I can't help myself...

My life is so kittens right now. Chantel took the babies into her room tonight for a little playtime/photography session and I can't help myself, I just have to share some of the cute pictures she took.

If I were an animal, I am so a cat. Though I strive to be like a dog, faithful and loving.  I am independent and stubborn, I can be faithful and loving...when I want to be. I can take care of myself. I am like a cat. Though I wonder what kind of personalities these babies will have being raised by me, and not a feline Mama?

Good job to Chantel for her improving photography skills!

Please come back tomorrow to see my stenciled wall--I am loving it!

Off to feed the kittens....

How does your garden grow?

I haven't been paying as much attention to my garden as I would like. I have been so busy with the kittens and working on my first stenciled wall (post coming soon). Today I went out and took some pictures of what is going on in the gardens right now. It is fun to compare year to year what is blooming when. Here is how my garden is growing now!

One of my favorite things about having a garden is bringing flowers inside!

My Peonies are just starting to bloom. My Mom who lives about a mile away has a bunch of them blooming.

I figure any day I will be able to cut Peonies for the house!

This year the Dogwood is heavy with blossoms!

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My Eden rose that I recently got bare root is leafing up well.

The other day after a thunderstorm we had a beautiful rainbow.

The kittens are doing great! I find myself being so proud of them for the simply little things they do as they grow. Here is a picture from the other day...

At least someone in this house is getting sleep! :)

I am excited to finish my stenciling so I can show you!

Thanks for visiting!

I'm a winner!

I never win anything--but I can't say that anymore! I have been wanting to do some wall stenciling from The Cutting Edge but was waiting for it to fit into my budget.  A blogger friend, Kathy from Creative Home Expressions had a drawing for a $50 gift certificate. Of course I entered, but I never thought I would win! When Kathy posted the winner and I saw my name I had to read it 3 times before I was sure. I was so excited!

I knew this is the stencil I wanted, called Anna Damask. It is $49.99 and so I contacted the company and asked if I could pay the postage myself, since I spent the whole gift certificate on the stencil. I knew this stencil would be timeless and would go so well with my style. The stencil company said they would pay for the postage and also would send me some tools. It was like Christmas when I got the package and included with the stencil was this tool set.

 

 It has a level, brush and roller...a $20 value. So nice of them! I am really excited to do this. Wish me luck!

Then my luck just continued! I have been wanting this Premiere issue magazine.

Well, Sandi at The Cottage Muse had a drawing for a copy...and I won! I was just delighted. I am saving it to read when I have a real relaxing time when I can have a glass of wine and really enjoy. Thanks Sandi!

I feel like I should buy a lottery ticket or something:)

I can't do a post these days without a kitten photo!

"Uh oh..Did I have kittens?"

I hope everyone has a pleasant and relaxing Memorial weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

Decorating a bottle

I have been so busy with kittens that this weeks project is a small one...but I am really loving using water slide decals so I see many more projects like this in my future!

I found this bottle at Goodwill. It held some sort of liquor. I thought it was pretty and I liked the top.

First I soaked the labels off the bottle and put it thru the dishwasher.

I then followed directions as found on the Polka dot closet blog. to do a water slide decal. The first time I used them I had issues but now I'm an old pro.:) Make sure you follow her directions and don't skip anything. First I sprayed the decal with the Krylon spray that is recommended. I let that dry. Then I cut around the decal and let it soak in water until the backing seem to loosen.

I carefully put the decal in place..being careful not to touch the back of it and rub the ink off. I slowly pulled out the backing--sliding the paper off from underneath. Then I let it dry.

I smoothed it out to make sure there was no bubbles.. Then I added a decoration of ribbon, a crown pin I had that I got from Melissa Frances, and a little flower. So pretty.

I got some milk bath at Dollar Tree and ended up with this beautiful bottle for the bathroom! Janae commented that it would make a nice gift. I wish I could find white milk bath--because I think it would show the decal better.

I can just imagine all the projects I can do with these water slide decals! I think next I will do a serving tray:)

Well, I'll end this post with yet another kitten picture. they are kind of running my life right now.:)

Thanks for visiting!

Edited: A lot of people have asked so here is where you can buy the water slide decals

Being a Mama Kitty is exhausting!

I promise I am not going to change my blog name to "For the Love of Cats" but right now cats are kind of taking over my life. I am so tired...in a good way.  Here is the story...

For those of you that follow along my last post was about our new kitten we were getting from my ex-husbands family. Well, Karen (my ex-husbands wife) called me and told me the Mother cat was missing. Mother cats don't leave usually--she was a very protective Mother. I think, since they had her outside, a wild animal got her while she was thinking she was protecting her kittens. I feel so sad for that Mama kitty. I also feel sorry for Tiffany, because the Mama kitty was her pet. That is why I am not big on having animals outside..especially in an area with wild animals. Poor Mama Kitty. Anyway--after Karen called Janae and I drove out there as quick as we could. We searched for Mama Kitty and then went to the kittens. Though the Mama had been gone for about a day the kittens were doing well. They had to pee really bad. Poor little babies. They were nursing on our shirts, our hands, anything they could get ahold of. Karen said she did not have the time to be able to care for the kittens so I volunteered. I couldn't just let them die. I am a stay at home Mom, now I am a stay at home kitten mom too.

So my life right now is every 2 hours I feed and "pee" these 5 little kittens. Nobody has been able to find Mama Kitty and it has been a couple days.

I knew it would happen...Janae is keeping one of the kittens now that I am raising them. Before she wanted one but was too afraid that something would happen to them and now she feels secure they will be happy and healthy...being mothered by her Mother:) The one Janae picked is a black female with white feet. She named her LuLu.

LuLu likes to tell us her sad story!

Well, the bonding has been happening. I wake up every 2 hours and feed and care for these little ones. They are so sweet. They are starting to purr when they see me. The care of their little lives is so enriching to my life. I am a natural care giver..this is not the first time I have been a Mama Kitty! Well, since the first time Karen sent me pictures of them from her phone my favorite has been the male with white on its stomach, feet, and face. The kids really wanted Phoebe. I have never had a orange tabby and so that was fine with me. Well, today I talked to my husband I said, "I've been thinking I would like to keep one of the black and white ones too" Well, he grinned ear to ear. He hadn't seemed to interested in the kittens until this point. He said he wanted to keep 2 from the start.  He was just waiting for me to ask. He knew with the bottle feeding I would be falling in love soon. He thought that 2 are more fun. He figures these kittens will hopefully be with us until we are senior citizens (gulp) and we will get so much enjoyment from them. He gets a lot of pet store credit from selling his fish (he has a fish room and breeds numerous types of fish) and so he can get the food and things without taking from our budget. He agreed that the one I liked the best was also his favorite. Then he asked me to bring that one to him and he spent the afternoon cuddled up in his fishroom with our latest edition. Chantel danced around the house when we told her and Wyatt was equally excited (though he is not as dramatic as Chantel) After much family discussion we decided to name the little boy Fez (like from the 70's show). We really aren't obsessed with TV shows (okay, so maybe we are obsessed with "Friends"). Fez actually is a hat, like the kind the Shriners wear. I love the Shriners, they have done so much for Gage. But the real reason we named our little kitty Fez, is because it sounds cute with Phoebe.  :)

These little babies are going to have a very happy life!

Fez, Phoebe and LuLu

The whole experience has been really bonding to the whole family. We have all so enjoyed bonding with these babies. We are also spending a lot of time together taking care of them. We never go on vacations or anything like that...as a family we take care of our animals together. This is a fun time for us!

Again--I promise this won't become a cat blog. But you can imagine that a occasional kitten will be included in my photos!

Between feeding, than pulling weeds, then feeding..I managed to do a small project today! So tomorrow I will actually have a project post!

Thanks for visiting!

A new furbaby in our family

It has been so long since we have had a kitten. Since I showed and bred Silver Persians for years it has been weird that for about 10 years or so we have not had a kitten. Our 2 cats are very old. They one of them has much of a desire to do anything but sleep and eat. The thought of a playful little kitten delights me. Especially at the age that the kids are now. We are a family of animal lovers and a kitten/young cat will bring a lot of joy to our family. For years I haven't gotten another cat as to not upset the 2 old ones..but at this point I really don't think they care.:) I think they will totally ignore the little one.

I think this is what love at first sight looks like!

After thinking about getting a "real cat" (which is what my husband calls any cat that doesn't have a flat face) and talking about it with my husband, I got on Facebook. It seemed like fate. My Ex-husbands wife, Karen,  posted they had just had a surprise litter of kittens. Their daughter's cat had gotten pregnant before they had had a chance to spay her. I contacted Karen and she said she would be happy to give us one of the kittens. A few days later we went to see them.

They were so sweet! I loved the black and white ones (they would match my Daisy:)) but the kids agreed (which is unusual) they wanted the orange little female.

Wyatt said she looks like a hamster at this point! They were 10 days old when we visited and her eyes were just barely looking ready to open.

Janae brought Billie over so her sisters could see him. The Mama cat did not want Billie anywhere near her kittens! A sign of a good Mother:) We think Billie is so tiny..but he looked like a big boy next to the kitten!

The kids are counting the days on a chalkboard until she is 6 weeks old. Who knows if she will be ready that young or not. We will let Mama kitty decide. The Mama kitty is a outdoor cat so the kittens are outside. Which worries me a little. I hope all goes well. We will have her as an inside/outside cat. I don't want her wandering the neighborhood so I am hoping she will stay inside our fenced yard. I want to get her as young as possible to litter box train her.

The kids have had so much fun thinking about her coming to live with us. They look at toys and collars and all sorts of kitty stuff every time we are at a store. This will be one spoiled kitty. They have named her Phoebe (we as a family are huge fans of "Friends") and her theme song will be "smelly cat". Every cat has a theme song, right?! Well, we hope she isn't too smelly but that song just makes us smile.

We got this little stuffed kitty at a thrift store for 27 cents. We figure it can be her little friend when she moves in.

A few days after we saw them Phoebe opened her eyes. Karen was nice enough to send us pictures.

I texted with Karen tonight and they are a little over 2 weeks old and she said still healthy little babies. Getting cuter by the day. We can't wait to bring Phoebe home. I was thinking today, if she lives to be as old as Sassy is now, Chantel will be 30, and Wyatt and Gage will be 29. Wow. I don't even want to think about how old I will be when she is Sassy's age!

Welcome to our family Phoebe!