Mavis and the Rainbow Connection

The Rainbow Connection that Kermit sang in The Muppet Movie is still one of my all time favorite songs. Even when I was a kid, the song would make me cry when I heard it because rainbows and all the hopes and dreams that they symbolize, hold a special, unexplained place in my heart.

On Saturday, I found myself singing this song to sweet Mavis, the wonder Corgi as I helped her over the rainbow bridge.







Mavis
Dec. 22, 1992 - Dec. 8, 2007

We took her into the vet with the intention of scheduling surgery for a blown disc in her back and found by accident that she had huge cancerous tumors on her liver and lungs. Saying goodbye and having to make the decision to let her go is the hardest thing we've ever had to do. We spent a third of our lives with her. She was like the middle child. She vacationed with us, shared our food (even though we know she wasn't supposed to) and endured the brattiness of two kids. She loved the beach and the snow (and got to play in the first snowfall we had on Wed.), hated cameras and lightning and refused to fetch anything. She escaped from the yard anytime she was given a chance, chewed the buttons off of my handknit Annie Modesitt corset (yup, she ruined it), jumped on the furniture when she thought we wouldn't notice and rolled in yucky stuff everytime we gave her a bath. The daughter of champion AKC registered Corgis, she'd agressively herd you in the direction she wanted you to go in at a moments notice. She shed non-stop (I'll be vacuuming up her fur for many, many months), gave us big kisses with her Gene Simmons-like Corgi tongue and was the most fiercely loyal friend you could ever ask for.

Mavis wasn't with us nearly long enough but the time she shared with us will last a lifetime. We were so blessed to be owned by such a loving animal. Thank you for choosing us, sweet Mavi.

Wrist Therapy Wraps

Thanks for your sweet comments on the Knitjas. I'm still tweaking the pattern and hope to have it up soon. As with Chichi and hopefully all future patterns, I'm going to give a portion of the proceeds to charity. Its not much but I certainly want to use my powers to do some good in the world if possible. I'm thinking that the Knitjas will help out Heifer's Kids 2 Kids program or perhaps investing through Kiva. Any other suggestions? I'm all ears.

I've made the Handmade Holiday pledge this year even though I haven't gotten around to putting the badge on my blog. However, after nearly killing myself the past few Christmases with pain inducing, frantic, last minute knitting, I'm going to use my crafting skills to primarily sew my gifts this year. So I've arranged my assembly schedule over the next couple of weeks and hope to give you some ideas for fun last minute handmade gifts.

First up, thanks to the crafty divas at SewMamaSew, wrist therapy wraps.

I used their idea for Rice therapy bags and tweaked the pattern so that I could make them into wrist wraps. I admit that I had a selfish motivation to make these because my wrists have been bothering me as of late from some very tedious knitting and its hard to keep something flat like the traditional cold packs wrapped around your wrist.

They have velcro to help them stay put and a homemade hot/cold herbal insert that was a blast to make. I'll update this post with a tutorial and more details when I have more time. I know some knitter friends of mine who will be getting these for holiday gifts (sorry to spoil the surprise). Perfect for crafters, seniors or anyone who has aching body parts.

Happy holiday crafting everyone!