catiecake.

Twelfth of November

Telephones sitting on a shelf in my house. Even though the pink one is not plugged in, I use it regularly to talk to people.

Dear Kittens,

It's the 12th of November and while I do not think I have to tell you what that means, I will. It's only THREE months until my first Large Number birthday. I am not dreading it quite as much as I thought I would. This is in large part to working with Life Coach. If I were in the same place mentally as I was when I first hired Life Coach, I would be very sad about turning 40, but I'm not! I'm in a much better place and really, it just keeps getting better. So, I'm not hugely excited about turning 40, but today I do not hate it.

Also, this morning I went for a walk. I've been walking most days, but not always in the morning. Lately my goal has been to just get in one walk a day and not to be invested in when it happened. One of my issues is setting up ridiculous rules for myself like if you don't walk first thing in the morning, there cannot be any other walks! Just so you know, rules are said loudly and usually with a British accent in my head. As another aside, there are real reasons I prefer to walk first thing in the morning (less going on, less sun, nice way to start my day, etc.). So, this morning I went for a walk and my orange cat, Seamus, came with me. He was in a very happy mood to be going on a walk. He leaped over puddles, he said hello to various animals, he chatted happily, it was great. The best thing we saw on our walk was an orange fluffy cat that looked like a tiny fox. The foxy orange cat was looking for trouble, but we were on our fitness walk and so we ignored him.

This week begins the holiday madness. On Wednesday, I do into my mom's classroom to make a Thanksgiving craft with the kids. On the weekend there is a friend date and a housewarming party, then next week is Thanksgiving and then the freaking holiday parties begin. This is all very good and fun stuff, but it also means things are BUSY. I realized the other day, this is why I like to stay at home and keep it quiet for New Year's Eve. Firstly, the whole forced party thing seems ridiculous, but also it's usually a pretty busy holiday season for us and it's really nice to spend the last/first holiday quietly drunk at home.

I started reading a book last night, called The Snapper by Roddy Dowell. So far it's all dialog and it's quite funny, but also very familiar. I looked it up today and I learned it was a movie. And I saw it a long time ago. I remember liking the movie quite a lot. The story is set in Ireland and the thing I like about it is that the author writes out a good portion of the dialog phonetically and so you're reading that Irish accent and it makes the experience that much better. 

Here are my promises to you, My Very Most Favorite Delightful Kittens-

1. I'll post a new photo every single day (Mon-Fri).

2. I am going to buy candy for that big jar on the shelf so when you come over you can have a piece of candy. (Only 1 piece, though.)

3. I will get rid of a BUNCH of magazines this week. A BUNCH! And I MEAN it.

But right now, I'm going to bed.

Love,
Catie

Seventh of November

Dear Kittens,

I'm listing it out for you because that's where I am today. Listville.

1. Today was the first day I've been chilly. It was nice, but also sort of alarming because where are my winter clothes?

2. I went to Happy Hallow for the first time today and I sort of loved it. It's run down, borderline creepy and also great for kids! We didn't see any animals today because the kid I went with wasn't into the animals. I will go back another time for the animals.

3. I had sushi for dinner and oh my, it was so delicious. Even more delicious than normal because I was extra special hungry. I love the sushi.

4. I've been experiencing some anxiety lately. Like a low level, but constant sense of nervousness for about a week. There have been breaks in this anxiety. When I'm walking, when I'm working or when I'm doing something fun. I've been thinking about this anxiety and my theory about is that it's procrastination causing it. When I'm being proactive, I do not feel it. When I'm putting off, ignoring or denying something- I feel the anxiety pretty much constantly.

5. Also, I am ready for bed. It's late for me.

6. Tomorrow is a day of laundry and various other fun things like card making and what not.

Love,

Catie 

Fifth of November

Kitten Christmas Tree Ornaments (available at www.catiecake.com- very limited quantities)

Dear Kittens,

It seems like we're having our Indian Summer late this year. The mornings and evenings are chilly and the afternoons are warm. I can't say that I'm a fan, but apparently there is nothing to be done about it. Apparently so-called weather does whatever it wants.

One item of note before I go on- there is a giant pile of leaves at our curb (the gardeners were here this morning) and I am dying to go out there and kick the leaves so that they go all over the place. I will not do that only because it will lead to me raking and sweeping the leaves back into place. I think the best part of fall is all crunching as you walk on sidewalk.

So my plan of awesomeness has to do with recommitting to my basics. I'm pretty sure at some point I mentioned that this plan is much more interesting to me than it would be to you. So, you cannot read the following and then blame me for it's lack of complete fascinatingness to you. You little baby Kittens think that EVERYTHING is about you, don't you? When I started with Life Coach, she had me come up with a Well Being Check list. The title makes it pretty obvious what it's supposed to be, right? She suggested coming up with 10 things to do every single day that made me feel good, strong and healthy. I think 10 is an arbitrary number and really, if you wanted to do this you could come up with 4 or 5 super strong basics. Life Coach suggested that the first three on the list should be eating healthy, getting enough sleep and exercise. I think most of us can agree that those three things are the foundation to feeling your best. I've changed my list a few different times because in the beginning there were items on the list that just didn't end up mattering that much to me. So nowadays here's my list:

1. Go to bed at 9pm (I don't actually go to sleep at this time, but I do get ready for bed and read for a little while before I go to sleep)

2. Eat healthfully (avoiding low fiber, high carbohydrate foods)

3. Exercise (daily walks, weights 3X per week)

4. Morning Routine (mostly is about getting certain things done before I start Internetting)

5. Time w/Andy (dates, game night, etc)

6. Creative time (which happily is also my work)

7. Read for at least 30 minutes

8. Meditate for 15 minutes

9. Sitting (I need time where I do absolutely nothing but sit and look.)

10. Friends (wherein I take care of correspondence, have friend dates, make new friends, read friend blogs)

I never abandoned my list, but I also haven't been minding it like I want to. If you are a person who finds it difficult to do everything she wants to do in a day, I recommend coming up with your own list. It doesn't need to be 10 items, although it probably shouldn't be more than 10 (you want to keep it manageable). The important thing is that it includes things you can do to so that you always feel your best. How you implement this sort of thing is that you keep an actual checklist with you at all time and refer to it often. In addition you choose these things every single day. You do not wait for "motivation" or whatever. You say to your Kittenself, Kittenself, I am choosing to play with string for 10 minutes everyday. And then you do it.

In cooperation with Andy Anchev (my husband), it has been decided that Mondays and Fridays are either game night or date night. I am very pleased with this mutual decision. Tonight is pho and a movie. Yipee!

Love,

Catie

Fourth of November

Dear Kittens,

The flea market today was disappointing. I managed to buy a gorgeous glass footed compote bowl and an empty picture frame. I've got quite the collection of serveware going. I should have a party or something.

Today was good because I was outside, with my mom and I was walking. It felt really good to get away from the house and do something completely unrelated to my work. I truly love what I do, but the last week has been extremely stressful for me (my own fault) and getting away was good. Speaking of which- all of my holiday stuff is up. Cards, artwork (makes a great gift), ornaments and stockings. www.catiecake.com

We started on our yearly review of Firefly. Sometimes we watch the whole series more than once a year. Man alive, even though I know every episode by heart, I still love the series so very much.

Last week I was supposed to start a new program of awesomeness or whatever I was calling it, but it's for sure starting this week. I've been advised by my trusted advisor, Craige, that maybe my initial plans were a bit much and I should start slower. So slower is what I'm going to do. I do everything Craige tells me to do, which is remarkably easy since she pretty much never tells me what to do.

I have a full week of productivity, awesomeness and fun ahead of me and because of that I am going to bed early! Two nights in a row of a decent bedtime. Thank you, Fall Backwards time change.

Love,

Catie

Third of November

Sneak peek of things to come at www.catiecake.com

Dear Kittens,

I am so irritated that there should be a name for this level of irritation. Like Super Major Really and Truly Irritation. Or something. I am certain it's because of lack of enough sleep over what seems to be a very long period of time. It's getting better, the sleeping a proper number of house, but it's not ideal yet. Wah. Wah. Wah.

Here's what you really need to know- my website has been updated. Go visit www.catiecake.com To see part of of what I've been working on. Right now you can see cards and artwork, but very soon Christmas tree ornaments and stockings will be up. Kittens, if you would please do me the favor of passing on the URL of my website on to people you believe would be interested, I will be very grateful.

My webgirl is the most amazing webgirl ever in the world. Her name is Kate McMillan and her website is www.outboxonline.com . If you want an amazingly designed website, Kate is your gal. She has been an invaluable partner to me. Truly, I do not know anyone that I would trust more with my website. Her asthetic is spot on. Her work ethic is awe-inspiring. I'm lucky enough to be friends with Kate. Seriously, pass her name on to people who need a kick ass website.

In non website news- tomorrow is the flea market. I'm meeting my mom there and we are going to walk and walk and walk and walk until we feel like dying. Then we'll go out to lunch. We might even buy some stuff. We're both always on the lookout for religious things like crucifixes, icons and rosary beads, various small pieces of furniture (I have a thing for small tables and chairs) and I'm going to be looking for beads for to make necklaces with. I really need a day like what tomorrow is going to be.

You are loved!

Catie

First of November

Dear Kittens,

Welcome to the first day of NaBloPoMo Pretend confetting and streamers have just dropped all over your head and what not. A post a day for the entire month of November. First, I want to do some catching up with yous.

I have been extremely busy in the last few days trying to finish up all my stuff for my website. For those of you who do not know, I have a tiny business called CatieCake Cards. Predictably, I sell handmade greeting cards, I also make wedding invitations, baby announcements and all manner of card type things. I also sell some crafty stuff like Christmas tree ornaments and Christmas stockings. This year I've added several pieces of collage art to my offerings. I'm pretty excited about everything that's going on and as soon as my fantastic web girl can update my site, I will be letting you know.

I've been very tired lately from all the work I've been doing and I am still tired today. In fact, yesterday Andy called me on his way home from work and I woke up to find myself asleep on my laptop. We spoke for a few minutes and then I said, "Look, I've got to go. I need to go be tired" I meant to say I needed to go to the bathroom, but what I sad was more accurate.

I planned to start a new program of wonderfulness on Monday, but I must've been crazy when I thought that up! My new program will start NEXT Monday and that will be good. This new program is undoubtedly only interesting to me, so don't sweat it.

There was an earthquake. Everyone is fine. The cats did not react at all. The only time Roo has ever reacted to an earthquake was in 1994 there was the Northridge earthquake and we were living in southern California. It was quite big and scarry and Roo did not trust the floor for a good 3 days after that one. Of course, we kept having fairly large aftershocks, so who could blame him.

When I first started life coaching, a number of people expressed some interest in the whole thing. I get that not everyone wants or even needs to commit to 12 weeks, so my life coach has started a new thing called Life Coaching Lite. It's 25 minute online sessions for $40. Obviously, it's not meant to delve deep into your psyche, but if you are on your way to a goal and struggling, this might be the thing for you. You can read all about it here. I have found life coaching an invaluable tool and I encourage anyone who feels like they need help to get themselves out of a rut to look into it.

I think there might be more to tell, but this is all I have time for today.

Love!

Catie

Kitty Cat Boyfriend

Berries. Taken at the Bonneville Locks in Oregon

Dear Kittens,

I better get my shit together because in exactly a week I will be starting NaPoBloMo. Wherein I will be required to post Every Single Day of November. Every day! Can you even imagine such a thing?

Today I went to Sephora and spent an obscene amount of money. All manner of new face potions, new eyeshadow, a new blush, and maybe some other stuff I forgot about. Can I tell you Kittens something? Of course I can, you are my baby kittens. I can tell you anything. I am in love with my eyebrows. Pretty much everyday I make out with myself via my eyebrows. I bought this Anastasia kit from Sephora a while ago and it came with these little eyebrow stencils. EYEBROW STENCILS! The stencils did not work out for me, but they did help me correct the shape and size of my eyesbrows and now they pretty much always look awesome. It's okay if you don't care about eyebrows, but let me tell you this- good looking eyebrows go a very long way towards making a face look good. Well groomed brows make up for never wearing makeup, even.

Earlier in the week I roasted trout for dinner. Kittens, trout is so delicious. Tomorrow I'm making pomegranate balsamic glazed pork tenderloin with fennel and orange salad and sugar snap peas. I know! It sounds delicious.

Starting Monday, I'm putting myself on a whole new program of wonderfulness. I'll outline the whole thing on Monday, but I promise serious wonderfulness. Or maybe not so much "wonderfulness" as "making some significant changes."

Ever since we got back from Portland I have been extremely popular with Petey and Seamus. Petey has always loved me the most, but lately he's become like a creepy stalker boyfriend. He follows me all over the house and if Andy makes a move on me, Petey is right there either watching or doing his best to get in between us. It's sweet in a very weird Kitty Cat Boyfriend sort of way. Now if Petey sees me giving Seamus affection he will let out this bitchy meow and then run away. He come right back and that's the part that cracks me up because when he comes back he's all sexy sauntering towards me. Petey's all, "how YOU doin'?"

And now I'ma take my new makeups and what not and go to the bed. I like to look at my new purchases before bedtime. What I really like to do, is spread everything out in a semi circle around me and examine each thing very carefully, the put it all back into the bag and go to sleep. I do this with everything I buy. Shoes, clothes, books, art supplies. Maybe it's really not so weird I have a kitty cat for a boyfriend.

Love,
Catie

I LOVE GOAT CHEESE.

Dear Kittens,

This is not easy for little babies like you to understand, but I Am Drunk. I drank two (2) Old Fashioneds at dinner tonight. Oh my yummy yummy Sweet Baby Jesus, but they were delicious. Honestly, who could've ever imagined that me (Catie Anchev) would love whiskey as much as I do? Certainly not me. But love it I do, Kittens. Love it, I do.

So our first real day in Portland and guess what? We did hardly anything due to the sleeping in and then the driving around to find a power cord that would work with Andy's laptop. Also, we went to Oktoberfest in Fearless Brewing in Estacada or somewhere like that. So listen, Kittens. The Website for the Oktoberfest promised people dressed in authentic Bavarian clothes, German food and German music. The truth was it was the three people who worked there (2 women and 1 man) dressed in Bavarian style clothes, playing German music through the speakers and German food. We had a good time, but it was not at all what we expected. We tried 4 of their beers, the only one we didn't like was the IPA. Also, Oregon is gorgeous.

After we got back from Oktoberfest, we walked to Powell's books. We were immediately overwhelmed and decided to sit in their little cafe to gather ourselves over coffee and tea. Andy said that Powell's is like walking into Amazon.com and he was right. I bought a couple of blank journals and a few novels, Andy hooked himself up with the science fiction maven at Powell's and walked out with something like 6 new books.

We managed to not take a single photo today. I won't let that happen again.

I really like traveling with my parents. We always have a good time and it's fun going places with them, but nothing is as wonderful as traveling with Andy. We have so much fun together. There's no stress of trying to figure out what everyone wants to do, there's no worry about everyone being entertained. It's just us and we get us and it's fantastical.

Oh! So, we're staying at the Westin in Portland and we had a very late dinner in their restaurant last night. I believe the restaurant is called the Daily Grill. The food was so good! Last night I had a whiskey sour, which was masterfully, if not a tiny bit weak, made by the bartender. Tonight we went to the Heathman Hotel and ate in their restaurant and I swear on 2 Old Fashioneds that it was the best meal of my life. I had the trout amandine and then for dessert I got this amazing goat cheese. Why do we not have cheese for dessert at home? WHY? It is so good. I love goat cheese. Maybe we will get a goat so we can have goat cheese everyday of our lives.

As always, I miss the cats, although I do not miss being woken up by a stripe orange cat who says Mew! Mew! Mew! Mew! and then puts his paws on my faces to wake me up. I just miss their general cuteness.

Now I must go lay up in the so called Heavenly Bed and finish being drunk. Oh! You know what's funny? To be drunk and walking home and talking to people on the street. I said, "I mean it" about 40 times to various strangers after making some undoubtedly ill conceived point. At one point Andy said, "Can we be done with the talking now?" And then I said, "I mean it."

Love,

Catie

The Zig. The Zag.

I realize that I should probably write descriptions for these photos I post.

This is a fence in Yosemite National Park. I liked the lines.

Dear Kittens,

It should not come as a surprise to you Kittens that I sometimes keep secrets from you. Not for the joy of secret-keeping, but more because you are Kittens and just babies and do not need to know everything about everything. It is out of love that I keep these secrets. You can thank me later.

This is the part where I tell you that I've known about the destination of our anniversary trip for a couple of weeks now. I sort of guessed it immediately, but my guess was confirmed when I was looking through the American Express statement looking for suspicious charges. The airline tickets were listed with their destination. I didn't say anything because, you know, when you plan a surprise for someone, you would like for them to be surprised. Finally, 2 nights ago, Andy told me and I admitted that I already knew. It's not that big of a deal, but I am sorry that the surprise got ruined. I'm looking forward to this trip, but I admit I'm a tiny bit tired of travel. There! I said it! I know for sure it will be good and I'll be so glad we did it (did I already say all this?), but after this trip, I'm pretty much planning on staying home A Lot.

So, we're going to Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. I'm looking forward and I hope the weather cooperates. We've decided to come up with indoor and outdoor activities so we're sure to have a good time no matter what the weather is doing. 

There are ideas for blogs I've come across in the last 2 days that I love. One is an encyclopedia of your home. Based on a book that I love called Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Elizabeth of A Browner Brown is doing it. It's one of those ideas that you (and by "you" I mean "I") wish you had first. That won't stop me from copying her, though.

The second idea is from Zena. She's taking at least a month's worth of daily photographs of the things that bring her closer to her spirituality. The Sacred Life Project. That might be a tiny bit too hippie for me, but I love the idea of taking a small moment each day to recognize the beauty around you and to find inspiration in something simple.

I find such inspiration from these two ideas that it sort of kills me a little bit. Mostly because I am trying to be smarter about making commitments, I'm not sure which idea I actually have time for right now or if they both should wait until a later date.

I realized yesterday that I've been sort of stalled out in progress lately. I'm still having sessions with Life Coach and they continue to be very good and helpful and generally speaking I feel very happy most of the time. Also generally speaking, I feel like I could be Doing More. I think I need to start pushing myself to go a little bit deeper in this whole personal growth thing. Mostly I think I need to turn up the exercise a notch and the productivity on my creative endeavors. One really good thing that life coaching has taught me is how to follow through. Before life coaching, I was very good about coming up with plans, but not so great at implementing them, but nowadays I feel pretty secure in my ability to make things happen for myself.

Also, I think this is another reason why I am less than Totally Excited for our trip. I feel like there are things to be done at home and being gone so much is preventing me from gaining momentum and that's frustrating. Because, it's not just the actual travel. I don't know if most people are like this, but I find travel wholly exhausting. The whole process of figuring out what to pack, how to pack it, going to their airport, stressing about security and then the actual flying and settling in and then coming home and the being tired and endless laundry and loving the cats and trying to get my schedule back on track and GAH! It takes up a tremendous amount of space in my head. I cannot say that I love travel. In fact, I do not love travel. Seeing new places is a lot of fun and the almost always seems worth it (Sorry, Florida, except for the Everglades, I hated your guts.) but the process is something that wears me down.

And now my day must begin with sort of a running start because we're leaving tomorrow evening and so you know, that's not that far away.

Love!

Catie!

Today, I am not your friend, Seamus.

Dear Kittens,

It's late and I don't stay up this late anymore, but there are some things I wanted to tell you.

Firstly, we had an Internet friend, Mary and her husband, Fred over for dinner. It was a lovely meeting and while I know there are plenty of people who do not meet Internet people, you totally should because they are always awesome.

Secondly, earlier today Seamus attacked Roo. All the cats decided to go outside at the same time and while I was doing some straightening up, I heard Roo scream, I ran outside and Seamus had him down and was biting the back of his neck. Roo was hissing and screaming and ugh! It was so awful. I slapped my hands and Seamus let him go and Roo ran inside. After a brief examination, I couldn't find any damage done to Roo. I don't know if Seamus thinks he's playing, or if he's trying to kill Roo because he's the weakest cat. Alls I know is, It was very upsetting and even though Seamus is extremely cute and sleeping on a pillow next to me as I type, I hate his guts today.

Going to Yosemite was a lot of fun, but I'm worn out from all the driving and my ears are worn out from the rapid increase and decrease in elevation. I've never asked a doctor if this is true, but it's my belief that the chronic ear infections I experienced from the age of baby until I was 20 has impacted the way my ears regulate air pressure. As in, my ears do not regulate air pressure well at all. Swimming under 3 feet of water is extremely painful for me.

This weekend is our anniversary trip. Andy has planned a trip for us. The destination is a surprise to me. I have a couple of guesses where we're going, but I don't know for sure and I haven't asked. I haven't asked because it's entirely too easy for me to guess. I know for 100% fact that we will have a good time, but I am not, right this second, excited. Mostly it's because we just got home and I'm tired and it feels like there's a million things to do, even though that's not exactly the truth.

Anyway, tomorrow (Wednesday) I am going to relax and do laundry. And maybe I'll watch a movie or read a book or IM people. Who knows? Anything could happen, it's Wednesday after all.

It's raining right now and listening to the rain fall is making me feel cozy and sleepy.

You are loved, Kittens!

Catie