Inside kitties

   Hello again!  I feel I left off on kind of a bleak note last time, so today I want to talk about sunshine!  I'm trying to love Salt Lake even though I don't plan on living here forever, and one of the things I love the most about it is how sunny it is.  Walking down my street it's so bright, everything is grainy and reminds me of a film from the 70's.  
   For unspecified reasons, my cats are no longer allowed outside.  I wanted to find a way to let them enjoy the sun but remain indoors, so I created this: 

    It's just a little table next to my window sill, but it provides a great place for my kitties to work on their tan.    

Not so cute.

    Things have gotten a little messy lately.  For one thing, I had an explosion of sales earlier this month that I'm finally getting on top of.  I have four commissions left, and a bunch of random ponies I'm making to sell at the Brony meet up later this month.
     On top of that, our house is having major land lady drama right now.  She's given everyone except Michael and I eviction notices because they have animals.  One of the apartments doesn't have animals, and it seems like she could just have the other apartment pay a pet deposit since we definitely have animals.  It's pretty ballsy to get a dog without asking your landlady first, but their dog is a German shepherd (rather an a pit bull or something), there haven't been any complaints, and he isn't destructive.
    I don't think she's completely wrong for being upset, but she is behaving rather psychotically during this process.  She had her boyfriend shut off one apartment's central cooling system "because they don't pay electricity," but utilities are included as part of our rent.  Not to mention it's been about 90 degrees all weekend.
    Her boyfriend keeps coming over and watching the house and he's made some really weird comments to us, like he is trying to get us to give him information or incriminate ourselves.  It's all quite stressful.
    Other stressers include trying to appeal an E I received last semester, and finding images for my dad's wwebsite.

Check out my rad MS Paint skillz.

  On a happier note, today Michael and I are having an Air conditioner party!

Not a great housewife

    I have a confession:  I am not a great housewife.

  I don't have a real job right now and most of the money I contribute to my household comes from my etsy store.  Being a married woman in Utah, I have a lot of guilt about my messy house and lack of outside job.  I enjoy housework (except dishes), but can't seem to maintain a state of cleanliness for more than a few hours.  

    Several blogs I read explain different methods of housekeeping, but none of them address my specific problems.  For one, (two to come in a separate entry!) my kitchen is the worst room to keep clean because I use it constantly.  I love cooking and am trying to do it more, but every time I do, I have to pull everything out and it makes a huge mess.         

    Baking basically becomes like the part of an infomercial where they are trying to show you how impossible it is to do tasks you thought you did every day, but it turns out you need a knife created by ancient Japanese blacksmiths, forged in the fires of Mordor, just to slice a tomato. 

    What I'm trying to get at, is I found a way to organize the ingredients I use most, while keeping them handy, out of the way, and most importantly, cute!  

   As you can see below, I've stored the ingredients I use the most in glass containers.  They are clearly labeled on my favorite scrap booking paper and have ribbons tied around them.  Notice the green polka dot liner on my shelves.  

I won the Mason Jennings poster when I went to see him live.

    I'm pretty proud of how convenient cooking is now.  It's also much easier to keep my kitchen clean, aside room those darn dishes.