XMas with the kids

Playing with his new toys, and wearing his winter sweater.

Modeling her new necklace. Collar and catnip fish from Lizziebees

Oof.

I was hoping to have more here this year but have been very busy with the printing. And when I'm not at the day job or working for the weekend job, I'm trying to do nothing. (Nothing sometimes = a beer on the couch while zoning out to South Park. Need to get to knitting again, holidays are coming up.)

But alas.

Seriously, i've "worked" the past 2 weekends, and have 2 more coming up. Longing to sleep in, but with the temperatures the way they've been, even with the portable a/c unit, the mornings are the only good time to print. And there's been a wedding, personalized cards for a photographer in PA, cards for a friend in NYC, experiments, etc.

I do love it though. : )
And am very much looking forward to winter- sleeping in a little, enjoying a nice long morning, and then getting up to go print.

Anyhoo. What has been going on?

I turned XXIX and got sick with a horrible sinus infection a couple of days before so was totally miserable that week, and I even had 3 days off from work to celebrate ME and it was terrible. Then that week my girlie doctor told me she wants me to lose weight, to get back where I was 2 years ago. (If I didn't like her so much I'd call her a total bitch and be looking for a new dr. But a good dr. is hard to find, and she is pretty cool. And okay, fine, she's right. Still.)

But my bday wasn't a total dud: my brother and his Ashley came over to grill dinner and my mom baked a rhubarb crumble. It was a nice dinner but I was just wiped out.

 I have a thing for fun make-up palettes

and am trying out a dry-shampoo for those 

'i really don't want to wash my hair' days.

There's been a make-do area in my kitchen area: an old aquarium stand with a crappy shelf laying on top of it, serving as a little "this is where i keep my tea pot and sugars" area. And yeah, it was probably as bad as you're picturing. But looking on crateandbarrel.com they had this lovely tall and narrow wine shelf thing that would have been perfect... except it was over $500. Bah. And all the bakers racks I'd seen were too country, too 'vintage wine country,' or too traditional - so not us. But then I saw a simple  little white cabinet, glass doors, 2 drawers, would look great in that space... for under $150! Sold! And i got it 2 days later. Crazy fast $1 shipping. : )

Well, then I had to put it together.

 Fuuuddddgggge. NOTHING came pre-assembled.

1 cocktail (Pimms & Ginger), 10 minutes of music, and almost all of Gordon Ramsay on Master Chef, it was completed!

And it's perfect. Little (and I do mean little) drawers hold teas and sweeteners, and as it's mounted to the wall, nothing jiggles when the doors open or close. Only thing I need to change- add 1 more shelf (crap, and i was at Lowe's this morning too) so that I can hold ALL my tea things and not have anything stacked. But it looks nice, right? Surprisingly, even T likes it.

Since inviting has been rather busy this month (had to make project sheets to keep everything straight- it's been wonderful!) I've been taking any help I can get. Business Partner's been coming out again, and when photographing and posting in the afternoons when it's too hot to print, these two have been helpers:

The Emma's "helping" cut paper? Uh, okay. 

She also keeps an eye on the computer while I'm out  printing. 

I come in to wash my hands and see her either on my desk or on my chair, supervising. 

 Darcy "helping" me with etsy.com listings.

And see? Been busy, and this isn't even everything I've worked on this month! (But I'm really not complaining. I *challenge* you- let's see how many orders I can handle. Hit me with your best shot. And, uh, the holidays are coming up. Really, they'll be here before we know it! Shop early and you'll be less stressed later!)

Well, this is a little odd...

Happy Valentine's Day

As some of you know, we took Darcy to the vet for a small bump on his chin. Poor guy had a (non-cancerous) tumor that needed to be removed. He did really well, the people at the animal hospital love him, and he had to wear a silly collar (which he kept flipping back like a bib so we just left it like that) for a week, until his stitches were removed.
Here's Darcy trying to sit comfortably:


I have a slight eye glases addiction, thanks to the super affordable zennioptical.com. Had $ to use up from my flex spending account in December so I ordered SIX pairs. Here's one of the more fun pairs : ) It's lime green on the inside, black on the outside, and had lots of sparkles at the corners, pink sparkles making little flowers, too.


And for my dressing room, I made a very nifty purchase. A girl needs a place to sit while she puts on her stockings and shoes, no? Found a fabulously huge (40" across), tufted, round velvet ottoman (from overstock.com) for a *great* price (plus used BillMeLater so no payment is due until May- nice). Here's Darcy modeling it, the evening his stitches were removed:

And on the stationery business front, the AMOA (austin museum of art) downtown is holding a Hatch Show Print exhibit and the buyer, who is fabulous, contacted inviting about having cards for sale in the gift shop during the exhibit. I busted my butt last week and got 2 dozen of 5 designs printed and packaged, and they will be in the shop early this week! Show your support for a local letterpress printing shop and buy a few cards. I'd love to get an email saying "we sold out and need more!"

(The trains are actually printed in brown, not orange)

That's it for now! More later I'm sure. Since I've neglected this I have some catching up to do! : )

Happy Valentine's Day, whether you celebrate it or not. We pick up some chocolate covered strawberries from Amy's Ice Cream, a pizza from Homeslice, and watch a movie; nothing fancy. Almost like any other day ; )

Peacock Furniture

My favorite (tho not often frequented) bar closed down a month or so ago, and last week I got an email saying they were having a garage sale on Saturday. I really wanted a pair of chairs but those were sold as a lot to some other bar. I did manage to buy one of the side tables they had.

The cats approve. They take turns with it.

It definitely needs a paint job, but I can't paint it until we buy the sofa for the front room, and I can get an idea of what colors will be in there.

Kitties

So there's a house in my neighborhood that has like 6+ kittens (get your cats fixed, dude), outdoors (outdoor cats get hit by cars, dude), and they are so freakin' cute! Makes me think of this.

NATALIE PORTMAN & RASHIDA JONES Speak Out Again from Natalie Portman

I love kittens. And puppies.

Last day of Staycation

Friday was such a fun day. I relaxed in the morning, worked on a scarf and watched a Paul Newman movie with Emma in the early afternoon, and T got off from work early so we were able to check in at the Stephen F Austin that afternoon.

Because we don't have cable or anything like that, actual TV is a treat. Flipping channels I saw the intro of Thank You for Smoking, which is brilliant and hilarious (and why don't I own it?), so we watched that. Our wine and cheese tray came early on so we munched and sipped throughout the movie. After the movie we went to McCormick & Schmicks for happy hour (Pimms & lemonade/DosXX, blue crab rangoons / buffalo wings), then on to Cork & Co (Prosecco / Guinness). At Cork & Co we amused ourselves with the Table Topics.

Us at Cru trying to make a selection

From there we walked to Cru on Second Street (Champagne/ red wine, calamari), and it started raining when leaving so we hopped into Sullivan's (vodka tonic / Guinness), then up to Amsterdam Cafe (vodka tonic / beer). And finally, up Sixth Street for a couple slices of pizza to take back to the room.

In the morning we had hot breakfast in the cafe (cheese blintzes are wonderful; why do I never make them?) and then packed our things to head back to the crazy cats*. We had a fabulous night out.

M&S had the best happy hour food prices (next time will get the calamari there), Sullivans was the priciest place (no specials and their actual food was way out of my price range, but that's why I don't eat at steakhouses). Cru had nice service, and their calamari was delish but it was pricy. Cork & Co didn't have many food options, but they were friendly and it was more affordable. AC was empty as they were setting up for the band later, but it was very dark and laid back with loud rock music, like a bar should be. And pizza on 6th is *always* good.

*Seriously, they (especially The Emma) are crazy. They were running into the bedroom (she was chasing him) and because there's no carpet or rug for them to use as brakes, what do they do? Use the back wall as a springboard to go in the other direction. I'm not kidding! Totally ridiculous. Then Emma was whining/singing/humming to herself as she came out looking for the scarf, found it, bit an end, and does this to it. Later, while watching the movie with her, she was napping and at one point, was sleeping with her eyes open. Creepy.

The Sophie Garden

Sophie, the family cat died early Sunday morning. She was 16. As with Cat, who died when I was 12, a pinwheel marks her spot.

Mom bought some pentas and we planted those to attract butterflies. (The bricks are temporary. Will remove them in a few months.)

The other funeral attendant was the friendly white cat I call Pinky (from that 90s cartoon, Pinky & the Brain).

Darcy and Pinky engaged in a staring contest

Mom also bought me some zinnias. As I haven't created a garden yet (THANK YOU LOWES, jerks) they will live in a pot for a while.


For lunches this week (to keep T off frozen meals) I made some enchilladas- 1 dish/3 meals for him with a beef or pork that was leftover from his Conan game, and 1 dish/3 meals for me- veggie crumbles cooked with taco seasoning, put in the tortilla with cropped spinach and a little cheese:

Yes, I know corn tortillas are better, but T prefers flour and I didn't feel like dealing w/ 2 kinds.

This week is going to be crazy busy- have Bond Night tonight (grilling spicy shrimp and watching GoldenEye), tomorrow my dad's in town to help my brother move and I'm going to hopefully get him to take me to Garden Ridge for a patio sofa that's on sale, and then our summer/birthday party is Saturday and I'm sooooooo not prepared. Eeks.

We Moved!

Moving took place on Saturday, and because of Macy's, it was hectic, but all worked out. The pee-scented sofa, thank you EMMA, was to be exchanged today, but they couldn't do it today so moved it to Saturday. And because they can't pick up at one location and drop off at another, I was pretty much screwed, as they scheduled me for the same time as the movers. BUT because a friend with a truck was kind enough to drive over before the movers, the bad sofa made it to the house on time. Macy's arrived not 15 minutes before the movers did.

The Front Living Room, boxes galore!
Overwhelming, no?

So now we are completely moved in (except for the xmas tree and a few other small boxes and trash cans) and have a new clean smelling sofa, that does not squeak in the arm. Yay. But things look chaotic here.

The Dressing/Sitting Room. Starting hanging things up but still so many homeless items...

I took yesterday and today off from work to unpack and settle in. Got several boxes unpacked yesterday, hung some things on the wall, and had the plumber over for 4 hours. (There was a clog in the line to the sewer. Washing machine spit back up the water, draining the tub caused leakage around the toilet, and then the toilet stopped working. Not a fun weekend. But all is fixed now! yay!)

Went with the Target Shower Curtain

Today my goal is to get my study situated. I was looking at the wall above my "Craft Cart" to see where I might hang my pegboard and happily, the previous owners had left some drywall anchors in that wall, *exactly* where I wanted them, so that went up easily! Unpacked more boxes (what is with all the books! How do I have so many?!) and am feeling less overwhelmed and more accomplished, tho not in the Jane-ite way!

The "Before" Shot of the Crafting Area & Closet

It's about lunch time (leftover Indian) so I can recharge.
I also joined Apartment Therapy's Spring Cure, hoping to Cure as I unpack. I'm already behind.

P.S.

The cats lounging on the back of the sofa last night.

Emma never rests like that but I guess she feels at home now. Isn't Darcy cute, reaching out to Emma?

Pretty Girly Closet

Finished painting the bedroom closets this morning (finally!) and rather than painting the shelves purple or white, I remembered some silver and black flocked wrapping paper I bought after x-mas...

p.s. Emma modeling her pink scarf. She absolutely loves this thing.