catiecake.

Maybe I'm Back.

I want to start blogging again, but I'm not longer happy with the Typepad format, so I'ma switch it up and move to Wordpress.

Find me at http://catiecake.wordpress.com

   

Hi Kittens!
No reason for concern, I've just taken a rather long break from blogging. You can find me on Facebook and occasionally on Twitter and regularly on Flickr! My intrepid website designer, Kate McMillan www.outboxonline.com , is updating my website. Very soon you will be able to shop and read my blog in one place. Thank you for your caring and you'll hear back from me soon.
love,
Catie

Dear Kittens,

1. All I'm interested in eating right now are salads and ice cream. Mostly salads, though. So far this week I've eaten five salads. The eating of salads feels SO good.

2. I finished that Olive Kitteridge book. I enjoyed it. It was a quick read. Now I'm reading a book called Both Ways Is the Only I Want It. I admit that I bought it because I loved the title. The thing about the Kindle is that I don't really care what a book looks like now because I don't ever have to look at it. One weird thing is that you've got no real concept of how long a book is, either. The Kindle, of course, feels the same if you are on the 8th page or the 300th page. The thing that surprises me the most about the Kindle is how satisfying it is to read. I was so skeptical in the beginning, but I love this deal so freaking much. I'm not going to say I make out with it, but, you know, maybe I do.

3. So this deal where I am walking every day? It's working out well! I've got 6 walks logged so far.

4. Have I told you about our bed? We bought a king size Select Number bed. OH. MY. BOD. This bed is awesome. Right now my sleep number is 70. 100 is the firmest. 5 is the softest. We also splurged and bought very nice bedding. Listen, the bed is wonderful, but the bedding? The bedding is amazing. Every night I go to bed, it feels like such a lovely treat! This is the best money we've ever spent in our entire lives!

5. My new favorite face products are Clinique Turnaround Serum and Estee Lauder Day Wear (in the blue tub) moisturizer. This combo is making my skin look LUMINOUS. Okay, maybe not luminous, but it looks realy good. If you ignore the small pimple on my forehead.

6. Hopefully the weather will hold and we'll have dog training class tomorrow. I really miss class and Murray needs the structure. I've been practicing with him at home, but it's not the same thing at all. Oh, tonight we were taking a walk, doing some obedience stuff and all of a sudden here comes Seamus bouncing out of some bushes. He's got this Seamusy look on his face and he's all, "Hai, Lady and Dog. How's you?" And Murray and I are all, "How's it, Seamy?" and then we walked home.

7. So I sort of hate reading fitness magazines because of all the nutritional advice. Really, it's overwhelming. Despite that, here is what I'm going to start adding to my diet- green tea, popcorn, dark chocolate and pomegranate juice, edamame. These are things I already eat and like, but I do not eat them regularly. I'ma add them to my diet and see what happens.

Now, I watch some TV or maybe a couple episodes of The Wire.

Love,

Catie

Orange Peel

Dear Kittens,

1. I'ma going to make a change to one of my intentions! I know it's early on, but I think this is a good idea. I've decided that my intention is to do at least 365 walks this year. Some days I undoubtedly won't walk at all, other days I'll be able to walk twice. Don't think I'm giving up on walking every day, I'm absolutely not, I just recognize that things happen it's better to be realistic about a way to deal all possibilities.

2. My project for this week is to perfect making yogurt at home. I bought a yogurt maker more than a year ago and never used it! I do my best to eat yogurt most days and making my own is very appealing. The plan is to dig out the yogurt maker, get all the necessary ingredients (milk) and go to town until I get the right taste and consistancy.

3. We're rewatching The Wire and even though I know what happens, I still get all worked up. This is such a good show. It's been so long since we've watched these episodes (we're on Season 1) that I've forgotten a lot of parts and man, I am completely sucked in.

4. Tomorrow is flea market day, so I gots to get to bed so I can get up ridiculously early to meet my mom in Alameda. After we flea market, we go to brunch and then down to Park Street for more shopping. We're hardcore, yo.

5. Did I already tell you I'm reading Olive Kitteridge? How come no one told me about this book? I'm enjoying it quite a lot. I don't remember the author, Elizabeth Stout, maybe? Anyway, I like it!

Love,
Catie

See ya later, Two Thousand Nine.

Dear Kittens,

1. Christmas was very nice as Christmas often is. I got a lovely ceramic watch from my parents, a elephant teapot from my sister and a necklace with the letter "C" in diamonds from Andy. DIAMONDS! I love the sparkly so much. I also got an ebleskiver pan. I'm pretty sure that ebleskivers will feature prominently in all future brunches.

2. I am so ready for 2010.

3. I've shied away from resolutions for some time mostly because the word seems synonymous with failure. I think because so often people make the resolutions they think they SHOULD make instead of the ones they really want to make. I'm not making any resolutions for 2010, but I do have some intentions. The differencece might be semantics, but just play along with me. Setting an intention does not mean everything needs to be perfect. In fact, I can completely abandon all of this and set different intentions if it turns out that these are not working for me. 

4. I've thought about these intentions for a long time. I decided to make intentions for every day, every week and ever month. The overall theme for my year is movement. Physical movement, forward movement, moving past my comfort zone. Like that.

Daily- I wanted my daily intention to be something simple and easy enough to accomplish, but I also wanted it to be flexible so it could be challenging, too. I chose walking. The walk can be as long or as short as I want it to be, but the deal is I walk every day.

Weekly- This intention takes the form of projects. Sewing a skirt, making bread, something along those lines. I've got 52 ideas listed out, but I'll be adding to the list so that I can have plenty to choose from. My promise to myself is that I'll be prepared for whatever the project is so I can jump right in as soon as the week begins. This probably means that I'll alternate between challenging things and less challenging so that it doesn't get overwhelming or feel like I"m torturing myself.

Monthly-I wanted something that would benefit my marriage. After thinking about it for a long time I finally came up with monthly getaways for Andy and me. We've attempted this before, but this time I've got a good plan. I've listed out 18 places- some near, some far, some that include family and friends, some that are just for us. Also, instead of taking turns planning these getaways, I'm doing them all. I think it makes it easier for me to be in charge of this because I don't have the stress of a regular job to get in the way of making time to plan this stuff out.

5. As a bonus intention, I am recommitting myself to my creative endeavors. I've floundered creatively for the last couple of years, but I'm ready to jump back into this creative scene and try new things, revisit old things and just generally have fun with being creative.

And now I'm going to bed.

I love you all so much and I hope that 2010 is a great year for everyone and since that's completely impossible, I hope that everyone thrives and keeps moving forward no matter what setbacks happen.

Love,

Catie

Dear Kittens,

1. I'm eating cranberry orange yogurt for breakfast and it's really good! I like to eat plain yogurt with jams mixed in, but we had this leftover cranberry sauce just sitting in the fridge and so I put it in my yogurt and Oh My Bod! I'm a genius. At yogurt. And maybe toast, but let's just stick with the yogurt right now.

2. My parents are coming down to help us decorate our tree. We're going to have pastrami sandwiches to celebrate Hanukkah. Look, we're not Jewish, this is the best we can do. Did I already tell you that I decided this year to decorate the tree with only paper and felt because of a certain dog that'snever seen the wonders of a Christmas tree before? I've made up a bunch of ornaments and we're all set. This way none of my gorgeous glass ornaments will be shattered all over the floor, which would make me cry.

3. A while back we got this giant shadow box. It's six feet tall! The idea was that I was going to fill it with interesting stuff and it would be art. Except, I am completely stymied by this thing. It's so massive, how does one even start? Should there be a theme? And if so, WHAT? Mostly I just stare and it and wonder what the hell to do with it, but I think I will need to get serious after Christmas.I mean, it's already hanging on the wall. There's no way to ignore it. Plus, our living room is so freaking boring when it comes to art right now.

4. I started this group on Flickr called Regulation Type Broad. It's where regular women take photos of what they're wearing. This coming week I've decided to take a photo of what I'm wearing every single day. Even if what I'm wearing is pajamas. Because sometimes, I will not lie, that is what I wear all day long. Anyway, if you're on Flickr and you'd like to join, let me know and I will send you and invitation.

It is time for me to party in the shower. With the soap and the water.

Love,

Catie

p.s. if you're interested in that shampoo I recommended go to www.chazdean.com That site has the full line of products and describes each shampoo and the hair type it is best suited for. I'm still loving this shampoo a lot! Right now I'm using the lavender one, but I think I prefer cucumber aloe.

Here is some stuff for you to know about:

1. Aveeno Skin Relief Moisturizing Lotion. If you tend to be dry and uncomfortable in the winter- this stuff is AMAZING. It's unscented and it feels so good on your skin.

2. Huggable hangers at The Container Store. These hangers do not leave any weird indentiations on your clothes and because of their very thin profile, they make your clothes take up less space than other hangers. Also, your clothes do not slip off these hangers.

3. Smart Wool socks. www.smartwool.com They are expensive. They are also worth it. They help prevent blisters, they're very good looking and a lot of them come in sizes so you can have a really good fit!

4. Dark chocolate caramels from Trader Joes. These are amazing treats. They are rich and delicious and the most perfect after dinner sweet. I eat two of them after dinner and they totally satisfy my sweet tooth without being a ton of calories or carbs!

5. WEN shampoo. www.wenhaircare.com This is a weird shampoo. It's sulfate free and it seems more like a conditioner than a shampoo. I got the cucumber mint formula and I was very wary. But! I love it! It's very invigorating to my scalp, my hair feels truly clean and is really shiny. It also does not weigh down my hair, which is important since my hair is so fine and so straight. There is another forumla for damaged hair, but I tell you this, I would not recommend that forumla unless your hair is REALLY damaged. I also recommend not using QUITE as much as is recomemnded. The directions say to use 16-24 pumps, but I get by with 10 pumps nicely. I expect longer and thicker hair needs more, but you get the idea.

cove

dear kittens,

1. dog class tonight was awesome. we had a subsitute teacher. her name is fran and while her energy is completely different from mike's, she leads a great class and she really put us through our paces. i'm so super ppleased with how well murray is progressing and every time he does well in class it makes me forget all the stuff (coming when called) that he totally sucks at.

2. i worked on a small craft project and got it finished in two days. which is great, because i plan on making a ton of stuff for our christmas tree this year, so now i am free to do that. well, not TOTALLY free because i am doing a few handmade things for christmas, but those are mostly evening projects that wil not take me long.

3. tomorrow is thursday! this week has flown by for me. i'm having lunch with a friend and then i hope she might be interested in helping me shop for window treatments for the living room. the living room window has been a pain in my ass for some time. why window, why? hopefully i can find a good solution tomorrow that will not be super expensive.

and now i go do the sleeping thing.

love,

catie

Perfect Taste.

Dear Kittens,

1. There have been lots of changes in the house, but I'm waiting to take photos because I haven't totally decided on the art for the rooms where the changes took place. I always procrastinate about wall art. I have so many great pieces, I just can't decide where to put them!

2. Thanksgiving went off without a single hitch. We didn't forget anything and everything was delicious. My parents are totally in love with the dog. I think that's great, but man, Murray was super annoying over the Thanksgiving weekend because he was so poorly behaved. I'm glad to have things back to normal.

3. I have a bunch of crafts I need to finish up. It's hard all this crafting and what not, do you know? You probably have no idea. You are just a little furry kitten who only thinks about pouncing on things and napping. Oh, you.

4. I ordered two new pairs of jeans today and one pair fits perfectly and the other pair is too small. They are exactly the same size. I mean, clearly they are not exactly the same size, but they both SAY they are the same size. When will I stop being amazed by this? My guess is never. The one pair that fits is nice because they are perfect for rolling up and that's exactly what i've been wanting. Would it be wrong to use fusible webbing to keep my jeans permanently rolled? Will I regret it? Pls advise.

5. I have been eating a lot of peanuts lately. Roasted. Salted. In the shell peanuts. I had no idea there there was such a difference between various bags of peanuts, but there are. I got some from Target that were really horrible! The ones we have now are super good. Every peanut is perfect. You know what's really good? Eating peanuts and some sort of carbonated beverage like DIET COKE. Oh my dog. That is so wonderful. Highly recommend. A++

Love,

Catie

Dear Kittens,
1. Why does Seamus use his brain piercing meow on me when he wants out? Also, why does he need to go in and out and in and out so much? Stay put, Kitty!
2. I am wearing these pima cotton pajamas from J. Jill right now and they are the softest pajamas in the entire world. The only bummer is that the pants are very, very long. I guess I should start wearing high heels with my pajamas so they don't drag on the floor.
3. THANKSGIVING! We're deep frying our turkey again. This works out so great for us because we have a tiny oven and a tiny kitchen. With deep frying the turkey it means the whole cooking process goes super fast. I am a fan of this.
4. Andy had to go into work for a couple hours and then we're going to lunch and to run some errands. I shop at a small Italian market and the aisles of this store are very narrow. I love doing holiday shopping there because most people are in a good mood and it's all very festive and cozy in there. Listen, sometimes people are in bad moods, but I still love it.
5. Several years ago I hand knit a bunch of scarves and now I think I want to get rid of them. I never wear them and while most of them are nice scarves, they are entirely too warm for the sort of weather we get around here. I am on a purging cycle like you would not believe. I want to get rid of EVERYTHING.
6. My dog is really cute. He's a pale wheat color and he's got a giant button nose and he's fluffy. Also, we had friends visiting yesterday. They've got 2 little girls and on of the girls is a total natural at dog training. she's FIVE. She lead Murray around on the leash for the whole afternoon having him do various commands. AND HE OBEYED HER! He was completely exhausted after they left.
7. I should probably shower and what not so I am ready for my lunch date with my husband.
8. I decided this year that I am going to only have paper or felt ornaments on my tree. Usually our tree is a sight sensation of silver glass ornaments, but I have no idea what Murray's level of interest will be in the tree and I would rather not lose any of my ornaments due to puppy fail. I'm really looking forward to making new decorations and having a cute, homespun type tree.
Love, Catie