My Drunk Cat with Clean Teeth

Gypsy is kind of a strange cat. I’ve had cats my whole life so I know, I know—all cats are strange.  But I’ve never had a cat before that is so absolutely determined to be up in high places (on people’s shoulders, on top of doors, the highest most wobbly shelf on the cat tree, etc.) Combine that with the fact that I’ve also never known a clumsier cat. Hilarity is inevitable. When I lived at an apartment that had stairs going up the second you walked in the door, I was always pounced on from the railing halfway up the stairs when I came home from work…and she would stay perched there for as long as I would let her, no matter what I was doing. She has fallen asleep and started snoring on my shoulders. She also has trouble jumping onto things that are only a couple of feet tall..its like she doesn’t judge the distance before she jumps. Or she has no depth perception…its hard to tell. She is a strange cat.

Strange cat, Gypsy developed some halitosis recently, so I took her to the vet  to see if it’s her teeth or what. Thankfully it was her teeth (halitosis can be a sign of kidney or liver failure). So she got her teeth cleaned Monday. They said she was good to go home when I got off work at 5. 

I have never gotten a cat back from the vet that was still this drunk from the anesthesia!

First, my already uncoordinated cat was seriously wobbly, but at the same time extremely restless. She would NOT just lay still.

Me: Gypsy, here, stay in your nice warm bed (which is on the counter in my bathroom)

Gypsy: whaaaaaatttts happening?? I don’t like this feeeelinnngg

*stands up and sways back and forth*

Me: Gypsy, lay down

Gypsy: I think I’ll go for a walk

*falls off counter*

*tries to jump onto the toilet and ends dangling by front paws*

*makes flying leap for counter and misses by a mile*

I locked her in her kitty carrier while I went and ate dinner so she wouldn’t get herself hurt.

Then the next morning her restlessness was gone. Instead she was a limp noodle who acted half asleep even though her eyes were open. I set her down in the hallway to see if she could walk. She slouch-ran to the bathroom and fell over upon rounding the corner. *sigh*

I was a little worried, but she was able to jump up onto the counter just fine (or at least as well as she normally can) and seemed to just want to sleep on her bed so I decided it was safe to leave her there and go to work. She was wide awake and able to walk normally by the time I got home around 5:30…I guess she just needed to sleep it off…

Last night she even had a wrestling match with her kickaroo and won so I guess she’s back to 100%

Nursery Tree

This is what I painted over the Christmas/New Year holiday. This is my youngest niece's room. Her older sister already has some butterflies that match her quilt and her name on her wall. This niece has a quilt with dots on it, and the leaves on the tree match the dots. Probably would have been a better picture if I had draped her quilt over the side of her crib--oh well. Mural painting is really fun--the only problem is that since it's someone else's house it's usually a lot harder to wake up at 5:00 in the morning and get some painting in while you're still in your pj's before work. (Fortunately this was the room I was sleeping in while I stayed at their house for a few days.) Anyway, this makes me want to paint a tree in my own room. I plan on organizing my art studio room this week--maybe I'll paint one in there!

Every Day Matters #326

Draw something you can keep in your pocket

Trail Ride

Today was an excellent day for a ride.

This is cookie (the cat) and Stormy (my horse). This is stormy's first time wearing saddlebags...and the cat didn't really go a long for the ride. This cat is obnoxious (to say the least)--always wanting constant attention, so he doesn't mind getting stuck weird places if it means he's getting petted more frequently. I often end up setting him on top of stormy while i'm brushing her to keep him from being underfoot/climbing my leg to get to my hand. He is a sweet cat, just sweet in a very pushy sort of way.

Bernese Siblings

In the past I have always had trouble keeping the Bernese Mountain Dog and the Swiss Mountain Dog straight. I knew one had long fur and the other had short, but its just one of those weird things I had trouble remembering (like when I worked with both a Marsha and a Martha...sorry you two for all the times I probably called you be the wrong name first before getting it right.)

Anyway, after this portrait I'll be able to remember which one is the Bernese! It takes a lot longer to do long fur (generally) but it really is fun to paint. I hope the person that owns these two Berners likes it.

An Attempt to start blogging again

So I went to the Deluxe Craft Bazaar last month and had a blast again. I sold a lot more than last year, but then I learned a lot since the year before. Lesson #1: Work harder on the booth

Here's my booth at my first ever Craft fair (not Deluxe):

I'm pretty proud of the amount of improvement. But it was a ton of work. And I couldn't have done it without help from my best friend, my boyfriend and my mom.

Lesson #2

Have some cheaper items. I did sell three paintings, but one was very small and therefore rather cheap and one was to my mother so that doesn't really count.

I sold Pillow animals and necklaces and postcards (not pictured):

These Pug Pillows sold out! and fast! That was a nice surprise. The necklaces didn't sell that well for some reason. Probably because there's already a lot of jewelry at the fair.

Lesson #3: Accept credit cards!!

I also dressed up more and worked really hard at greeting every person that came near my booth. But I attribute my rise in sales to those main 3 lessons.

Prickly Lettuce

Lately I've been trying to make the outside of our house look more...homey/less embarrassing. When we moved in (2 years ago this May) the front lawn looked nice (despite the dead tree in the middle of it) and there were two pretty flower beds. Since then we've planted a Red bud, taken out the dead tree, and planted a maple (that grew up in our untended flowerbed) However, our lawn now has a strict more weeds than grass policy, and our flowerbeds have turned into bare dirt and weeds with only a few hardy plants left that survived our negligence. After several days of weed-pulling and the addition of new mulch one of our flowerbeds now looks like this:

I'm pretty proud of it.

Now, I have to say, I'm pretty good at pulling weeds (and baby trees) and getting the taproot out and all...but one weed I can't seem to ever pull out is this one:

My roommate says she can pull them out no-problem, so I left them for her ;) I don't know how she does it though, as every time i try to, their prickly hollow stem breaks right off and all this nasty milky-white juice drips out. Of course, I had to know what on earth this weed was, so I finally googled it. I'm 99% sure now that it's a plant called "prickly lettuce" Identified not just by it's milky-hollow stem (apparently lots of plants have that) but by these spines on the underside of it's leaves (another reason these are a pain to try and pull.):

Now here's the interesting part. First of all the leaves are edible (I'm not gonna try them) and that milky stuff I always avoided because I assumed it would irritate my skin is actually good for sunburns. Oh ya, and it's a narcotic drug.
From this site: "The dreamy effects are a little bit similar to opium, but milder. Wild lettuce can help reduce the feeling of restlessness, excitability and insomnia."

Another site is filled with more fascinating stuff. "...it is still used for making a lotion for the skin useful in sunburn and roughness. The Ancients held the lettuce in high esteem for its cooling and refreshing properties. The Emperor Augustus attributed his recovery from a dangerous illness to it; built an altar to it, and erected a statue in its honour. "

Good to know. I still want it out of my flowerbed.