Cats, Cups, Closet Lesbians (not really) (seriously)

Since I've been so busy lately, I haven't really had too much time to take pictures. Thankfully, my parents bought me a surprise Ipad 2 for my graduation (whaaat), so here are a few things that have been happening.

Cricket graduated along with Josie and I! We're so proud of her.

(Not really. We just had to do something to make her stop moping. This is what she did when MY diploma arrived in the mail. She truly is the jealous baby of the family.)

Little does she know we know her real character. She's evil.
...red rum...

Meanwhile Ducky was adorable.

Dana made me this mug. SHE MADE IT!!! Best girlfr-uh friend ever (you'll hear that story later)

Nevermind I'll just tell you now.
So Dana and I were telling someone how long we had been friends and I started to say, "We've been dating since-wait." Woops. Maybe it's time we put a little space in our relationship. Just a bit.

But really, we were friends even before we met (cue Savage Garden music here.)

Exhibit A:
The 2 of us, separate times, separate places, before we even met, both wearing shorts in the snow.
Twins.



(Since I was 11 and she was 12. That's how long we've been friends, if you were wondering.)

Today I'm going to be a tease (1/3)

The following will be in three parts. You will know it's time to turn the page when you hear a sound like this: *Ding!*

First things first.

Cat Count

1 sister snuggling with a snoozing, snaggle-toothed feline

4 points (ears and whiskers) poised in disdain (and probably pure, pernicious poison)

Infinite nights of never-sleep from the nefarious naughtiness of my sister

(Please notice how Cricket snuggles up with Josie, and Ducky maintains a comfortable distance. We really are alike.)
End Post 1
*Ding!*

A super speedy brief post

Well. This post is going to be brief, as the title suggests. I generally always like to have some kind of picture to accompany each post (and...you know...like...a point...or whatever...) but there's just no time today. My family is in the midst of trip preparations so things have been a bit wild lately. Tomorrow I'll have more to say and quite a few pictures to post but for tonight, all that's left to say is that I'm alive and well. And I hope you all are too.
Whats it like for you when you get ready for vacation? Is it fun for you to plan? Does it stress you out? Do your cats try to sneak into your luggage, leaving fur EVERYWHERE in the process? Have you found a way to successfully dispose of your pets without anyone finding them?
Just kidding Cricket. Stay away from my black sweater and you'll live to see another day.
Until tomorrow morning...
I bid you...
Adieu

Cat Count

Cat Count

0 The number of consecutive hours the cats have stayed awake today.

1 The number of times I brought Cricket on an adventure to the car only to have her try to run away because she thought we were going to the vet.

2 The number of times Ducky has tried to make me feel guilty for kicking her off my lap because I had to use my legs.

3 The number of cat-meals I poisoned in an attempt to kill the cats (Just kidding, PETA. Retract those claws.)

While taking pictures of my outfit (for my next post), I got a couple of pictures of Cricket lurking behind me. This one, in particular, reminded me of a "Dear Blank, Please Blank" post Josie found a couple of days ago.
Dear Diary,

Today, my slaves mocked me with a feathery stick. It was oddly tempting. They are messing with my mind. They will not be getting any cuddling tonight. Today I ate a houseplant. Tomorrow I may eat another.

Sincerely,
Cat


And there you have it. Cats in a nutshell. Which is, in itself, quite the visual.

Cats and Suitcases

One of these things is different...

One of these things just doesn't belong...

Meet Ducky--short for Jemima Puddleduck.

Like her namesake, she's the sweetest cat in the world, but not necessarily the brightest. Whereas Cricket sits on the table to be naughty, Ducky sits on the table because she has no idea where she is. We relate a lot, Duck and I.

Anyway, in the midst of Spring Cleaning, I decided to re-purpose one of my suitcases as a cat bed (credit for idea: mom--who credits someone else)

I put the suitcase down in the hallway to try to tempt the cats inside, since they always hop into our traveling bags before vacation. But, as cats are wont to do, they completely ignored just the thing I wanted them to pay attention to.
But not to be discouraged, I began making a lining for the suitcase. I figured if I made it as attractive as, say, those super classy cardboard boxes they like to sit in, they might be tempted inside.

Cricket trying to help me with my sewing.

I have dozens upon dozens of scraps I used for the lining--some from quilting, some from altering clothes. I tend to be a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to sewing, so projects take me way longer than they need to (especially when I'm in a hurry and don't take the time to pre-measure anything). So my personal goal for this project was just to slap it together all willy nilly and not go back and fix anything.
It is, after all, just a cat bed.

Since I don't have a cutter-bobber to cut things on (like, say, a board), the bottom of the suitcase served as my table so cut on. I then sewed the pieces together in quilt-like fashion and hot glued the sucker to the inside of the lid.
I also had an extra pillow case from when I made my matching duvet cover, so I passed that on to the little wretches.
The end result:
Da-dun!

I've yet to lure the cats inside (with this brief exception, blurrily caught on film).

Cricket loves my mom's perfume and even my spritzing that inside doesn't help.
Darn you, cats!
I, therefore, left a very stern note, letting Cricket know that she is not allowed inside the suitcase under any circumstances!

We'll see if that works.

Cat's Eye View

This is Cricket:


We had a bit of a storm this past week. For most places in the rest of the United States, this isn't particularly interesting. But considering that I live in California, and by this time last year already had a tan from painting out in the backyard in my swimsuit, it's been a bit out of the ordinary.
Naturally, during the most blustery of days, we ran out of coffee (cue horror music here). Thankfully, I live within walking distance of the coffee shop downtown. I pulled on my rain boots, donned my hat and lime green raincoat, and braved the weather all for the sake of caffeine.

Once I got home and shook off the rain water, I nestled into our cute kitchen nook to drink my coffee and watch the rain.


Cats, as you may know, are like parasites. If there's the possibility of a warm lap in the vicinity, they'll follow it around until it's made available. That's when they pounce and suck all the warmth out of the lap. Once the warmth is depleted, they move on to their next prey, leaving your legs frozen.

Cricket is no exception:

This is what our nook looks like from Cricket's vantage point:

Thankfully, she doesn't like coffee, or she would have tried to take that too.

What's thrifty in this post?
1. Metal pig on the table
2. White chairs
3. Cricket (In a way. We did get her from ARF. Both of our cats are little secondhand finds, whom we love.)
4. Did you notice our neighbor's car? This is where I get a little stalker-y, so be forewarned. But aren't you green with envy too?!