So, it's been a while, hasn't it. What can I say—I've been busy! It was about time for my semi-annual accidental blog break, anyway.
Between my lack of blogging and my lack of Project Life-ing, I've missed documenting my life. So I came back! I got a new(-to-me) camera the other day, and I'm excited about taking photos again. My cats are less thrilled, now that they are suddenly being stalked by a paparazzi crowd of one.
We love our house. Have I mentioned that? Bit by bit we're getting settled in and I love it more every time we get another box unpacked. I love big things, like the pretty wood floors and the kitchen counter space and having a finished basement, but I'm really excited about some little things too.
1. MY QUILT WALL. Something I've wanted since about the third time I laid quilt blocks out on the carpet, only to have one cat decide they were a superfun toy and the other decide they were a perfect napping spot. I tacked a big piece of batting to the wall and now I can lay out all my blocks and spend as long as I want deliberating over the perfect arrangement. This one's been on my wall for two weeks and gone through two complete re-designs.
2. MY ROLLY CHAIR. For the last two years my desk chair has been this rickety, ugly, uncomfortable wooden chair. A few weeks ago we went to Ikea and I got a bonafide desk chair, complete with spinning seat and wheels. Sitting at the desk is so much better!
3. THE CATS GET ALONG BETTER. I never would have guessed this would happen, but it has. They've never liked each other all that much, and would spend their evenings chasing each other around the apartment, with every lap involving somebody tearing across the coffee table—where our dinner usually sat. Really annoying. But we have lived here for three weeks now and there has only been one incident like that. Seriously. It's a miracle. My guess at the reason for the change is that we have so much more space they're not competing for territory anymore. 100% fine by me.
4. THE LITTERBOX IS NOWHERE NEAR HUMANS ANYMORE. Seriously, I think this is my favorite. The cats have shared our bathroom for two years now, which was unpleasant for quite a few reasons. Now their box is in the basement corner, far away from anywhere I am showering. So, so, so good.
Today, I am grateful for my cat Oscar. We found out recently he has a kidney stone which can be very serious in male cats, but so far he seems to be fine, except for some pain that is making him grumpy. I'm so thankful that it hasn't been more serious (or expensive). (Knock on wood.) And I'm grateful that we are able to leave him behind in the care of a pet sitter while we go out of town without too much worry. For a while, we thought we might have to bring him with us, which is not fun for him and a bit of a pain for us.
He's my little buddy, never far from my side, always getting into things and driving me crazy. I'm relieved and grateful that it seems we've still got many years together.
This is Sammy. She never met a nest of blankets she didn't like.
She's a bit of a daredevil and prefers the 3-story high, 3" ledge just OUTSIDE our porch to the safety of the porch itself.
She looks darling in pink.
And she and Oscar are BFFs. Sometimes.
Sammy belongs to Molly and Hiram, but she's been living with us for the last fourteen months while they've been in various living situations not suitable for owning a pet. But now, to everyone's great delight (mostly theirs), they are settled for the foreseeable future. And so Sammy is leaving us. We're flying to see them today and Sammy's pumped and ready for her first plane ride.
She talks too much and is always hungry and thinks the Poang belongs to her, but I like her very much and will miss her when she's gone. But it sure will be nice to not have three cats anymore.
This weekend I visited a new-to-me garden shop in Dallas, called Nicholson-Hardie, and it was amazing! It was so much bigger than it looked on the outside and the whole inside was so lush. there were SO many plants and pretty much everything that was capable of blooming was blooming. Even better, as I was wandering around the herb section I heard a "jingle jingle", and when I looked down I had some friends!
Frankie here took an opportunity to sample some of the merchandise.
The colors everywhere were so bright and beautiful. Just like summer! I only bought two small potted plants but I can't wait to go back next spring when I am planning my little garden.
You all know how I feel about my garden by now. It's little and fairly average, but I am so proud of it, and quite in love with it. Its main features are a big pot of chives, and two pots of basil, all grown from seed. I also have a small handful of succulents.
This one (in the center) in particular, despite its unimpressive appearance in this picture, was particularly magnificent. It had grown up quite nicely since this photo, where I had recently given it a serious pruning. It was so big and had some really lovely shades of purple. Not to mention the pot it was in. That pot was starting to develop a subtle patina that I'd really grown quite fond of, and its shape was different from your standard terra cotta pot. I thought it was really pretty.
So I was extremely upset when I walked out on the balcony to see Oscar with one big stupid paw in my chives. As I yelled at him, he panicked and flailed wildly. Knocking over that magnificent succulent and smashing its pot.
My poor pot. Thankfully the plant made out all right. Lots of leaves and stems broke, but its root ball was intact and I quickly repotted it, although its new home is not quite as lovely as its old one. And the plant itself is certainly not as impressive, though I'm sure in a few months it will be back to its awesome self. (Of course that didn't make me any less upset!) The pot is obviously ruined. I was moping around the apartment alternating between moaning about "the patinaaaaa" and yelling at the cat, and all Chris could say was WHAT IS A PATINA?
Amidst my considerable distress about the patina, I didn't even check on the chives. A bit later I went out to clean up all the dirt and I saw it:
MY CHIVES WERE MOWED. It appears before I scared him off that rotten little hairball discovered he had a taste for chives so he just helped his frickin self. Ten inches of herby green potential, three months of impatient watering and monitoring, all reduced to mini Chia hats.
I won't lie to you: I cried. (My family is not surprised in the least by that admission.) I couldn't look at Oscar until the next morning. My laments about the pot were replaced by pathetic eulogies for the chives.
It took several days, but I have made up with my cat and accepted my horticultural losses. I suppose the nice thing about gardening is that there's always next year. BUT STILL. Those chives.
Sneaking a nap.
My cat likes to go out at night and explore. The problem is, there are a lot of cats around here and I assume they have some type of pecking order. My roommate's cat Sammy is a tough little hoochie with some street smarts on her. Oscar is not.
The other night after a particularly long outdoors time, he showed up at the back door a little more urgently than normal. All was fine until I picked him up. "Guys, I think Oscar got skunked!"
Hiram came up and sniffed him and informed me that Oscar hadn't been skunked, he had been marked. You know. Sprayed by the business end of another cat.
Because he's such a wimp, he owns nothing around here. I wouldn't be surprised if Sammy owned half the apartment complex, but Oscar's got zip. To help illustrate: imagine if a Jet -- one of the dancing Jets from the original movie -- wandered over into Sharks territory, but in an updated version of the movie where they're really tough and they definitely don't do ballet. That is what happened to my cat.
I'm Leah. I love making pretty things with fabric, paper, and sometimes, pixels and fonts. These days, though, it's mostly fabric. I also love tv on dvd and sometimes I talk about my cats too much. I live in Alexandria, VA, with my husband Chris and our son Joey, who was born on Christmas Eve last year. Chris is a musician in The US Army Band "Pershing's Own", and I make quilts and sell them in a little shop.
