Feline Friday

If you've ever cooked over an open fire or dined in the outdoors, you know that somehow everything tastes better when eaten outdoors. You can eat the SAME THING inside and OUTSIDE and some will say it tastes more flavorful when enjoyed in the fresh air!

I think Lily would agree with that, although she loves her fresh catnip wherever she can get it!

Is the coast clear?

 The sun is in my eyes!

Dis treat smells SO good!

Argh, matey!

 Dis catnip is SO TASTY when enjoyed outside!

Lily and I hope you can all get outdoors this weekend and enjoy some catnip or other tasty treat of your choosing!

Happy Feline Friday!

Feline Friday: New Heights!

Lily has had a good week (other than another trip to the vet for her anal glands...). In fact, she's been doing quite a bit more climbing and jumping than she usually does!

Earlier this week, I was finishing up some kits in the dining room when she arrived on the scene and plopped herself down in front of the china cabinet. I NEEDS TO GO UP, she begged.

 After she calculated the height, she rightly concluded it was well beyond her ability to jump. But she simply would not stop begging! So naturally 😉 I decided to give her a boost...just to satisfy her curiosity!

 

Of course, Lily thought being on top of the china cabinet was just about the coolest thing ever! It had been a very long time since she'd been up there. We'll have to take her word for it: The view is amazing!

  Lily wondered if she could go even HIGHER! 

 

 NOPE!

 

 For a few minutes, Lily was content to be have such a great perch from which to survey her kingdom!

Going on top of the china cabinet definitely won't be a regular thing, but it was fun for just a little while!

HAPPY FELINE FRIDAY!

 Janet & Lily

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Blogging friends, I have fallen short in keeping up my blog. When 2020 came, I was SURE this would be the year I'd get back on track but alas, that has not been possible. This pandemic situation has been crazy for sure, and I've actually been busier with my work than I've ever been! Of course, this is a GREAT thing but I haven't been able to accomplish all I wanted to with my blog. I'm still hoping to get back to posting more often than just on Feline Fridays, so thanks for your patience. It will happen!

Feline Friday: New Friends!

 

  The window bird feeder turned out to be a great little purchase! We use it to attract finches, in particular the Eastern Goldfinch which is our state bird. After we remembered to hang it up a couple of weeks ago, the finches quickly discovered it and have been stopping by regularly for a snack.

Sometimes they are greeted by Lily, so when that happens they naturally make a beeline out of there! But other times, the light is just right and they don't seem to detect her as quickly. That's what happened last weekend. I happened to be right there and it was the cutest encounter I've seen in quite some time!

 

 

If you have a kitty in your house, I highly recommend a window feeder. Hours of educational viewing!

 

 Happy Feline Friday!

Feline Friday

PURR-fection!
Photo credit: Bailey

Feline Friday

Well, another "work week" on lock-down is coming to an end. Truthfully, not much has changed for me since this all started, since I do most of my work from home anyway.

If you could interview Lily, I'd guess that she'd say her days are still pretty much the same, too! The only difference is that she's getting a LOT of attention nearly ALL the time. Not that she didn't get plenty of attention before the lock-down, mind you. But now she's getting even more. 👀

This week, she went outside for a few strolls around the patio. On our recent walk, she spotted a squirrel chattering on the far edge of the yard. "Meowmy, he looks just like the ones on my YouTube video!"

Then a bird flew overhead and landed in the pine tree. "WHOA! That was cool!"

Lily was also up to her usual tricks this week, wearing her blankie to the kitchen after waking up from a long nap.

In case I don't QUITE get the message, she always turns to look pointedly at the fridge.

 And like always, I dutifully complied.

Nope, nothing's changed around here! 😉

Happy Feline Friday, friends! Stay safe out there.

Feline Friday: Salon Day!

  Lily has been shedding her winter coat like crazy so we decided it was time for Salon Day! We suited her up in her too-tight harness and outside we went.

Reddy to go, Mommie!

 First, we took a little walk down the sidewalk to the driveway....until I spotted a dog walking on a leash a block away. I scooped her up and made a beeline into the garage. I didn't want a repeat of the
DOG INCIDENT. WHEW!

 

When the coast was clear, we went to the patio salon for a good brushing with the Furminator. SO MUCH FUR came off Lily that we could have made another cat or two! YIKES! I brush her regularly inside during the winter and she always sheds, but this was NEXT LEVEL SHEDDING. I guess it was all of that old winter undercoat that needed to be removed.

 

 So much fur came off that I thought perhaps her harness would fit a little better. HA!

 

 

Even though her outdoor gear is a little snug, Lily left the salon looking sleek and pretty! Ready for our Glamour Shot!

Happy Feline Friday!

P.S. I vowed we wouldn't go out again until I found a new harness for Lily. As soon as lock down is lifted, I'm headed to PetSmart! I don't want to buy one without comparing the size in person to her current harness. It must fit her curves, you know! 😻

Catching Up on Scrapbooking: Setting Up for...2014!

Boy, if you're following along with my scrapbooking CATCH-UP journey, it must be about as riveting as watching paint dry. Surely no one has plodded along quite this slowly.

Still, I'm happy that I'm at least moving in the right direction -- as opposed to not moving AT ALL, as was the case for many years.

Over the years, I've learned that I'm very much a PROCESS person. I'm always interested in the process, or steps, someone employs to reach a particular goal. That's why I like to occasionally share my scrapbooking process, with the possibility that it might help someone else on a similar journey.

Each time I start working on a new year of scrapbooking, I look at three different areas:

1) PAGES already made, if any

2) PHOTOS to be printed

3) MEMORABILIA to be included

--- PAGES ---

First, I took a look for any pages I've already made which might be stuck in a pile somewhere. Sure enough, I found four. And four pages are better than none! So into a brand new album they went. I recently purchased three additional binders at Memory Bound using some birthday and Christmas money so I should be in good shape for awhile.

For both of these pages, I have corresponding memorabilia (a concert program and a newspaper article) to add to the album.

--- PHOTOS ---

Next, what shape are the photos in? A quick look at my digital photo files told me that my 2013 photos were in a real mess. In May of that year, my dad passed away following a brain biopsy and a couple of weeks in hospice. While I sat with him in the final days, I felt like my life was in free-fall.

From that point through the remainder of the year, many things fell by the wayside. I spent almost all of the summer sorting through a lifetime of my parents' belongings as I prepared for an auction that fall. It's still really hard for me to look at the photos I took of that process, and I'm not planning to scrapbook them as part of the chronological family albums I'm working on right now. (They'll eventually go into my own family history albums, so I'll print them when I'm ready to tackle that project.) 

Still, in order to parse out the photos I DO want to include in my current scrapbooks, I had to sift through them all. This was not an easy process and took multiple attempts to work through them all.

But it wasn't all miserable. I ran across a number of fun pictures while moving files around. These were images I'd completely missed because they had been mislabeled.

There were several "cat shaming" photos... (The actual photos are much better than these screenshots!)

There were all the photos (mostly outtakes!) from my Downtown Tabby photo shoot. :) Sweet Tinsel was such a good sport.

There was even a picture of me in a class with a customer! There are almost no pictures of me teaching so I was happy to find this one. (This is a screenshot but my hair still looks quite big in the actual photo!)

Finally, I got through a good chunk of the year. I printed off a few "lower priority" photos (such as my garden or flower pictures) as collages. This is a good way to fit a lot of pictures in an album without taking up any space at all. Highlights in the album are good enough for me, as I can always refer back to the digital photos. At some point, it would be fun to make a garden album but that will have to wait!

Finally, I made a list of the photos I needed to print, and uploaded 10 months' to Walgreens for printing. That just leaves the holiday season to sort through. Compared to other years, there aren't a ton of photos to scrapbook for 2013 which is probably a really good thing.

--- MEMORABILIA ---

Finally, I dug out the folders of memorabilia I had stashed away from that year. I slipped many items into sleeves and put them into the album. As I finish the pages, I'll just intersperse them all together in the right order.

Now that I have a better handle on the photo situation, I should be able to finish up this year of scrapbooking fairly quickly. 

At least that's my plan! Fingers and toes crossed!
jp

Feline Friday: Staying Home with Lily

Now that we've been mostly staying at home for a few weeks, Lily has to wonder what in the world is going on around here. She has not one but TWO people in her personal space throughout the day. Around the clock, actually.

One of those people is pictured in the eerily-accurate illustration above.This lady interrupts Lily's numerous naps to re-adjust her blankie or give her kisses on the head. Lily tries to be patient but it can be a bit crazy-making, she admits.

The other purr-son in the house has taken a keen interest in her mealtime routine. Whenever Lily's food gets dispensed, he rushes in and scoops up half of it to dole out to her later. This is part of his ongoing attempts to prevent gobbling and subsequent upchucking. Lily's being a good sport about it, but of course this cramps her style!

With her nap time and mealtime schedules interrupted, it really does seem like Lily's whole world has turned upside down! 

 

 Sometimes she has to take matters into her own paws and go searching for food in the wild (i.e., the kitchen).

 She'll even sneak in an extra bite of pumpkin when no one is looking.

 

But in all, Lily is muddling through this period of isolation pretty well. Even if she won't admit it, she really does enjoy the extra company. It makes her feel safe, secure, and loved. And isn't that what we all want?

Stay safe out there, friends!

Catching Up on Scrapbooking: Ready for 2013!

Well, it's been a long time since I've reported on my scrapbooking progress. I'm happy to report that 2012 is done and in the books...or scrapbooks, I should say!

The year 2012 brought with it a number of events I'd dreaded scrapbooking. My dad passed away unexpectedly in May 2013, so 2012 marked the last holidays and the last Iowa State Fair we'd spend with him. *SIGH* Working on these pages has been a bit of a long, slow slog. These photos are still really hard to handle, so I'm glad to have the pages done.

I hadn't printed many pictures for the year, so I've been batching and uploading a few months at a time to Walgreens. The quality has been good and I've been able to find coupons which make the price very reasonable. Walgreens is just up the street from our house and generally the prints are available in an hour or so which is great.

Of all the 2012 photos I had to work with, the fair pictures were the hardest. I started by sorting them into logical groupings. I wanted to fit as many as possible into pockets but reserve my favorites for traditional pages.

 As always, I relied heavily on pocket pages to help move the process along. If you're not using pocket pages in your scrapbooking, you definitely should! You can include many more photos than you'd otherwise be able to fit onto a traditional scrapbook page.
 
I store my pocket pages (and assorted full-size sleeves) in an extra 12x12 binder which, of course, will eventually be used for completed pages. The idea here is to use up all of these sleeves!

 Admittedly, using pocket pages can be a bit like fitting together a puzzle. After I sort my pictures into logical categories, I do a rough count of the number of horizontal and vertical prints. My method is pretty simple: If I have more horizontal pictures, I'll use a horizontal pocket page and the remainder of my photos will go on a traditional page next to it. The challenge generally comes on the BACK side of the pocket page, when you need to figure out which pictures to fit into the same pocket configuration. But if you're flexible, you can always make it work.

There are a few page designs that have both horizontal and vertical slots. This is very handy! Here I cut a few down to 3x4 which allowed me to fit 2 horizontal pictures into a vertical pocket. 

In this case, I used the extra space for a journaling block.

On this page, I cut 2 ice cream cone pictures into a vertical format and fit them into a horizontal slot. This breaks up the "blockiness" of the page and allows you to squeeze in an additional picture. And that's important when you're scrapbooking!

Before printing the 4x6 photos, I also set aside some to make collages (seriously, how many pages of sheep pictures does one need?). You can print collages through Walgreens or any other developer but I print mine at home. By adding text directly to the collage, I don't even have to worry about journaling. It can slip directly into a sleeve.

 During one of my recent visits to Memory Bound, I bought a layered die cut to use for the first page of this fair section. But I was in a hurry (pandemic, you know!) and didn't think to buy any coordinating or themed fair papers. So when I started working on these photos, I realized I was in a bit of a pickle. I found a 6x12 piece of striped paper that I liked and decided I'd make it work for this section by stretching it as far as possible. Luckily I found solid-color cardstock in my stash to coordinate with it!

 I'm generally ok with just a little bit of patterned paper, so this method worked just fine for me.

I cut narrow strips to use here and there and filled in with cardstock to make it all look (hopefully!) like I'd planned it that way. HA! 

This was the last year we camped at the fair -- and the last year that Bailey attended due to her college and summer schedule. So I wanted to put a little more emphasis on what camping has meant to me over my lifetime.

I printed a couple of photos (they're actually slides!) of me camping as a little girl and added them to this section.

 To speed up the journaling, I create text blocks for several pages at once in a Word document. I use the same fonts throughout the section to visually tie the pages together. Once I have enough done to fill a page, I print them out, cut them, and add them to the pages.

  
After working on the fair pictures, I was motivated to keep going and finished all of 2012, including the last Thanksgiving and Christmas we had with my dad.

  So even though these photos were bittersweet to scrapbook, I'm really glad I worked through them. Now they're safely tucked into an album for us to look back on and enjoy in years to come. 

Now on to 2013! Will I ever catch up to the present day? 
Yes, I really believe that I will!

jp