Learning a new craft

I've been helping Peter at the store for the last couple of weeks and in our spare time, he's been teaching me how to make jewelry from a mold.

So far I've made a sapphire ring and two pendants. It's a long process and when I was working on sizing the mold for my ring (after 2.5 hours) I broke it into a bunch of pieces. The molds are made from wax, so it's a little delicate.

After lots of time and LOTS of help from "the pro," I have 3 lovely pieces of jewelry! A ring and pendant for me, and another pendant for my BFF Lauren. (Shhhhh! It's a surprise!)

Check them out!

The mold for the cross and rose pendants.

The finished product!

Lauren's pendant (it's really small, this is just a zoomed in picture)

Introducing..............Baxter!

Peter and I have been discussing getting a new kitten for months. Sally's home alone all day and we thought she'd like a friend.

Since summer time is kitten time, the Austin Humane Society lowers their fees for adoption to only $35. In fact, this is the same time of year we got Sally almost a year ago.
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So, we went to the Austin on Sunday "just to look." As soon as walked in the door, we saw a little feisty kitten named, "Nike" attacking the tag on his cage and generally keeping himself entertained.

We looked at one other kitten, but as soon as we were able to play with Nike, we knew he was the kitten for us.

We changed his name to Baxter, after Ron Burgandy's dog in Anchorman. He's a tuxedo cat, so we knew he needed a rather formal name.

So far, Sally isn't a fan of Bax, but we're hoping as time goes by, she'll at least learn to tolerate him.

For your viewing pleasure:

Baxter perching on the console on the ride home from the shelter.

He tried to make it all the way home, but zonked out about halfway.

Baxter plays in his tent while Sally looks on in disdain.

He tries desperately to attack something outside his tent.


Bax's favorite place to take a nap.

Look what Sally dragged in............again.

We got an early start yesterday when Sally came through her pet door with a BIG, LIVE bird in her mouth. It was squawking and flapping all around.

She (of course) dropped it not long after she came in and it flew around leaving feathers in its wake. It flew under the bed, and finally flew up to the dresser, where Sally sat and poked at it for a while.

Peter finally had to shew it out with a broom. It was not a fun experience at 6am, let me tell you!


Sally eyes her newest catch.

If you look closely, you can see the feathers everywhere!

Sally sniffs at her bird (this is the closest she got to eating it, which wasn't close at all).

Sally: The country cat

When we lived in the illustrious "big" town of Marble Falls, Sally would occasionally bring in her latest catch to show us/play with/eat. (See post below)

Since we moved to the country, Sally has taken to finding new and different things to catch (like giant, mutant grasshoppers) and bring inside for our inspection. The goofy thing is, she brings them in, sets them down, then leaves them. She doesn't play with them, or eat them. She just drops them on the floor somewhere.

She usually lays next to her catch for a while, but after a few minutes of it laying paralyzed by fear, she'll get bored and leave it where it lays. Then Peter and I get the joy of catching it and releasing it again.

Wednesday alone she brought in 3 grasshoppers between dinner and us going to bed. Ah!!!

Yesterday morning, she trotted out her little cat door to go play. A few minutes later I see her coming in with what I think is a big frog. I yelled at her to take it back outside, but, she is a cat, and they don't follow orders very well.

She brought in the "frog" and laid it on the kitchen floor and then plopped down beside it. That's when I saw it's looooong tail. It wasn't a frog, but a LARGE lizard. Not a gecko, a big lizard that looked like it should be spiky and live on a rock in the desert.

Of course, after a few minutes she got bored and started to walk away and when she moved, it freaked out and starting running all around the kitchen. I finally dropped the mop bucket over it to keep it in one place.

After searching for some stiff cardboard, I finally slid it under the bucket and got it outside. Once I put it outside it sat in the same spot for an hour (no wonder Sally caught it, dumb lizard). So, I was able to take this picture for comparison.

Sally and her lizard (bad cell phone picture)

The lizard and Peter's shoe

Amber and Josh are married!!!

This weekend Peter, me and my BFF Lauren ventured to Vegas (baby!) for our friends Amber and Josh's wedding. We had a great time at the bachelor/bachelorette parties and the wedding was beautiful!

All of the girls got ready together in Amber and Josh's suite before the wedding which was a lot of fun. (I think we gave our hairdressers a good taste of Texas women).

Congratulations Amber and Josh!!!!

The bridesmaids toast Amber and Josh's future

Me, Amber and Lauren (roomies!) before the ceremony

The guys waiting for the girls to arrive (the only picture Lauren could take before the celebrant nixed the picture-taking).

Peter, Josh, Amber and me
(Peter keeping it classy, as always)

The beautiful bride and handsome groom!

Sally has an ouchie :-(

We're finally moved out to the new house and Peter got Sally's door installed. Yea! (No more getting up at 6am on a Saturday to let her out!)

She was having a grand ole' time going in and out until she lost her collar and fancy magnet that lets her (and only her) go in and out the door. Luckily, the door came with 2 magnets. So, we put the other one on and off she went. The next day she lost ANOTHER collar and her other magnet.

We ordered more magnets and went to the store and bought her a different kind of collar, which she managed NOT to lose.

Until Sunday morning....she ran in and out to her heart's content until she finally ran in for the last time at 9:45. Peter sat up and said, "Is it my imagination, or is she limping?"

Poor Sally had cut her leg open and it was bleeding badly. Later the vet would tell us it looks like the kind of injuries that horses get when they get stuck in barbed wire. She had to get four stitches and has to wear an e-collar (cone) for 2 weeks.

And the worst part is, she can't go outside until she gets her stitches out. Sally is an outside ADDICT and she is totally miserable (see the pictures below).

Sally in her collar (she is not happy).

Staring longingly at her new pet door that she isn't allowed to use for 2 weeks.


Her new favorite past time (all she can do without running into things).

More house pics!

Last week we had a frenzied "almost buy" on a different house in Burnet. The price was low and the house was in decent shape. We got excited to live so close to work and to have internet access (which we're thinking is going to be spotty at best at the lake). We made an offer, and unfortunately were turned down. But, we're OK with it. Now back to the original plan!

We got to work today painting the living room at the lake house. It was a pretty, light blue, but so was the dining area, kitchen and now the bedroom (read below) . We wanted to break up the color a little bit. We found a really pretty red at Lowe's (Oops! paints, only $5 a gallon!). We love the way it looks!

The finished living room!

A view of the new color and the old color. We're still trying to decide if we want to paint this wall that leads to the kitchen.

We've also painted our bedroom. It was a dark, sandy color, which wasn't bad, but definitely didn't brighten the place up any. So, we used another thing of Oops paint that Peter has been saving for a few years. We thought it was lavender, but it ended up being light blue (see why we wanted to paint the living room?) It turned out really nice and I think will be a lovely room to wake up to.

The bedroom after being painted. The walls were the color of the door. Yick!

Our biggest challenge (read: P.I.T.A.) was painting the bathroom. It was the same tan color as the bedroom, and it's so small that the color didn't do it any favors. So, we painted it a light, sunny yellow.


These aren't the greatest pictures. It's hard to take a picture in the bathroom. We're getting a new vanity to replace this tiny one and we're bringing a cabinet we already have. It'll be tight storage, but we'll make it work.

This is our tiny shower. Notice how low the showerhead is. We're not the tallest of folks, but even for us that's pretty low.

It was a pain to get around all the nooks and crannies, and we'll probably have to go over it a bit more with touchups, but it's pretty much done. And it definitely brightened up a lot!

We're hoping to move out there in mid to late May. We've been packing since last weekend. Our house is a wreck!

It'll be interesting to see how Sally adjusts to her new house. I hope she likes it! There are lots of other kitties in the neighborhood, and she likes to be social. I guess we'll see!