Happy Birthday Farmer Faith!

TCK found their hands in the dirt for this birthday celebration. Farmer Faith happily gave us a tour of her stomping grounds and we helped her tend to her medicinal herb garden. The weeds in this place never stood a chance once we arrived. We hope you had the happiest birthday Faither and will love you until you compost!

Birthday Season is Upon Us

And wouldn't you know, we are behind posting everything. I still need to wrap up our retreat and spa night entries. I know, right? The retreat? That was in November friends and it is still not finished. But never fear - birthday season is here! We can always go back and pick up the rest of the stories.

Amy Stamy is the first birthday Queen and this year we are doing small questionnaires to help better acquaint you with each Kitchener. So please, join us at the winery for camaraderie and reverie and drinkery and...okay I'll stop.

Question the First (Faith): What do you like most about being in TCK?
Amy: Mostly I like the company of other female civilians, who are not only humorous and educated, but skeptical, silly, crafty, and cool.

Jenn: If you were to describe yourself as a drink, what would it be?

Stamy: I would be an amaretto sour because it is sweet and you need 1000 of 'em to get you drunk.

Mel: If you could go back to high school and choose your clique, what would it be?

Stamy: I was the hybrid. I was the jock softball player. I was on the math team. I was a math-lete.

OP: What is your favorite activity to do when your husband is not home and when he is?

Stamy: My favorite activity to do at home without James is spooning with my Mama! and taking a nap. [When he is home] I really love, on Sunday, when we get our foods and snuggle on the loveseat. But I like snuggling with Mama! better because James is too hot!

Faith: If you were a constellation, in the sky, what would you be?

Stamy: Well Faith, that's easy. I would be Orion's Belt.

Jenn: I knew that's what you would say.

Stamy: Well, I mean, what is Orion without his belt?

Did I mention there is video of parts of this interview? Well, it's coming. Stay tuned to find out Amy's favorite song to sing along with. I couldn't get it out of my head for a few days. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STAMY!

Retreat! - Section C

I think I am gonna start letting the pics do some of the talking for our trip. Our friends finally showed up by the way.

Tave and Mel with sunglasses headbands.

Jenn doing a dance...as usual.

yummy - snacky - lunchy

Mel prepping our craft. We should finish that sometime.

Old lady rocking.

Someone should keep an eye on her.

Aside from the lethal stares, check out our cute matching cowls. I know!

Not sure how you can be sad with two glasses of good wine.

Maybe she just needed her friend.

Ciao!!!

Retreat! - Part Once

Happy New Year! How was your last year? If I must say, 2011 kind of got away from us here in the Kitchen. We still hung out for quality girl time, but sometimes seeing each other once a month was difficult to achieve. Never fear though, the 2012 planning meeting is in a couple of weeks so we can make our grandiose plans!

In the meantime though, let's retreat down memory lane, to a simpler time, in fair November, amidst the falling leaves and swirling winds. The whisper of future frost and delicious wine. A time when The Catty girls get out of Dodge for a weekend of ladie's night bliss. And I do mean bliss...

Sunrise on 11-12-2011, Jackson, MO

Faith and I got the roadtrip started this year first thing on Friday morning. Our motto for the weekend was "We can do whatever we want." So we did.

BFF wine and good times, 11-11-2011, Ste. Gen, MO

Our first stop was the Crown Valley winery in Ste. Genevieve. While sampling our wines we watched the bison roam in the field while the sun warmed up the breeze and we could forgo jackets.

Bison at Crown Valley winery, 11-11-2011, Ste. Gen, MO

Good conversation filled the first part of our morning as we paired the wine with camaraderie. We also ran into an old pal from the 80's.

We really wished all of our girls could have been with us. The weather and scenery was beautiful and we were kind of drunk by noon. That's a good thing on vacation. I think we were both grateful for the bonding time we were able to spend together though too. From what I understand, Mel and Jenn tightened their bonds on the car ride to the cabin the following morning.

Check back next Sunday for Part Deux as it seems we have some catching up to do! Mooches!!!

Catty Cuteness

Sometimes you just need to grab a BFF, a bearded photographer, some scarfs and make the face! Voila! Instant photo-cutes!

 
Anyone up for some TCK Glamour Shots? With some cool 80's hair and sequined blazers with shoulder pads?

Hi House!

January 21, 2011 7:00 PM - The Catty Kitchen and Honorary Members begin arriving at My Crib for the inaugural meeting.

7:01 PM - The noise and chaos level escalates.

7:04 PM - I open a bottle of red. The evening has begun.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TCK AND WELCOME!

We had so much fun we have hardly a photo to share. Let's start with the new faces...Stamy, would you please stand up? That's her up there on the left looking rosy and cozy next to J-Fer. Stamy is a world renown marine biologist who dedicates her life to the pursuit of wrestling deep-sea anglers. As she dries off in her spare time you can find her reading Chaucer and snacking on blackberry scones. Welcome Stamy!

Next, we were paid a visit by a special gal from Kalamazoo. Would you please give a hand to Shawnee?! Again on the left, Shawnee met Melissa while learning the tango at a local dance studio while Mel was in college. She has met Robert Duvall and sings Cher songs in the shower. This non-local lass is our newest honorary TCK patron. Hooray for Shawnee!

Sadly, our petite Catty girl, Kora Ducky was present, but her purple hair managed to elude my lens. She is such a spunky monkey. I love it!

 Next on the agenda (yes, we had an official agenda) was the planning for birthdays and future soirees. We are all pretty stoked about the upcoming year. For the birthday season this year we have decided to let each birthday girl choose what they would like to do and the rest of us make it happen. We also decided on our Royal Titles. You may now refer to each of us as follows:

 Faith - Emperor

Jennifer - Her Highness

Melissa - High Priestess

Amy - Pope (although Faith and I think she should be Pharaoh...just saying)

Octavia - Caesar

In addition to our new nomenclatures which command respect, we have a few new blog features. First, for each girl's birthday they will get an individual post from each of us to celebrate her day. We discussed a cookbook challenge and dinner club to try something new. And the High Priestess will have her baby show at the end of April! The Emperor and I also thoroughly enjoy making lists and have decided to post our random lists from time to time and invite the other Catty ladies in the world to join us. 

We never did paint our nails, but the colors sat there and laughed with us all night.

XO,

Caesar

Get Cho Cookie On!

 Cookie Bake 2010 was a quiet affair this year, but a winner nonetheless. We ended up with a low cookie count, but all the dough was baked which doesn't always happen.

As usual we had one attendee who was sick...A petite attendee to try all the goods...and the rest of us baked and drank until we were Mary, I mean merry.

 Also this year we opted for a random gift exchange with $15 limit instead of buying for everyone. It was a hit and somehow we all chose the number of the most appropriate gift for ourselves. Weird.

 Sadly, there are no pics of our sick friend or our honorary Cattee (love you Megan). We were also short one member this year, but I can't wait to see her back when life gets on track. I also heard the Pfuhn's are getting down on New Year's and TCK was invited. Should be a hoot. And on that note we look forward to seeing you in 2011. Faith will be a farmer, Jenn is trying a new schedule, I turn 30, Jenna will earn her Master's degree and Mel will be a mommy. It's a big year.

XOXO,

The Catty Kitchen

Great Wedding Reception Idea!

So we look dreadfully tired, but what a fun idea for a reception.

One copy goes to the picturees...

...and another to the happy couple in a keepsake book.

Great idea and icebreaker for a reception.  Keeps it from being a stuffy event, ya know what I mean?  And everyone gets something to take home.  Love it!