Pumpkin Pup-sicles

A few days ago, I had some bananas getting too ripe. Usually, I make them into Kim Sunée's superlative chocolate banana bread. But this time, I made a batch of pumpkin pup-sicles for the pugs to enjoy.

The ingredients are simple: a 15-oz. can of pumpkin, 1 C. plain nonfat yogurt, a banana or two, and a little drizzle of honey:

Put them in a bowl and mix them up:

Yummy! (If you are a dog.)

You can use cute ice molds (like bones or dog shapes) if you have them, or you can just plop the mixture into a standard ice-cube tray:

They are a little messy-looking, but my pugs won't mind:

Won Ton was very happy to help me clean up afterwards:

Here's the finished treats. I gave everybody one--okay, maybe two--and put the rest in a zip-style bag in the freezer for another hot day.

We'll be ready, when the inevitable heat wave hits!

Technical Difficulties and Polka Dot Pups

Hi, dear people,

My laptop is having some problems, and I'm not able to load any new photos into the blog. I have an appointment to talk to the Apple folks about it soon.

In the meantime, here are two photos of adorable polka dot dogs that were lurking around in a draft folder.

First is a portrait by the wonderful Karl Loveys, who donates his time and expertise to take gorgeous shots of shelter dogs in L.A.'s system:

What a beauty. Let's hope he/she has already been adopted, eh? Next, this is a candid snap by one of the tireless workers who are in the trenches with the homeless dogs in L.A.'s six shelters. Look at that tail--it's a blur, because the doggy is wagging it!

I love the pancake-sized polka dot on this pitty's spine. Let's hope he/she found a fur-ever home, too.

With luck, I'll be back with a regular post after the Apple folks do their magic.

Further Adventures of Jessica the Foster Kitten

 Our foster kitten "Jessica" is growing in confidence daily:

Now she's chill around the pugs, especially when they're being quiet:

She's getting confident enough to go up to them and take an exploratory sniff:

Here's Mu Shu, just watching the kitten show:

 She's fascinated by my laptop--to the point that it's hard to get any work done:

I ate some cherries out of this colander, and she kept pulling it toward her with her paw. I thought she wanted a cherry, so I bit one in two and offered it to her. She sniffed it politely, but what she really wanted was the colander! It has been a favorite toy--especially when we put a ball inside it:

I fed her and Pao the some little treats, and hers skittered under his belly. She tried to get it out. Pao tried to not freak out as a kitten tickled his undersides:

She strikes such gorgeous poses by the window. The light there is great:

 This was yesterday. Three pugs basking in the sun, and Jessica exploring around them:

I was just about to take this fun kitten tunnel to Goodwill, since Lovely Daughter #1 doesn't need it any more (Olivia got too big to fit). So glad I didn't, because Jessica loves it:

Yesterday was a big day. The Boy and I barricaded off the family room, and we let her explore it. She liked sharing the couch with The Boy:

And even with Won Ton:

The chaise was also a hit. Do you think she knows what a great looker she is?

Speaking of lookers, here's a couple of my beauties:

Although Jessie's kitten antics have turned our lives upside down...

We're having fun. And she's learning to be a wonderful, laid-back cat!

Gray + White + POP!

Four years back, Lovely Daughter #1 was about to start medical school at USC. LD#2 was about to start City Year. The Hubby and I figured that, instead of pay rent for four years and have nothing at the end of it, we'd buy a place for the girls to live in during their "almost-grownup" time. When LD#2 went on to grad school and LD#1 went on to her residency, we could sell the house or rent it out.

Well, LD#1 is a resident in New York City, LD#2 is a teacher in Boston, and we just rented the house to a new batch of med students. (We seem to like med students.)

As we were house-searching, I noticed this cute mural in the neighborhood. The dull gray sidewalk and the lively mural's colors inspired me to create a design plan. The Lovely Daughters took a few of the ideas and ran with them. The plan sat in my computer until now.



The freshly painted interior walls of the house we ended up buying were mostly painted gray, with white trim. Nice, but a little boring?

I imagined adding bright pops of clear, bright colors against the walls, with plenty of white mixed in. Kind of like these pillows against this grey chair look:



It's an easy look to create. First, pick some fabrics (or paint a few pieces of furniture) in pops of crazy, spicy colors, like mango and hot pink:

Look how fantabulous they look in this room (with walls and trim just like our purchased house, I might add):

If mango and hot pink aren't your thing, try tangerine. I'm not crazy about orange shades, usually. But the way tangerine pops against gray and white is just wonderful!:
Or try shots of cobalt and candy pink:

Why not throw in some turquoise! Poll after poll shows that blue is Americans' favorite color:
Don't forget bright red!:


If you don't have a matching set of dining room chairs, a mishmash of wonderful chairs all painted the same glossy hue--whether it's white or a color--is wonderful. (LOVE that lime green):

(The gray cat is optional.)

If you are lucky enough to have a fireplace, try painting the fireplace surround with a pop of color. (By the way--that channel-back chair in the corner? Almost a dead ringer for the two antique-gold channel-back chairs I own.):



All-white furniture and quirky lines make gray walls come to life. Just imagine the blue walls are gray:

Don't have white furniture? Stalk the thrift stores to find furniture with "good bones," like this, then paint it glossy white:

Actually, even chalky white would do. (I just love glossy white, that's all.)

Here's another room with dark gray walls and white trim. Just look how a few, funky pieces, some glossy white furniture, and a pop of color makes the whole thing sing:
If you don't have good art to grace your walls, one of the cheapest, best ways to get a big, graphic bang for your buck is to apply gorgeous fabric right to the wall with old-fashioned liquid starch. You trim it out for a polished, finished look, of course. It gives you a beautiful look that can peel right off if you change your mind or decor in the future. Here, it's yellow fabric on a gray wall:

Through the archway of this living room, below, you can see another big piece of fabric on a dark-mustard colored wall:



Just can't go wrong with that look. And here, below, the walls are much lighter gray, but notice the fabulous mix of printed fabrics in the furniture. Imagine that in pillows, a throw, a table runner, a piece of fabric starched to the wall:

As we were house-hunting, we fell in love with this cottage. It had the most fantabulous view of the Hollywood sign.

It had TWO kitchens and authentic, black-and-white linoleum floors. Some of the kitchen drawers were painted turquoise inside. That's a fun, easy pop of color in a place people don't expect:

It's a bold look, but lots of fun:

In a well-lit kitchen, here's how cute black-and-white floors with pops of red and turquoise can look:


Some rentals won't let you paint a kitchen wall such a crazy color. If that's the case for you, get your color fix by what you add to the kitchen: relatively cheap, easy-to-find things, like pot holders, tea towels, canisters, stirring spoons, etc. can add a great deal of color for very little money.




The cat is always optional.

A Month of Polka Dots

How did it get to be July so fast?! Here's a swift rundown of some polka-dotted wonderfulness that I noticed in the past month. First up, this little Chihuahua mix is a neighbor of mine. His name is "Gordito" ("little fatty" in Spanish). He has two big polka dots on one side:

And a cute mini-dot on the other:

This is "Arrow," (f.k.a. "Acute"), one of the kittens that was fostered by my Lovely Daughter #1 for a few weeks. He has two teeny brown polka dots--freckles, really--on his pink nose:

This adorable bulldog was romping on the leash-free beach when we took the pugs there recently. He/She sported one super-sized polka dot:

This little ladybug rode in my car for a while. His/Her shoulder dots almost look like epaulets. Look at those teeny-tiny feelers!:

This beautiful polka-dot skirt by fiber artist Alabama Chanin is done by layering two lightweight jersey knits over each other, hand-sewing around each dot, and then (very carefully) cutting away the top layer to reveal the inner layer. The model's stance isn't very graceful, and her shoes are awful, but I love the idea of the cutaway polka dot skirt:

Just one quibble: Couldn't you match up the dots on that center seam?