Author: Tanie

When I was a kid my mom used to curl her hair every day. I’ve never curled mine, but after getting some encouragement from my internet friend Christina, who is an amazing stylist, I figured I’d give it a try. I’m hopeless with a curling iron, so she suggested hot rollers. I’ve tried them before but I’ve never been able to figure out how to use those weird wire hook things to keep them in place. Christina’s solution: get the kind with clips. Duh. Taylor actually bought them for me for Christmas (fun fact: all my hair appliances were gifts, idk why).

I felt very silly doing this. I was worried I’d run out of rollers so I made some of the sections too big but in the end it all worked out.

I pretty much love it, and I feel much more like a cartoon character than ever. Namely, this one:

Flawless, like all Sailor Senshi.

And yes, I am wearing the most amazing t-shirt known to man. It was my Christmas gift from Sym, she picked it out and paid for it herself.

I can’t believe I never had a category for my hair until just now, I talk about it ALL the TIME.

I’m so happy to have had the Best Christmas Ever with my little family.

Happy Christmas Eve Afternoon!

I just got back from the very last Christmas shopping trip and now I’m steeling myself with a greyhound (gin & grapefruit juice) before I finish wrapping the last few gifts and cleaning the house, and then mess it all up again baking cookies & donuts with Sym. We’re all wishing everyone out in internet land a happy holiday weekend!

This way originally gonna be like, three posts AT LEAST but what with the whole cat thing and all the banners I had to make I’m running out of time before Christmas so instead I’m making one big SUPER POST.

A Pirate’s Christmas
Last Thursday was Sym’s school play, which was about pirates and elves and tbh was quite terrible. As she wrote in her journal, “I give myself an A, and the group a C+.” lol. The insane set design meant that a little tent was completely blocking Sym from our seats.

Fortunately she and three other girls came out and did a little dance during her class’s song.

Sym’s New Hair
On Saturday (after the whole emergency vet thing) I took her to the salon to get her hair cut. It was all one length and really heavy, plus her ends were all frayed looking for swimming and also because she chews on them. Our stylist took off a ton of length and added some layers, and then offered to give her some feather extentions.Now, I personally would never get them, but lots of Sym’s classmates have them and I didn’t want to be the buzzkill mom who says “You know they kill the birds to get those feathers,” so I just held my tongue. She loves her new hair and that’s what’s important anyway. YES MY CHILD IS MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN THE WELFARE OF BIRDS.

She’s on winter break now and has only been a little bit annoying. She wants to have grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch everyday and after I threatened to make her scrub the toilets she stopped complaining about being bored (although that means I have to scrub them, woe).

A Visit From the Christmas Elf
The elf came pretty late this year, I can’t imagine why.

Sym got a mystery Playmobil which turned out to be a creepy witch.

And I got giant rockets! Normally I prefer mini versions of my favourite things, but this jumbo version was pretty great.

Excuse my nails, I did say they were trashed up!

Cuddle Dog
Dougal’s been really into snuggling things this week. Here he is with Georgie’s disgusting Humpy Bear (for those of you who watch Wilfred, Georgie has the same relationship with Humpy Bear as Wilfred does with Ted/Bear).

… and here he is with Georgie. SO CUTE OMG.

Okay, he was actually chewing on her, but it was still adorable.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. I’m still trying to catch up on all the pre-holiday stuff I let slide because I was busy with work and the cat. Today I cleaned off my disaster area of a desk, including cleaning the keyboard for the first time in four years, which was basically just an exercise in grossing myself out and spilling rubbing alcohol on my jeans.

It looks great now though! And my craft table…

… oops.

I had a real post planned for today, something about Sym and the dogs and the Christmas Elf, but I’ve spent LITERALLY every spare second finishing up and photographing six (SIX!) glitter banners so I can send them out today.

To see more check out my shop’s fb page, and to order your own had to my etsy! Until December 31st you can still use the code CATAID25 for 25% off your purchase.

I still have a few (six more, actually) to make, but I’m going to take a teeny crafting break until after this weekend. I just have so much Christmas stuff to do still! BUT!! I swear I’ll make a REAL post tomorrow! Maybe.

I did these nails on Friday, but I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to take a real photograph of them before they got all trashed up.

Hard Candy in Mushroom + Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love

I choose this colour because I wanted something more neutral for Taylor’s office holiday party. Recently I’ve been matching my nails to my hair, but since my shirt also matched my hair I didn’t want to go overboard with the turquoise!

Claire is doing really well today. I took her to my regular vet this morning for a follow-up and to learn about the exciting world of glucose curves! If you don’t know, that’s when you get a glucose testing meter and test your blood every 1-2 hours all day and track your blood sugar levels on a fun chart. Except they aren’t my levels, they’re the cat’s, so I have to hold her down while I prick her ear and try to collect enough blood in the little test strip. It sucks pretty hard and I have the utmost sympathy for any diabetic humans or parents of diabetic humans who have to do this.

In other great news, I’ve taken down the donation button from my blog & the original post because GUESS WHAT? I don’t need any more donations! Everyone who donated or bought something, thank you so much for all your help. If anyone is still feeling charitable please consider making a donation in Claire’s name to a no kill shelter or emergency veterinary hospital in your area, or even a charity that helps humans in need.

I am still running the sale on my etsy shop for the rest of December (use the code CATAID25 for 25% off your order!), but please know that there is currently a 1- to 2 week lead time on any new banner orders as I am swamped in glitter. SWAMPED!

THIS MEOW!! 😀 😀 😀

I was waiting until after 9am to call the animal hospital and then they called me, which freaked me the fuck out because they said “no news is good news!” and that they’d only call if something went really wrong. I saw the number and my stomach cramped up and I started sweating up a storm, it was gross. HOWEVER she’s doing okay! Her blood sugar is finally back up (it’s too high, in fact, LOL DIABETES YOU SAUCY MINX) and they said I could either leave her at the hospital for a second day and they’d monitor her levels, or I could bring her home and take her to my regular vet tomorrow and they could monitor her levels. I’ve decided to go with the latter, which I have no doubt will be cheaper, plus it’ll free up space in the emergency hospital, because Saturday nights/Sundays are their busiest time. Also I just want to get her home, I miss her dumb face and annoyingness.

Also, I woke up this morning to a ton more donation notifications and when I checked my Paypal I found that I have almost $800 in donations/etsy sales rn. I’M OVERWHELMED BY THE OUTPOURING OF LOVE AND MONEY YOU GUYS.

A lot of people said they wished they could donate more but almost everyone sent five or ten dollars and that REALLY added up, like I said yesterday LITERALLY ANYTHING HELPS and it totally did, so THANK YOU SO MUCH.

I don’t know yet how much more I’ll have to pay today on top of the $1,300 I paid yesterday, plus whatever I have to pay for her to be at my regular vet all day tomorrow, plus I have to by a glucometer testing kit thing with the strips or w/e, so I’m still running the sale on my etsy (use CATAID25 for 25% off!) and still accepting donations but really, THANK YOU THANK YOU ALL A MILLION TIMES THANK YOU. Everyone who donated or bought something or retweeted/reblogged/shared on facebook, or even just said something nice. You all helped me through one of the worst days of my life.

If you were linked here from facebook/twitter/tumblr, please click here for an update on my kitty.

A couple of people have asked me if they could contribute to help with Claire’s vet bills and after getting an update from the vet this evening (her blood sugar is still way too low even after eight hours with an IV full of sugar, she’s not flinching when you put your hand in front of her face i.e. she can’t see it i.e. she’s currently pretty blind) I can safely say ANYTHING HELPS because at this point I don’t know if I’ll be able to bring her home tomorrow, and every day she spends in the hospital is another $1,500-$1,900 (the picture of the estimate I posted before didn’t include taxes).

Anyway I’ve added a donation button to the righthand sidebar on my blog, and I’ll also put it at the end of this post. EDIT: I’ve removed the donation buttons because my bills are taken care of. Thank you again to everyone who helped out! I know it’s a big dumb internet cliché to ask for money to help pay your cat’s vet bills, but OH WELL.

I’m running a Cat Aid sale on my etsy shop, get 25% off your order with the code CATAID25. If you’ve been thinking about getting a glitter banner now’s the time! There’s some new stuff too; in addition to the fancy letters for the Christmas banners I’ve added custom ombre glitter banners. They’re really beautiful and also cost effective! Who wouldn’t want to buy one of those? Cat haters, that’s who.

I know it’s the holiday season and lots of people are stretched pretty thin financially, but I’m not even kidding, LITERALLY ANYTHING WILL HELP.