OzzBean

birthdays, family, & gaga

I opened my reader and I had 732 posts awaiting me.  That, and the fact that I haven't posted since March, is a clear indication that life has gotten busy for me.  Since starting the full-time job in February it has taken me this long to adjust - almost 6 months.  

Since that time lots has been going on:

My baby boy, Stevie, turned 21.  I won't even get into the melancholy that that event threw me into.  Oh, the time.  It sure does fly.

My sister Rachael gave birth to her first, Leom Thomas on June 8th.  He is perfection.

My Lizzie has turned 16. Acccckkkk!  She is completely obsessed with cars and thinks her dad should get her a TrailBlazer.  She'll even settle for the earlier Blazer (if she must).  Yeah right!!  Check out the bracelet and little blue box from her grandma!

I sent her off on plane with her best friend to Pensacola.  Just the two of them.  Changing planes.  In. Atlanta.  I felt like a bad mom until I heard that her girlfriend Gabby flew alone to Spain this month to visit her father.  Whew!  Flordia doesn't seem so bad now.

She also marched in the July 4th parade with her cheer team.

My mother became an official member of her beloved Church that she has been attending for years.  She was surrounded by her husband, children, grandchildren, and friends.  It was definitely a special day for her!

Last week my husband's brother and his family came in from Philly and spent the week at our house.  It was so great to spend time with our nephews. They come in every July to visit and endure enjoy the big annual family reunion of Steve's side of the family.

My son and godson - Stevie and Kyle.

Last, but most definitely not least, I have won the award for BEST AND MOST COOLEST MOM OF THE YEAR.  For my daughter's 16th Birthday I bought her a ticket to Lady Gaga.  Not just any ticket, but a ticket and pass into the "Little Monster Zone".  (If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand).   

She was in heaven and made a memory that will last a lifetime.  (Now let's see how long "best mom ever" will last. lol)

 DID I MENTION THAT SHE HAD FRONT ROW SEATS???

Have a great Sunday!!

I made your bed – now lie in it!

This is Josie.

She spends her entire day in this cozy bed in my office.  The cats like to be where I am. Fortunately for them my office is in my home.  She is in cat heaven.

Meet Ozzy.

He is my rascal.  This is where he tries to spend his day.  It is slowly driving me insane.  I have trained him to lay down as soon as he jumps up, but clearly a feline on the paperwork can impede any productivity.  When it gets to be too much I scoop him up and toss him to the floor.  Over. And. Over. Again.  

Eventually he will skulk away to the nether regions under the desk.  Poor kitty.  I almost feel sorry for him.  Almost.

Finally this past weekend I broke down and bought him his own kitty bed.  In case you are not a cat owner, there’s only one thing you need to know – cats do whatever they feel like doing.  There were no guarantees that he would use the bed.

I placed the bed as close to me as possible, basically under the return of my L-shaped desk.  One hour into working he was up in my face on my desk.  Don’t cats realize that the monitor and the human become one?  Apparently they didn’t get the memo.  I picked him up and immediately placed him the bed.  He tried to get out but I just kept petting him in all the sweet spots: the head, the neck, the chest.  Slowly he realized that he would still be near me and plopped his cute little self down.

And there he stayed for the rest of the day.

Score!!!!

Cats 4,528.  Humans, 1.

Of Fabric Hunting & Kitten Mongering

I have been on the hunt for fabric for curtains in my home. I currently have barenaked windows in my living room, master bedroom, master bath, and my daughter's room. Maybe I am too picky? I have simply been unable to find either premade curtains or fabric that is to my liking. I am waiting to fall in love with a fabric, the "I know that this is love at first sight and my windows can't go another day without it" kind of fabric. Alas, Joann's was just not cutting it.

But then the Nester comes through for me again, and encourages me to step outside the box and go hunting for fabric alternatives. This is how I found "Schindlers Fabric Shop" through a simple conversation with my mother about how there must be fabric stores in the greater Cleveland area. "Oh yes" she says, "What about Schindler's? Your dad and I have been there before." Who knew???

So on a recent Friday morning my Parents, their neighbor Karen, and I packed up in my mini-van and headed off to Schindler's Fabric Shop in Cleveland, OH. This fabric store has been in Cleveland since 1938! The building was old and beautiful so I wouldn't be surprised if they've been in that same location since they were establised. Check out one of the front doors on the building:

This is what greeted us when coming through the front door. And this was just one wall of trim, there was so much more:

I fell in love with this delicate blue with glass bead trim:

Look how cute trim looks gracing the inside of one of the shop doors:

When we turned around after oogling all of the trim, we were greeted with the first room of fabrics. Yes, I said first room. There are actually 2 huge rooms on the first floor, and multiple rooms on the second floor, which we'll get to in a bit.

I just wanted to dive into these and stay there all day:

In the center of the second room was a large area with books upon books of designer samples:

Loads of pink and red yumminess, and we know how much I am in love with red.

It was while I was absorbed in all of this pink and red, when I turned around and was greeted by this:

Seems that they have a slew of kittens that need a home. My first reaction was "Oh know, you didn't!" For those that don't know me I have been craving a gray kitten for awhile now. Hubby says that the 2 cats we have are quite enough. I say: whatever!

I wonder if they bombard every customer with this obvious cuteness. I can imagine the conversation: "We will stick kittens in the faces of each and every customer that comes through the door. Sooner or later, we will be rid of all 4. Jenny, today you have kitten duty. Marge, you take tomorrow".

After being tortured by the kitten mongering, I headed upstairs to the discount rooms:

Again there was just room after room of fabrics.

Also, every available space and nook and cranny were covered by boxes and bins of sewing and upholstering related items:

I love this cute curtain on the doorway on the left:

The doorway was so inviting and led to this out back behind the store:

Unfortunately I did not find any fabrics that spoke to me or my pocketbook. Although had I found the perfect fabric I would have found a way to get a hold of it. The lovely ladies at Schindlers seemed willing to work with me, and would most likely been willing to bargain a bit.

So thank you to Nester for encouraging me to hunt down alternative fabric sources. And thank you to my parents for accompanying me on our outing. We had a wonderful day and the fabric store was only the morning. We then headed to lunch and an afternoon of antiquing! I will share that story in a future post.

Have you had luck with fabric? Do you wait for a fabric to speak to you, or is it easier to just pick in your color pallette and be done with it?
Share with me your successes and maybe you will have a few tips to share with us as well?

Happy Hunting!

She's been know to kill small animals.

So as I approach 40 my biological clock is winding down. I did have a brief moment of insanity a few months ago when I was yearning for yet another offspring to come forth from my womb. I must offer a sincere apology to my hubby who probably thought his crazy wife couldn't get any nuttier - he about had a heart attack! My "I want another baby" phase lasted about 2 weeks, and then I came back down to reality. The reality that I will be a youthful 42 when my youngest graduates high school. WooHoo! But for those brief 2 weeks I dreamt of having a baby (It's a girl!), and even dreamt of her name: Jensen. (which my teenage son so heartlessly informed me the next day is the name of an electronics company. Whatever!).

Once I realized that a new baby is not the direction my life should be going- I shifted my maternal instincts to the next best thing - a new kitten! I already have 2 cats, Josie (as in "the pussycats") and Ozzy (as in Osbourne) - both named by my daughter. I have wanted a kitten for a while now and have been hounding the hubby. Of course he doesn't want one. But just because he is in charge of the litter box, the A.M. feedings, and gets a cat between his feet while he sleeps at night, he thinks we can't handle another cat. Whatever! I want a gray one, male, shorthair, must be a kitten.

So this past Friday when I picked up my brother and my neice from the auto repair shop, they climbed into my minivan with 2 new, gray kittens. BASTARD! Is he trying to torture me? OMG! They are so cute, blue eyes and all. Which leads me to the point of my animal torture story - my 8 year old neice. She's so excited to have kittens. She can't wait for me to meet them, "The girl is mine and the boy is my sister's," she informs me. She proceeds to reach into the cat carrier, grab up the 6 1/2 week old kitten with rough hands, whack it's head on the way out of the cage, and love it, manhandle it, and never let it go! The cat lover in me was freaking out! "Be careful honey, she's just a tiny baby, you need to be very, very gentle with her". Needless to say that poor kitten was "loved" all the way home, and didn't stop meowing once.
I am now having visions back to my daughter's preschool days watching Tiny Toon Adventures, "I'm gonna hug you and kiss you and love you forever (and never use you up)". (As said by Elmyra Duff while squeezing her cat, Furrball, to death).

Fast forward 2 days. My brother and I are alone playing with kittens on his basement floor.

Me: "You really need to keep an eye on her. She's a little rough with the kittens".

Brother: "Do you think so"?

Me: "She whacked it's head, and she flops it around like it's a hackin Webkinz!".

Brother: "Well, she does have a history of killing small animals".

Me: (freaking out) "What the heck are you talking about?"

Brother: "You know, she's killed several hamsters or gerbils by holding them too tight and loving them too much".

Me: "If my precious neice kills a kitten, I may never look at her the same way again!"

Brother: "I guess I should talk to her, maybe?"

ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME???

Elmyra Duff, complete with hamster skull on hair bow.