Happy Birthday Zoey and Teresa!

Today is Zoey's 19th birthday! 

I cannot believe we are celebrating 19 years.  Where as the time gone?  I would also love to go back to her original vet who said that she probably wouldn't have a normal life expectancy.  I guess the vet was right in one sense:  it's definitely longer than expected!  I used the age calculator on Catster.  Well, actually, I couldn't use the chart because it didn't go that high, so I had to do the math.  It's 24 human years for the first 2 cat years and then 4 human years for every cat year thereafter.  So that makes her 96 in human years!  I guess I'm going to stop questioning every time she walks a little slowly or seems a little stiff after a long nap.  At that age, that definitely seems to be expected.  So happy birthday to my sweet girl. 

It's also my cousin Teresa's birthday and so I thought I would share with you the card and tumbler I made her.  She's a big fan of Mickey so I knew I had to do something Disney themed.  I loved this Mickey Mouse Club svg I found and knew it was perfect.  So I made a quick background from the Sizzix dotted flower rings embossing folder and some washi tape from Queen and Company then added the svg cut out on my Cameo.

 

For the gift, I found this red acrylic tumbler.  Then in the Silhouette Design Studio, I welded three circles together in the iconic mickey shape.  I then added her name in Walt Disney font and cut it out in black vinyl.  It's perfect for her and helps set the stage for her upcoming trip to the big D.  So happy birthday Teresa!

 

Aaaahhhhh! Sweet nothing...

I just love when I have a day when I don't have to do anything.  After all the stress lately, it was wonderful to have a day that wasn't planned out the last second, crammed with more than should reasonably done in day or tense because of what needs to be done.  Instead, I slept in until the sun woke me up, ran a couple of errands that needed to be done, and then came home to sit in my craft room for most of the afternoon.  I watched cheesy Lifetime true crime movies (love those), read my favorite blogs, watched the latest Glitter Girl video, cuddled furballs and played with paper scraplifting some of the cutest cards I had pinned on Pinterest.  Then hubby and I took a drive to get some corn for canning tomorrow and picked apples.  I don't think I've ever picked apples in an orchard like that before and I had a fabulous time doing so while listening the Winterhawks win in pre-season play.

So now as this wonderful day comes to a close with Zoey sitting beside me as I type this, I'm ever so grateful for a day to just be and to have two more days to spend with dear hubby before the craziness begins all over again.  My wish for all of you out there is that you have a day to just be.

So now, here is my favorite scraplift of the day... a whale of a good card from Karen Thomas at Luv to Stamp.  When I saw this card, I just knew I had to make it my own.  All the paper is from my scrap bin (I swear that thing is bottomless).  I also tried a new technique for me:  I used my bone folder to scrape the paper of the little banner to break down the fibers so that it became very pliable.  That let me roll it up and give it a little wave of its own.  The Thank You sentiment is from Inkadinkado's Collaged Expressions set.  The cute little whale and sun were Echo Park designs I found in the Silhouette Design Studio.  The sun was a journalling spot, but with removing just a couple of layers, it became just the perfect sun to finish out my card.  I used my favorite Sizzix folder (Divine Swirls) to give some texture to the clouds that I finished off with just a little Distress Ink.  I couldn't believe how many steps it took to cut out everything for this deceptively simple looking card, but, boy, was it worth it! 

Finally back!

You may not know this if you aren't family, but we've been without internet for a week.  You see we decided to upgrade to higher speed while switching our bundle for TV, internet and phone to a new provider.  It should have been without a hitch, but, unfortunately, they sent us the wrong modem for the higher speed internet (twice!).  So we've been without internet for a while and it took me nearly all of yesterday afternoon and evening to catch up reading the blogs.  I can't believe how much inspiration I found.  So get ready for a steady stream of posts of my inspiration (if I don't get sidetracked outside picking raspberries and refinishing the deck).  First up, though are some projects I worked on without internet. 

Before I talk about the project, I just want to add how shocked I was about how reliant I am on having internet. I get most of my inspiration trolling the blogs and such.  When I didn't have them, I felt a bit at a loss.  Fortunately, I have some good books to reference, but seriously, I am an internet addict.  There, I said it.  I MISSED the blogs.  I missed being able to read the news online.  I missed my e-mail (by the way, how crazy is it that they kept telling me they would send me e-mails to update me on the status of my modem, when I don't have intenet to read the e-mails????). 

So I relied heavily on two books and some sketches I've printed off the internet and organized into a sketch book.  This card was inspired by a sample in Papercrafts Magazine publication A Card-a-Day.  The stamp is from Inkadinkado's Garden Flowers set and stamped with Red Riding Hood ink from Stampin' Up.  The leaves I made in the Silhouette Design Studio by taking a leaf shape from an image I purchased then copying, flipping it, altering a few of the points and then welding it all together with a rectangle for the stem.  The flower head is from another image where I pulled it out because it was the shape I wanted.    Then I inked the edges with Old Paper Distress Ink.   I pulled a few random buttons from my stash and used a little crochet thread to finish them off.  I used my Martha Stewart score pad to add the embossed box and the card was complete.  It was super fun to make since I love getting to pull stuff apart and remake it in that software.

So before I sign off for now, I also wanted to share this photo of my dear cat Zoey who will soon be 19.  She just loves my chair in the craft room and I always have to shoo her off to her own chair (yes, she has her own chair in my craft room).  But every time I do, she gives me this look like, this is MINE!

Rare sight - Zoey playing!

At nearly 17 and 3/4 years of age, it's very rare to see Zoey playing. She has a pretty set routine of drinking water out of her cup in the bathroom, sleeping on the bed and coming downstairs usually only for dinner or when she wants some attention. For a while I really worried because she had lost so much weight and was arfing up food all over the place.

But lately, she's been more active. She's fought back instead of running away when she see another kitty. The other night she and Cha-Ching had a pretty good hissing match. But Zoey got back at him, I noticed last night she had arfed in his food dish! It's the first time she's arfed in a while and she's gained a little weight back. She finishes all her food again and, today, I caught her playing with catnip banana so I just had to grab some pictures.

Catnip Calamity

So I finally finished a big project I've been working on. I actually thought about not finishing it, but I knew that it would "haunt" me if I didn't. So now it's done and I can move on. But of course I have a headache tonight and don't feel all that good. It's this stupid Spring weather. Could it just stay sunny or stay rainy? Why does it have to keep fluctuating back and forth, driving my sinuses crazy?

So tonight I just cleaned up my craft room. I don't know about all of you out there but I am a messy crafter. I pretty much have to clean my room after every project. Now honestly, it doesn't take that long. I cleaned it up during the commercials of one episode of Glee (yes I am a Gleek), so that should tell you, it's a pretty simple task. Now I am ready to embark on some new projects and I have a few in mind, but they will have to wait for another day.

Over the weekend, we planted all the Spring flowers just in time for last night's frost. Again, stupid Spring weather, pick a temperature already! I cleaned off all the dropped potting soil, dirt, leaves and other stuff that builds up over the winter and was pretty happy with how it looked. So, of course, the furballs had to go investigate or snoopervise as I like to call it. So tonight, I'm checking my e-mail and posting about how happy I am to have won the gift certificate to Paper Zone (whoo hoo! still celebrating that one), when I hear this crash! I leave the craft room and the first thing I notice is that Smoke is cowering in a corner and won't look at me. So at least I know who the naughty kitty was (Notice the mark on his nose? That's not a mar on the photo, it's from "fighting" with Cha-Ching the other day). Now I just have to find out what he did. Fortunately, that didn't take long because I found this mess just outside the back door: Of course Smoke now is willing to come investigate the damage he caused and then Zoey has to come check it out too:

So that's when Matt tells me what happened. Matt was out playing with the fish in the pond when Smoke jumps from the railing onto the pot of catnip that has some how miraculously survived five cats and the winter. Of course, Smoke (the klutz) overestimates the security of the pot sitting on its stand or, perhaps under-estimates his considerable size and weight, and the whole thing comes crashing down. Fortunately I had another pot I decorated a while ago just ready for this such occurrence. To try to give the catnip a fair chance, Matt did some kitty-proofing. Given the fact that Matt's managed to kitty-proof the backyard to somehow keep five furballs within the confines of our fenced backyard, I'm betting on the catnip making it.

Love my Paper Zone!

I'm so excited! I just found out that I won the $20 gift certificate from the Paper Zone. I subscribe to their blog because they share such creative ideas. Plus, I just love that store. I'm almost embarrassed to say how many years I drove by it thinking it was just paper supplies for offices. I was so wrong. I finally ventured in there a year or two ago to discover what great scrapbooking, card making, and yes, stationery, they had. Now I buy all my envelopes there because I can get true invitation size envelopes that I can't hardly find anywhere else and certainly not as nice as these. Right now I'm stuck on these linen ones that are so classy looking. So if you've never been to Paper Zone, go check it out if there's one near you and stop by their blog and check it out too (right now you can see Zoey there!).

With a bit more tweaking...

So tonight I decided to finish tweaking last night's layout. I added hand stitching to make the blocks look somewhat quilted together and button to finish off the corners of the central photo. It's shocking how long it takes to do a little hand stitching on the layout, but I'm really pleased with how it looks now. So here are side by side comparisons of last night (left) and the final (right). I probably spent the better part of two hours doing the hand stitching and the finishing the buttons off. Of course, that was with some minor interruptions to turn off the audio because I just couldn't stand to listen to the Winterhawks lose the opening game of the second round of the playoffs and start a new episode of Glee. Oh, and, of course, there were a few feline interruptions. Smoke came looking for a little love and some treats. Tigger took up residence in the spare craft room chair. I was cold this weekend and cuddled up in an afghan my mother-in-law made. I then left it on the spare chair and ever since Tigger's declared it as his own. Even Zoey came in to check things out tonight! She's a good looking girl for a 17-year-old!

Zoey, the snoopervisor

While they were painting this weekend, Mom and Dad left the bedroom window open and the screen off. That's how Daddy gets on the roof to paint the second story. I took full advantage of the situation to go out on the roof to "snoopervise" their work. Well, really, only Dad's work because Mom won't go above the second rung on the ladder and doesn't do roofs at all. I thought the view was great and the painting job was pretty good. Mom wasn't so happy, about me being on the roof that is. She made me come back in the window. At least Dad got some good pictures of my adventure.

Whooohoooo

We are finally back in business. We just got the computer back from HP and thankfully the screen is readable again. Things are pretty much still the same here but the weather has been crazy. Three weeks ago we had snow and then last weekend we had 100 degree weather. Way weird. Anyhow, here's new pictures of me in my favorite place in the yard - the catnip pot! (Mommy: Poor catnip - I'm not sure it's going to make it)

Update on my vet visit

Well you all must have prayed really hard because the vet only had good news for me today. All my tests came back normal, albeit in the high range of normal, except my creatinine level, which was only .1 above normal, so even that was pretty good. The vet said I had recovered really well considering just how bad my numbers were only two months ago. I still have to get IV fluids once or twice a week and have to eat the special kidney-friendly food (too bad it isn't kitty-friendly - I don't care what they say it doesn't taste good), but said that it would be good if Daddy would cook me chicken, turkey or beef (with no skin and no seasonings) to entice me to eat. I think it will be hard for Daddy to do that. He likes his spices, but then he's a chef so he should be able to cook anything right? Anyhow, I wanted to thank all of you out there who prayed for me and wished me well today. It was a great day, except for having to be in the prisoner transportation unit (thanks to the kitty who used that on their blog, I can't think of a better name for it).