Happy Halloween!

Toad Stools*

Seems like there should be some little fairies fluttering around.

What Bird??*

No, Lucy is not eating a bird. It's a feather from a new toy ... a new toy that seriously will be decimated by Saturday, a week after "grandma" brought it to her. Grandma is Shawn's mom and she brought this new toy for the cats last weekend. Within 20 seconds of playing with Lucy with the new toy there were like 5 feathers shredded out of the toy. I knew then that this toy would not last long. The funniest part is when she gets a feather stuck in her mouth as you can see.

More Pumpkins*

More Fall*

Gotta Love Some Paisley*

I never really thought that this style of boot was really for me. A little too hippy and of the Ugg ilk. But then I found these ... in paisley! I love paisley patterns, always have. And not only do I love the design but these boots are damn comfy and cozy. I'll be doing a lotta schleppin' in these this fall and winter.

Present at the Grocery Store*

Have you ever wondered where brussel sprouts come from? Like, do they grow in a bunch? Or do they grow on a bush? Well, turns out they sprout from a stalk.

I had a photo shoot this afternoon (more of that to come and some absolute gorgeousness of a goddess friend) and then had to go to the grocery store. Our Scion is a hatchback, so there's no trunk to hide expensive gear in. And I've had a camera bag and contents stolen, smash and grab style, right out of my car in the middle of the day. Anyway, so I just strapped the camera on me and went into the store.

As I was walking around I started thinking I should be taking pics of all the food and displays, different colors, textures, all kinds of stuff. Usually when I'm in the grocery store my main goal is to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. And then I wondered, if I'm taking pics will the store people get pissed? Will other people look at me weird? First, I don't think the store people would care and if they did, I would stop. As far as other people, so what?? Let them look at me weird. If I really want to be present with photos then I just need to go for it.

But in the interest of time, since I had been out pretty much all day, I decided no pics, just get the groceries and get home. Then I saw the brussel sprouts and had to get a shot. I've never seen anything like this. The stalks were about a foot to a foot and half long. It makes me want to try them but I'm certain I need a good recipe.

And beyond everything else, so if this is a brussel sprout, does it grow into a big brussel? Is the plant called a brussel? Guess I got some googling to do.

Pumpkins*

I love fall decorations.

Romp and Stomp, Rough and Tumble*

This was the scene this morning. Some romp and stomp. Some rough and tumble. With Lucy and Tiki. Tiki the Old Girl. This is the third time in about 10 days there has been this play scrapping between the punkass and old girl. And Tiki is the one instigating and pushing it.













































After this scene, Tiki started backing Lucy down the stairs. I say this is play scrapping because while there are paws and claws flying, it's not dive and dig into the other with fierceness and desire to really hurt. You can tell the difference. And Tiki kept going at it.

Lucy certainly spends a good amount of time pestering her. But Lucy also had Mr. to play with up until 6 months ago. In fact it was just last week the it was 6 months since Mr. passed. Hmm... maybe the 6 month mark is significant here. Back to Lucy's pestering. She's a young cat and likes to play and run and wrestle. I would say she tries to provoke Tiki into rough and tumble, just like she did with Mr.

But I worry a little more about Tiki because she's old and I don't want Lucy to be a bully. Mr. was so much bigger than Lucy that one swat and he'd put her in her place. And she was much smaller than she is now. So the rough and tumble almost had this goofiness about it. Where as with the current rough and tumble it's a little less goofy looking, but amusing nonetheless.

I think Tiki was just finally like alright, that's IT! I'm going to kick your punk ass! Lucy is very vocal as well. Hissing, growling with some little meows in there as well. I don't remember if she did that with the Mr.




















































This is where I finally broke it up. Lucy gets pissed when Tiki puts her in her place and comes back a little more vicious and we won't have any of that. So I got them separated but Lucy kept stalking and not wanting to let it rest for a while. All of this was about 15 minutes before I left for work this morning. I was laughing about it for most of the day.

Artist Date*

Today I had an artist date. The book the Artist's Way which is basically a guide to rediscovering your creativity encourages artist dates. You take some time to do something that fuels you and your creativity, whether it's doing some yoga, going to a museum, taking a walk in nature. So today during my lunch break I went into Old Town Alexandria and walked around for about 30 minutes taking photos. This is one of my favorites. I love the yellow and blue doors next to each other. I almost blew it off and then last minute said fuck it ... I'm going to do this. I've done the Artist's Way before and I can say that taking that time for an artist date on a regular basis (the book recommends at least an hour a week) really does fuel you. It puts wheels in motion. I foresee more artist dates coming up.

Night Leaves*

The neighbor's tree ... taken from our front porch about 8:30pm. Something about the darkness with just a bit of light that makes the color so much more vibrant.

Kitty Has a Face*

Most of the time the photos of Lucy look like she has no face. Just eyes ... no face kitty. I think there is a comic book super hero or perhaps a villian with the moniker no face. Anyway, I caught her here with the flash. Kitty does have a face.

One Final Hurrah*

These are the last two buds on the night blooming cereus. This is the first bud that bloomed back in August. The bud looked like the ones above for about a day, and then grew another 6 inches in like 2 days and then bloomed after that. These have been stuck like this for about 10 days. Lack of light and now it's cold and it just rained for 5 days. Hopefully this plant can get it's final hurrah and will bloom sometime in the next 10 days or so.

Moth Hunting*

Shawn helping Lucy hunt a moth. It's always nice when your friends help you out.

Rain*

It's been raining or steadily drizzling for 4 days now. I don't mind a rainy day, especially on a Sunday when I can indulge in laziness. Somehow rain makes that indulgence even more decadent. But it's been 4 days now, all days full of some kind of work or activity. So no chance to lay back and enjoy a rainy day, lounging on the chaise, reading a book. And there's more coming tomorrow. I think we need a little sunshine.

Looks Can Be Deceiving*

This looks like tarantula legs. But it's actually a fern. And upon closer inspection, the stems with the fern leaves actually come out of these furry tarantula leg looking stems. You can see the whole thing below.

Transition*

It's transition time in the Shabibi household. Shabibi, by the way, is our surname from combining Habibi (my last name) with Sharifi (Shawn's last name). It totally works. So the cats, are Lucy and Tiki Shabibi. When we mail things from the both of us, Christmas cards for example, they come from Shabibi. Even Shawn's mom has mailed stuff to us addressed to Shabibi.

Anyway, back to the transition. It's time for the plants to come inside. I actually don't have it so bad, Shawn does like 99% of the work involved. But overall it's not our favorite time because it means growing season is over and the plants just don't thrive the same inside as they do outside. But they need a rest. And it's the season for rest now.

The other thing is that we lose a lot of space. Shawn loses almost his entire office because all the delicate and poisonous plants go in there. Everything else goes in the living room where the most window space is. Buddha will have to find a new home. And on top of that we have to watch out for bad kitties, or shall I say, bad kitty (there's only one) messing with the plants that are out in the open.

The jasmine above is currently on the kitchen island. Why there? Well because one bad kitty was able to get to it where it was sitting and dig up dirt and mulch. You can see her below, eye balling it from it afar. We'll see how she does this year. Last year, Mr. was around to keep her occupied. Although there was a few times last year we caught her climbing in the ficus tree, like a panther. Bad, bad kitty.

Little Did I Know*

This little statue is a clay piece I did way back in high school, like 11th or 12th grade. This thing has survived my pyromaniac brother, you can see the scorched beard and hands. It's head has broken off, cleanly, so I was able to glue it back on. And it has traveled back and forth from Florida and Norfolk. So, if nothing else it is resiliant.

I was going for something that represented my Persian roots hence the Ali Baba dude. I don't know why I put him in the position he's in, it just seemed right. I don't know why I put his hands into a mudra or why it looks like he is chanting. None of that is really Persian but it is very yoga.

Old Ali Baba is sitting in easy pose, sukhasana, holding gyan mudra and chanting, we'll say Om. It's almost like I created this statue from a vision of my future. I didn't know anything about yoga when I was 16/17 but this little statue is all about the yoga.

Mums*

Fall is here ...

Peeks Around 22*

Peeks Around 22 is the mantle above the fireplace. There's a tree man incense holder, gargoyle bookends for half of the mini book collection, a zen garden with sand and a rock, agate slice bookends for the other half of the mini books and a mosaic vase.

Above the mantle are a staff and a wand that Shawn made. I'll save those details for a future peeks around.

Sunday*

Blooming coleus.

Weekend Cuteness*

Here's some cuteness for your weekend. This was during our game of "fetch" today. It's as close to fetch as your gonna get with a cat. They aren't going to let you get away without doing any work in their game of fetch. I throw the toy, Lucy runs to get it, plays with it for a second or two, picks it up and brings it back to me ... almost ... within my reach. So, if I want to continue to play the game with her I actually need to do some fetching as well. It's a two way street with cats. Or actually, their street that they allow you on.

Too Funny*

Saw this on a work van in the parking lot of my office and thought it was too funny.

After the Bloom, the Bounty*

The morning glory flowers are much prettier than their remaining seed pods, but it's the seed pods that are the real bounty. Each of these pods has several seeds in it. Each seed has the potential to sprout into a a new plant next year. These 3 pods could fill a planter with 10 plants or so. So, while the beauty is gone, the magic for next year is right here. Right along with some magical light surrounding it (good ole lens flare).

Subtle Differences*

At first glance, these flowers look just like these, which also look a lot like these. But all of these flowers are different. These, or at least the photos of them, are the ones that inspired me to get a dslr camera. And when we got these, I actually wrote a post about how they were the ones that started the whole thing. But they aren't even the same flower! It just goes to show the subtle differences that you really have to slow down to take in.

The flowers in the photo above are cool because there are little flowers within the flowers. Something else you might not notice if you don't take a moment to just be present with them.

Eeek*

I'm actually glad I was not present to take this photo. Shawn took it yesterday. It's some sort of spider and it's not that big. The crystal that it's on is probably about an inch long or so. He spied this spider in the backyard and since he's a boy, he was intrigued. So he got it onto the bar somehow and got some pics. Yes, definitely glad I wasn't there.

Kitty in a Lair*

Sea Monster*

Meet the eel or what I commonly call him, the Sea Monster. Well, he does look like a sea monster. Aside from 2 cats and countless plants, we also have two fish tanks. The tank upstairs is where the eel lives. The eel has been around for at least 3 to 4 years now. The photo above, with the cute little fish in it ... that cute little fish will be an eel snack here soon.

The eel had kind of been in hiding for the last year or so because there were two other fish, of the shark variety, that had taken over. One of them would eat pretty much everything as soon as Shawn put food in. And yes, often, the food was the cute little fish. I've never been a huge fan of the fish-eating-fish theme of this tank, but cest la vie.

About two months ago, one of the shark fish committed suicide. How does a fish commit suicide? It jumps out of the tank where it can survive onto the carpeted floor or the tank holder, where it can't. Yes, the fish jumped out of the tank. There have been other instances of this, one of which happened when I was home alone and had to either help the fish, which was this needle nosed, evil looking fish, or just watch it die at the hands of the cats or the elements. I saved the fish and honestly I think it was more traumatic for me than the fish

Within two weeks, the other shark fish, committed suicide. Guess there was some kind of fish suicide pact or perhaps the other fish in the tank conspired and had something to do with it. Anyway, since then the eel has been out and about much more. So today I got some pics of him. To give it some perspective, the eel is about 7 inches long and at its widest probably an inch to an inch and a half in circumference. This eel once swallowed one of those shark type fish whole. It's definitely a sea monster.

Lens Flare*

I happen to love lens flare. I love the bubbles of light emanating from the bright sun. Some people would say this is bad photo because of the lens flare. But I think it makes it look magical and mystical. And if there's magic in a photo, then to me it's a good photo.

A New Discovery*

About a week or so ago I noticed this hill in our neighborhood with a ton of wildflowers. I have never seen the wildflowers here before, in 7 years. I've noticed what appeared to be a vegetable garden up on this hill before but never the wildflowers.

The only thing this photo is missing is some fairies or goddesses hanging out amidst the flowers.

Processes, Logistics, Preparations*

Sometimes posting a photo takes a lot more than one would think. Definitely more than I would have thought. It seems so simple. Take a photo, upload it, write something if you want, click publish and viola ... you're done. Not so, at least sometimes.

Today I had a photo shoot with a family and their new baby. So that means a lot of photos on the disc in the camera. Which means I really need to back up everything else I've been working on and archive everything that's done. Because it's likely I won't have enough hard drive space to download all the images from today. Huh? What?? Not enough space?? Don't they make hard drives with gazillabytes of memory? Yes they do. However, my Macbook runs both OSX and Windows meaning about a third of the hard drive space is allocated to Windows. Why would a Mac purist have Windows running on their Macbook? That's sacrilege!!

Well, part of the hard drive is allocated to Windows so my super, wonderful hubby can use it for his videos. And yes, he doesn't use all of it. And yes, I need to reallocate more space. So, yet another process that needs to be done. Once I do that, I'll have more space available and won't have to be so stingy with hard drive space. But for now, there's a bunch of crap that has to be done before I can even download photos from today. Including anything that would be for the blog. And the energy and wherewithal for that is spent. So ... I will grace you with Miss Poo and mousey from last night.