Babies & Cats, Grand Prix, Giveaways, more!

This post is about all kinds of stuff!

1. I saw the documentary "Babies" last night. So cute! And interesting to see how babies around the world live.

My favorite was the baby from rural Mongolia and his cat. The cat was so sweet to him and he was so enamored with the cat.

This just melts my heart...


The cat totally reminded my our our cat Judah. Don't you see the resemblance?


It made me excited for someday when Judah could meet and play with a future child of ours. I hope he'll be a nice "older brother."

2. The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was a couple of weeks ago. We had a bunch of people over for a little party and then watched the races from the top of the parking structure by our house. So fun! I didn't take any pictures but my friend Brittney who was with us did. Check out her blog post about it here.

3. The Mr. meet his fundraising goal for his Tour de Cure for Diabetes race! Thank you to those of you (like Kirby from Good Gals) who were kind enough to donate. I love the blogging community! You girls rock!!


4. I donated blood yesterday. It was my fourth time so I'm really not squeamish about it anymore at all. Did you know that I have most rare blood type on earth? I'm AB-. Crazy, right?

5. I'm selling a gorgeous silk shantung strapless dress from ARIA in coral on eBay here.
The dress is this dress:


In this color:

Go the eBay post for more information.

6. My Seattle's Best Coffee and BlogHer giveaway ends on Saturday. You still have a chance to win $100! Go here to enter! It's really easy to enter to win!


7. I have a really busy weekend coming up -- Taste of Long Beach, USC Young Alumnae Scholarship Gala & Casino night, and a Tea Party to watch the Royal Wedding (DVRed)! I will try to take lots of pictures!

Saturday Caturday Pictures and "Fetch" Video

You all I know that I'm a crazy cat lady and I realized that haven't featured my "sweet beast" (as the Mr. calls him) on the blog lately, so it's time to fix that!



What's Judah been up to lately?

Sometimes he sleeps in his bed...


Sometimes he sleeps in our office/guest room.


Sometimes he plays with his toy mouse.


And sometimes he plays fetch!


I'm so excited that I finally got a video of him playing fetch with me! He's so hilarious!

Happy Birthday Judah!

Dear Judah/Jude/Judes/Sweet Judes/Sweet Beast/Beast,

Happy 1st Birthday! I can't believe you are already one! You have brought so much joy and laughter to our lives, it's hard to remember what life was like before you. I'm sure it was horribly boring and completely devoid of rascal feline antics. You've changed our lives for the better and I'm so glad that you're our kitten/cat.

Love,
"Momma"

And now a Judah retrospective...

Then:

Now:


Then:

Now:


Then:

Now:


Then:

Now:

The cat is fine! And reflections on pet parenthood...

I'm happy to report that this morning our silly cat, Judah did pass the string! Hallelujah! I am so relieved.

Of course, my cooler-headed-husband thought Judah was going to be fine the whole time, and of course, he was right. (side note: does anyone have a husband who is right more often than they are? Does that drive you crazy? I thought wives were supposed to be right all the time! Anywhoo...)

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post with words of encouragement and stories of their dogs eating string! Like Ams said, I also used to wonder why people freaked out about their pets so much. But it's crazy how fast these little creatures become part of our families, isn't it?



But it definitely got me thinking, "if I can be this crazy over being a cat-momma, how am I going to be as a real momma?" I don't want to be the crazy mom that freaks out every time her kid eats a leaf or dirt and has the pediatrician as speed dial #1 in phone. How do moms not die of stress over their kids?

All is well that ends well. I'm off to the final USC game of the decently dismal season. Go Trojans!

9 Lives?

I'm literally sick with worry right now.

This afternoon while I was on a conference call from my home office, I saw our cat, Judah, eat a 7 inch piece of yarn/string off of the tweed chair in our office. I ran over to him but he had already swallowed it!

As soon as my conference call was over I called the vet to see what I should do - I called the regular vet and the emergency vet. Both of them advised me to wait 12-18 hours to see how he does because it's possible that he will just pass the string. But there is also a chance that the string could get caught up on his intestines and require invasive surgery!

Right now Judah's happily running around the house, and not showing any of the signs that he's sick from having the string caught in his belly -- but he wouldn't likely show those until tomorrow. I'm so nervous!

I keep praying that he'll pass the string and I won't have to decide to pay for expensive surgery or not. I'm hoping this is just one of his 9 lives!

To make matters worse, I'm not sure I am even for doing expensive surgery on cat. This is why...

When I was 15 I had a cat that got bit by a rattlesnake, but we didn't know that. He was acting all funky, so we took him to the vet. After many hours at the vet, they finally realized that it was snakebite and administered anti-venum. But it was too late. And we were stuck with a dead cat and $2,000 vet bill. My Dad made me pay 1/2 of it to teach me "responsibility" -- which ate up every babysitting dollar I had ever earned and then some. I vowed then that I'd never take a pet to emergency care again. But now, 11 years later, with my sweet cat that I love so much, I can't bare to think of losing him!

I'm not going to ask you to pray for my cat, because there are so people out there who have sick children or who have lost a family member that need prayer much more than a cat does. I'm just sharing this because I'm scared and sad and I need an outlet.

My little guy...


He's such a character; sleeping all twisted in my office a few weeks ago...


I'll keep you updated on how he does over this weekend.

Pets in the Bedroom?

Growing up, every pet that I ever had was an "outdoor pet". I had pet bunnies that lived in little rabbit hutches outside and pet cats that lived outside and in the garage. The only pets that ever lived in the house were my Mom's fishes in their tank in the living room.

When we got our cat Judah I set him up with his own "room" (aka our guest bathroom) complete with his food, litter, scratching post, and little bed. I knew he was too much of a rowdy kitten to sleep in our room.

After a couple of months apparently Judah was not too pleased with his accommodations and learned how to open the bathroom door. He can now get it open in two minutes flat. So we started closing and locking our bedroom door so he could roam the condo at night, just not our room.

Well lately starting at about 3 AM, Judah will sit at our door and cry. He'll even try to open the locked door, banging against it. It's really sad and pathetic. I'll usually let him in around then and he'll snuggle up in our bed.

So I went to Petco and bought him his own new plush pet bed, thinking that maybe that would make him want to stay in his room. Nice huh?



(Yes, it is dog bed. And yes, it is too big for him. But I liked these colors best and it is sooo soft).

Judah likes his new bed a lot, especially during the day, but he still likes coming in our room at night more.

I know that a lot of people have their pets in their bedrooms. Just last week my blog friend, Blue Eyed Bride, posted about giving her dogs space in the bedroom. But I've never had a pet stay in room at night permantely before.

I'm tempted to move Judah's new bed into our room, so at least when he comes into our room maybe he will sleep there instead of on my feet or my pillow waking me up. But will moving the bed into our room just affirm that our room is his "space"?

Do you let your pets sleep in our room? Do they sleep in pet beds or in your bed? How do you keep them from waking you up while you sleep?

Chic Cat Decor

I love sleek, modern decor. Clean lines, minimal clutter.

I know a lot of moms talk about ugly baby gear taking over their homes (I read one blogger who said that most baby gear looks like "the circus threw up on it"). And while we don't have a baby yet, I'm already noticing a little bit of this with our furry baby, our cat Judah.

No offense to anyone, bu there is some seriously fugly cat gear out there. Exhibits A and B:



Faux houses, neon colors? No thank you.

Ideally, I'd love to have a sweet playground of a house for Judah, like this house in Japan.


Isn't that cool?! But it's just not feasible for us.

Apparently some merchants got the memo that some people want sleeker cat products and decor. In fact, Modern Cat is blog/website dedicated to all things modern for cats. But the products are all sooo expensive.

Enter Ikea Hacker. They have so many great ideas for what to do with Ikea products. Such as this litter box hider (originally intended as a bathroom sick cabinet). LOVE this!



Or this cat tree made from Lack shelving.


Now I just need to convince the Mr. to bust out his tools and hack some Ikea with me one of these weekends.

Of course, I can't do a post about Judah without a picture of him. I guess he wanted to come to work with me, because he tried to stole-away in my laptop bag. Silly cat.


Have you incorporated any pet items into your home in a chic and easy way?

Scratchy Kitty

It's a well documented fact that I'm borderline obsessed with my kitten, Judah.

Judah is really good at not intentionally scratching anything but his little post, but he does have a tendency to accidentally scratch the couch when he runs across it, or scratch our legs when he tries to jump onto our laps, or hands when he's playing with us.

After drawing blood on the Mr several times, he suggested that maybe we get Judah declawed (I really don't want to get into a comment war about the pros or cons of declawing, so don't start it). But, after doing some research, I decided that I was not super keen on the idea of declawing.

So on Monday I went to Petco and picked up some Soft Claws. Soft Claws are nail caps that glue on to the cat's claws. It covers the claw tips so no damage occurs when the cat scratches.

It took the Mr. and I about 10 minutes to clip Judah's nails and apply the Soft Claws. It was definitely a team effort to subdue the whining kitty.

Here's how they look...

See the little clear caps?

I was sceptical if the soft claws would work, but so far, so good! Judah fussed with them a little at first, but now he doesn't even notice they are there. And now he's not causing damage when he runs on the couch or plays with us! So great!

(Note: this is not a paid review. I was not asked to do this by anyone associated with Soft Claws, Petco, Humane Society, etc. I value the ethics of my blog and vow to never do "posts-for-pay" on this site. I'm just really excited that I don't have a scratchy kitty anymore and wanted to share this find!)

Has anyone else ever tried Soft Claws or Soft Paws?

On a separate note, check out Judah's new favorite sleeping spot...


Yep, the sink. This cat LOVES the water. Strange, right? If we run the water over him while he's in the sink, he just sits there and plays with it and gets soaked! Does anyone else have a cat that loves water?

How Fast They Grow!

Remember our little kitten, Judah, that we got at the end of April?


Well, he's still my baby, but he's growing up so fast!

He used to chew on this "Pink Panther" little stuffed toy that we had in our home office...

But now he's graduated to biting my USC Rally Monkey. I just hope he's not a Bruin!


Ohh that's better...


He's super friendly, fun, playful, and sometime quite rowdy...


But does tucker himself out...


He loves to lay next to my laptop and feel the heat from the laptop fan...

Or just plop himself down right on the laptop! "Hey Judah, I'm trying to work here!"

Danica (aka Chic Runner) came over last week last week, so she can attest that Judah is one wild and crazy kitten, but very social.

The Mr. says Judah is not our "baby" but I know that he so is!

Weekend Recap: Bridal Shower, Angels & Demons, and DIY Screens

Happy Monday! Is it me, or does the weekend never seems to be long enough? But at least next weekend is a three day weekend!

Saturday morning I went to my friend, C's Bridal Shower in Santa Monica. It was beautiful! Right on the beach, delicious food, lots of fun!

Of course I forgot my camera (bad blogger!) But here is pic of her and us Bridesmaids at her other Bridal Shower in West LA:


Then Saturday evening the Mr. and I drove down to Laguna Beach to meet my Dad to have dinner and get my Wedding Dress from him for my Trash the Dress. We had dinner at the amazing Las Brisas Restaurant. Another stunning view from the restaurant. Check it out:

I guess it was Prom in Laguna Beach, because the restaurant was filled with teens all decked out for Prom, which was pretty fun to see.

We also went and saw Angels and Demons with him. The movie was entertaining but there were so many plot holes in it that I just couldn't get past. Kind of a bummer, because I remember enjoying the book when I read it in college. I would give the movie a C- or D+.



Sunday I was supposed to have my Trash The Dress. But my photographer got sick and we had to postpone it. Boo!

So instead the Mr. and I went Costco for some grocery shopping. While I was there I also picked up this little guy:

A new iPod nano in my favorite color! The Mr.'s old iPod mini finally died, so he got my old Nano and I got a new one since I use mine all the time. Isn't he a nice husband?


Speaking of how much I love my husband...

On Sunday we also went to Home Depot where he purchased materials to make our own window screens. Why did we have to make screens?

Our Condo has these beautiful windows that push open like this:

And have no screens.

Now that our kitten, Judah is getting bigger, we needed to screen those windows so he won't jump/fall out of the windows and plummet 10 stories down.

So the Mr., by himself, built screens that we can insert into the windows and remove when we need to close them. Isn't he amazing?! I was very impressed.

Judah, on the other hand was more interested in chewing on the screen building materials, so I had him help me with the laundry. Some help he was....


Oh, and I almost forgot - On Sunday night we capped off the weekend with 4.7 magnitude earthquake centered about 10 miles from where we live. Our building was shaking for what seemed like forever, but thankfully nothing broke. Always exciting living in old shakey town!

Our Home: The Kitchen

My favorite blogger, Kelly is doing a fun feature called Show Us Where You Live Friday.

This week is "Kitchens". So I though I'd share mine and join the fun!

This is what you see when you walk into the front door of our condo through the entryways and to the kitchen. Our granite is greenish/grey/black.




If you know me at all, you know I love turquoise so I have my Le Creuset Tea Pot on the stove for color. Also in the background you can see our espresso machine. An awesome wedding shower gift from my granny.




This is my favorite part of the Kitchen. The wine part! I installed the wine rack myself and those are our sweet Crate&Barrel Wine Glasses. We also collect corks in that jar and when the jar fills, I make a medium-sized corkboard and give it to a friend. Good wine memories should be shared!




Here is the island where the sink is. I love having an island in a kitchen. It makes space so much more efficient!




To the right of the island is the pantry that I had installed. I love this pantry, and yes I always keep it this clean.




Here is our dining table which is adjacent to the kitchen. We have an extender for this table to make it seat 8 for dinner parties. It's an espresso table from Crate & Barrel (The "Madison Table" I think).




Judah was in the kitchen with me helping me take pictures and I managed to capture him with this totally possessed face! Love it!



I try to keep the kitchen uncluttered as possible by clearing out junk that can pile up and keeping non-every-day-use appliances in cabinets (like the blender and mixer). Everything that is out on a counter in the kitchen I use at least 2x a week.

I love seeing people's homes! If you linked you blog over at Kelly's, leave me a comment to let me know and I'll check it out!