thanks, g-ma!

So, I was packing all my schtuff up and found this little treasure I told Octavia I would show her years ago.

Granma made this for me forever ago, and it never once crossed my mind when I started crocheting different creatures. His name is Tippy, named after her dog when I was little, and he is upwards of twenty years old. Puppy years...old as dirt. Given his age, I think he looks great. I have heard a lot that I look very much like my grandmother, so realizing that she had the creative crochet streak made the warm fuzzy spot I keep just for her grow a little bit bigger, as well as my itchin' for some stitchin'!...that was the lamest thing in the world....it's staying.

In a couple of weeks, I will giving him a permanant spot in my crafting area. He will be available for interviewing at that point.

*Just for future reference, Octavia and Faith get very angry when there are too many spaces throughout the posts.*

My Savory Tuna

Recipe for low-fat tuna salad sandwich:

1 pouch tuna in water, flaked

1 T sunflower seeds

1/4 to 1/2 cup salsa

pepper to taste

1 dash of dill

1 T french fried onions (optional)

4 slice whole grain bread (or whole grain vehicle of your choosing)

Toast bread slices. Mix tuna, sunflower seeds, salsa, pepper, dill and french fried onions in small bowl. When toast is done top with half the mixture and share the rest with someone else. Or if you are feeling crazy eat it all. It is very filling, a little high on sodium content, low fat and very tasty.

Here are some other alternatives to liven up your tuna sandwich. Mix and match at your own discretion.

Apples, chunked (I prefer Golden Delicious or Granny Smith), shredded Colby cheese, mustard in lieu of salsa or mayo, dill pickles diced, red onion diced, black beans, hot sauce or cayenne pepper, fat free refried beans, tomato, carrot shreds

Let us know what you mix up!

tampboo?

Well, we’re very close to the end of another great poll here in the Catty Kitchen. I was curious, given the results, could you use a bamboo cotton wash cloth as a super tampon? Sure, it’s not exactly practical, but desperate times call for desperate alternatives.

Speaking of things coming to an end, I realized today that I have one test and one final in each of my classes and then I’m free for the summer! You know what that means!!!

Crochet City!

I’m not actually going to Crochet City, that’s just a city I made up. But! I am going to get back in the swing of things. I have a lot of projects to pick back up and lots more to start.

Let’s make a list!!!!!!!!!

My afghan
My nieces’ fish blanket
A colorful creature yet to take shape
Maaayyyybe figure out Jabba
A creature for my dad
Neckwarmers
Space Robot
“Christmas” tree ornaments
I still need ideas for my nice alpaca yarn from my boy.
And hopefully one of these...






I don’t know if I’ll ever find something I find acceptable for the yarn in #9, I’m too much of a perfectionist when it comes to stuff like that.

As 90% of the people who read this already know, I will be moving very soon. I plan on having a very special plan for my crochet projects that will probably include a very cute basket for all my yarn. I’m really excited about my new setup and will hopefully be able to get a lot done before the fall semester.

And done.

Purse Off Dance Off

This week was a very different girls night. This week, there were about 20 more people in attendance and a ton of gorgeous "designer" hand bags, sun glasses, wallets, clutches...! I'd say the evening went very well.

Faith found a few that she liked.

All of Jennifer couldn't make it, but we were blessed with just her head. It was really weird at first, but J-head fit right in. Also shown in this picture is Tim the Terrible. He was a good sport and even helped the ladies decide on their goods.

J-head was in charge of taking pictures but as she didn't have hands, you can see where this would be challenging. As a results we ended up with some rather blurry photos.

Toward the end of the evening Jess noticed the dry-erase frame. She loved it so much it was hard for her to contain her excitement.

Thanks to everyone who came, it was a fantastic evening but there was one thing missing...Jenna. She was stuck at work and was not able to join us. We'll see you soon Jenna. :) xoxo

A Very Catty Birthday

You know that if you hear LeAnn Rimes (not to mention us) belting out a tune from Coyote Ugly there is a good chance a fair amount of wine has been consumed. This was certainly the case last Thursday. We gathered in the "Kitchen" to celebrate my upcoming birthday and took on a couple of 'reds' and I think maybe a 'white' in the process. It was a hoot!

We gorged ourselves on pita chips and garlic tzatziki prior to Jenna's arrival and engaged in a rousing game of Clue. That didn't go very well because no one could really remember how to play.

And so of course, Jenna showed up cuter than the rest of us (at my birthday celebration mind you) as usual. This is her 'dressed down'. She strolled up in heels and a very slimming pencil skirt. I wonder if her husband knew she was dressed like that...

The ladies treated me well as expected. Faith made delightful (and very lightly mayo-d) chicken salad sandwiches. They bought me a new set of wonderfully round and large wine glasses (complete with two bottles of wine). We had a picnic on Faith's lawn while I tended the fire. My brother showed up later to let me take an impromptu birthday scooter ride-exhilarating! Last but not least the girls slaved over the artwork for my cake which happened to be my 'Zeebah Neighbah' (see pic at top of post). It was really great work and because they missed my facial expression the first time, we had to redo the shot and this is what I gave them...

Happy Birthday to me!!!

pics from OP's bday (draft)

Alright, everyone, settle down. No, we did not force Octavia to write her own birthday blog. I had one drafted with Faith's pictures and I happened to be very busy at work and unable to perfect it.

So, here it is, in all it's unedited glory, the story of Octavia's girls night part 2.

I think it's only appropriate that the story of Octavia's girls night be told in reverse because that's the way the pictures loaded, and I don't have time to figure out how to switch them without cutting and pasting the html. Plus, the Catty Kitchen girls are a little backwards from time to time.

SO! The night ended with...well, I can't remember much of the end of the night because there was a lot of wine throughout the entire evening. But I do know that we played the piano and I was able to show off my mediocre skills to the girls (I don't usually play for people).

I do remember the amazing cake experience! Octavia is getting old, so we only put 8 candles on the cake to give her aging lungs a rest. She handled them like a champ.

Octavia was very grateful for the absolutely perfect cake presented to her for her 28th birthday.

Before cake, we had a semi-toasty fire in Faith's backyard. As previously stated, there was wine, some old-school love mixes, fire-pokers, and a lot of really great karoke. Octavia showed off her fire skills and I think she accused us of being ungrateful, which is completely untrue. Aside from a brief Barley incident, the fire and the fire maintainer were fully functional.

I don't remember exactly what this look from Faith was about, but I do remember laughing histerically right before and right after it was taken.

As most people know, combining good friends, campfires, and booze often, if not always, leads to some very serious heart-to-hearts. This one in particular most likely involves Vantage talk. I remember asking for this one to be deleted...I guess she didn't hear me over the frumpy.

I think we've made it a habit to take a few of these everytime all four of us are together. I'm pretty sure this is the best one yet. Look how cute we are!

Ahhh, I forgot about the dancing. Faith and I are excellent dancers. One of our gifts to the birthday girl was a dance party by firelight.

Mid-campfire, we were rudely interuppted by the boy. He gave Octavia her a birthday scooter ride around C-Park. What a great brother! Afterwards, I proved that all pictures are 100% cuter with me in them.

The next couple pictures are from girls night preparation. I have to hand it to myself, the cake looks great. I know I'm talented, but I had no idea I had this in me. The tulips behind are from Faith's garden and on the night of the celebration, they looked A-MAZE-ING (the word Tulipic came to mind, but I don't think it's a real word). They were gigantic and really complimented the cake.

As previously stated, I was really impressed and excited about the cake.



So, overall the night was a success. It was so great to celebrate our friend with such a nice evening and so much wine.

Happy Birthday Month Octavia!

Bunny Sock Hop

For those of you looking for any last minute Easter ideas check this out. My cousin sent this to me from Good Housekeeping magazine (thank you Rebecca). The best part is you need very few craft skills to make the rascally rabbits!

To craft these cottontails, gather patterned single socks, a needle, thread, felt, polyester stuffing (from a fabric store), and scissors. Turn sock inside out; snip down the middle of the toe; stitch each "ear" closed. Flip sock right-side out; stuff; sew closed (you can also knot the ears, as on our blue bunny). Add features in felt.

Simple as 1-2-3. Enjoy and Happy Easter!

Catty pizza, comin' up!

This week was filled with pizza, wine, frothing, all the other catty things we do and a side of The Office. Megan was our guest this week. She brought tasty rice krispie treats. However, we ate them all before we were able to take a photo.

We'll start with the pizza. Everyone made their own pies and it seemed to work out pretty well. In this photo you will see Princess OP displaying her prize winning pie.

After pizza and wine, came the coffee and frothing. I think we'll all agree the frothing was the best part. (in this photo - please note the fancy pink tiny nails!)

These two love man froth!

We were also visited by a strange green ass. I had no choice but to grab it. That's just how we roll in the Catty Kitchen, we grab any and all green asses.

This week was dedicated to Jenna. She was unable to join us and we missed her terribly. We'll see you next week Jenna! Be sure the bring the fire in your eyes that we love so much.
Next week is OP's special birthday girls night. We have all kinds of surprises up our sleeves for that. Stay tuned!

Jenna's back and angrier than ever

We would like to welcome back Jenna to our ladies' night. And after a stressful road trip (with relatives of course) she is glad to be home and we are excited to see her. She did manage to show a new side of herself when she commenced ripping one her in-laws a new one because this particular person apparently has no sense of tact or etiquette when attending another family's gathering. Our eyes grew wide with fear because we thought our friend may explode from all the pent up frustration, but she kept her cool-without the help of wine, mind you.

At this point I would like to personally congratulate the winners our of recent poll. You can get a really good idea from the picture of Faith testing out fabric just how cute her and Tim actually are. It's not pretty.

Jennifer received a darling amigurumi book for her birthday from Jenna. So I guess her birthday isn't technically over. She did pinky promise us all last night that she would share her secret with her current roommate about upcoming changes and I am relieved to report that the cat is out of bag-She is moving in with my brother. We have decided to decorate their future Christmas tree with one of each of the little guys in her new book. Spooky!

Speaking of spooky,this is me.......having a commune with Lucifer. I feel I need to really study all of my options before settling on a religion.

Tomorrow we are off to Soulard for some fresh produce and back to Jenn's new place for a drink.

Have a great weekend!

And the cutest couple is...

TIM & FAITH of course!


I'm not sure there was ever a doubt. This couple is the epitome of cute. They ooze happiness. Their love often makes people throw up on themselves. Yes ladies and gents, Tim and Faith are the loveliest couple of all!