DIY Cat Carrier Beds

Supplies:

1 Cat carrier (preferrably one where the lid is removable, they work a LOT easier)
1 Large sheet of paper or newspaper that can completely line the bottom of the carrier.
1 old pillow (for stuffing, you can also go out and get your own stuffing or use an old mattress pad)
1 old ultra soft towel or soft fabric to cover bed.
Pencil
Scissors
Needle and thread (pick color close to bed fabric)
optional-Marker

Instructions:

Step 1: remove cover on carrier if it comes off and place paper inside to trace.

Step 2: Trace the outline of the carrier on the old newspaper with pencil, and retrace with marker for visibility if desired.

Step 3: If not using a mattress pad, skip to step 4. Cut out the outline of the bed, and retrace on old mattress pad if using a mattress pad.

Step 4: Trace outline of carrier on what will be the inside of the fabric. Retrace about 1/2 inch around entire form to leave room for sewing and stuffing. Do this twice as you will be using 2 pieces one for each side of bed.

Step 5: cut fabric and sew with insides facing each other leaving one end completely unsewn. (looks best if you leave the back end unsewn so it will face inside the carrier) When you get to that point, flip inside out and push out any corners.

Step 6: Stuff pad till it's as stuffed as you want, and sew last edge folding in the seams.

Step 7: Place in carrier and if you want, sprinkle cat nip on it to entice your cat to enjoy it. My cats love their carrier, so that's not really a problem.

Hope you and your cats enjoy!

DIY Picture Frames

Ok, picture frames can be a pain in the butt, not to mention REALLY expensive, so I promise myself over and over that I will never pay over $10 on a frame, and should I not find a frame I like, I make my own. I have two designs that I will show you, one is REALLY cheap and easy, the other is cheap, and a little more involved.

Project 1 (REALLY Cheap frame)

This one looks cheap, cause it is cheap, but you can make it look less cheap I am sure.

Supplies:
1 Dollar Store frame, your choice in size.
1 package of dollar store stickers and foam stickers.
picture of choice.

For this you basically take your cheap frame and stick the stickers all over. I used words on mine to make it pertain to my cousin, but the best part is that they sell one a lot like this for $5 and I only paid $1 cause I had a lot of the supplies already.

Project 2 (Not so Cheap frame)

1 Dollar store frame (I sense a trend here)
1 Tube strong adhesive glue (I use shoe goo, but there are a lot of others that can be used to bond glass and metal)
1 bag decorative stones, or rocks.

This one is really easy as well.

Step 1:Choose the rocks or stones that you want to use on the frame. Take them and place them where you think you want them DO NOT GLUE YET. Once you arrange them you might find out that you need to change their placement.

Step 2: Slowly make your way around the frame and glue the stones in place. Don't get glue anywhere you don't want it, or you might be stuck with it. Read instructions on glue on how to remove properly.

Step 3: be patient and let it dry for a full 24 hours. Then put picture in and enjoy.

Another great idea is to use a ribbon or paper and glue on the frame first and then glue the stones down. I used clear in mine, and a ribbon underneath not only changes the color of the bead, but projects the design through it. This would be especially neat if you were using it as a gift for a friend and were to stick letters underneath each bead spelling out a name or salutation.

New Moon

Yes, I watched the movie. No it did not live up to the hype. It was good, don't get me wrong, but it did not follow the story line by any means and I seriously felt like more was supposed to happen that did not. In fact, I think that I may have been thinking about the next one in line, but I guess that is what I get for reading all of the books at once in order to avoid spoilers on the internet. Anywho it was a night at my parents and we brought the cats. I did this just to see if they could handle a full on assault of not only my father, but the dog as well. Now they have been around dogs before, and even lived with one for a while, but I was scared that the one that we had planned on sending away to vacation with a friend of ours to test out her dog's ability to live with a cat, would be less that happy with the situation.

From this visit we learned that all decorative items of any sort have to be removed from view. My mother has a plate shelf on the wall behind her couch, and a crazy cat of ours tried to jump on it. Needless to say, he got one paw up and we yelled before he could go any further. This didn't stop him though and we had to watch him like a hawk. Also, Apollo hates the dog (Keller) he was scared all night long, and would not move from the 'safe room' that the dog is not allowed in (aka my parent's living room) Needless to say, I knew this would happen, and that is why Apollo was not our first choice to go live with a dog. Baltar however surprised us. He played with Keller, and even chased him around a bit. By the end of the night, Keller was crying for someone to save him from our killer cat, and we were happy to take them both home. They are getting better with the trips to places, but I think Baltar still gets a little carsick once in a while because he has tummy issues.

We also learned the following:

1-Cats like birds, and covering the cage with a blanket will achieve nothing, the cats go under the blanket to find what they want.

2-Cats like high places, like my mothers china cabinet. Although it is a nice perch for them, the gasps from my mother as he hit candle holders and trinkets were not so nice.

3- Our cats like water. Especially all of the tanks in my mother's house which house turtles, and fish. Keeping lids on these and lights off is crucial in order for them not to pester fishies and turtles.

4- Cats are quick and like popcorn. Don't leave your bowl unattended.

5-If they think they can fit, they will try, even if they get stuck. Watch them close in order to pull them out.

6- Don't try to watch a movie with crazy cats, you will end up pausing it a lot, or simply missing parts of it to deal with cats like I did.

7- Treats work well to get cats into carriers, and work even better to get dogs attention back onto the cats. We will probably be using treats sparingly when it comes to traveling to my parent's now.

8-They love plants, especially ones with vines. Great thing about vines is that they are like strings, they like to bite and pull strings. Can you picture a pot falling off a shelf onto a cat? Just get a viney plant, and you can see it happen! (Thankfully the 10lb plant did not fall on the cat, but he tried)

9- Keep curtains closed, one crack will leave you with shredded curtains as they are curious and want to know what is going on in the dark outside.

10- Shutting the lights off in every room but the one you are in will keep the cat in the room you are in or the one next to it. Don't know why this happens, but the seem to like to be around the light, and it is very helpful in keeping track of where they have gone.

Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Cause we have cats, and cats will eat everything.

Needless to say they are making crafting of any kind a little limited. I have to shut myself in the bedroom with a dvd and do things as opposed to doing things in the living room where they stake claim. I tried my hand at wrapping gifts in there once and found out they really like to eat paper and jumping into bags. I also once tried to decorate a picture frame which they rubbed against when it was wet, and smudged. Not giving the frame to my sister this weekend, but excited limitlessly because I get to see her. Which brings me to the fun part of today's blog, great 5 things to do on a foreseeably rainy weekend with your family.

1- Card games. All you need is a regular deck of cards and the internet. Things get fun really fast. For a touch of whimsy and intrigue, go to this site: http://www.talisman.net/tarot/regcard.html tells you how to read tarot with playing cards!

2- Homemade popcorn and movies. We steer away from home videos as ours tend to be somewhat boring to those not involved in our life, but netflix has come in handy, and will again this weekend. Also, it does not hurt that my mother is a librarian and we have to screen all the movies before they are lent out.

3- Board games and wine. Board games are fin, but they get ridiculous with wine,and since we have such a collection of both, time is never wasted when we play. If you are to invest in great games, board, cards or otherwise, I suggest the brand "Out of The Box." They have hands down the best games.

4- Memory books/Spoof Books. The idea behind this is that you have to have a digital camera and printer that works with the camera for home printing. If you don't have a printer, you can send your photos out for one hour photo printing. Then what you create is up to you. Take tons of photos of you and your family or friends, and make them as creative, silly, funny, or god forbid normal as you want. Print them off and arrange them in an album of your choosing. Smaller albums are usually better and you cna display them on a coffee table later for guests to flip through and admire, or laugh at.

5- Home made Charades. All you need are pens, paper, and imagination or inspiration. We did this a year or two ago, and still use our charade clues everytime the family comes together. The ides is to make up your own so that they are ones that you will be able to guess. Online clue sites are not always helpful, but you can make the clues and intellectual or idiotic as you feel appropriate as long as you stick to the five major clue groups. The clue groups best to stick to are: Books, Movies/Television, Famous People, Quotes, and Music. We find that most of the fun is in guessing who wrote it, and one of the best clue inspirations came from games we own (Apples to Apples, and Mad Gab) that have the same types of clues on their cards. Make sure you set of the rules and have a time limit, throw the clues in a bucket or bowl and just enjoy the laughs.

Hope you all have a nice weekend, and that it is not too rainy, cold or cloudy out!

Only in Dreams

People envy me (and rightly so) because I have vivid dreams. I don't really know if they are in full color, but they are always quite vivid, and I can usually remember them for a few hours into the day. Last night was a rather peculiar set of dreams, but nonetheless I feel like it is important to get my dreams out there so others know what my little mind is doing when nobody is paying attention to it.

Let me first tell you that I was up late, till about 2am, and that is really not normal for me anymore. We got home to two crazy kitties who probably were just wondering if anyone was coming back to feed them, and we basically headed straight to bed. Before we nodded off, a ton of things that I was simply too lazy to get out of bed to check went buzzing through my brain including "Did we lock the door?" and "Did someone just come in?" This slowly progressed into, "If the dudes who came in have guns, I wonder if they will kidnap Nick and I can hide under the bed." Needless to say my mind wanders, and it probably is not surprise to anyone that my dreams ended up being loopy. So without further ado, here are two.

Dream 1: Me and Nick were driving along, and got car-jacked. Somehow we managed to slip the car-jackers and get in the car and drive away, but one of them had left a bag in the car and we were now on the run from them with their stuff. I opened the bag at one point to see that it was filled with money. It was not filled with normal money however, it was filled with gold coins with pictures of people that I knew on them. It looked like each coin was a person in my life, and I could only equate that to them wanting me, not Nick and told him to go on without me. I took the bag and ran through a church, trying to hide and seek sanctuary, only to find out that the priest was a mormon, not a catholic, and he wouldn't give me sanctuary unless I went into the "conversion room" and converted. I looked at him like he was craqzy and ran into a bathroom to hide. It was here I found a mirror, and it was lined with gold coins with faces of people from my past. From here I threw the rest of my coins in the toilet, because a lot of people lining the mirror are now dead and I was freaking out. It clogged the toilet, and the coins were crumbling in the water. The crazy car-jackers came in and screamed "No!" really loud and elongated the "o" and sort of melted to their knees. They kept getting smaller, and I was getting even more confused, and started asking them "Why me?" over and over till they disappeared. The End

Dream 2: Me and Nick were on a road trip with our best friend's kid. We had had her for a couple weeks and were bringing her back to her parents, however there were people following us who would do her harm, and kill us to get to her. At a gas station a red lazer beamed into the car, and a gunshot rang out just as we were pulling away. We realized the seriousness of the situation, and decided the trip had to be quick. Along the way we ran into my grandmother, and she said she would help us, but we had to get moving. We went to a reception of some kind to pick up the girls belongings, only to find out that there were a lot more people who wanted her, and we would never get out of there alive if they knew we had her. We were trying to figure out a way to leave without getting caught when we found some styrofoam boxes, and we slid her into one. My grandmother who was not ebing watched took the burden of taking her to the car, and was really surprised that she could simply walk out. We got to the girl's parents to see them fighting over the fact they had been in a hurry to leave the last time they were at a guests house, and had left all their clothes and only had three pair. Apparently this chase was their lifestyle, and we happened to have a lot of the kids clothing, and offered to ship the clothes back as long as they made us dinner. They were attempting to make dinner when they pulled out something that looked like a block of cheese, and found they had no idea how to prepare it. They asked me if I knew how to prepare tofurky, and I suddenly became an expert saying "Just soak it in water with the seasoning you like on low heat and it will be ready in 25 minutes." The End

Weird huh!?! Aparently having possible intruders in my home really gets my mind going. As a heads up, the door was locked when I woke up this morning, and the only bad things that happened overnight was the paper mess the cats made by jumping on loose papers, and the breaking of a bamboo stalk on our table. Nothing major at all!

Household Cleaning Blech!!

So it is spring, and I have some pretty awesome tips on making the house sparkling clean, expecially if you found absolutely zero time to clean your house throughout the winter. I always keep three basic items around just for cleaning purposes and I think everyone needs to heed this advice!

1- Old t-shirts. Always have one for you to wear while cleaning, and one to cut up for rags to use for cleaning. Once you get tired of the one you wear for cleaning, use that as rags, and keep cycling t-shirts through to use for cleaning purposes. I like to use white ones simply because some colored ones don't allow you to know when the shirt is too dirty for use, but anything but black works well. These homemade rags are great for mini blinds, and some rather large spaces. They also don't leave the lint on windows that most paper towels do. Also they are washable, and re-useable so you can have the same cloths for years.

2- Old used toothbrushes. I use hard bristle brushes on my teeth, even though they say you are only supposed to use soft, and they work amazing for cleaning small to reach places when cleaning your house. Corners of windows, and small spaces that simply do not allow full hand access can be cleaned with ease with a toothbrush. I always keep all of my cleaning supplies in a bucket to avoid confusion though.

3- Quite possibly the most important thing that I always keep are old spray bottles. I re-fill almost every old bottle with something else. I make a lot of my own cleaners, and never spend more than $1.00 on cleaning supplies. The bottles are great for watering indoor plants, keeping cats off the counters, and simple spot cleaning. I simply wash out the bottle really well, and fill with water, bulk cleaner, or vinegar and go to work. These are also really useful for making your own air fresheners which I will explain next!


Ingredients:
-8-10 drops (about 1tsp) COLORLESS essential oil of your choosing. (I like the spring scents you can find at walmart for about $4 a bottle which will last a long time)
-Empty and clean spray bottle
-Water (enough to fill the spray bottle)

Directions:
To make the spray, all you have to do is add the fragrance to the water in the bottle, and spray (lightest spray setting on the bottle) into the air. You can add more fragrance if you like the smell stronger, or use less if you like it lighter. If you are using a fragrance that is citrusy, replace 1/8cup of water with vinegar, and this will help to absorb bad odors. If using a sweet smell, add 1tsp vanilla extract.

I don't suggest spraying directly on surfaces as it can discolor some fabrics if you use a colored scent, or vanilla, but if sprayed directly in the air it freshens the place up quick. My favorite scent to use is Fresh Linen which I got in a large bottle from Walmart it is light blue, but it works amazing in the air and makes me think of spring!

Busy Busy

So the cats had their first appointment and they are both turning out to be a handful at home now. I am training them not to jump on counters and also dealing with springtime issues. Our indoor herb garden is on it's last legs thanks to an infestation of bugs. Not really a bug person, but they were either spittlebugs or aphids. I am thinking more on the side of spittlebugs because they had the little spit nests to protect themselves, but they were green so it confuses me. Anyway, because I am crafty I will share my tips on dealing with such an infestation.

First you have to know what you are dealing with: I did not know I was dealing with an infestation, and in fact though I was simply dealing with the two that I saw on the plant. I killed them, only to find out that killing them was not really going to help the problem. Apparently a couple months ago it was brought to my attention that there was an issue, but I ignored it. Apparently this bug lays eggs on the bottom side of the leaves, which coincidentally look a lot like seeds, which is what I thought they were till they hatched yesterday, and I got creeped out by legs. Anyway, I had no clue I was dealing with an infestation, so it would be good to evaluate the problem. Few bugs on the plant mean you can treat it with a few sprays of lightly soaped water (water mixed with one or two drops of dish detergent) twice a day for a week, the large one I ended up having means surgery for the poor plant.

Second part to the large infestation is surgery: Place the entire plant into a sink or tub. Grab a spray bottle of the lightly soaped water, and some paper towels. Inspect the leaves and find out which ones have bugs or eggs on them. From here you have to spray each leaf individually with the soapy water and wipe clean with the paper towel, removing all bugs. Once you are done with all the leaves, water the plant, and spray the soil, and the plant with the soapy water. You then have to spray the plant daily, leaves and stems to make sure none of the bugs are living in the soil. Don't soak the plant in soap as it can kill the plant, but ensure that the plant is coated to ensure no bugs. Also if you are more worried about killing your plant, use less soap, and add a clove of crushed garlic to the water and shake well. Apparently garlic is a deterrent, and since it is natural it won't kill your herbs! Make sure you kill all the bugs on the paper towels as well, or dispose of it properly.

This should allow you to use your herbs without fear, but I would still wash them well before use. There will still be a soapy residue, and it's not exactly the best taste.

So that was my life the past couple days, and despite the cats trying to eat lucky bamboo (which is poisonous to them) they have been very charming. I am enjoying having the little guys around, but would be happy if they grew out of the "attacking my feet" phase.

Update

So the computer I was using (Nick's Mac) and storing all of my data on, has officially fallen ill. I figure it was only a matter of time because my computer died, and everything that will go wrong usually does when it comes to my stuff. So I cannot access any of my really cool pictures, and will have to take some more before I can post my new DIY. Which is decorative candle holders. Specifically using only items that you would find in a dollar store... So I am re-doing the entire thing. I had it all planned out with step by step pictures, and now that the computer basically died, I have to re-do the whole thing which also sadly means redoing the project. It is coming, and it is a cool project that I think you will enjoy. For now, hit up the dollar store for some boring candle holders, and I will be back to tell you how to make them look amazing.

Now for an update on my life. I have to kittens now. More kittens that cats, but they are larger. wE speculate that they are about 8 months old, possibly younger. WE have named them Baltar, and Apollo, and they are basically my insanity and joy rolled into little furry balls. They are rather adorable, and although I think one made me sick, I am finding it hard to think of my life without them, and how I ever went about thinking my life was ever complete before them. Should they be feeling up to it, the lazy little critters will take their first outing with us tomorrow night. We may only take one, but it is up in the air now as to whether or not it would be safe to take them with us to see LOST. Regardless, they will get another chance on Wednesday when they take their first trip to the vet. It will be memorable to say the least.