Re-Doing My Shop Today

So, I'm working on re-doing my etsy shop today. I was taking some pictures of new things and decided I was tired of the same old paper background that I have been using. I like to use the same background in all the pictures as a way of unifying my shop and creating a look that buyers might recognize. I experimented with some other papers but didn't like how blah they looked and then thought of trying some of my candy lunch boxes. I love bright things (and candy) and just have to buy these lunchboxes when I see them. The latest two I got at Vons at back to school time, a blow pop one and a dots one. I have a few of the mini ones that came with candy inside that I found at Michaels.
This is one of the mini ones, Sugar Daddy, and one of my new soldered glass pendants. I have been doing the microscope slide pendants for a long time and wanted to try a skinny version by cutting the slide in half. Before when I have cut glass I have snapped it by just holding it in my fingers and snapping, but was really afraid to try it with such a narrow cut. I had the brilliant-at least I think it's brilliant-idea of using small clamps to hold the glass to snap it, and whaddya know it worked!
The other picture is of one of my Whole Lot of Junk charm necklaces. These are fun and pretty easy to make, just combining plastic charms and flowers on a chain.
I'm going to try and retake the pictures of all the things in my shop today, add some new things, and take out some old things that are just kind of sitting there.

The Great Escape

We took Buddy in for his neuter this week. Everything went well and now he is home with pain medication and an e collar so he won't lick his sutures. He is not supposed to play, jump, or run for the next ten days and we are supposed to keep him separated from the other kitties. HAHAHAHAHA!
We kept him in our bedroom the first night which was a huge mistake unless you like having a kitten in an e collar jumping on the bed, biting your toes, and trying to nuzzle your face while wearing said e collar all night. About 4am I was awakened by an e collarless kitten purring and nuzzling, purring and nuzzling, purring and nuzzling. What the heck?
After I finally woke up a few hours later after repeated jumping, biting, and nuzzling, I found the e collar on the floor minus Buddy. I'd still like to know how he managed to get that thing off.

Lucy Likes To Help

Lucy is fascinated by water and anything that is near the sink. Here she is 'helping' me load the dishwasher.

What Is So Fascinating

About mopping the bathroom floor?

So, I decided to clean the bathroom this morning, which was long overdue as I'm lazy and hate cleaning the bathroom. As I'm sweeping the floor with my audience of three kittens Buddy is watching from his perch on the little bookshelf in our tiny bathroom. I bend over to sweep the sweepings into the dustpan and next thing I know I have a quite large kitten walking around on my bent over back. I don't want to abruptly stand up and make him get off my back as I really don't want fresh claw marks up and down my back. So, still bent over with this kitten on my back, I slowly slide over to the bookshelf hoping he will jump back onto the bookshelf, which he does.
Okay, so time to mop the now swept floor. Three kittens heads go back and forth with every movement of the mop. Now I know kittens love movement but come on, a mop? It's just not that fascinating, and it's a little difficult to mop when you have to keep mopping kittens out of the way.
But, at least the bathroom looks a little better even if I did skip cleaning the shower for now.
I'm sure I'll have an audience for that, too. Maybe even a standing ovation.

The Great Kern County Fair

Last week we went to the 'great' Kern County Fair here in Bakersfield. We had only been there once before when we first moved here and just weren't that impressed with it. After so many years of going to the Ventura County Fair nothing else really compares.
So, we decided to give it another try and actually had a nice time. We're not into the carnival rides so we skip that part of the fair all together, we like to look at the animals and the exhibits. I've always enjoyed the Ventura fair that devotes entire buildings to the kid's exhibits, agriculture, and the arts. Finding any of these things at the Kern fair takes some sleuthing. The 4-H building is hidden away near the barns, the home arts building is hidden behind one of the commercial buildings, and we never did find anything to do with agriculture, which really surprised me seeing that so much food is grown here.
But we did get to see an animal show that all the kids watching went wild for. They had goats and a little pig running around a racetrack called 'gascar critter racing'. One of the goats said 'screw this going around the racetrack, I'll just jump over the fences to the finish line'. They had a baby wallabee in a tote bag that simulated mama's pouch that they fed a bottle to and then brought around so the kids could see it.
Of course, I forgot the camera or else I would have a real cute picture of the 'joey'.
We ate a crappy burrito and hamburger, a good cinnamon roll, and some ice cream. I didn't try the deep fried snickers bar, I'll save that for next year.
Keith's favorite thing at the fair is the beer, of course.
We did get to see the worst Elvis impersonator ever-a very skinny legged man with a black pageboy wig on doing his best to do the Elvis hip gyrating up there on that stage. It was kind of painful watching that.
I miss the Ventura Fair with the fireworks every night. I know where all the exhibits are and most importantly, where all the rest rooms are at that fair. Even the rest rooms are well hidden at the Kern County Fair