Happy again

The best news first!

The dog we found yesterday has been returned to its owners! Thank you Lord! Forgive me that I didn't have more faith in God. In the Japanese animal shelter system. In the people who own dogs. Thank You for letting us be a link in the chain to help one of Your creatures!

You cannot believe how a little phone call this morning from the animal shelter brightened my day. I feel bad that my moods can be changed by such a small thing. Yesterday after posting Tetsu and I decided to take a picture of the dog and after the dog was taken away by the shelter (me in tears) we made posters and set out on a mission to find the dog's owner. We went around the farming areas accosting people out peacefully walking their own dogs showing them the picture and asking if they'd ever seen the dog. We hit the vet's offices and asked supermarkets to post the picture. In the end, there was nothing more for us to do though Tetsu now admits he was ready to bring the dog back by the end of the week just to give it more time.

After being away for a few hours we pulled up in our driveway to find Choco sitting on the doorstep! She was loose! Slipped her collar again and who knows how long she had been out gallivanting about! What a nightmare that would have been if she'd gone off and not come back and we would have had to call the shelter again to say we'd lost our own dog! I need to have more faith in Choco too. I didn't think she cared that she was our dog or not and that at first chance she'd head for the hills and we'd never see her again. Or she'd lose her way, or she'd get hit by a car, or she'd bite some neighbor. I guess not, because she was waiting peacefully for us at the front door. That considerably helped me to count some blessings.

And then this morning's phone call and I am happy, happy, happy!

Ok. Back to quilting things which is what I was hoping to post about. And December is here and I haven't made goals nor reflected on what I did and did not do in November. I stayed caught up with Tonya's class though I haven't got that quilt to flimsy stage yet. BUT, our class had so much fun that we decided to make Tonya some blocks to say thank you and so that she'll remember her first on-line quilting class! This has been a big secret but anyway this month we made blocks and sent them off to Tonya and yesterday we posted our blocks on the class blog. The only instructions were to include your name in the block and this is mine. I was very happy about being able to make Japanese/Chinese characters (well, actually I've only figured out how to make two) so I included the character for cat in my block.

I also stayed caught up on the 365 Challenge though I must admit, I really didn't want to write yesterday's events for posterity.

Tetsu's vest is in the finishing stages (working on the armholes now. I'll post a picture when I'm done.) I ran out of recycled yarn so I've had to make do with some other color for the collar and armholes. Hmm. This may turn into another piece of clothing for me. (My hand knitting that doesn't quite suit Tetsu's tastes come back to my own closet.)

I did get the When-oh-When quilt into one piece though it still needs borders, so that's one flimsy goal that I didn't meet. Ah well. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Any suggestions for the border on this?

For December? Keep up with the 365.

I'd really like to finish Tonya's class quilt but it is a slowly growing quilt.

The vest is a Christmas present so that will definitely have to be finished.

The When-oh-When needs a border.

Oh, and I've got to think of some simple Christmas craft for my English kids! If anyone has made something easy with kids that can be crafted in an hour's time please let me know!