Handmade, Homemade

Christmas has arrived, and I have managed to not purchase a single gift. This is more of a triumph and less of a social gaffe when everyone opens presents and had warm wool socks, mittens, and afghans that, in the making, I have worn my fingers, if not to the bone than certainly to the point of bleeding.
Then again, I spent easily as much on yarn for gifts than I would have on the gifts themselves, so perhaps not so much of the savings.

Class Act

I signed up for winter classes today. Only two will actually count towards my degree, but the third, Drawing II is from a really excellent teacher and I am excited to work with her. Hopefully it will also mean more time with Little Bunny, who is rapidly becoming one of my best friends. Between Little Bunny and Little Kitten, I have an awesome close friend-group and hopefully will be able to best my loneliness issue.

On a craftier note, I have found a source of quality yarn down here! There is a crafting superstore called Hobby Lobby down the street, and it carries a soft, fluffy yarn made of BAMBOO. I KID YOU NOT. It is the softest yarn I have EVER felt, and I am knitting Mom some socks of it right now.

Enunciation is Key

Little Hawk and I are down in Texas, spending the Christmas break with his parents, Mama Bear and Papa Bear. He's spending it catching up with his family and stuffing his face with Bush's Chicken. I'm spending it knitting socks and avoiding Texan lessons. Yep, Papa Bear is determined to teach me how to "Shet up end tawk raht."
Yeah. No.
He's actually recovering from a few stents placed in his heart today, which is how I got internet for a brief time. Next time I get a chance, I may even be able to play WOW.

Random Acts of Crafting

My friends Little Bunny, Little Kitten and I have started a sort of crafting social every other Saturday at a local coffee shop. Right now I have the teacher's hat on, because they wanted to learn/brush up on their knitting. After we finish knitting and crocheting, I am sure someone else will teach a new technique, or we will just work on whatever projects we have on hand.
I want to call our club Stitch and Bitch, after the knitting book, but I think we will have to vote on that.

Random conversation I had last week:
Me: I like the cover on your zine.
Little Bunny: Thanks! I based it on the commercial version of the ideal woman.
Me. Her face looks like a vagina.
Little Bunny: I worked so hard on it! I love it when you recognize my vagina.

Noms for Money

I bake bread weekly for Little Hawk and myself, and tend to give extra loaves away to my friends frequently. They've been telling me for months that I should sell my bread, but I hadn't given it much thought-that is, not until Little Hawk started having kidney problems and we started looking at $200 bucks a month extra in doctor's copays alone.
We talked about me selling baked goods, and he approved. So now I'm offering my home-baked bread at four bucks a loaf, in several flavors.
Bread types: White, wheat.
Add-ins:
Wheat germ
Sunflower seeds
cinnamon swirl with/without rasins
Garlic
And my homegrown savory herbs: basil, sage, chives, rosemary, thyme and red chilis

Cat Litter

So, as if having florescent pink and blonde hair, and wearing my bunny slippers to the grocery store wasn't bad enough, I am in the running to be the crazy cat lady on our block.
Yep, Little Hawk and I have three cats. We started out with two, then had to replace poor old Moggett after he had a heart attack, then took in a homeless kitten a month ago. Three cats in a two-bedroom house can be a little crazy, but it is pretty awesome to sit and read in bed with a pot of hot tea and three warm cats draped over your lap and feet.
Robbie, Little Hawk's cat, is a medium-sized, short-haired silver tabby with bug-eyes and a nervous disposition. He is easily terrified, and makes a cute huffing noise when annoyed. Bartholomew, or Mew-mew, is a HUGE short-haired black and brown tabby. He loves everyone, has a runny nose, and will meow back if you meow at him. Coraline is my kitten. She is a tortoiseshell with long, fluffy fur, grey and orange spots and a Dutch face ( her face is solid grey with a broad white blaze on her nose). Coraline follows me around everywhere, with a tiny rusty meow like a chain smoker.
Cats, even when you don't have three, are a daily adventure, We buy them expensive climbing trees and hideaways, and they prefer to hide under a laundry basket. We buy them fancy squeaky mice stuffed with organic catnip, and they would rather play with an empty Snickers wrapper. We get them fluffy, snuggly cat beds, and they sleep on my pillow and Little Hawk's wheelchair. We put together a special drinking fountain, but they only want to drink out of the tub drain and the toilet.
Our most frustrating issue with the cats, however, is finding the perfect litter. Now, my perfect litter is one I never have to change again, since this little bird is really a lazy bird. Little Hawk reminds me frequently that if I just scooped it every day, we would have fewer smell problems. Well, if he wants it scooped every day, he can scoop it.
Our problem, really, is finding a litter that doesn't track, doesn't cause much dust, (because of Little Hawk's asthma) is relatively eco-friendly, and has a reasonable smell control. That means clay-based litters are toast. First we tried a pelleted paper litter called Everyday News. It absorbed pretty well, but doesn't have any kind of smell control, so the house reeked of cat pee. We mixed it with silica-based crystal litter, and that worked pretty well. It still tracked a lot, and cleaning was kinda dusty. Then we saw pelleted wood litter called Feline Pine, and decided to try it.
Unmitigated Disaster.
Feline Pine smelled ok and did a decent job of absorbing, but the pellets, when wet, dissolved onto wet sawdust. Pee-soaked wet sawdust that got tracked EVERYWHERE. We went back to Petco and bought more paper. They had a new brand called Fresh News, that has baking soda in it. So right now, Fresh News mixed with Petco-brand crystal litter in a 50-50 ratio does a decent job.
Now, if only we could get the cats to bury it when they poop......

                                 

On Your Mark, a music video by Miyazaki