slip-up saturday

yep, it's slip-up saturday! hee hee! too tired to post a "facebook friday" on top of other posts yesterday hee hee!
ciao amigas! how was your week?! i hope it was fabulous and blessed! mine?! o-m-g, long! here's how it went
monday~looked for mia. it's so hard for me to let go and truly admit that the "urban coyotes" may have gotten her. but the more time goes on, so it seems. :-(
tuesday~looked for mia and worked on my stampin' studio. called my grandmother. she was in the hospickle(hee hee didn't you just love the rugrats?) bless the lord it wasn't anything too, too, serious.
wednesday~early in the morning i went to pick up ciaran-liam. omg! i love that little snugglebug! he is so sweet and loving. i get weepy at night though because i wish miabella was snuggling with us. take a look at his beautiful green eyes, mills took this pic(not sure if it's a self portrait or one of ciaran-liam hee hee):

o-m-g! he's such a lovebug!
later on in the afternoon i went to the dr. when i got home, my other dr. called and said that i need a diagnostic mammogram of the left breast with ultrasound, an abdominal ultrasound because they saw a cyst on my liver on the breast mri, and biopsies on my right breast. i told the scheduler that we can set up appointments for the non-invasive stuff but as far as biopsies were concerned i was going to seek a second opinion. i just feel like i've been going to the hospital for something almost every single week since august. i'm getting worn out hee hee! i need to stay in bed and rest more!
thursday~ watched conchobhar-versace and ciaran-liam wrestle each other and just mostly rested. the weather has been sporadic and i've been so tic'y and achy. a sore scratchy throat and sleep deprivation just made me want to lie in bed mostly. and it doesn't help that mills sleeps when she gets home then decides at 2200 every night she needs help with her geometry. i just had to tell her, "i help with homework between 1430 and 2000, please do not ask me at 2200 because i will say no"
friday~slept in. yea! been having a lot of insomnia this week and it's just been hard to get to sleep before 0300 most nights. i got my appointments scheduled at the breast care center/radiologist. 29 september i'll be getting everything done(sans the biopsies). in the evening i called and checked on my grandmother. she was back home in sacramento and doing quite well.
 today~arranged furniture in my studio and unpacked more stuff. i also watched the boys wrestle and play. i always love when cats and dogs can play and be so good to/with each other. i have such lovely kids! hee hee!
well amigas, i hope your weekend will be safe and fun! thanks for stopping by and see you next week! i have a few projects to share so bolo for those!
abrazos y amor,
bella

purr...purrrrr...purrrrrrr...

that's all ciaran-liam has done since they handed him to me today! yep, he's finally home!
omg! he's just the sweetest little kitty you'd ever want to know. i know mia would just adore him if she were here (yes, i checked again for her, at the shelter today, but she wasn't there nor was she on the "deceased list" :-(  i will just have to look on a weekly basis for as long as it takes). i think the name ciaran is quite fitting since he's a little black kitten and it's so cool he has little brown stripes in his fur when you look at him in the sun. it's like he's a mini jaguar! lol! he is also a snuggler and a kisser! he will jump onto your lap and kiss you square on your nose or lips! too funny! he's a little casanova kitty hee hee!  i told mills i should have named him "shadow" because he follows me everywhere like a puppy.
speaking of puppies, he gets on great with his big brother conchobhar-versace. they're really close in age and i think it's a good thing because they're both young enough to grow up with each other. conchobhar-versace was born on 19 february and ciaran-liam was born on 25 march. so it's fun they have a playmate (and when mia gets home, she will, too)!
omg! it's like, i can't even tell you how excited i am to have him home, finally! of course i had to document the day with a few photos!  so i made a quick page in mds with pics from my webcam(the only camera i have right now lol).
take a look at my new little purrmeister:

i took these pics, like as soon as we got home from the shelter! yes, before i gave him a bath! rofl we all know my germ ocdness hee hee! but,  o-m-g! he was so odiferous! yuck! ewww! i don't know what that smell was. now he smells like lavender baby bath, though. hee hee! and he's all shiny and  sleek, like a clean panther, now. hee hee! oh, and btw, he handled the bath quite well. he's just a sweet, sweet little boy. he reminds me a lot of mia (i know that's how i was so attracted to him everytime i saw him). he loves and purrs on anyone that holds him, just as she would. he stays right by me or where he can see me, just as she would, too! i'd have to say, i didn't know i would meet such a lovely little boy (and fall so in love even through my grief) on all the trips we made to the animal shelter to look for miabella, but i'm really, really happy to be able to have him! he is definitely bringing some light into the darkness i've felt since mia went missing.
thanks for stopping by and sharing in my joy with the new addition to "our pride"(omg! speaking of pride, if i don't see the lion king before it leaves over the next couple of weeks i may go cuckoo! hee hee! i love, love, love that movie! the seven/eight weeks i was on bedrest, when i was preggers with mills, i would just lie in bed and watch the lion king vhs over and over(among other things)! after she was born it's one thing that i could turn on to soothe her and make her less fussy! hee hee!). it's hump day so enjoy the rest of your week, amigas! hasta viernes!
abrazos y amor,
bella

happy halloween

i'm so excited to see the little ones getting so big! i think they look adorable in their little ribbons. the longer we have them the sadder i get because i know when the day comes i really won't want them to go!
tomorrow night i'll be going to my dear( sweet niece) skyy's first stampin' up! workshop! i'm so excited she joined my team~she's an amazing person and paper crafter! it's so nice to have found something we can grow closer with~i mean she's like so freakin' beautiful but down-to-earth and really, really fun! she's just totally all around lovely!( i think i told you all how i pushed my anxiety and agoraphobia to go down to las vegas for their wedding~it was beautiful and totally worth the panic attacks~sometimes i guess being supportive of your family overpowers your fears) and i totally had no idea she was a stampoholic/scrapoholic like me! it's so fun when we get together and now we can get together to help each other with our su! business endeavors too! ok, so i'm excited she invited me to her halloween party/su! open house! i'm going as a baby. i have no idea how long it goes for, so... i may post late tomorrow!
well, anyway, here's the kittens at 9 weeks old in "trick or treat" ribbons!
thanks for looking!
abrazos,
bella

profiteroles

don't they look like little fluffy cream puffs? here are the "4 week old" pics of marie, toulouse and berliose. they're so big now! i have to get 5 week old photos! i'll be sad when they find their new forever homes :0( ! they're climbing up everything and just little explorers when it comes to my patisserie. i caught them nursing on their mom on top of my cardstock scraps! they climb out of their little enclosure and roam my scraproom! they're so stinkin' cute, though, i can't help but smile when i find them outside their little room.

marie, toulouse, and berliose

these are pics of the babies at three weeks old! look at the blue-eyed ones!

eyes wide shut!

darnit! wouldn't you know i try to get a good shot of "duchess and the kittens" with their eyes open and the flash totally robs me of that?! well, i did manage to get one pic of toulouse with his eyes open(marie opened hers first then he did~they were a pretty close tie. berliose is still trying to get his all the way open)! they're getting so big! it's so nice to see their little eyes open too~i think marie's may be blue! i love the pic of the wcwf where toulouse is wrestling berliose! toulouse is so freakin' bossy!
and guess who's been playing baby-tender?! bizhan! yes, i caught "chewy" down there babysitting while memphis was upstairs going to the ladies room and grabbing a bite to eat. he has been watching them for her when she wants a break. it's so cute because he preens them and keeps them in their little rubbermaid nursery bin. i think he thinks he may be their papa but i'm pretty sure, though not to judge books by their covers, maury would say "bizhan!...you are not the father!" rofl!
ahh, i'm so happy...my little pride is getting along well.
miabella still doesn't quite know what to think seeing the kittens nursing on memphis. i think she was wondering where memphis was, for the longest time, and then when she finally found her and the kittens it freaked her out! lol!
well, here are the the shots of the triplets at two weeks old(today!) thanks for looking!
abrazos,
bella

manny, moe, and jack~at one week

oh my goodness, i cannot believe how big they're getting! they nurse a lot so i'm sure that has a lot to do with it! lol! here are the pics of memphis and her darling little kittens on their one week old birthday! maybe i should call her duchess and the kittens marie, toulouse, and berliose lol!
i love that movie~the aristocats! ah that's the best! "everybody! everybody!everybody wants to be a cat. 'cause a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at!" ok, i'll be back tomorrow!
buenos noches!
abrazos,
bella
p.s. yes, i know, i took a lottt of pictures(that's not even all of them!). i'm a proud abuelita! what can i say?
:0)

manny, moe and jack

nope, not the pep boys~memphis' kittens!
yep, she finally had them! it was around 1717 when she had the first one on wednesday, 27 august! bless the lord it wasn't on my scrapbooking papers or the table! lol! she had the first one in the linen closet on the floor. it's so funny because before she climbed under the laundry basket in there i joked with her and said "oh memphis, are you going to have your babies in there?" and she looked at me and purred and meowed and hopped on top of the laundry basket and climbed under it. not even two hours later she was in labor! it was an awesome sight to behold!
ok, so she started to make that distinctive cry they said she'd make when i googled "pregnant cat info" and i ran and sure enough she was purring and i heard a little meow coming from under her. well i scooped her and the baby up and put them in a huge rubbermaid bin and ran them downstairs to the place i'd created for her to have them in the first place. i helped her get out the placenta for that one and sure enough about 20/30 minutes later she was pushing out number two! it was an honor to be her doula/nurse midwife she was so good in letting me help her get them out. she's such a lovely mum and her kittens are soooo sweet! the pics above are from their birthday. i'll take pics and post them of their 1 week birthday tomorrow! it looks like it's two boys and a girl. they're so stinkin' cute!
whew! am i glad that's over! it was a lot easier than i imagined it'd be and it was a great experience for millE in learning about birth. she was just in awe~ like a tourist taking video and pics of every single thing just about! lol! when i uploaded the pics from the sd card today, there were like six or seven videos of memphis birthing her babies or nursing them or just lying down with them and purring.
what a great experience for us. bunny barely got home just after the last one was born. i'd been talking to him when i heard memphis cry out and i like practically hung the phone up in his face i was so excited trying to run to her! lol! so, that's the story of memphis, manny, moe, and jack! hee! hee!
thanks for reading!
abrazos,
bella

i'm a sucker for a man with blue eyes...

bizhan just melts my heart! i swear he can play "puss in boots" in the stage production of shrek! he's so good at making you fall for him with just a little dilation of his pupils in his beautiful blue eyes!
it doesn't work all the time, sometimes he gets an "awww...you're so stinkin' cute~but you're still on timeout!" just before he gets placed in the bathroom for a timeout. lol!
my how he's grown! little choo choo! those of you that have kittens know what i mean about chew chew! i swear it's like having an infant/toddler at home! goodness, he's gets into so many of my things. when he's getting into my stuff and millE doesn't want to watch him then he's mine but when she feels like playing with him he's hers(teenagers)! lol!
~bella

ebony and ivory

live together in perfect harmony... lol! for once she isn't hissing at him when he's near her! yep, it's miabella and bizhan or as i like to call them sarobi and simba! lol!

eatin' good in the neighborhood

no, i don't mean that yucky applebee's i mean the delicious cookies my new neighbor sent over to me! well, you know i cannot go without sending a card to people for any occasion so i made them a "welcome to the neighborhood" card. bizhan was trying to be a model in those shots, as well! so i finally decided~'fine, i'll take a picture of you too, hammy choo choo!'






huh?! are you gasping? yes, i did create the card with a lot of ctmh items! lol!
here are the ingredients:

paper: silhouette bulk dot and floral, desert sand cs
inks: basic black(su), chocolate(ctmh)
stamps: welcome to the neighborhood
tools: paper snips
accessories: stampin' pastels
techniques: ink distressing

thanks for looking! please let me know what you think!
abrazos,
bella

sweet new neigbors!

how sweet are they?! oh my goodness, they sent over like half a dozen cookies the other night to introduce themselves to us. so i decided to make them a thank you card. as you can see, bizhan decided he had to be a model in one of the pictures. he's such a ham!












here are the ingredients: paper: cs~whisper white, perfect plum and pale plum/dsp~bella rose
ink: versamark, regal rose
stamps: sprinkles and heartfelt thanks
tools: scallop border punch, paper piercer, stamp-a-majig, heat tool
accessories: stampin' pastels
techniques: two step stampin', watermark

let me know what you think!
abrazos, bella

we have a sphinx now!

naw, just kidding! it's actually miabella! millE thought she'd be so helpful to us by shaving her. well, she looks better than she did initially. i asked her who did she think she was? petco's groomer?! it was a nice gesture but i wish she would've asked me or bunny to help her because she cut mia a lot of places.
i mean we usually shave her for the summer so she won't be so miserable~maine coons have a lot, a lot, aaa loootttt of fur! i'm sure bunny is happy summer is here so we could shave her so he could quit his bellyaching over "cat hair on my suits". which is a thing of the past since we've moved. he can be such a drama king sometimes.
anyway, i hope you're all doing good today/this evening! i'll be back later on to post some pics of some more "cupcakes"!
thanks for stopping by!
abrazos,bella

WARNING! i'm about to get really catty...

my goodness, i just love having a new little one in the house! i just love this little blue-eyed kitty! he is soooo spunky! he's totally not bigger than a minute but he acts as if he's one of sigfried and roy's large white tigers! my true blessing is he is soooo good about making it downstairs to the "kitterbox"! whoohoo! potty training took all of about 5 minutes! he's just so stinkin' cute! he seems to be absolutely fearless too! he jumps down from any height! he's got determination too~i watched him try to jump up on our mattress and climb up on our bed for like 10 minutes yesterday~he didn't give up until he jumped on his paper ball and then became more interested in playing with that than getting up on our bed. lol! oh my gosh, his little purr is like a small harley davidson! you'll be wrapped around his little paw once you hear it! that's my little "grandson" hee hee!
funny story(well, to me anyway~ hee hee). yesterday millE decided she wanted to go out with her friend angelle. so angelle arrives and millE runs down the stairs "bye mom, c u later, love you!" she calls out as she's running out. well, i waited like five minutes then i called her on her cellphone and i'm like:
"helllloooo?!"
'hi mom'
"did you forget something?"
'did i forget something?'
"uh, yeah, like your kid"
'mooommm, i didn't forget him'
"well, you didn't ask me to babysit. you should have taken him with you. that's what you get for being a single mom! it's hard getting a babysitter"
'uh, mom, he's asleep i don't have to worry about a babysitter. he knows how to use the litter box and get his own food and water!'
"so what about when he wakes up?! who's going to watch him around mia and memphis?"
'uh, mooommm!...'
"i'm just kidding honE, have fun! i love you! ciao for now"
'love you too mom, ciao!'
i mean, hey, she's so eager to say she's bizhan's mommy~well, take care of your child! hee! hee! i'm grandma~i don't have to be responsible for him, you're the mom! this has been so fun(ny) and so cute trying to teach her a lesson about being responsible for someone or something other than oneself. she thinks she's so big! "in 45 days i'll be a teenager!" she started saying the other day. i'm thinking 'ok, miss firecracker don't remind me(she's a 4th of july baby)!' well, i think twelve borderline thirteen is the perfect time to take care of your own pet. i believe learning to be responsible for someone/something other than yourself at an early age is the best thing for a person(but she better not have human children to be responsible for as a teenager! we're not planning on being true grandparents until she's out of college and married for a few years!).
well, an update on our pride~they're all getting along so well now! scar has calmed down into being nala more often with young simba and sarobi is her usual cool self with everyone. i couldn't be happier to have my little pride living in peace and harmony! well, i'll try to post more later. it's time for scrapbook memories tv!
ciao for now!
abrazos,
bella

something smells fishy

i wish they had altoids for cats! miabella's breath is like way too much for me! i should invent some catoids or something! lol! now watch, i'll be like that guy on the patent commercial ("snap your fingers to turn on a light, i thought of that, shoulda got a patent"). someone will come out with curiously strong breath mints for cats! and i'll say to myself, "hey, i thought of that! shoulda got a patent!"rofl! "curious of that fishy smell? you need catoids the curiously strong breath mints for cats..." i'll tell you my curiosity just about killed me when i got a whiff of her breath! eek! yuck! totally grodie! like oh my gahhhhd! i think i'm only going to purchase chicken or beef food for them. better yet i want to find a vegan cat food, maybe it will have mint , parsley and other herbs in it and her breath will be swwweeeet! oh, well, i can dream can't i?(hopefully in her next 8 lives she'll have catoids)
well, ciao for now, have a lovely afternoon! i'm off to a dr. appt. hope to get a chance to post this evening!
abrazos,
bella

our pride vs. the lion king

ciao all!
so we've managed to get through the night and it's a brand new day with our new little "cub". he slept in millE's room in a soft bed she made for him with a huge rubbermaid container and some blankets. it was a peaceful night~i suppose~well, all i know is i slept well.
i couldn't wait to see the little guy this morning. i'll tell you he can totally hold his own. he's totally not intimidated by memphis and her hissing and growling(she sounds like a harley, maybe we should rename her that lol!).
so i'm thinking bizhan is young simba, miabella is sarobi, and memphis goes back and forth between nala and scar!(rofl). one moment she's all cute and playful then the next she's growling and trying to take out young simba! bunny has to be pumba, i'm timon/ed the hyena/mufasa and millE is zazu! what a pride! hakuna matata~all of the cubs got along well this morning!~despite the hissing and growling from "scar"! :0D
another thing i discovered this morning~bizhan's nose is orange too! his coloring is awesome! we're all so happy to have a new family member!
well, i have more things to work on to get more posts on today. so ciao for now!
abrazos,
bella