Hometown Visit: Clintonville & German Village

 

The German Village is a really pretty area south of Downtown Columbus. As a kid my family went to see all the plays at Schiller Park, usually two Shakespearean and a Musical every summer. We's take a picnic. In college my friends & I spent a lot of time at the Book Loft (above right) & the Cup of Joe next door. The Book Loft was just as I remembered, tons of rooms with different music playing in each, new and used books, and lots of fun to explore. And Cup of Joe was definately the best coffee we had while we were in Columbus. They even carry vegan treats from Pattycake. 

  

Actually, that might be the first place I knew of that had Patty Cake baked goods in Columbus. Their story says they started in 2003 in a Cup of Joe, and they didn't open their store front in Clintonville on North High street until 2005. This was the year after we moved away! Now it's an important place to stop when we visit, along with Whole World (though we missed that on this trip, since they were closed on Monday.)  I also noticed that Clintonville now has a vegan friendly hair salon in the same area. Not bad, nice to see vegan stuff doing well in the Midwest, especially in my hometown. Anyway, Pattycake Bakery has an adorable sign now, and was serving up these adorable cat cookies, aren't they great? 

Home for the Holiday

  

We've been hanging out at my parents' place most of today and yesterday. Thanksgiving food prep is well underway, ready for transport to my grandma's in Ohio. Here are my parents, working hard & chopping things:

 

And Slick, our cat who is about 23, found a spot in the hall, at the edge of the kitchen, to watch it all from a safe distance. Or sleep, mostly, he's an old cat.

Lucy: Mostly healthy, YAY!

Lucy went into the vet today. Unlike last time,we just wanted to get her in for a routine check up and teeth cleaning. After seeing all the crystals that came out of her bladder last year, it was a relief to find out that her urinalysis was clean. Unfortunately, she's on prescription wet food to help with that, and wet food doesn't offer the same teeth cleaning benefits as dry food. She had to have two teeth extracted and is now one antibiotics and pain medication for a little while. Fortunately this time neither are bubble gum flavored (cats don't like that...) and we're just relieved she didn't have any bigger problems. I'm also hoping, for her sake, that we have several more sunny afternoons so she can enjoy rolling around in the sun while she gets better! Please cooperate Portland?

Thank you Crafty Wonderland!

Yeah, it's been over a week since Crafty Wonderland and I haven't blogged about it yet....gave myself a little break from blogging for the week after.  We had fun, sold some things, & made many people smile at the triangle cats. Even sold a few, the large white kitty and a little kitty went home as a mother's day gift, very cute. It a was pretty fun day. Oh, and I got rid of something like 3/4 of the box of business cards I just bought & that's pretty cool.

We sat next to cool people too: Rachel Blumberg, Hoot Hoot PDX!, and olbapi! And across Gadget Cozies, of which I had some of my own to sell. But that's okay, Gadget Cozies was friendly and leaned more toward the larger scale devices: laptops, etc., whereas my knit cozies focus on the little (easier to knit) e-readers. We used the square device to take credit cards on my phone. It was my first time with it and it was pretty cool, and kind of fun to use too! We also managed to get ourselves to the show and back by lugging all our stuff via public transit. Here's a funny picture of me right before the show, looking slightly frazzled:

And here are some more pics of my displays:

  

We managed to find time to make pom-poms for the banner too (see the first pic above)...well actually Chuck should get credit for almost all of them after getting some minimal instruction from me. He was helpful with so many things during and in the weeks before the show! I think he even had fun too. Yay! After a short, week long break from knitting too, I just started a pair of hand-knit socks for him as a thank you. It only seems fair.

Happy Easter/Earth Day Weekend!

 

Okay, so I'm not making bunnies, but kitties + tulips is Spring-y and Easter-y right? Plus we picked up a bunch of vegan treats at the vegan bake sale at Food Fight's Warehouse. There was also a pretty big Earth Day festival going on across the street. Not to mention all the intense sunshine we had yesterday. It was nice for a change, but I'm glad we're back to the normal overcast weather (with occasional sunshine!) today because I was getting tired of squinting/kicking myself for forgetting my sunglasses all day long. 

Anyway, hope everyone is having a happy Easter today, with lots of bunnies and spring flowers! And Sunshine if you're into that sort of thing. 

Work In Progess: Clowder of Cats

Apparently I have choices for how I refer to a group of cats: clowder, cludder, clutter, kendle or kindle of cats. All very cute. Anyway, I thought since I have Kat in my shop name, it was finally time to try to get some cats made for selling. So today we went to pick up some yarn for this (and other) purpose(s). I've finished my first larger cat in gray, well except for the face and other finishing. I'm hoping I can make up a few more larger kitties and some smaller kitties the size of my previous triangle cats. Okay, enough blogging, off to furiously knit up a kindle of cats and a bunch of kindle cozies!

Also note, in anticipation of the show my shop has had some of my usual selection deactivated for the month. It will be back to normal some time after the show! (Mid to late May, or early June? We shall see how it goes!)

Tumblr Finds March: Interiors, Sewing & Cats

I can't believe it's been about a month since I did my last post of Tumblr Finds! I noticed a lot of great interior design images this month, and lots of sewing inspiration, which can kind of go hand in hand. But, I thought I'd end this post with what honestly makes up most of my tumblr dashboard: kitties!

Interiors & Decor

  

Crib posted on kjerstis lykke, posted on the boo and the boy, on tumblr via Elephant on a Wire
Flour and Grain Sack Pillows from the blog The Style Files, on tumblr via The Architecture Blog
Teapot photo by Hillary Walker Melbourne based photographer, via Le Petit Poulailler

Sewing Projects

  

Stash Baskets found via Knitting, F**k Yeah! from The Purl Bee

Poem Quilt by Berlin Quilter found via Apotospitimou

Vinyl Belt Buckle & Belt Tutorial from A Lemon Squeezy Home, via Stitches and Purls

Cats

  

Girl Knitting with Cat via Mimisaurus

Cat with Leaf via F**k Yeah Felines!

Elizabeth Taylor with a Black Cat via missworld

And you can always view more of my tumblr favorites by browsing the archives, or checking in at emmakat.tumblr.com!

Movie Time: Mary & Max

Last week we watched the animated film Mary and Max after I was reminded (by a fellow tumblr) that I really wanted to see it after seeing trailers for it some time ago. When I saw a post about it I immediately went to look for it on Netflix, and it was even available streaming, so we watched it right away!

I've always enjoyed claymation movies, probably because of all the shorts on Pinwheel on Nickelodeon when I was a kid. Not too long before watching Mary and Max we watched $9.99, which is also an Australian film. Both films are very gritty, well, as gritty as you can make animated clay. Although both films are a little dark in subject matter, $9.99 is much more clearly an adult/art house film.

To quickly summarize Mary & Max,  it's about a girl in Melbourne who picks someone at random to become pen pals with since she has no friends. She ends up corresponding with Max, a New Yorker with Asperger syndrome. The move covers about 20 years of their life, starting in the 1970s. One feature of the film that has me considering rewatching it sometime soon is the fact that although it is claymation, a typically colorful form, it's nearly black and white. There are only occasional splashes of color, usually red, and otherwise if there is any color it is very subtle. I noticed this early in the film, and I intended to pay some attention to the use of color throughout the film, but I got too wrapped up in the characters and story to check when and if some portions of the movie were more bright and colorful to correspond with the plot points. At the very least I noticed that Mary's Melborne seemed a little brighter, perhaps sepia, than Max's New York, which is black, white, and red. But I still think it warrants another viewing. The only thing we weren't really crazy about was the soundtrack, which I thought was a little overbearing.

Oh, and one other thing: It does have the ugliest animated cats I've ever seen. I still love them, because yes I am a crazy obsessed cat lady who loves cats and all representations of cats. Although I will admit these are some pretty ugly cats, they are still cute, you know, in a cat way. All cats are cute by default.

Speaking of Claymation, when we moved here I picked up a brochure for the Northwest Film Center and found out they have a class in stop motion animation taught by Will Vinton who is famous for coining the term claymation and also for developing the California Raisins! I used to love their Christmas special.  Anyway, it's rather expensive but I did read in The Finder (a magazine Willamette Week puts out each year as sort of a guide to Portland) that one of the things you should do to become a real Portlander is take some classes there, so this might be on the horizon, eventually! At least I hope so.

The other side of the U.S.

I just flew across the US, which I think we've decided officially makes me the guest coming from the furtherest away for my friend's wedding!  I managed to completely skip a full night's sleep which actually wasn't too hard with the aid of loads of coffee. Today I slept in nice and late to make a full recovery. The kitty and I are getting used to each other, she's a super pretty shade of pale yellow:

I was bribing her with treats so I could take her picture, she's getting much less nervous about my presence as I give her more and more treats and rubs. 

I spent yesterday exploring Columbia a little, and hopefully I wasn't in such a sleepy state that I actually remember some of it. The State House grounds here are impressive, with many large trees, statues and some southern color. (By which I mean the confederate flag. I don't see it every day.) Squirrels and people are very friendly, although the former I think were angling for some food from me. I also sat down on a bench next to a lizard, a nice reminder that the flora and fauna here are much different. I got a few pictures of him but many of them were blurry since he scared off easily.

 

Just a few standard pictures of the state house for now, I will have to share more of the highlights when I return from my trip.

Lucy's Never-ending Ordeals

Oh my goodness. Lucy has already been through enough! First the surgery to have the bladder stones removed. Then the teeth extractions. Then the empty apartment. Then the flight. Then then unexpected delays of said flight. Then then new apartment. Then the recovery process. That's enough stress for one kitty to last a lifetime!

So Lucy seemed to just be starting to get into some her normal behaviors again, but then a few days ago started acting withdrawn. Yesterday she was acting very uncomfortable and last night we finally found a big lump under her jaw. I wanted to take her in right away, but of course it was late at night when we discovered this. By the morning it had become moist, seemed a little warn, and was definitely visible on the side of her face. Yikes!

We just got back from an appointment with our new Portland vet. What a relief. It was declared an abscess, cause probably related to something becoming irritated when they extracted the teeth. Fortunately it was an easy fix, the vet lanced the abscess and injected her with antibiotics that will last 10 days so we don't have to mess with that liquid (bubble gum flavored!) version, or a pill. She should start to feel better soon, and for good, but I have my fingers crossed. It seems as if it will never end and I'll never get my silly lick-obsessed kitty back! 

Lucy in the Sky

So I'm in Portland, OR now and it's lovely here. Of course, It was no easy feat getting here with all our stuff and our sweet cat Lucy. We've moved from the Midwest (last time from Columbus, OH, this time from Chicago) to the Northwest before (last time to Seattle, this time to Portland.) I've even flown with Lucy once before, during our move to Chicago. On its own it's no easy task!

This time was even more difficult. We found out Lucy was pretty sick the day before Chuck was going to leave with our moving truck. We found blood in her urine just before we were going to start loading the truck. We quickly made an appointment for that afternoon and took her straight to the vet as soon as we were done. We really weren't expecting to leave Lucy at the vet, but an ultrasound and x-ray showed a significant number of stones in her bladder; surgery was the best option. We wanted her to feel better as soon as possible, so we admitted her right away for surgery the next day.

The vet indicated that the flight with the cat would still be alright. Of course that didn't really alleviate my concerns about her and the whole situation. A move or a surgery alone was a lot to go through. After some consideration Chuck decided to go ahead and start his drive as planned. That left me to pick up the cat, try to give her the required medicine and help her cope with a completely empty apartment. I suspect that in Lucy's mind the empty apartment was the worst part of the whole experience.

For me it was the flight. Sleeping on an air mattress in an empty apartment is not great, true, but flying is hard enough these days without a cat. I was forced to miss my flight I suppose due to the fact that airlines can no longer seem to handle a traditional, non-electronic kiosk check-in. You really need to go to the desk when you fly with a pet, as far as I could, and I asked. In fact I went up to a completely empty desk, asked what I should do and was then sent to a completely full, non-moving line. A super fun line in which everyone was freaking out! At some point people started freaking out so much that they were cutting in line, with apparently no airline officials discouraging them in any way. By the time I was finally next in line I found out from a guy in front of me, on the same flight, that it was too late to check any baggage and there was (supposedly) nothing they could do. I had a 45.6 lb bag crammed with stuff which would take well over the 30 min. (or less, I don't really remember) that I had left to decide what I had to have or wanted to get rid of, and after that I'd still needed to get a cat through security. So in addition to the ridiculous fees I was already aware of and expecting I had to pay another $75 to change my flight. Yay.

My main concern was getting Lucy through all of this, and fortunately she did great. She was a little doped up on the pain killer patch from the surgery plus some sedative for the flight that clearly had an effect. She was pretty cool with everything. On her last adventure she ran all over her carrier, freaked out at take off and landing. This time she did not care. I am sure I stuck my nose into her carrier to check on her enough to make even the sweetest doped up cat (who is Lucy, btw) annoyed.

Meanwhile, Chuck had his own ordeal to go through driving a sixteen foot truck across the country. (It was supposed to be a ten foot truck, we asked for a ten foot truck. Yes, we will be writing some complaint letters about all of this in the near future!) Yet somehow he managed to move all the furniture into the apartment without me, before Lucy and I got there. Okay, so he found and hired some cheap movers, but point is it was all in the apartment when I got here. He didn't say anything about it, and I think my reaction upon entering the apartment was a slow blink, then I headed straight to the bedroom, put the cat down...it was moments before I could actually comprehend the situation enough to ask what was going on.

I think all of the familiar furniture in place when Lucy arrived was a big help for her recovery. She's still struggling with a few things, all of which the vet has reassured us are typical for her condition. She's been more and more alert every day and she's starting to figure out her routines. Meanwhile, Chuck and I are so happy to be back in the Northwest and are settling in. Our internet, until Friday, is fairly slow, but I've been trying to upload pictures. I'll post soon about my activities the last few days I was in Chicago, and then I'll start posting about exploring Portland!

Knitting Slang term of the Day: Startitis

I guess while I was studying for my last test I must have had knitting in the back of my mind, because the last week or so I've had what knitters call "startitis" pretty bad. I started about 4 projects. You already saw the easter bunnies. The rest range in project scale and therefore the amount of time these projects should take me varies. Of course with so many projects going on at once that means that they will each take longer, depending on where my focus falls...

Exhibit A:

Diminishing Rib Cardigan from Interweave Knits, Spring 2009 in Rowan Calmer that I've had in the stash for too long, which I stocked very early on for a sweater I decided was too problematic. On Ravelry

Exhibit B:

Sam Socks from Cookie A.'s sock innovation. Crystal Palace Panda Cotton yarn was in the discount bin of the local yarn shop recently, and I want to start making some of the socks from this book I got for Christmas last year. On Ravelry

Exhibit C:

And lastly, inspired by the bunny nuggets, I wanted to do my take on a cute little stuffed toy made of scraps. I guess I'm calling him Triangle Cat, which I believe to be a sort of calico due to my yarn choice. I've decided I really prefer the Blue Sky Cotton for these, but in a pinch the Lily cotton works too. It's perhaps the best use I've found for the Blue Sky yarn so far, it makes for a super soft and cuddly animal. There may be more of these in the future...meanwhile, I just took some quick snapshots, and I'm going to have to try to grab some nicer pictures soon.

I am a cat lady

I just have to go and make it official by admitting that watching video of cats doing crazy (awesome!) things is one of my favorite internet activities. This one of a cat on a roomba is everywhere right now, but it's funny. In my opinion, required viewing. Oh Wait! I like the one of the cat chasing its leash around a toilet too. And this is just such a cute kitten! So yes. This post makes it official. As if it wasn't already.

Cat Comparison

Okay, this is incredibly silly of me, but I always like looking at these kinds of charts in magazines. And besides, it seems like the best way to sum up our weekend and brief experience as a two cat household.

Houseguest

This is Slick, our house guest for the weekend. In spite of their completely opposite personalities it's been going well. Of course they are both very confused about the situation. But fortunately because Lucy is very sociable she pretty much bases her sleep schedule around us humans. And Slick is the opposite. So they've managed to avoid each other well. When they have met, there's been some hissing, but no major incidents. Much better than I expected, I have to say. But I know it's been a hard weekend, particularly for slick. So I'm pretty glad he enjoys the catnip toys from Jake and Micah so well. Lucy likes them, but she's not as much of a catnip fiend. I've noticed these cute cookies have drawn Slick out of his hiding place multiple times over the course of the weekend!

Tofurkey Day & Pie!

I believe I need to post the video above before thanksgiving since it is more relevant that way.

We have a special guest over for the holiday, we are watching my parent's cat Slick (aka Schwartzcat) while they are out of town. He arrived this afternoon, and so far no major incidents, of course we've been keeping them apart to get adjusted thus far. There is the possibility of updates on this topic throughout the holiday weekend...stay tuned.

Also, we will be having Tofurkey (store bought) and lots of lovely side dishes (not store bought.) And if we can manage it, there's supposed to be a parade tomorrow, practically right out our front door. So basically, I'm not going anywhere, but there should be some interesting stuff to blog about if I get a chance!

I Hope everyone has a fun weekend planned. Happy Tofurkey Day!

As we happened by the Zoo

Asleep
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

Yesterday around closing time, we happened by the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is free. (Otherwise we wouldn't have been there.) I am not entirely sure how long it's been since I've been to a Zoo..it was probably back in Columbus (Jack Hanna's Zoo.) They are strange places, and not a single creature looks like it has an adequate amount of space. I'm sure Lincoln Park, being free and all, is probably not the best example of recent changes in Zoo design to provide more natural habitats. From what I understand, the Zoo in Seattle (which I never saw) is one of the first examples of that kind of thinking. Even so, it seems like an outdated idea...and though I have to admit I've sorta argued with Chuck about it in the past (in which my argument amounts to remembering having fun at zoos as a kid, some of the zoos have various programs to help repopulate wildlife, but basically agreeing he's right.) seeing a bunch of kids yelling at the lions to get them to growl and no parent trying to stop them makes me wonder what exactly Zoos are there for, if not to teach kids some respect for these animals. (Fortunately a guard eventually came by and kicked us all out at closing time.)

Still...the animals are very beautiful, there's no denying. And the way each of them were perched on their own rocks was adorable. Comparisons to my own cat must be drawn!

Look! My Cat! (...again)

Lucy & Concrete Floors
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

My cat is skinny(er)!

Sorry...I know I do go on about Lucy a lot. It's just that I snapped some shots of her again, in her rollie-pollie position and that prompted me to compare her belly with a photo from last summer.
We knew from visits to the vet that she was doing well toward the weightloss goals we'd set for her (when we got her she was pretty fat!) but the belly photo was the first time I could really see it. Though she did feel lighter!

In other news I'm slowly listing some new stuff in the shop. Yesterday we met my Mom for lunch downtown & I stopped in the Dick Blick's on the way back. Picked up some boards and some art paper and pasted the two together for a new backdrop. Then did some photography...realized there's a huge difference between my point&shoot (though it is new) and Chuck's fancy SLR. And then finally got some photos I'm somewhat satisfied with. Whew! It's a lot of work!

That and I getting ready for the ravelympics on ravelry. I have from tomorrow morning to the end of the real olympics to finish the projects I signed up for, enrolled in the "sock put" and the "sweater sprint." Just what I need, excuses to knit....

Clean!

Clean windows are a good thing. Though the suction cup men really disturbed the cat. Lucy decided last night to be freaked out for some reason after several perfectly normal days. We left to run some errands and heard her crying at the door. I came back to check on her and let her explore the hallway a little. The hallway is bright yellow, by the way. (A clear attempt to emulate the Koolhaus Seattle Public Library.) Anyway, she spent the rest of the day and evening very concerned about the other side of the door, two more exploration attempts didn't help.

Today just when she woke up enough to start up her concern for what was behind the door the men with the suction cups adhered themselves to our windows. Well...that drove her to hide in the closet. She even forgot to bother us for food at her feeding time, poor cat.

Anyway, I am pleased that we now have freshly cleaned windows and I took a panoramic of our view. And....I think Lucy will get over the trauma....I hope so.

Cat+Plane=Stress Update

So the vet gave us a list of sedatives to try on the cat ranging from lavender oil to Dramamine and a prescription sedative. Dramamine being on the low end of the spectrum (but not quite as low as the lavender) we tried that last night. First of all, despite our cat being one of the best pill swallowers I've ever seen, I am not very good at giving a cat a pill by myself. Secondly you have to quarter the pill. So, like aspirin, it tastes really nasty once it gets broken up. So between those two things it must have been pretty unlike anything Lucy's experienced before. So she produced the gooeyest, nastiest drool I've ever experienced in an attempt to expel the gross pills. And it dangled from her face...and she ran all over the apartment. For some reason I really have a problem with drool as well, it makes me sick. Fortunately this time Chuck was here to take care of it (though I don't think he was aware of my problem with drool and was reluctant to be the one to take care of it) but I'll have to get a lot better at giving a cat a pill in the next few days....or else I'll have a lot of mess to deal with very early in the morning before my plane takes off.....

ugh.