Photo-a-Day: Kitten gets Stuck

This is Glitch

Glitch was found at 2 days old, after her mama died. We adopted her, bottle-fed & cared for her, & now she's a precocious 3 month old kitten.

My 10 year old crafted her a little box-house when she was smaller & she loves to play inside it & swipe at passersby. Today she tried to go in through one of the "windows" in the side & got herself very stuck. She used to fit, but she didn't realize she was too big until she was running through the room, halfway in & halfway out.

After much giggling on our parts and much attacking of hands from the kitty, we expanded the opening & wiggled her out.

She still loves her box. It's the best toy ever.

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For more of Glitch's adventures, you can find her Facebook page here:
The Adventures Of Glitch

Photo-a-Day: Holiday Fun!

Happy Independence Day!

Independence Day is always a time for big celebrations in our area. We always have so many options on who to celebrate with. 

This year we attended our friend's barbecue & birthday party. One of the funnest parts of the day was when a girl brought a piñata as a present! Everyone had so much fun trying to break it open, but I think the following picture is my favorite because of how much happiness was captured at once. My littlest minion is the one up to bat, my hubby is the one having way too much fun holding the rope & moving that piñata around, and all those friends & family in the background having a great time. 

Photo-a-Day: My Lip Saver

I have dry, frequently pealing, lips (ok, skin in general). I don't wear many lip products anymore (lip sticks & gloss) because it just messes them up even more.
"Ooh bright red... lip skin pealing off... lovely..." and I'm a "picker" I can't leave the pealing stuff alone until it's off. No bueno.

Enter: my lip saver!
Always have a backup handy, in case one gets lost... or goes through the laundry.

(This is not a paid Carmex ad, but if they wouldn't mind throwing something my way, I wouldn't object!)  

Vanilla Carmex has just the right healing & moisturizing what-have-you's in them that they're the best lip balm I've come across, and believe me I've tried a bunch.

Side note on the healing side: I get frequent cold sores & when I feel them coming on, a liberal application of this stuff clears it up quick.

Happy lips, happy me.

Photo-a-Day: the Queen of Geeks

Starting a day off not feeling well, having no scheduled obligations for the day, AND my husband was home meant, I actually got to READ?!
Parents will mostly understand this concept. Quiet time to ourselves is so rare. My 4 kids watched Deep Space 9 all day long. I'm not even sorry. (Geek parenting WIN!)



Felicia Day is the honorary "Queen of the Geeks" & I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in her quirky memoir. I laughed, I cried, & I was enlightened as I got to know Felicia just a little better & found relatable struggles & stories in her book.
Thank you Felicia. <3


Coincidence: the other book I bought at the same time was "The Only Pirate at the Party" by Lindsey Stirling. I had no idea both these ladies are accomplished violinists! They're both entrepreneurs whose success skyrocketed from their YouTube videos!
Also a recurring theme of depression & anxiety seems to be much more common in our culture than most people tend to admit.
I recommend both of these lovely ladies' books.

Bonus photo!

(yes, that is a "Bad Wolf" TARDIS blanket, thanks for noticing)

Photo-a-Day: A Blog Revival!

A New "Photo-a-Day" Goal

After spending so much time away from my Instagram & simple photography, I've decided it's time to hop back in with a fun daily project again. 

Over the past couple years, I've been battling depression & anxiety. It has been hard to enjoy the simple things in life when stress has taken over. My new project: a Photo-a-Day of something that makes me happy, something I love, or simply makes me smile. The focus of the project will be to get me noticing & appreciating the brighter side of life again, because I know I have so much to be happy about. I just need to remind myself that it's there.

What Better Time to Start Than Right Now?

July 1st Photo-a-Day: a Thoughtful Gift

July is my Birthday month! My lovely friend was given this T.A.R.D.I.S. necklace & immediately thought that even though she loved it, I would love it more. "Happy Birthday!"

Benefit to introducing a friend to Doctor Who! 

Mary Poppins Costume

This is my Mary Poppins costume from 2011. 

My black umbrella has a hand-crafted clay parrot head. (Unfortunately I didn't realize until too late that it wasn't the type of clay that can air-dry. I had to be very careful not to bump it on anything. 

My carpet bag is a pretty silly thrown-together utility bag with floral fabric wrapped around it. Luckily, being an awesome utility bag, you can keep *lots* of candy in there, so it seemed more Mary Poppins bottomless-bag-like.  

As for the costume itself, the only thing I had to make was the little red bow on my collar. The hat, shirt, jacket, & skirt all came from The Costume Loft in Albany, OR.  (Check them out here.)

The shoes (which you may not be able to see too well) were my most exciting find at a yard sale for only $1!! They were new & just the right size. 

My 1 regret for the day: not getting a photo of just my husband & I together in costume! He surprised me by showing up at the end of my work day dressed as Burt. He'd even crafted himself a chimney brush!

(Should have buttoned the jacket)

Photos by: stalnakersphotostudio.com 

I did get a photo of the whole family together though. The kiddos did a Plants vs Zombies (game) cosplay together. (I'll make another post about that effort later.) 

Photo(s)-a-Day: tablecloth streamers

So this is something that I found on Pinterest, read the brief description, lost the pin, found the pin again, but the source page was removed. (Follow me so far?)

Other pinners were asking what the instructions were, so I tried it for Thing 2's birthday party & it looked WONDERFUL. :)
Now I'm blogging & pinning it so others can do it too.

All you have to do is go to the dollar store (we have Dollar Tree) & purchase coordinating colors of plastic rectangular table cloths & matching balloons. I picked up a variety balloon pack from Dollar Tree & was able to match table cloths with some of the colors.

Next, open the table cloths & cut them in half, length-wise. Now you'll have 2 long skinny plastic "cloths" from each table cloth.

Find your room's center. Take a "streamer" & attach to the ceiling in the center of the room. We used tacks to hold them on our textured ceiling. Pull the streamer out towards the edge of the room & attach to ceiling. We spread the outside ends out to their full width when attaching them.

We then attached a few of the coordinating balloons (with tacks into the tied ends) at the center of the streamers.

"streamers" going up

the center, with balloons attached

more of a room view, with balloons attached

Photo-a-Day: Rapunzel Braid

We found a YouTube video the other day, that shows how to make this braid. (I will find the link and post it later. UPDATE: see below)  :)

Thing 1 was so excited to try it that she got ready for school EARLY just so we could get it done in time. :)

Here is the link to the YouTube tutorial: http://youtu.be/C3mmHynxliM

Photo-a-Day: Captain America

My little boy earned some money recently when we sold off some of his old toys. When I asked him what he wanted to get with his new earnings, he leaned close & whispered, "I want to get Daddy a Captain America shield."
What a cutie! He wanted to get something for Daddy & he loves it when Daddy wears his Captain America shirt, so I guess the shield is the logical next step. ;)

The money came & went. Then one day he & Daddy came back from shopping & Daddy had bought HIM the Captain America shield. He LOVES it & has a place to hang it on his faux-brick wall in his room. :)

Christmas Nail Art

Here are the designs we decided on for our Christmas nails! My 2 eldest, "Thing 1" & "Thing 2", both wanted ornaments & Christmas trees on their nails. They picked out different colors & different locations for their Tree nail art.

Thing 1 chose red, green, & yellow/gold for her ornaments. Thing 2 chose red & purple.
They were *so* excited to be able to share these designs at school for the last couple days before the holiday break.
"< SarcasticRant>" Really? They're still in school all this week & Christmas is only next Tuesday! What has happened with all the budget-cutting furlough days? What is this country coming too?! " " (Wow, Blogger actually thought that was HTML code, but unfortunately only shrunk the text size.)

Little Thing 4 also had her nails done, although since she's still enjoying her toddler years, it was quite impressive that she held still long enough for one simple coat of purple to dry! ;) Not long enough for a photo though.
Amazingly, Thing 3 was distracted elsewhere & I didn't have to explain *again* why Daddy wouldn't want him having his nails painted. ;)

Oh yes, and MY nails are the green French tips with some favorite Christmas symbols on them. From thumb to pinky they are: snowflake, bow, Nativity star, poinsettia, & peppermint stripes.
(Obviously my utter confidence in your being able to visually decipher them in the picture has led me to posting the list.)

Have a very Merry Christmas! :)

Photo-a-Day (Oregon Sunrise)

A colorful Oregon Sunrise from a couple days ago.

Photo-a-Day: Panko Baked Chicken recipe

Yes, this picture comes with a scrumptious recipe today.

I never bake chicken, but I have fond & tasty memories of my Mother doing so often when I was growing up. I thought it was about time to take a crack at it for my kids.

I had some Panko bread crumbs from leftover from doing some pork chops (also a first) & so I wanted to use them on the chicken. I also like easy seasoning, so I grabbed a Ranch dip seasoning packet.
This is where my food ingenuity stopped, how exactly do I make this happen & turn out right? So I looked up a Baked Panko Chicken recipe online (this one: http://will-davis.hubpages.com/hub/PankoCrustedOvenFriedChickenRecipe ) & adjusted it for the seasoning I already had.

1 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I *actually* had this!)
1 Ranch dip seasoning packet
2 eggs, beaten
4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts (or a bunch of tenders-like I did)
Cooking oil spray

Preheat your oven to 375. Lightly coat your baking dish with the cooking spray. Combine the Panko, seasoning, & cheese in a shallow bowl/dish. Dip the chicken breasts/tenders in the beaten eggs, then coat both sides with the Panko mixture & place in your baking dish.

For chicken breasts, bake 35-40 minutes.
For smaller chicken tenders, bake 30-35 minutes.


Enjoy your delicious chicken! We sure did. :)
(This photo is the one little last chicken tender that everyone was too full to eat.)

Photo-a-Day (Safety Corn)

The BEST safety cone of all time. Or as I call it, Safety Corn.

Photo-a-Day (Masquerade)

I don't know if you've noticed them, but I am *loving* this year's selection of Masquerade masks in the Halloween departments in stores. It makes me want to host a Masquerade themed party this year!
(I won't get to since I've got such a low budget, but I've entertained the idea since falling in live with the 2004 movie adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. It will just have to stay on my "someday" list & I will hope they keep this theme around for a few years.)

Photo-a-Day (Oregon Sky)

A beautiful September Oregon country sky.

Photo-a-Day (child photographer)

With all the new smart phones with digital photography capabilities & apps with several "effects" almost everyone has taken up a new "photography hobby".

Even my little Thing 4 thinks she is a photographer... As evidenced by the photos I keep finding on my phone...

Captioned:
"ooh, picture!"

"uh oh!"

"Mommy got me."

Photo-a-Day (aw, who cares what number?)

Obviously I've messed up with posting every day, so we'll just try to continue on from here... Although I may do some extra catch-up posts.

Continuing on the custom birthday cake theme, here is a Puss in Boots cake made mosaic-style with M&Ms.

My husband is truly talented. :)

(Ooh! I did the Spanish birthday greeting! ...although I realized afterwards that I forgot the upside down exclamation point that should have started the greeting.)

Photo-a-Day (Day 22)

Themed birthday cake #3: NY Yankees (Lego)

This cake was made for a friend's son. He's a huge sports fan & loved the Yankees. We had recently purchased this amazing cake pan: Lego mini-fig. ;) so we baked him up, added another regular cake underneath, added a "fancy" frosting job, & delivered it to the excited Dad to surprise his son with. :)

Photo-a-Day (Day 21)

Themed birthday cake #2: Hello Kitty

Little Thing 4 is quite in love with anything Hello Kitty. She frequently just calls her "My Kitty". :)
Daddy once again was the baker & architect of the birthday cake. He constructed it by baking a circle pan & a square pan. Cut the circle in half, insert a strip cut from the square to make the cake more oval, used the square's corners for ears, carved a bow out of the remainder, frosted, Oreo eyes, & voila! ;)

We also had a Hello Kitty cupcake (not pictured for the birthday girl to freely dive into.

Photo-a-Day (Day 20)

Themed birthday cake #1: Minecraft.

This is Thing 3's birthday cake from this year. He loves to play the game of Minecraft on the computer, the iPad, & the iPhone; anywhere, anytime.

Daddy did an amazing job on the cake: it's a white cake, dyed blue (for water), brownies (made in a squares pan: for the dirt), topped with white chocolate squares dyed green (for grass) & accented with M&M "flowers", fruity Tootsie Roll "trees", & a little white frosting "snow".

Just one picture doesn't do the cake justice. ;)