bananas!

bananas!, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

Harrison likes bananas. Weird puppy.

fence Friday: an homage to Claude Monet

fence Friday: an homage to Claude Monet, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

caged

caged, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

hbw :)

No! It's not child cruelty! It's my daft lad pretending to be a puppy. He's gone into the pup's crate for a pretend snooze. I wish he would snooze for real, this is a child who never sleeps if he can help it!

carrot cake cupcakes with lemony cream cheese frosting

carrot cake cupcakes with lemony cream cheese frosting, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

I finally got around to making carrotcake cupcakes for myself. I was waiting for a week to feel well enough to do them, so when they were finally made, I just dolloped the frosting on with no ceremony whatsoever so I could scoff one. Unfortunately, my puppy reached up and woofed four down while they were cooling, had another one when I was doing the frosting, and finally climbed up to the counter and stretched his very long leg and paw up and had another one which he consumed complete with the green paper case. It might not look like much, but it makes me very content. Here's the recipe taken from Vegan Cupcakes take over the World:

Carrot cake cupcakes
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup soy yogurt (plain or vanilla)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup finely grated carrots
¼ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
¼ cup raisins (optional)

For decorating:
Cream cheese frosting

1.Preheat oven to 170°C. Line muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.
2.In a medium mixing bowl, mix together sugar, vegetable oil, yogurt, and vanilla. Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, spices), and mix until smooth, fold in carrots, and walnuts and raisins if using.
3.Spray the cupcake liners with non-stick baking spray. Fill the liners two-thirds full. Bake for 26 to 28 minutes until a toothpick inserted through the centre of one comes out clean.
4.Once fully cooled, top generously with cream cheese frosting.

Vegan cream cheese frosting

¼ cup nonhydrogenated margarine, softened
¼ cup vegan cream cheese, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.Cream together margarine and cream cheese until just combined. Sift in icing sugar a bit at a time and beat with the margarine/cheese mixture. When all the icing sugar is combined, whip with a handheld mixer. Mix until smooth and creamy, then mix in the vanilla. For a lemon tang, add fresh lemon juice and freshly grated lemon zest.

bench Monday: the "I can do tae kwon do anywhere" edition

bench Monday: the "I can do tae kwon do anywhere" edition, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

We went on a walk. With the dawg (he is so not in my good books, he keeps stealing my cupcakes by jumping up high to the work counter, five cupcakes in one go!!!). Anyways....we went on a walk to one of our favourite places, which, incidentally, is a bit of a dog walkers' paradise, and we found our favourite picnic table and had a picnic. Afterwards the boys jumped up on to it (don't you just love the Pavlov-like response; if they see something to stand on, they stand on it), and now thief-puppy is climbing up to, and my boy decided that it was as good a place as any to practice Tae Kwon Do. He loves TKD so much, and trains four times a week. He's begging to up this to five times a week but we've decided to say no, he needs a life, he's only five.

pretty in pink

pretty in pink, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

The Psychedelic Furs

SOOC

circus puppy

circus puppy, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

I have to wonder which idiot male taught the puppy to climb up on to the trampoline. Whichever it was, and I suspect collusion between Brunner the Elder and Brunner the Younger, he is daft because this could hurt Harrison. I hope the puppy quits climbing up by himself very soon.

autumn

autumn, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

now you see me, now you don't

now you see me, now you don't, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

I think Harrison hasn't quite figured out that we can still see him when he closes his eyes. Cute puppy, but very, very stinky!

Aladdin's Magic Carpet

Aladdin's Magic Carpet, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

hbw :)

I did this shot for Marneta Viegas, the creator of the wonderful RelaxKids/. We really love the CDs, story books, and Star Cards Marneta has created, they help get my boy (and his daddy) to fall asleep nicely.

a murder is announced

a murder is announced, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

hfdt :)

Can you guess whodunnit?

Our local librarian was quite happy for us to do this shot. She pretty much left us to it, unlike the other library users who had a jolly good gander at our antics.

cupcake love

cupcake love, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.

My boy decided he wanted to do some baking today so we made star-shaped cupcakes. I helped him weigh the ingredients, then he mixed the cake batter himself and spooned the mixture into the silicone moulds (aren't they the best!). We baked them, allowed them to cool, then made buttercream icing. We divided it into four batches and coloured them blue, green, pink, and yellow. He then decorated the cakes and just couldn't wait to tuck in!

autumnal

autumnal, originally uploaded by Cat Johnson.