It's Feline Friday!

Overheard this week (loosely translated, of course):

"Tinsel, when I grow up, I want to be just like you," says Lily with the utmost sincerity.

"You'll never achieve my supreme level of grace and refinement, you miserable little twerp!" retorts Tinsel with a haughty sniff.

Next Stop: Dining Room

If you've been following our re-decorating adventures, you may recall that we have been working our way through our pink/floral lower level room by room. We started with the relatively benign laundry room, worked our way through the kitchen, spent eight months working on the half-bath, and now we're in the dining room. (After this room, "only" the two-story entryway remains. That task looms larger than life, as the entryway is completely covered with pink floral wallpaper. One day I'll show you a picture and you'll see why it's daunting.)

Right now, the dining room is a complete mess, but we are making some progress. We replaced the ghastly "What Was I Thinking?" border with a much more neutral one and we've covered the burgundy portion of the walls with a deep green (it's not as bright as it appears in these photos). Spouse is now in the midst of painting the top portion of the dining room a very light green. The light and dark greens in the dining room coordinate with the olive green in the kitchen and the gold in our Pirates of the Caribbean bathroom.

As I've said before, these particular shades of green are not for the faint of heart. But the reality is that they look a whole lot better than the previous color scheme. Our table and china cabinet no longer blend into the walls. The tone of the woodwork doesn't clash with the paint. At first I was worried about the green, but now that more is painted, I love it.

And here is a very funny note: The single photo above is the back of our china cabinet. We bought it several years ago from an older neighbor. We had the entire china cabinet stripped of paint because she told us it was constructed of mahogany. Guess what color it was painted before we stripped it?

Olive green. Almost the exact shade we're painting the dining room, as evidenced by the bit of paint we saved on the back of the cabinet.

I don't think Spouse sees the humor in this.

Creative Cafe Class Project

The store where I teach recently got the new Creative Cafe. I love the concept of being able to select buttons, felt flowers, and chipboard from cute little jars in exactly the quantity or style that I want. I'm a sucker for an attractive display.

I've been working on a couple of classes for 2008 using goodies from the Creative Cafe. This one is a little ring-bound album using the library cards and cardstock stickers that are part of this new line. Of course, since I'm "all about felt" these days, I couldn't resist adding a few felt flowers.

This project holds 14 wallet-sized photos and could be expanded to hold as many as you'd like. The library cards (on the reverse side of each cardstock piece) provide ample journaling space for each photo. And since I use Picasa to manage my photos, it was super-easy to select and print them in the wallet-sized setting.

I love projects that come together easily like this one. I think it's really good for the psyche to, every once in awhile, be able to start and finish a project in a short amount of time. Everyone needs a sense of accomplishment from time to time, right?!

Lily finds her match

A few days ago, we found a small "cat" finger puppet in our family room. No one remembered it or had any idea where it had come from.

After thinking about it for awhile, I realized I had recently seen Lily "at work" behind our puppet theater, constructed by my parents for DD when she was considerably younger. The puppet theater does not get a lot of use these days, and I had forgotten about the basket of finger puppets which sits on the floor behind it.

Sure enough, Lily must have found it in that basket.

To verify that this is the way it actually happened, I staged a small "reenactment". I planted the finger puppet back in the basket and plunked Lily down beside the puppet theatre. And just like clockwork, she dug through the basket and pulled out the cat, leaving the lamb, the bird, and other small animals for another day.


"Dis one looks like me, Mom!" I could almost hear her say.

Pure bliss surely tastes like this

I think I've found my true love:

Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars.

Last holiday season, I heard people talking about them, but I never saw them at our local Starbucks.

This year, our Starbucks has them. Every day. Singly. And in a lovely box, which conveniently holds 16 bars.

I'll go out on a limb here and proclaim that Cranberry Bliss Bars are better than scones. They are better than Bazzill cardstock. They are even better than Williams-Sonoma Winter Forest Hand Lotion.

So go get one. Or get a box. Trust me: They freeze well and you'll never be found wanting.

One more reason to go to Starbucks

In case you need one more excuse to go to Starbucks, let me offer this: The advent calendar, introduced last year, is back.

I picked up mine after LAST Christmas for around $5. I fished it out of the clearance bin, brought it home, ate all of the candy without telling anyone, and packed it away with the intent to alter it before this Christmas. Of course, I completely forgot about it until this week.

Inspired by my recent burst of productivity with the button tree, I decided that tonight the Starbucks calendar should be altered. I even used my beloved Ki Memories paper, lovingly hoarded since last Christmas. Strike while the iron is hot, I always say.

As you can see by the above photo, the calendar consists of 24 numbered drawers. On the back side of each drawer is a portion of a Christmas scene. By the time December 24 arrives, the entire scene is complete. Because the drawers have to flip around, you're limited in how much altering you can do. I kept it simple and used patterned paper, stickers, rub-ons, and punches. Nothing lumpy.

So now, my task is to fill each drawer with some little goodies. AND to refrain from eating them until the appropriate day.

So take my advice and run to Starbucks today to pick up a latte and an advent calendar.

Oh -- and don't forget the Cranberry Bliss Bar. You'll need your strength for crafting, after all.

It's Feline Friday!

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures.
Kahil Gibran

And that's a lot to be thankful for...

A little holiday baking

When they were passing out the "baking gene", I was overlooked. But thankfully, DD received an extra helping. Cookies, cakes from scratch, brownies...you name it, she can bake it.

And now, we can add pumpkin pie to the list.

A couple of weeks ago, she saw a note that our church is providing pies for an inner city meal site. "Mom, I signed up to make a pumpkin pie," she told me.

OK, I thought. This could be interesting. While she has done a lot of baking, she has never made a pumpkin pie.

Last night, she made three. We even get to keep one.

Quite appropriately, my sole task was to pay for the ingredients. And conduct extensive taste testing.

Button Tree

Have you seen the button trees that people have been making this fall? As soon as I saw the original one created by Tia Bennett on Two Peas and read Ali Edwards' post about her button trees, I knew I wanted to make one. I loved the colors Ali used and decided I would create one in similar colors to match our new green and gold decor.

I wanted to use green, brown, gold, white, and red buttons for my tree. In addition to using buttons in my stash, I chose the Harvest Grab Bag buttons by Buttons Galore & More, since that mix appeared to contain most of those colors. I couldn't find them locally, so I had to order them online, and when they arrived, I discovered that the mix included a LOT of purple and orange buttons (guess I'll be ready for Halloween, huh?). After sorting out all the unusable ones, I became concerned that I wouldn't have enough to cover the tree, but alas, it worked out almost perfectly.

My tree is 9 inches high, and I used close to 250 buttons to make it. (No, I didn't count them! :-) I know that since I used an entire box of 250 pins.) Tia's instructions worked very well: I started with the largest buttons and pinned them randomly to the tree, then I added the medium buttons, each one touching a large one. Finally, I filled in with the smallest buttons. That step was the hardest part, and I still see some gaps that need to be covered with buttons.

I haven't figured out what I'm going to do with the top of the tree yet. Tia's tree has corsage pins in the top, but I'm thinking about doing something different with mine.

Total time to make the tree was about 2.5 hours. Not bad at all, and it was surprisingly fun, too. And, better yet, I actually like how it turned out.

It's Fruitcake Season Again

Last year, I waxed poetic about re-discovering The Fruitcake of My Childhood.

Oh, fruitcake lovers (if there are any of you out there)...let me remind you that it is now the season to order your Trappist Monk Monastery Fruitcakes. Get them here.

Pricey? Yes, but quite worth every penny. I assure you, there is NO better fruitcake than this. To quote from the website: "It will make believers out of even the most ardent fruitcake skeptics."

I'd recommend that you act on this immediately, because I will soon be placing a large order. :-)

YUM.

Can this blog be scratch and sniff?

This is a totally random (for me, anyway) post...not about cats or cardstock. It's all about scents.

Today I'm posting about two scents I absolutely love, and (gee, what a surprise!) they are similar. I only like (and tolerate) certain scents. My favorites tend to be pine-related scents, but they have to be "just so"... I don't like them all.

Last winter, I discovered Williams-Sonoma Winter Forest Hand Lotion and Hand Soap. I swear...there is NO better pine scent than this. It truly evokes a walk in the woods. (I slathered it all over me this morning before church and my daughter told me that she thought she must be sitting next to a tree. I'm not sure she meant that as a compliment.) I think I'll soon be hitting the WS store and picking up a few more of whatever they carry in this scent.

Last week, I discovered another great scent, similar to the Winter Forest scent but not quite as woodsy: Yankee Candle Mediterranean Cypress. Oh, my gosh...this is such a clean, fresh scent. I have been burning this candle since I bought it.

Do you like woodsy, pine scents? If so, I highly recommend both of these! They are perfect for this time of year.

No, scratch (and sniff) that...they are perfect for all year round.