Author Archives: carrie

Tiger Kitty.

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It was a rough day. It started out hard and just got harder as the day wore on.

Tiger had been sliding downhill for the past few days. We could tell her body was starting to shut down and she wasn’t eating or drinking. She wasn’t really moving that much at all. We found ourselves babying her even more than normal, and tiptoeing around her as she moved from corner to corner in the kitchen. The past two mornings I would wake up and start downstairs expecting the worst and ending up a little bit surprised that she was still hanging in here.

This morning however I could tell that it wouldn’t be much longer. She couldn’t really even stand or hold her head up for very long. So we made sure that everyone got a good cuddle, some kitty love, and to say goodbye. Needless to say everyone was sent off into their day in tears.

addie

emmaShe slipped away while I was away running errands. I was incredibly surprised at how distraught I was when I found her especially since I had already said my goodbyes, I knew it was inevitable, “her time had come,” and all of those other cliches we tell people when they lose someone they love.

I was so grateful that J. jumped in his car and was here before the girls were even out of school to help me deal with both the kitty and telling the girls. To sit and try to comfort your poor devastated girls is probably even harder than saying goodbye to your cat that you have had for over 16 years.

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Yeah, that is kinda how we feel about that. Psssthhhh…

But I told the girls the story of how we picked Tiger, or rather how she picked us, at the Santa Clara Human Society all those years ago. We had picked out a kitty playmate for Smokey and were going back to get the other gray kitty named Madison to bring home. While we were walking through the “holding area” for new pets, Tiger reached out, through the bars on the crate and touched J’s shoulder and just let out this little meee-ooow? We both literally stopped in our tracks. The Humane Society lady asked if we wanted to see her and when she let Tiger out of the cage, Tiger promptly climbed up onto J’s shoulder and wouldn’t stop purring. The lady was reading Tiger’s transcript to us and said she was all up to date on her shots, about 2 years old and they thought she was healthy, although every time they tried to listen to her heart they couldn’t hear through her incessant purring. (I went back several days later and the other kitty, Madison had also been adopted, otherwise we might have been a 3 cat household.) Tiger was just meant to be with us.

And she was such an sweet and loving kitty. And INCREDIBLY tolerant of Addie’s non-stop torture…I mean, loving. Addie is definitely taking it the hardest, as we suspected she would. But we buried Tiger in the flowerbed that I have been intending to redo anyhow. Now it is going to be our kitty garden and we are going to get some flowers and maybe even a birdbath this weekend to make it special. Addie spent nearly 40 minutes tonight “shopping” on Amazon and she found a cat memorial stone to put in the garden, too. I think that helped ease the pain a little bit for her.

As for me, I know in my head that she is in a much better place and it is so much better for her, but my heart is aching tonight.

It is just a little rough.

 

Crafty Tuesday – of sorts.

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I cannot even tell you how very disappointed I am with myself. Not just that I have been promising all kinds of posts and photos to you all and haven’t delivered nary a one,  but when I finally downloaded my camera this weekend, I realized I don’t even have any real photos of the project that has consumed-our-every-minute-for-the-past-month! Only phone camera photos. I know. I am a bitter, bitter disappointment.

So I am going to try to find some t-shirts at the ballet studio tomorrow and snap proper photos of them before I resort to these crappy phone camera shots. So, I guess, a little more waiting on that project.

Of course it has been so crazy around here that Peter Pan was so-three-projects ago! We are on to many other goodies, including throwing a baby shower for JB and the new baby V and all of her LA peeps. It was very fun to plan and execute – I just wish I wasn’t so crazy throughout all of it, that would have made it even more enjoyable, I think.

The theme was children’s books – so I stole an idea (thank you for the millionth time, Pinterest!) to do the invites as library cards, complete with little library card pockets. I just took manila folders and made the pockets, designed the cards (invites) in Illustrator and printed them out.

photo6(Yes, more phone photos, you all are going to disown me aren’t you??)

photo7And since we asked everyone to bring a book, on the back of the invite we listed the books that JB already had – we didn’t get any repeats!

photo8The nursery is going to be pink & orange – so we used those colors for the decor…

DSC_0579So thankful it was a gorgeous day, perfect for an outdoor brunch & baby shower. We decorated with children’s books and a few special gifts. I made her this bunting for the nursery, which also includes all of the fabrics that will be in her baby blanket. (THAT…well, that we still have 8 weeks to finish! It will get done…)

DSC_0575And the lovely Erin made these incredible onesies for the baby that we clothes-lined up for a little more decor. I didn’t get a good closeup of them, but I’m sure Erin will feature them over on her blog (Practically Martha) at some point!

DSC_0574And then I manipulated all kinds of kid’s books to fit our menu. We did a brunch – light lunch – tea nibbles kind of party. By request we had Amelia Bedelia’s Vanilla Scones…

DSC_0568Peter Rabbit’s Garden Salad…

DSC_0564Jamberry’s Berry Salad…

DSC_0562Stinky Cheese Man’s Cheese Plate…

DSC_0565Petunia Pepper’s Tea Sandwiches…(Petunia is the character of the children’s book that JB is going to write someday!)

DSC_0561The Cat in the Hat Cheese Hats, Madeline’s French Toast…and of course, If you Give A Cat A Cupcake – Cupcakes!

DSC_0570It was totally fun and turned out lovely.

DSC_0558I was so thankful to my co-hostesses and our honorary co-hostess, Addie! She was my side-kick all morning and was ever so helpful. I’m grateful to have such a creative (and fancy!) girl!

DSC_0572And now we just sit and wait and let little Baby V. cook some more… And Aunt JB is doing a fine job in that area.DSC_0591

AGAIN, totally disgusted with my photo-taking abilities this month. If you could see her face, she is positively glowing and beautifully pregnant, we will get a better photo of the girls!

Hummingbird Cake

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It makes such a pretty cake – and it really is easy, don’t let the long list of ingredients intimidate you! It’s like carrot/spice cake…without the carrots. Delish!

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Hummingbird Cake

Sift:
3 c flour
2 c sugar
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon

Add:
1 c. chopped pecans, set aside.

In another bowl combine:
3 eggs, beaten
1 c. applesauce
1 c. canola oil
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1  c. pineapple, drained
2 c. chopped bananas (about 3)

Stir together by hand. Fold liquid mixture into dry mixture until well-mixed. Divide batter into 3 9″ pans, greased and bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until center is set.

Icing:
8 oz. light cream cheese
1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 lbs. of powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla

Beat together cream cheese and butter, add sugar until well combined. Finally add vanilla. *This cake looks great decorated with fresh flowers! Enjoy!

And as Addie likes to say, “it is healthy!” With all of that fruit in there – how can it not be?

Productivity on full tilt.

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It was a “short week” since we had Monday off but we have managed to eek a lot of productivity out already – and it’s only Wednesday!

Birdie #2 and I finally delivered two projects today. One was a batch of etched awards for a local elementary school and the second was…THE ballet studio order. It is finally done and if we never see another Peter Pan shirt, it will be too soon. I promise to get photos and post about it soon…they really did turn out kinda awesome.

I sent my tax paperwork off to our tax man today, too. Hopefully we will get good news again this year, confirming the fact that it was a good idea to buy our house. (I already know it was…but as the house list of projects gets longer, I sometimes wonder.)

And finally my car is back in the driveway and legit with the state of California again. My registration was due last week but I hadn’t taken the car in – and couldn’t since I didn’t have it – to get smog tested. So check, and check! Done.

But the very best piece of productivity came from Birdie #2’s “great idea of the day” yesterday while we were in Hobby Lobby doing some recognizance for our next big project (we are the decorating chairs for the big SEF fundraiser next month – so SG peeps, buy your tix right now!).

Laundry is the bane of my existence. I used to loathe unloading the dishwasher, but I’ve kind of resigned myself to the fact that I need to do that each morning, like it or not. But laundry…grrrr….laundry! On any given day walk into our living room and there are stacks of laundry waiting to be brought upstairs and put away. I have one laundry basket that I use to carry laundry down – or out from the laundry room – so the girls are often left to carrying their “stacks” up to their rooms. Sometimes they make it and sometimes half of the stack is even still folded when it gets put away.

So Jamie’s idea (we tease her about having only one good idea per day, but in reality she has MANY good ideas!) while we were in the spring aisle at HL – why don’t we just get each of the girls one of their own little baskets in their own favorite color and then fold clothing directly into their basket. They can carry it up (because it is kid-sized) and it gets put away and brought back down so they will get a fresh batch of clean, folded laundry.

We’ve used it the past two days and it is kind of amazing how such a little thing can make such a big difference in an otherwise dreaded chore.

photoI’m sure it is just the novelty of something bright, pretty and new – but so far so good and nobody is bucking the new system.

 

Crafty Tuesday

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Oh, hey. I know it has been weeks since we have posted a Crafty Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been getting all kinds of crafty over here.

Birdie #2 and I have taken the next step to making TwoBirdies Workshop an “official” sort of business. We now have a resale/wholesale license so we can get our supplies at wholesale prices…which we have totally needed and used the past two weeks. We have spent nearly every waking minute in the sweatshop, er…I mean workshop, putting together four different t-shirts for the ballet company, and the new Peter Pan ballet that debuts this coming weekend. I think we have made close to 200 tees (Birdie #2?),…some days it feels like close to 2000. I’m still working on getting our little ballerina models to pose for a photoshoot so I can show them all to you here. Let’s work on that for next Tuesday, shall we?

We did step out of the workshop for a few minutes last week for Valentine’s Day. Well, technically we didn’t even step out of the workshop for the first of our Valentines. We made LOVE shirts for all the little girls to wear. The glitter vinyl is oh, so…BLING-a-licious.

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Doesn’t Addie look like she is up to absolutely no good? I’m pretty sure that isn’t far from the truth, too.

While the Birdies were busy, the birdie-ettes were making some Valentines to pass out to their classmates. I made some little valentines for them and printed them on cardstock and then they made them “scratch-off.”

vtines

They signed their names in the little hearts, colored them with white crayons and then painted them with scratch-able paint (silver paint and dishsoap mixed in 2 to 1 parts). They attached pennies…and voila! Done. They were fun and didn’t add to the already candy overload, either!

owlWe also crafted with Mrs. A’s 4th grade class AND Mrs. P’s 2nd grade class on Valentine’s Day. I’m kicking myself for not taking a single photo of the cute Love Monsters we made – not even with my phone! I guess it was just kind of intense trying to get all 65 of the monsters made with impatient little 2nd and 4th graders. But this is what they looked like –

mons4(photo and EXCELLENT idea courtesy of Eighteen25.)

I don’t think I need to tell you what a huge hit they were. The 4th grade class was especially creative and everyone really loved them. They were fun.

And that was Valentine’s day around here. Any goodies in your neck of the woods?

 

 

Someday.

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My little ballerina after her class…
 photo2

…gazing longingly at her idol Yvette and the “big girl ballerinas.”

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She loves to tell me “only 4 or 5 years til I get to dance in pointe shoes, like Yvette!”  Yes, this is the same girl who sobbed throughout her entire first ballet recital.

First day pro

She is currently prepping for two roles in the much anticipated Peter Pan
at the end of next month and I think ballet has become “her thing.”

Left...right...

I’m glad she’s stuck it out so far. And I may be incredibly biased,
but she makes the most beautiful ballerina.

Idohwannaleave!

Caught Up At 40.

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My sweet husband joins me at 40 today. (Uncle Jeff does too…obviously. Happy Birthday Jeff!)

I can often be heard saying that I have not two, but THREE children. But it is his complete joy at the smallest of pleasures and when J acts like “one of the kids” that makes me love him so.

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I love that he is the one I can’t wait to wake up to in the morning and the last one I see when I close my eyes to sleep.

He is always there to share in the big news, the little stuff, and even my Lucy & Ethel schemes.

He’s my shoulder to lean on or my comic relief when I need that instead.

I love that he knows when to reach over to take my hand during the sad parts of Downton Abbey, or shoots me a look that doesn’t even need words, yet we understand each other perfectly.

He’s my forever date, my Valentine, the love-of-my-life and I’m so happy he is mine.

(And just a little bit happy that he is now 40, too. Come on in, babe, the water is fine.)

Happy Birthday, J.
Love you with all my heart.

 

Look at all the pretty horses.

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It was food truck day at the Santa Anita Park today, so Addie and I met Daddy and Uncle Jeff there for the lunch. (It was also free hat day – how awesome are these hats for gardening?)photo3  And then we stayed around for the racing. For a little bit at least.

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Of course we just picked the horses with our favorite names. They may have had the best names, but they had the worst odds. A few of them may or may not have even come in dead last. Eh, whatever.photo2It turned into an unexpected fun excursion. Recently Addie and her friend Francesca have been planning their lives after they get out of school…yes, they are 2nd graders. It is good to be such great planners, don’t you think? Anyway, they are going to live on a farm together and Francesca is going to take care of the horses and pigs and Addie is going to garden and take care of the…cats!

On our way out of the track today, Addie decided that horses were allowed to move up on her list of favorite animals. I think they are now number 4.  But, up to this point she has been completely scared of horses, so I think we made quite a breakthrough today.

Flashback 7 years or so.

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After our Winter in Cali post yesterday I got these lovely photos in my inbox and a little note from my Dad. I didn’t “clear” this with him, but I figure he won’t mind me featuring him as a “guest blogger” today and sharing his lovely flashback of our sweet (only 2 1/2 year-old!) Em. Although, I think the photo credits must go to Nana since Papa is in some of the photos. Addie must have been only a few months old? I *think* J and I went to a Michigan football game. I don’t know…honestly, it was 7 1/2 years ago, who has that kind of memory?

Care –
I thought of these pics as soon as I saw your post today.

They only feature Emma, cuz Addie was in the house with Nana having a bottle (Addie that is, not Nana).

Love,
Dad

 

Sierra Exif JPEG Sierra Exif JPEG Sierra Exif JPEGSierra Exif JPEGI can barely stand the cuteness. I had almost forgotten the crazy fly-away orangutan hair she was always sporting, too! Thanks for this step back in time, Dad.
xo

Winter in Cali.

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I know that none of our East coast/Midwest friends and family want to see these photos right now, but….it is my blog and I want to put them up here anyways. So, try not to get too discouraged and remember that we have plenty of room out here. You are all invited to come soak up some sunshine with us – any time!

This is the pile, rather the SECOND pile, of leaves from our ash tree last week. Two FULL bins of leaves were recycled on Sunday, and on Monday Daddy raked again. As he was raking it was literally “raining” leaves.

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Jumping in leaves provided nearly two hours of extreme joy for the girls and our neighbor friends.

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Daddy kept raking, Mommy kept snapping photos. My favorite of Emma for the day.

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And of Ad.

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Although this Sweet Sassy Mol-Addie pose is more of what we’ve been seeing around these parts lately.

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After we had thoroughly jumped the heck out of the leaves, we bundled them up into FOUR bins and recycled them off.

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(The leaves, not the children.)
The sad thing is that our entire lawn is covered once again and it doesn’t look like we’ve raked a day in our life. And the ash tree has probably only dropped 60% of its leaves.

Still. I’d take leaves any day over snow.