Painted Lady on Tithonia...

This Painted Lady Butterfly was filmed on a Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia) in our backyard.  We try religiously to plant this wonderful sunflower because it's a magnet for all the butterflies in our yard, especially Monarchs.  It grows 4 to 6 feet high and I discovered by accident one year that if you cut it back before it starts blooming, it will actually grow as a bush.  I like it tall, however, it's a great back-of-the-bed plant and it's wonderful color will grace any yard.  It needs full sun and blooms in late summer unless you start the seeds early in the season.  If I start seeds in the greenhouse in March, the Tithonia usually blooms much earlier.  I harvest the seeds by dropping the seed heads into a paper bag and store over the winter in the garage.  In late winter, I clean all the bagged seeds into envelopes so they are ready for planting by the time the portable greenhouse goes up.

At this time of year we are putting the garden to bed.  We'll cut down plants that the birds won't use as food, mulch our leaves and cover our beds with the mulched leaves.  The leaves enhance the soil, cut down on the weeds and we don't have to burn them.  My husband picks them up with a lawnmower that has a bag on it.  Since we live in a wooded area, leaves are plentiful and cheaper than mulch.

Update...

Sadie's last meds were September 13th.  While we're not having any fights, there is some chasing going on.  Sadie is playing more and sleeping out in the open instead of under our bed.  She has some knots on her thighs that she will not let me tend to.  I can't get her to hold still long enough to either cut them out or comb them out, although she loves to be brushed just not in those areas.  She has continued marking - in my tub, the foyer on the closet door, the fridge next to the garage door and now in the dining room by the sliders.  What used to be a once in a while thing is becoming more often.  We can understand the doors, we have feral cats in the neighborhood and this is common behavior for territorial cats, but my tub?  Every morning we check the cat box and find that Sadie has not peed in any of them - it's easy to tell, she pees copious quantities while Sassy pees drops.  This morning there was no pee from either of them so either Sassy quit peeing or she's following Sadie's lead.  Either way, this can't keep up.  The occasional poop from Sassy on the carpet is easy to clean up and de-smell, pee is entirely another matter.  If she doesn't stop, I fear she'll have to go back on the meds full time. 

Thanks so much...

Supplies:

PTI Limitless Labels, Berry Sorbet Ink

Winnie and Walter The Big, The Bold and You

Clear & Simple Stamps Rag Doll Mia: Star

Jaded Blossom Candy Caddy

Wink of Stella Clear

Cuttlebug Tag

Hug Snug Seam Binding

This month's topic: Bugs....

We have a large backyard in Central Illinois with many separate gardens.  We plant to invite wildlife into our yard - flowers have to have either nectar or food potential.  In October, we leave the seed plants in place for the birds over the winter.  Our milkweed feeds the monarch caterpillars.  In the early spring the nectar plants feed the newly arrived hummingbirds.  We do have large numbers of bees, both bumblebees and honey bees.  This year we didn't see any until late July.  Our apple tree did not set fruit because there were no pollinators.  It  must have been a harsh winter for them last year.  I was delighted to see two honeybees on our Meadow Sage in late August.  Hopefully we'll see them earlier next year.  This photo is of a bumblebee on a coneflower.  The orange plant in the background is milkweed.  I plan to share lots of photos from our travels and home on this blog in the future.  This particular picture was taken by me with my Dimage Z1 camera in June 2005.  For pictures of my cards, please go to: http://kardmkr.blogspot.com/.

Thank you so much....

Supplies:

PTI Limitless Labels, Berry Sorbet Ink

Winnie & Walter The Big, The Bold & You

Clear & Simple Stamps Rag Doll Mia: Star

Jaded Blossom Candy Caddy

Wink of Stella Clear

Cuttlebug Tag

Hug Snug Seam Binding

A breakthrough...

This morning I was playing with Sadie on our bed.  We have a wand with a string attached to a green fuzzie (kind of like a boa).  Sadie likes the wand and will attack it on the bed if you move it around.  This is new behavior for her.  In the past if Sadie was fixated on something like the wand, you didn't dare touch her, this morning I actually was able to pet her while she was on the bed and she did not attack me.  Bazinga!  The second thing that happened was Sassy went to our bedroom door and meowed and meowed.  A second later she came running down the hallway with a black streak behind her.  Sadie was actually chasing her.  Sassy veered off in my craft room and Sadie kept running to the window seat in my craft room.  They are both gone now, but there has been no growling or hissing.  Our most fervent wish is that they would become friends.  Fingers crossed.

Changes, changes, changes...

We spent Labor Day week in Land O Lakes, Wisconsin.  For ten days after we came home, we cut Sadie's Prozac down from every other day to every third day.  Carl went back to Wisconsin for a week and I discontinued Sadie's meds completely.  So, we are two weeks into finding out what kind of cat she is while off meds (again).  So far, crossed fingers, we've had no cat spats.  Sadie is more playful and more vocal and more alert.  She's up for longer periods of time during the day, she's not hiding in the bedroom all the time, she wanders from room to room.  We've only seen one instance of territory marking and we're now spraying areas we want her to stay away from with straight white vinegar.  We've only had one mess and that area has been sprayed repeatedly, also.  Litter boxes have been reduced by one, the one in the spare bedroom has been removed and there have been no messes there.  The two litter boxes that were in the back left corner of the living room behind a chair have been moved to the front right corner right off the foyer.  Not only are they easier to get to for cleaning but they are out where we can see the cats use them.  Neither of our cats is the 'shy' type, Sassy actually uses the litter box in the laundry room when I use the bathroom, just two girls doing their business together.  The cats still walk wide around each other but Sassy will follow Sadie and stay close when she's not sleeping.  This morning Sassy was up in the family room window (we have side by side windows there with a wide ledge and a cat perch mounted on one side.  Sassy will lay on the perch but prefers laying on the ledge, so she's just minding her own business and Sadie jumps up on the perch; both cats in the window, two feet from each other.  Baby steps.  When the weather is nice we have two windows on the second floor open all the time, the one in our bedroom is claimed by Sadie, the one in my craft room is used by both of them.  Sassy doesn't have her own territory but she'd been reluctant to enter our bedroom, she does that more often now.

We had been feeding Sadie a third of a large can of Friskies cat food each morning and Sassy a large teaspoon of Fancy Feast with Gravy mixed with a half teaspoon of water (Sassy just likes gravy).  Sadie would eat her food and then finish Sassy's.  While Carl was in Wisconsin I tried an experiment.  I opened one can of Fancy Feast, gave Sassy her portion with a little water, and gave Sadie the rest.  I figured she liked it since she was cleaning Sassy's bowl every morning.  Sadie is now eating more and both bowls are cleaned.  I suspect they would like Fancy Feast twice a day but that's too hard on our cat sitter so they eat dry food for dinner, we feed Iams Hairball Control all the time.  We've been experimenting with different litters, too.  I bought a bag of natural cedar, pine and corn clumping litter.  Smells fabulous, cleans really well and both cats use the box I put it in.  I don't think they are finicky about litter.  If they will use this, it certainly has a better odor and there is no dust, it's also softer on their feet than clay.

Sassy is in the craft room window, Sadie is on the bed and for the moment, all is right with our world.

Shopping for two...

So, I've got all these low calorie cookbooks I've been using.  The recipes call for 10 ounces of chicken breast.  When was the last time you went to the grocery store and found 10 ounces of chicken?  I can find three large breasts in a package and that's the smallest package.  When looking for desserts, they feed six and eight people.  I just want a taste of a sweet to calm the cravings but if there is a cake in the fridge, you can bet we'll eat it.

So far in the last eleven days I have slipped three times.  I did have 2 KFC chicken breasts over two days.  I removed the skin from both but still....  I had my first pepsi in three weeks.  (It's all about the Pepsi - no coke).  And I had dessert Tuesday which is my designated dessert day.  Otherwise I've been pretty good.  And I have a whole bag of Chocolate Neccos and Twizzlers in my craft room that I haven't touched...  Go me.

Thoughts on dieting....

It's hard to believe that not long ago I was a size 8.  I still have the clothes to prove it.  As a smoker, I didn't realize that the only food I ever tasted was the really strong stuff like tuna fish and heavy spices.  When I quit smoking, I started tasting food again and it tasted swell.  Where I previously didn't care for desserts, now I'm almost starved for them.  I like Mexican food, Chinese food, Indian food and Italian food.  I like to say I'm on the seafood diet - I see food and I eat it.  Over the years the sizes of my clothes have risen.  Three quarters of the clothes in my closet are unwearable but I love them so I hate to get rid of them.  So, here's the deal.  I'm going to lose weight.  I'm not calling it a diet - I'm just going to cut out sweets (except for Movie Tuesday), soda, and fried foods.  Just those three things and watch my portions.  I'm also going to walk on the treadmill daily.  In a year I hope to be back in those size eights again.  To achieve that goal I've purchased a blueray player for the living room so I can watch Netflix or Amazon Prime while I walk.  We've been here eleven years and haven't purchased living room furniture.  We have some deck chairs and cat toys and the treadmill.  I'm also writing down every item that goes down my throat.  Like my single twizzler today.  I've been known to eat a package in a day.  I'm hoping by writing down my food intake and keeping up the blog with results, I'll shame myself into losing some weight.

Off to the vet...

One year ago this month, we took both cats to our veterinary to have their yearly shots.  At that point we had had Sassy one year and Sadie five months.  Sassy was her usual placid self, she doesn't like the carrier and struggled when we put her in it.  Sadie, screeched, and was all legs.

At the office, Sassy didn't like the exam and shots but didn't make a fuss.  Our vet, Dr. McFarland is amazing.  Always willing to listen to your cat tales, she takes the time to show you she actually loves the cats and has said that Sassy is one of the most beautiful cats she's ever seen (any wonder we love her?).

Sadie, on the other hand, was a completely different kettle of fish.  When Dr. McFarland reached into her carrier to grab her, Sadie tensed up and started to yowl, screeched actually.  Dr. McFarland called in an assistant and between the two of them pulled her out of her carrier, gave her both shots and shoved her back in.  Sadie hissed, spit and yowled and earned a big red "CAUTION" on her file and even had to be weighed in her carrier.

Naturally, yesterday we were apprehensive.  Sadie is on Kitty Prozac, 1/2 a tablet every other day which calms the marking she does when seeing feral cats outside.  Carl gave her an extra pill the morning of the appointment in the hopes it would calm her.  The appointment was in the early afternoon so about fifteen minutes before we were due to leave, I picked up Sadie without a struggle and put in her the carrier.  Easy peasy.  Sassy was harder to get in than Sadie was.

In the car, Sadie meowed several times and then was quiet.  We took both carriers into the examining room and I suggested we take Sadie first before she could get really worked up.  We pulled the blanket out of the carrier with Sadie on it, I held her and talked to her while Dr. McFarland gave her both shots, I lifted her onto the scale to be weighed and then put her into the carrier.  Easy peasy.  All the anxiety was for nothing.  After Sadie was securely back in the carrier, the assistant tried to talk to her and she lunged at the side of the carrier at the assistant and screeched.  The assistant jumped back.  And Sadie was back to being Sadie again.

After I paid the bill, I said that Sadie had been so good that next time they could handle her on their own.  Dr. McFarland has a wonderful laugh - she laughed and laughed - and I'm guessing that they won't be handling Sadie on their own for some time yet.  On the way home, we joked that Sadie would probably kill us in our sleep, but she just went to the bedroom and went to sleep.  She's been fine since.  And that's the story of the 2014 Vet Visit.

Back from vacation...

We were on vacation for two weeks and used the same cat sitter we've always used.  She lives in our neighborhood, comes by the house once a day, gives Sadie her medication, and spends a little time with the girls.  Sassy started hiding the first day.  Tiffany found her and tried to coax her out but she wasn't having any of it.  She was eating and....no messes to clean up.  Except for a couple of incidences, we haven't had any accidents to speak of.

Sassy was so happy to see us that she followed me everywhere for three days.  She even let me hold her - unheard of.  Our next vacation is a week in Wisconsin and we plan to take Sassy and leave Sadie.  Sadie doesn't seem to care if we are home or gone, but Sassy pines.  We take a cabin in Northern Wisconsin one week a year.  We've taken Sassy once and the reason we adopted Sadie was so Sassy could stay home and have company.  But since they really don't like each other, we'll give them a break this year.  Sassy traveled well, she slept inside her cubby the whole way up and back.

We can only hope that the potty issues are mostly resolved.  The rivalry is another matter.

Thoughts on digital art....

I have been a fan of digital art for stampers and colorists since I discovered them many years ago.  I started with Make It Crafty in Australia.  I now use Saturated Canary, Sassy Cheryl, East Wind, Simply Betty, and Tickled Pink among others.  I love that I get instant satisfaction.  I can print in any size or color.  I can print on any paper, patterned or plain, water color.  I can create scenes with .png images without masking.  Versatile?  Yep.

But organization of 1.12 GB of files has been daunting.  I started out by putting them all in one folder so I could just scroll and see them all.  Then I got the crazy idea of sorting by artist so if I was in the mood for a Saturated Canary (which rocks, BTW) I could check the folder and print the image.  Then I developed thirty-five folders and sometimes I just didn't know what I wanted to color.  So, over the last three days, I went into every folder, added the artist's name to each image and moved it to my hard drive in one whopping big folder.  It took three days.  Some images only had a number, i.e. img 723, so I had to rename it something that made sense for searching.  I can now search for Halloween and every image from every artist that has Halloween in the name will show up.  Plus, I can just scroll until something jumps out at me.   As a result of all this hard work, I can see multiple images at once, the original files are on my  back-up drive so I won't lose them and all my images are on my hard-drive where I can take them with me when I travel (they had previously all been on my back-up drive) and each image has an artist attributed to it so I can give credit .  I also moved any Word, Corel Draw, Adobe Elements, Powerpoint, and Make the Cut files that related to the images.

So far I am very happy with this folder.  Using extra large icons or Microsoft Office Picture Manager, I can look at each image until I decide which image I want to work with.  I'll let you know how it works.

Happy day...

Supplies:

Sassy Cheryl Callie's Spring Afternoon

Winnie and Walter Big and Bold:  Happy

Stardust Stickles

Stampin' Up corner punch

Spectrum Noir Pencils:  (pants 069)(shirt 064)(hair 102, 100, 109)(pinafore 020, 022, 091, 015)(ground 113)(grass 057)(shoes 094, 090)(ladybugs 025)

Happy day...

Supplies:

Sassy Cheryl Callie's Spring Afternoon

Winnie & Walter Big & Bold:  Happy

Stardust Stickles

Stampin up corner punch

Spectrum Noir Pencils:  (pants 069)(shirt 064)(hair 102, 100, 109)(pinafore 020, 022, 091, 015)(ground 113)(grass 057)(shoes 094, 090)(ladybugs 025)

Hello, gorgeous...

Supplies:

Sassy Cheryl Callie Kisses a Bird Digital Image

Winnie & Walter Big & Bold: Happy, You

Spellbinder Card Creators

Perfect Layers

Wink of Stella Black

Spectrum Noir Pencils:  (Skin 003, 005, 004, 009, 089) (Dress 023, 028, 025)(Petticoat 065, 068)(Bird 084, 068, 065)(hair 104, 33)(Grass 050)(Boots 068, 107, 87)

Hello, gorgeous....

Supplies:

Sassy Cheryl Callie Kisses a Bird Digital Image

Winnie and Walter Big and Bold: Happy, You

Spellbinder Card Creators

Perfect Layers

Wink of Stella Black

Spectrum Noir Pencils:  (Skin 003, 005, 004, 009, 089) (Dress 023, 028, 025)(Petticoat 065, 068)(Bird 084, 068, 065)(hair 104, 33)(Grass 050)(Boots 068, 107, 87)

Kill the rope...

Sadie learns more about being a cat every day.  For the first time ever,  she did a hide and pounce on the rope in the bedroom.  I've tied the rope to the closet door knob and she's awakened us in the middle of the night playing with it.  We've been trying to cover the area in the living room where Sassy likes to poop (it's within a foot of the litter box).  I bought a box of puppy pads which work well with Sassy but Sadie likes to pee on plastic.  Since they're puppy pads that isn't a problem but she'll pee on plastic bags, in plastic tubs, etc. and we don't want to encourage that.  So, I covered the puppy pads with newspaper but you can't fool Sadie, she knows there is plastic under the newspaper.  So, we removed it all and we've back to carpet again.  Next thing I want to try is old dish towels on top of the puppy pads. 

You're Purr fect!

Supplies

Aurora Wings Zombie Kitty, Art Impressions Mouthfuls Cat, unknown sentiment

PTI Spring Moss card stock, Grey eerie paper pad

Spellbinder Card Creator, Circle dies

EK Success Punch

Wink of Stella Red

Spectrum Noir Pencils:  (Eyes 061, 062, 063) (Fish 108, 057) (Cat 084, 057, 060, 107)

Prismacolor White

You're purr fect....

Supplies

Aurora Wings Zombie Kitty, Art Impressions Mouthfuls Cat, unknown sentiment

PTI Spring Moss card stock, Grey eerie paper pad

Spellbinder Card Creator, Circle dies

EK Success Punch

Wink of Stella Red

Spectrum Noir Pencils:  (Eyes 061, 062, 063) (Fish 108, 057) (Cat 084, 057, 060, 107)

Prismacolor White

This is odd....

This morning we opened the family room window with the window seat for Sadie.  She will sit on the back of my husband's chair and wait for someone to open the drapes and the window.  Carl usually only opens the drapes far enough to allow her to access the window seat so he did that.  We settled back to read the paper and I heard scratching.  When I turned to look Sassy was in the other window (there are two windows side by side with a window ledge - the right window has a seat attached, the left window does not).  There they were, side by side, not an arm's length away from each other.  They have been sleeping in the same room, too.

I came upstairs to check e-mail and Facebook.  Sassy came up with me and settled on the window seat in my craft room.  It's fairly large consisting of three plastic storage drawers with a large piece of plywood wrapped in a blanket on top of it.  It's sturdy and provides room for Sassy to play with the ghosts she likes to chase in circles.  While I was checking an e-mail Sadie jumped up next to Sassy.  To be honest, she only stayed five minutes but....

I expect by the time they are old ladies, they will be closer than they are now.  Maybe.

Time rolls by...

As I type, both girls are in my craft room.  Sadie is in the window, Sassy is on the floor below the window.  We rarely have scuffles anymore.  They still pretty much ignore each other except for a chase now and then.  Sadie has developed the habit of laying in my craft room door and as I leave she races for the bedroom like her tail is on fire.  She's trained me to follow her so we can play with the piece of rope Carl brought to the bedroom.  She won't play with the same kind of rope in the family room, but she loves it in the bedroom.  I suspect she thinks that's her room and she's safe there.  She's more playful all the time - but only in that one room.  Sadie also has learned to love brushing so one of us does that for her every day now.  We get copious amounts of fur from her.  I wish she would be so docile about nails, but that's still a work in progress.  Sassy loves to climb on my craft room chair any time I leave.  You can see in her eyes that she thinks my exasperation with her is great fun.  If I remove her from the chair to the window seat, she promptly walked over to my desk and lays down there so I can't work.

Sassy is coming up on her second year anniversary with us.  Sadie will be here two years in late April.  They are stubborn creatures.  They refuse to become friendly and we can only hope that time will change that.  Both cats are due for shots in August (not looking forward to shoving Sadie in the cat carrier).

As to the potty problems.  We've only had two accidents since the first part of April.  We don't even look anymore which is a pretty good sign since that was something we did every morning and every time we left the house.  All in all, I'm pleased with the progress but wish it were faster.

Not squared to protect our country...

SVG Cutting files has recently released a whole line of Squaredy Cats.  I've purchased the whole military line and this is the first one I've done.  Those that know me well will know why!

Supplies:

SVG Cutting Files - SC Marine

River City Background Stamp

Distress Ink:  Fired Brick, Faded Jeans

PTI Sweet Speech Die

Computer generated sentiment

Not squared to protect our country...

SVG Cutting files has recently released a whole line of Squaredy Cats.  I've purchased the whole military line and this is the first one I've done.  Those that know me well will know why!

Supplies:

SVG Cutting Files - SC Marine

River City Background Stamp

Distress Ink:  Fired Brick, Faded Jeans

PTI Sweet Speech Die

Computer generated sentiment

I'm famous at PB Stamps...

I wanted to give a shout out to John at PB Stamps.  It's the only place in the world where you can actually buy retired Penny Black Stamps.  John carries a full line of Penny Black, clear and wood.  He also has the dies.  So, if you are in need of Penny Black stamps, see John and if you want to look at my Penny Black cards, click here.

I'm famous at PB Stamps...

I wanted to give a shout out to John at PB Stamps.  It's the only place in the world where you can actually buy retired Penny Black Stamps.  John carries a full line of Penny Black, clear and wood.  He also has the dies.  So, if you are in need of Penny Black stamps, see John and if you want to look at my Penny Black cards, click here.