195: Panther

Panthers make me think of my little panther. ♥

365 Days of Animals
195: Panther
Pen/Ink/Digital

185: Ocelot

SQUEEEEE! Also, Salvador Dalí had a pet ocelot named Babou. 

365 Days of Animals
185: Ocelot
Pen/Ink/Digital

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving friends! Here's to family and friends and cute and fuzzy kitties!

xoxo,
Michelle

My Lately

Kitty in the window

Sorry it's been a bit quiet around here lately; I've had my head down in my work lately, trying to get all my holiday stuff together (I know! Holiday!) Working on my calendars (yes, calendarS, meaning there will be multiple ones this year!) and contemplating holiday cards and whatnot. My goal is to have the calendars done before I head to Renegade Chicago (Sept. 8 + 9th). I think I can do it! Speaking of Renegade Chicago, I'm driving solo there this year, which is a little intimidating. I mean, the part where I have to entertain and navigate myself in a car for 14-ish hours is the intimidating part. There will be lots and lots of podcasts...

Pups!

Kitties!

Pretty patterns on my cup

It said Spectacular! It disappeared so quickly!

Kitty Diabetes

So back at the beginning of the year, my little dude was diagnosed with Kitty Diabetes. It was scary at the time, as he's my baby and has been with me for ten years (4th of July baby!) Over the last few months I have made some pretty drastic changes to his diet and started giving him shots of insulin 2x a day. I am VERY happy to report that he has been in the "normal" blood sugar range for the last few weeks and hopefully I can help put him into remission soon and wean him off the insulin completely. To give you a sense of how high his blood glucose levels were when this all started, they were in the 500-600 range, which is INSANELY high. Now we are in the 70-100 range, which is drastically better. I switched him to a grain-free wet food (Wellness Core, if you were curious), and I think that has really helped him a lot. Hopefully, in the future, his diabetes can be managed by diet alone, rather than insulin shots. Unlike humans or dogs, cats can actually go into remission with diabetes sometimes (but not all the time), so I'm realllly hoping that will be our situation. He loves the wet food, has lost some weight, and doesn't really mind the shots (or notice them really.) It's amazing how much his coat has improved over the last month or two, shinier and less dandruff and so soft. Happy kitties make me happy! 


Look, he even started doing yoga:

Maple Festival and Monster Trucks

This past weekend, Nik and I drove to Troy, PA to visit with his parents and for some Maple-y goodness at the Annual Maple Festival. It is always nice getting away from the city, even for just a few days, and we packed a lot of activities in. We squeezed in a mega-shopping trip to Wegmans (hey! we had a car, so we had to take advantage!), a trip to the Catawissa Bottling Co. for some Moxie, visiting with his parents, going into sugar overload at the Maple festival, and kinda being bored and a bit out of my element at the Monster Truck show. Phew! So fun!

You can see more photos that I took over on my Flickr of the Farm Museum and the Monster Truck show.

B grade Maple Syrup, Maple Sugar (!!), Maple Coffee (!!!), and Maple Candy. Holy sugar overload.

Ridiculous

Doughnut Ice Cream and Kitties

Ice Cream and Kitties are two of the best things in the world, am I right? Nik and I ventured out in the beautiful sunshine this weekend to Lula's for some Doughnut Ice Cream (made with Dunwell Doughnuts!!) So delicious.

My silly little guy is feeling better lately, with his insulin shots giving him more energy and getting him back to his old self again. <3 

Not letting me work. He's too cute to move!

Snoozin'

Custom Poloroid Portraits!

I have a fun little Valentine project I have been working on; custom portraits! I made these four different ones to choose from, and they can all be customized with your names, adding/subtracting glasses, making them girl/boy, girl/girl, or boy/boy, and changing colors. They come in a 5"x5" print format and are available in my shop.   I'm SUPER excited about them! 

More Valentines goodies coming soon. xoxo

Bear Portrait

Fox Portrait

Kitty Portrait

Penguin Portrait

VeganMoFo: Mom Meals

Kitties are for sale here

Medium: Watercolor on heavy Arches paper
Size: Approximately 5"x7" (image size is 4"x6")
Will fit in 5"x7" frame! Signed on back.

Note: I am doing a painting-a-day challenge for VeganMoFo, and will be creating a new painting of rescue animals or vegan food throughout the month of October, and placing them for sale. All proceeds (minus shipping) will be donated to For the Animals Sanctuary, because they are a pretty super-great non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary, in Blairstown NJ, and are vegan owned and operated. Feeding, housing, and taking care of these animals costs a lot of money, and as a non-profit organization, they rely entirely on donations. Hopefully (with your help!), I'll be able to make a size-able donation at the end of the month!  You can check out all the paintings I have created so far that are still for sale here! 

Cooler weather usually makes me turn to comfort food, and in turn, that usually means Mom-food.  You know, the food you will forever associate with your Mom or other parent/guardian type and what they used to make all the time for you as a kid. Goulash is totally one of those type of Mom-meals for me, just some basic elbow pasta, tomato sauce, onions, some sort of ground protein (I used Gimme Lean Sausage Style), and cheese (I used Daiya Mozzarella).  Bake it in the oven and everyone's tummy is happy.  Nik has let me know me that there are different types of Goulash out there, and his memory of it is completely different from mine (German-style vs. Italian-style).  Who knew!  We totally disagree on what Goulash is, but this is always "Goulash" in my eyes, and most definitely a Mom-food. 

Happy B-day Miles and Sweet Summer Days

It was my sweet kittie cat's birthday on the 4th of July. Yep! 4th of July baby!  Miles turned 9 and spent the day celebrating kitty-style (sleeping). Nine years he has been with me...they fly!

I went outside to sketch yesterday afternoon and it was absolutely gorgeous. I need to do that more often, or at least do it while the temperature and heat is still bearable.  Nik and I are going to visit his parents in PA this weekend and I'm pretty excited to get out of the city. A change in scenery always does one good!

Kitty Flop!

Kitty Flop!  Print now available in my shop.

In case you haven't noticed by now, I am a big kitty cat fan.  Furry ones, chubby ones, skinny ones, little ones, big ones, shy ones, crazy ones: I love them all! Certified cat-lover.  I love the little things they do, like stretching out their toes, yawning, the mischievous eyes, the love nuzzles, and the kitty flop. My cat, Miles, is pretty good at the kitty flop, and he's a little on the chubby side so it's even better. Three cheers for kitties!

p.s. Happy Monday!  I'm excited to go to the Etsy Symposium tomorrow!  I'll be sure to report back on the sure-to-be-amazing speakers they have scheduled!

Plushies!!!

Octopus

I'm excited to present a new product line in my shop, with a super-small edition of printed plushies! I had these fabrics all printed, using Spoonflower, and then machine and hand-stitched and stuffed them myself.  These are a test run batch, to see if they do well, before I decide to keep them in my shop permanently. So! SUPER small edition for now (like, only 2-3 of each one).

********************************************************************

Details:

Fabric: 100% Quilting weight Cotton

Stuffing: 100% Cotton

Professionally printed using Spoonflower

Kitty Cat

Bunny Rabbit

Pug

Owl

Penguin

Annnnd altogether!

VeganMofo 2010: Spoooooky (ok, not really)

Happy VeganMoFo!! I'm super-excited about this month (and a little overwhelmed, to be honest. I have a heavy workload on top of this!)  I am planning to blog every weekday with lots of yumminess, pretty photos, and fun illustrations.   Perhaps even a print giveaway?? Stay tuned!

This was the first time that I have carved a pumpkin in about ten bajillion years, so I hope you know how mega-excited I was (and hopefully Nik too, but I kinda made him play along!)  We had little pumpkins, because prices for the big ones in NYC are redonkulous. I miss picking pumpkins in a patch! Maybe I will venture out of the city next year.  Oh, and I will remember to pick up some apple cider to enjoy while carving too (and make doughnuts??) 

Mmmm, roasted pumpkin seeds. I don't rinse mine first, because I like all the dried pumpkiny goodness on the seeds.  I mix a little bit of olive oil, sea salt, and pepper and roast on 400F for a good 15-20 min. or so.  Nom nom nom.

I'm proud of my cutie-cat!  And Nik's is pretty hilarious cute. :)

Spooooooooooooky!  Hope you had a fun Halloween!

The Veggie Burger is Smiling at Me

'Sup!  How is life?? Life is good here, and I'm a busy-bee prepping for all sorts of fun fall/holiday things relating to my shop and planning craft fairs and what-not.  Nik and I are also planning a trip to Portland, Maine in a few weeks, which I am PSYCHED about. Does anyone have any suggestions for things to do/see while I'm there??  I really want to take a day-trip to Acadia National Park, but we are short on time, so we'll see.  What should I do! And more importantly, where should we eat?!  

Speaking of eating, I made this yummy veggie burger last night and tried to draw a ketchup smiley face on it (yes, I am five). Instead, it kinda of looks a little demented.  The veggie burger was a bit of a concoction of marinated tempeh, roasted yellow and green peppers, onions, radishes, garlic, arugula, and some flour, vital wheat gluten, panko bread crumbs, and peanut butter to hold it all together. Sorry for lack of recipe, but I just kinda mix things together until it holds. Totally delicious! And I am eating as much corn on the cob as I can, before it is gone for the season. In fact, I have been buying extra to freeze so I can enjoy it when it is miserable and snowy outside. There I am, using the old noggin'.

Another recent dinner (I love sammiches, if you couldn't tell that already), of tempeh with a little wakame, veganaise, onion, and salt/pepper to taste.  Coleslaw on the side! 

My little sis and her boyfriend came to visit me recently. I took them to Economy Candy and they luurved it (I did too).  I bought lots of Chick-o-sticks and I'm pretty sure something of the butterfinger-like persuasion must be made from them soon. 

And I'll end this post with Mister Miles.  I love it when he crosses his legs like that, looking all proper-like. :)