Cool Stairs

This pic was posted to facebook by The Owner-Builder Network and since I can't send an image directly to Pinterest from FB I had to upload it somewhere so I thought I would share it.

When I finally build my tiny house these will lead to the loft bed.

The Chemise Color Debacle Continues and Other Crafts

Pretty sure it's still going to be on the day-glo side when it dries. I even added some green to the dye to tone it down because red wasn't doing it. Looks like I'm going to just dye it a chocolate brown or maybe bleach the color out of it. I'll wait to fully pass judgement until it dries.

Meanwhile I also dyed some other shirts and took pics of my process.

Dyed Clothing

It occurred to me that I forgot to post the pictures of the finished product when I tie dyed the shirts so here they are. I made one for the 4th of July, 1 for the irish festival, also dyed a pair of cream shorts green to hide a stain. The second shirt from the left was one that had a stain on it already so I colored that too and then one just because I liked the colors.

I'm definitely going to do more in the future. - maybe I'll start selling them.

Today I'm planning to dye a rather bright orange renaissance chemise to a more usable color. I'm aiming for a rusty red, darker orange or just brown if all else fails. I got the chemise for a steal (anyone who buys renaissance garb will tell you it isn't cheap) since the color is almost an 80s kill your eyes orange which is definitely a color they didn't wear back then. It's a full length chemise so I definitely want to start using it especially for warmer faire days.

Southwest Slow Cooked Chicken

That's what we're having for dinner tonight. I was originally going to use this recipe but realized that I didn't have a couple of the ingredients they called for so I made up my own out of stuff I found in Dave's pantry. So my recipe is as follows:

2 quartered chicken pieces - I'm using two quartered legs and thighs. I left the skin on for the cooking to add extra chicken flavor. The skin will be removed!

2 packages of chipotle marinade

2 chicken bullion cubes (would have preferred liquid stock)

1 small can of green chiles

1 tsp chopped garlic

Salt and pepper to taste.

All of this went into the slow cooker and will cook for the next 5 hours or so. When it's done remove the skin and throw it away and then pull the chicken apart with a fork.

It smelled good so let's hope it tastes good. Will update later with the results.

Update - It was pretty darned tasty on a tortilla with some lettuce, cheese and spicy ranch dressing.

Cat Proofing the Windows

You might be a van dweller if you have reclaimed lattice bungeed to your windows to keep your pets in.

August ... Already?

Every day the van looks more and more gypsyesque. Photo bomb by Gobie.

Good googly moogly! Where is the time going?.

I can't believe I'm headed into my 5th month of living in the van. Van dwelling has been (so far) a wonderful experience. I've gotten to meet some great people who will probably be at the top of my friend list forever. I've driven 1,805 miles. I've experienced and recovered from 6 cat escapes. Attended two van runs. Got through my first breakdown by overheating. Slept better than I have in years. Laughed more than I have in years...

And I'm sure a bunch of stuff I'm failing to drag to the front of my memory.

Sunday Morning Ritual

Picture from Post Secret

Every Sunday I wake up, make some strong tea and sit down to read Post Secret

What lazy morning ritual do you have?

You Might Be A Van-Dweller If

You're greeted by a meowing orange cat living decoration every time you open the door.

WPI.com Stickers

My friend Astro just bought a vinyl sticker maker and he's been practicing how to use it. I'm more than happy to offer waywardpussyinn.com as a guinea pig name for stickers.

Awwww The Inn is Now a .com

So I went ahead and purchased waywardpussyinn.com - for now it just redirects to this blog. Maybe 'll have to look into having a professional template made. Anyone know any really good site builders?

Threaded Comments Coding

It took me a few days to get threaded comments to work on my Blogger blog. Of course, if you don't have a custom template it's as easy as checking a couple settings. You should always make a backup of your template before attempting any changes to coding - just in case you mess it up.

Just a Short Update

I'm still chillin' in Maine. I've been on a DIY and crafting kick for the past couple of days. Hopefully I'll be able to finish up and post pics of my DIY needle felting mat as well as a nifty - or what I hope will be nifty little Halloween Mason Jar Needle Felted craft.

I'm curious how many crafters we have reading here. Maybe some of you would be interested in a Rubbertramp craft swap around the end of winter? Leave a comment here if you can and if you have trouble with the blogger comments you can always drop me an email via the social media buttons over -----there ---->

If there's enough interest I'll set up a page where we can all work out the details as well as a theme :)

Oh and in other good news - I finally figured out the coding to get threaded comments to work. It took a lot of hours and a lot of cursing at the screen but it works. I don't particularly like the look of it but I'll fix that some other day. I'm just glad I'm getting to use this theme and not having to work to personalize another.

Ugh Blogger

I'm waving my fist in the air though no one except the kitties can see me.

Blogger did not like the last template I used - there was no way for me to get threaded comments. I tried several different coding options and still nothing so I can only assume the original writer of the theme broke some fundamentally necessary bits.

So here's what I have in the meantime. I'll work on sprucing up a new template soon but today I'm beat and tired of looking at code.

On the bright side I now have threaded comments which will make my life MUCH easier.

LOVE Maine's Summer Weather

It's 72 degrees and breezy in Dresden, ME today that means I can shut off the AC, open the doors/ windows and let the fresh air fly without worrying about roasting the kitties.

I Agree With Most of This

The only thing I don't agree with is "Life is short" since life is the longest damned thing any of us, as individuals, will ever do.

Dot Escapes The Van

I knew it was bound to happen, it was just a matter of time. Yesterday while sitting at a rest area in Connecticut Dot squeezed out one of the small triangle windows. I looked up from texting on my phone to see her standing outside of the van on the driver's side door. As quickly and quietly as I could I got out of the van and walked around that side.

A note about Dot, she's my barely 5 pound, skittish little lady. She lives with me because she was too skittish to adopt out and she rarely comes to me unless I'm laying in bed. She's gotten better but it's not like she'll come running if I call her.

I was panicked. What the hell am I going to do? When she saw me she jumped off the van and ran towards the picnic tables (about 5 feet away from where I was parked). There was a crowd of folks standing in the lot stretching their legs who saw all of this and started heading my way to help round her up. I had to tell them that I was thankful that they wanted to help but that them coming near her would only chase her farther away since she won't even come to me and with that I got back in the van while keeping an eye on her to see where she was going to head. To my surprise she came back over to the van yowling and looking for a way to get back in the window she jumped out of.

I got back out and left the passenger door open (no small feat to leave a door open to get one cat in and keep 5 others from jumping out) and walked around the van hoping she would run from me and into the open door. Cat brains don't work like that - she knew how she got out and wouldn't accept any other way of getting back in. After three rounds of chase the cat where she and I did circles around the van I finally opened the drivers side door and tried one more time. Thankfully she decided to jump in and I ran over and shut the door to cheers from the crowd that was watching. I'm so glad she understands the van is "home" and didn't decide to take off into the woods.

She's actually been sort of clingy with me since the incident and I guess maybe she figures I ain't so bad compared to the loud trucks that were pulling into and out of the rest area!

*This post was edited on Aug. 5, 2020 for a racial microaggression. I learn every day.

Driving, Festivals and More

Yes, that's me in some of those pics on stage holding a drum for Randy of The Rogues! And, yes, I shook my ass the whole time!

This past week was so awesome I'm having a heard time finding a place to start. I rolled out of Maine late Sunday night headed toward Maryland. The entire trip was problem free until I got to Maryland and then the van started stalling at red lights and just generally being cranky. I managed to make it into Glen Burnie and Jen and Eds driveway. Three things I noticed about MD upon stopping for gas just off Pulaski Highway:

1. It's loud. The noise was a bit overwhelming after being rural for the past couple months.
2. It smells bad.
3. THE HEAT!

RIP Jon Lord

Thanks for all the tunes!

Leaving Maryland - Again

I get back on the road in an hour or so. I'm sad to be leaving all of my friends - both new and old. I have a lot to update but it won't be happening tonight.

The short version is - I had a blast at The Annapolis Irish Festival and this whole week was definitely needed. More details to follow once I get back to Maine and rested completely.

Cabbage and Cornbeef

No, I'm eating that but it beat saying "meat and potatoes" since it's finally come time for the whole reason I'm in town - The Annapolis Irish Festival.

Tonight is the early concert at the fairgrounds. Awesome bands like The Rovers, Rogues, and Albannach - how can I resist. And best of all: it's free if you get through the gate before 6pm.

Tomorrow is the actual festival. I'm so excited, good friends, great music, awesome food and beer! I foresee a hangover in my future.

Being back in MD for this week has been utterly relaxing. It's nice for a change to know exactly where anything I could possibly want can be found, to not get lost and to know where I can find a friend if I need one.

Two night ago my friends took me to a newish bar in town called the Mutiny Pirate Bar and Island Grille. Fun atmosphere (with the exception of the trivia deejay who was an absolute asshole so I would say avoid going on Wednesdays), great rum (lots of different kinds) and terrific food. I ordered The Henry Morgan - Rum Brined Slow Roasted Pulled Pork, Spiced Rum Barbecue Sauce, Cole Slaw. It was fabbulous with the exception of the cole slaw which was a bit funky for my taste but the pulled pork was to die for. I found a new rum that I like and suggested one they didn't have. I'll definitely visit again next time I'm in town.

I'm not sure that I'll post again before leaving out of here Sunday (it's looking to be a busy few days) so I want to send a HUGE thanks to my friends Jen and Ed for letting me crash their driveway and plug in so the cats could have some A/C!

Made it to MD

I have no idea how long the trip actually took me. I left around 9pm on Sunday. Stopped for a nap at a pitch black picnic area in CT and then continued driving yesterday morning around 7. Made it to MD at 5:30pm.

I had to stop for gas just outside of Baltimore off Pulaski Hwy and it struck me - it's so noisy here. Between rush hour traffic and the police helicopter buzzing directly over my head I have to say I was a bit overwhelmed.

Also since I left before it could set in - the heat and humidity here are suffocating. That quickly I forgot what MD summers are all about.

Parked at a friend's house - they weren't home so I helped myself to some electricity to cool off the poor cats. When I stopped driving it was pushing 110 degrees in the van. The cats were all sprawled out and panting - it was rather sad. Once the air kicked on and dropped the interior by 20 degrees (aided by the sun going down) everyone perked back up and then passed out.

I also got to catch up on Sunday's True Blood! Woot!

Heading Back to Maryland

Tomorrow night I'll be leaving Maine to head back to Maryland for the Annapolis Irish Festival next weekend. I'm planning to do the 11+ hour drive over two day and am hoping to avoid as much of the heat that has been plaguing the south as I can. Thus I'll be doing night driving. I figure the end of a holiday weekend on a Sunday when everyone has to be at work bright and early Monday morning - I should have the roads to myself. Well, me and the truckers.

Since April I have traveled 817 miles. Not too shabby. I still hate driving to be honest. My stomach has been in knots for a couple days knowing I have a long drive ahead of me. Hopefully I'll have better luck staying in touch with folks with the new phone (yes, I still need to get the number out to everyone)

From MD the plan is to come back to ME for three weeks before starting renfest season, horror convention season and trying to squeeze in another van run. For most of August through October I'll be in MD, DE, PA & NJ

I'll update again soon!

Tracking Visitors

So it's no secret I have a visitor counter that tells me where folks are referred from. I use it so I can make sure I'm linking back to folks who are linking to me.

In the past month I've had some odd Google search hits. This one is from yesterday:

2 Jul

08:09:05 PM

Chrome 20.0 Win7 1366x768

Thailand

Cat Telecom Public Company Ltd  cherrywanders.blogspot.com/2012/05/back-on-road.html  www.google.com — pussy on the road #1

What this says is that someone in Thailand visited my blog via a Google search for "pussy on the road" the "#1" means I am the number one search hit for that search term.

Pussy on the road ... fitting.

Last week I had a blog hit from someone in Singapore (I think) that was from a search term "chili powder on pussy" or some such shiznit.

I'm a Crafty Biznitch

Not sure whether I'm bored or just wanted to feel productive today. A huge rain storm just blew through Maine a bit ago so while I wait for my shirts to set I decided to make a holder for my cell phone when it's plugged in. I think I stumbled a how to or a picture of this a few days ago (I can't remember) but it looked easy enough. Given the small space in the van I tend to have wires running everywhere. From my netbook to the outlet and my tv (I use it as a monitor). Also from my cell phone to the outlet when it's plugged in.

Dying Clothing

My paint project drop cloth. It's starting to look like  work of art on it's own.

 Today I decided to tie-dye some shirts and in the process re-dye two pieces of clothing that were stained. Tie-dying is the perfect way to bring new life to something you love that has a stain.

New Themes and Travel

So after a lot of searching and then a lot of rewriting I have a new blog template. I loved the base theme but wanted something a little more personal so I've been working on changing the photos for the header image (still have one more to do) and adding social network icons both to the sidebar as well as the post footers. It took me a long time to do since I the only experience I have with html and css is via blog templates (livejournal and here) but it's easy enough to do as long as you have patience and a search engine.

With the new theme I can post bigger pictures (yay) and I attempted to go back through and change the photo sizes for most of the picture filled posts of the past.

I'm gearing up for a 12+ hour drive back down to MD from Maine. Here's secret fact #2573 about me - I hate driving. Yes, it would be odd that I would pick this lifestyle and hate driving. Actually I hate the other people on the road not necessarily driving itself. I'll be doing mostly night driving over a couple of days to get back south.

I'm excited to see everyone I've been missing over the past couple months. I haven't decided if I'm, staying at a park or am going to find someone's house I can plug in at. I'm going to NEED shade. Even though I have the A/C 100 degree heat will be too much for the A/C to keep up with since I only drop about 12 degrees below ambient temps. The van baking in 100 degree full sun could easily jump to over 120 degrees - the A/C won't work for that without shade. Then I can drop 12 degrees below ambient ahded temps which won't be so bad.

Dave and I have both been sick here at the house so I haven't made headway in getting my screens installed. I'll probably be looking to do that ASAFP in MD when I get there since they will help cool the interior off immensely - especially when I am not plugged in to use the A/C.

Meh. I'm babbling - I don't feel well in general and my neck has been killing me for a couple days.

Happy Canada day to all my Northernly friends.