Chattin' Cathy

...haven't been here in awhile!

2010-11-11T12:50:00.001-05:00

My grandson, Jackson's first halloween

MATTRESS DOMINOES WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT

2009-07-31T16:18:00.001-04:00

My Addiction is a 10....

2009-07-29T20:00:00.004-04:00

I was just visiting the Pioneer Woman's site and she asked this question:

On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your love/addiction for china/dinnerware?

Well, she only gave a scale from one to ten. She didn't give me a chance to tell her; mine's 10 to the 20th power!

Below show's only one window in my dining that looks out at our pool. Do you see the plates on the wall to the right? That used to be the other window. I made my husband enclose that so I could see my plates. Believe me...he didn't want to do that! Most of the pieces are Metlox. I love california pottery.

Here's the everyday dishes, Fiestaware.

Wasn't Disappointed..the girls give it 5 paws!

2009-07-27T08:35:00.008-04:00

OK...the girls give it 8 paws!!

This Dog bed didn't disappoint...

1) Customer Service was exceptional, shipping was same day!

2) Package Design and Instructions were well executed (this is key...you can't be there to explain... so the packaging must be able to do it for you!)

3) I wanted a "Mattress" style - my girls do both; curling & sprawling!

4) Size options were great! I went with "Huge" 36"x45"x5". I wanted the excess room, it seems like my girls are always changing sides and sleeping positions. (good thing they don't sleep with me. However, they do nap with me and I'm always waking up hanging over the side of my King size bed!)

5) The Duvet is extremely well constructed. I'm happy that it's 100% cotton and machine washable. The material feels "canvas" like, which lets me know it will hold up to long term washing!

6) Stuff Sack is just icing on the cake; it lets me choose what goes in there! I chose pillows, that way the duvet, stuff sack and the pillows all get their turn in the washer!

So this happy Molly Mutt bed owner gives it...

MOLLY MUTT ARRIVED!!

2009-07-24T11:01:00.011-04:00

Very efficient packaging...I must say!

OK...even I can read these instructions! So far, so good!
I decided to trek to Walmart, buy some pillows. I thought~ this way I can wash everything!

Called the girls over~ told them to check it out!
(notice Margo...she's in the middle, she doesn't like being THAT close to Maggie)

Hey, Hey...where are you going Margo? I know what you're doing!

Is that your tongue? Are you sticking it out at me? I notice you're trying to sneak away from your sister. ( FYI, they don't have the same father)

NOW Margo's happy! ~ Notice Maggie never moved. Psst... Margo sleeps with her eyes open.

In all seriousness, this is just an absolutely fantastic product. Ya know...these beds would be great for dog shelters!!

I'm going to be serious and write a review on this tomorrow. I am a self-proclaimed expert on pet products. I owned a mfg business of pet products for almost 20 years. I've been to several pet industry trade shows around the country, so I will get serious and review this bed.

INGENIOUS!!....Green too!!

2009-07-14T10:17:00.004-04:00

Just bought this bed for my 2 dogs (cute dog...just not mine)...the duvet is what I got from Molly Mutt.

This is a fantastic product. I know dog beds have been around forever, but this is just a new take on it. I also purchased the "Stuff Sack" and that's the new part of the bed for me.

Molly Mutts even gives you some great ideas for the stuffing. Hmmm...what should I stuff mine with? Gotta think about that. How GREEN is this idea though!!!

I can't wait to get mine. Here's a picture of my whippet, Margo, trying to decide which bed to get in. No matter what she chooses, Maggie, the weimaraner, is always crowding her out.

I decided to get the "huge" size 36"x45"x5". One bed...two dogs! I'll update you with a photo of Margo & Maggie on their new "Molly Mutt" bed when it comes.

I told them both, "your getting a new bed, and you'll be sharing!". They both stood looking at me with their tails wagging. They understood me, right? Or...because my voice was so excited, do you think they heard, "I'm giving you a biscuit!"

This is floating around...just want to share...AMEN

2009-07-11T18:06:00.001-04:00

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that....

HMMM...UHH?...WHAT? Oh, she just wants an invitation for dinner at the White House

2009-04-17T13:19:00.005-04:00

my first quiz...

2009-04-14T10:43:00.002-04:00

I just took my first quiz on the internet! Gosh, I hope I pass! I haven't taken a quiz in over 35 years, no lie, really! I suffer from the "Red Pen" syndrome.

I was lookin' for a recipe for Bread Pudding to take to a dinner party tonight. I decided to mosey over to Ree's site, The Pioneer Woman, to see if she had anything that sounded good, her photo's alone make the recipe look great! I'm going to give her's a shot.

I forgot what the purpose of this was, oh yeah, I remember now, the quiz. The "Smartypants" Qualifying Quiz #1 to be exact. I thought what the heck, I pay a large cable bill every month to get well over 325 channels, I'm bound to have picked up some knowledge through osmosis and channel surfing, it's not like I've ever been to any of these places. Maybe she'll grade on a curve, we'll see. Wish me luck.

...boy, are these some vibrant eggs, or what!

2009-04-12T10:52:00.005-04:00

Remember the squirrels in my yard...

2009-03-28T21:45:00.001-04:00

It's Bot Fly season

2009-03-28T21:42:00.000-04:00

EICHLER...MY NEW FOUND LOVE

2009-03-28T20:34:00.010-04:00

Ok, Eichleresque. My husband was putting in a pool at this house, then ended up doing the remodel on the house, too. It's located in Orlando.

He knows I love Mid-Century Modern. With my camera in hand I toured this house and now I want him to build me one just like it! I truly LOVE the pink & blue bathrooms. There's also a couple of other pics of homes on the same street.

The original owners stopped by one day and gave us a little background. They had it built in 1958.

Can we say...IKEA! I will try and get some new pics now that the renovation is complete.

Check out this Eichler site in California

Fought the new "Black Friday" crowd and found these...

2008-12-29T13:17:00.003-05:00

I found these great looking coasters at Anthropologie. I'm not going to use them as coasters; instead they'll be admired as 4" squares of beautiful art!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

2008-12-24T20:30:00.004-05:00

This is what I spent Christmas Eve doing; making my hubby, Thumb Print cookies. This is all that is left after I baked 2 dozen. Scratch that, 2 dozen minus 1...the dog stole one right off the cookie sheet before I could put them in the oven! Damn dog.

I guess I should be happy that this is all he wants for Christmas, after 34 years together, he still just wants his cookies!

So, Merry Christmas honey, to bad they'll be gone before noon on Christmas Day. The poor guy won't see another batch of these cookies for a whole year; you'd think he'd savour them for longer than just 12 hours!

My little sun catchers...

2008-12-22T06:03:00.004-05:00

This is sooo cute! They follow the sun around the table every morning.

It's such a ritual for us, oh I mean me, every morning I have to move the chairs from under the table so they can fit. Maggie (the weim), is the one that comes and finds me, starts to paw at me until I come to move the chairs so she can be with Margo (the whippet) & Max (the cat).

Maggie can't quite take the sun as long as Margo & Max.

Style, functionality and priced right...now you're talking!

2008-12-09T13:17:00.009-05:00

What is this you're wondering? Where have I seen that design before? Get ready! TA-DA!

I found this great reusable bag at Target and when this thing is opened; it turns into a huge 15" x 16.5" x 8" gusseted bag! They also have one that when folded, is the size of a clutch style purse.

I've been on the fence about this whole reusable bag thing. Yeah, yeah I get the "green" thing! I've watched more and more people coming into the stores lately with their wad of bags. I say, show me some style and a way to refold them when you're not using them and I'll give them a whirl.

Target must have read my mind or maybe they knew I was from a set of parents that believed, a place for everything and everything in its place!

These bags are like crazy origami, they fold into something completely different than what they started out as.( yeah, it looks like a purse!)

You just may see me at my grocery store with my cute little red folded bags and when I get to the checkout, and they ask, "would you like plastic?" I'll be like, Bam!, "no these, please!" They'll say, "wow, how cool!" I'll just say, "I know".

here a doodle, hair a doodle, everywhere a doodle...

2008-12-08T16:40:00.006-05:00

A friend of mine emailed me a copy of her "doodle". She said this is what she does while on the phone! It's wild, I call it Spaghetti doodle!

I'll admit I doodle too, but I only make circles that I then turn into little flowers. Kinda boring in comparison.

Now this wonderful tea towel I would love to have, unfortunately she is sold out! The artist's name is Camilla Engman.

I was at a recent art festival and there it was, an entire booth of doodle! The artists work was a little more than I could afford all except for this tiny 3" vase. I knew I had to have my very own spaghetti doodle!

So, here's the question; if you're drawing while on the phone, is it only doodling and yet if you sale your doodle is it then called art?

Maybe, I'll commission my friend to do her spaghetti doodle and turn it into my art! Hmm!

OMG...I Love you!

2008-12-05T09:00:00.001-05:00

Where's Maggie?

2008-12-05T07:47:00.004-05:00

Maggie, my Weimaraner, seems to blend in to all the browns. Her and her sister, Margo, always try and follow the sun on the dining room floor in the a.m. to stay warm.

Maggie suffers from that, "me and only me" syndrome. She'll sit on Margo or our cat, Max, if they are sitting with us on the couch like they're not even there. No, I didn't teach her that!

Where did you learn to use analogies?

2008-12-04T14:45:00.006-05:00

OK, I just heard one of the cruelest things I've heard in a really long time. I must be getting old and have been out of the game for too long.

When did we start teaching our kids to use analogies to let people down? Do they think this hurts less because they gave them a letter and an explanation?

My sister told me today, that her daughter (which is in junior high) received a letter from a friend explaining why she doesn't want to be friends with her anymore!
Here's part of the letter:

Dear Caitlyn,
Friendship is like a soccer game; right now you've been in the game too long, it's time for you to sit on the sidelines. It's time to bring my other friends in the game... but I still Love you.

Are you kidding me? When I was growing up, we just said, "I don't want to talk to you anymore or I don't like you anymore or just, Go home!"

I could be wrong; there could be something to this analogy thing! nah!

Lets talk coffee...

2008-12-01T10:19:00.008-05:00

Love the Starbucks; hate the price & lack of convenience. There's only one in a three town radius of me; it's at the local Target.

My choice of "poison" is a tall decaf non-fat latte (yeah, I know, what a whimpy coffee!) but, I feel like I'm in a Seinfeld episode, you know the one,"The Soup Nazi", I don't want to stand there with a line behind me and give some long worded coffee order.

The coffee makers I have at home are (I'm the only coffee drinker in our house) , Mister Coffee, Senseo, but I'm thinking about getting the new Kreuig that makes the single cup. My Senseo makes individual cups with the foam, but your choices are few. With the new Kreuig you can choose between coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.

So...what do you think? Do you have one of these and is it worth all the recent hype? Let me know.

Great Black Friday finds...

2008-11-30T19:17:00.009-05:00

...on Thanksgiving it is my tradition and I know many of yours; to sit down go through all the sales flyer's to map out the "Black Friday" game plan.

Since my son is grown and all my family live in other states, I thought for the first time in my life, it's my "Black Friday" run, so with hubby in tow there were only 2 things I wanted to get (I think he was happy about that; he likes to shop on Christmas Eve).

1) My Yankee candle "Mistletoe" scent. Bed Bath and Beyond had them on sale 20% off , I also had a coupon for an extra 20%! I have artificial trees, so I've got to get that Christmas tree smell from somewhere!

2) The best book ever! "The Night before Christmas" , I found it at our local Books-a-Million. This is no ordinary Christmas book, you've got to read the reviews on this wonderful book. It's so full of letters, snowflakes, cards, pop ups, pull outs, etc..

I can see this as a table book for the holidays! If you have young children or grandchildren; this would be something they'd always remember. I took a few photo's of the book.

...and to all a good night!

This was an 8 dishtowel, 3 dishcloth kinda Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T16:40:00.006-05:00

This was what I would call an "average" dirty towel kinda holiday for me, it'll definitely make its own load of wash!

This year my hubby offered to help with the dinner, here's the conversation:

hubby: "want me to help?"

me: "huh?, what?"

hubby: "what do you need me to do?"

me: "what do you want to do?"

hubby: "anything you want."

OK, by this time I knew he was serious, so I said you can clean the turkey.

hubby: "OK, how do you do that?" (keep in mind; 34 years with this man!)

me: "I'll show you and then you can also make the stuffing"

hubby: "OK, how do you do that?"

Are you getting the picture yet? Needless to say; I had to show him every little step.

He complimented himself over the turkey, stuffing and the mashed potatoes. Yes, I let him make the mashed potatoes too. ( don't tell him, but they were a little dry)

Truly, it was a great time, just the two of us.

These are my last 2 towels, (Sana Print Dishtowels) , I'm glad I didn't have to use them; they're new (I love the retro look). I got them at my favorite store, Crate & Barrel. They're on sale for only $2.95. Not a bad price for a little bit of style.

What I'm thankful for on this Thanksgiving...

2008-11-27T12:58:00.006-05:00

...to have been able to eat off these dishes from Thanksgivings past.

These were the dishes we would use at both Thanksgiving and Christmas for many years of my life. My mom bought them from her local grocery store a few pieces at a time over 35 years ago.

The tradition was the same, Dad would get them down from the attic each holiday, wash and dry each piece by hand (Dad didn't believe in dishwashers; well he kinda did, us!) But this chore was his and his alone.

My mother passed away in 2000, the rest of my family is out West and up North, but these wonderful dishes are down South with me.

So, to all my family and friends, Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey "butt" head...now that's just plain rude!

2008-11-25T21:19:00.008-05:00

Have you ever walked up on something like this?

I didn't notice it getting out of my car, but getting back in, I looked down and there it was...

Who ever you are, the world is not you trashcan! Cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate, which is a biodegradable resistant material.

Let me tell you what I think I know about you "butt" head.

1) You're probably female (white butts)

2) You want to get your money's worth (smoking them to the end)

3) You probably had to do without something and bitched you had no money! (with over 40 butts there; that's almost $10.00!)

4) You probably forced a child or two to breathe in that toxic second hand smoke!

The world thanks you, I thank you!

Generation "Smug"?

2008-11-21T09:36:00.004-05:00

Well...finally we're starting to talk about a very big social issue that affects us all.

My child is 30 yrs. old (OMG! that makes me really old!), so when I listen to parents of children nowadays ask in true bewilderment, "why is this happening? I don't understand".

Hey, raising my son wasn't a "bed of roses" it was more like a "bed of nails", but I always was aware I would someday send him into the world of adulthood. My most overused line to him was; "life isn't fair, suck it up!"

Here's a rather simple explanation. Thank you so much Dr. Keith Ablow!

...with "Turkey" dishtowels in hand

2008-11-20T18:46:00.012-05:00

I was at the mall the other day, the "US" type (upscale), I always park in front of the entrance to Crate&Barrel that way I can check out one of my favorite stores, twice!

It was on my way back through...there they were, in the window display, my Turkey Dishtowels with a "sale" sign under them reading $6.95 for 2!

They spoke to me. Have you ever had something in a store speak to you? Well, I have, and they did! I walked in that store and went straight over to the window display, got my set of "Turkey" dishtowels, turned on my heels to leave and noticed people looking at the display from the outside, for just a split second I thought... "that's right, I designed this window display and not just the display...the "Turkey" dishtowels too!"

The attraction for me wasn't just the "Turkey"or even the earthy colors of the towels (which I love earth tones), it was the print itself that made me have to have them. The print looked like a gorgeous illustration drawn by the likes of Charley Harper. He calls his style "minimal realism".

I was so excited I bought another set of towels for my new daughter-in-law. I tried to get a couple of closeup views to show just how detailed they are.

Now, you know I'll never use them!

This is what I kept...

2008-11-19T17:35:00.010-05:00

These are the ones I got. My friend took the black/white giraffes.

I gotta tell you...when I walked into her home, no matter which way my head turned, it was Crazy Giraffe City! Giraffes in one form or another everywhere! There were giraffe wine holders, statues, stuffed giraffes, ornaments, and on and on and on. But, the largest Giraffe gift was a statue of 2 giraffes at least 5' tall!

It was her 85th birthday. So, I guess the question on everyones mind; what do you get someone that has everything? GIRAFFES!!

There's very little I don't like Chattin' about...

2008-11-18T17:16:00.006-05:00

I took a trip today to Anthropologie to by a gift for a friend. I found a set of Giraffe Measuring Spoons. I couldn't decide which color (multi or black/white), so I bought both (I'll keep the one she doesn't want).

I see that I wasn't the only one that really liked these. Here's a pic from: blackwhitebliss.blogspot.com