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The Cat Life - Catnip

Tuesday, March 31








I got Lloyd and Sylvester some catnip-filled balls for Christmas and Lloyd loves them. He has already destroyed one of them, and the other two are closely following suit. He used to love the catnip beaver that Kaylah sent him for his first Christmas, but Sylvester claimed that as his own once he moved in. I got them another catnip animal (I'm not sure what it's supposed to be....), in hopes of it being loved as much as the beaver... but neither of them are interested in it. Weird!

Do your cats love catnip? I've never seen a cat go as crazy over it as Lloyd does!

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Project 365, 82-88

Sunday, March 29

82/365


We got some pretty gnarly looking onions in at work this week.


83/365

There's a great new bakery that opened up near work recently; I stop in there for coffee and a muffin once a week. Bakeries are always hit or miss for me, but sometimes it's nice to have a treat I didn't make myself!


84/365

Wednesdays are the days I run a mile after work. I got lucky this week; the rain started right as I finished.


85/365

Cocoa power gets e v e r y w h e r e....


86/365

We had two large catering orders at work this week; someone ordered 6-dozen chocolate covered strawberries.


87/365

Multi-grain toast, smashed avocado, red pepper flakes, and fried egg. YUM!


88/365

I bought myself a new toy today... so far I've only taken photos of the cats; I can't wait to take it on an adventure!


This weekend was all about recovering from a work-heavy week. Last minute catering orders will do that to a small kitchen! So I relaxed by catching up on recent episodes of Revenge, munching on nachos, and treating myself to a camera that I hope to use often once the weather warms up. Mother nature, please warm up!!

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The Cat Life - Drawers

Tuesday, March 24








Shawn is constantly leaving the dresser drawers slightly open, and Lloyd is notorious for sneaking in there and making a mess of Shawn's "drawers". Well, someone snuck in there this time and it wasn't Lloyd! It probably doesn't help that Shawn uses shallow boxes to keep things separated within the drawers; I think it's pretty much a physical law that if there's a box somewhere, a cat will find it.

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Project 365, 75-81

Sunday, March 22

75/365


I wish we had a better view of the sunrise from our apartment.


76/365

Here's what we know about our downstairs neighbors: they have parties every Friday night and like to blast music way past the hours noted in our lease, they're a couple and she has loud arguments with him after work at least once a week, sometimes they're still awake at 3:30am when I leave for work, and apparently they drink a lot of growlers.


77/365

Went for my first run of the year! Ran most of a mile in ten minutes. Couldn't handle much more than that because the wind was wicked!


78/365

Hawaiian pizza is where it's at!


79/365


I did not edit these to be black and white; that's just what the first day of spring looked like, naturally.


80/365

Visited my friend Amy in New Jersey and talked about all-things-wedding for her upcoming nuptials in August. We stopped into a few local shops and I spoke more French over the course of an hour than I have all year! (Who knew there were so many French people around there?) Bought some meyer lemon infused olive oil that I'm stoked about!


81/365

Reflections at our local brew pub.


I think I've said this before, but Mondays are the hardest day for me photo-wise. I don't ever make plans to do anything because I work an 11-hour day, and it's usually the least interesting work day for me because it's mostly catching up and re-stocking what we went through over the weekend. What sucks the most about it though, is that the Monday photos are the first photo of the post and they're always my least favorite! Hopefully they'll get more interesting as spring and summer roll in. But that would entail doing something other than working and sleeping on a Monday.... can I just skip Monday photos? Oh, is that not how this works? Oh well....

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Fun Finds Friday #84

Friday, March 20


The grey fox print on this dress is adorable!



I love optical illusions.



These pants seem super comfortable for yoga, or lounging!


+ How about these cool/bizarre photos from history?
+ Did you know there's a whole science behind dog poo?
+ I've always thought about sketching my outfits for a trip, but never have.
+ What a cheeky little sign!
+ 100 years of beauty in North and South Korea, and America too!
+ Puns are my kind of humor!

Happy Friday!!!

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The Cat Life - Bathtub Bear

Tuesday, March 17














I think Lloyd (aka: Bear) sometimes forgets that there are other rooms in the apartment besides the living room and bedroom. He seems to rediscover the bathroom every few weeks and tours it as though he has never been in there before. Lloyd is really intrigued by water; he often jumps up to the sink after the water has been running. Shawn used to give him baths and Lloyd never seemed to mind much! Sylvester, on the other hand, runs away if the slightest bit of water touches him.

Cat people - how do your cats feel about water?
My parents used to have a cat that loved water, but I think it's usually a rare trait.

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Project 365, 68-74

Monday, March 16

68/365


I love that it's light out later now, but it's still so dark in the mornings....


69/365

A hearty breakfast doesn't have to include eggs...


70/365

Reflections of a crafter. (I bought this; I'm excited to try it!)


71/365

My favorite!


72/365

I came up with an awesome banana chocolate chip muffin recipe! Should I share it? I think I might.


73/365


I spent Saturday afternoon building a cardboard cat house while watching Boyhood and season 2 of Girls...
The cats could not be any less enthused. If anything, they're angry that I moved their cat tower.


74/365


Caught in the act! And, a lovely dinner with my brother and his girlfriend who were on their way back up from North Carolina. I ended up bringing home most of that flatbread after all the appetizers we shared...


I've got some fun photos planned for the Cat Life post this week, as well as a few recipes up my sleeves.... now if only I could find the time to prep posts ahead of time... (Ha! Finding time ahead of time? Now there's a conundrum. I guess if I wasn't spending all my spare time making cat houses....) I'm looking forward to this week because the trail near work should be clear enough to start walking/running on again. It has been so long! I haven't pulled my sneakers out since October.

I hope you had an amazing week!!

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Fun Finds Friday #83

Friday, March 13


This makes me want to pick up a watercolor kit! I could fill a wall with inspiring quotes...



This wedding was totally styled and I love it.



I've been looking for a new striped dress and this one puts a smile on my face...
(And it's made in the USA!)


+ Did anyone else struggle with daylight savings time this week? It made getting up at 3:15am infinitely more difficult....
+ Are you aware that the TSA has an instagram account?
+ I think children should be allowed to play outside alone! (Depending on where you live, I suppose.)
+ For just 200 words, this bed & breakfast could be yours!
+ The feline mystique - I never thought about it that way!
+ Flats or heels? The French way.

Happy Friday!!

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Growing Out The Pixie Cut

Wednesday, March 11


For the last year or so, I've been growing out a pixie cut. I chopped all my hair off in September of 2013, just for fun. But also to get rid of a good chunk of hair that had been bleached (hello, ombre!), then colored turquoise which eventually turned to Oscar-the-grouch green. (I'll spare you photos of that, although my driver's license is hideous proof!) The pixie cut was fun for a few months, but then I started to miss being able to do braids, fun twists, and generally anything other than pinning my bangs back. So in February of 2014 I began the arduous journey of growing out the pixie cut. You may think arduous is too strong of a word here... but trust me, it is not. It takes a lot of self confidence to rock a pixie cut, but it takes even more self confidence to grow it out! There are some ugly stages, and mullets galore. But first, let's take a look back, shall we?


The beginning of it all! My hairstylist was more nervous than I was, because common experience is girls bursting into tears once all their hair is laying on the floor. But my attitude has always been more along the lines of "whatever, it's just hair!", so I consider myself a fun client when I'm sitting in the hair-chair. He was relieved to hear me say that I loved it (and meant it), and that I'd be back soon because now my hair would require a bit more upkeep.



In November of 2013 (ignore that typo above....) I went even shorter. Shawn hated it and later (much later) told me he called it my lesbian haircut. (Side note: it kills me that most guys think of short hair this way. What's wrong with heterosexual women embracing their femininity with a short 'do? Twiggy and Audrey both rocked it! And they're both mega sex-icons!) But November my favorite stage of the pixie cut for sure. It just looked so cute and was so easy to style!

December and January was more of the same, and I got one last cut at the end of January/early February, I can't really remember at this point. February was when I made the conscious decision to start growing it out though. I knew from various internet searches that things were about to get awkward...

Commence, the growing out process!
(And silly faces? I'm actually amazed I had enough selfies to use for this post! Didn't realize I took so many....)







(...apparently longer hair is serious business...)

June (5 months), September (8 months), and October (9 months) were the most awkward months for me. Despite what I've read about just letting it grow, I got two or three hair cuts over the course of the past year, and trimmed my "mullet" once or twice on my own (with not-so-great results.... it's hard to cut the back of your own hair!). I was always happy after each haircut because although not much was trimmed, it helped shape everything up for more growth. And now, I finally feel like I have long-ish hair again! My hair was pretty bad there for a few months, and I'm happy that it no longer looks like I'm growing out a pixie cut. This length looks intentional, because it is. I plan on letting it grow some more though. I'm not sure at what length I'll stop... it just feels great to have long hair again! I feel as though I tell Shawn at least once a week, "Squee! My hair is so long!" ...

If you've ever contemplated getting a pixie cut, do it! it's a lot of fun and so much less upkeep. I actually did the whole no-poo thing for a whole year, with mostly successful results. As my hair got longer though, it stopped working as well so I switched back to regular ol' shampoo and conditioner about a month ago. I still only wash my hair twice a week though - and it's fluffy and textured and super healthy! Probably the best my hair has ever been.

So there you have it. Probably the most photos of my hair face you will ever see in one post on this ol' blog....

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