Bunnies, Kittens, and Purple Blossoms

This will be a quick post, since I seem to be coming down with a cold or allergies or something. My throat and left ear hurt and my nose is yucky. At least my back feels a lot better today, so that's a very good thing! Three cheers for less pain! Hip hip...oh, you know the drill. 

So, first we have a card I made this week that I'm entering into the Pinspired challenge. Here is their inspiration picture of the week:

 I've put one set of these in my Etsy shop and I'm in the middle of making a second set. I can't decide, though. Do I list it on Etsy, too? Do I keep it? Or do I set it aside for a friend I think would love a set for Xmas? Geez, maybe two sets aren't enough!

Violet's been hogging the spotlight here lately and, well, she's going to do it again. Here's my sweet baby kitty eating the project I had just made at Teresa's new catalog open house for Stampin' Up! What a little jerk! She just couldn't resist that tiny flag, taunting her. So, the gift box I made for storing my itty bitty crafting doohickies is now flagless. Sigh.

Naughty kitty!

Speaking of kitties, check out this free digital stamp over at Angi's Antics. It's a sleepy kitty. Love the whiskers! Don't forget to thank her!

My cat, Violet, sneezing.

 Uh oh.

Aaaaaaaa...

...aaaaaa...

chooo!

Dignity only minorly bruised. Whew.

Foster Pet Surprise (not a recipe!) :)

Greetings! It's a rather busy Sunday here at The Rat's Nest. Scott went on a rescue run, picking up a baby guinea pig from the Wake County animal shelter to be fostered in the Carolina Pet Rescue program. Thank you CPR! My friend, Julie, posted this adorable picture, and I knew I had to at least try to do something to help.

Oddly, upon his return, Scott reported that the shelter said they had no guinea pigs, which is very strange since the info sent about the little piggie was from their website. Then I looked closer at the message Julie sent...it wasn't from the Wake County Animal Shelter, it was from the Friends of Wake County Animal Shelter, a group that, in part, puts these animals into foster homes themselves. So these guys were already in foster care. Ooops! I totally appreciate what Julie did, though. If we have the space and resources to help, we want to be there to lend a hand to try to save as many as we possibly can from being killed.  I should have known to check with them first.

It's still an exciting day for us when it comes to rescuing. We got a new pair of rats from Carolina Pet Rescue to foster. They're *naked*!!! Tiny hairless little boys. Don't worry, you'll see them very soon. I'll be taking, like, a million pictures tomorrow.

While we're talking pets, Clear Dollar Stamps has a new freebie today...a Shih Tzu!
http://www.clearlyistamp.blogspot.com/2013/06/shih-tzu-digital-image.html
Have fun digi stamping!

Kitty Kupcakes and Koladas

Clear Dollar Stamps has a really cute freebie digistamp of an otter, both in outline (my favorite, since I like to color things my way) and in color, complete with matching printable paper. They have some others geared toward Christians, so if you're into that, you have even more reason to check it out. They have a whole store full of neat stamps, too. I've got my eye on the set with the hamster popping out of a coffee cup. A-freakin-dorable!

And today I want to share this card, which totally makes me wish my cats would bring me cupcakes and pina coladas, instead of poopy litterboxes and hairballs, but they also bring me purrs and head butts, so I guess they're pretty cool. :)

I'm entering this one in the Summer Holiday themed challenge at Paper Players. I even used the very last scrap of that citrus fruity looking paper I adore. I picked it up a few years ago on a whim and can't recall the manufacturer, so even if it's still in production, there's not really a way for me to find it again. C'est la vie.
 The icing embellishment is also from a beloved line of Jolees that has been discontinued, so I snatch up all I can find anytime I happen to find some. Any tips on locating either of these items again (at a descent price...holy frijoles some ebayers with price gouge you!) would be super cool. I just get hooked on certain papers and embellishments and then the companies *dare* discontinue them without consulting me first! Honestly!

By the way, the kitty stamp I used is by Whimsy and Stars. I was super excited when I ran into her site on Etsy because I adored her designs when they used to be available through the now defunct "The Angel Company". Check out her shop. She's got great digis.

Fiskateers Birthday Club Crop Weekend

Surprise! It's me! I'm blogging again, believe it or not. I know it's been a long time, but I've missed doing the crafty-sharey thing, and have some other things to yap about, too. So if you'll forgive the lapse in posts, I'll try to make your visits worth your while. :)

Like today, for example, I wanted to share a link to some free supercute digi stamps available at the Creative Cuties website. There's a doe-eyed deer (how appropriate), and a beautiful fox that I'm absolutely in love with. Just click the link and you should be able to download it there. Don't forget to leave a note of thanks in the comments. It's very generous of them to offer these for free!

Now, let's see what I can share that I've been working on. This weekend was the Fiskateer Birthday Club Crop, hostessed by my fabulous friend Donna (check out her blog, here). She's the organizer of the Birthday Club, and sends out monthly emails listing the birthdates and addresses of participating Fiskateers so members can send handmade cards to each other. I've been participating for a couple of years now, and it's both fun to make and send the cards, as well as receiving a freaking ton of amazing hand-created cards on your own birthday. Whoo hoo! They totally decorate my living room and make by birthday feel like a holiday.

So, here's one the cards I made this weekend. For this one I also had the stamp designer's challenge in mind, too. Doodle Pantry gets credit for the super cute rat stamp and you can see their challenge page here. The sentiment is from one of my absolute favorite Stampin' Up sets of all time, "Hip Hip Hooray", one of the first stamp sets I ever bought from them years ago.

 Also, Doodle Pantry is sponsoring the challenge at Incy Wincey Designs, with a spring theme, and I think the soft yet bright colors and cute juicy fruitilicious design fit nicely. Whew! Three challenges...that's one challenged card!

Um no. That''s not what I meant.

More tomorrow!`

Thinking about the new year...

Happy New Year's Eve! Every year I spend a week or two in December mulling over ideas for things I have hopes for doing in the new year. One thing I'm trying to go for this year is posting here more regularly, if for no other reason than it makes me feel slightly less the suburban hermit, holed up in my climate controlled cave, with the wolves (er, dogs, cats and little animals) who raised me as their own. At least I'm putting something of myself out there on a regular basis. I don't know what kind of a start this is, but I've been crazy for the pictures lately, so I thought I'd close out 2012 by sharing some of my favorite December photos.

 My brothers, Nick and Mikey, sent me this photo from their west coast tour with Scars and Stripes. So nice that California welcomed them with a television interview. In 3D, no less. You guys are such nerds, and I feel I can take some of the credit for setting a good example in nerdliness.

Next: Here are Scott and I waiting for the Xmas parade to begin in the small mountain town of Bryson. (I almost claimed not to remember the name of the city. See if *you* can figure out how I miraculously figured it out.) Not shown: Darcy, my best friend, behind the camera.

 I love this picture of my sweet and tolerant Goosey, allowing me to dress him up in Revco's favorite snood, made by For Paws and Home, another fabulous Etsy shop I just can't stay away from. I ended up ordering two more of these in Halloween and Xmas colors. He's wearing the red and green one today since it doesn't interfere with his dislocated/relocated hip's recovery.We even sent a couple more, plus some of her cool snakey toys she makes (Rat Terriers love any toy they can shake the life out of) to his Secret Santa over at the People Honoring American Rat Terriers group.

And finally, here's a picture of my little troublemaker, Violet, doing her best to look angelic while being dreadfully naughty, having climbed to the top of the Xmas tree. We finally had to get out her nemesis, the compressed air container, to convince her to leave the tree alone--all it takes is the sound of the air escaping, possibly because it sounds like a gigantic invisible tiger hissing at her? Not sure.

I had to add one more picture at the last minute. You may recognize this little sweetheart from my avatar I use pretty much everywhere, my business cards for my etsy shop, etc. He's Vincey, and he passed on yesterday. He was about 3.5 years old, which is quite elderly for a rat. He had been slowing down and slowing more until finally, yesterday, his little body just gave up. I wish him an auspicious rebirth, somewhere safe, around others who will love and cherish him the way he deserves. He loved scritches behind his ears and a treat in his paws. He was a loving brother to Howard, who passed on about 6 months prior, who he clearly missed and greived. He bounced back to his happy, box destroying, nest embellishing self and lived quite happily to the end.

I want to thank Carolina Pet Rescue for entrusting these precious little lives to my care. Vincent and Howard brough so much love and fun to our home, I hope I can repay you somewhat by fostering others. Stay tuned to see who.

A Spine of Pure Evil

Yeah, my spine is in rare form lately. Nasty, desperate pain is really getting to me. At least there are a few things that keep me going. For example, check out these supercute kittycone images I found at a collage sheet shop. I then created these:

Then, there's my poetry, which is in the current issues of The Other Herald, The Whole Beast, plus you can see a couple of my poems at Vox Poetica.

And finally there are my sweet goofballs:

Scott, included. BTW, check out those tiny feet Revco's propped up in the crook of his arm. Those are Rev's *back* feet. His front are below that. Aww.

 

Off to lick my wounds. Ow.