Cutest Kitty in the World

Polly

She's soft and round and sweet, and she has the tiniest little meow you've ever heard.

Title of the Day

A pamphlet from 1950, with information on what to do if someone drops an atomic bomb on your head. It was by far the most entertaining thing I saw all day.

Eye

Charging Station

Polly, bless her heart, has a lifelong issue with chewing on cables. Her favorite are headphone and gadget charging cables. That means that I can't leave them sitting out, so cable management is important. What to do? I had this cheap-ass wooden box.



It really is cheap. So cheap that I was afraid to remove the hardware before painting it, because it might not survive the trauma.



The first step was to use my Dremel to make a hole in the back, for the cords to pass through. I am not a woodworker. I did not do a very tidy job of it. The wood split. I used a grinder attachment to even it out as well as I could, but I am also not the princess of patience. A lick of paint will hide a multitude of sins, right?



So I sanded the whole thing, mixed up some teal paint, and went to work.



It took a couple of coats of paint. After it had dried, I cut some scrapbooking paper to size, to line the drawers and the top.



Et voila. The finished product has room to charge a Kindle, phone, and an iPod. It also has two shallow drawers to hold all the small junk that accumulates on the table inside my front drawer, keeping the cats out of it.

Altogether, the whole project took me about three hours, and that included the time it took me to figure out where in the hell I'd hidden my Dremel.

This Is Not Healthy Food

Pollywog

Could she get any cuter? No, I do not think so.

Little Fishy

One of my fish died a few days ago. I feel badly for the remaining fish. He seems fine, but they were clearly very attached to each other. They swam the tank, side by side, like they were attached at their little fishy hips.

Found

I have no idea who this kid is, but I love her.

Snow

A Tiny Flotilla

My Deserted Island Fund

At the rate I'm going, it will be a very, very tiny island.

Ten Sticks of Butter, Hold the Veggies

I just watched the Pioneer Woman make a meal that contained, in total, ten sticks of butter. Two in the cake, three in mashed potatoes, one on top of mashed potatoes, one spread on each half of a loaf of French bread, and two melted and poured over beef tenderloins. 

The only veggie was a cheese-topped salad the guests brought. Also, the cake had layers of whipped cream and Nutella, and the potatoes had half-and-half, cream cheese, and heavy cream in them. 

And right after that, Trisha Yearwood showed a couple how to make a meal that contained zero veggies. 

My stomach hurts just from watching that.  I'm also  wondering why the Food Network hates vegetables. 

Boxful of Eeevil

I got some cheap-ass winter boots that came in a box with an attached lid. I put the crumpled tissue paper that was stuffed inside the boots in the box, and was going to recycle it all, but Piglet has other ideas. He's sitting in the box, with the lid closed, and when anyone gets too close he pops out and smacks them with his paw.

Busy Bee

Frances is a busy bee. That's what her temperament evaluation papers from the shelter say, and it's the truth. But if you throw a ball for her until her tongue looks like it's going to fall out, you will be rewarded with a dog who will happily spend the rest of the afternoon napping on the couch with her head on your lap. I tend to think that this is a pretty excellent trade-off.

(Photobomb by Henry, who may be made of evil, but who also loves her dog.)

Bad Frances

That's oil paint. Blue oil paint. Blue oil paint that stains like you would not believe. Frances' tennis ball got stuck in a corner where one of the canvases I've been working on was drying.



In digging out her ball, she made a giant mess.



And for the second time in less than a month, I have removed oil paint from my dining room carpet. Also the living room carpet, because she tracked it everydamnwhere.

Notes to Self

I'm not a "fake it til you make it" person. I freaking HATE being preached at about the power of positive thinking. I might actually punch the next person who tells me that I am too negative or cynical. However, I've been thinking a lot lately about getting up off my ass already and doing the things that need to be done, and a while back I had a "duh" epiphany about how unhelpful procrastination is. That thing that I keep putting off? It won't get easier tomorrow, and if I'd have gotten my shit together and dealt with it a year ago? I'd have it all sorted right this minute. Which is simultaneously encouraging and depressing, but probably a little heavier on the encouraging side of the scale.

ETA: Progress is not always linear, and sometimes you take two steps back for every step forward. I need to remember that that's just how it is, and no to get discouraged by the back-sliding. Take that step forward, because it equals out to one step back, which is way better than taking two steps back with no steps forward. In other words, don't make things worse than they have to be by giving up.

(This is something I need to remind myself of periodically, so this is as good a place to save it as any.)

Coffee

Some days, my coffee needs backup coffee.

A Drawerful of Henry

An open dresser drawer will function as a cat trap, in a pinch.

Finished!

I finally finished the basket I was making for Franny's toys, and it's not even June. I used the tutorial here as a jumping off point, but I changed several things.

1. I pulled the strips of T-shirt, to make them curl into yarn-like tubes. I think they're easier to work with that way, and the edges are rolled to the inside, so they aren't likely to fray.


Flat


Curled

2. I used a no-sew method to join the ends of the pieces together.


Stack the ends on top of each other, fold over, and cut a small slit in the center of the folded edge.


Unfold, then pull the opposite end of the new piece through both slits.


Pull the end of the "parent" piece through the slit of the "child."


Pull taught.

3. I aligned the braids so that the stitches are invisible. I'm right handed and worked from left to right. If you look closely at the direction of the strands in the braid, you can see that they mirror the direction of the thread. That makes it easy to hide the stitches under each section of braid.





4. To start and finish, I tucked the ends of the three strands under sections of braid on the back side. The original tutorial showed tapering the braid to finish, but I didn't like the way that looked.


Finished start.


Finished end.

And...


The End.

ETA: I opted to omit the handles. I'm using this as a dog toy basket, so I didn't want to encourage Franny to drag it around the house. I also changed the way I started and finished. I didn't like the way the gradual step-down looked, so I wove the strands from the ends of the braid back into the braid on the coil below, then stitched them into place. Like so.

Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions, a photo by Cat Sidh on Flickr.

End. Of. Discussion.

I thought Harriet was expressive, but Franny takes it to a whole other level.

Pig In a Poke

I mostly take reusable bags to the store with me, but when I go shopping I have to bring home at least one plastic bag for Piglet. He will climb into it before it's empty, if I'm not quick enough putting things away. Also, if you hold out an empty bag and call him, he'll come running and jump in it. Weirdo.

Best Dog EVAR

I made more progress on Franny's toy basket. It's all of two inches taller.

Progress

If you sew each stitch from back to front, the stitches are invisible on both sides.



I could stop right now and call it a cat bed.

Upcycling

I'm in the process of turning a stack of old T-shirts into a braided basket for Franny's toys. I should be finished sometime in June.

Pistaschio Shells

Breakfast of Champions

Walking With Franny

I came home after work and took a looooong walk with Franny. The sky cleared a bit as we were walking, but it won't last.

How I Spent My Birthday

Before


After

I left my palette sitting out last night, so while I was in the shower this morning, the cats played in it. And then they got paint all over the carpet. About twenty spots in all. I pre-treated them all with Resolve stain stick (the stuff for laundry stains), let it sit for about an hour, then sprayed it with a dilution of the carpet cleaning solution, then used my steam cleaner over the entire mess. It was kind of like magic!

Tip of the Day

I use an old cookie sheet as a palette, and I usually line it with freezer paper. It has a plastic side that works well. It curls up, though. In the past I've taped it down, but it occurred to me today that magnets might be a better solution. And they are!

(The magnets are from the bottom of a shower curtain liner. Piglet removes them, so I've got a stash.)

Shameless

I came home today to find the butter dish on the floor, minus the butter, of course. The ice cube trays were collateral damage.

Thankfully I've switched to buying half sticks of butter, and the stick in the dish was half gone, so she didn't get as much as she could have. Also, I'm sure that Piglet assisted. He is a horrid, rotten, awful brat.