Check it out:

I think I like it.

I’m sure that you’ve seen on of these cats before. Maybe in your Chinese food take out restaurant, or in a store window. These cats are extremely popular.

On Wellington Street West, there is a pho restaurant that A. and I go to. I think it’s called Noodle House. It’s pretty good. When we went there, we noticed that there was a giant lucky cat, but with it’s left arm moving up and down. We thought it was really weird that it was doing it and started imitating it. 

Since then, we’ve been fascinated with these cats. What are they all about? They’re kind of cute looking, if they bring good fortune, maybe we should get one.

We bought one this weekend. It looks like the one pictured above. I took a look on wikipedia this morning to find the history on these things and this is what I found:

The Maneki Neko (招き猫^?, literally “Beckoning Cat“; also known as Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money cat, or Fortune Cat) is a common Japanese sculpture, often made of porcelain or ceramic, which is believed to bring good luck to the owner. The sculpture depicts a cat (traditionally a Japanese Bobtail) beckoning with an upright paw, and is usually displayed—many times at the entrance—in shops, restaurants, pachinko parlors, and other businesses. Some of the sculptures are electric or battery-powered and have a slow-moving paw beckoning. In the design of the sculptures, a raised right paw supposedly attracts money, while a raised left paw attracts customers.

Maneki Neko come in different colors, styles, and degrees of ornateness. In addition to sculptures, Maneki Neko can be found as keychains, piggy banks, air fresheners, and miscellaneous ornaments.

To read the entire entry, please click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneki_Neko

We bought the cat with the moving left arm. I’m still not 100% sure what kind of lucky it’s supposed to give me. Good fortune and bring in customers I think. Either way, good fortune can never hurt.

Now all I have to do is figure out where to put it in my place. Does anyone know about where I should be putting this cat in my house?

Here are some random things that have been running through my mind lately:

• Every morning, A. and I get our coffee at Tim Hortons. Most of the time, we are served by the same woman. She never smiles. Some days, I wish I could just give her some flowers to brighten her day.
• In my 26th year, I want to Eat, Pray, Love.
• I catch myself yelling VEGAS randomly throughout the day. Can you tell I’m excited?
• I bought a food processor, yea! I’m pretty happy about that. Now I can make wicked awesome banana bread.. and pesto too.
• What do you call a personality trait that needs to be worked on? I found out recently that I have two. Sometimes I tend to exaggerate and sometimes I can be overly organized.  I need to work on these.
• I love knitting. I just haven’t had a chance to do much of it lately. I’m getting a little stressed out that I won’t have some of my handmade Christmas gifts done in time.
• I love Christmas. I can’t wait to put up my tree. Is it weird if I put it up in November?
• Weddings. A wedding.
• I wish I had more time. We are always so busy. I would like to go visit my dad in November, but every weekend is booked up.
• I started taking this stuff called Udo’s Oil. To help me during my workouts… I keep forgetting to take it.
• Lately, I’ve found that food has no taste. I’ve been eating out allot and everything tastes gross. Why is this happening?
• I love having someone to sleep next to every night.
• I happy that I do not have a dog right now. However, I do enjoy babysitting our tenant’s dog once in a while. She’s great.
• I’m trying to think of good Christmas gifts for my friends. It’s hard when they don’t have a blog to write about the things they like. Get a BLOG.
• I love my mom. She’s been so great lately. I’ve never seen anyone give as much love as she does on a daily basis.
• It’s Tuesday.

Last night, I went to the Signatures Craft Show at Lansdowne with my mom. It was o.k. I found everything to be a little too $$.. meaning everything was more than I what I was willing to spend.

One thing that did catch my eye, was one woman selling  framed embroidery sayings. I didn’t buy any, but one of the quotes was so cute that I had to share it here. The quote was signed – Winnie the Pooh.

Yea it’s kind of cheesy.. whatever.. I like it

My birthday is coming up (5 days). I can’t believe I’ll be turning 26! I remember last year, I as so nervous to turn 25. I heard so many stories about the quarter life crisis that I freaked myself right out. Well, now I know it affects everyone differently, if anything, I feel more sure of myself than before. I learned so much over the past year, than I learned in any other year. It really was a fantastic year.

A couple of days ago, A. was having some trouble thinking of something that he could get me for my birthday. So, I send him a few suggestions of things that I would like off Etsy for my birthday. Here are some of the things I suggested:

As most of you know, Google Sreet View went live yesterday. A. mentioned a few months ago, that he saw the Google car around the Somerset area. We looked it up yesterday and yup, here he is:

(click on image to see A.)

The funny thing is, is if you go up the street one more shot. You can see A. watching the Google car.

What kind of cool stuff did you find with Google Street View?

J.

It’s been a while since I’ve dipped into the pot of post-it notes from the one word experiment. So this morning, I’ll pull out a few and write a sentence or two about the topic. Here we go:

• Dog (Adorn Inc.) – Still wish I had one, but not upset that I don’t. I love animals. I really wish our lifestyle would allow us to have one, but I’m just as happy now babysitting one once in a while. If you need a sitter, let me know.
• Another Blog (me) – I’m really enjoying reading craft and wedding blogs right now. I know, I know, I’m not engaged, but I love reading about how they organize it, the ideas, the topics. I love everything about it. The craft blogs, I’m gathering ideas and hoping that some day I’ll have enough time to do them all.
• Blankets (me) – I love blankets. I love curling up in bed, putting the blanket up to my head and get cozy. I made a knitted blanket this year and hope that I will be able to put this on my bed before November. Will keep you posted on my progress.
• Zippers (Kitchen Wall Gallery) – This is probably something that I will never understand when it comes to knitting or sewing. Why do things need zippers anyway?
• Apple (Ottawa Dog Blog) – Let’s start with apples, the fruit. Now is probably the best time of year to go apple picking, I would love to go and pick my own apples. If you know A. personally, please email him and let him know that I want to go. Regarding Apple products, from my experience, I’ve found this brand the easiest to navigate, sync between it’s products, tv products are great, I pretty much love everything about Apple. What’s your favorite thing about Apple?
• Go (TurtleHead) – This is my life. Go, go, go. I’m looking forward to when my life’s theme song is “Sitting on the dock of the bay”. Ah, that’s the life.

I’m back in Ottawa. I’m pretty happy to be home. Home is where A. is. It’s where my things are. It’s where the most comfortable bed in the world is. It’s where I know that street connects to what street. It’s where my friends are. I love traveling, but I’m always happy to come back home.

Over my week in Halifax, I was able to do allot of things. Shop, gym, visit, shop, eat, etc.. I was really fun. My favourite moment in Halifax was eating lobster Saturday night with a good friend of mine. We’re both not expects at opening these things. It was a challenge, but a really fun one.

I found while I was in Halifax, that there isn’t much shopping to be done. They have a few stores, with lots of beautiful things, but nothing that jumped out at me and said wow! The most exciting things I bought were six pairs of tights, a jean skirt and a circle scarf.

Speaking of the circle scarf, have I mentioned that I know love American Appeal? Yes, there stuff is over priced for plain Jane things, but honestly, they know how to mix and match, make one thing, be able to do ten things. It’s amazing.

If you have a chance today, take a look at their website. Some of my favourites are the circle scarf, bandeau dress and le sac (they finally have instructions too!!!).

That’s it for Halifax. I’m happy I went, saw, Keith’ed me, but I sure am happy to be home. Next trip, Vegas in October! Yes!

This weekend was the Hintonburg Art Festival. It was a cute little festival that was just a couple of streets over from my house. There were vendors and bands, all surrounding an art gallery.

On Sunday, I went to the festival with my mom and found an artist that I am now in love with her drawings. Here are the three prints that I picked up.

Pretty cute huh?

Want your hands on your one? You can check out her Etsy site here.

Anyone know the history on these things?