Feline Waking Techniques by Sookie

My human seems to be taking an unwarranted sabbatical from blogging.  What's her problem, anyway?  She doesn't suffer the pressure I endure daily to dominate this household.
Breakfast is to be served at precisely 6:00 AM and no later.  This is how it was the first day I arrived and now forever shall be.  Weekends? No matter.  I don't need an alarm clock to tell me when it's six AM.   It's a cat thing.  A talent.  We can make the most un-necessary VERY necessary.  It's what we do.
Weekends, though, bear a challenge in waking my humans for breakfast.  I think I have it down to a science.  Finally!  And I've only been here 7 weeks!

1.  Begin with the pitiful meow.  Slow, dragging, and pathetic.  Make sure the human hears you.  It is best to be within inches of the pinna of the ear.  I find this to be the simplest of endeavors, and therefore a great place to start.
2. Stagger pitiful meowing with purring.  The purr should be manifested in full body mode.  "Purr like an earthquake" as my human calls it.
3. Now is where it gets tricky.  With meowing and purring in full motion, begin with the rubbing action, or more precisely, head butting. Head butt with force into the human and any angle possible.  These three techniques combined has a 98% success rate in arousing the human from deep sleep and a 65% return rub (although fleeting) from the human and a "Hi Sook"
4. Aha!  The human has been properly roused from the deepest of sleep and it is time to really throw in the magic.
5.  Continue alternating purring with meowing but add in walking the length of your human's body. Placement of paw is critical in this step.  Each step should be carefully inserted where it will cause the most annoyance.  For example, between the ribs, the ever sensitive belly button, or an eye socket.
6. For an added boost try a paw in the human's mouth with litter trapped in between your toes as a sure fire way to get the human's attention.
7. Strategically stand in front of your human's face so that your anus is 3 inches from their nose.
8. Utilize your razor sharp kitten teeth to attack the human's toes.
9. Eat their hair.  It's extremely important to mix it up, try new things, and above all BE PERSISTENT!!
10. Be so adorably cute when you finally succeed that your human couldn't possibly be mad.

With success you get breakfast, get love, and the rest of the day to rest up for tomorrow.

Suckers.

Babycake

Absenteeism blogging is my thing lately.  Sorry.  My life's recent turn of events have left me too overwhelmed and unmotivated to blog.  I am still seeking my MoJo.  Thanks for your patience.  In the meantime, here's a recent cake I made for a physician I work with.  We threw her a surprise baby shower over lunch.  It was a great change from all the birthday stuff.  AND it was my first baby shower cake.

And it tasted as good as it looks.  Or better.  I love cake.

Vintage made new

Five years ago, I went to my first Holy Hill Arts and Crafts Fair.  One of the booths had a man from Indiana who made birdhouse decorations out of vintage Victorian salvage.  They were quite pricey and therefore I was not prepared to buy one.  I vowed I would return the next year and purchase one.  Well, life  happens and I had never been able to return to the fair because I always worked weekends.  I never forgot them, in fact, I've lusted after them ever since then.  

This is my year.  I went armed with plenty of cash and conquered.  I had chosen from his dozens of wares within seconds.  

The pictures don't quite do it justice.  It really is stunning.  The eaves are comprised of crown moulding...

A brass gas spigot adorns the top.  A hose would be attached to the front and the gas would be turned on and off with the the circle shaped 'key'.

An intricately designed copper doorknob plate serves as a backboard for the vintage glass doorknob.  Oh  how the sunlight dances off this feature!

The boards of the house are retired paneled doors given a fresh coat of paint which is then distressed to add to the vintage appeal....  Perhaps my second favorite feature is the appropriately-used pressed tin roof.  I would buy a Victorian house just to have one of these...

The last embellishment is a genuine drill bit topped off with a door stopper.

The completed house is encircled with a vine of fine cranberry and ivory faux berries.

I don't  have much for decorations in my home because I despise knicknacks and I firmly believe that less is more.  This decoration is by far my most favorite decoration in the house and probably will be forever.  My lust is satisfied.  For today.  :)

Junk Art

Today I went to the Mount Everest of art and craft fairs with my sisters and mom.  I picked up this dandy little Road Runner.  It made me feel nostalgic for that spry Road Runner of my youth.  The one whose bird brain could outsmart Wiley Coyote every time.
Even more fantastic is that is made entirely of junk.  Some creative soul rummaged through garbage, estate sales, and the like to bring home these gadgets and re-invent them.  I think I want to marry this person.  An artist, scavenger, and recycler.  The man of my dreams.  Well.  The man of my dreams today anyway.  I had a hard time picking out just one to take home.

I thought of my Pops when I saw this one.  It's head is a golf club as well as the tail made of handgrips.  A lonely basket has found new life as the body housing 2 golf balls.

My Road Runner has camp mug face, washers for eyes, and a wire basket feather plume.

The body is a an old cobalt pie pan with scrap metal tail.

And the feet are some kind of re-bar type cable.

C took the liberty of generously filling the pan for me.

Our backyard birds get the finest hand mixed cracked corn, black oil sunflower seed, and sleek nyjer.  They offer us song and beauty all year round.  Every day, we watch their goings on from our dining table seated just on the other side of our large windows.

A Lesson in Neurodiversity- Your Brain is A Rainforest

I came across this from a Facebook friend (and former classmate).  I could not have expressed it better myself and therefore I am sharing it.

http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/70/Your-brain-is-a-rain-forest/all

A Tender Moment

Last night, M and I snuggled in bed after his bath to watch Marley and Me.  C was already asleep.  I wasn't sure that I'd make it through the whole movie.  I was sure that I'd turn it off before the end came.  M rarely watches anything from beginning to end.  Especially if it is not animated.  So I was pretty amazed when he sat through the whole movie.
Somewhere in the middle I got up to check on C, make the sure the house was locked up tight, and brush my teeth.  When I emerged from the bathroom, M was curled up in the bed, rocked with huge sobs, the fat tears just rolling down his cherub cheeks.
I crawled in next to him and he rolled over to me and clasped onto me so tight.  Tighter than any other hug I've ever gotten from him.  He buried his face in my neck.  It took a good few minutes for him to answer my question, "What's wrong, baby?"
When his sobs finally took leave long enough for him to answer, he gazed up at me and said, "Mommy, I just miss Ripley so much!" and the sobbing returned.
I was gone.
I was right there with him, clinging onto him, sobbing in grief over the loss of our pet.  It's almost been a month since our loss, and I don't think I've cried that hard since the first week.  We spent the next 5 minutes cuddling and crying together.  I wiped his tears away and stroked his hair until he fell asleep.

I wasn't just mourning our pet.  I was ecstatic with the boy who was sobbing with me.  Like all Autistics, M struggles with emotions.  He can't read the emotions of others very well.  He cannot put his emotions into words.  Whatever he is feeling inside challenges him daily.  Autistic tantrums are usually the result of the inability to filter and deal with the world and the emotions it evokes.

But for him to spontaneously recognize his emotion, label it, and deal with it appropriately is the true miracle.  And I can't think of a harder emotion to deal with than grief.  Neurotypical people of all ages struggle with it, including myself.

This is my boy, M.  His Autism tries to hide him from me but I see him breaking through more and more each day.

Some people may think I am exaggerating this small feat.  I felt like time stood still in that moment.  I felt the earth move.  This encounter came with the strangest combination of grief and elation.

This memory is one that will stay with me forever and I am fortunate to have it.

Cakes of Birthdays Past 2

C's Mystery Machine cake from his 3rd birthday.  It also had chocolate donut wheels which is why he demanded them on his cake this year.

M had a store made Spongebob cake.  I was heartbroken that I couldn't make it for him but I was sentenced to bedrest because I had Frankenfoot surgery the next morning.

C's Mickey Mouse cake for his 1st birthday.  

My biggest failure at a cake.  It's supposed to be Buzz Lightyear.  Yeah. You can stop laughing now...........Anytime.....

More later.......

Cakes of Birthdays Past

Last October, my friend P turned 40.  Since it was so close to Halloween, I got a little psyched at doing a Halloween themed cake.  This cake is a 2 tier round with my Mom's famous buttercream frosting.  The ghosts are Nutter Butters cookies smothered in white chocolate with black cookie icing eyes and mouths.  The headstones are Mint Milano cookies with black cookie icing writing.  The 'dirt' is crushed Oreos mounded generously to simulate fresh graves.  The cake is embellished with candy pumpkins.

C offered his help in case P couldn't blow out all 4 of those candles....

I also made these because I thought they were sooo cute. They are made with 3 marshmallows stacked and held together with a pretzel stick.  Then they are wrapped loosely with Fruit by the Foot fruit leather.  The eyes are dotted on with green cookie icing.

Proof

In case there is any doubt that I clean my house......

It stays like this for approximately 15 minutes.  Then.....

*Sigh*  This drives my Hubs nuts.  He hates disorder.  Especially disorder that seems to seep from room to room throughout the house.  I agree with him sometimes.  My Type A personality gets anxious from the mess, too.  Then I remind myself that all too soon these precious little boys will grow up and leave us.  My stomach wrenches at the thought.  I know already I will miss their noise, their boisterous activity, and the mess they leave behind.  

Well, maybe not the mess.

Yesterday's Harvest

This is the 3rd harvest of beans and the 1st large harvest of tomatoes.  I still have a garden box of personal-size watermelons that will be ready for harvest pretty soon. There's at least 6 melons out there getting nice and plump.  I picked two already, thinking they were ripe because they were so large and sounded hollow.  But when I opened them, the flesh was still white.  They tasted just fine, though!  

I will be spending the evening preparing these for freezing, save a few for using immediately.

I was always weary about starting a garden...  I think I may be good at this!  HMMMM, I have 4 garden boxes right now. To see my garden boxes click here: There's Room in My Boat: Mother's Day Eco-Mission  I may have to consider expanding to 6 next year.

15 syllable swear word

This.......

Plus this.......

Equals  &$^#&^@&^!!@^??!##@!

I'm gonna get the nerd-let who invented this heinous toy.  Probably some 40 y/o bald, fat, loser who thinks that robots are cool....  Not that I have anything against the bald, the fat, or the 40 y/o, or losers.  It's the toy, you see.  The inventor must take all the blame-- not me, the one who should have picked up this thing last night before bed.  Just sayin'!

This is my Pops

I thought it only fair to post a pic of my Dad as well, since I get my stubborn-ness and git-er-done attitude from him.  I think he is also responsible for my ugly temper.  I also got my hazel eyes and his creepy "spoon toes" as we call them.  Frankenfoot was no prize before the accident, either.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!  This is not really fair, because I took this picture when he wasn't really ready.  I kinda swooped in on him.  I love it because of his 'What the hell?' expression.

That's better!

This is my Mom

This is who taught me (and still teaching me) everything I know about crafting, cooking, baking, cakes, gardening, and everything else domestic.  She's an awesome cook, mentor, and everything else.  She's going to teach me how to can and make jam next.  I haven't told her yet.

 There's nothing this woman can't do.

And she's tough as nails.  She nearly died last November from a rare autoimmune disorder that captured us all by surprise.  She spent 12 days in a medically-induced coma and literally was hours away from death when she arrived at the hospital.  I hope that I am somewhat like her, although, I hear that I am my father's daughter as well.
This picture was taken at Xmas last year, only a month after her stint in the hospital.  Doesn't she look great??

Anyway, I love this picture, so I thought I'd share it.

Priceless!

I couldn't resist posting a few more pics of my Loves on their shared birthday party.  M turned 6 and C turned 4.  Their birthdays are two weeks apart.  They always get a mini party on their actual birthdays and usually a shared party with our family.  I always make sure that they each get their own cake, though.

Shh!  Don't tell M I caught a picture of him with his glasses!

Ugh.  Those eyelashes kill me.  C got them, too.  Not fair!

The Party

Uncle R and Aunt J brought their popcorn machine.....

and a FREE jumpy house.  Very popular among the children and adults.

We had pie dies with ham and swiss cheese, cherry, or apple pie filling.  It was July and we had a bonfire.  In the blazing heat.  Probably not the smartest idea I ever had, but I really wanted a pie die.  Because I haven't been camping in 15 years.  I think I'm going to go camping next time.

Party favors rock.

Silly string fight!!!

New toys.....

This is the first year M tolerated the singing without running and hiding.  Priceless!

A great party.  'Til next year, my loves!

Cake

M's cake.  Devil's food sheet cake (2 mixes $1 ea. at Pick'n Save's 10 for 10 sale) :)

4 heart shaped mini cakes carved into mounds by using a container.  Hint-  Carving works best when the cake is frozen.

Mom's 'secret' buttercream frosting recipe multiplied by 6.  The edging is all the leftover balloon colors striped into one decorator bonnet.  I don't like to waste anything.

C's Tractor cake is one loaf pan and half another for the cab.  He specified it had to be blue.  We raised it off the plate with a slab of white cake leftover from the Balloon cake.  This cake ended up being trouble.  During the night the heavy end of the cake with the cab broke off and fell backwards onto the counter.  The Tootsie Roll smokestack kept wilting in the heat and we ended up staking it with a toothpick.  But with all the handling, it became mis-shapen.  Oh well, live an learn.

Chocolate donuts made great tires.  We used pretzel sticks to make the grill and two strawberry Starbursts for the headlights.  It looked more like a car, but to C, it was perfect and made from the heart.

Finished.