Friendly Fill-Ins and Eddy's Farewell to Festive

Hello to all! We're ready for the Friendly Fill-Ins challenge, and we'd love for you to join us. My amazing co-host Ellen of 15andmeowing came up with the first two fill-in statements, and I came up with the second two.


1. I recommend everyone _________ this year.

2. My _________ is _________ and I _________.

3. I try to save money by _________.

4. I sometimes let myself splurge on _________.


My answers are below in bold.

1. I recommend everyone simply do their best this year.
(I'm someone who has a lot of goals and aspirations, this year and every year, but I do know that life happens and so doing my best is all I can do. And that's something I hope everyone knows. As long as you're doing your best, you're doing great.)

2. My car is 15 years old and I plan to drive it into the ground.
(I've had my current car since soon after graduating college. It's had its issues over the years, has some chronic quirks, and it's starting to rust, but it's paid off and I hope it stays with me for many more years. It does like to keep me on my toes, like the other day when the car drove fine but the speedometer and all other gauges just stopped working. Luckily cleaning off some of the fuses sorted that out, though, and we're back to just its usual level of old car weirdness.)

3. I try to save money by not eating out.
(The reality is that my intestines don't agree with most restaurant food and so I rarely feel compelled to eat out anyway. I eat essentially all homemade meals, and I genuinely like it that way. It saves a ton of money, and it saves my intestines a lot of grief. I pretty much only eat restaurant food when my family is having a birthday gathering. In those cases, usually my parents and/or my grandma are kind enough to pay the bill, and so I often don't even have to fork out money on those rare restaurant occasions.)

4. I sometimes let myself splurge on my kitties.
(I don't splurge on a whole lot, especially not in this economy. If I do, it's usually for my kitties. Granted, one of my biggest expenses every month is my orange tabby boy Evan's armory of roughly a dozen medications, which is a necessary splurge. But, I also do get my furry cuties extra goodies here and there, especially at Christmas and birthdays, as seeing them happy makes me happy.)

Now it's your turn!

To add your link to the Friendly Fill-Ins Linky list, just click HERE!

You can also click on the badge below to add your link.

You are also welcome to complete the fill-ins in the comments below,

or in the comments on Ellen's blog, 15andmeowing.

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Today, Eddy is spending extra time with her year round Christmas tree's red ribbon. We're likely taking down our Christmas decor this weekend. This tree does stay up year round, and the lights remain all year as well, but the red ribbon will be tucked away until the next Christmas season begins.

That there photo was snapped early this Christmas season. Let's just say that, courtesy of Eddy, that ribbon doesn't quite look the same anymore. There's a reason the previous ribbon had to retire this year.

Happy Friday, friends!

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Festive Doodle of the Day

I didn't get nearly all of the Christmas drawings finished this year that I wanted to. Some of them are even partially drawn but stuck in limbo, and will likely remain that way until I start working on Christmas doodles again later this year. That's okay, though, as life happens. That said, I absolutely wanted to finish the festive doodle of my sweet angel pup Astrid that I started working on weeks ago. I finally got it finished, and so here's the snow-loving, sweater-wearing pup.

I always make sure I draw my sweet girl with just 3 toes on her back right foot. She lost the missing toe to cancer all the way back when she was 4, and I'm so grateful I got to have 8 more years with her after that.

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Tip of the Day

Yet another tip related to outdoor cat shelters is to ensure that the shelter is heavy enough to stay put, such as in heavy winds. Shelters made out of wood or other heavy material will of course be more likely to stay put in high winds. If you have a makeshift or any form of lightweight shelter, such as one made from plastic or Sytrofoam, do consider placing something heavy, yet also safe and secure, on top of it. This could be a sheet of plywood or anything similar that can safely and securely weigh down a lightweight shelter. In some instances, you also might be able to find ways to tether, bolt, or in some way secure a shelter in place. The weight of an outdoor cat shelter is yet another factor to keep in mind when caring for ferals, so take this into consideration and ensure that any shelter you put out is one that will not blow away in the event of a stormy or windy day.