Of cats and babies

As my husband and I have been preparing for the birth of our first born we've been keeping the cats in mind. I'm excited for baby and I know she is going to require much of or time. I do feel bad for the cats having less of our time. Whiskers in particular, he has been in a major playful mood recently and needs extra play time. Maya will play with him at times so that helps.

So I've been thinking of buying them a cat tree for Christmas. With all the stuff for baby the cats deserve sometime new for them as well. I've been wanting to get them one for awhile anyways. And I'm sure Toby would appreciate a good perch for when Whiskers is chasing him.

I have also been trying out various cat toys to see what they might like. I've been looking at ones they can play with on thier own if needed, but we can still toss around to. Whiskers likes this little play and squeak mouse. As it gets bopped around it makes a mouse squeaking noise. He tosses it then chases it.

When baby is born I'll keep a good eye on how the cats are around her. I don't think any of the cats would harm her, but better to be careful. Heck, she might enjoy being held by one of us and watching the other play with the cats. Whiskers does run after the teaser pretty quick when he wants to play.

Friday Fun: Playing with Color

Needless to say with baby on the way I've been looking at colors quite often. Then again I like color anyways with the various art I've done over the years. Right now I'm pretty happy with the color for the top wall and the trim. The bottom wall was giving me issues for awhile. I think I've found a color I like, I just need to stop by the hardware store for a chip since I've only viewed said color on my computer.

That being said, I've been having fun with the Personal Color Viewer from Benjamin Moore paints. Granted how the colors appear on the computer will differ from actual paint colors, but it is still nice to get a general sense of how various color combinations might look in a room. I like how they have sample room pictures already in their program or you can upload your own pictures. So far I've only been playing with the sample pictures.

This is one of the sample rooms I colored. Here's to hoping it loads alright. I used the share to twitter option then copied the link here. I had tried sharing to Blogger which my browser didn't like. I was thinking that it might be fun to color rooms for my characters, or even to play with the colors then think what type of character might reside in that space. Then again playing with the colors is fun on it's own aside from fictional characters.

On a side note, if you do want to use this to help pick out colors for a room you want to paint jot down the color numbers or names. The application allows for switching between color names and numbers. I had spent awhile with my nursery colors then the website had trouble saving. (If you create an account you can save the various projects to your favorites, to access anywhere you have a web connection). It might have been my browser.

Writing Wednesday: Nanowrimo idea

I do still want to post about writing and I'm currently in the process of figuring out the balance of what to post when. Writing sounds good on this day of the week because alliteration is fun. Not that every topic has to match, it just created a starting point.

With baby on the way I'm planning on getting in what writing time I can now and seeing how things go once she's here. To that end I've decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo / NaNo) this November. I had a glimmer of an idea a few months back which merged with an old short story idea from a few years ago.

My idea is still rough hopefully I can get it to a workable state soon. Ideally I'd like to have an outline ready to go. I'm writing science fiction this year. The basic idea of the story is a less advanced society living in the shadows/ruins of a previous society that was more technological. Right now I'm trying to figure out why the first society left and making sure the reason still leaves room for the current society.

And yes I know it's Thursday. I started this post yesterday over lunch and decided to still run with the title.

Blogfest wrap-up: I had fun at the Labor Day blogfest and am still planning on visiting everyone who stopped by here. These past two weeks have gotten away from me.

Blogfest Starting Now

Today starts KarenG's Labor Day Blog BBQ. I just left my comment over on her post and I'll be taking time this weekend to visit other participants. I decided to bring grilled chicken and veggies to the party, I've been eating a lot of chicken and vegetables recently.

And I also want to take this opportunity to say hello and welcome anyone visiting my blog this weekend. I did a little introduction on the blogfest post, but I can do one here as well for new visitors. I'm Claire, and this here blog in my main one. I blog about my writing, writing in general, and other things that interest me. My cats do pop in from time to time as well. My most recent novel drafts have been science fiction and fantasy. I also like to write mainstream. Heck, I just like to be creative and writing is but one way to do so.

I am thinking about other directions in which to take this blog so that it's not just a blog for other writers. The writing aspect is important, I don't want to loose that theme. I do want to make non-writers feel more welcome while giving my readers a chance to know me a little more as well. To me blogging is about community; getting to know and interact with others. In that vain I have decided to occasionally post some of my short fiction. I know I posted about my visiting local parks possibility awhile back and I'm still planning on doing that. It'll be a good break from getting ready for baby.

Yes I do have another blog. In addition to this blog I also have a blog for my beading work/jewelry. At some point I do want to open an online shop for my handcrafts; once I get set up with all the proper paperwork (sales tax and what not official stuff). I do like to post my works there either way, and I have some tutorials/tips planned as well.

And I have four cats, the ones mentioned earlier in this post. Two we went out to the local shelter to adopt while the other two found us through different situations. And I'm expecting my first child in February. It'll be interesting to see what my lap cat thinks of my expanding belly, and what they all think of baby. DH and I have fun guessing what each cat will do.

Feel free to introduce yourself here, and if you are on Twitter that would be cool to leave your @ here as well. It's fun to connect to bloggers on twitter as well. (I'm @Clairegoverts over there)

Upcoming Blogfest

Short post is short. I just wanted to give anyone who hasn't seen it yet a head's up about Karen's Blog BBQ. I participated last year and it was a blast checking out various blogs and figuring out what food I wanted to "bring" to the party (yes it's a virtual BBQ). She has the details in her blog post I linked, but pretty much it starts Friday and it's not to involved.

News: "I'm a riddle in nine syllables" +1

I know, my poor blog has been neglected as of late. I've had a lot going on and not much energy in which to do it. But I have good news to share. I'm pregnant, I'm expecting my first child in February of next year. I just started my second trimester earlier this month. I've gotten through the worst of the nausea and my energy level is starting to return.

I am planning on easing back into blogging soon. I miss reading other blogs and taking the time to write out posts for mine. I'm guessing blogging should be a little easier to do once I'm back on regular hours at work. This is the last week of summer hours, which means working longer Monday through Thursday to have a half day on Friday. I'll miss the half days but I'm looking forward to being done at 4pm again the rest of the week.

I am also thinking about posting the occasional piece of flash fiction. I figure writing time will be scarce once baby is here, and this will be a good time to exercise the ol writing muscles now with some short sprints. I can leave the more complex novel revision preparation for some time later.

And yes, the title of my post is from Sylvia Plath's "Metaphors" poem.

Wordless Wednesday

Cone flower in my garden - Rest of the set

Happy 4th

Happy Independence Day to US peeps, and happy Monday all. :) With the holiday here I have today off from work and the weather couldn't be better. Low 80s F and low humidity.

My husband and I spent some time outside today with Trixie and Whiskers. Whiskers got snappy so he went inside after a short while. I wandered around the front yard with Trixie who was rather happy to be outside eating grass. The picture here is her picking the grass out of the one spot in the garden.

I'm back inside now, watching a TopGear marathon with my husband on BBC America. Kind of an ironic way to spend the fourth but its a fun show. We would probably be watching Babylon 5 at some point if it hadn't just been removed from Netflix instant watch. We'll have to put the DVDs in our queue. While I've seen it before it is fun to watch again and see the various bits of foreshadowing. ( Yes pun intended.)

New Blog Series

Since A to Z wound down and the cool days of spring are shifting into the warmer days of summer I've been pondering what to write about for my blog. I do like blogging about writing but I don't want to only blog about writing. I want to get some more of my other interests in here, which I'm sure others share some of them.

With those thoughts, and thanks to Julie's Travel's with Clancy I decided it might be fun to have the occasional blog post of my visits to various places around my area. I live in central New York state and I enjoy getting out into more natural settings. Luckily we have parks galore around here; nestled in the rivers, lakes, and mountains. I'm probably going to put up a wish list of places I'm planning on visiting soon along with farther away places that I would like to visit someday.

For this summer I'm hoping to get to both Letchworth state park and Chimney Bluffs. Both destinations are under a two hour drive from where I live.

Letchworth is referred to as the "Grand Canyon of the East". The Genesee river flows through a gorge in the park and down waterfalls. At one of the falls there is a set of stone steps that lead down into the gorge for a closer view. I've been there several times and I'm looking forward to visiting again.

Chimney Bluffs is a park along the shore of Lake Ontario consisting of a series of pointed bluffs perched on the edge of the beach. It looks like some rock formations from the US southwest were dropped into New York. The Wiki page has more detail on this park than the state website does. I've been here once before and unfortunately didn't have time to explore the various hiking trails. When my husband and I heard a thunderstorm approaching we went to the local winery instead.

If I get out towards Buffalo, there is Chestnut Ridge park. I used to go there fairly often when I was younger and wander the creek with my brother. In a book my mom had picked up a few years back I read about the Eternal Flame. In a waterfall just outside the park proper there is a natural gas fissure that causes a flame to burn in a grotto behind the falling water.

So basically this is the start of figuring out where exactly I want to go and what I want to see. I'd really like to go to Letchworth for a weekend trip. While it is fairly close I'd like to stay at the Glen Iris inn. I read in the AAA magazine that the inn has a porch with plenty of chairs within earshot of the falls. It sounds like a relaxing way to enjoy the day after going hiking and taking pictures.

Of course there is Niagara Falls not to far. But for this blog series I think it would be more fun to focus on lesser known places. Though if I wind up at the Niagara Falls park I'd like to photograph Tesla's statue and the three sisters islands are always interesting.

Introducing Mr Whiskers

Awhile back I had posted about my three cats. It was for my T post in fact for the A to Z challenge. Well my DH and I recently adopted another cat. Our next door neighbor passed away in early May, leaving behind her four year old male cat. No one else in the neighborhood could take him in, and the plan A house didn't work. So my husband and I decided to provide a home for him.

Here is is. I took this picture a few weeks back. He was sitting in the window watching the birds outside then he had turned to look at me. Luckily I had my cell phone handy.

Here he is outside. His previous owner used to put him out in her backyard on a tie out. He would sit out there enjoying the fresh air and watching the yard from underneath the bushes. I'm getting him used to a harness and leash. I took this picture yesterday while following him around in the front yard. The only time I had directed him was when he tried to crawl into the basement window well.

I'm not so much training him to walk like a dog would. Rather I'm aiming to have him comfortable wandering at his pace. We do have a tie out which I'll have to see where in our yard he would like to spend time. It would be someplace where I could keep an eye on him while gardening. With all the neighborhood cats wandering through our yard I don't want to leave our cats outside on their own. Plus to if the cat moves just right they can back out of a harness, and they can manage to get their leads/tie out tangled in ways a dog rarely could.