When I got home from my trip, there was a package waiting for me from Yankee Candle. I had seen this black cat tea light holder in the 2012 Halloween catalog and absolutely fell in love. But it wasn’t in stock when I attended the Boney Bunch preview back at the beginning of August, and when I tried to order it online, it said it was out of stock. A few weeks later, I checked the website again and it was available, so I snatched it up (along with a small jar candle in the Pumpkin Pie scent so I could use my $10 off $25 coupon…it’s my FAVORITE of all the pumpkiny Yankee Candle fragrances).
When I opened the candleholder, I was absolutely delighted with how much it reminded me of my Jacoby-kitty. Don’t they look like they could be twins?
So happy with this purchase! And even though I haven’t pulled out the rest of my Halloween & fall decor yet, this one is already on display. I just adore it. And so does Jacoby!
So I finished my first sewing project yesterday. A couple of simple throw pillows. I adore the fabric I chose, but my skills thus far leave a lot to be desired. Still, it’s my first project, so I am obviously not going to get perfection right away. Practice makes perfect and sewing isn’t one of those things that comes naturally or intuitively to most people. Well, not for me at least.
I have watched several of the basic sewing tutorials from this site, which I have found to be full of very helpful tips for my next project. And I have to make a trip to JoAnn’s tonight to get some additional items that I didn’t know I would need until the past few days. I also started a new pinboard on Pinterest for some sewing projects that I might like to attempt.
One other thing I discovered during my first sewing adventure: Trying to sew with an extremely playful kitten around is not an easy feat. Jacoby (who is now about 7 months old) loves EVERYTHING about sewing…dangling scraps of fabric, spools of thread he can knock over, and some new furniture in the living room (my old desk and a card table for cutting/measuring) to climb on and explore. I love him, but I can’t wait for the kitten/terror/everything-is-my-toy phase to be over!
Another kitty-related Instagram post! I know I talk about my cats too much, but I have no children, so for now my furkids are my kids. And I thought it was about time I gave another update on our now 3 month old kitten Jacoby.
I can’t believe how big he has gotten! He is about 3 times the size he once was back when I posted this picture:
He’s the most playful thing I have ever encountered. Just about anything on this earth is a toy to him, and he wants to play about 23.5 hours per day. The small portion of the day when he feels cuddly (as in the Instagram pic above), he purrs sooooo loudly you can hear it across the room. He likes to terrorize the other cats, especially poor Stella, but I have also caught both Logan and Stella grooming him. So I think despite the fact that they get annoyed with his rambunctiousness, it seems that they have accepted him as a member of the family.
So we have had our new kitten Jacoby for a few weeks now. Just wanted to give you the latest update on how he is doing.
As you can see, he is still cute. Still tiny. He is getting more and more playful, and more brave with the other two cats (who aren’t all that fond of him…yet). Tadd and I are both quite smitten. Hopefully I will have more pics to show you later, but since he is all black and never stops moving, he always ends up looking like a little flittering shadow in every photo!
He has graduated from the large cardboard box we had him and his siblings in previously, to having the full run of our spare bedroom, but he’s still way too little to have complete freedom in the house. I think our 22-lb Russian blue kitty Logan would probably eat him as a snack if he got too close. He still has some growing to do before he’s ready to join the general kitty population.
Friday night we got some Publix subs and a bottle of white zin on the way home from work, then relaxed per usual and watched a couple of interesting documentaries on lovely Netflix. I love documentaries and I love Netflix. What a great intersection of entertainment!
Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to meet a friend to go on our blueberry picking adventure, which you can read all about at the link if you haven’t already. We had such a great time!
On the way home, we spotted the Citrus Tower, which is one of those old-school Florida attractions that pre-dated Disney World. Neither of us had ever been to the Citrus Tower before, so we decided to stop and check it out. We entered through a very charming little gift shop (of course!) and paid a nice woman $4 to go up in the elevator to the top of the 22 story tower. Would it shock you if I told you we were the only ones there? Kind of sad, really. But when you get to the top, you can see why. The tower was built in the 1950s, when the area was literally blanketed with citrus groves. Now, you can see some pretty lakes (Lake Apopka, Lake Minneola, and Lake Minnehaha) from the tower, and lots of subdivisions, highways, and strip malls, but not quite so many citrus groves. It was still a fun little diversion, and I like that we were supporting an important landmark from the history of our area.
Here’s a video I found about the Citrus Tower’s history and significance in mid-century Central Florida:
Anyways, after our blueberry picking and Citrus Tower adventures, we headed back to Orlando, picked up a quick lunch and then I headed home to shower and clean up for the evening. When I got home, Tadd informed me that he could not bear to give all three kittens to the shelter as we had intended, so he made the decision to keep one. I was a bit taken aback, because I wasn’t expecting to take on a newborn kitten with everything else we have going on right now, but I relented in the end. So thanks to this little guy, we are now a 3 cat household. His name is Jacoby, and he is growing on me very very quickly. Look at that face…how could I not wuv him?
Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka
Saturday night, we drove out to a friend’s house in Deltona to celebrate a birthday. The big hit of the evening were cocktails made with Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka. Have any of you tried this stuff yet? We mixed it with rootbeer for a rootbeer-float-tini and with Orange Crush for a creamsicle-tini. Good stuff! I have had it once before at a restaurant/bar, but it seemed to taste extra good while sitting on a patio outside surrounded by tiki torches and good friends. Although I must admit, that patio got quite humid after awhile and we retreated into the air conditioning before the end of the evening. I cannot wait for the Florida Summer to be over! Counting the days!
Sunday Tadd helped a friend who had been having car issues. We had planned to get some of the powder room done that day, but the garage was occupied with the car-fixing stuff, and it took much, much longer than expected, so we never got to it. I am starting to think that this powder room project might never end! Tadd promises we will finish it by the end of July, so we’ll see. I spent the day doing a little cleaning and organizing. I put the 4th of July decor away and redecorated our entry table to have more of a non-holiday-specific summertime look (which I may show you later!), and did some various other things around the house. By the time our friend left with his car, it was around 8pm, so we just relaxed for the rest of the evening until bedtime.
Another weekend, come and gone. Looking forward to next weekend though! It’s going to be a big one! More on that later…
sunshine and some tea 