Last Day of the Fundraiser

Weensy kitties like Fleur want to thank you for your generosity so far! There is still time to contribute; if you know someone that loves fluffy headed fur balls please pass along the fundraising message :)

Culvers is Culvers no matter where you roam!

The sign outside today says

"Peanut Butter Cup

Shaved Roast Beef"

:)

Landscaping and Gardening Ideas

Recently I went to Green 'n Growing Garden Center to check out some decorations for our yard. I was thinking of getting a bird bath. Instead I found lots of yard animals.

We need all these flamingos right? Just a huge flock o' flamingos in the front yard? I wish there was an easy way to mail a bunch of them to my family in Ohio :)

Or how about a cement armadillo? I still haven't seen a live armadillo in Texas yet.

The flying pigs were small and could be tucked in a flower bed easily. I ended up buying some bamboo to use to stake up my jade plant instead of an animal or two.

Meet Licorice

He has a really really full belly after eating a good breakfast of kitten formula. I know it looks like he is yelling but really he was yawning and I was trying to keep him awake to eat a little bit more. I love his wee white patch on his belly. He's not a full black cat so now he's extra lucky, right? After he ate more, I gave him cuddles and he purred while cuddled up to my neck and then licked me :)

What a soft sweet baby!

Thank you to all who have donated already to the fundraiser. I have found great deals on Amazon for the kittens food (yay 5 pound resealable backs of kitten formula powder!) and we are going to be able to feed so many kittens! I am still taking donations up til the end of April, so feel free to pass along my previous blog link to people you know who love tiny fuzzy purring babies.

Licorice says "Hey, thanks and can I have some more of that warm stuff that makes me sleepy?".

Meet Monterey

He is a dapper and charming young fellow, brother to MoMo, friend to all who pet him. He gives out purrs generously. I also think he looks like a fuzzy spotted cow :)

Baby Bottle Nursery Kittens

Hello Tiny Kittens!

I was at the baby bottle nursery and there were new kittens coming in and we were running low on kitten room. So, after feeding a few litters, I volunteered to take a few different buddies home some that I could feed overnight and see if my cats didn't mind having some temporary guests in the house. This group were very active so all their pictures were pretty much blurry *heh* There are two manx orange tabbies, a black and white one, a black one with faint tabby stripes, and one additional orange tabby.

This is MoMo and MoMo really liked Josh. Josh got a good purr out of him after he had a full belly at 10pm last night. I fed them at 10pm, 3am, and 6am. I had to tell a few of them to suck on the bottle not try to climb the bottle or chew on the bottle.

They get so excited to eat that they flail around and end up smacking themselves in the face or smacking the bottle away too.

Neo and Tater Tot were really confused why there were little yelling things in the guest bedroom and they ran away when they'd hear a particularly loud mew. I don't want to stress them out too much since we've only lived here about 3 months and they are still getting used to the house.

So, the little temporary guests went back to the nursery this morning at 8am. I stayed and fed kittens from 8am to noon and was going to go home, but was having so much fun I stayed until past 2pm. I fed some wee kitties that don't even have their eyes open yet and helped a few eat some of their first wet cat food. Tomorrow I'll post some more pictures of the wee ones in the nursery.

Thanks to all of you that have donated to the Nursery and also those who have passed on the blog link about the fundraiser. I'll be notifying everyone of the total donated on May 1st and what supplies will be taken to the nursery. Link to Fundraiser post

Bottle Baby Kitten Nursery Fundraiser

Can you help a tiny kitten today?

I recently started volunteering at Austin Pets Alive in their Bottle Baby Kitten Nursery. Imagine a room full of teensy tiny mewing kittens that are snuggled together, waiting to be fed wee bottles and get little beards of milk after they are done. It's just about the cutest thing! Or imagine a kitten weighing barely a pound trying to figure out how to eat solid food and ending up wearing half of it :) At this no-kill shelter there are so many more kittens right now than expected and they are running low on food. I have lots of time to feed kittens right now but not a lot of cash until work starts back up again in May. So I thought that maybe some people would like to help feed the cats with me through a wee fundraiser.

A donation of $3.00 - I will send a Bean Doodle postcard drawing of one of the kittens mailed to you (or anyone you choose). That $3 buys 3 cans of special kitten food which will feed many of the wee kittens that are learning to eat solids.

A donation of $10.00 - I will paint a watercolor kitten picture with a silly or cute saying on heavy watercolor paper and send it to you (or anyone you choose). That $10 buys enough kitten formula powder to feed a litter of kittens for weeks until they can try smooshy cat food. Wee kittens drinking from wee bottles awwww.

A donation of anything more than $10 - I will make you a stuffed felt kitten wearing a dress or shorts and suspenders. Your color choice, stuffed kitten will be about 6 to 8 inches tall.

Examples of my art style are at everydaycritter.blogspot.com.

Fundraiser will start now and go for the rest of April. All proceeds will go directly to purchasing food for the kittens living at Austin Pets Alive in Austin, TX. You can donate to my paypal account at beanbell@me.com or contact me if you'd like to send me a check. I will make all art and mail it out by May 15th :) I'm also posting this fundraiser on Facebook so you may see it there too. Click this Donate button to be easily directed to the Paypal page

Little Piggie Friends

Well hello little piglet! You are only 2 weeks old? Are you aware it is practically illegal to be as cute and tiny as you are right now?

Holy cow! Your little sibling is even tinier! Look at that wee snout!

Kitchen Updates

Some of our kitchen cabinets are high up on the walls and I have to stand on my tippy toes to get things off the second shelf. Some of our lower kitchen cabinets are too low for Josh to comfortably reach in without having to practically fold himself in half or sit on the floor. So, we updated our kitchen with two shelving projects.

Now we have a shelving unit to keep the KitchenAid appliances from cluttering the counters, the pots and pans are in easy reach for both of us, and the kitchen scale and mandolin are right out in the open to remind us to use them. Win! Those shelves are right on the same wall as the stove so in a useful place.

Then across the kitchen we have our breakfast nook next to the refrigerator. Josh found this cute Baker's Rack online with free shipping. Now we have our tea, cereal, tea cups and honey set up right next to the tea kettle and eggie sandwich toaster. The baskets can store onions and potatoes someday and right now there are granola bars and a jar of peanut butter in there :)

The painted bowl was a welcome gift from Josh's new employer before we moved here. The cute painted chickens and blue tea set were lovely Christmas gifts. And there is still more room for cookbooks too :)

Snoozing Sunday

Cloudy Rainy Weekend

Hello from cloudy Texas and sudden rainstorms Pflugerville.

This week was different because Josh was still sick from his San Francisco cold, I had Tuesday and Wednesday off work so I could take him to the doctor's office. He got prescribed some medicines and now he's feeling pretty much better.

Yesterday we had a mellow day around the house, watching movies and doing laundry and dishes. Today, we're having another mellow day. It is very much a "Drink Milky Irish Breakfast Tea with Honey Day" and cuddle a cat or two. Later, we may go see a movie since it's too yucky outside to do yard work or wash the car.

I hope our community pool is opening this week because I really want to go swimming. I have the next two weeks off work as we wait for kids to finish taking tests so I can process them. So, I'll have time in the mornings to swim and maybe the butterflies and grackles will swim with me?

More butterflies

Happy Easter Everyone!

I almost titled this "Happy Easter Everybunny" :)

This front yard butterfly wishes you a Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny came to Pflugerville this morning. He broke into the house and hid about a dozen plastic eggs with candy around the house for Josh to find. One was in the fridge, some in his office, there was even one in the dryer. Sneaky Easter bunny!

Candy to share - the chocolate filled Cadbury egg was better than I expected! The little eggs are Reece's Pieces and Whoppers all decked out for the holiday.

Josh brought home a special souvenir from his business trip - a cold. We spent most of yesterday resting and napping. Today we took it easy in the morning after the egg-excitement, then went to IHOP for lunch. I had the Lorax's Breakfast with Green Eggs and Ham.

It came with a Rooty Tooty Bar-Ba-Looty Blueberry Cone Cake - I giggled the entire time I was ordering it. We went to IHOP because I wanted Easter Ham, but it was just a bonus that they still had the strange Lorax menu because I had wanted to try the silly pancake waffle cone. It was odd and yummy but mostly odd.

Josh had some major delicious Red Velvet Pancakes. I think my sis would really like them because they were tasty like her wedding cake!

We stopped at Lowe's after lunch to get a new pot for one of our plants and some more potting soil. A female grackle decided it would be fun to hang out inside and they had some cats running around the garden center. That's my kind of place!

Baby Ugly keeps falling over so we needed a wider, sturdier pot. We found a really cool Jack Daniels barrel that was cut in half so it can be a planter - it was all charred inside and still smelled like bourbon. We replanted Baby Ugly when we got home, there will be pictures later as it got dark as we were finishing up around 8pm.

I'll leave you with some lovely flowers we saw near Freddy's Frozen Custard.

Visitors to our yard

Our bushes in front of the house have started to bloom. They smell delightful and are attracting adorable visitors. This makes me very happy :)

Beanie and NiNi

Couch and Blanket and Cat snuggles during a Tuesday afternoon thunderstorm.

Round Rock Donuts

This past Saturday, I took a drive north to Round Rock to experience the famous Round Rock Donuts. Josh and I are going to be cutting back on our sweets this spring so now was a good time to donut it up.

I was told I needed to get to the place really really early (they open at 4am) but I arrived around 9am and there was a quick moving line. They have a drive thru with about 20 cars waiting, but I think I counted only about 10 people in front of me inside the store. Why are people so coo-coo for these donuts?

Josh said it was because they make your donuts after you order them and while you wait. So they are fresh and warm! You know why they have to make your donuts while you wait?

Because they make THESE behemoths! It's a Texas Sized Donut! There is a regular cake donut on top as a comparison. I think it took us 2 days to eat the thing, sharing it and cutting off wedges. It was pretty good - more breadlike than I expected and the glaze was tasty and not overly sweet.

I also picked up a few sausage and cheese kolaches so we were not fueled by sugar alone on Saturday. Thanks for a tasty treat and the look on Josh's face when I opened up the donut box and showed him the MEGA-DONUT, Round Rock Donuts!

Hutto Hippos

And now a small history lesson....

"According to local legend, it was in 1915 that a circus train stopped in Hutto, Texas. At some point during this layover, a hippopotamus got out of the railcar and made its way to a nearby creek. This caused much consternation for the circus workers. Local farmers and merchants watched the commotion in amusement and with interest as unsuccessful efforts were made to extricate the hippopotamus from the muddy waters of Cottonwood Creek. It is said that the Depot Agent, who at that time would have been Hal Farley, Jr., telegraphed the communities of Taylor and Round Rock that were eight miles (13 km) to the east and west of Hutto to the effect of: “STOP TRAINS, HIPPO LOOSE IN HUTTO”. After much effort the hippo was prodded from the mud and water that resembled its natural habitat and was reloaded back onto the train car. Soon afterward the Hutto School adopted the hippopotamus as its mascot and as early as 1923 the hippo appeared on official Hutto High School graduation announcements."

So when you are in Hutto, which is close to where we live, you will see many many many many stone hippos about!