Monet wanted me to send out her greetings and wishes for a wonderful and joyful new year!
From her humans (aka slaves), we also hope you have a beautiful 2023!
From the Cat: Happy New Year!
Tag Archives: cats
Rubber Stamping Fun in Seattle
Total card count: 83
23 recycled cards. Yes, I do recycle cards people give back to me! It’s like greeting and hanging out with old friends.
1 towel tag card (see cat wearing a chef’s hat). ANYTHING can be an inspiration and become a greeting card.
15 cards for my celebrant/funeral home working honey.
I was loving the bears! Happy birthday cards and bear hug cards. Two thumbs up.
Also. Loved my trucks. And the trees. And the time I spent with my stamping buddy (waves, Hi, Alyson!) and her helpful kitties. Scroll to the bottom to meet our feline assistants.
Played with some new stamps.
Revisited the bears. And mushrooms. And trees.
Tried a monochromatic card for my honey. Alyson had the perfect stamps for this idea. Shared resources doubles (or triples) the fun, creativity, and card count.
Thanks for our stamping sleepover, Alyson, Daisy, Honey, and Jubilee! I keep finding kitty fur, though that could also be from my kitty, Monet.
What is one hobby you enjoy? How long have you been doing it? Maybe it’s a hobby I might enjoy!
Top left: Daisy giving me the buff-off after snuggling all night!
Top middle and right: Jubilee giving me the eye AND demanding attention and cessation of stamping for cuddles.
Bottom: Honey minding her own business and having a cat nap. Until I took her picture.
Haiku Moment: puzzle time
cat must bathe upon
table top work-in-progress
pieces here and there
puzzle time by Angie Quantrell
feline model and puzzle assistant: Monet
Haiku Moment: distraction
mom feathers afluff
dad’s piercing cry, distracting
leads astray, away
distraction by Angie Quantrell
photos by Angie Quantrell, a pasture somewhere in the Yakima Valley
This scene took place yesterday after 2 killdeer parents escorted their 3 remaining offspring (they usually lay 4 eggs at a time) right to the RV. I heard loud piercing cries, looked out the side window and there they were, tiny stick-legged babies. Perfectly placed for capture by our magnificent hunter cat, Monet. EEK. Good thing for them, Monet was inside napping. Also, good thing for them, I went racing out to try and shoo them away.
Which was not as easy as one would expect! What with the babies racing in opposite directions (from me and each other) and the parents doing the same, attempting to distract me from the babies. 30 minutes. It took that long to figure out how to get them all close to the horse pasture next to us and hopefully far enough from monster cat to survive.
But along the way, such cuteness and fierce protection from the parents! One parent actually took a dive at me, though my best intentions were to save them. The giant person was threatening.
#lifeinthepasture
It’s a bit blurry (they move fast), but can you spot 3 babies?
Stamping with Friends: Friends and Hobbies Rock!
Finally, the weather cooperated enough (barely) to allow me to get over Snoqualmie Pass and hit up my college roomie and longtime friend for some stamping fun! The Pass (Cascade Mountains) played it a bit dodgy at first, as workers decided to close it for avalanche control at the very time I needed to be crossing over. And then the road between my city and the next one up north (which crosses three humps and is often awful) closed for semi-truck slide outs due to icy slick roads. EEK!
But we have “The Canyon” road. It’s lovely, slow going, windy, and beautiful. So off I went through The Canyon and hit a white out! Sheesh. I nearly cancelled the whole trip, but my honey said just keep going to see how it was in Ellensburg.
And whew. Roads were fine. I made it. We stamped. We had extra new kitty help (oh, my). I lost things (socks) and found my shoes downstairs when they used to be upstairs. Lots of loves, fur, and excitement. “Incoming!!!” (which means a cat has jumped in the middle of our resources-strewn work surface).
I was even able to connect with 3 other college-met longtime friends on two different nights for dinner and quick catch-ups. Waves at Ann, Roxan, and Renee!
59 cards later, success at using up certain stamping supplies, frustration at the clock moving so fast, and it was time for me to pack up my little white “truck” (actually a Mazda front-wheel drive car) with all my stuff and head back over The Pass to our little home in the pasture.
Yummy meals, lots of chatting, creative messes, staying in jammies until late, walks to the Village . . .
can’t wait for the next trip!
Haiku Moment: orange girl
October’s color
orange, furry, smooth, soft, warm,
purr, marmalade girl
orange girl by Angie Quantrell
Seattle furry friend, Daisy
Kitty Bioré Strips for Shedding Season
What do furry kitties and people noses have in common?
Both sometimes need de-furring (or de-zitting). I doubt that last is an actual word. But you know what I mean.
I’ve personally used the Bioré strips on multiple occasions, to some success. But after a week of so of poofs of kitty fur falling from Monet (our hunting monster girl cat) and floating around the RV, I was getting pretty tired of wearing gray itchy hair.
After one snuggle session, I accidentally wiped my fur-covered hands on my navy shorts. Oops. So off I went to get the lint strips, which quickly took care of the problem.
. . .
And then. Could it be that easy? Let’s try and find out. (With Monet, this is risky business, trying stuff like sticky lint strips on her body. I could be putting myself in the way of scratches, bites, or hisses. Such is the personality of Her Highness.)
. . .
But it worked! For a few times. And then she was done. But oh, the wonder and delight of cat-ching that much fur before it was displayed around the RV.
Go ahead. Try some kitty Bioré strips this shedding season. Let me know how it goes.
Rubber Stamping Requires Assistants
Many of you know I love stamping. For those who are not familiar with the term “stamping,” stamping = making rubber stamped cards using (but not limited to) rubber stamps, ink pads, decorative paper, fancy tapes, cardstock, and bits and bobs of fascinating leftover craft supplies.
One of my college roommates (waves at Alyson) and I have been getting together for decades. Yes, I guess I can say at least decades. We are a bit fuzzy on exactly when the rubber stamping bug caught us, but it has been around for a long time.
Spring break is usually one of the times we get together to stamp. We missed out on many of our usual stamping retreats last year (and we all know why). So this spring break was extra special because it had been sooooo long since we really stamped.
The assistants were unusually helpful this year.
So. My spring break was fun, entertaining, and productive. How about you? Did you do anything different this spring break? Do you have special assistants for those fun projects?
RV Living: Day (approximately) 1,594
We are just getting ready to tuck into bed at the close of our approximate 1,594th day of RV living. $1,594 dollars does not seem like much. 1,594 days seems like much much more.
This was not the plan. But. 2020. Plus housing market. Plus bidding wars. Plus zoning laws. Plus all sorts of things.
We are happy to have a tiny home on wheels, though an RV is not exactly the same thing. We have tiny and we have wheels. We feel blessed to have shelter near our loved ones.
We are still talking to each other, the cat keeps us free from pasture mice and voles, and the electronics and utilities work.
Just in case you are considering long-term RV life, think about this.
Storage is minimal. Even utilizing the boot (under bed/outside access storage at the front of the RV), we stack items on empty window casings, counters, and floors. And still I go the store more often and buy less.
The shower is tiny. I have no idea how my 6′ 1″ husband does it. I bang elbows and knees when I shower and I’m only 5′ 1″.
The fridge is tiny. The freezer even more so. Without an extra fridge/freezer out in the shop you can kiss Costco good-bye.
The stove is tiny. No more large turkeys. As long as I purchase a small turkey breast, cooking in the RV oven is doable. If I want a full turkey, I have to use my turkey roaster.
The bed is small. Queen? Methinks not a true queen. It gets a bit crowded with both of us and the cat, who loves sleeping crosswise between our pillows.
There. Is. No. Closet. Wrinkles are our wardrobe accessories.
Humidity is an issue in the winter. Perhaps we should purchase stock in the companies that produce dehumidifiers.
On the other hand . . .
We enjoy our cozy space. COZY.
It doesn’t take much to heat such a small space. Or cool it. Though you will catch me whining when the temps are in the 90-100s.
Low utility costs, at least during spring and fall.
I have become quite tricksy at RV cooking. We regularly utilize the RV oven, stove top, and outdoor BBQ grill, depending on the season, temperature, and meal plan.
We are used to short showers.
I’ve figured out the way to work around only one stove rack. I make a foil dam and cook multiple foods at the same time! Casseroles are another way to work around the one rack.
I don’t have to clean much. We live in a pasture, so there is always dust.
We have and use what we truly need. There is no space for extras. We are working on this for my creative and work space.
We spend plenty of time outside, since that’s where the fresh air and clean living space is found in abundance. Nature is pretty wonderful. Not mice and vole heads, thank you Monet, but alive sorts of nature like hawks and bunnies and finches.
My honey is fabulous at upkeep for our tenement on wheels. At this rate, it should be good for another decade. Please.
Here’s to day 1,595 . . .
Haiku Moment: twinning
double take – sisters!
who is who? swoosh here, stripe there
one box, twice the fun
twinning by Angie Quantrell
Mabel and Monet, 2017
(before a dog pack got Mabel)
Love, Laughter, and Life 