Under Construction

Less lazy

I have been trying (with mixed results) to be less lazy. Nothing dramatic, I'm not back to running marathons. It's more like "picking up the random piece of paper lying in the middle of the floor rather than stepping over it for days" kind of less lazy.

I have been (if I do say so myself) quite successful at:

• keeping my car tidy. I bring in all the random car junk after every trip! and don't leave trash in the car! and make the kids bring their stuff in too! My car still needs a wash but at least there aren't piles of crap in the footwells. This has been going on for months and as a messy car person I am very pleased with myself
• replacing toilet paper rolls. I was totally that person who put a fresh roll sideways on top of the empty tube. I have reformed. (Mr. H is likely very pleased, he is an excellent toilet paper replacer)
• taking out the trash/recycling before it's totally overflowing.
• Picking up random stuff on the floor rather than stepping over it.
• Watering my indoor plants more consistently

Things I am getting better at but have not achieved perfection

• shutting doors/gates
• dealing with mail (junk mail!) promptly
• turning off lights
• bringing in trash cans promptly
• cleaning up a project when I'm done (honestly, finishing a project rather than leaving it half done would be the real accomplishment)

Things I am completely failing at

• Keeping the kitchen tidy (I cook a lot! and, luckily, Biscuit loves to clean the kitchen!)
• Making the bed
• rewinding the clothes line after use
• folding/putting away clean clothes promptly 
• ok, I need to stop or I will get depressed

The above photo illustrates a completed project. Yes, it did take over the dining room for the better part of two weeks but, it's done! and the extra cardboard has been recycled and the other tools have been put (ok, tossed) back in the craft room. Oscar is very pleased to have some of his own art on his wall. The adjacent wall is similarly framed art made by Biscuit when she was five and she and I were working on his nursery. Time flies.

Less lazy

I have been trying (with mixed results) to be less lazy. Nothing dramatic, I'm not back to running marathons. It's more like "picking up the random piece of paper lying in the middle of the floor rather than stepping over it for days" kind of less lazy.

I have been (if I do say so myself) quite successful at:

• keeping my car tidy. I bring in all the random car junk after every trip! and don't leave trash in the car! and make the kids bring their stuff in too! My car still needs a wash but at least there aren't piles of crap in the footwells. This has been going on for months and as a messy car person I am very pleased with myself
• replacing toilet paper rolls. I was totally that person who put a fresh roll sideways on top of the empty tube. I have reformed. (Mr. H is likely very pleased, he is an excellent toilet paper replacer)
• taking out the trash/recycling before it's totally overflowing.
• Picking up random stuff on the floor rather than stepping over it.
• Watering my indoor plants more consistently

Things I am getting better at but have not achieved perfection

• shutting doors/gates
• dealing with mail (junk mail!) promptly
• turning off lights
• bringing in trash cans promptly
• cleaning up a project when I'm done (honestly, finishing a project rather than leaving it half done would be the real accomplishment)

Things I am completely failing at

• Keeping the kitchen tidy (I cook a lot! and, luckily, Biscuit loves to clean the kitchen!)
• Making the bed
• rewinding the clothes line after use
• folding/putting away clean clothes promptly 
• ok, I need to stop or I will get depressed

The above photo illustrates a completed project. Yes, it did take over the dining room for the better part of two weeks but, it's done! and the extra cardboard has been recycled and the other tools have been put (ok, tossed) back in the craft room. Oscar is very pleased to have some of his own art on his wall. The adjacent wall is similarly framed art made by Biscuit when she was five and she and I were working on his nursery. Time flies.

#neverendingdirt

If you're on Instagram you may have noticed that every spare minute of every bit of daylight has been consumed with our major front yard relandscaping. It's been 80% moving of dirt. As of now, it's mostly moving mud and sand (lot's of rain, lately!).

But, but, we are finally seeing some progress and the patio might actually be done eventually. The rain just cleared but before I head back out, a few progress shots. I honestly can already barely remember the first images and they were from earlier in October.

That dirt made a perfect spot for a "fire ring" and many experiments in what will burn. Followed by marshmallows.

We're almost through an entire pallet of flagstone and maybe, just maybe, the patio will be installed in time for the neighborhood party we're hosting next weekend. Hopefully they won't mind the dirt completely surrounding the patio.

Happy things

Springtime!

• My garden is making me so happy. It's haphazard but we got a giant bowl of lettuce for tonight's salad along with carrots and the last of the snap peas. I've got seeds and seedlings in for summer veggies too.
• This sunny weekend saw Biscuit and I at Picnic Day with my family, including my sister's family. Biscuit has decided she wants to be a reporter (inspired no doubt by her wax museum report on Martha Gellhorn) so you'll have to wait for her intrepid reporting on the rest of Picnic Day. But I will say, I love a good marching band so the parade and Battle of the Bands were both fun. I selfishly hope she keeps up the trumpet.
• On Sunday she opened her ice cream stand. Social media (and good weather) for the win. She had tons of customers some of whom drove 15 miles to be there. At one point it was a little party of families hanging out eating ice cream and enjoying the sunshine.The lemon lime sherbet was a hit.
• Meanwhile Oscar and Mr. H were in Idaho for a boat race. The drove about 12 hours each way. For a boat race. They say it was fun, I remain skeptical, but they returned happy. Funniest part, Oscar came home and was singing to himself, "mama said the pistol is the mama's right hand" over and over and over. I finally asked what he was singing. "I learned a song," he told me, "I'm going to sign it at preschool." which is even funnier when he realized the pistol is the "debil's right hand" and started signing that. Johnny Cash FTW.
• Stormy the Huntress is taking DOWN the baby rats. It's disturbing how many she has killed. Maybe 9? How many ARE there??
• Open House at Biscuit's school included no less than three performances: band, choir and 5th grade recorder concert. A recorder concert! How funny is that?
• Seriously, the weather. So good. Just don't mention allergies.

Cat box home

A little cabinet of drawers I had in the shed finally broke so I took out the drawers, painted the faux wood exterior, put in the litter box, tacked a fancy tea towel over the opening and, voila! Hidden cat box.

I'm keeping the little clip on the front for now to make it easier to enter/exit. I think I could take it down and she'd still use it but I'm not ready to test that yet.  The woven rug in front is one we picked up in Costa Rica. As far as we could tell those types of rugs are absolutely ubiquitous in the South and they are pretty good at wiping litter off cat feet.

Coloring book upholstery

I am doing a very slow, very minor refresh of our living room/dining room area. (see also: new print). The chairs were looking pretty terrible. Turns out navy blue linen shows every.single.spill. BTW Mr. H made these chairs. I believe they were an anniversary gift to me. Maybe around year 5? Anyway, it is very cool that he made these chairs. And they are easy to reupholster.

Given how much fabric I own, I promised myself I wouldn't buy anything for this project and promptly ruined two yards of perfect, neutral canvas with some rubbing experiments. (Maybe not ruined but I didn't get what I wanted for the chairs.)

Back to the craft shack to search for other heavyweight material. And I found the coloring book fabric I bought at Ikea ages ago! Apparently this is what I was saving it for. Oscar is finally, sort of capable of coloring in the lines and the rest of us are good at coloring so we went for it. Of course at first Oscar wanted no part of the coloring but Biscuit and I were having fun so he caved and had fun too. Now he only wants to sit on the chair that has the airplane and rocket he colored. (shown in below photo but pushed under the table)

Let me tell you, I sure regretted that I had cut out a corner of the fabric because that made me a bit short on yardage. So I pieced in a scrap (not my best work) and called it good.

These will be ruined in no time but we can always color over the spots. And in the meantime, I totally love them.

Fall mantle

I decided to update the picture framed in the window on our mantle. I wanted something Fall-ish but it needed to work in black and white and not be too Fall-ish since I am 100% sure I'm not going to be updating this thing seasonally. I decided to print out the scan I made years ago of a decayed leaf I found by the river. I think I like it. But the edges of the mantle need more work. Something tall, I think.

Related: Kinkos charged me $4.50 ($0.75/square foot) for this 25x32" print. OfficeMax was going to charge their "minimum charge to print a photo" of $19.99. Glad I called around.

Unrelated: I'm on a non fiction audio book kick (free, from the public library, downloaded automatically to your phone, seriously best thing ever). My current book Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday is equal parts fascinating and depressing. And a weird contrast to my last audiobook The Innovators by Walter Isaacson. I'm on some sort of internet theme with my reading listening.

Final tip: Audio books (and podcasts) can be played at 1.5 speed and are just as comprenhensible as at regular speed. Except Ryan Holiday who must be a naturally fast talker--I have to play his book at 1.25 speed.

Family project

Last weekend we constructed a (rather garish, if I'm being honest) cat scratching post/play structure for Stormy the Kitty.

There is a LOT of blue paint on here.

It's taken some treat temptation but Stormy is getting used to her new structure and thankfully is using the sisal rope for scratching. Now I just need to finish my part of it which is the hammock.

Hammock prototype.

You'll be relieved to know that I did eventually put the LEGO box away (after taking these photos of course) but the cat condo remains there. It'll eventually move out of the entry way. It was fun to work on something as a family!

Meet Stormy (or how we came to adopt a kitten from the SPCA)

Months and months ago Oscar started lobbying for a pet cat. Specifically an orange cat with a white tummy and black stripes. "You mean, a tiger?" we'd ask. He thought maybe a baby tiger. He planned to name his cat Stripes.

For months and months we put him off saying "after Costa Rica." And he kept reminding us. We'd mention Costa Rica and he'd say, "and then we get our cat!"

Well, Costa Rica happened, then a family week at the lake, then we got home yesterday and it was finally time to get a cat.

We went to the Sacramento SPCA. We had checked out their available cats and kittens online (their website was surprisingly up to date!) and we agreed we were seeking a short haired, female cat. Our focus was on personality/temperment though Oscar wanted his orange cat and Biscuit was lobbying for a tabby. I was thinking adult cat but was quickly overruled.

The system at the SPCA was a bit confusing and you can tell it's primarily a volunteer run organization (dis organization?) but I will say everyone was very friendly. That is, unless you take the cat out of the box in the lobby. Oops.

We filled out a matchmaker form then wandered around looking through windows. We were allowed to choose up to three cats/kittens to meet. It was sort of tough to choose. That one looks....cute......and she's female......put her on the list. Then you get a number and when your number comes up the "adoption counselor" introduces you to the three animals.

Fortunately we chose two kittens who were in large rooms housed with multiple kittens. So when we went in to see "Richie" and she turned out to be scared senseless of every one of us we adjusted our paperwork and played with "John Mayer" who was totally adorable.

In the "dinosaur" room we had chosen to meet "Tyrannosaurus." "Spinosauraus" was actually cuter but male. As soon as we walked in, little Tyrannosaurus came right over and hopped in Mr. H's lap. After several minutes we knew she was our cat and never visited the third cat on our list (a cat, not a kitten, named Tiger, ironically).

The entire time we were checking out the kittens Oscar was completely disinterested. He didn't want to pet them or play with them or anything. It was a bit weird--maybe he was overwhelmed? He only wanted to play with the kitty toys.

After we chose Tyrannosaurus there was more paperwork to be done. By then the kids were hungry (we'd already been there an hour with an hour more to go) but then there was a giant security/caution tape/clean up/biohazard thing due to a puppy coming in that may or may not have had parvo. Turns out, no, but they take possible parvo seriously (which I'm sure is smart) so smell of ammonia permeated our entire experience and we were escorted out of a side door.

We ran to 7-11 for some chips and chocolate milk and got back for more waiting. During all this time we were thinking of naming our kitten Sally (after Lightening McQueen's girlfriend) but eventually settled on Stormy. After months of insisting the cat be named Stripes Oscar didn't care a bit.

They finally sprung us loose at 6 pm right as they closed and we went to buy litter and food (because we are just that organized).

So far Stormy is fitting in SO WELL. She is fully box trained and so affectionate. She follows us around and hops into any seated lap. Tonight she put BOTH kids to bed! Oscar, who will not go to sleep on his own, was allowed to sleep with her and she stayed in his bed long enough that he stayed quiet and fell asleep. Then Biscuit insisted she wasn't tired but I let Stormy sit on her and Biscuit stayed still enough that she fell asleep too. It's a modern miracle. I can only hope it continues.

She was in my lap for the typing of this post but is now wandering the desk behind the computer. Other than the very stinky farts (I'm hoping that settles down once she adjusts to our home/food) 30 hours of having a kitten have been amazing.

Leaf wreath

I made this wreath last weekend. From picking up the leaves off the ground to hanging it on the door was under an hour (well, excluding the time spent getting all new leaves because I decided on a different tree). I tore some random fabric into long ~2" strips and secured it into a straw wreath form with pins. Then I wrapped it tucking in the stems and a bit of the leaves and continuing around. It was all easy except the last bit where I had to tuck into existing leaves. You can totally tell where I started/ended.

A week letter it's on the door and a bit crispier and fluffier but still pretty. If you still have leaves you could still make this for Thanksgiving.