Wednesday
Jul112012

DIY: Cat Nip Pillows

Whenever we go on vacation I feel so guilty leaving Mr. Paws.  Our cat-loving friends come to the house to check up on him, but the little guy just misses his family and gets very sad (well, in all honestly I think he'd be fine if Lily left and never came back).

To help get him through the week I made him some super potent cat nip pillows with cat nip from my garden.  Nothing like a little natural mind-eraser to calm separation anxiety.

Materials:

  • dried cat nip
  • polyester stuffing
  • fabric scraps cut into rectangles or squares
  • thread, scissors, sewing machine/needle, iron

Step 1:  Fold fabric squares in half, inside out.  Then fold back the open ends 1/2"and press with iron.

Step 2:  Sew the left and right sides of your square so you have an open pocket. 

Step 3:  Turn your pocket right-side out.  Stuff the pocket with a mix of polyester stuffing and cat nip - don't be stingy with the nip!

Step 4: Sew up the open end of your pocket and make your cat beg for this happy treat.

Monday
Jul092012

Cousins in the Country

This weekend my cousin Becca and her son Theodore came up for a visit.  It was really neat to see Teddy all grown up at almost 11 months, and having a baby in the house was good training for me, Abe, Lily and Paws. Ted is incredibly happy and good natured so he makes having a baby look really fun, but we still all got a taste of the good, the difficult, and the exhausting.

I was so insanely proud of little Lily.  She's a really sweet dog, but can get a little sassy. We've been nervous about how she will react when our baby is born in November, but this weekend she proved that she's ready to become a big sister.  Teddy was in LOVE with Lily and couldn't keep his hands (or entire body) off of her.  Lily took all his affection like a champ and didn't get upset when Ted's little baby hands grabbed a handful of fur or whacked her in the nose. All her patience was rewarded by the piles of Cheerios underneath Teddy's highchair and lots of baby face licking.

 

Monday
Jun182012

Family Weekend in Philly

A couple weekends ago we had Green Family Weekend in Philadelphia. My sister and Ezra may be moving out of the city this summer so we wanted to fit in one more Philly trip.  On Friday night we laid low and went to a great Italian restaurant serving Napoletana style pizza called In Riva on the banks of the Schuylkill River in East Falls. 

Saturday we took the dogs swimming and watched a strange wedding take place on a bridge in the middle of the park.  They monopolized the only way to cross the river for too long and we considered letting the dogs make a break for it. 

Afterwards we went to Reading Terminal Market to pick up groceries for dinner.  My parents got us amazing steaks that my dad grilled, my mom made a big salad and asparagus, and the kids bought a selection of cannolis, tiramisu and eclairs for dessert.  All that was fun, but the biggest news of the day was that Comic Con was in town and one of the celebrity guests was Jason Priestly!

After Reading Terminal we drove home with a pit stop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art so my mom and I (and a half naked man) could run the Rocky steps.

On Sunday we walked down to the river to watch the Pro Cycling Tour race. I was a little worried that the bikes flying by would freak out the dogs, but they just lounged and enjoyed the view.

Wednesday
Jun062012

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to Us!

Abe and I celebrated our one year anniversary on June 4th.  I can honestly say this was the fastest year of my life! We've been together and lived together for over six years, but this last year as a married couple felt different.  There is a very special change that happens when two people make a formal lifelong commitment to each other.

Not to mention that this time last year we were on our honeymoon drinking Coco Locos in the ocean all day long, but just one year later and I'm four months pregnant and buying assorted six-packs of non-alcoholic beer. My how the times are a changin'.

In honor of our one year anniversary Abe and I braved the rain and took a walk at our wedding venue.

Wednesday
May302012

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

Memorial Day weekend was a lazy one for me, but Abe and I managed to get out of town for part of Saturday and Sunday.  Our friends and their new baby were visiting family in Connecticut and were kind enough to invite us to join in the fun.  It was a good taste of reality to hang with a 5 month old baby for a couple days, both Abe and I left realizing having a baby is going to be a lot of work...I thought they slept a little more.  But after talking with Adriana (the new mom) I realized I'm prepared as much as I can be and the rest we'll just figure out come November.

Our friend's dog Chloe is Lily's BFF and both of them were in Dog Heaven USA with all the land, woods and giant lake with bull frogs. The humans spent most of our time watching the dogs wrestle and swim.  The best part was knowing we'd all leave with an exhausted dog. The rest of our time we played with baby Ben, ate amazing home-cooked Brazilian food, talked babies, drank non-alcoholic beer (well, I did at least) and swam in the pool.