LIFE: Photo An Hour November 2015

Oh hey everyone. I know I've been a little absent from the whole blogging thing. I don't think I've been near anything blog related in about two weeks and apparently I haven't shared anything here for the entirety of Noevember. As of right now, I'm not really sure of the future of my blog, I'm not really sure if I've reached the point of calling it a day or just drawing it right back and just writing whenever whatever. It's all a little up on the air.

But photo an hour was calling and well, it's hard to not join in. 

Saturday was actually the first proper snowfall of the winter 2015-2016 season with a predicated 8 or so inches of the white stuff, but I think we ended up getting about 5". It was also a day of trying to get on top of all our boring adult chores, think changing oil in the car, putting the window insulation up, hanging curtains and getting a start on Christmas shopping kinda day. Followed by cross stitching, hot dogs, whiskey and everything from Jessica Jones to the Mindy Project. 

LIFE: Photo an Hour March 2015

Another month, another attempt at me keeping up with the photo an hour link up with Louisa and Jane - so far, so good! Oddly enough this year they keep falling on Saturdays were our plans go out the window (we had a great stock fill up at an estate sale the weekend previous so there was so real need to hit any this weekend) but they kinda show how daily life for me really is. 

9 am // because we'd finished off all the yummy cinnamon & raisin and the banana bread muffins (thank you Thomas the Baker) it was back to the odd Reeses Puffs for breakfast. I have to admit, a sure sign of me getting older much be this eating of breakfast malarkey. And ya know, awesome Yorkshire slang coasters. 

10 am // you can always tell when life gets busy by my lack of cross stitching which basically made up last week. I'm totally slacking on the SAL piece i'm working on so it was high time I tried to catch up.

11 am // both cats were having one of their rolling around like beached whales sessions. Smokey (pictured - you can see Ed doing the same here a couple of days previous) loves paper bags - sitting on or in them, but nothing beats rolling around on a paper bag showing off her tummy because she wants tummy rubs. 

12 pm // because it's just awesome to put Transformers into badass poses. 

1 pm // after wrestling with the self service machine in the Post Office I met Joe at the garage (well technically he met me at the cross roads because I HATE HATE HATE crossing roads in America, especially when they are five lines by myself) where the car was getting an oil change and something else done. I got highly amused watching it go up and down while reading months old magazines in the waiting room. 

2 pm // trip to Meijer to finally get me some potting compost for starting off some of my seeds inside, some little pots and some veg seeds for when it gets warmer to sow (radishes, fancy coloured carrots and onions). 

3 pm // back home via Toys R Us and I finally got around to trying some local tea. Joseph Wesley is a Detroit company and one of their teas (no 2.) was inside of a Mitten Create box I won before Christmas. I'm not a big loose tea drinker, but this was pretty tasty.

4 pm // binge watching Armitage III while trying to get back to doing some more sewing but Ed has other ideas. This is a typical scene if i'm on the sofa stitching on an afternoon because she can see straight out into the front garden and see the girls on the feeders. That and she wants attention.

5 pm // know me and you'll know Taco Bell is a massive weakness of mine. The new Sriarcha Quesrito being a new favorite of mine. Tasty tasty in my tummy.

6 pm // trying to catch up on blog read and, while having a break from the anime, we watched a couple of episodes of the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt after hearing great things about it. It certainly lives up to the hype. 

7 pm // it took a while for the sun to come out today, but i'm loving not only hearing the birds chirping away in the morning, but the lovely lighter evenings. 

8 pm // enjoying a slice of banana bread (baked from a 1944 recipe) and how the rest of my evening was spent - enjoying some whiskey, watching more anime and working on some blog posts. 

So that was basically my Saturday, nothing really to write home about but just the little things that pretty much make up my life daily, which if you're interested you can find me sharing over on IG. How was your weekend?

LIFE: #PhotoAnHour - A Saturday in September

It's been months (April to be exact) since I got around to joining Jane and her #photoanhour adventure. Mainly because for all the other months, it takes me until about midday to remember about it and by then, well half the day is over. But after deciding we couldn't really be arsed to driving for an hour and half just to hit five estate sales that we fancied poking, it was a lazy Saturday at home. So while watching Saturday TV, I noticed it coming up on twitter, and I thought why the hell not?!

It actually turned out to be more productive that I had planned.

9 am - starting the day with some kitty purrs from the Eddy // 10 am - lucky charms for a late breakfast // 11 am - trip to home depot  (oh looky we haven't been here in a while) for a brand spanking new spade and pruning shears although this was taken in the "oh my look at those blades on the saws, I want one" aisle.

12 pm - watering the hanging basket which, at midday is part of my daily routine while picking up the mail. The hanging basket was actually one of the first things we brought, well I say we, Joe brought it for me as a thank you for basically moving our entire apartment when he busted up his ankle moving house. In the last couple of weeks it's found a new lease of life so it's looking super colourful at the moment. And speaking of ankles, his ankle now aches when it's going to rain, he's a walking barometer, who needs weather apps?! // 1 pm - having a brew, lunch and watching the diy channel which continued to be on for most of the day // 2 pm after hanging around the #socialbloggers twitter chat for a bit, I felt the need to get outside and test out the brand spanking new spade while checking out my dahlias which were brought and planted as bulbs out of their planting season but are now on the verge of flowering - double yey (the hollyhocks have never done anything mine - you win some you loose some).

3 pm - admiring the hard work - plenty of weeding got done, widened the border ready for spring bulb planting and transplanted some flowers around (you can kinda see how this area looked back when we moved in here in the last photo - it's the general same area - and well was covered with the same weeds) // 4 pm - coming in from gardening getting my Maximo Park fix // 5 pm - homemade burgers filled with cheese & onion made and cooked by Joe - very tasty

6 pm - teeny tiny came over for some snuggles // 7 pm - watching the world go by out the front window, it's still hard getting use to somewhere that's so quiet when we use to live next to a freeway // 8 pm - settling down to a night of relisting stuff on ebay, watching Modern Family and catching up on blogs 

How was your Saturday? 

LIFE: Packing and More Packing

There's currently a human life size game of tertis going on in what was our dining space, what with piles of boxes and bags for moving. I actually didn't think we had that much stuff, apparently most of it's been hiding in cupboards and closets and is only just coming to life. It's actually got to the point of having to break down the next three or so weeks down with tasks to have achieved to feel like i'm getting somewhere with the packing, it's slow work!

You start on a mission to fill up every inch of a box, you come up with random code letters for the final dumping ground, and you realise you never ever have enough boxes. Cats start to think your piling up all these boxes just so they have a new kitty tower. One kitty Ed, being perfectly happy just to make the large box at the bottom her new sleeping and sitting ground, the other - Smokey a nosey tiny kitty loving the challenge of being able to sleep up high. Stacking even more boxes doesn't deter her nosiness, she just loves to sleep even higher.

And don't get me started on packing up the vinyl. 800 plus vinyl aren't the easiest thing to move when you're pretty short on boxes. Inventive we must become methinks. The dinning room table has been taken apart, all my vintage compacts are safety piled away and the nails are being pulled out of the wall - although my embroidery hoop collection will be one of the last things to be taken down, I hate how stark the walls look without them.

It's not that we even particularly know when we're moving per say, although we do have a closing date of mid May. After the home inspection not going as well as we hoped, we came up with the list of the items (major issues) that needed fixing - all 14 of them (electrical, gutters, raising concrete, fixing the garage etc), the seller actually agreed - even though it took them over a week to think about it. There's still a bit of a way to go, the closing date is in a little under three weeks but there are still some hurdles for the house and paperwork to jump though, but maybe, just maybe everything is working out!

If you have any packing tips - I'm all ears!

LIFE: Spying Kitties and Tweeting Birds

With seasonal berries appearing on the bush under our living room window, birds - sparrows in particular have taken to having a nibble or two off there. Thing is, it's perfect viewing for our two kitties. I'm not sure who gets tormented the most - the birds being spied on by the cats, or the cats that wish they could get outside to chase them!

6 months in ...

So today marks the date of our six months anniversary of married life [I know times flown right?!]. Now we wouldn't be normally soppy enough to mark this if it wasn't a marriage anniversary so fear not we're not loosing the plot. But your six month anniversary doesn't come around every day and weirdly enough my green card popped in the post box yesterday, so we'll probably use them both as an excuse to order sushi! December the 8th was a crazy day with snow showers, really hurting my knee walking into the coffee table just before leaving but sharing it with my best friend was amazing. I thought I'd use today as an excuse to show you some more photographs of our little family - well our kitties.

After adopting Smokey in the February of this year she's truly at home with us now and has many, many nicknames from Tiny, Smokes, Princess to Ickle Bickle. She is just truly adorable yet still very skitty. Home for Smokey is sleeping on any of the dinning room chairs to watching the birds on the windowsill. True to her Russian Blue lineage she's playful [man she'll play for hours with the laser pen if you'd let her] chases herself around the apartment in circles and apparently loves a cupcake. When she's feeling brave enough she can be super affectionate and at the hint of a treat, this timid little kitty has one mighty meow.

Ed is still Ed - still on her diet and possibly has less nicknames then Smokes [although we do call her Edmund, Edward, Edwina - you get the idea]. Although the last image of her above is in a lol catz kind of notion that is the voice we give to Ed is some what Cartman like in pitch [yes we impersonate our cats]. Ed is actually very much of the former Soviet Union notion and loves nothing more then to rant about anything being socialist propaganda [all views expressed are her own]. 

She also probably wouldn't want me sharing these images of her and Smokes curled up sleeping next to each other - that would suggest she had a soft side!

Adorable much?!

LIFE: Happy Looks Good On You

After the adventure of spending 13 hours in ER with the husband last week, there's times when you really remember what's important to you and makes you happy. Rather then turning this into a super mushy post about love, here's some other goodies that have been making me happy over the past week or two alongside the husband. Thankfully the boy is fine now and thank you for all your kind messages.

Smokey - she's just growing so much into her personality, she's little but she's feisty but you have to be around Ed. She has such a tiny meow and loves to sleep on her cardboard claw scratcher. Other kitty news is that while taking Ed to the vets for conjunctivitis, she's also lost 8lb and has now reached her target weight, although the vet wants to keep her on the diet. She's now just a slightly overweight 16lb cat. She just declares she's big boned and who's to tell her otherwise?!

Char nicely sent me a goodie box filled with my favourite crisps - Quavers! After eating them all the time with every sarnie possible going five months without their cheesiness made me crave them no end! Of all English things, it's Quavers I miss the most and these will keep me going - I'm rationing myself with them.

Date nights with the boy have been fun too, after burgers at Red Robin we went bowling [winning a game each] and played on the arcades on which I won us over 200 tokens and grabbed us a Detroit Tigers inflatable baseball. Perfect for annoying each other with.

Baking with me can be really hit and miss, often I bake way off the mark. While I often find the easiest things the hardest to bake, I've taken making bread like a duck to water. After the success of the naan bread I thought I'd try my hand at more normal breads, and what a success they were - although a little salty. I even tried baking some milk scones and even they turned out well - even better with a load of jam coating the top! I'm now saving all the glass jars I come across for making some jam.

All this and investigating into growing our eBay into selling compacts - which we already do with Transformer Toys. I think it's time I grow from being a collector but also into selling and get my name out in the field a little. Talking of compacts, I have a HUGE backlog of compact posts and really not sure about what to do with them all - SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!! Maybe it's time to create their own little web page although the idea of creating another blog from scratch scares me. This girl could do with your ideas about what to do with them!

 It's exciting times.

LIFE: Best Friends

Well maybe not proper best friends if Ed gets her way. We've had Smokey over a month now and it's been a joy having that additional kitten in our lives even with hissing, the hiding under the bed and that trip to the vets. I thought I'd update you all and share you some more of my photos of our little dude.

Let me start with the vets trip, those of you who follow me on twitter will know about the issue of Smokey's gender. We were always told that Smokey was male and neutered - a factor noted by the vets at the rescue center. Why would we think any different? When getting Smokey registered with our vets - the said vet is convinced Smokey isn't a he, but she. Ideally we were looking for a male to balance it out with Ed [who although the male name is female] and because of the old wife's tale you shouldn't have two female cats together. Emails were sent back and forth with the pet rescue people who were shocked and were certain in their vets appraisal. A week later Smokey was defiantly in heat. When your used to a cat being shy, quiet and keeping herself in one place - the transformation that occurs when they are in heat is incredible. So today Smokey's gone to the vet's to finally get spayed - when we rang the vets they say on their records Smokey is marked as female - so we have no idea what's going on or why the rescue people would declare she, was a he.

That aside Smokey and Ed get on well to a point. Ed is a bit of a scaredy cat, little things scare her and with Smokey being a year old she's playful and wants to be play with Ed. She'll chase Ed's tail, run after her and do what I find rather cute - follow her everywhere - Ed use to hiss a lot about it, but she really has settled down a lot in the past week or two. Then you get super cute moments of Smokey licking Ed's head [and Ed letting her] they touch noses and they'll sit by each other like in the first photograph, Smokey's follows Ed's call when it's food time too so they do have their cute moments and Ed's started licking Smokey back - we're finally getting somewhere!

Smokey at the start was very timid - often hiding under our bed, and introducing the two wasn't easy. We first introduced them for an hour or so at any one time, then returning Smokey into what's known as the "safe" room which Ed couldn't get into. The more they saw each other the better they got on, but there was a lot of hissing to start with. Now they both have the freedom to roam everywhere, Smokey use to sleep in our bedroom but now she's found some snug places to sleep around the apartment she's happy to stay outside of our room. 

If your thinking of rescuing any animal I really would urge you to do so. It's especially daunting when you already have a pet, and I was worried how Ed would take it. But as long as you aid yourself and your original animal in the process and make it as stress free for them, they can and will welcome a new companion in time. And time really is key.

LIFE: Ed Meets Smokey

Like an overly proud mother I feel the need to post and document all Smokey's progress. In this instance Smokey and Ed getting to know each other yesterday before Ed went back to hissing. I should state that Ed is the true owner of our apartment. I currently have Ed asleep next to me and Smokey asleep on a dinning chair, if only she knew close Smokey was, she'd be awake in milliseconds.

LIFE: Close With Smokey

Smokey let me grab these photographs of him while he was in one of his favorite places - his bed. Due to all the loving you showed us and this little guy when I introduced him last week I thought I would keep you updated on him adventures. As soon as we turned off the lights the first night, he crawled from under our bed and onto the window still [his second favorite home] this is something he repeats every night once the lights go out. After spending a couple of hours with him on Friday he grew braver, crawling upon the bed, snuggling with us. He is a huge ball of love, craves attention, loves his tummy tickled and being held. Reading up about Russian Blue as a cat breed they are said to be very intelligent, playful and empathic to their human companions all of which are true with this little dude. 

The big step was the introduction of Ed. Sunday was the first attempt we've been doing it every day for a couple of hours, each time a little longer - today I'm planning on letting them be together for most of the day. While we haven't had any fights, Ed hisses when Smokey gets too close and she watches him like a hawk. Smokey is curious and goes off wandering around the apartment then remembers Ed and freezes. Other times they get face to face and Ed doesn't hiss. So I can't tell if we're getting anywhere or not. This was never going to be easy and I wonder how long it will take before Ed gets comfy [if at all] with Smokey. I feel like the over protective mother because I feel for Smokey because I know it takes a lot for him to come out of the bedroom and I know he just wants to play and be friendly. Ah!

A weekend in February

Seeing I haven't been posting on the weekend and spending time with my boy, I thought i'd start doing weekend summary like so many people do. So our weekend was all about;

♥ Making these utterly delicious chewy chocolate chip cookies which I nearly ate all by myself. Ooops!
♥ Joe getting mail from the UK Social Workers Council regarding their changes to overseas applicants. Previously he couldn't get registered but now he would be approved only a little over a year too late. The future country for settling in is back up for grabs.

♥ Getting a gorgeous bath bar present in the mail from Em 

♥ Going for 9PM cookie dough milkshakes at the drive thru, dressed in pjs whilst snowing. It being so cold that it took several attempts to be able to get the drivers window down to order.
♥  Loving the crunching snow from walking on fresh, thick snow.
♥ Introducing Ed to Smokey, Ed hissing a little and then spending the rest of the meeting under the sofa. Little steps. Smokey on the other hand is a huge bundle of love.
♥ Buying Ed a Kong toy which you fill with treats or biscuits which they paw it in certain directions to get the food out. It's highly entertaining to watch.
♥ Spending Sunday sewing some of my sampler I'm making to celebrate our wedding, all designed by myself. Sometimes harder then it looks.
♥ Being spoilt using Lush massage bars to help with the itch and my skin after it's rash.
♥ Buying nail varnishes on clearance because it would be a crime to leave the OPI and Relvon varnishes there right?!

♥ Constantly poking HelloCotton for new blogs to read - that website is so good and so addictive!

What were the hits from your weekend?

LIE: Say hello to Smokey

After we couldn't adopt Big Red we went to the second kitty that captured our heart, his name; Smokey. As with all pets that end up in rescue shelters they all have a history and Smokey's is an interesting tale to tell. He was apparently found hanging around a burnt out apartment [hence his name from the smell of smoke], whether it was his former home or he just happened to be in the area no one knows but he was taken in. He's a cute gorgeous little dude, Russian blue in colour and ever so tiny and shy. Every time we saw him his little pen he was always sleeping, he wraps himself up so tight. He really is adorable.

Because we already have a cat called Ed, they are currently being separated, so Smokey is living in our bedroom until they both get use to the idea of each others smells and hearing each one another. As soon as we released him from the cat carrier he ran under the bed and has stayed there pretty much ever since. While we were asleep he ventured out, had a play around the bedroom, attacking newspaper and sat on the window still. We know he's coming out to eat, drink and use the litter tray so we know he's looking after himself, we just can't rush it with this little man. I'm just making sure I pop in every couple of hours to talk to him so he gets use to us although I got super lucky managing to grab these couple of snaps while getting dressed and he ventured back to the window. He even let me stroke him, so we are getting there.

So our weekend will be spent looking after him and chilling out, maybe we'll introduce Ed and Smokey but I don't think that is something we should rush.