Quick Holiday Card Update...

I just finished getting 6 general holiday cards up!  Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas cards will be up later [are up now! See Winter Holiday Section!] and don't forget Halloween!!  (I know that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde would appreciate the Christmas money... well... unless we have to buy a new dryer first!)

one of my personal favorites and then Halloween...

another favorite!  muahahahahahahaha!

Wherein Cats are Wet, But Treats are Found, and Therefore the Horde Rejoices

The treat box has been missing for a few days.  This means that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde has been quite sad.  "Yes mom, we have been ever so sad without treats." says Star, "Treats are important to keep kitties strong and healthy.  No, really!!"  To add to that, it's been colder the last few days and yesterday the weather had the indignancy to rain.  This means that jaunts outside must be shortened.

This also means that I have been subjected to Da Boys coming in, one at a time, wet.  "You're wet."  "I know mommy.  Have you found the treats yet?"  "No.  You're wet."  "Uh-huh." Tries to get into the space behind my head where the treats normally reside, "Are you surrrrrrre you haven't found the treats??"  "I haven't found the treats.  However, you are still wet.  Please go dry yourself."  [insert cat sigh here]  "Okay mom."  [cat moves away from me & begins to groom himself diligently]

Star says, "See?  I was good!  I dried off before

  I went to mom.  Say, did you find the treats yet??"

Yesterday Corwyn and I stopped by Krogers on the way back from his dress rehersal (last consert as his middle school tonight!!  the brick on his head isn't working!).  We went in to specifically buy new eat-trays.  Catnip flavor & Tuna flavor!  They have purr-rises but I haven't checked about those.  Da Boys were sooOOOooo happy!!  No, really!  The Catnip flavor came in a large bag so I had to use three of the small plastic containers to put up all of the eat-trays in!  Now I have three content Tims laying on my bed with me whilst the fourth Tim is curled up on the window ledge.  (He's just changed position, I think he 'heard' me typing about him!!

This is the front and inside of one of Kat's Kards.  I really don't have anything appropriate (or that I think is, for Da Boys to thank me for buying them more eat-trays.  But I like this one.  ::grin::  As with most of the cards, there are a number of options.  A blank and two or three (or four or...) insides so that you can choose the one that speaks to you.  You can get postcards, one greeting card, greeting cards in a pack of 10 or 20, and note cards in a pack of 10 or 20 (yeah, irks me too that they don't have note cards in a singleton).  My mom got both the matte & the glossy at Christmas so I know that they are of high quality.  Sorry this got so long but I'd really really really like to build up my store.  No, really!!  I just realized I haven't taken Da Boys in for their shots because of budget and the month is almost over!  Ouch!

Since Cats Were Worshiped for Centuries...

Mister Kitten would like you to just come to him. No, really!! You see, I take medication at bedtime to try to get me to Delta level sleep. But I wake up 2-3 hours later and when I do, I take more medication at the 2.5-3 hour mark. Now I must admit that I achieve a deeper sleep when I have a cat snuggled next to me and ::stares innocently at ceiling and rocks back and forth:: I have been known to bribe cats to try to get them to do this. Unfortunately this usually fails, since they just snag the treat and go right back to the foot of the bed.

But last night for some reason, Mister Kitten was sleeping on the window seat.  "Treats?  You have Treats?  You may bring me Treats, Mother."  No, really!!  I swear on my first cat Christopher!!  So, of course I took him his treats (I am a good Cat Mommy!!), and of course... once I was handing out treats to Zaphy and Thomas (Star had already had his) he deigned to come down and try to score some more.

This morning, his Cat Daddy Corwyn, had to come feed him whilst he lay upon his appointed seat.  I must admit though that part of that is due to the fact that Corwyn insists that he must be the one to give Mister Kitten his treats if it is at all possible.  ::grin::  Mind you, that this morning Corwyn had gotten up on the wrong side of bed.  In fact, he went to bed on the wrong side of the bed!!  He had been cuddled up in a blanket in his computer chair with no socks or shoes on facing away from everyone.  But the minute his sister called out that Mister Kitten needed treats, ZOOM!, he was in my room.  "Mister Kitten?" he said gently while holding out the treats he had snatched from his sister.  He petted him for a minute and then all was right with his world.

This is in the card section and points to the postcard.

There is also a card for the Queen, Their Royal Majesties...

Mmmmmm.... Cake! Now Why Won't the Camera Work??

Corwyn's cake... darrrrrrrrk chocolate!!  Have some!

and wearing on of his favorite shirts!

and here is Zaphy in the window this morning

Alas this is the best I can do with my camera.  ::sigh::  You can't see anything in the screen, the flash no longer works, and I'm not sure how to fix it.  At least I was able to get pictures of the birthday boy!!  I guess I'm just going to have to try to get pictures of da boys outside!!!

Corwyn is worth two days of blogging... he's a pretty good teenager!!

Mugging or The Saga of the Pulled Pork Sandwich

As you may recall, my husband brought home two plates of goodies home from our friend's birthday party last night.  One of these plates contained pulled pork BBQ made by another friend who is part of a crew which has taken 4th in the Memphis BBQ competition.  So for lunch today, I made sandwiches.  mmmmmmmmmm  Because of the weather (okay and the fact my kids are gone this weekend), I'm a wee bit tired, which meant I ended up eating lunch in bed.  Cats like being on the bed.  Treats often come from the bed (they live in the headboard).

"Whatcha eating mom??"
"This is not for you"
"But it smells gooooooood!"
"You may not have any of this.  This is my sandwich."
"Mooo-ooooom.  Please?!  Cats neeeeeeed it!!"
"No."
::sigh::  "Cats have treats??"
"No."
::sigh::  "Okay." ::henchman whispers into ear::
::narrows eyes at cat::
::thinking::  "Cats lick the plate?"

 

Need an apron for the grill?? Or looking for something

else, we got tons of thing for everyone!!  No humans on the barbie please!!

Whew!

I have just finished splitting off the black & white graphics from the color graphics in Winter Holiday Clothing, Winter Holiday Gifts, and Winter Holiday Cards.  I hope that this will make download time for people to look at things much easier.  (You can all blame my mom for this one... we were on the phone and...)  I have been duly supervised by Star who thinks I've been working too hard.  In fact, at one point he climbed up onto my armrest, licked my left hand for about two minutes, looked at me when that didn't work, went down to my lap (of course, you realize he's purring the entire time) and curled about for a bit, looked up over the desk top and checked out the odds of being able to a) take over command of either the keyboard or the mouse b) lay his head down on my wrist to keep it from moving or c) just outright take control of the entire desk without being thrown into the Bastille.  Evidently he didn't think much of his chances today because he flowed up onto the other armrest, paused to stroke his head against my neck and then stood for a bit on the back of the chair before wandering about to do Important Cat Things That Shalt Not Be Revealed To The Hands That Feed Us™.  Now he's curled up in the chair beside me... sound asleep... doing his job.

I was a sleeping Kat...

but it's not my fault!  No, really!  The kitten made me do it!  On the other hand, I did manage to get up a few more items in the Winter Holiday section.  (I know I know, but these were actually already made!).  At any rate... I couldn't help myself... first of all, I made some changes to one of the sleeping cats... here are the old version and the new version side by side...

Or as side by side as I can make them, not being the world's best blogger (hey!  I've not been doing it that long, give me a break!  ummmm, take that back... breaks hurt).  Anyway, I managed to get that up without... toooo... many problems.  Then I threw up (no not that kind, altlhough I was a bit quesy last night but that might just have been the cookies from the cookie dough drive at my son's school having arrived ::innocently staring at the ceiling::) this one:

but evidently only got it put up into the clothing section because my mom called me about a horrendously critical error in the card section.  You see, she's been looking at the cards because she'd actually been thinking about getting  What? What?? cat for her holiday cards.  Hey, if I had the money I'd get him in a shirt!  (I don't do cards... I've only managed it about three Christmases... bad me!  no biscuit!).  So it turned out that the product description of D didn't match the interior... ooops!  I need to go check something... brb!  ::sigh::  I was right.  You see, I changed one of the inside greetings on one of the cats I added this morning so I needed to fix the product description.  What was the cat??  Oh.... yeah... here you go...

                                                                 

 While the link in the graphic is to the gift section, just so you know, the interior greetings of the cards are in the same green font.  The one that I haven't put up yet is this one...

                                                                  

 Now I just need to find out if there is a slow page load problem and how to best fix that.  ::sigh::  And there the problem is finding guinea pigs... ummm... I mean volunteers to assist me in the project.  ::rocks back and forth whilst humming tunelessly::  I wonder if I can manage to get cafepress to let me break these down into color & b/w sections.  Part of my problem right now is that making sections is a FITB because you can only have so many.  meh.

Food... filling the Big Bowl™ followed by delivering the brown bag

First, my husband brought in the bag of cat food from the car.  None of the cats were around so it didn't get torn open, which is what normally happens.  First, I filled the Emergency Cat Food Container™.  This is a small plastic container with a tight lid that holds about two days worth of food (We buy Iams because it lasts long for us than the other brands... well Science Diet is good too but I digress).  We do this because we know that once the emergency food is opened and poured into the Big Bowl™, it is time to buy more cat food.

After that was done, I filled all of the bowls with the last of the cat food in the Big Bowl™.  Trust me, there's a reason for this.  This leaves the Big Bowl™ empty.  heh heh heh.  Then I fill up the Big Bowl™  with the fresh food.  I make a crater in the center of the food, pour the old cat food into it, and then stir it all up with the scoop.  muahahahahahahahahahaha!  Because when you do that, they think that all of the food coming out of the Big Bowl™ is fresh.  Fresh is goooooooood.

Then I got started on some bags for church.  I was too exhausted to make Eucharist, but today was the day for us to turn in our food bags so I wanted to make sure I got by there to drop off our bag of food.  I also had a bag of colored pencils and some arts & crafts things which might help for the Craft fair next week (Gee!  I'd better get busy!) and then go to the littles classes.  I also passed out a bunch of my cards.  I really really really really need to get some sales  from the shop.  ::sigh::  But the cool thing was that when I went to see our Priest (he was the last person I spoke to) he felt it was a fortuitous meeting.  It seems that St. Paul's Episcopal in Murfreesboro, TN is working on it's own CafePress Shop! (yes, I'll be nice and let you know when it's up and running!)  At any rate, I'm exhausted again so I'd better go lay down before Star comes up and forces me to go to bed!!  Now I just have to figure out what to read!

One down, seventeen to go....

I have a Star cat on my lap, which generally means I should go lay down (he's quite strict with me, you see).  Howsoever, I have managed to get in a new cat into Winter Holiday... here's the pic

and you'll find him in Winter Holiday Gifts, Winter Holiday Clothing, & Winter Holiday Cards.   I've got 17 more to go... yes, you heard me right... now for two teasers...

heh heh heh... just wait until you see the letters to Santa... and of course, we have standard Hannukah & Kwanzaa & Christmas & ...

Ummmm, I got distracted...

I've gotten in all of the inside/cat cards but I've got to actually make some more Winter Holiday Cat things.  OTOH I really really really (no, really!) need to do some sewing while I've got a break from my day job (where I actually had 6 things to do... whoot!).  So I'm going to sew for a bit, rest for a bit, then make more Holiday Cats.  Then I'll fall over and curl into a little ball.  No, really.

Thomas is the cat in charge of the Office/Sewing Room at the moment.  I expect more cats to come in as soon as fabric begins to be handled.

And now for the substitute...

My clone.. uh.. um... I mean my daughter... is going to do a wonderful thing and keep working on Santa Knows Address?? for me.  I love her.  Oh and she's helpful as well.  I'm just wondering if she's going to keep reading fanfic while doing it.  hrrrrrmmmmmmmmm.

Flop Cat... Paging Dr. Flop Cat!

Okay, I've managed to get up and wake up long enough to finish putting in Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Cats.  Whew!  Now only five zillion... no, it just feels like that!  ::grin::  I think that what I'll put in next will be this one

or else this one

What to do, what to do, what to do.  Hmmmm, take meds for back?  ::nods::  Yes, and find Dr. Flop Cat.  Oh O-ber-on!

Peace on Earth - Couples v1 and Star... duh

Because Star is the computer kitty!  He came in this morning and jumped up on the back of my chair.  He started clawing on it, which I discouraged, as always.  Then he went weaving around to the arm and around my arm and began licking my left hand (my right being busy with the mouse).  The funny thing was that he started licking my armwarmer as well!  ::shakes head::  Eventually he went over to 'his' chair and curled up and he's asleep there right now.

As for me, I ended up switched armwarmers (I have a plethora of them, most of them from SockDreams which is my favorite place to get them.  My love just got me two new pairs for my birthday.  Whoot!  They have the very best customer service I have ever run into, seriously, they kick butt and take names.  I've never been disappointed with anything I've gotten from them.

Anyway, I've now managed to get another graphic up into Winter Holidays! and I had an epiphany.  So I'm going to make a section that has cats with no words on the front and a set of blanks & inscriptions in a separate section.  It shouldn't be too hard.  Other than the fact that it take a gazillion years to put stuff into cafepress.  Iiiiieeeeeeee!  Run away!  Run away!

More Holiday to go in...

I've got to see if I can get in the other five Winter Holidays graphics today and get started on Hanukkah.  Once those are in, I'll start on Christmas and then Kwanzaa.  Wheeeee!  I just talked to the test write I work with for my day job... I'll probably get a couple of graphics today.  ::crossing fingers::  Oh cool!  He just said I'd have one in five minutes!  Navy shower!!

First scared me, then scared the cat...

I have done all I can for today.  And just as I was working on the last set of cards, suddenly my keyboard wasn't working!  Oh no!!  Okay, I thought my keyboard wasn't working.  I tried it over in my composer and it worked find.  Hrmmmmm.  But it wasn't working where I needed it in my store.  This was bad.  This was beyond bad.  This was... dump dump duuuuum!... ssssserious bad.

So I pulled out the big guns.  Yes, I was worried enough.  Tired enough.  Not Thinking Enough™... that I pulled out the compressed air.  Now, mind you, Star is ensconced not more than 20" (for all the engineers out there, yes, I measured... yes, I'm like that) from the keyboard at the time.  This was Bad.  Very Bad.  Really Really Really... BAD.  Of course, I put my hand between the keyboard and Star.  But nothing, and I mean nothing, gets a cat like the sound of something spraying.  It sparks Terror in the hearts of cats.  Don't ask me, I don't get it either and I've been living with them for 48 years now.

So he goes supersonic speed OFF of the chair, hitting the corner of the doorway to the hallway...at approximately 16" off of the floor for a loss of 2" from the height of the chair (yes, I measured again).  I'll bet you anything I'm going to have to track down more treats.  Now if I can just remember where I left them.

Storewise, I'm getting of the 'puter but I did manage to get three sections started with three graphics in each one.  Each section will carry the same graphics but each sections will have different items.  For example, if you go to Winter Holidays, you'll see three gateways... each one leads to a different type of product stock (does that make sense?  I'm exhausted at this point!)  sooooooo...

Winter Clothing has your shirts, sweatshirts, kid & baby shirts
Winter Gifts has mugs, mousepads, aprons, coasters, ornaments yada yada yada
Winter Cards has cards with the first set being blank and then A-D each having a different message inside.  Oh! and two postcard types... vertical & horizontal

Now this is just the general "Season's Greetings", "Happy Holiday" section.  I'm also planning "Hanukkah", "Christmas", and "Kwanzaa" sections.  Christmas will probably be the largest simply because I have so many Santa kitties ready... there are at least two very evile ones asking Santa... no no... not gonna tell ya!

So... something to leave you with?  Hmmmmm.... Oh yes!!  From the Medical Expressions section... which I will work on sometime... as I will with all of the sections... but this is one that I came up with when I looked into my morning med box which has fiber pills, fish oil, glucosamine, vitamin, magnesium (prescribed), plus all the other prescribed meds I have to take ::sigh::  I said something about this to someone else later and they said "That would make a great shirt!  I want one!!" so what could I do??

BTW Never, ever, ever take medication that hasn't been prescribed for you.  It can KILL.

(moi?  mince words?  naaaaaaaaaah)

Have a good night/day!

Saturday Plans....

I have gotten some Holiday items ready to go in finally!  However I'm going to be at any SCA event today with my teens (and my daughter's bff) so I've got to go get ready to leave.  I am determined to get them in tomorrow!!  I realized that I need to put in some different styles of address cards in the store as well.  Any suggestions??  Hope everyone has a good day/night!