brandon's diy weekend

so, our apartment building has developed an unfortunate habit--instead of walking the extra 10' out the front door, when someone has a small, unwanted piece of furniture they just leave it in our lobby. about a week or so ago, someone left yet another piece of furniture--but this one had some potential. it was a small metal table with a drawer. at first brandon and i were venting about the furniture pile-up in our lobby, but then we had a second thought--wait a minute, we sort of like this semi-junky piece of furniture. it had nice lines, and since it was metal it would be MUCH easier to paint (no wood to sand). brandon decided to tackle at least phase 1, and so here are the results so far.

the before:



and the after, so far

i say "so far" because we originally wanted to put a decal on the dresser, but unfortunately it wouldn't stick to the painted metal. my new idea is to make a fun design using contact paper sort of as a decal...updates to come. thanks to brandon for taking this on!

claire time

i hadn't seen claire since before thanksgiving, so my sister and i planned a get-together so i could finally see her. she is growing rapidly, and quickly changing from a wobbly loaf newborn to a deliberately moving baby. she's making more and more noises, looking around more, etc...still not much hair to speak of, but she's definitely starting to get more. we were getting a kick out of her following the camera last night--she's already used to life in front of a lens. here are some of my favorite pictures from last night

okay, so there will be a lot of favorites...

christmas kitty creations

the holidays are a perfect excuse to make more cat toys, so i decided to give a holiday-themed toy a try. here's what i came up with:



two cute little treats! my cats were already attempting to run off with these two toys...i hope they will get some kitty enjoyment!

must be santa

so when in elementary school, in some grade my class performed "must be santa" at our school christmas pageant/show/whatever you want to call it. anyway, you know the one:

who's got a beard that's long and white?
santa's got a beard that's long and white!
who comes around on a special night?
santa comes around on a special night!
special night! beard that's white!
must be santa, must be santa, must be santa, santa claus...

so stuart has a malformed foot, and when he walks he kind of "click click clicks" which reminded brandon and i of the song "up on the housetop," (you know, the reindeer part) which made us start calling him santa stu, and then somehow i got "must be santa" stuck in my head for days, changing "must be santa, santa claus" to "must be santa, santa stu," which led to...well, santa stu. i know that was a really long explanation that just shows my roundabout way of thinking, but without further ado, i introduce santa stu.

*note: before anyone thinks i'm too mean, i'd like to mention that i did not subject my poor kitty to all this getup--it is purely the magic of photoshop...not that this photo looks overly real...

more crazy cats

well, i've been semi-m.i.a. because i've been feverishly working on christmas gifts. i'm trying to not procrastinate as much this year AND i've decided to make more gifts so that is taking up much of my time. anyway, since i've been home a lot i have been witnessing a lot of kitty behavior. here are some samples...
first, stu decided to play with the magnets on the fridge...all of them.

and lately, they have just been complete brotherly goobers...

dinner party

this weekend was a dinner party with friends..we did potluck style, and it was delicious! prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, sausage and insalata caprese for appetizers, then oven baked chicken, artichokes, rolls made from scratch, and shallots for dinner (i hope i'm not forgetting anything!). it was a nice, relaxing evening with delicious food and good friends...

their instructions? "be spontaneous"

annie vs. the paparazzi

the only hiccup was our devils food cake, or shall i say "devils food cake." the bakery even had it written on the box correctly, but alas, we were given a passion fruit lime bavarian cake--NOT exactly chocolate.

cat behavior

our cats, as i'm sure you have gathered from previous posts, are quite energetic/naughty/loving/crazy. yes, they are young and they will supposedly slow down with time (i have read that bengals tend to retain their kitten energy longer), but for now, they never cease to amuse. lately we have noticed a trend in our apartment--whenever i come home, the bathroom door is almost shut and the garbage in the bathroom is knocked over. i discovered this culprit is stuart when knocked the trash over 3 times consecutively one morning while i was getting ready for work. it amazes me that they really have distinct tendencies/personalities. for example:

ben
nicknames over time (related to behavior): speedy, houdini
favorite toys: green knitted fish, chasing jingle balls
unique behavior: biting electrical cords for attention (as in he bites and then looks at you like hey, you gonna do something?), getting on EVERY surface in our apartment somehow (as in he has left no surface undiscovered, high and low), making superhuman (well, supercat i guess) leaps from one room to the next by launching off a piece of furniture, popping open our closet door at least once a day just because he can, coming when he is called, occasionally fetching his jingle balls repeatedly, ridiculous balance/coordination/athleticism

stuart
nicknames: fuzzy, class clown, goober
favorite toys: blue sardine fishy, champagne cages
unique behavior: running into the kitchen and rolling on his back, squawking when he hears plates clatter (only when brandon is making the noise though), nosing our wine glasses, sleeping by my head on his back with his paw on my face, responding when you address him, darting out into our apartment building hallway (and then of course doing nothing), knocking over the bathroom trash, flopping on every surface he can reach and sprawling out, closing himself in rooms (i have come home from work multiple times to find he shut himself in our bedroom...he leans on the back of the doors until they shut, and then cries once he realizes he can't get out), overall being just slightly more clumsy

i could go on and on, but that is just a taste of what we deal with on a daily basis...

gift spotlight

(logo courtesy of paste shirts)

as i mentioned previously, i said that if i got my act together, i'd like to highlight some people who are making some great products that would make nice gifts for that special someone. somehow, in my crazy mind map, that led me to remember that i never showcased the shirt brandon bought in new york...whoopsies! so, what a perfect opportunity to show the shirt AND highlight someone who is making some really great stuff. to give a little background, while brandon and i were in new york, we stopped into this random little wholesale trade show for young artists in soho. we decided to stop in on a whim because brandon wanted to look at t-shirts. we stopped at a booth that had a shirt that caught both of our eyes--it was a silkscreened shirt of abe lincoln as a pirate. we had a conversation with the guy that makes the shirts (i am assuming it is jason of paste shirts) who told us that it started out as abe lincon as george michael, but something just didn't look right. in the process of removing abe/george's aviators, he moved one lens out of the way and looked and had one of those "of COURSE!" moments--and pirate abe was born. to view the shirt and others, visit paste shirts online shop. there are mens and womens shirts available. you can also visit the accompanying blog, called cup copy paste.

experimentation

on my flickr home page today i saw a little banner for the flickr blog titled "tis the season for...bokeh" with a catchy image. i clicked on the link which led me to another link--a diy for creating a really cool effect with your camera lens and light. i couldn't resist, so i decided to give it a try. while i have some perfecting to do, on my first attempt it a complete failure. here are some examples of my experimentation:

thanksgiving weekend [concluded]

the rest of our thanksgiving was lovely and low-key. friday we did indeed go to powell's books, where i did a little damage, but not TOO much. i have come to conclude that powell's is pretty much the greatest bookstore ever. after that we went back home to hang out and relax and have a quiet evening in. on saturday we visited, did some measurements for a potential remodel of brandon's parents' kitchen/living room/dining room area, watched some of the civil war game (oregon vs. oregon state) up until we had to leave to go see a play that we had purchased tickets for the previous day. brandon's parents stumbled upon the theater and waited for us there while we were in powell's--they thought we would be interested in the building and they were correct! it is a leed platinum building, an old armory converted into a theater. the play, coincidentally, was about r. buckminster fuller (aka bucky fuller). it was monologue style, sort of telling the story of his own life and his way of thinking and it was absolutely fascinating--i highly recommend it to anyone in the portland area. it was captivating, had a clever use of media, and i have definitely spent some time thinking back on what was said and how it impacts me and my own thinking.



also in portland, pinky and chewy (they were kept separate from our cats while we were there)




the ride home went even more smoothly than the ride there--less traffic and less feline distress...stuart seemed more settled this time, and the cats slept on my lap most of the ride home...