Woot! Loot!

I apologize for my infrequent blogging these days. Demands on my time and all. I won't bore you with the details.

Crocheting time has become dear, as well. I am very far behind on promised projects, including the prize for the brooch contest, but I hope to have that completed by the end of next weekend.

Meanwhile, I received this fantastic package from my Falling for Ewe secret swap pal. Dear, dear, Pal. You and I have far more in common than you may have realized. I cannot wait to "meet" you for real and exchange private emails.

Just opening the outer package gave me a lift. Just look at all the pretty packages!

Inside was the most luscious, soft, heavenly yarn imaginable. And the color! I wish the photo could do it justice. It's a bit on the watermelon side of true red, and looking at it just makes me sigh. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but I'm looking for scarf and hat patterns right now that will suit it. I would love feeling this yarn caressing my face in the San Francisco fog.

I am afraid I have given my spoiler a bit of a hard time because I mentioned that I don't really need any more yarn. Add to that the fact that I can't have scents and shouldn't eat sweets and it's kind of hard to spoil me, isn't it?

Well, she manages quite well, I must say. These Dove sugar-free chocolates are fabulous! My candy jar at work was in need of replenishing, judging by the "innocent" comments of passersby who have been looking in there. I shared a few of the sweets with the jar, but most of them are stashed in a drawer where only I can sneak them out!

I love the sage green cotton thread. I have so many projects in mind requiring cotton thread, I don't know which all I'll choose for this thread ultimately, but I'm definitely going to be making glass cozies and beaded evening bags and sachets for a start!

Speaking of which, this book -- which came from my spoiler's personal stash, by the way -- is actually a book I once checked out of the library! I love most of the patterns in it and it's especially wonderful because it has cat toys in it! My cats were gifted by a previous spoiler with knitted cat toy mice and they have abandoned all their other toys for those three mice. One of them goes hunting every night at around 3:00 a.m. and carries those mice around the apartment, dropping them and yowling about her conquest. (Luckily, DH and I are relatively sound sleepers.) I had always hoped to have crochet patterns of cat toys.

But there are more patterns in there I love -- and plenty for cotton thread, like sachets and purses and wash cloths. It will definitely get use.

Spoiler, thank you so much! I'll get a proper thank you in the mail this week.

Our Roost Rulers

These are who DH and I answer to.

This is Booger.

It's hard to explain about Booger because I always get caught up having to explain her name.  See, technically, she's my daughter's cat.  But when my daughter moved out of my home, she couldn't take her with her to her new digs.  Then when I moved to San Francisco, Booger came with me.

She was my daughter's 18th birthday present.  At first she named her Michelle, which I thought was kind of odd.  I'm not all that keen on naming cats people names.  (Which may seem incongruous when you meet my next cat, George.)

One day DD came home and scooped the kitten up off the floor and put her on her shoulder at eye level and said, "Hi, there, Booger!"  It was meant to be a term of endearment.

But then the aha! light came on in her eyes and despite my protests, the name stuck.

For several years, I was too embarrassed to tell the vet what her real name was.  So in Los Angeles, the vet has her on file as "Baby" (my last name).

When I moved to San Francisco, I decided I'd better own up and tell the new vet the truth or I'd forget one day and regret it.  When I told the vet's assistant, she said, "We have a few of those."

Booger is half Siamese.  You can't tell it by looking at her, but you could if you heard her.  She talks a lot.  She's really bossy.  She bosses all of us around, including the other, older cat, George.

This is George.

George was one of a pair originally.  She and her litter mate sister were "twins" of a sort.  They had similar markings and the patches, but the black on George's face is on her left side and the black on her sister's face was on the right.  I called them our bookends.

The owners of the mother didn't want to separate the two kittens because they were obviously so attached to one another.  They were so attached that for the first year of their life, only once were they in separate rooms and that was an accident.  When they found out, they both jumped up and high-tailed it toward each other and lay panting in each others' paws for the narrow escape!

Well, the sister went missing after a year or so.  Later, we found her a couple of miles from where we lived in someone else's yard.  Apparently she had either been picked up by someone else or had adopted another family.  By then, she and George didn't recognize each other.

Yes, George is female.  Another long story.  I will tell it some other time.

And finally,

These are cat toys

There are more toys than this.  I got tired of finding them in odd places after the cleaning people vacuumed -- and of stepping on them -- and finally collected them all in a basket.  The cats come select the ones they want and scatter them around the apartment, but we pick them up faithfully once a week.

Jungle Fever

Some time back in an effort to control our portion sizes, DH and I started to buy smaller sized dishes with fun patterns on them. Usually they're children's dishes with colorful cartoonish animals on them. Eating at our house is not very elegant, but it sure is fun!

As a result of this project, I now have a new and wonderful obsession. It started with this:



I happen to love animal prints anyway, especially leopard, so when I caught sight of these demitasse cups on eBay, I just had to have them.
Once I got them, I wanted a teapot to match or at least coordinate. I got outbid on one that the same seller had on sale, but she was kind enough to inform me when she got more jungle animal crockery to sell.
Which led to my buying this:

and then this:

Luckily, DH loves them. I've been justifying the purchase by exploring recipes that will present well on them when taken to potlucks. I'm going to have to rearrange the china cabinet to fit them in and I have very-little-to-no wiggle room for any more china in the apartment now.
The eBayer who sold me the above has become one of my favorite sellers. They don't have a lot of china to offer so I'm lucky in that respect, but they do have some great toys my adopted grandkids are going to love.
Although, my original standing search for a jungle animal teapot came up with this recently. I successfully resisted bidding on it:


Until yesterday.
Oh, well. Maybe I should start searching for curtains, rugs and pillows in animal prints to complete the theme. At least I have some room left for those in the apartment.