A Quick Update

I have not worked on my blog in so long! I've been crazily busy with getting Christmas gifts ready to go and just life in general.  I decided to interrupt my hectic schedule for a little update and since I can't post any pictures of the projects that I've been working on (they are all gifts) I decided to catch you up on the trouble that my cats have been getting into lately.  

We'll start with Vree.  We had a visitor this morning.  Now, we all know how Vree feels about strangers: she usually runs and hides under the bed. However, the door to the bedroom was closed so she was essentially trapped in the rest of the house with a mysterious and dangerous person who might be able to find her in any room!  She found a wonderful hiding place and I am still not sure how she managed to get there.  Let's see if you can spot her:

  We have extremely tall ceilings, I'm guessing around 10 feet.  There is nothing in our kitchen that she could have easily used to jump up to the very highest cabinet.  I don't think I would have even noticed her if she hadn't meowed at me as I was walking past.  Eric had to stand on the stove and he was still barely able to reach her to pull her down. 

 

Those glowing eyes say it all.  Soon afterward she was trying to flirt her way back into our good graces by rolling around on the ground and striking poses. 

Now for Nim.  All I can really say about him is that he is a devil.  A very cute devil.  I don't have any pictures of him caught in the act so you'll just have to believe me.  There are no bulbs on the bottom half of our tree because they are strewn around the house and hidden under the refrigerator and who knows where else.  Our tree skirt, which is just a few yards of tulle, is in shreds.  Nothing will keep him away from the tree.  I can constantly hear the rattling of the, thankfully plastic, bulbs being batted around the house.  I do have a picture of him sitting in my drawer that holds my dish rags and hot pads, which is pretty mischievous, yet cute.  He likes to be with me while I'm cooking.  Not because he adores and loves me but because he loves and adores people food and is forever looking for ways to eat it.  He rips open bags of bread and eats the bread if we leave it out.  Nothing is safe in our house.  He is a terrorist.

Last of all is Alys.  There is really only one thing that she does that drives me crazy and you are lucky that I didn't take a picture of it.  She, for some reason, decides that it is a good idea to poop on the floor, right next to the litter box.  It does not matter how full or empty the litter box is.  Sometimes she uses the litter box and sometimes she doesn't.  It is a mystery that has baffled me and only recently have I come up with a theory as to why she decides to do her business on the tile next to her very own toilet.  My theory is this: she does it to get back at Eric.  The other day we got home from work, Nim was waiting at the door for us, as is usual.  Eric picked him up and was petting him.  Aly walked in and saw, meowed and walked out.  The next thing I knew it smelled awful and there was a brand new glistening pile of Aly poop on the floor.  My theory is she is jealous and this is how she will get back at Eric for loving another cat other than herself.  This is a picture of her and even though it isn't very recent you can see how hard she tries for that innocent and angelic look. 

Anyway, enough griping about my out of control cats!  Have a Merry Christmas!  I should be back to posting a bit more regularly after everyone has opened their Christmas presents!

a day in the canyon

 I love the Fall.  It is my favorite season.  I love the colors of the changing trees, the cool and occasionally rainy weather, and the crunch of the fallen leaves under my feet. 

Eric and I went on a picnic up the canyon today with my parents and Sarah.  We admired the beautiful colors and trees on our drive up and started the barbecue up for some hamburgers.  While the coals were getting ready my mom, Sarah, and I went on a walk and took pictures of the trees and picked some of the perfect leaves to take home.  We took tons of pictures but I will just post some of my favorites for now.

After our walk we ate hamburgers and roasted some apples.  I read about roasting apples in a magazine and thought it sounded amazing.  They turned out great! 

All you do is stick an apple, like a marshmallow, onto a roasting fork and cook it over the fire.

Once the skin begins to blacken:

Peel the apple and skewer it again to roast a second time. 

Roast the apple until it is golden.

Cut the apple up and roll in some cinnamon sugar.

 It tasted great! I think I'm going to make it a camping tradition.

Woooooo!

I have gotten my second sale, albeit, not through my shop online.  I am really excited about it all! I posted a few other items yesterday, as well and some more today.
Here they are:

These were posted yesterday.  I'm still not sold on using myself as a model but my friend's baby is so cute modeling her black and green sweater.


Here are the ones I put up today:

Isn't Eric cute!? He didn't know I was taking a picture of him.  I think he'll do great as a male model.

The Great Journey

I have decided to open an Etsy Shop.  I have been considering a shop for a very long time and I finally succumbed to the prompting of my sister.  I have been having a blast the last few months creating things and learning to crochet better.  I've had so much fun, in fact, that I have bags full of items that I have no need for.  So to be productive I have decided to sell some of the things I've made.  I will be posting them a few every day and I will post pictures here for anyone to see if they would like.  Hopefully this will prompt me to actually blog more often as well!

The first three items I am posting on Etsy are as follows;

Melon Sorbet Baby Hoodie

Baby Silver Ballet Slippers

Gray Cloche Hat

Let me know what you think!

Introducing: The Incredible Swimming Cat!

We have had Nim for almost two months and in that time we have learned that he is a very mischievous little kitten.  When he isn't waking us up in the middle of the night trying to nuzzle our faces he is usually chasing Alice and Vree until they finally find a hiding place that he hasn't found yet.

With the weather getting colder over the last few days my husband has begun to take soaks in the tub to warm himself up at night.  He noticed that Nim liked to perch on the rim of the tub and drink the water out of the tub once he got out, even daring to stick his front paws into the water, once the water level got too low for him to reach with his face.   We wanted to see how far he would go to get a drink so Eric set him into about two inches of water.  At first Nim was a little uncertain but was soon jumping around in the bath water chasing his tail like a dog.

This evening we decided to experiment further so we placed him in the water again while it was low and slowly filled the tub up.  We put a toy in the tub with him to distract him from the faucet. 

Once the water was chest high on him he seemed to enjoy the warmth and played with his toy and paddled around chasing and playing.   I love how the tip of his tail puffs out under the water. 

(Sorry about the blurry face and weird lighting)

It seems that we have a cat that likes to swim! If only he would let me help him dry off a bit more rather than sitting on my pillow to do it by himself.

A Critic

It has been a long time since my last post.  Life has been crazy since then, a lot of fun things have been happening and a lot of really stressful and sad things including a death in the family. 
School is starting tomorrow and summer vacation is officially over, not that I didn't end it a little early.  I've been going in to school to help get the classroom ready and, I must say, it looks amazing.  We are doing an Asian theme this year and maybe I'll be able to take some pictures and put them up.  I really am just a little impressed with Michelle, the teacher I work with, and myself.  I can't wait for school to start and to see the kids' reactions when they come into the room tomorrow morning.

I also went to Yellowstone with my mom, my aunt Bonnie, and cousin Joe last week.  We had a great time and I am so glad that I was able to spend some time with them.  We were only there for a day but were able to see Old Faithful, of course, a beautiful waterfall, pictured below, some bison and elk, and the Playmill's version of Beauty and the Beast.  The play was ok.  Gaston and Lumiere were great but I was hoping for more from Belle.  She was alright but seemed just a bit too giggly and happy to me, Belle seems like a more somber character, not prone to sudden high pitched giggles at some of the most awkward times.  It seemed as though she was acting like one of the princesses from Disney Land instead of how I would imagine a girl who was forced to stay with a beast would; just too cheerful.  Maybe I'm a downer.

I've also been busy getting all sorts of nervous that Christmas is coming up and that my plan has been to hand make about 75% of our gifts this year and I didn't have anything done.  I know that I am extremely early for this kind of stress but the way I see it is that if I get started now I won't be nearly as stressed when I have a list of twenty people to give to and I want to make 15 of them gifts. It will also help if I am slowly purchasing things along the way instead of a sudden dump of money a few weeks before the big date.  It makes a lot of sense to me. As I've been frantically crafting I've watched the whole first season of the X-Files and am on to the second.  This is my third time watching all of the X-Files.  I'm obviously a big fan. 

On the subject of repetitive viewing, I watched the newer version of Wuthering Heights on Netflix instead of the old standby from 1992 and decided I should read the book again, for the third time as well.  The movie was pretty good, although I don't think they made Heathcliff nearly as despicable as he seems in the book.  My husband doesn't really think much of Wuthering Heights, because it is a romance but I would definitely recommend the book to just about anyone.  The story is dark and not nearly the girl's silly romance that some might think.  I really do love the book and think Emily Bronte was very talented.  It's really too bad she died before she could write more because I would love to read more.  

   

Adventures in Wood Burning

Lately I have been thinking a lot about trying wood burning again.  Last year, around October, a 4th grade teacher at the school where I work was doing an art project of wood burning.  A few of the kids in our class were participating with his kids and so he let me borrow a wood burner and he gave me some wood that I could try on when I asked him more about it.  I found an awesome picture of a tiger and decided that I wanted to try a tiger rather then the chipmunk, covered wagon, or coyote type things he was having his students do, I think he was trying to stick with the Utah history, pioneer type theme for his curriculum. The tiger was much cooler.  It was a lot of fun, and even though there are spots that look a bit weird he turned out pretty great, in my opinion.  I still need to put a glaze over the whole thing from what I've been told but I just haven't quite gotten around to it.

(This isn't the greatest picture of this guy but it was the best I could get)

I had a blast working on this tiger, so much so, that I went out and bought my very own wood burner.  Basically, I got it for free because I had a 50% off coupon for Robert's and was given a $15.00 gift card for my birthday earlier that year.  I only ended up paying about a dollar for the tax. 

When I finished off my tiger I went about looking for more wood to burn.  I decided that a pretty box with a burned peacock would be perfect for my sister Sarah's Christmas present.  I found a great wooden box made of basswood.  But basswood is a very soft wood and it burned way too quickly.  My fancy new wood burner does not have a temperature adjuster and I could barely press the hot blade to the wood before the wood burned all around the blade as well.  I was disgusted, to say the least, and was extremely discouraged by the whole experience.  I didn't get quite half way finished with the peacock before I gave that idea up and I haven't touched the wood burner since.  There were too many fine lines that would have all blurred together if I had kept going.  And honestly it looks really fuzzy and pretty much terrible.

I think that I am about over that disappointment and I am ready to try again.  I will definitely not buy wood at Robert's because all they have is basswood or some other kind that is even softer then the basswood.  It almost feels foamy.  I think I'm going to have to hit up Home Depot and cut up some wood myself.  It will probably be cheaper that way anyway.  Wish me luck in my future wood burning endeavors.

Our Family

Eric and I have recently added a new member to our family of cats.  He is extremely cute and a beast at the same time but we love him.  If you haven't met any of our cats yet, here is your chance.

This is Vree:

We got her just after Thanksgiving of 2008.  She was 5 months old when we bought her from Petsmart.  We couldn't resist how unique looking she is and how clumsy she is.  When we first saw her she was in her glass enclosed cage trying to show off for us on the two story little box in there and she fell off, it was too cute to pass up.  She is such a cute girl.  She loves me but doesn't care much for Eric.  She is usually in the same room as I am throughout the day and talks to me all the time, even though I don't always know what she is saying.

She loves to sit on my lap when I'm on my computer, this is us watching the X-Files.



She has a certain look in her eye that makes her look like she's up to no good.

This is Alys:

We bought Aly from Petsmart as well in the end of January of 2009.  We felt like Vree was lonely and needed a brother or sister.  I wanted a boy cat, I think they have really funny personalities.  I had one all picked out and he looked almost exactly like Alys but Eric's heart was stolen by this little vixen.  He was holding her, she was tiny even though she was 5 months old and she smelled like she was already half dead but she reached up and gave Eric a little kiss on the cheek and he knew he couldn't part with her.  When I held her she did the same thing to me so we bought her and nursed her back to health.  She has been best friends with Eric ever since.  She loves to cuddle with him.

She loves to hang out in windows and anywhere she really shouldn't be.

Vree and Aly have become good friends, although they weren't to begin with. 

It took Vree quite some time to accept a new member of the family but now they are definitely sisters, best friends, cuddle buddies and playmates.

We added a new member to our family last week.  He is such a cute guy and he and Alys have become fast friends but Vree is still struggling with the newest addition to the family.  We haven't completely decided on a name for the little guy yet but we are thinking of calling him Lecter, he is constantly trying to nibble on my ears, lips, chin, eyes, anywhere he can.  He loves to lay on my chest, right next to my neck and purr really loud.  He is definitely cute when he is calm enough to cuddle but a little terrorist when he wants to play.  I'm covered in scratches from his extremely sharp claws that we can't clip yet.

Lecter: (tentative name)

This was my vain attempt at taking picture of him as he played, do you see the size of his claws?!


I was barely able to get a picture of him as he dashed around the living room chasing imaginary creatures around.

He is such a cute guy and I'm so glad we added him into our mix. 

Dangerously Delicious

Eric's mom has this great recipe for peanut butter brownies that Eric absolutely loves.  I'd never made them or even eaten them up until two days ago.  I've asked him to get the recipe for me a few times and he finally did when he couldn't live without the taste of them one day longer.  So I sent him to the store to pick up the few ingredients I didn't have and then I whipped up the batter.  They were very simple to prepare and only take 10 minutes in the oven.  The hard part was waiting for them to cool enough for us to layer on some more peanut butter.  

 Once they were slathered with enough peanut butter to satisfy me I attempted to make the frosting.  I added too much milk at first and not enough powdered sugar and I was getting frustrated. I'm not very good at frostings.  We had company come over and I welcomed the distraction as I was about to call it quits on the frosting and just figure something else out but Eric wouldn't give up.  "The frosting is what makes the brownies good" he told me and he set to work trying to make the frosting thicken up.  When he ran out of powdered sugar and we realized there was no thickening the frosting without it we ran to the store to pick some more up.  It was 10:30 at night by this time and I was very ready for the brownie fiasco to be over.  We came home, added a lot more powdered sugar and the frosting turned out wonderfully, even though we have enough of it to make about four more batches. 

We frosted the brownies, let them set in the freezer for about one minute, (we couldn't wait any longer) cut them up and each had a large bar, with the required milk to wash it all down with, of course.  They were great! I couldn't believe that I hadn't ever had them before and that I'd waited so long to make them.

Here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Brownies

• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1/2 c. shortening
• 1/3 c. smooth and creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

 Cream the sugars and the shortening.  Add the remaining ingredients into the mix and stir until combined.  Add in 1 c. flour and 1 c. oats.  Pour into a lightly greased pan. (I used a 9x9 inch pan and they turned out soft and chey, if you want a thinner browning you can use a bigger pan but the brownies may turn out harder).  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Let cool completely.  Spread as much peanut butter over the cool brownies as you want, just make sure they are completely cool or the peanut butter will melt into them.  Then spread the frosting over the peanut butter.  Eric's mom's frosting recipe doesn't have exact measurements so you just have to experiment until you get it right.  You will need:

• evaporated milk
• melted butter
• powdered sugar
• cocoa powder

I hope they turn out well for you and that your kitchen doesn't turn out to be as big of a disaster area as mine did.