Thanksgiving randomness...

Since I have no card to share, enjoy the pilgrim kitty.

I never did clean up my craft area, but that is on the agenda for this weekend, in conjunction with several episodes of turkey indulgence (never to occur concurrently though, as one might lose a turkey sandwich in the process).

Jeff and I consider Thanksgiving "our holiday" where we cook for ourselves and do not travel. Perhaps if we ever live closer than 2 hours (or more considering holiday traffic or just traffic in general for NJ) from family, we would consider hosting. But for now this is working out fine.

After Thanksgiving is generally when I start making Christmas cards. I know, I know, I can hear you *tisk tisk*-ing me thru the internet. But it's what I do. I'm a procrastinator. Every year I plan on making cards early, but it never happens. If you think that's bad, you should've seen me in my school days. Pulled some marvellous things right out of my....... errr, thin air.... on short notice. Masterful works they were, too.

I'm not always like that, though. I'm that way just when I *think* I can get away with it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Sad Day

It's always a sad day when we have to say goodbye to a furry friend, but even moreso when that furry friend is still young. Bijou, my brother-in-law's cat, died Tuesday, November 10. He was a Christmas present from my mom to Joe. The cause of death is not certain, but Bijou had an issue producing blood and had a terrible episode 2 years ago that he barely survived. This time he was not so lucky despite his wonderful doctor's intervention. Bijou was a Bengal cat, which is a hybrid of an Asian Leopard Cat crossed with a domestic short-haired cat. He was an exotic cat, as you can observe from the markings on his coat. Bijou was a great companion to Joe and it was easy to see how important each was to the other. Here are a couple of pictures of Bijou taken in late June 2009. In the top photo, Bijou rests in a typical spot- the middle of the dining room table, much to my sister's chagrin. In the second photo you can see the "glittering" in Bijou's coat; typical for a Bengal due to the hollow tips of the hair shaft. Jeff and I absolutely adore our cats, so we get particularily emotional when any cat passes away. We are so going to miss you Bijou, but I can't help but think my mom was there to greet you just on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.

New Look and Picture Frame

So here it is, the picture frame that I painted earlier this year. I did three of them in total but gave two away as a "family gift" to my on-line Sorority family. I got two plain picture frame from Michaels and first painted them white with acrylic paint. After they dried, I first painted the border then the leaves, then the roses. Lastly, I added the purple lilacs. I have to be honest and say I did repaint over some of the roses, but I'm not exactly sure which frame I did that on. Could be this one, could be one I gave away.

This is my first attempt at an actual project involving the "one stroke" painting technique. I think the roses could use a little tightening up but overall, I'm ok with it [obviously, I gave two of them away]. Thankfully, my on-line Sorority family indulges my creative endevours. That's probably part of the reason we're family! Love you, Sisters!

What do you think of the new look? The old one was nice, but it was time for a change. I have limited templates to choose from and I did customize this layout ever so slightly. I think I like it, but it will take some getting use to.

In other mundane life challenges, we have one bathroom and a potty that's in a bad mood. This has been a few months in the making and I fear that we're going to have to have a replacement in the not-too-distant future. I'll be great when it's done but for now it's a bit of a pain. At least there's a new season of Real Housewives to watch! Ha ha. Always have to look on the bright side of life!

OMG, it's November.

Yeah, seriously, this isn't even funny. It's November and I haven't posted anything since April. I did hand-paint a picture frame with One-Stroke flowers and if I'm lucky (what am I saying? I'm always LUCKY!!) ahem, if I get a chance, I'll at least post a picture of that for all of you to see. But for now, it's time to put away the paint.

Pretty soon I'll be making Christmas cards (I hope). I guess my point is that my goals for this weekend are to clean up my craft area, post a pic of my picture frame and start hashing out ideas for Christmas cards!

See you in a bit!