The Indoor Cat

This picture is posed. She looks like quite the wild cat, doesn't she? We put her in the lilac and she froze and looked just like this for some time. Scott took a large number of identical photographs. Eventually she managed to jump down which was quite a feat. She looks lovely, though, and I think, more alert than terrified.

And now she's gotten a taste for it. We're more than a little concerned. Her problem solving skills usually involve her meowing pathetically until one of us fixes her problem (sometimes Aidan is reduced to opening doors for her). She doesn't like the way grass feels on her paws, though, so hopefully she'll stick to the more civilized paths and not venture into the nearby wilderness.

If we ever let her out again.

And now I promise no more cat posts for awhile.

What's Climbing Up My Walls?

I need some identification help.
Anybody know this?
Or this?

I think this is a peony. Anybody second that? And if so, why are there ants all over it? Will they hurt it?

What a treat to move into this home and find it bursting into the most surprising flower!

The Stark Necessities of the Kitty Culinary

Because every meal is improved by art and fresh greens.

Keeping House

I have my share of domestic talents. I can sew, and cook, and make things pretty. But, as you have no doubt observed, fair readership, the gentle art that eludes me entirely is cleaning. I just don't have the knack. I have often stared at a dirty counter and wondered how to make it clean. I mean that I always have had the sense that other people had an easier time, some innate understanding that I lack. My husband mentioned in a loving fashion once or twice that he had also observed this lack in my abilities, and although cleaning isn't absolutely top of my list of things to excel at, I did wish I could get better.

Fairly recently, it occurred to me in full epiphianic glory that I know how to learn things, and that the things I learn do not always have to be in the form of abstractions. I've been in graduate school most of my adult life, and finding myself out of it, I've had some intellectual energy to burn. Why not systematically set about researching and synthesizing knowledge about the parts of my life that had previously befuddled me.

In January I set my full intellectual and creative powers toward learning to clean. I began with Amazon, and sought the perfect cleaning book. I found it in this form:
It's extremely practical, assumes you don't know how to clean a counter effectively, and most importantly, the authors are even more toxophobic than I am. It's green as can be. It's not very pretty though. So I use it in this form:
The first thing I learned was that there are simple techniques that are more effective than others. The second thing I learned is that honest to god, if you do a bit of cleaning each day, your house doesn't get super messy. I decided that I simply could not trust my instinct on this issue (it's failed me for thirty some years on this one) and created a regime. I'm very good at following regimes as long as they're entirely of my own making. Here is my regime:
(Matryoshka image "borrowed" from somewhere or other. I've got a real thing for matryoshkas. So sexy. So stern. So motherly. So sweet.)

Now, May seems to me to be quite a domestic month, and I have decided that here on my blog it will be housekeeping month. I have quite a lot to say on the subject, and promise to keep in craft-related. Things one can make. Concoctions. Pretty implements. The like. And please, offer me advice.

Gratuitous kitty attacking feather duster pic:

Today's Hand Bag

I made this little bag from some scraps today. I like it very much. It's so satisfying to make this kind of thing. Very quick and then so very useful, both for its prettiness and also its actual functionality. This whole craft thing is about that, yeah? Being able to create the useful objects around us. I used some left over duck from my dad's bag, and the lining is red stuff left over from the chair seats. The lovely flower print is left over from a soon-to-be revealed project. The button came off of a jacket I have retired. It's actually mostly there just for the photo shoot. I like decorative buttons in theory... but in actual use, the carrying this bag around part, they're a little too frippy.

Me trying to model bag. I always find this kind of shot amusing. Interesting reflection in the beveled edge of the ancient mirror.

I think this is my spring bag. Yes, it's black. That's inevitable. But it's sprigged with flowers!

Happy May Day

My school.

A Whole New World (of tartar)

We got a new camera. A whole lot of new camera. It's baffling in its capacity. I feel like this littlest matryoshka, gazing a little stunned upon a new land of possibility.

Nesting dolls from my mother. I love them madly. The littlest here is about the size of a quarter. Good heavens.

I strongly advise my mother to stop reading here. Along with anyone else who has a stronger than usual aversion to rodents.

And this is the tarter on mouse teeth. No, serious. I found this gorgeous tiny skull in the garden. Here is the whole mandible (at least that's what I think it's called... and I think it's a mouse...I'm not really much of a biologist though):
And skull:
Love the tiny fur detail. Scott took the mousey pics, but clearly I no longer have an excuse in lack of camera-power.