Tag Archives: cats

Nearly Finished Nest

Posted on July 9, 2010 | 23 Comments

What to see the nursery? It is pretty much done, minus a few things like adding some maps and globes and more black-out curtain panels that are clearly needed. The answer to “where did you get that” is most likely IKEA and Target. It is an incredibly budget-friendly space.

Ready? Follow me.

This is what you see when you enter. The glorious poo station.

Here is the frontal view of the changing area.

These are one of my favorite parts of the nursery. They are animal prints from Berkley Illustration. Click this photo to go directly to the Etsy Shop.

Pygmy Marmoset!

I love the changing "table" because it is clearly a nice sized dresser that will be with us for years. Top drawer? FULL OF TINY SOCKS.

Here is the lamp light that we will be changing nighttime diapers by. I imagine it will be kicked onto the floor. But it is cute now.

If you are standing by the changing area and turn around to face the opposite wall, this is what you see.

Ceiling entertainment. We will probably also add some crib entertainment accessories at some point I imagine.

The rug is two reversible runners from IKEA that I plan to hook together at some point.

Schwen approves.

Now we are in the corner looking at the fabulous window wall.

Hello.

These are for treasures.

Here is one of the MANY blankets we have for this little guy. This is made by my mom though. And it matches the walls so I love it.

This little rocker has appeared on Megagood before. It was my mom's when she was little, and then mine when I was a wee-one.

This was also my mom's rocking chair. I have no clue where it is from. But I will be spending a lot of time sitting in this scene.

Schween approves.

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Posted in Daily Picture, decorating, pregnancy

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Semi-Barefoot and Pregnant In the Kitchen

Posted on June 1, 2010 | 3 Comments

I would like to congratulate myself on having the wisdom to extend my 4 day weekend to a 5 day weekend. It is almost enough time to forget what projects I am working on at the office.

Almost.

So what does one do on the extra day off? Nothing too important. Nothing too productive. Nothing pressing. Nothing that requires me to wear constrictive footwear or open a Microsoft Office program. Things in this category may include filming billowy curtains, photographing pristinely groomed cat toes, grocery shopping in a near-empty store, a pedicure, reorganizing the music collection on the iPod from scratch, and some cookie baking. (Also cringing at the oil gusher in the gulf, but I don’t want to bum you out more than the million websites already have. but SERIOUSLY. That is painful. “Ugh” doesn’t begin to express my feelings on that.) Top it off with some photo editing and a blog entry and you have a mostly cortisol-free day of pre-infant bliss.

The cookies that I made feature Cranberries, Dark Chocolate, and Almonds. They are based on the recipe here, with my own additions listed prior, and a pinch of cinnamon. I kept half the cookies, and delivered the rest to my neighbors. Because I don’t feel like weighing a million pounds. And soon the neighbors will have to put up with some crying. They deserve some pre-baby cookies as well.

One of the perils of pregnancy. Not being able to lick the beaters because of the raw eggs :(

My feet are so weird looking these days. But I know it's temporary. Right?

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and this is one of my favorite parts. Our photo collage on the fridge. Can't wait to add the little guy to this. Maybe I can photograph some baby toes instead of cat toes for a change.

Now I would like to talk about something very serious. I have found the epitome of ice creams. (Aside from all homemade versions of course.) Praise be to Häagen-Dazs. They have done something truly amazing. They have crafted something heavenly without anything beyond Milk, Sugar, Eggs, Cream, and Mint. (Other flavors listed here). Less is more. I don’t miss the Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Propylene Glycol Monostearate,  or  Monocalcium Phosphates. The five simple ingredients in this sublime little pint equal the best texture and purest flavored ice cream that I have bought in a grocery store. No nasty aftertaste. No gooey gummy texture. No too-fluffy air puffed-over-sugared globs. Just good stuff.

*I am not being compensated by Häagen-Dazs for this post in any way. (Although being paid in ice cream would not be a horrible thing, right? Just saying.)

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Posted in Cooking/Baking, photography, pregnant

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23 Week Papaya

Posted on March 29, 2010 | 3 Comments

Wait—what happened to 22 weeks?

I don’t know what you are talking about.

No really, where is that part of the series?

You are mumbling, I can’t understand the words you are saying. Can I offer you some juice?

I am not a huge fan of Papaya, but when you mix it with pineapple, wonderful things happen. Pineapple is intensely sweet and tangy, and the buttery and musky papaya cuts some of the sharpness when you juice them together. Martha Stewart agrees that this is a good combination. She also puts mint in this mixture, because she is like that. I would have too, but I have pregnancy brain, and ended up with a package of Andes mints instead.  I remembered the fresh mint when I was already pinned into the check out line. And there is no more wiggling between the cart and the candy shelf to escape back into the produce department for a forgotten item. I am clearly too large and too slow for that kind of behavior.

This may look shockingly large. (I am of course talking about the papaya and not my gigantic FACE.) But you have to remember that the comparison to fruit is dumb. They are really only comparing the length from the head to the toe of the baby, and the actual size of the fruit as a whole has little to do with the actual babe within. But I do in fact have an 11+ inch human growing in there.

Little mister is even getting big enough that he got to kick his dad. While resting his hand on my belly yesterday, Justin felt the first pummeling from his son. It was a sweet moment.

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Posted in maternity series, photography, pregnancy

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Snorgle (Snorg, Snarfle, Sqush, etc., etc., etc.)

Posted on November 8, 2009 | 1 Comment
110709_10

Porpus– The first step is admitting you have a PROBLEM.

So, I have been posting a lot of cat pictures lately. Is it because there is nothing else in my life that is making me happy? No, not at all. It’s just that they are cute and it is all the cuteness I have to offer at this point. You see, I have been bombarded for two months straight with photo uploads such as this:

JonahBrooke

I could post nearly a hundred photos pulled from Facebook featuring pumpkins and kiddo theme, but getting the publishing rights from all those mommies would take me a year. (Thanks to Shanea and Katie for these two.)

What the heck, right? What are these kiddos trying to do to me? I have to squeeeeeeze something really hard when I see a little one in a pumpkin patch. Justin’s arm is practically bruised by early November. I’m sorry, but the cuteness makes me want to explode. (By the way, I have a debilitating weakness for all things cute, and I dare you to send me a cute link from the internet that I haven’t already seen.)

Maybe you are one of those people who thinks babies and pumpkins are NOT adorable? Well, although I don’t understand you, I respect your strangeness. And I am here to provide you will all the non-baby-pumpkin photos you can handle. I’ve got cats. Cat bellies and cat mouths. Coming right up:

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Not into cats either? Well, I’ve got nothing for you.

P.S. I really am grateful for my two healthy felines. Two friends are going through some hard cat times, and it makes me want to spoon by little (big) kitties just that much more.

P.P.S. Word count for “CUTE” or “CUTENESS” in this post is 2739.

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Posted in Daily Picture, Uncategorized

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The Ah-ha Moment

Posted on August 15, 2009 | 1 Comment

So I was playing around with the camera, and realized that I am a TOTAL IDIOT. I just learned that I can easily adjust the intensity of the flash so that everything is not blown out. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have figured this out. But at the same time I feel the ache of a thousand photos that could have turned out if I had only known this simple function existed.

I have hated using the flash up until this point, and only did so as a last resort. Now I feel like Flash is my super hero sidekick that exists to make all photos taken indoors a million times better. Life changing!

Although an “ah-ha” moment can give me a healthy rush of feel-good adrenaline, it is always accompanied by a stabbing pang of “oh DUH.” And usually I can’t help but think of how many hours had been previously wasted trying to solve a particular problem. Especially when the solution seems so painfully obvious or simple. This happened to me about a million and one times while learning design software. I can still remember the day that I learned about the “align” tool in Illustrator. Or “find>change” in InDesign. Or how to mask in Photoshop. Life was better after learning these tools, but ohhhh the hours spent in the computer lab before this knowledge…painful.

Ah-ha moments are not restricted to technology of course. I have had them during a creative brainstorm at work, while figuring out how to navigate a new city, cooking a new recipe, and falling in love with Justin.

I guess the moral of the story is to “be cool and stay in school.” If I ever stop learning just because I am not officially enrolled in a class, then I am officially old. Although it can be a humbling process, I am convinced that ah-ha moments are the fountain of youth. I want to have them throughout the rest of my life.

Here are my first photos with my new knowledge applied:

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Posted in creativity, Daily Picture

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Raw Fun

Posted on May 4, 2009 | 2 Comments
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There was a woolly mammoth sighting early Saturday morning at the Boley house.

The sun finally came out and Schween rediscovered her shadow. Endless hours of fun.

The sun finally came out and Schween rediscovered her shadow. Endless hours of fun.

All of Saturday was fantastic. It included the Artropolis show at the Merchandise Mart, raw and vegetarian goodness at Karyn’s, and the most entertaining bus ride I have had since I took a Christmas tree on the Clark bus last December.

Artropolis is a ridiculously huge art show that you can’t possibly see in one day. We spent most of our time on the NEXT floor, and barely saw the Art Chicago floor at all. I took a lot of photos, expecting to be yelled at. No one scolded me the whole time! Now I have a library of inspiration nestled safely on my hard drive. I was going to post photos of the art on this site, but I forgot to get the names of all the artists, so I probaby shouldn’t post without giving credit. I guess you will have to go in person.

Here is a picture of amber in the elevator. She observed that the Merchandise Mart logo is right out of comic book. Very evil villian.

Here is a picture of amber in the elevator. She observed that the Merchandise Mart logo is right out of comic book. Very evil villian.

After Artropolis, we headed to Karyn's Cooked. Jo is ecstatic.

After Artropolis, we headed to Karyn's Cooked. Jo is ecstatic.

Flautas and Enchiladas. All Vegetarian. All exceeded expectations. Delicious.

Flautas and Enchiladas. All Vegetarian. All exceeded expectations. Delicious.

I don't know what possessed me to take a picture of the 22 Bus as it approached. I had no way of telling it would be such a wild ride.

I don't know what possessed me to take a picture of the 22 bus as it approached. I had no way of telling it would be such a wild ride.

There was a man eating/spilling fries in the front section of the bus. He was absolutely a riot. I believe he works in radio and there was certainly no dead air for the first half of my ride home. I wish I was riding with a friend so that I would have had a witness.

There was a man eating/spilling fries in the front section of the bus. He was absolutely a riot. I believe he works in radio and there was certainly no dead air for the first half of my ride home. I wish I was riding with a friend so that I would have had a witness.

The whole front half of the bus was laughing. Not a usual situation on public transportation. The second half of the ride included a speech by an older man with a scratchy-Rachel Ray-12-monkeys voice about how ridiculous swine flu was. Complete with fake hacking. Joy.

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Posted in Chicago, Daily Picture

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Cat Eggs

Posted on April 11, 2009 | 5 Comments

Blue is still my favorite color these days. So I didn’t even bother dissolving the other colors of dye pellets for my Easter egg project. I wanted them to be Robin’s eggs from Tiffany’s. And I wanted to keep them around, so I didn’t hard-boil them. Instead I poked holes on the top and bottom of the egg and blew the guts out.

egg_pin

One of the eggs basically exploded during the excavation process and now lives in the guts pot.

One of the eggs basically exploded during this process and now lives in the guts pot.

To achive the Tiffany/Robin's egg color I dissolved a full blue pellet and half of the green pellet.

To achive the Tiffany/Robin's egg color I dissolved a full blue pellet and half of the green pellet.

Porpus wanted to help, but lacks opposable thumbs. And craft skills.

Porpus wanted to help, but lacks opposable thumbs. And craft skills.

eggs_drying

I decided to add a top-coat of shine.

I decided to add a top-coat of shine.

Yay

Yay

And then I decided to make two bonus cat eggs. Why not?

And then I decided to make two bonus cat eggs. Why not?

Porp egg.

Porp egg.

Crazy cat-lady caption goes here.

Crazy cat-lady caption goes here.

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Posted in Daily Picture, decorating

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Charpfest 2009

Posted on April 4, 2009 | 1 Comment
Charping

Charping

Porp cares not.

Porp cares not.

I haven’t posted for a few days because I am struggling to craft my thoughts. Last week was not so great. I will probably have something together in the next couple hours. I hope you enjoy Charpfest as much as we do.

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Posted in Uncategorized

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“Would You Rather”

Posted on March 31, 2009 | 3 Comments

This is a followup to the question that was  posed during a game of “Would you Rather” during the 10-hour stay in the lovely Austin Airport. This great example of an inside joke that has gone public and out of control. I am on a photoshop role tonight…and have no plans on stopping here.

Would you rather have a Chinchilla Porpus....

Would you rather have a Chinchilla Porpus....

...or a Dungeness Schween Crab?

...or a Dungeness Schween Crab?

A lot of things like these are swimming around in my head. They are seeping out and landing on the internet. My apologies.

Bonus image:

schweeny_todd

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Posted in creativity

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White Shoes and Hungry Eyes

Posted on March 26, 2009 | 1 Comment

If you google “white shoes before Memorial Day” you will find thousands of articles arguing about the old rule. Here is another opinion on the subject: it is a dated rule and I have no plans to adhere to it. However, there is also some agreement that southern girls tend to pay more attention to these rules than their Yankee friends to the north. That being said, this Yankee is traveling south of the Mason-Dixon line tomorrow and is wearing cream-colored patent leather heels. BE AFRAID fashion Nazis. My outfit will offend.

Yesterday, my friend (who is starting a styling business on the side of her full-time job) took me shopping. She was my fashion coach and my stylist for the evening. The marathon shopping session–this is happening a lot lately–was fantastically successful. Budget win. Style win. Happy win. My own fashion “rules” were challenged. She photographed each outfit for review and honest critique. When she gets everything up and running, I will give you her link. You should hire her as soon as possible. Your wardrobe will thank you.

Another sneak peak. Don't be afraid.

Another sneak peek. Don't be afraid.

In other news, I am afraid for my life. We ran out of cat food this morning. They are bitching, moaning, baring their teeth, and stalking me. I have to protect my ankles until Justin returns from the store with proper kitty breakfast.

In other news, I am afraid for my life. We ran out of cat food this morning. They are bitching, moaning, baring their teeth, and stalking me. I have to protect my ankles until Justin returns from the store with proper kitty breakfast.

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Posted in Daily Picture

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