeping well anyway) and he just lay there dazed and confused.

I checked him to make sure he was o.k. since it was a complete face plant into the carpet (his short legs have problems catching him). About 15-minutes later he climbed back in bed with the steps and got stuck at the top so I got up to help him up the nearly 12-inch gap. He was just shaking at the top step scared to try to hop. It kind of woke my hubby up and I told him Sgt. Major had fallen and was now too scared to climb in bed by himself. Well, that set the agenda for today.

Despite the (upper) 30 degree weather and freezing rain, hubby and I donned our college sweat shirts and warm(-ish) pants and headed to Lowes to get supplied to make a ramp for the puppy. We spent the morning designing it so that it was sturdy, but wide enough for him to turn and fell comfortable going down on. Supply list in hand we headed to Lowes.

After 4-hours of bitter cold and (much) irritation as to how to go about making it (we have DIFFERENT ways of doing things, I am more planning and design and he likes to "wing it"), we finally got the frame done.



As you can see (below), Sgt. Major liked it so much he was willing to walk up the ramp going nowhere and we couldn't get him off of it, even as we tried to wrap it in carpet ...



We did get it fiished though and it turned out great. (The notch is so it fits over the footbaord and snuggle up again the mattress so there is no gap.)

I think in the (distant) future we'll wrap a piece of plywood in the leather like our headboard or stain it a chocolate brown to match the bed, so it looks better, but for now, the pup can safely snuggle in bed with me when he wants.



Until our next cup of tea ...

Friday, January 8, 2010

Bitten by the bug again!

OMG! I can't believe it has been 4 months since I last posted! In all honesty though, it has been about that long since I've been able to do any significant crafts. A lot has been going on. In October the Army moved us again ... not that I'm complaining, we're in Miami now, but I was more than 7-months pregnant! After a week here at the new house, we headed to Houston for almost 3 weeks for the baby shower and to visit family. After returning we learned that my grandfather had been in a serious car crash and a week later despite all of the doctors efforts he passed away and we drove to Louisiana to attend the funeral. Then we arrived back in Miami at the beginning of December and George started his new command position and I attempted to unpack as much of the house as possible.

So now it's January and things are settling down, which is good because I'm about 6-weeks away from my due date and it's time to start concentrating on baby preparations.

When we went to Louisiana for the funeral my grandmother gave me the baby blanket she had finished a month or so earlier. Since she has so many grandchildren (16) much less the great-grandchildren (4) she is making one blanket for each grandchild's family. She had started making blankets for each of the grandkids in the last year and that was enough to keep her crocheting into the late hours, but then both my (biological) brother and I found out we were expecting at the same time! Boy is her plate full now! (She says God did that to help her keep busy now that my grandfather has passed.) So she asked if making one with blue, pink and yellow was o.k. so that if we have a girl later on we can use if for her too! I think it turned out beautiful!!!




It's bittersweet to have such a beautiful blanket that she worked on while caring for my grandfather even before the accident and G'Pa will certainly be missed.

It will be the first two (biological) great-grandchild for our paternal family and first great-grandchildren for out maternal.

My mother is also crocheting him a blanket and I have some things on my list as well. For a baby in South Florida, he's sure going to have a lot of blankets!

I've got more posts coming soon, so please stop back by. I've got some projects that I am h=finishing now that I am suppose to be resting more.

Until our next cup of tea ...