Saturday, October 30, 2010

It’s here!!!! And it’s mine!!!

 

Finally! After years of waiting. I have my pie safe!

He did an amazing job! I am beyond pleased. It’s stunning!

Mr. Primcat did a final sand on it last night and I’m hoping to get to paint it this evening. We have a wedding at two or I’d be painting it right now!

It’s currently standing guard in the prim craft room (you haven’t seen that room yet, but pics will be coming as soon as it’s finished) awaiting it’s final touches!

Some before pics…

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I can’t wait to get my paint out later. You just can’t even imagine how happy I am!

And I’m already dreaming up whatever I’m going to have him build me next!

Until next time…

 

Carmen and the Primcats

Friday, October 29, 2010

Yay Friday!

I am so excited right now! It’s Friday and that means I get to go pick up my pie safe tonight at 7!!! I can’t wait.

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Thanks for all the comments on the safe! I’ve been dreaming all week about finishing it and I can’t wait to get started! I just know It’s going to come out beautifully!

I forgot to share what I paid for this beauty! You know how I love to share a deal!

The Pie tins and antiquing solution were purchased from Don’s Furniture Clinic and cost me $70.00. I probably could have gotten the tins cheaper and already antiqued if I wanted to wait longer but after 5 months I was so sick of waiting I just wanted them here and done.

The actual cost of having the carpenter build the safe was $130.00.

So all in all I only have $200.00 in it!

Can you believe that?

The one I ordered from the prim shop was estimated to be priced around $500.00 depending on what it actually came in at once he built it.

Can you believe I will only have $200 in this! I’m pretty proud of myself right now. Beaming from ear to ear! :)

If any of you Ohio ladies need something built… here is Todd's website! http://wood.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Please tell him I sent you!

Have a blessed day everyone!

Until next time…

Carmen and the Primcats

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Exciting news about my pie safe!!!!

I ordered a pie safe from my local prim shop back in April. Unfortunately I was still waiting on their carpenter as of last month so I set out to find my own local carpenter to build it for me. I found one, sent him the picture, we discussed, and confirmed, and I ordered it. Less than three weeks later I got the email today that it’s done!!!

I’m so excited! We are picking it up Friday.

I can’t wait to get it finished. I think I’m going to do black on the outside, distress it, and then stain it with dark walnut. I think I will just stain the interior.

Here’s a sneak peek from my carpenter.

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Happy ,Happy, Joy, Joy dance!

Until Next time…

Carmen and the Primcats

Monday, October 25, 2010

Fall Decor vs. Christmas Decor…

 

I’ve been trying to decide when to move in to my Christmas Decor. I really want to start Christmas the first of November but everyone keeps telling me to leave my fall decor up through Thanksgiving.

What are your plans?

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Until next time…

Carmen and the Primcats

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Hello Ohio Friends!

I know there are a lot of fellow Ohioans out there so I wanted to make sure you all knew about an upcoming Prim show right here in our own backyard. The word on the street is it’s a must attend! 
It’s in Mt. Vernon, Ohio.

Click the picture for more information!
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I hope to see you there!!

Until next time…

Carmen and the Primcats

Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Primcats Cat Enclosure…


Many of you have asked and I’m sure many more are silently wondering… how do we live peacefully with 14 cats. Well… the answer is quite simple. We don’t. lol. We are constantly going out of our way to accommodate the cats needs before our own. They come first… just as any child should. :)

For a very long time we had only 7 indoor cats. And that really wasn’t that much work. Then in 2005 we took in 6 kittens from our local humane society from the rescue efforts of Hurricane Katrina. That’s when it started getting to be a lot of work. Cats are very territorial and they need space. Plus I really wanted to be able to give them the life I felt they deserved to live. I really wanted them to be able to go outside, but it isn’t safe in our area for cats to roam. I don’t think it’s safe in ANY area anywhere for cats to roam ever, but I digress. I believe that cats deserve a chance to be able to enjoy the outdoors in a confined and SAFE manner. They are wild animals and I feel it’s only fair to allow them the choice to enjoy their natural habitat if they so choose when it can be done in a SAFE controlled manner.

I can not stress to you enough the words safe, controlled and confined. I do not condone roaming cats anywhere except on working farms with mass acreage that need pest control and even then spaying and neutering is an absolute must to control the population. Sorry about that… I’m a Feline Wellness Advocate and I often go off on a tangent when it comes to taking care of the furries I love so much. :o) So… back to the point… giving the cats the space they need to be happy and the enjoyment of getting to spend time in a safe controlled outdoor environment. 

My brain started working….

Supervised time one on one outside on leashes? Nope. I don’t have that much time... or patience. Only one of our cats, Ebby, is leashed trained and training 13 more was NOT on the agenda. A secure area was my only option. I started researching and spent a good 3 months building a cat enclosure in my head. When I felt armed with everything I needed to know I told Mr. Primcat and he said (as any loving father would) “When do we start?”. So I drew it up on paper, started ordering supplies and we got to building.

Let’s take a walk through the process of building a ridiculously huge cat enclosure for our ridiculously spoiled babies.

This is the back of the house before we started… not very exciting.

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Posts in with the help of friends, family and neighbors. Yeah… it’s really that big and I would have made it bigger but the septic system is over on the left and stopped me…. for now!!! The right is still open for expansion! ;o)

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Framing on and painted for the netting and eventually lattice to be affixed to.

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Nylon bird netting (ordered form BirdBGone in California) on sides and on the top so they can’t get out. 2” on top – 3/4” on sides. It’s also buried a foot deep in the ground so they can’t dig out. Unfortunately for a few rabbits they chewed their way into the enclosure. :( Made me very sad… so I cut down some metal fencing and put it all the way around the bottom on the outside about a foot up so that no more bunnies could be harmed. ;) Cuz I luvs me some bunnies.

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Netting, netting everywhere.

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Sorry kittehs… there will be no escapes from the Pussy Palace… as it was named during building by our neighbors. lol! BTW… so many of our neighbors took part in building this palace. I sincerely appreciate that. It makes me feel good that our community comes together even for the craziest of cat ladies and men. ;o)

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From the outside…

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And finally the completed Cat Enclosure in 2006.

2,100 square feet of cat heaven. >^..^<

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Also fondly referred to as the Primcats house. And now you know how we got our name. It’s not just a blog… it’s for real. :)

We have since added lots of toys and logs and stumps for climbing exploring and playing. The cats spend a lot of time out there and we have one cat, Katrina, that comes in only for eating and her daily lovings. The rest of her time is spent patrolling the perimeter of the palace and catching bugs. :) It really has a wonderful blessing to our cats. They appreciate it a lot.
I hope that in the future we will be able to enclose more of our property for the cats.  I’m sure in time I will find a way to make it happen.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the cat enclosure. 

Until next time…

Carmen and the super spoiled Primcats

Friday, October 22, 2010

Santa Giveaway!

Pop on over to Preferably Prim to enter to win this adorable little Santa!

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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Finally… the Dining room!!!

Wow… this post is so long overdue! I think it's been almost a year since the changeover started! Crazy!
Lets take a look back at what it used to be.
Green… http://primcats.blogspot.com/2009/10/pfaltzgraff-folk-art.html
And here are the colors I picked…
http://primcats.blogspot.com/2010/05/whatcha-workin-on-wednesday.html
So… this is what we had as of 3 weeks ago… it’s still a little messy but I’m sharing anyway!
There are tons and tons of things in this room that have been shown in older posts so I hope you enjoy seeing where they all ended up.
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Poofie says Hello!
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Ebby approves of the dining room.
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And the kittehs say… Bird? What Bird? 
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I have since changed out the chandelier to the new one I got on CL and I’ve added some prim pics and tweaked this and that. I’ll get updated pics up soon.
Until next time…
Carmen and the Primcats

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Win this snowman!

 

Hop on over to the Rusty Thimble and enter to win this little cutie!

Just click the pic!

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Blessings,

Carmen and the Primcats

Monday, October 18, 2010

Fall Decor part 3

Hello Prim Friends,


I hope everyone had a lovely fall weekend. It was beautiful again here in Ohio and we spent most of the weekend with the windows open enjoying the fresh air.


It was a very productive weekend around our house. We got a lot accomplished. Starting Friday night we began the daunting task of redecorating the the recently painted Living Room, Dining Room and Prim craft room. It was a big job but with the help of Mr. Primcat it all got done along with finishing up a lot of other projects. I’m pretty impressed with how much we got done and soon enough I will share pics of the redo’s but for now we have to finish up the fall decor pics.


Here we go starting on the porch…


Cornstalks, mums, a crow twig wreath, straw, pumpkins, a scarecrow, a Scare”crow”, and black cats make for a fun entryway,


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Of course you know all my pumpkins are fake and all came from the Goodwill.


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I ended up changing this wreath out. I love it but you couldn’t see it from the road. Now there is a bright orange pip wreath up there with three big crows on it.
  
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Inside the front door Ebby approves of the porch decor.


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Good job mom!


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Such a pretty Halloween cat. >^..^<


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Without the kitty…


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My aunt made me the Spell book below. Inside it’s just a cook book. ;)


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Crows!!


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I hope you enjoyed the entrance to the house, next we will take a look at the dining room…
Until Next time…
Carmen and the Primcats