The Cats of Istanbul

I'm in the middle of many projects and the end of the school year, so there's little to post beyond half painted paintings, half planted gardens, and half finished sweater vests.

I did, however, recently return from a trip to Istanbul, Turkey. It turns out that Istanbul has  large but well managed stray cat and dog populations. The cats far outnumber the dogs. At one point, G and I tried to estimate how many cats we'd seen, and figured we'd encountered at least fifty a day.

And the famous tulips which in the 17th century resulted in the Dutch economic collapse otherwise known as Tulip Mania (worth a Google).

 

These photos were taken on film. G and I found a fabulous shop in the Loop that will not only develop your photos, but will also scan them onto a disc! I love the soul and color in film photos.

Birthday Cakes and Flowers

That up there is Mr. Crafty's collapsed birthday cake. It's the same as last year's cake, only I didn't tell you all about it because that one collapsed, too. It tastes fabulous. It just looks atrocious. I decided to embrace the situation this year and make it a commentary on global warming. 

It's the Grasshopper Cake from the first Baked cookbook. I'm not quite sure why I have such crummy (crumby?) luck with it, as everything else thought up by the Baked boys is amazing. Perhaps it's me. Anyone got any ideas?

We resurrected his banner for the celebrations.

I bought him some flowers that looked gorgeous in my grandmother's old pitchers. They were a wedding present from my grandfather's mother.

And I've been knitting away on Mr. Crafty's sweater vest for, like, ever. The idea was to finish it by his birthday, but that didn't happen. It's almost done. Of course, by the time I finish it will be warm enough (finally) that such a garment won't be necessary.