It's winter, and I'm so glad we have a wood burning fireplace. The cats like to warm up during the day on a pillow in front of the windows. That's Latte on the left and Jazz on the right. I had to move this table into the back room to put my new sewing machine on it. It's a nice sunny room, but it's separated from our lounge and wood burner. I've put an electric oil heater under the table to keep warm while I work.
I bought this because my mom encouraged me to (well she paid for it). I'm short and I'm always needing pants hemmed. It's been a learning experience. I did a little bit of sewing as a kid, but I'm a total novice. This machine does a lot of things for you, but I've made plenty of mistakes already. I'm taking the "learn as you go" approach. It's really flexible, and does 70 different stitches. 
I started with trying to make a dog bed, but that was a bit too much. I had a lesson last Friday and learned how to put in a zipper. When I tried to do it myself, it took 4 attempts and about 4.5 hours. I did get the zipper installed in a pillow finally. It has been rainy and cold, and I didn't have anything else on my agenda, so I made this cat pillow this morning. I got the felt cat applique from the website Felt, which sells all sorts of crafty stuff in NZ. Latte approves.
Jazz is in the hospital, and might be able to come home tomorrow. He's been at the vet's for 6 days now, and has been catheterised 3 times. He has Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD), and had a blockage in his urethra that caused some tissue swelling and stricturing. So even though the stones seem to have been cleared from his bladder, and he's on anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants, Jazz is still having trouble passing urine. He had this problem twice in 2004, and I thought I had it fixed by feeding him a meat only diet. To read about the disease and diet is an exercise in frustration, because the biology is complicated. One of the vets who talked to me said that there's no evidence that the raw meat diet is any better for pets than the commercial foods. This is true, but it doesn't mean that the commercial foods are better, it just means that no one had the money to pay for the research to compare raw or homemade pet diets to commercial pet diets. I'm considering a veterinary nutritionist consultation, if Jazz comes home and recovers.Since the weather has been so cold, I've been watching a lot of movies. I love horror movies, and finally rented Planet Terror, by Robert Rodriguez. This was really great, I was totally screaming and laughing in my lounge. Darin even watched it. I also saw a NZ film, Second Hand Wedding (good), The War Within (good, sad), and watched Hellboy (the first one) again (great).
