Our little helper

This weekend we were working on a house project, which I can’t wait to show you.  It’s not done yet though so that’ll have to wait.  So instead I thought I’d show you our little helper.  Anytime we’re working on something new in the house, Hobbes is always right there, sticking his nose into whatever we’re doing.  Of course, this isn’t limited to just us working on the house.  Anytime we’ve had people come in to work on things (and we’ve had that happen way too often so far this year!), he’s also right by their side helping out too.  It’s a good thing he’s cute!

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Winning a jar full of cat toys

There are exactly 27 cat toys in this jar:

Steve won this jar full of cat toys from the pet food store in our neighbourhood by being the only one to guess the exact number of toys.  Neither of us can remember winning anything in a long time so we were more than a little excited to learn we’d won a jar full of cat toys.  Is that sad?  Nevermind, we won free stuff!  Eeeee!

But even more excited were the cats.

We’d barely opened the jar before Kimba had his face inside, picking the toy he wanted to play with.  Said toy was destroyed five minutes later – a little furry mouse diminished to tufts of fur and pieces of plastic spread across the floor.  Kimba was sprawled out beside it looking very satisfied.

Since then we’ve hoarded the toys and bring a new one out every couple days.  Our cats (namely Kimba and Hobbes) tend to get bored with toys if they’re left lying around to be played with whenever they choose.  So we cycle their toys to keep them interested.  This new jar of toys should last us awhile!  The most entertaining so far have been the little squares filled with catnip.  It must be pretty potent stuff because the cats go nuts.  They clutch and roll over those little squares like they want to become one with the intoxicating bundles.  Up until recently, we’d avoided any toys with catnip since Kimba was still a kitten.  But he turned one year’s old at the end of December so the powerful kitty stimulant is now fair game.

 

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Another decade

Last Wednesday I turned 30 and I was spoiled rotten. Steve woke me up with breakfast in bed – pancakes, fresh fruit, maple syrup, and daisies.  Oh and a Kimba.  He was very interested in this whole eating in bed thing.

 

And the fresh flowers thing…

Actually what woke me up was the sound of my cell phone vibrating on my bedside table.  I awoke to a message from a mysterious number, a message from my 30th birthday faery.  The rest of the day I received emails from this faery, some with clues to find my birthday present, and some to give me hints about what surprises were in store for the evening.  Also, throughout the day I received text messages from friends and family wishing me happy birthday.  Steve had suggested people text me because I would be checking my phone often (due to the faery) and because a lot of my close friends are not in Ottawa.  It was a thoughtful touch because it really did make me feel loved all day long <3

I had no idea what we were doing in the evening, just that I needed to wear comfortable shoes and that I should dress up.  Comfortable shoes and dressing up don’t always go together but luckily I have a pair of heels that I love and are quite comfy to boot!

Our surprise evening consisted of appetizers at Must Kitchen, a restaurant neither of us had ever been to before, then a drop-in salsa dancing class at Caliente, and then dinner at Vittoria Trattoria, all in the market.  So much fun!  Neither of us had ever tried salsa dancing before so we just learned the basic moves, but it was fun grooving out to the sexy tunes   It’s definitely something I’d like to try again.

I thought it was going to be hard to say goodbye to my twenties, but 30 isn’t looking bad so far.  With a new year beginning, a new decade before me, and a new life inside of me, I’m definitely feeling very introspective lately.  I joined Mondo Beyondo again to embrace this mindset and see what intentions I want to set for myself this year and in life in general.  Last time I did that we ended up in a VW love bus traipsing across North America!  And I started this blog.  I can only imagine more wild and wonderful things are to come.  So I’m really looking forward to my 30th year

 

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Happy merry holiday!

Love Krista, Steve, Hobbes, Dante, and Kimba

 

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Home Sweet Forever Home

July 15th my sweet cousin was getting married but we couldn't resist a quick stop at our new place since we got the keys in time that day!

We’ve moved!!!

A week ago today (Sunday – I’m writing this at Midnight), we moved into our “forever home.”  We had a gang full of loved ones helping us out and we absolutely could not have pulled it off without them.  I remain so grateful and amazed that they were willing to come – in super hot and humid Ottawa summer weather no less!  Everything went smoothly and the only thing broken I broke myself – a lamp I wasn’t too fond of anyway   (sorry Steve! It was his bedside table lamp).

An hour or two after everyone left, a gale force wind blew down our street and brought a big thunder-storm with it, and a power outage that lasted 27 hours.  27 hours!!!  And wouldn’t you know it, our flashlights and candles were packed in boxes nowhere to be found.  We did find a headlamp the next day which got us through the second evening.  We were anxious to cook in our new home but ended up subsisting mostly on leftover pizza from the move and kept our fingers crossed that all our food didn’t go bad.  It’s funny but it really didn’t feel like “home” until we cooked that first meal for lunch the next day.  We cooked dinner for lunch just because we were eager to finally cook!

I had high hopes and unrealistic expectations that I was going to have time to photograph our house empty to give you a tour.  But luckily I have the photos from the for sale listing!  Normally I wouldn’t use someone else’s photos without their permission but the realtor is not a very pleasant person to deal with and probably wouldn’t get back to me anyway – shh, don’t tell!  Also, fyi, they used a wide-angle lens so the sizes are a bit distorted.

Maybe some day I’ll do another tour with all our stuff in it but right now it’s a house of boxes and potential plans so that will have to wait

You already saw the front:

Instead of a backyard, we have two side yards. The one on the left is usable, with grass and some nice patio stones. The yard on the right is an absolute jungle - like you can't even walk a foot through the gate it's so wild! That's going to take some work.

There are double doors leading into the house, providing a nice buffer for charging kitties and muddy shoes:

I adore the stained-glass window with the front door. We have hardwood floors throughout, all original except in the kitchen.

This is the living room.  It has 7 windows!  I love having light in that room all hours of the day.  Our previous living room (in a townhouse) had just the back sliding door windows and it always felt a little dark.

One of our requirements was a fireplace, preferably a wood-burning one. I just love the mantel. I'm not too keen on the brass screen, but it seems easy enough to take out and we could replace it with one of those stand-alone grates. We also plan on putting a window bench seat along those back windows. Not shown in the picture are the other 3 windows on the other side of the room.

The dining room is next to the open-concept kitchen (shown in the next photo).  That was another one of our requirements, an open-concept kitchen.

I love the shutters on the windows. They provide privacy because those windows look out at the front, but they still allow a lot of natural light in the room.  I have a vision for the dining room that I cannot wait to implement. 

And here’s the open-concept kitchen:

I ♥ cooking in this space. We plan on getting two stools to put along the 'island' on the right side of the picture. To the right of that is the dining room.

Upstairs are all three bedrooms.  In the basement there’s more but we don’t count those because we are preparing the basement to rent out as a separate unit.  Here is the master bedroom upstairs:

It has a cheater en-suite and a walk-in closet. The walk-in closet is surprising in such an old building (circa. 1940) and we are very happy it's there.

The yellow room, the only room not freshly painted in a neutral colour for some odd reason, has become our office.  It is where I am sitting and typing this post.

That corkboard thing has been taken down but the yellow remains. We will paint it - there's just a lot of other things higher on our list of house to-dos! It's perfect for a joint office because it's longer than the other rooms and has those two windows, one for each of us Right now we have our desks set up with our computers back to back between the windows. In this room there's a door that opens to stairs which lead to our attic. I love our cute little attic space but it's definitely unlivable at the moment. Maybe someday we can make it a little haven.

The guest room is the most untouched of all the spaces in the house right now.  It is literally full of boxes, and a bed, and some other random furniture.

There's also a decently sized closet in this room, again surprising for such an old house. We were happy there were closets at all.

In that last photo you can sort of see the landing at the top of the stairs through the door.  There’s shelving and a bench-sized ledge there. It’s perfect for linen and a perch for the cats.  Although Hobbes likes to take it a little further:

I LUV BOXEZ

Seriously, it’s Hobbes heaven here with all the boxes.  I thought the move was going to be so stressful on the cats.  Turns out they love the new digs too!

Last pic – the upstairs bathroom.  We also have a powder room but it’s so small that I didn’t include a photo of it.  It’s really cute though.  It has wainscoting and a cute little bowl sink.

This bathroom is my dream bathroom. It has an all-glass shower, which we've always wanted, and is just generally beautifully updated. There's a bathtub as well, not pictured, which also strangely has a shower head. Not sure in what context you'd need two showers in the same room in a house, but whatevs.

And thus concludes the tour!  Someday, maybe, if we ever do all the things we plan to do, I’ll give you another tour with all our stuff

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Dante at the Golden Hour

I love the soft golden light as the sun starts to set.  Since I made a commitment to take photos every day, and we had some time in between viewings of our house, I got outside with the cats and started clicking away.  Everyone always comments on how gorgeous Hobbes and Kimba are, with their soft, fluffy, white fur, but it was actually Dante who ended up being the most photogenic!  That’s more because of my inexperience – it’s hard to photograph bright white cat fur in the sunlight!

 

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Kimba the cuddler

Every night, after Steve has fallen asleep (he always falls asleep before me, the bugger), Kimba runs into the bedroom and makes his gurgly greeting sound and hops up onto the bed.  He plops himself down on my chest and starts purring ferociously.  Every night.  I don’t know how he knows the moment that I am going to go to sleep, but he always does, and that’s when he comes for his goodnight cuddle.

He also knows the precise moment I wake up and the process repeats.  It’s my favourite way to wake up, other than Steve kisses.

I could take or leave the middle of the night cuddles when he shoves his cold wet nose in my face and demands love.  Kimba is a force to be reckoned with when he wants love.  Just now, Steve was in the kitchen putting new caulking around the counter and Kimba started rubbing up against him, meowing and purring, persisting until finally Steve gave in and snuggled with him on the couch for 10 minutes.

It’s the best kind of tyranny, to be ruled by a cat.

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Love to eat them mousies

We had a mug with this B. Kliban cartoon on it when I was growing up.

 

Last night Kimba and Hobbes were running around like crazy, which is a daily occurrence now that Kimba roams the whole house.  They both love chasing and tackling each other through every room.  But last night something different happened.  Dante was sitting and very intently watching them when they ran down to the basement.  Dante usually tries to be as inconspicuous as possible during these play fests and hunkers down for a nap somewhere hidden, so as not to get involved. But lately he’s been feisty and doing his own loop-de-loop running through the house, so we thought maybe he wanted to join in.

Well he did want to join in, but not because of Hobbes or Kimba.  Somehow Hobbes managed to get his paws on a little tiny mouse and was toying with the poor little thing!

Steve got Hobbes into a room and got him to drop the mouse, which was still able to run around.  I thought the poor guy was going to be injured or dead, so I couldn’t bear looking and didn’t enter the room until Steve assured me the mouse seemed fine.

And look how cute the little guy is:

He didn’t seem injured, just terrified (and adorable!), so Steve scooped him up and put him outside.  Now if the little guy’s smart, he won’t come back in, because I know three furry monsters who would love to nibble on his tiny feet.

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Healthy kitties everywhere!

We found out this week that Hobbes’ cousin Kaz is also Feline-leukemia free!  YAAAAAY!  I felt unable to fully celebrate Hobbes’ bill of good health until we knew for sure that Kaz was ok too.  Now we can have playdates with our kitties again.  Which will make Hobbes happy because he’s been missing the Kaz spa treatment:

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The Crow and the Cat

One day there was a skinny orange cat named Dante who loved the outside world but he had no claws, so he wasn’t allowed to roam the outside world.  He spent many hours perched on an old wooden trunk, gazing out the window at the outside world, dreaming of the birds he could catch and the dirt he could dig if only he had claws.  One day, a big dark bird landed on the fence outside the window and startled Dante from his revery.  The bird saw Dante pining in the window and started to taunt him with his “caw caws,” laughing at the cat with no claws, trapped behind the glass wall.  From then on, every day the bird came by and cackled at the claw-less kitty.  Some days, he enlisted other birds to join in.  Dante was beside himself during these encounters and turned into the sourest sour puss of all.  He growled and grumbled at the window, hissing at any other kitties who happened to get in his way.  Spring came around and Dante wanted more than anything to be in the outside world.  He meowed his little heart out at the window, hushing only when the black bird came to taunt him.  On a warm, sunny day, Dante’s dream came true and the window opened and he got to go outside.  He had to wear an uncomfortable harness and leash, but he didn’t care, he was outside!  He crouched low in the shade when he saw the shadow of his nemesis.  The crow landed on the fence and looked for Dante in the window.  Mid-caw the big bird realized he was not alone in the backyard but it was too late, Dante had sunk his teeth into the crow’s feathered tail.  The bird took flight, a little unsteadily with some of his tail feathers missing, and never returned to the backyard.  Dante happily rolled around in the dirt on his back, reveling in the feeling of besting his enemy.

~ * ~

Ok, so Dante didn’t actually attack the crow.  But they definitely did have a hate on for each other while Dante was stuck inside.  Now that Dante goes outside, something’s changed because he barely looks in the crow’s direction.  Before, he was obsessed with tracking the crow’s every movement, running from the back to the front of the house, to the upstairs windows, always trying to get the best vantage point to see him.   And then they’d have intense stare downs and the crow would taunt Dante with his “caw caws.” Now their animosity seems to have cooled to apathy.  I doubt they’ll ever be like these guys though:

I know it’s a long video but at least watch the first couple minutes. And then skip ahead to minute 4:50 where it shows them playing. Hilarious!

*P.S.  please do not de-claw your cat.  There are alternatives to this horrible, unnecessary procedure.

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