Please head on over to the new and improved pooftacular.com! Setup by the lovely Erin of Enspirit Web Design.

Erin is a wonderful friend, person and designer. If you’re ever in need of a little blog refresher or even an entirely new website, I do recommend her.

Future plans of Pooftacular.com are:

1. Have the Pooftacular store up and running. Prints (artwork), postcards, greeting cards, t-shirts, etc. Some of the art will be World of Warcraft based. There will be all sorts of things and hopefully a little something for everyone to enjoy.

2. Gnomes, sharks and pen pals, Oh My!

Thank you all for coming to my wordpress blog. I do hope you’ll follow me on over to the new location.

And as always, life is grand!

Click photo to visit the new Pooftacular!

I will add links shortly if there is time. I need to pack for a wedding that we are attending this weekend! I got a new dress and shoes for $5.22 at the thrift store. I love that place

Damnit, Guapo! Ok…we’ll try that one again…

By the way, a few of your letters have been attacked by El Guapo. Fortunately, his teeth aren’t very sharp yet…

Incoming:

The absolute loveliest first letter from Elle yesterday, who included a little gift photo. I absolutely love the little Paris envelope! I will be replying today if I can, but it might have to wait until Monday.

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When I did my mail post, I gave you a sneak peak at the curtains my Gram made for our kitchen.

I picked out the fabric myself at Jo-Ann’s and mailed it off with a pattern for the top pieces. They are made up of squares of fabric that lay over the top of your curtain rod. Normally that rod would be separate from the curtains themselves…but I’m working with minimal space!

This is what came back…

I love them!

She also sent white curtains in case I would like to use them instead. Perhaps rotating between green and white curtains depending upon season. I think I will use the white curtains when I would like to see something new and refreshing.

Of course, what post is complete without a picture of the terror himself…El Guapo! He and Mikka are sound asleep (in this photo) on the sofa that he decided to fight for a few hours this morning. After naptime, he decided to try again. After all, there’s no sofa too big to slay. Right?

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There aren’t many bloggers (that I’ve read about) who like to sit down and write letter after letter. I’ve never done it. Until this morning. Everyone that sent me a letter (and it arrived) is receiving a response, finished this morning. It took a little longer than I planned – but it’s not like I’ve got a million places to be these days.

I’ll mail everything out tomorrow. Might post pictures of it all prior to that. I am attempting to find motivation to do something productive within the house.

I only wish I could actually locate the motivation! The saying “Just do it”, doesn’t always work.

To those that would say “Oh just get it done, it’ll be great to be finished!” I shall say.

Ahem.

“I don’t wanna.”

We shall see where the day goes.

I have a softball game at 7pm tonight. I am hoping it goes OK. I only play Catcher and usually walk away with a few nasty bruises. It has gotten more fun over these past couple of games. I will be glad when the season is over though. If I ever join a team again, it wont be softball! Soccer is more so my kind of sport. I like it a lot and played for about 9 years or so. I miss it!

I hope you all have a lovely day. Go be productive for me.

And someone please tell my room to paint itself already, I mean honestly, what is this world coming to?

For starters, I got lots of mail on Monday. It was spectacular! Thank you for the letters, the extras (stickers, stationary, etc.) and the tea! It made me smile from ear to ear.

Thank you Karli, Ria, Megan, Sarah. Micaela, Cathy, and Nicola!

Karli’s letter arrived several days ago, so I will be shooting off a reply very soon! I love the silhouette sticker she has on the back. The color of the envelope is divine!

All of the mail that has arrived has definitely made me feel very happy. Look at all those gorgeous colors! So much happy mail.

I even got a letter on Tuesday.

Today, I went to COSI with my neighbors (mother, two twin infants and a 5 year old girl). When I got home, there was a lovely package from Katie waiting for me along with the curtains my Gram made for me!

Thank you for the lovely cards, Katie! They’re wonderful! I’m actually going to be using one of them today.

Here’s a teaser for you. This is one of the ties to hold back the curtains. I’ll take a full photo once they’re hanging in place. I picked out the fabric myself and mailed it to her! They look gorgeous!

Additionally, we got a little kitten last night! Finally! He’s around 9 weeks old. We have dubbed him “El Guapo”. You may call him “Guapo” for short.

Mikka has been wonderful with him – though she doesn’t quite understand what he is or why he wants to snuggle. I think the purring actually confuses her. She has never been around a kitten really.

Dear Mikka,

You give pitbulls a good name. You’re very kind, gentle and a wonderful dog. I will miss you when you go back to Mr. Engineers mothers home. Having you here has made me realize just how lonely it can be without a pet. Thank you for being such a super lap-dog even though your bony elbows hurt!

Love,

Caiti

I am done painting the tree and am working on filling in the background. When that is finished, I will be painting the trim (windows, doors, base molding, shoe molding) an off-white color.

After the painting is done, I will clean the floor and move the furniture over. At which point I can go to Lowes…

to buy more paint! When the furniture is out of this little room, I’ll be able to paint it Pistachio or Avocado green. It’ll become our home office after that!

A more in-depth mail post coming tonight to thank everyone for such lovely letters

I had a moment where emotion rocked inside of me like the waves I used to know so well of Lake Michigan.

I packed Mr. Engineer’s lunch gently inside my Grampa’s old lunchbox. His name with his old address was still on it. A return address sticker. He passed away in June 2003 when I was 18. Maybe it was July.

Gram used to pack Grampa’s lunch.

Thus, I have been in a very daydream-esque state this morning. I have been remembering.

The time is passing me by faster than I like. There is much to be done.

The khaki tree with green background is near completion and I think it can be finished today.

1. Finish filling in the background with green paint.

2. Use khaki paint around the perimeter of the room where the roller could not reach. A 2nd coat is necessary for our walls. The plaster just does not hold paint very well. So, I just have to do all the edges because the roller couldn’t reach there.

3. 2nd coat of green on the background and carefully paint a 2nd coat on the tree.

4. Paint all trim off-white (it has been primed white, but it’s very blinding!)

5. Move furniture into bedroom!!!

6. Take photos and share them with blog friends

Mikka is playing “supervisor” today. I really do value the opinion of our furry pup. I had her on the bed earlier after Mr. Engineer left, but she’s being a good girl now and sleeping on her own gigantic pillow (on the floor). Oh how nice it must be to sleep on an over-stuffed mound of pure softness.

It really is nice to have some company while Mr. Engineer is at work.

Yesterday we were visiting his parents. We arrived around noon, ate some great food (cottage cheese pancakes), loaded up on the Russian candies (mmmm!) and headed over to the movie theater. We saw “How to Train Your Dragon” in 3D (non-IMAX). It was wonderful! I loved the animation. Very nicely done.

We got back to the parent’s house, watched the Cavaliers lose to the Celtics, and headed out.

It was Mr. Engineer’s idea to bring Mikka home. I’m so glad he suggested it. She’ll be gone again and back with his mother soon enough. I understand how nice it is to have her when you don’t have a job (and his mother does not work, nor drive). While I will miss her and be lonely again during the day, I am younger and able to do other things to keep my mind off it all.

It does get lonely though – being at the house all day.

Thus, when the bedroom is finished and the furniture is moved in, I shall get to work painting the small room. It’ll be our “office” instead of our very small cave. Don’t get me wrong. I love sleeping in a small room. Some people would hate it. I find it very comforting and peaceful.

But you can’t have two people walking in the room at one time. There just isn’t enough space!

Right now there is a laundry basket and a dog bed covering the only bit of flooring we had left in here. Mikka is completely unaware of me typing about her. =P

Mikka on her giant pillow. Don't mind the dirty laundry...

Did you get your mom or grandmother anything special today?

If you aren’t a mother, don’t have one, or aren’t doing anything special, what’s your day going to look like? It’s Sunday! The day of rest and relaxation before the busy week starts up again.

I will be finishing up my tree painting in the bedroom on Monday. I hope to have us sleeping in the room Monday night!

(Karli I got your letter! Thank you so much! Will be writing a reply very soon.)

The background was going to be Green Tea Leaf. However, due to a happy mistake, I just realized yesterday that the woman at Lowes mixed the wrong color. It’s actually Thyme Green, which is darker. I like it better and am glad for the mishap. I’ve started to fill in the background around the tree with this color and it looks wonderful. It really makes the tree pop out.

Here is a sneak peak. These photos were taken prior to it being completely painted (1st coat of paint). I intend to put one more coat of paint on the tree. I’m sorry you can’t see the green yet, but I guess I’ll leave that for the grand finale.

As soon as this is done being posted, I’ll be back upstairs painting away!

Classic Khaki

and

Green Tea Leaf

I am going to be busting my butt to get this mostly done today, so I will hopefully be able to share pictures of the finished bedroom very soon!

The “thing” I’m painting (with the green) is going to be a tree. A very special tree