A Cup of Coffee, My Dog and Me

More squeeze bottle pancakes

Good morning!

It's a beautiful morning here!  The sun is shining and there's a nice breeze in the air.

 
...FYI, I tried to drop a mini chocolate chip in the nozzle of the squeeze bottle to see if I could make it go through if I snipped it further, but it was a no-go.

 
I thought the polka dots were cute though, dropped onto the already poured batter. :)

 
This one's a pig---not sure if you'd know right away. 

Brace yourself for this next one.  She was supposed to be a lovely princess.  Then I flipped her over to reveal her face...

Oh my! (this one actually impressed my husband 'cause he said he could actually make out the features on her face! ha ha!)....that's melted chocolate on her shoulder, BTW.  I just realized it was rather unappetizing to look at if you didn't know what it was! :D

Okay, I think this is the last installment of this pancake silly business.  I'm planning a road trip for next week and I have lots to get done when I'm not busy working. 

Thank you to all of you who left the lovely (and sometimes funny, Lynne!) words in the comment section of my finished sock kitty post.  It's always a little BIG thrill for me whenever someone responds to anything here.  There's a vulnerability involved in blogging and comments are wonderfully reassuring to receive.

I'm putting together a little tutorial on the basic construction of making a sock kitty.  I don't know how long it'll take, but that's my plan.

And because a post just isn't much fun without a photo or two, here's something totally unrelated to making sock cats.  I'm pushing it, thinking anyone wants to see anymore pancakes on this blog (but they're not likely to discontinue being posted because I seem to have a thing for pancakes, and now that Kelly introduced me to the idea of using a squeeze bottle...Well, I cannot seem to stop myself).

The bottle was a buck at WalMart.  I snipped the top with scissors to make the opening bigger.  I'll have to snip it a little more if I decide to add my usual mini chocolate chips to the batter next time.

They were old and cold by the time I took this picture.  I was all about playing with the squeeze bottle, not the eating part.  If you move your cursor on top of this last photo (but don't click on it), you'll see I left you a little tip about photographing pancakes.  ;)

Happy Halloween

This picture was taken about 50 Halloweens ago (in dog years).  If you're wondering if it made Zacky run away from home, wearing his mask like my childhood friend's cat dressed in doll clothes...no it did not.

We're really, really mature now and don't do this kind of thing, anymore.

(Happy Halloween to everyone!)

Finished Sock Kitty

She doesn't exactly look like she's in the partying mood, does she?!  It wasn't my original idea for her to look like that, but this is the fourth and final mouth, as I was having some difficulties.  It seemed only fitting that her expression should match my own in the end!

Embroidered ric rac from my stash on the neck and wrists to create the illusion that she's wearing a sweater top.

Just to try to make my husband's eyes roll this morning...

It worked.

Don't you hate it when you're making cat-shaped pancakes and the batter gets on the cooked side of one of the cat's legs, but you don't realize it until you take a picture of it?.... Me too.

Work In Progress on the Sock Kitty

She's coming along at a very slow pace, in between work and the rest of life.  She will be clothed and given a face, you'll see.  :+)
 

While working on this project, I keep having these mental images of the day my little neighborhood friend and I made her mom's cat run away when I was a kid.  I don't remember how old we were---probably old enough to have known better.  But we were in my friend's garage putting doll clothes on the poor, poor cat.  The moment we slipped the cat into the doll high chair, she saw her opportunity for freedom.  She made a quick leap to the ground and ran like the wind (fully dressed), never to be seen again.... I like to think she was adopted by some kind, cat-loving couple in the neighborhood who didn't have any children... Can you imagine finding a stray cat in your yard wearing a dress?  :)

Some happy inspiration

Among all her wonderful illustrations and projects, I was especially inspired by these charming stitched hearts artist, Kate Sutton created for Roxy.  I discovered her blog one morning recently, and had such a fun time going through all her archives.  Her work makes me smile.

 (Gotta love the little pirate bird.)

Drizzly, rainy day outside

...cuddly, cozy, warm inside.  A great day to work on a little sock kitty project while Zacky naps alongside me.  I've started a stew in the Crock Pot for dinner; a little lean beef and a whole bunch of veggies.  I've been tossing blankets and throws into the wash and loving the way they smell and feel, pulling them out of the warm dryer.  Who knew even doing laundry could make you feel so comfy and happy just to be alive on a drizzly day? :)

Crustless Pumpkin Pie

I used this recipe, but reduced the sugar by a third (was still plenty sweet enough) and used fat free evaporated milk instead of whole.  Trying to cut fat and calories a bit, these days.

I still wanted to enjoy a tiny taste of pie crust, so I made little cinnamon sugar topped pie crust leaves using a cookie cutter.

The leaf above, looks kinda large compared to the slice of pie, but it's actually very tiny.  Making the pie was a whole lot easier than it was for me to achieve a pretty photo of just one slice.  By the time I took this last shot, that was the only piece of pie left in the pan, and it had big gashes from repeatedly poking the pie with a knife to see if it was fully baked.  LOL.  So I had to angle this last slice in a skimpy way.

Photography is haarrrd! :D

(Notice I didn't skimp on the whipped cream to cut calories?  Hee.  Never!)

(Birthday) Cupcake Topper

(Click on image to enlarge)

...or in this case, a "Birthday Pie Topper" because I heard cherry pie was going to be the "cake" for my sister Jan's birthday this year. (You're looking at the topper the way it was sent inside her card.  My previous post shows one sticking out of a cupcake, in case you want to see that.)  :)

I used watercolor paper as the base to mount the photocopy onto (my sister as a little girl).

Micro pen details and a paper hat, a la Claudine Helmuth's collage style...

 
...bottom edge was scalloped before adding the lollipop stick with hot glue.

 

...applied glue stick all over the back of a scrap of fabric and smoothed it onto the back of the watercolor paper, starting around the stick and working outward.

...then, cut out the image close to the edge using small sharp scissors.

...the finished back side.

A little sparkle.

...text cut from an old book. 

 
...added a little paper "holster" to hold it in place inside the card... I liked the quirkiness of it being mounted diagonally.

...I think it'd be cute to stick one in a small potted plant as a gift, too.