Pointsies

The one of Tuck.

2012-01-26T09:00:00.000-06:00

I was digging around in my one of my old college sketchbooks and found this drawing of our old family dog, Tuck.

Not to date myself, but I would have drawn this is 2003. Or 2004, or something. Finding this sketch brought a smile to my face.

Oh, Tuck.

Tuck was our family dog since I was in 4th grade. A beautiful golden retriever who loved EVERYBODY. And that face. Velvety soft and adorable. A sweet, sweet (albeit stinky) pooch. COMPLETELY happy and satisfied if he could be near (read: laying or leaning ON) the ones that he loved.

But....he was an idiot.

Oh Tuck, let me count the ways of your idiocy.

- Afraid of water. Yes that's right, a golden retriever who was afraid of water.

- Could not catch anything for the life of him. Things simply bounced off his face.

- Walked to the window to growl every now and then at NOTHING, but wouldn't notice if someone actually came to the door. (And no he wasn't deaf. .....Except towards the end of his life. When he did in fact become deaf.)

- Peed when he got excited. On guests, when they came to visit. One time in someone's face. Try to figure that one out.

- Licked everything constantly. Things like the curtains. Or your jeans.

- Ran away EVERY SINGLE CHANCE HE GOT. Oh Tuck, how many times did we chase you around the neighborhood trying in vain to lure you into the car with treats? (Let it be known here that Tuck had no reason to run away. We were perfectly wonderful doggie owners, I'm just sure of it. He just, really liked running, I guess. Can I get a Forest Gump?)

- And he shed A LOT. Oh Tuck, that hair. That hair everywhere.

Ok, that last one didn't have anything to do with his level of intelligence. But I thought I should still mention it.

But Tuck was greatly loved by our fam, all the same. He passed away a few years ago now, at the ripe old age of 15. I remember as a teenager having to wake up at theeee most ungodly of hours in order to make it on time to school, and I would usually pass through the living room towards the laundry room to try and find something to wear. On the way I would see Tuck curled up on the couch and in my zombie-like state I would find myself lured to his warm body. AND more often than not I would end up laying down and using him as a pillow for ten minutes or so before working up the will power to continue my journey to the laundry room. Life is hard when you're a teenager.

This one's for you, Ol' Tuck. Because of you, I will probably never have another dog. Love ya.

Good Things

2012-01-25T15:48:00.002-06:00

I have compiled a list for you of some of the good things happening around here lately.

- Banana oat smoothies for breakfast. So tasty.

- Indulging in my current obsession with the new Black Keys album. Frequently.

- Eating at Arby's with the hubs. Roast beef sandwich with special sauce and cheese, curly fries and chocolate croissant thingy HEY-OOOO

- Lunch with my mom and sister, who afterward gave up their precious afternoon to help me clean my house and do my dishes. Because I was feeling lazy and discouraged and they are just awesome like that. But first we did a little bit of thrifting. Because that's the most fun.

- The three kitties getting along for long enough to all sit on the coffee table together. (Unfortunately we didn't snap a photo of the great event. But here's Daisy looking regal while relaxing on the couch. For your viewing pleasure. And because I don't have any other photos to accompany this post. I'm not doing so good with the picture taking lately. IF you hadn't already noticed.)

- A fun and relaxing few days away with friends this past weekend. Where we mainly just relaxed, ate awesome food, and played awesome games. It was nice.

- Reading through Mockingjay with the hubs. We have been loving this series (Hunger Games, HEY-OOO), but one of the phrases that most frequently comes out of our mouths these days is, "Stupid Katniss."

"Hunny, what should we do tonight?"

"Want to read about stupid Katniss?"

"Ya!!"

But if you look past Katniss' stupidity, we definitely recommend reading about her. If you like reading. And all that.

- Making progress on my new project for the shop.

Thankful for happy things. :)

New Stuff!

2012-01-19T09:00:00.000-06:00

I'm excited to announce that I will soon be listing a select group of my Daily Animal Doodles in my Etsy shop! They aren't in there quite yet, but I will be selling both prints and note cards.

I've been experimenting printing on note cards and I'm really pleased with how they are turning out - it looks so close to the original pencil!

I still have to decide what type of paper to use for actual art prints - I'm excited to try a textured paper instead of just a smooth matte to see if it makes it look even more realistic.

There are a few more animals that I also will be adding, and I have some tweaking to do now that I can see how they print. But I'm so excited to soon be getting new items into the shop! I do hope that this means that my productivity has made it's return.

Sketchbook - Tiny Dancer

2012-01-18T15:24:00.002-06:00

I've been wanting for a long time to start drawing dancers, as I don't have much practice with "movement," I guess you would say. I love drawing human faces and I've (obviously) been in an animal doodle kick lately, so I'm excited to try something new.

I definitely don't have all the proportions and movement exactly right, but it was a fun first try!

In other news.

Do you ever make a perfect meal and then all you can think of for the rest of the night (and admittedly the entire next day) is how good it tasted and how you would like to eat some more? How you wish your stomach was five times bigger so you could eat five times more?

Or is it just me?

The hubs and I have been making these black bean tacos with lime slaw for awhile now, but last night we completely superly perfected them. And I can't stop dreaming about it.

Perfect. Black bean tacos. mmmmmm so good.

goofiness.

2012-01-13T09:25:00.001-06:00

Remember my post from a long time ago about how Gepetto is bad in front of the camera? (If you don't remember that post and you like funny cat pictures, then here you go.)

Well here we are again.

The hubs and I had a genuine laughing attack after snapping this shot. Much to Gepetto's annoyance and dismay.

Sketchbook and my ninja moves.

2012-01-11T22:37:00.001-06:00

Here's another couple of bird buddies.

Today I slept in entirely too late (and loved it) and realized that Minnesota January weather has finally arrived (and didn't love that) and went shopping at the new Aldi near our house (and loved it) and slipped and fell on our sidewalk which was covered in slick invisible ice (and didn't love that.)

Don't worry I fell gracefully and caught myself in a stealthy ninja position.

AND More Confessions.

2012-01-08T22:02:00.007-06:00

A few more late night Sunday confessions.

27. I hate microwave popcorn. But movie theater popcorn is preeeetty good.

28. The hubs thinks that I'm addicted to chap stick. But I'm NOT. It's just that I really can't go without it and if I forget to put some in my pocket for the day then it's just a really bad day. That's all.

29. I am perpetually late, it's the story of my life. It's tough for the hubs, as he is a perpetually early sort. I always think I have more time than I actually do. Or it's as if the idea of being on time (or heaven forbid, early!!) is frightening to me. Or something. "Oh. I have two extra minutes? I should clean out the cat box and then change my outfit and quick check my email!" 15 minutes later I am furious myself for leaving so late AGAIN.

30. I'm a big scaredy cat. I hate horror movies and scary stories. One time I got tricked into seeing The Ring (most horrifying mishap of my life) and I couldn't shower for like, 3 days. Not because that movie had anything to do with the shower...but because I was too afraid to be in such an enclosed area without being able to see if there was a creeper well girl about to attack me.

But for some reason alien or vampire movies don't scare me much. Just mostly murderers, psychos, creeper well girls.

31. I didn't think I would like greek yogurt but it turns out that I love it.

32. I am (not so secretly) happy that we've had a crazy warm winter so far. Yes I was disappointed about the lack of snow for Christmas, but now that's it's already passed anyway I am perfectly pleased with this 40 degree weekend that we're having in JANUARY.

33. I pretty much know Ace Ventura: Pet Detective completely by heart. And I'm not at all ashamed to admit it.

That's all for now! Hope everyone has had a fabulous weekend.

Good Things

2012-01-07T17:09:00.000-06:00

I'm starting a new weekly post over here called Good Things. Basically it will be a few things from throughout the week or so that have been good, beautiful, hilarious, or have encouraged me. You know, so that I can be more purposefully aware of the many great blessings in life, because I so often overlook them. And also to encourage myself to take more pictures because, well, I want to.

And also to bring a little bit of organization and consistency to this blog-o-mine.

So without further ado, a list of good things from this past week. Or so.

- Delicious dinner with lovely friends.

- Re-discovering the 30 Rock episode where Liz Lemon breaks up with Matt Damon on an airplane.

- Kitties laying in the sunlight. (And the hubs' mad photo skizzles.)

- Buying a shiny new planner. I love that part of the new year.

- Dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory for me mum's birthday. I got wonderful old Chicken Parmesan with a splash of Alfredo sauce. yummm.

- Yummy chicken pot pie at my grandma's house.

- Discovering my newly found love of yoga. (Ok so I've only been to two classes so there's no way to tell so far if it is TRUE love or not yet.)

What has been the best part of your week pals?

Two birds. Also, it seems that I like yoga.

2012-01-03T14:31:00.000-06:00

Here's a little hubby and wifey. BF and GF. Bro and sis. Two besties. Whatever you might like to call it.

I actually drew these two awhile ago, a few months ago perhaps. Maybe more than that, I'm not sure.

I took my first shot at yoga today. I was pleasantly surprised. At how pleasant it was.

Of course since I am entirely not flexible or strong and my legs are shaky, my body did not look like the graceful instructor's body at any given time during the class.

But it was pleasant and I think I shall go again.

So now I am adding another New Year's resolution to the (short) list and that is to get better at yoga.

I almost forgot to give this post a title.

2012-01-02T16:26:00.003-06:00

I've been a bit MIA from the blog scene as of late mostly because of you know, Christmas, New Years, traveling, spending time with fam, hanging out with awesome pals, and ok I will admit it. Laziness.

But here it is the start of a new year and I am ready to tackle this blog and other projects again in a big way!

And today I'm going to recap my holiday season for you in somewhat of a list form today.

Because paragraphs scare me sometimes but lists are friendly and non-intimidating.

Christmas Breakdown:

-Christmas for just the hubs and I happened on Christmas Eve morning. (There should be a shorter way to say that.) A small gift exchange and then we relaxed while watching Christmas movies and baking cookies and wrapping presents for family. My favorite gift from the hubsidizer were these wonderful, beautiful, new heels.

I'm a horrible heels-walker. Truly. But I still like wearing them!

-Christmas Eve was at my Grandma's house where there was a delicious meal, singing of carols and reading of the Christmas story, and exchanging of presents.

-Then we all slept over at my mom's place where we ended up playing Rock Band until midnight. My favorite was when we all sang Bonnie Tyler at the top of our lungs, the hubs on lead vocals. Forever's gonna start tonight!

-Christmas day we checked our stockings, opened presents, watched lots of movies, played more Rock Band (my mom discovered how much she enjoys playing the drums!), and ate TONS of delicious food. It was a simply fabulous time.

AND THEN the Christmas celebrations continued this past weekend with the hubs' family! We got out there Friday at around 1pm and headed out to the camp that his parents work at. There was yummy food, a big air competition, chats with my sister in law and sister in law to be (!), and the hubs got to ski with his bro, who had time off before his next assignment in the Air Force. Here's the hubs with his brother (dressed as a pirate because you know, it's important to do that sometimes).

-That night there were gifts to be exchanged, carols to be sung, and cards to be played. And of course many laughs to be had.

-AND the next day the bro in law (the pirate) proposed to his girlfriend! Who is now his fiance! While skiing! While we were all watching! It was the most exciting of times.

And that's my Christmas update! As I mentioned earlier, I took pretty much no photos at all (besides what you see here, and I will be honest and tell you that I took the pic of those shoes just now) of all the festivities these past couple of weeks. I had the best of intentions! I carried around my camera everywhere I went and even thought about getting it out a few times. But I did not. And for that I am annoyed, and I apologize.

I'll be back this week with more sketchbook entries and hopefully some new stuff!

Oh. And so far my only New Year's resolution is to type a post about our trip to Texas which was already a couple of weeks ago sometime within the next 7 days.

Oh. And snow finally did come! Not in time for Christmas, but just in time for New Year's Eve. There's not very much of it, but it's beginning to look a bit more like a Minnesota winter around here.

One of our only Christmas photographs

2011-12-29T17:08:00.000-06:00

Someone gave this little play place to us for our kitties (because their cat didn't use it) so we promptly declared it the kitties' Christmas present.

Despite Gepetto's probing alien eyeballs and Pisica's disgruntled scowl they actually do enjoy it.

The hubs put a little space heater in front of it and then tries to force them to go in there once it gets all warm and cozy. I'm sure they enjoy that as well.

Daisy likes it too. She likes to perch on top of it to look out the window and keep an eye on the mail man. Although you won't find her hanging around there while the other two are - the three kitties unfortunately still do not get along. Still lot's of hissing and growling going down in our house! Boo on that.

Just be friends guys. In the words of Gob Bluth, "COME ON!!"

Sketchbook Day - our little house on a hill

2011-12-27T20:44:00.001-06:00

I don't usually draw buildings. Like, ever. Or anything with straight edges for that matter because...I'm bad at making straight lines. But I suddenly had the urge to depict our little home with our Christmas tree twinkling through the window.

So I did.

Please take notice of the...not straight roof.

The Christmas season has seemed to sap all my energy! I need to get re-motivated.

I joined a gym. ahh!!

A quick Christmas recap post will be coming soon. BUT I neglected to take ANY pictures over the weekend so...we'll see how that goes.

Right now I'm watching The Great Muppet Caper and trying to keep the hubs awake throughout the whole thing. Because I don't like watching movies by myself. hehe. Miss Piggy is the star of her own synchronized dancing fantasy.

A green, I mean, brown Christmas!

2011-12-24T14:01:00.000-06:00

Today is shaping up to be a pretty good day in the Points household. Sleeping in, exchanging gifts, watching It's a Wonderful Life (turns out I know the whole thing by heart, but the hubs knows Home Alone by heart so I guess we're even), wrapping presents for the rest of the family celebrations, watching our kitties turn psychotic as they play with their new catnip mouse toys, and pondering the strange fact that we are in Minnesota at Christmas time and yet the temperature is in the 40's and there is no snow outside. The hubs informed me that this also happened in 2006, although I must have blocked such a disturbing and bizarre event from my memory.

As I mentioned before, I'm not a winter person. And 40 degrees is a whole lot better than...anything that's colder than that. But I DO like snow for Christmas. I like snow for Christmas, but then for it to be gone by like...mid January. But the way things are shaping up I'm guessing now that we won't get snow UNTIL mid January and then it will be here until like, mid April.

Not cool Minnesota.

BUT. Christmas is still fun, brown and all. Yes. Today I got to use my new COOKIE PRESS!

My first time ever making Spritz cookies, and they turned out nice and tasty. And also cute. Just the way I like cookies.

Success.

We have more time to relax today and then will be off to Christmas celebrations with the fam. I DO love this time of year, snow or no snow. :) And who knows, maybe good ol' MN will grant us a bit of Christmas eve snowfall tonight. Merry Christmas friends!

Ch ch changes

2011-12-20T22:09:00.001-06:00

You may have noticed the lack of animal doodles around here lately.

And for that I apologize.

But after awhile you can only get through so many animals when you wonder how many more can there possibly be? (As I'm sure Andrea has wondered as she has put the lists together.)

So. I'm taking a bit of a turn in a different direction. I'm going to start doing sketchbook posts at least a couple (hopefully) times a week. These very well could be more animal doodles, or sketches of anything else I happen to be working on. Some of them may be nothing more than a few squiggly lines or a silly cartoon, and some may be elaborate and detailed. I actually really love drawing people and faces but haven't done that for awhile, so I'm looking forward to getting into that again.

And when life starts to get just a little bit too crazy (as it so often seems to) I may post a few doodles and drawings from some of my old sketchbooks just for fun.

So in short. There shall still be doodles, but the doodles shall not be limited to just animals. I have loved the daily animal doodle project because it has made me keep up with drawing way more than I have in the past. And since drawing is one of my absolute favorite things, it's good. It's gooooood. I'm excited to continue on in a bit of a different direction.

So without further ado, a doodle. Of the Christmas variety.

Oh and ps. I've got some fun plans coming up for my animal doodles from these past few months - so excited to show you!

In other news the hubs and I finally watched Christmas Vacation tonight. Such a fave.

"Well why is the CARPET all wet TODD?"
"I don't KNOW Margo!"

Just checking in ya know.

2011-12-19T23:34:00.000-06:00

Hi! I'm back!

From where, you ask?

San Antonio, Texas. Yes that's right! We ventured to the big ol' state this past weekend. I'd never been there before, but I'll be darned if it wasn't basically as cold down there as it's been up here.

What.

BUT. It was a very fun city. And a very fun trip. The hubs and I went down there with his family to see his lil' (but in all reality very tall) bro graduate from the Air Force's basic training. It was awesome to see what he's been up to these past few months and his clean shaven head. And his new dad glasses.

He was an honor graduate. Congrats Brent!

Brent and his sweet little nugget of a girlfriend Mackenzie.

Stay tuned, for I'll be posting more pics and a recap of our little trip later this week!

But now we are back and it's Monday and you know Mondays. They're just...so...annoying. Like, having to wake up and stuff. Not to mention going Christmas shopping for three times as long as you thought you would due to your inability to make decisions.

And on top of that forgetting to eat lunch beforehand.

How can a girl possibly make important decisions about what to buy and wrap up for her family members when all that's sustaining her are two frosted sugar cookies consumed at 7am?

So, it's like that today. All Monday-ish.

But tomorrow is Tuesday and I almost ALWAYS like those.

Blast from Christmas past

2011-12-16T09:00:00.002-06:00

I stumbled across these veeery old Christmas pictures scanned onto my computer and thought that I would share them. Because that's what bloggers do, right? Share?

Here's me and my little bro all dressed in our Christmas spirit best. Complete with festive red carpet.

Me and my violin. You can tell that it's Christmas related because of the holiday cheer ribbon tied to my instrument. Complete with festive red curtains. And bangs. And awesome jeans.

I'm assuming that this next one is a Christmas-y occasion because it appears that I'm wearing a Christmas-y dress (but my mom might tell me that I'm wrong). Complete with festive Christmas card pose.

That's all for sharing right now. Hope you are having a veeery great week!

Gift Ideas

2011-12-15T01:00:00.000-06:00

Hi friends.

I'm wondering, are you like me, and need help with your Christmas shopping?

If so, which I'm assuming some of you MIGHT be, I have a solution for you. Check out my friend Kris' sweet little shop, Life at the Table.

Kris makes lovely handmade goods including market tote bags, produce bags, reusable sandwich bags, and beautiful drawings for your kitchen.

Now. I know from experience that her stuff is fabulous. A couple of months ago I snatched this super fun market tote bag from her shop. I LOVE the bright color combinations and intricate detailing. I'm excited to try it out at the farmer's market when summer comes back around (eternities away!!) but in the meantime I've been using it as a book bag.

I have a lot of books I like to cart around with me (sketchbook, whatever novel I'm reading at the time, journal, bible, blog journal, to do list journal, planner, devo book, help books....AND the list goes on.) This bag is strong and durable and gets compliments wherever it goes.

So. If you like cute, lovingly handmade and awesome things or you think that someone you need to buy a Christmas gift for might, head over to Life at the Table and check out Kris' work! The Christmas deadline for her made to order items is the 15th (um...today!! hurry, don't dawdle!) and for her in stock items the deadline is the 18th.

Happy shopping!

Weekend Recap.

2011-12-13T01:32:00.000-06:00

Hi!

I had a great weekend.

It started Friday night with appetizers, chats, and Love Actually with a couple of my gal pals. What a perfect Christmas flick.

On Saturday my friend Mel introduced me to THEEE AWESOMEST little vintage treasure store in south Minneapolis. I got some huge old orange and gold dangly earrings - I am loving me the big earrings even more than usual these days since my short new hairdo allows them to hang longer than my hair. And I like it.

Saturday night the hubs and I went over to my Grandma's house for her annual tree decorating party where we yes, decorated her tree, and also ate cookies, created ornaments and set up nativities. It was good warm family fun.

THEN my sister slept over because we hadn't hung out in way too long. We watched Friends, chatted, went to church Sunday morning, chatted, ate good food, went shopping, watched Arrested Development, chatted, watched Jerry Maguire and laughed at Tom Cruise and his 90's clothes (and finally looked up what "shoplift the pootie" means), did a little more shopping, did a little more chatting, until I reluctantly drove her back to school.

Unfortunately I managed to snag zero pictures of the fun weekend.

BUT. One of our shopping destinations was my most favorite of Targets where I picked up some cookie cutters (I had none) and a cookie press for SPRITZ! COOKIES!

I'm so excited to make them.

Speaking of making food, I have been making a lot of food lately. I'm just going to take a small moment to make a braggart list of all the things I have made in the past few weeks.

Italian Stew with HOMEMADE meatballs.
Pumpkin truffles.
Parmesan crusted chicken.
3 cheese enchiladas.
Lemon pepper tilapia.
S'mores cheesecake bars.
Little veggie dip appetizer things.
Gnocchi with homemade alfredo sauce.

Impressed?

No?

Ok well it may look like a pretty small list to cover a few weeks but it's a big one for me because, I don't cook.

Very much.

Or very well.

Until lately! Apparently.

It seems to be a new development of my life.

So anyway.

I had an unproductive day today. My to-do list was small, but somehow I wasted the hours away doing WHO KNOWS what and forgot to do laundry, only did half of the horrifying pile of dishes on our counter, meant to go Christmas shopping and promptly did NOT, managed to be late to violin lessons for WHO KNOWS what reason, and here I am blogging and working on projects in the middle of the night instead of getting them done in the daylight hours.

Brilliant.

In other news, we've had a break through with the kitty drama! We have been letting Daisy out of her room almost all day each day now and only keep her in there at night. And today ALL THREE cats sat on the couch with the hubs without a hiss to be heard!

But then later they got crabby with each other again. BUT. Progress is progress. Eh?

Swan Doodle

2011-12-09T12:18:00.000-06:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

Trying and failing to think of something, ANYTHING to say about swans.

Oh well.

Today is cleaning day. Cleaning on sunny days is annoying because the sun shines in and alights on every small particle of dust and every stubborn cat hair. No matter how much I dust, sweep, scrub, it seems I can't get it perfect. And I'm somewhat of a perfectionist so...it's annoying.

Cloudy day and night time cleaning is more satisfying. Though I suppose not as thorough.

Looking forward to a fun weekend filled with friends and family, starting with an appetizer and Love Actually night tonight with some pals at my place! (Hence the sunny day cleaning.) What do you have going on this weekend?

November Doodles: Sparrow, Badger, Poodle, Wolf, Narwhal, Cocker Spaniel, Turkey, Goat
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.

A Festive Living Room

2011-12-08T22:17:00.001-06:00

Here's a teeensy little sneak peak into our Christmas living room.

We don't have a fireplace but hanging the stockings over the bookshelf is the next best thing right? My mom made our stockings - and I love them. Mine is the red one with the curly elf toe.

Basically all of our Christmas ornaments have either been given to us or we bought them in thrift stores. Which has been nice - we likeuh to saveuh da moneys.

This fabric antique Night Before Christmas book used to belong to the hubs' great great grandma (we think??) The copyright is 1908!

We have a fake tree - each year we wonder if we will give up the cash to pay for a real one BUT...we haven't yet. Our tree was given to us and fits perfectly in our front window. I just buy a bunch of Christmas scented candles including PINE - mmmm so wonderful. Christmas candles are my happy place.

As I mentioned here - our cats like to destroy our tree. A reader gave us a helpful hint though - to bend the branches over (since they are fake) so the ornaments can't be pulled off. It has helped!

Here's a pic that's all nice and glowy.

Hope your Christmas preparations are coming along stress-free! The speed at which December is passing me by is blowing my mind right now.

Goat Doodle

2011-12-07T09:00:00.007-06:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

I drew a lot of goats today.

None of them turned out, they all looked frightening.

I was about to give up, but at the last minute drew this little guy in the corner of my creepy goat-filled sketchbook page.

Good enough, I thought to myself.

What's my favorite goat memory? So glad you asked. On an extended overseas trip I took in college, my group and I found ourselves camping in a village in Mozambique. Goats wandered around everywhere, and in the morning when I awoke and looked out the tent door, there was a goat. Right outside, staring at me with his very wide forehead and creeper eyeballs.

The end!

November Doodles: Sparrow, Badger, Poodle, Wolf, Narwhal, Cocker Spaniel, Turkey
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.

Kitty Drama

2011-12-06T20:52:00.000-06:00

Interwebs, meet Daisy.

What?? Who is Daisy?? Don't you already have two cats??

I hear you asking that. Yes I do.

Daisy is a sweet 4 year old kitty who makes lots of funny noises and belongs to a friend of ours who is not able to take care of her right now, so she is living with us temporarily and has been here for about a week.

Now. Back to the part where we already have two cats. Before Daisy came I was worried about how the kitty introductions would go. Pisica and Gepetto have never met any other cats since we adopted them, and they are basically inseparable and have complete charge of the house and us. What?

I didn't know how all the cats would get along. In particular I was worried about Pisica - so small, timid and worried.

"Pisica," I would say to her in the days leading up to Daisy coming to live with us, "there is a new kitty coming, but don't worry. We still love you. And no matter what, always be yourself."

Yes I did really say that to my cat. Multiple times. Much to the hubs' shock and dismay.

BUT. As it turns out I was worried for the wrong reasons. My precious, frail little Pisica...

...is a bully!! I've never heard such noises as the ones that come out of her little body. If you can imagine a cat screaming - that's it. And no it's not pleasant. Screams, deep throated growls that sound like a lion at the zoo rather than a house cat, strange groans, and hissing. Oh the hissing. SO MUCH hissing.

According to multiple internet sources, we should be keeping the new cat in a "safe" room with everything that she needs and gradually introduce the cats more and more until they can get along. Or at least be in the same room with each other without Pisica having a psychotic episode. So that's what we've been doing. Apparently it can take a pretty long time.

We HAVE seen improvements however. We can spend time with Daisy and then come out to the other two and they now sniff our hands without hissing and arching their backs. And Daisy has been coming out of her room more often (when we are around to supervise) to explore while the other two keep a close watch. There is still hissing and growling, but not as much.

Any tips from those of you that have added new cats to your home before? Some magical trick we should know about? I know we need to be patient, but Daisy could be staying with us for over a year, so I definitely want her to be comfortable here at some point! And able to come out of her room - she's super social and I know she gets antsy in there.

Any hints to speed up the process?

Shop update and some old tunes.

2011-12-06T15:59:00.000-06:00

I added some updates to the shop today - I now have a "choose any 6" and a "choose an 12" option for note cards! I know this will make things run smoother and less confusing.

I also retrieved music off of my old ipod today. As I worked I found myself listening to the likes of Savage Garden, Imogen Heap, the Garden State soundtrack, Blink 182, and Green Day's International Superhits (the old stuff.) All music that I don't think I've touched since shortly after graduating college. It made me want to stay up all night writing a research paper I had procrastinated on while eating cookie dough, chatting on AIM, and trying not to wake up my roommates.

(I mean, but not really.)

Ah nostalgia.

What tunes bring you back?

It's that time of year again.

2011-12-05T22:59:00.002-06:00

The time of year when I stand for too long outside of my car trying to unlock it with it's remote but my mittens are too bulky and I keep opening the trunk by mistake.

The time of year when we put that weird plastic stuff over our windows with a blowdryer (that our cats will inevitably poke holes in at some point while they watch birds in the feeder) to keep our house warmer and cheaper.

The time of year when I daily thank Jesus for our glorious two car garage and that I no longer have to curse my existence every morning as I scrape ice off the windshield with freezing fingers when I am already running late.

The time of year when commutes are doubled every time it snows.

The time of year when we put huge cement blocks in the trunk of my grandpamobile so that it doesn't slip and slide as much. (Except that we never actually took them out from last year so...check!)

The time of year when my fingers and toes routinely lose circulation and become white and frozen.

Proceeded by the time of year when I stock up on the huge boxes of hand and feet warmers from Costco.

Wait. Please remind me. Why do I love Minnesota?

The time of year when I come to accept that my winter coat is staying out of the closet and won't be going back in for quite some time.

The time of year when I stop caring about my outward physical appearance and caring only about my annual mission: to stay warm.

Even if it means looking like a neckless marshmallow.

As I was telling a friend the other day, I take staying warm very seriously.

That's a pic of me a few years ago in our old apartment, about to leave for work. Which was only a five minute drive away.

Don't be deceived by the smile on my face. Winter is not my friend.

Winter. There I said it.

It's here.

More Confessions

2011-12-05T00:01:00.001-06:00

It's time for some more late night Sunday confessions!

18.) Lots of times I have a hard time finishing projects that I start. I lose interest about halfway through and have a hard time getting into it again. Case in point - the mural that I started painting on the wall in my room at my parent's house while I was still in college. Still only about halfway done. Sorry Mom. Someday I will finish it and it will be awesome.

19.) I have an undying love for the Muppets.

20.) I talk to myself. A lot.

21.) And I talk to my cats. A lot.

22.) I have watched the complete collection of Friends dvd's more times than I care to count or admit. It's like comfort food! On the t.v.

23.) I have a zoning out problem. I lose myself in thought....very frequently.

24.) I licked a dirty ash tray in Romania. I don't remember why, maybe a dare or something. Ewww!!

25.) In my growing age I'm not as much as a night owl as I used to be. But I'm definitely not a morning person so then what kind of a person am I??

26.) Showering makes me sneeze.

The end! I promise I will blog more this week than I did last week.

See ya November.

2011-11-30T23:59:00.002-06:00

The last bits of November are trickling away.

The last bits of November have been good bits.

I got a new short hairdo.

We put Christmas decorations up.

I got to see the Muppet movie with the hubs, cousins, and sibs. It was hilarious and everything I hoped it would be and more and I wore my Kermit hat.

We got a bunch of photos printed for free! Did you know that one of my favorite things is putting photos in albums? And then looking at them? It is.

I found two new perfectly fitting pairs of jeans on super clearance.

I baked a delicious stew for the hubs which included HOMEMADE MEATBALLS the likes of which I have NEVER attempted before. You know, rolling balls of meat with my bear hands! Squashy. And they actually turned out well! Even with my slight panic in the middle where I realized I had raw meat all over my hands and HOW WILL I TURN ON THE FAUCET TO WASH THEM WITHOUT FOREVER INFECTING MY SINK WITH MEAT GERMS???

I decided at the end that my entire kitchen needed to be sanitized because of everything that was probably infected by my raw meat hands, but I think it was worth it because the hubs was a fan.

Of the meatballs, you know.

Mission make a delicious meal for the hubs because I haven't for a looong time: successful.

Here's me in my Kermit hat.

Except that you can't see Kermit. This is probably like my 5th or 10th attempt trying to get Kermit's face in the picture, but I was in the car, and the roof was like, too close to my head or something. Or my arms weren't long enough. Or I should have been looking down, maybe. But I swear that's a Kermit hat.

And I realize I look a bit ghost-like in this picture, but that's what happens when you live in Minnesota and the last bits of November are trickling to a close. Your skin becomes very very white.

Ok, see ya. Happy last bits of November to you!

Cyber Monday

2011-11-28T10:00:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone! Just wanted to stop in to let you know that I am jumping on the Cyber Monday bandwagon and will be offering 20% off your entire purchase in my shop! Just enter the coupon code 20CYBERMONDAY and you are golden.

The discount will end tonight at midnight (CST).

Hope your Mondays back after the vacation are going wonderfully and not terribly! :)

Thanksgiving was here

2011-11-27T23:03:00.000-06:00

Hey folks! Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it was of course as great as ever. We spent some time out in Wisconsin with the hubs' dad, mom, and sister. There was lots of hunting and watching of football games going on, and since I don't normally participate too much in either of those activities it gives me a great excuse to do lots and lots of reading.

Which I love.

There was also lots of game playing, laughing, playing with kitties, talking, and eating of delicious food.

Which I also love.

Here's the hubs' dad carving the turkey.

And the hubs' mom setting the lovely table.

AND THEN. After we came back, I swung into full Christmas spirit. I mentioned here that we like to hold off until Thanksgiving is over...and usually a little longer. But this year I was all psyched up to get my cheer on the day immediately AFTER Turkey Day. Which means that this past weekend has been full of the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, decorating, Elf, pine scented candles, and the Transiberian Orchestra.

AND getting annoyed at cats who like to pull ornaments off the tree in the middle of the night and bat them around the house until you get up in a irritated groggy haze and squirt them with a water bottle.

What?

But no Christmas shopping yet. AH! I gotta get on that. It's a whole month away and it's ALREADY stressing me out.

So. How was your Thanksgiving?

And does Christmas shopping stress you out too??

And how do you keep your cats from stealing your ornaments??? Our tree is ridiculously empty along the bottom section and yet they STILL manage to swipe them! Little weasels.

Turkey Doodle

2011-11-23T11:54:00.000-06:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

Also Happy Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow, that is.

I decided to draw a more cartoon-ish turkey rather than a lifelike one because I prefer not to draw things that look like they have slabs of roadkill for faces.

So anyway.

I'm thankful this season for a hubs who is always supportive and encouraging in my hopes and endeavors. Plus he makes me laugh all the time which is a SERIOUS plus.

Thankful for our loving and encouraging families. Who also make me laugh. It's a great big ol' laughing fest around here.

Thankful for fantastic friends to have fun with and to challenge me in my faith walk.

Thankful for jobs that we enjoy, a warm roof over our heads and kitties to cuddle with.

And thankful for a few days off to relax during these busy weeks! It's all warm and fuzzies over here folks.

Hope your holiday week/weekend is very good. Great. Fabulous, even.

November Doodles: Sparrow, Badger, Poodle, Wolf, Narwhal, Cocker Spaniel
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.

Cocker Spaniel Doodle

2011-11-22T14:50:00.000-06:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

Proper little Mr. C. Spaniel.

Waiting patiently for his Thanksgiving dinner.

November Doodles: Sparrow, Badger, Poodle, Wolf, Narwhal
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.

Christmas Twinkles

2011-11-21T12:18:00.000-06:00

I had a nice weekend.

After a ca-razy week, I packed up Saturday morning with my friend Jorgen and we trekked up north a couple hours to Duluth to visit our dear friend Beebs.

Like I said, it was a nice weekend.

What's better or more relaxing than HOURS upon HOURS of girl talk and delicious food and more girl talk? Or wandering around near Lake Superior in a free Christmas light city called Bentleyville?

That served complimentary cookies, hot chocolate, and marshmallows to roast?

Now. Normally our (the hubs and I's) rule is that there shall no Christmas spirit until the day after Thanksgiving. But...as I wandered through this fabulous twinkle town, I felt all the warm Christmas-y feelings welling up in my chest.

And how can you fend back the Christmas spirit when you are sitting next to Mrs. Claus? (Who unfortunately was not handing out warm cinnamon rolls but only small candy canes.)

Or when Jorgen and Beebs are standing together inside a magic Christmas tunnel?

So as it turns out the Christmas spirit has arrived a wee bit early this year. BUT. Don't worry hubsy, I'm still refusing to turn the radio dial anywhere near the Christmas station until we are safely on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner. The foot is down.

And THANK YOU. Ladies. For the very lovely weekend.

Food for Fall

2011-11-18T13:53:00.000-06:00

As Thanksgiving approaches the hubs gets more and more excited about all things pumpkin, asking me frequently if I will make him a pumpkin pie.

Now. Pumpkin pie is just fine and everything, but one or two slices a year is enough for me. And when I know there are going to be opportunities for pumpkin pie right and left during the Thanksgiving season, I try to appease the hubs' monstrous pumpkin appetite with other pumpkin treats.

Cue these pumpkin cream cheese muffins.

When I make these the hubs tells me over and over how much he loves them. Which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and wife-like, since I don't spend as much time as I would want to making him his favorite foods.

The recipe is from the always wonderful Annie's Eats. It makes 24 muffins but I only ended up with 22 1/2 because I apparently ate a muffin and a half's worth of batter. Why is batter so good????

AND I've got another pumpkin surprise for the hubsy up my sleeve as well! But because of my crazy frazzled week it may not happen until after Thanksgiving. Which is ok. Pumpkin lovin' can be for any time of the year.

SO. IF you like pumpkin, you should definitely try these out.

.......................................................................................

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (24 muffins)

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese softened
1 cup powdered sugar

Muffins:
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
1 tbspn + 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

Topping: (I had lots of this leftover and probably could've halved it)
1/2 cups sugar
5 tbspn flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbspn butter cut in pieces

Filling: Combine cream cheese and sugar in bowl, mix well until smooth. Cover bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Muffins: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with liners. In bowl combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda. In a separate bowl combine eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin puree. Add in dry ingredients after combined.

Topping: Mix all ingredients together until coarse and crumbly.

Assembly: Fill each muffin liner with a small amount of batter (1-2 tbspns). Add a spoonful of filling. Cover filling with more batter (I filled to just about the top of the liner.) Sprinkle topping on each muffin. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Narwhal Doodle

2011-11-16T07:36:00.000-06:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

Large unicorn fish.

So, do Narwhals just spear things when they need to eat, or when they need protection?

And is it just me, or a Narwhals getting popular now?

Anyway. You know that saying, "when it rains it pours?" Surely you do. I'm having one of those weeks. Two hot design projects, trying to plan my students' recital, practicing for my friend's cd release concert that I'm playing violin for on Friday night, plus my part time jobs, and getting ready for Thanksgiving travels. I'm trying my best not to become a frazzled and stressed freak-a-zoid of nature. I think I'm doing pretty well.

I mean. I've definitely had my moments. Just ask the hubs.

But for the most part pretty well.

Anyway. If things get a little bit quiet around here for about a week or so...you'll know why. I'm probably lost and frazzled somewhere and you'll need to come help.

November Doodles: Sparrow, Badger, Poodle, Wolf
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.

Things that happened this weekend.

2011-11-15T14:27:00.001-06:00

The hubs surprised me on Friday by taking the day off work and bringing me to the Walker Art Center in order to check out their new exhibit "Graphic Design: Now in Production."

It was great fun especially since I hadn't been to the Walker for quite awhile. I was in designer's heaven as we explored film, posters, typography, magazine production, logos, and lots of unique books.

I loved this TV poster series created by Albert Exergian - which included a few of my favorite shows!

After the design exhibit we explored the rest of the museum where we encountered a rude talking computer dolphin, and a brown spiky thing that was on display under a staircase. Then we climbed some random stairs and took pictures of ourselves in this window.

It was very much a good time.

Back home after dinner I headed out shopping with a couple of friends in search of new skinny jeans but instead came back with a couple shirts and some candles. Mission not quite successful. But nice.

Then that night I stayed up for far too late doing stupid useless things which included wandering around the house at about 1am looking for a mysterious "beeping" noise which turned out to be the hubs squeaking his nose in his sleep.

THEN on Saturday I doodled a wolf and did some other stuff that I already wrote about. And Sunday I made some delicious cream cheese pumpkin muffins - delish!!! I will post the recipe soon.

So all in all. Quite the nice little weekend there. And how was yours?

Wolf Doodle

2011-11-12T17:06:00.001-06:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

Saturdays are nice.

A little bit of sleeping in.

A little bit of cookie dough for breakfast.

A little bit of thrifting with a pretty red headed friend.

A little bit of finding a super cool $6 floor lamp with a compartment to keep things in!! while thrifting.

A little bit of thinking how much I like things with compartments to keep things in.

A little bit of watching The Italian Job with the hubs and the kitties.

A little bit of wolf doodling.

And soon I'm heading to my grandma's house for a little bit of family dinner and celebrating my uncles birthday.

Yep, Saturdays are nice. How's your weekend coming along?

November Doodles: Sparrow, Badger, Poodle
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.

Let's be honest here.

2011-11-11T12:01:00.000-06:00

SOMETIMES. I look for self worth in the wrong places.

I've only been doing this blogging stuff for about six months, but it immediately opened up new avenues for me to judge my overall success as a human being. Blogging, tweeting, followers, etsy, favorites, comments, stats. All have become ways to make or break my day.

And that's silly. Right?!?! Ridiculous, actually. It's a good thing that the hubs doesn't love me any better or worse on a given day depending on how many people read my blog.

And it's also a good thing that my mom doesn't love me any more or less depending on how many people favorite the new item in my shop.

And it's pretty nice that my sister still wants to go thrifting with me even when she sees how many followers I have on twitter.

And my friends still like me too! Let's be honest, lots of them don't even READ this blog!

And really, life already has enough obstacles without allowing my computer to tell me that I'm not as good as so and so over there. I mean, doesn't it??

So. After pondering this problem to the root, the long and the short of it is really just this: it's time for ME to start being nicer to little ol' ME.

"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." - Psalm 139: 13-14

Poodle Doodle

2011-11-10T15:00:00.001-06:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

My mind is drawing a blank as I try and think of something to say about poodles.

Skinny legs. Fluffy tutu. Poof ball tail.

Also. POODLE DOODLE.

November Doodles: Sparrow, Badger
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.

A night in the life.

2011-11-09T19:29:00.000-06:00

Sometimes the hubs likes to document what happens on a typical evening in our living room through photos.

Pisica helps me work. We both concentrate very hard. My eyes are tired and glassy from staring at the screen for too long.

Pisica is smug because she thinks she has the best seat in the house. I am smug because I realize the hubs is taking pictures of me and for some reason make a smug face.

Gepetto tries to steal her seat. Pisica looks positively shocked although I don't know why. She's always been a pushover.

A complete pushover.

Pisica. Can you breath under there?

I'm having a hard time making this week a super productive one. I've been feeling tired and sluggish. Is the time change to blame? But didn't I get EXTRA sleep? So shouldn't I be LESS tired?

So instead of being able to get my tasks done in a neat, timely, and orderly fashion, my brain feels a bit blurry and I make blog posts about my cats. WHO KNOWS what comes after this. Hopefully something responsible that doesn't include zoning out.

Wish me luck friends.

Badger Doodle

2011-11-08T14:15:00.000-06:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

El Tejon!

If you are a 30 Rock fan as I am, then you more than likely think of Liz Lemon when you think of badgers.

If you don't watch 30 Rock then perhaps you think about how "badger" is a great word to say with a british accent.

November Doodles: Sparrow
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.

More things you might not have wanted to know

2011-11-06T22:40:00.000-06:00

Time for another Sunday late night confessional! Continued from two weeks ago.

9.) Lately I've been eating a bagel and cream cheese with almost every meal. Like, just adding it to whatever I am already eating. It's just my new thing I guess but hopefully I grow out of it soon.

10.) One time in high school my bff and I made two large bowls of cake batter (chocolate and vanilla) and ate it in my room until we felt sick. Then I hid the leftover batter in my closet for a few days. My mom was upset when she didn't have any cake mixes when she needed it.

11.) I have an ear problem. As in, I don't like things in my ear. Or by my ear. Makes me CRAZY. In the bad way. Blowing in ears? So not sexy at all. And at night I have to sleep with a blanket, sheet, or my hair strategically placed over my ears so that no bugs or ceiling chunks fall into them. When I was younger (all the way until college I think) I had a special "ear blanket" that I would carefully roll and lay over my exposed ear at night. My bff thought it was hilarious to take it away in the middle of the night and watch my sleep-anguish.

12.) I chew on my fingers. It's my bad habit that I've never been able to kick.

13.) I have a very large collection of rocks. Including Agates. Also shells. Sea glass. Basically anything that you can find along the beach or the road and then put in glass vases or jars in your house. It might be a problem because I'm running out of places and ways to display them without seeming like some sort of crazed rock fanatic.

14.) I don't like many veggies. Especially carrots. They are the worst. But the good news is that I really like mushrooms. But are they even vegetables, after all?

15.) I have a really great man singer voice when I'm sick.

16.) When I find a new favorite song I obsess over it for days and play it over and over and over on YouTube. As I am currently doing with Elliott Smith's Waltz #2.

17.) Speaking of music. I'm always wanting more. I'm never satisfied with the music that I have. I get something new and obsess over it for awhile, but soon enough I'm pining after something else and I can't rest until I have it.

Well I mean. I can rest. But I sure think about it a lot.

Alright, I'm off. Going to bed, extra thankful for my Sunday night small group. It's so good to have encouraging people to talk, pray, and fellowship with. Can I get a big fist pump! For small group!

Ok see ya bye.

More Updates! But I have a cold.

2011-11-05T10:02:00.000-05:00

Yes. A cold, even though I JUST had one last month. Ok maybe a LITTLE over a month ago. So annoying but who wants to hear me complain about the injustice of two colds within basically a month's time? The hubs? God? My mom?

Mom. I have another cold and it's not faaaaiirrrrr.

But that's really the only thing I have to complain about besides the fact that it's winter time which causes my armpits to itch. Which is more than you needed to know but I can't take it back now. My delete button uh...doesn't work.

BUT. The good news is that I have added some more items to my shop! I made some sweet cardinals and chickadees just in time for the winter season. All of these images can be found in my shop as both prints and note cards.

Daddy Cardinal

(You might recognize him from this daily animal doodle)

Momma Cardinal

Frank by Moonlight

Hank by Moonlight

I had a lot of fun working on these guys, and my little public announcement I made earlier was just what I needed to kick my butt into gear and get them done by the end of the week.

Ok see ya, have a great weekend! I'm off to clean the house and listen to Elliott Smith.

You can just call me Brigitta.

2011-11-02T20:43:00.000-05:00

I realized I have one more day of my east coast adventure to document here. I kind of considered just skipping it because, well, it was like a month ago now.

But then I decided to not skip it. And to write it up right this moment. Let's see how this goes. I will be documenting day three. (In case you missed it and you really reeeeeaaally want to read more about my vacation, here is day one and day two.)

We spent the day in Newport, RI. Which is apparently where rich people buy huge mansions in which to summer.

Side note. This day was extra special for an extra special reason. Bethany's friend, who owns a light blue '71 Chevy Cadillac Convertible, decided to be our chauffeur for the day. It was really nice.

Windy.

But really nice.

Anyway. Once we were safely packed into Ol' Blue (she actually had a girl's name - the convertible did - I think - but I can't remember what it was) and feeling like the fancy folk that we were, we headed into lovely Newport. Our first stop was to tour a mansion - called The Breakers. Apparently a really famous American family called the Vanderbilts lived there, and it was apparently very shocking that I didn't know who they were. But, I mean, I don't know...I'm just really not a history buff and maybe I should still know them even though I'm not a history buff but I just don't. Ok?

Thanks for understanding pals.

Here is the front of the mansion.

It was really beautiful inside but unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside. But here is the view from the back.

So cool, right? I felt like one of the Sound of Music children. Maybe Brigitta. (I would choose Louisa but she falls in love with that army man who calls her a baby and then betrays her family...so...)

THEN. We went on an ocean walk.

Saw some ocean and I loved that.

Saw some more mansions which was also cool.

Then we went to a little place which I believe was called Flo's and I got some delicious fresh shrimp. MMMMM I love shrimp. Especially shrimp that is fresh and delicious.

Then we took a picture on the dream car. Ol' Blue.

Then we went on to a huge art festival near Bethany's hometown. Which is normally TOTALLY my thing. But for some reason I was feeling super exhausted and tired and I had eaten way to many fresh shrimp and, well, I didn't do much besides drink some frozen lemonade and sit at a picnic table. But then I had a "doughboy" (think funnel cake, fellow Minnesotans) and then suddenly I was craving an apple dumpling and then another one and I ate a bunch of apple dumpling crust but left most of the apple. (Remember, I'm not much of an apple person.)

The sugar high seemed to be just what I needed and I knew that it was time to show this art festival who's boss. But unfortunately it was time to head to the airport to catch our plane home.

Next time art festival. Next time.

Then the following day once in the comfort of my own bathroom I plucked my eyebrows since I had forgotten to bring my tweezers on the trip and hadn't plucked them in awhile before I left because, well, sometimes time is short and these things are overlooked. But come the end of the trip if you happened to look into my eyes you were likely to lose yourself in a hairy foreign eyebrow wasteland.

They'll suck you in!! Watch out!!

Okey doke, well I believe this post has been more rambling than usual. Props to you if you stuck around to the end!

In short: my trip/east coast/new adventures/great friends = I like.

Sparrow Doodle

2011-11-01T18:17:00.000-05:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

I think that this guy's facial expression will be described as "taken aback."

I imagine him saying "How dare you!!" to someone who offended him. They probably stole his coat or something. Or maybe they stuck their foot out when he walked by so that he tripped.

Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.

New Shop Section! Plus my excellent costumes.

2011-10-31T11:08:00.003-05:00

I am so SO happy to announce that I have FINALLY added a note card section to my shop. I've been wanting to do this since July so it's only taken me hmm let's see. 4 months?!? To get this done? But who's counting. Right? Obviously not me.

Taking product photos was the hardest part, but luckily my hubs swooped in to the rescue and helped me out. I've decided that he can just take any and all pictures from now on since he really enjoys it and because honestly, I take crap pictures. It's just really as simple as that.

AND. I am working my little (big?) hiney off trying to get some holiday/winter themed cards/prints in the shop very soon. How soon? Dare I say... the end of the week?? Maybe now that I've publicly announced this deadline I may just pull it together enough to make it happen???

mmm????

More question marks??????

Anyway. Since today is in fact Halloween, I thought I should make this post at least a little bit Halloween-y. Unfortunately I don't really have a costume this year. I will be teaching violin lessons for part of the night and then coming home to hopefully catch some of the trick or treaters. (Who the hubs will be joyfully handing out candy to. Because he loves doing that. And I love him. It's a big circle of love around here.)

So since I have no costume to show you, I decided to show you some costumes of Halloween past.

2010: I was a cat. The hubs was a trucker. A dirty one. And my friend Mel was a flapper gal.

My bff Emily was a pretty bird.

And this is my favorite pic ever.

2009: My sister and I went to see BEN FOLDS! at ORCHESTRA HALL! Playing with the MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA! On HALLOWEEN! It was AWESOME! I don't really know that we are dressed as anything other than Ben Folds enthusiasts though.

I think this next picture is from....2007? or 2008. I don't know. The hubs and I didn't have anything to wear for a Halloween party so I had us put on a bunch of random stuff from our closet. I was like, "Let's be idiots! It will be hilarious!!" And the hubs was like, "Wait, what are we being?" And I was like, "Idiots! so funny!!" I'm telling you I'm a very creative soul.

2006: Aww, we were just freshly engaged in this pic. (You can see that we are really in the habit of putting a lot of thought into our costumes.)

2004: I think I shared this picture (and the story behind it) before here. But it's just a good one so I didn't want to leave it out.

Alright, I'm off to do productive things. Happy Halloween!

Crab Doodle

2011-10-29T13:24:00.001-05:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle
Full doodle list at bottom of post

I like to watch crabs scurry across the sand. And I like their eyeballs.

I also like to eat their legs at Red Lobster.

I spent some time in Mozambique while I was in college, and one day I was sitting on this beach. And if you sat very still and didn't move, and no one walked near you, you would start to see little eyeballs pop out of the sand and look around. One by one. Eyeball by eyeball. Little buried crabs peaking out to see if the coast was clear.

Then your nose would itch, and you'd have to move. And all the little eyeballs would go back under the sand.

So you'd have to sit very still again to wait for more eyeballs. I liked it.

October Doodles: Raven, Black Bear, Emperor Penguin, Roadrunner, Dalmatian, Crab
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, and September's here.

Granola Bars

2011-10-27T21:55:00.000-05:00

Mmmm.

Yummy.

Granola bars.

Homemade.

To be exact.

As a keeper of a few different part time jobs, I at times have to eat on the fly. You know, a little snack to hold me over until a late dinner.

Granola bars are of course the easy option. Throw one in your bag and you have a fairly substantial miniature meal.

But after awhile, don't you just get sick of all the granola bars in the store? No matter which ones you try...after awhile they're just....blah.

Enter homemade granola bars. Chewy. Substantial. Delicious. The recipe is from the absolutely fabulous Smitten Kitchen, and the wonderful thing is that you can make as many variations as you want with your very own delicious preferences.

PS. I apologize for the not so good of photos. I had such good plans to take them during daylight hours. And somehow it just. didn't. happen.

Here's my take on Smitten's recipe:

Thick, Chewy Granola Bars

1 2/3 cup quick rolled oats
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 to 3 cups nuts/dried fruit/chocolate chips/ WHATEVER CHUNK YOU WANT. (For the bars pictured I used a combination of white chocolate chips, dried pomegranate seeds and dried cranberries, and slivered almonds)
1/3 cup peanut butter or other nut butter (I prefer almond butter)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract (Optional. I just love me some almond extract.)
6 tblspn melted butter
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 tblspn honey
1 tblspn water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 8 x 8 pan with greased parchment paper with extended edges (if you are wondering if this is an important step...it is. I found that out the last time I was out of parchment paper). Stir together all dry ingredients. In separate bowl, whisk vanilla, butter, corn syrup, honey and water. Toss wet ingredients with dry ingredients and also add the nut butter. Mix until mixture is evenly crumbly. Spread in pan, press firmly to mold to pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until brown around the edges and slightly on top. Cool completely in pan on cooling rack. Use serrated knife to cut into squares. If they are crumbly, cool in fridge for 30 minutes. Store in airtight container or individually wrapped plastic.

Pisica's Difficult Day.

2011-10-25T17:13:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have projects that take way longer than you expect them to?

Wait, aren't all projects like that?

Way more trial and error than intended?

Then all of a sudden the day is practically gone?

And you wish you had more to show for yourself and your long hours of trial and error?

Pisica had a day like that today.

Oh and I guess I did too.

Sigh. Mumble. Grumble.

Ok. Now that I have THAT out of my system. I bid you adieu. As I have more projects with the good intentions of getting done quickly awaiting me.

Dalmatian Doodle

2011-10-24T13:54:00.000-05:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

What a tedious puppy. So many little black spots to draw. Thinking fondly of the Disney animators who had to draw 101 miniature versions of this guy many many times.

I learned something new today. It's not dalmatiOn. It's dalmatiAn. Thank you spell check.

I also learned that if you chop up some white onion it takes several hours for your eyeballs to stop burning.

October Doodles: Raven, Black Bear, Emperor Penguin, Roadrunner
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, and September's here.

Some little tidbits.

2011-10-23T23:11:00.001-05:00

I just got back from a weekend retreat with the hubs, but I wanted to quick pop in and link up with Deanna at Delirious Rhapsody for her "Sunday Confessional" (inspired by Sara's "100 Truths"). Because I think it's super fun.

So here we go.

1.) We have only one plant that lives inside our house. I only water it when it's drooping horribly and almost dead. But somehow I've managed to keep it alive for over a year now.

2.) When I was little I used to eat all the breading off of my chicken mcnuggets first, and then I would eat the naked chicken lump. I was gross. I did the same thing with Butterfingers. It was messy.

3.) I frequently eat 18 pizza rolls in one sitting.

4.) Sometimes it randomly feels cold in the back of my throat. Like I've been sucking on a menthol cough drop...but I HAVEN'T. *cue twilight zone music*

5.) I hate brushing my teeth. It's just so annoying. But since I do like having clean teeth and I dislike graveyard breath, I brush them frequently.

6.) Sometimes the hubs and I pass Gepetto (our cat) back and forth on her side across our kitchen tile. Like shuffleboard. We think she likes it.

7.) I sniff the milk in the milk carton every single time I use it. Even if it's a brand new carton. You just never know when you could get a mouth full of sour milk and then spew it all over your kitchen.

8.) I have a very large head. People try and tell me that I don't but THEY DON'T KNOW. Here's some proof for you:

Look at that forehead! You could build a city there!! This is why bangs are my friends.

Got some stuff weighing on your mind? Maybe you should link up too. Sometimes you just have to get these things out, you know?

Roadrunner Doodle

2011-10-20T11:00:00.000-05:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

This guy got tired and decided to walk for awhile.

Instead of run.

Good news! I planted my clearance Menards plants. On Saturday. With my bff. She even brought her baby. She even WORE her baby. While helping me plant clearance plants. She's nice.

Let's face it, if she hadn't offered to come over and help when she heard me complaining about how I should really be planting them soon but didn't waaaant tooooo whine whine complain mumble grumble, they would still be sitting in their pots over by the garage.

Bff's are the best. Don't ya think? I mean, obviously. They are.

October Doodles: Raven, Black Bear, Emperor Penguin
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, and September's here.

New York City - Woody lives there.

2011-10-19T11:00:00.001-05:00

East Coast Recap - Day 2

On Sunday of my east coast adventure, we decided to make the three hour trek into New York City from Rhode Island. We climbed into Bethany's dad's car early that morning, stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for iced pumpkin spice lattes (well that's what I got) and were on our merry way.

(Oh. And very importantly, we wore wonderful, glorious Chacos instead of turtle boots.)

Once we arrived our first matter of business was to eat a picnic lunch in Central Park. It was lots-o-fun and I took about a zillion pictures of this guy.

"Oh look! I'm in Central Park! And look! A bird! In Central Park! I will take about a zillion pictures of it! Best idea I've ever had!"

We ate across from a small boat pond. Or something along those lines.

After our lovely lunch we headed into the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was fantastic. It's so huge we didn't see nearly all of it, and spent most of our time in the European Painting section. My favorites have always been Impressionism and Post-Impressionism - I do love me some Degas, Manet, and Lautrec.

Here are some pics of the inside of the museum. Which was awesome.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the OUTSIDE of the museum, because my camera ran out of batteries. (Due to taking a ZILLION pictures of a bird that we have the SAME kind of in Minnesota. Brilliant.)

After the museum we haggled with a bunch of street sellers. (Well they tried to haggle and I ran away crying because I'm too scared to haggle.) (Just kidding I didn't run away crying but I WAS slightly intimidated by the situation.) (But even through my fear I DID end up buying some cool prints for uber cheap.)

We decided to take a taxi down to Macy's, and then make our way back to our car on foot. We explored 5th Avenue, Times Square, Bryant Lake Park, avoided more haggling, and found a yummy little cafe. Somewhere in there I remembered that I had the hubs' ipod and could take pictures on THAT. So here are some ipod pics.

Bryant Lake Park

Times Square

Woody!

AAHH! Woody attacks!!!!

Turns out he was just going in for a hug. I obliged.

We left the great city around midnight and got back to Bethany's place at 3am. And woke up at 7am for our NEXT adventure. Which I will tell you about another day.

With only one day I know we didn't see anywhere close to all there is to see. But it was a fabulous time and now when someone mentions New York City I can be like, "Oh ya. I've totally been there."

If you missed day one, you can find it here.

Emperor Penguin Doodle

2011-10-18T09:51:00.000-05:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

This guy is a little hoity toity.

The hubs and I sometimes like to say "hoity toity" over and over in funny accents. I'm not quite sure what type of accent it would be, but it IS funny.

I do realize that I have already drawn a penguin for the Daily Animal Doodles back in August. You can find it here.

And I DID realize after drawing this guy that I maybe should have drawn a different animal instead of another penguin. But I guess I just like penguins and I guess since this is a hoity toity emperor penguin instead of...whatever kind I drew before, everything is ok.

In other news I had a dream last night that it was Christmas Eve and I had forgotten to get presents for anyone. And I thought Target might still be open and I would have just enough time to run over there to grab whatever they had available before all the festivities started but it was taking me SO LONG to get dressed. I was getting dressed at a turtle's pace, and then kept changing outfits. It was very frustrating. And stressful.

Just stressful enough that I will start planning Christmas presents extra early this year? Perhaps.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

October Doodles: Raven, Black Bear
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, and September's here.

Apple Orchard

2011-10-17T13:47:00.000-05:00

I went to an apple orchard yesterday in Stillwater with a couple of my great gal pals, Sheena and Emily. The weather was absolutely perfect and we did all the classic fall orchard stuff.

We wandered between the rows of apple trees.

Saw some apples.

Sampled some wine.

Posed in front of a haystack.

Looked at a goat.

And listened to a yodeler, which I unfortunately did not get a picture of.

I didn't buy any apples. Which I guess is weird, to not buy apples from an apple orchard. But I'm just not much of an apple-eating person, I guess? Which is probably weird. They give me stomach aches, which is probably even more weird. You can just call me Weirdy McWeirderson.

Fresh apples, I mean. I think I should make that clear. I DO like apple desserts, which I'm assuming don't hurt my tummy because the apples are cooked. I also like apple cider donuts. Which I DID buy. And I do confess that they are already gone. Not because the hubs and I are any type of donut eating fiends, but because we really desperately need to go grocery shopping and there wasn't much else to eat BESIDES apple cider donuts.

Today I did find a roll of Pillsbury grand biscuits to make for lunch though. You know, the kinds with the flaky layers and stuff.

Boston and black boots that were comfy at first.

2011-10-14T17:07:00.001-05:00

East Coast Recap - Day 1

I mentioned here that I had a little adventure to the East Coast last weekend with a couple of friends. We flew into Providence, Rhode Island late on Friday night and arrived back in Minneapolis late on Monday night. While the hubs stayed at home ever so wonderfully putting up drywall in our basement, I got to go traipsing around in New England. Here is a little recap of our day on Saturday, during which we explored Boston and Providence.

Our first stop was Harvard. I felt really intelligent for stepping foot in such a place, and tried to act like a nonchalant student. Except for the picture taking.

Which probably blew my cover.

I even took like ten pictures of these birds bathing in a fountain thing. (Which I think was my favorite part of Harvard, actually.)

(Or maybe my favorite part of Harvard was the book store. It could be that.)

After Harvard we found our way over to this place called The Garment District. It was a costume shop slash used clothing store.

If you wanted to buy some used clothing all you had to do was walk through the piles, sit down somewhere and start digging.

Since thrifting is really one of my passions in life I had a pretty nice time and found a couple sweaters - one from H&M and one from JCrew. And since it was pay by the pound I ended up forking over less than $2 total for both. Sa-weeeet.

After the clothing piles (and after kicking myself because I left my hand sanitizer in my OTHER purse) we headed over to the USS Constitution and looked at history stuff.

It was pretty cool, but at this point we were all lamenting our choice to wear cute boots instead of sensible walking shoes. Because we were walking A LOT. And I was wearing my turtle boots. Meaning that they are super cute but unfortunately they smell like a turtle tank. And apparently they only remain comfortable for a few hours of walking. If you plan on walking around ALL DAY then you should not wear turtle boots. Or this will happen.

Thats a giant blister on the BOTTOM of my heel. How does that even happen?? Only in turtle boots I guess. Yes they were painful but I kept on going. We were on vacation after all! In Boston! I couldn't just give up!

Here's me in my turtle boots in front of a cool bridge with my arms out like "hey, cool, look at me and my cute boots that are totally killing me right now."

Later that night after my first taste of sushi (well I think it might have been my second taste of sushi but I don't quite remember) we went to WaterFire in Providence, Rhode Island. It was very cool. It's basically these torches that are lit in the water once and month and there's music and food and glow in the dark necklaces and the whole city gathers together for some WaterFire fun.

I was so glad I got to participate, and I decided that I really like Providence. Perhaps even better than Boston. But shhh don't tell the Boston people.

Little Red Barbara

2011-10-13T07:48:00.000-05:00

Want to know something interesting about me?

I used to have a special little car. A special little RED car.

Her name was Little Red Barbara. But I often called her Little Red for short.

I bought her with my very own money my senior year of college - a 97' Plymouth Neon. Oh how proud I was. She was the simplest of models - no AC, manual windows, a stick shift.

And oh how I loved her. Because, you know.

She was mine.

We had many adventures together. A year after I bought her I married the hubs, and he eventually started driving her more often than I did because of his longer commute (Little Red had great gas mileage.)

At first I protested. That's my car! I should get to drive her the MOST!

But as time went on, I started secretly being glad that I didn't have to drive her because of all her growing...problems.

Like when her heater went out. And when she constantly overheated in the summer time. And when her shocks got broken or something and every time we hit the slightest ant mound she banged metal against metal and shook our heads around enough to give us brain damage.

And of course she had no AC, and the windows didn't roll down anymore and the driver's side door stopped opening so you had to climb out the passenger side.

Yes, this past spring we came to the conclusion that Little Red had to be replaced by something a bit more reliable. After we got a new car, the hubs put her up on Craigslist not really expecting anything to happen.

He had five replies within a half hour and he ended up selling her that morning after I went to work.

Turns out she really was a gem!

But. She was gone when I got home and I never got to say goodbye to my Little Red Barbara.

Goodbye Little Red! I'm sorry that I ever doubted you and I hope you are still driving around the freeways at great speeds while making that strange whistling sound coming from your hood that nobody could figure out.

Yes I did really just write a fairly long post about my old car. Sometimes these things just happen.

Black Bear Doodle

2011-10-11T16:50:00.001-05:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

I drew this leeetle creature today.

When I say leeeetle I really mean big and black and fluffy and gruffy.

And I'm back from my leeeetle trip this weekend.

When I say leeetle I mean flying out to the leeeetle state of Rhode Island with a couple of girls from my small group to stay with her family and explore the wonders of not only the leeeetlest state of the country, but also make treks to Boston and to New York City.

All in one leeeetle weekend. And by that I mean three day weekend.

I'll be sharing pictures and posts about the trip in the next week or so here, but here are some leeeetle hints.

Metro stations.

My first taste of sushi.

Discovering that I don't like sushi.

The ocean.

Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Blue '71 Chevy Cadillac Convertible.

Crab cakes. I mean, clam cakes? I mean, crab cakes? Both? Neither? What?

Nickel size blisters on the bottoms of my feet.

Mansions.

Running into Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard. (Except the Mark Zuckerberg part isn't true but the Harvard part is true.)

Now I'm off to do a leeeetle bit of cleaning. Ok bye!

October Doodles: Raven

Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, and September's here.

Goodbye for the weekend

2011-10-07T20:23:00.001-05:00

I forgot to mention...I'm traveling to th east coast for the weekend! I'll update more when I get back and I don't have to painstakingly type each word on the hubs' ipod.

Have a great weekend folks!

Fall thoughts.

2011-10-06T23:03:00.005-05:00

Fall is here in Minnesota, and even though you can't tell by the Indian Summer we are having, you can tell by the beautiful changing leaves! I nanny a couple of days a week and took a few pictures of the neighborhood.

I feel like I'm having a bit of a writer's block right now. A brain fart, if you will. But I was talking to my very smart friend Drew the other night and we discussed something along the lines of...writer's block doesn't really exist. Just write. That's the point of a blog.

So. Here are my fall thoughts. With the new season here I am reminded of the many tasks around my home that need to be taken care of before winter comes.

You know, things like planting the clearance plants we got from Menard's in our empty garden. Or replacing the screens on our windows so that we can open them without being eaten in our sleep by horrid box elder bugs. (Because they EAT you! IT'S TRUE.) Or spray painting these file cabinets that I wanted to spray paint. Or raking, because even though the trees in our yard consist of mostly half dead pine trees, the neighbors' lush and healthy trees shed all over our yard. I'm not complaining (it makes our yard look better by association), I'm just saying.

Or deep cleaning our bathtub.

Not that our bathtub HAS to be cleaned before winter comes but man, I have been meaning to do that for awhile now.

When I left my job about a month and a half ago, I had such great plans to not only work on my personal artwork, my graphic design work, teach violin lessons, and nanny two days a week, but also to deep clean a part of my house every day, cook delicious meals for my husband, practice my violin an hour a day, and be really good about making time for devos.

You know. Some type of domestic goddess.

Right now I'm at about the level of a domestic booger. And my excuse has been "I don't have time. I have a magazine to format. I'm making new pieces. I'm working on getting cards in my Etsy shop. And I need to work on letting people know that my shop exists in the large world of interwebs!!"

BUT. I was talking to my friend Mel the other night. She knows me well. We used to live together. And as we were talking I had a bit of a lightbulb moment. It's not that I don't HAVE time. It's that I don't MAKE time.

Oh garsh.

So. Here is my fall resolution - get better at making time for things. Leaving my work alone for a bit so I can take care of my house and my hubs. You know, time management, I guess it boils down to.

Hmm. I do believe I have posted about my problems with time management before.

Well. I guess for having writer's block, I sure wrote a bunch of stuff. Happy fall everybody!

Raven Doodle

2011-10-03T23:27:00.000-05:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle

I went a little bit of a different route with this one. Usually I like to get up close and personal with my drawings, showing some detail and face.

But this is just a little guy from far away. I was going to work on quite a bit more background stuff, but eh. I hate making background stuff.

Today was a zoning out kind of day. I've always had a zoning out problem. But today the problem was larger than usual. I don't want to think about how much zoning out I did today compared to how much productive stuff I did.

I blame it on the fact that I am getting too old to stay out until 2am on a Saturday night anymore. Because I still haven't recovered even though it's Monday and I slept in today.

Welcome to my late 20's? Yes I guess so!

Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, and September's here.

Cardinal Doodle

2011-10-01T16:02:00.004-05:00

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle
Full doodle list at bottom of post

This guy actually belongs to the September list, though it is in fact October today.

I love cardinals and their loud cheeps.

He turned out looking kind of sad. I kept trying to make him happier! But he just ended up looking a little sad.

In other news I declared to all of Twitter yesterday that I was going to tweet more. Then I tweeted twice. And today I didn't tweet at all.

In other news I'm off to my sister's birthday party!

And then off to my friends birthday party after that! Which will include POLKA DANCING!

Ok see ya.

September Doodles: Manatee, Ferret, Seahorse, Heron, Little Owl, Persian Cat, Chipmunk, Opossum, Cardinal
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, and August's here.

Making Stuff.

2011-09-30T18:14:00.002-05:00

For a long time I have been wanting to add stationery to my shop. Slash notecards.

(What's the difference? Are they the same thing?)

It's been a long process. At first I was definitely going to have them in the shop by the end of June. Then I was going to get them done in July, but I had a paper problem. Then perhaps I would get them done in August but probably not.

Now that it is very nearly October, I am getting close. I was productive today.

This is my work station. (Which I have to tear down and set up every time I use it because it's actually my kitchen table.)

You will see to the top left of the above photo one of my most prized possessions - my lovely Epson Stylus. It's big. It's black. It's smooth. And it makes lovely, wonderful archival prints.

I really love my printer. It's probably a weird thing but I'm just going to keep saying it. I really love my printer.

You can't tell from the picture below, but these are all printed on different papers. Which is probably a bad idea since I'm one of the most indecisive people on the face of the planet. Remember when I took an obscene amount of time to decide what color loofa to buy? Ya. I know. It's a problem.

BUT. I think I may be close to a decision on this one. I surprised myself by preferring some linen and canvas samples over a simple premium matte. But I'm bringing them all along to dinner with my fam tonight to ask their opinions.

I'm really excited to start getting some of these in the shop.

And to get better at taking product photos.

BUT.

Can I ask you a few questions?

If you were to order stationery. Or notecards. Or something. You know. How would you prefer to do it?

Would you like to buy one at a time? Or would you prefer a pack? 4 in a pack? 12?

And what size do you prefer your stationery / notecards? 5 x 7 folded? 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 folded?

Or do you like a little of everything?

Your thoughts help me. :)

I'm linking up with Gussy again (a day late again). The prompt for this week was DIY!

Click to see everyone else's linkups!