X is for Paws Crossed

Are you ready for another round of Alphabe Thursday? Let's go!

This time last year for the letter X, I posted about one of Angel's signature poses: paws crossed. Apollo and Ares were always curious about Angel and spent quite a bit of time watching her.

I took this picture of Apollo over a year ago.

And I just snapped this one of him earlier this month.

It's so sweet how she stays with all of us, even the boys.

Check out what the other Alphabe Thursday participants posted for letter X this week right here!

a tribute to one of the greats

And by greats, I mean one of the greatest cats. This past Tuesday, our beloved 18 year old Angel crossed the Rainbow Bridge into her next life. She lived an amazing life on this Earth right up until the very end. There are no words to describe how fortunate that I am to have lived with this sweet kitty for the last eight years of her life. I'm glad that anyone who reads this blog regularly got to know her as well. Over the years, I've recorded quite a few little memories of Angel here and am so grateful to have them in writing.

I skipped Caturday this past weekend so I could round up all of my final Angel pictures and put together this little tribute with just a tiny handful of the many amazing pictures that we have of her. I'll have a regularly scheduled dose of my orange boys again this Saturday.

 

 

 

X is for Paws Crossed

Are you ready for another round of Alphabe Thursday? Let's go!

One of Angel's classic poses for years and years and years has been sit with her paws crossed. As such, I thought that it would not be hard to find a handful of pictures of her in this pose. It took me way longer than I thought. Most of these pictures are over three years old and are not well labeled anywhere online or on my hard drive. But here they are for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy this little blast from the past.

When we were living in Chicago (2006-2007)

 

In the condo (2007-2011)

  

Loving the move in process

 

  

A few final shots in Milwaukee (2011-2013)

Clearly the boys spend a lot of time watching Angel because it's not uncommon to see this these days.

Check out what the other Alphabe participants posted for the letter X this week right here!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that you are enjoying some time with family and friends today as well as lots of good food. We are fortunate to have a lot of family in the midwest just an hour or two away from us.

You can take a note from Angel today about the food part of the holiday.

Your regularly scheduled programming will return on Saturday with a tutorial link list. See you then!

some usual happenings

Here are just a few of the things that have been going on with me the past couple weeks.

food

One of my personal goals when we moved to Milwaukee was to continue to try new recipes on a regular basis.  I've been doing pretty well with that.  Does anyone else sometimes find a recipe that you feel a need make right away?  That happened to me last week when I came across the recipe for baked avocado fries.

I baked some mushrooms, too, because I figured it couldn't go too wrong.  It didn't.  I paired them with a simple lettuce salad with honey mustard dressing and sliced ham and chicken.  I know that it doesn't look like a huge plate of food, but it was very filling.  If I make this again, I'll spice up the breading mix a bit.  Some garlic powder, salt, and pepper would go a long way.  Otherwise I was happy with it.

I printed out Natalie's Sesame Soy Tahini Sauce recipe a couple weeks ago with no specific plan for what I was going to make with it.  Jake got tired of what I normally put in stir fry so I've been switching it up lately and decided to give this a try.

I substituted a couple ingredients for what we had on hand.  I marinated shrimp in this sauce and then paired it with sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, sweet orange pepper, onions, mushrooms, and egg noodles.  So good!  Jake liked it, too.  If you like any kind of sesame and/or nut marinade/dressing, you will really enjoy this.

Angel

Those of you who have cats know that what did not cross their minds one day suddenly becomes an obsession the next day.  That's how going outside has been with Angel.  She never expressed an interest until last month and now she asks to go out in the back yard at least a few times a week.  She only likes to step out a couple feet so we normally let her (unless it's really early or late).

buttons

Also as I mentioned on Monday, I've been working on a new button tree, this time with a fall theme.  I have all of the buttons on now.  I'm going to add some felt leaves and then attach a felt base.  I have a spiky gold ornament as the topper for my Christmas tree.  Any good ideas on a topper for a fall tree?  It's not essential that it has one, but it would be a neat touch.

cards

I have been going crazy with the mini cards lately (they're about an A2 size).  There are over 20 birthday cards here as well as a handful of spring and Mother's Day cards.  I have a bunch more of both, as well as some graduation cards, in the works, too.

More on that soon.

I also made a new birthday card design for one of Jake's fellow interns/will be fellow PM&R residents.  He and his wife got Jake a birthday present last summer when we'd only known them for a month so we really wanted to do something for his birthday.  When his wife sent out the invite e-mail, she said something about how he had just celebrated his ?? birthday and that they were having a party that weekend in honor of it.  I may flesh this design out to an A7 size card and include an inside message about how birthdays are always worth celebrating, regardless of age.

coasters

I had a lot of fun making my coasters last month that I was fired up to make another set already.  I decided to make some for the previously mentioned birthday.  It was kind of a random present choice for a guy, but I figured it would be something practical that he and his wife could use, which it definitely was.  We put them to good use before the party was over.  I am really happy with this geometric design and will be making more similar to this in the future.

Stay tuned next week for an update on some unusual happenings, including getting new living room furniture and doing some major organization overhaul.

What have you been up to lately?  Any interesting cooking or crafting endeavors?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know that most people aren't spending a lot of time at their computers today, so I'm keeping this post simple.

I hope that you're getting to take after Angel today and spend some time relaxing with family.  Our regularly scheduled programming will return tomorrow.

an update on my little helper

I haven't posted any pictures of Angel in a while.  I thought that you'd enjoy a little break from our usual content with a couple pictures of her.

Angel is a great little lunch buddy while Jake is at work.

 

Sitting right next to someone who is eating is a good way to beg.  But it's also tough work.

Plus TV watching is pretty boring.  Yep, that's Pauly D from Jersey Shore on Conan, talking about the Pauly Halloween costume that's available this year.

Some of you will also appreciate the fact that Angel has now discovered the sunny spots on the first floor and regularly visits them.

my little helper

Before I get into the main topic for the post, I have to give a big thank you to everyone who voted for my Strawberry Fields Forever cuff in the August EBW Challenge!  For various reasons, the group now has two votes: a public vote (which is what appears on the blog) and an internal vote (which is only for members through our message board).  The internal vote determines who picks the next challenge theme.  I received more votes in both polls that I ever have for any challenge piece.  I ranked in the top 10 for the public vote and tied for 2nd in the internal vote.  I've never ranked in the top 10 before for either, so that was a huge accomplishment for me.  And I wouldn't have done it without you so thank you!

And now on to the main topic for this post:
Angel used to love to watch me cross-stitch when I did that all the time.  Sometimes she would "help" me.  For some reason, she doesn't find beading nearly as interesting.  Normally she completely ignores it, even when she's sitting on the coach with me while I'm working on something.  She decided to help me a lot one day last week, though.  I thought that you would enjoy seeing pictures of part of this process.  I apologize that these pictures are not as good as the ones that I normally post here.  I took these with my Blackberry, which was what I had at hand at the time.

I should note that Angel does not have front claws, which is why I let her do this.  She's never harmed a cross-stitch or beading project of mine by playing with the string.  She's 15 and obviously from her size has never been very active, so we like to encourage her when she is feeling playful.

another house update

This post won't be quite as detailed as my house update from last week, but I've gotten a few more things accomplished that I thought I'd share.

This first thing actually isn't something I did, but I thought many of you would appreciate it.  I don't know who put this in and if they made them or bought them, but it's a cute idea and would be very easy to make yourself.  These are the door jam for the purple bedroom.

I've washed and put away almost all of our china.  My mom's mom had a huge collection.  When she moved into a retirement community a few years ago, she split it and gave half to me and half to her other granddaughter.  Several members of her family had bought the same china pattern so all of our stuff matches.  This is just a look at most of the cups/glasses and some of the bigger pieces.  Some of them are more modern pieces that we got for our wedding.  I'll have to photograph the plates and bowls some other time.  You may have noticed in the last update with the dining room table that we have a built in china hutch, which is where all of these pieces are stored now.

I have my computer desk area mostly arranged now.  I know that between this area and all of my purple bedroom storage, I have a slightly ridiculous number of desks/tables.  Hopefully this will help me stay organized and reduce the amount of clutter that I create, though.  And yep, that cord hanging down is a cable dropped through the ceiling.  I use wireless Internet in the basement and we don't have cable TV so it isn't doing much.  I'll brag again about the amount of light in our house.  I took this picture during the day with all natural light.  In the basement.

Finally, Angel would sleep on our coach sometimes in the condo.  Now that it's in the basement in this house, she sleeps on it almost every day.

I do my best to post my newest craft hub links on my group forums, but if anyone has missed them or hasn't checked the sidebar list lately, here are my newest crafty hubs.

Beaded or Beadwoven Rings: Different Uses for Jewelry and Accessories

Czech Glass Dagger Beads: Patterns and Stunning Jewelry Inspiration