Never need a reason...Step in time - Step Stools

Decorating Children's Step Stools

 I have several grandchildren of the short variety who needed step stools.  It seemed like a fun birthday present.  Not being handy with wood working and terrified of all cutting power tools, I took myself to Michaels to see if they had ready-made step stools.  Fortunately they had just the right size plain wooden stools screaming to be painted, decorated, and fancied up.  Interestingly, they all had warning stickers "for decorative purposes only".  My intentions were to decorate them and then actually use them - so I considered myself warned.

Feeling a bit lazy, I wandered up and down a few isles looking at wooden letters, shapes, cut-outs of animals, toys, stencils looking for ideas.  There were some really snazzy primary colored wooden letters and also some letter stickers. I purchased the letters and some wooden cut-outs.

First step was to lightly sand the rough patches, then paint each stool.  The wood was unfinished so it needed primer. Turned out the primer was visiting neighbors or getting it's hair done or something - couldn't find it anywhere.  I choose to use additional coats of paint rather than going out to get primer.  One stool was painted brown and the other white.

After painting I used glue to attach the cut-outs and letters.  One the white stool I taped off stripes with masking tape and then used a dauber to make polka dots on the top  On the other stool, I modge-podged stickers to add a little traction to the top and made polka dots around the edge.

Each stool received a couple of coats of poly sealer and voila!

Here's the other one with an eager little foot getting ready to hop on.  I didn't get a picture of the top but it's decorated with star stickers in a swirl pattern.

Patio Wars

The Great Digs

Ferrets love to dig and they are not peculiar about where.  Indie and Penny are happy to shovel all the dirt out of any house plant or outside potted plant.  I put decorative stones in the top of the outside pots to give the plants a chance to grow undisturbed.   They dig the stones out.  It’s always a battle to see who can outwit the other.  Ferrets 1, owner 0. I put heavy rocks (with sharp edges) in the top of the pots  - works most of the time.  Ferrets 0, owner 1

When I first moved into my townhouse the patio was quite ugly, rotted spacer boards and pitted, stained concrete.  Decision made to spruce it up required digging out the rotten boards so that I could plant moss in the spaces and green up the patio. I had help every step of the way.  Indie and Penny were under foot the entire time, ecstatic when the boards were out and they could attack the dirt underneath.   Soon the dirt was spread over the entire patio, they shoveled it out as fast as I put it back.  Ferrets 1, owner 0.

Looking pretty guilty...

Fast forward:  dirt replaced, patio stained and moss planted in the spaces – lovely to look at and enjoy.  I let Indie and Penny outside to run around and play.  When I went outside to water my beautiful moss they had dug up large pieces of it and spread dirt all over the patio again.  Ferrets 1, owner 0

I spent the next few weeks sweeping the dirt back and replacing the moss.  Gradually the moss died and I had bare dirt – Indie and Penny were elated, dirt, lovely dirt to dig in.  Ferrets 1, owner 0.

Next step – much deep thought, how can I have my green spacers, how to defeat Indie and Penny?  Ah hah, a brilliant idea – artificial turf!  Turf purchased, cut into strips and used to replace the moss – beautiful patio again.  Ferrets 0, owner 1.

Over the next few weeks they dug and dug, gradually dislodging the grass in several places.  Ferrets 1, owner 0.

I put heavy pots over the places they liked to dig and gradually they gave up – the lovely green grass has been left alone for the last year or so. .  Shhhh… don’t remind them.   Ferrets 0, owner 1.

Two By Two

Everybody needs a friend...

After about 3 months when the ferret "probation" was over (and I guess we passed), my daughter decided that Indie needed a friend.  She said it wasn't fair for Indie to be all alone while we were at work and school so she wanted to get another ferret.  In for a penny in for a pound and off we went to Las Vegas to purchase a friend.  We went to a local pet store and there were lots of ferrets to choose from. Indie is dark color called sable so my daughter wanted the new ferret to be different.  She picked out another small female, with a light color coat, a "cinnamon".  It was a quick trip, drive out, eat lunch at In-N-Out, hit the pet store and drive home.  Of course, there was anxiety at the agricultural inspection station but we passed through with no issues.  They ask if you are bringing any fruit, vegetables or plants into California but no one asked if we were bringing in a ferret.

The new ferret became "Liesel the weasel". Ferrets are part of the weasel family so it seemed appropriate.  Liesel was quite a bit smaller than Indie so we had to keep them separate until Liesel was big enough to hold her own.  Ferrets play rough, they pin each other down, bite and a larger ferret will drag a smaller one around.

Liesel as a baby:


Indie and Liesel ran around the house together and had all kinds of ferret fun.  Liesel did not seem as energetic as Indie.  She would actually lay on the carpet and rest which Indie never did. Liesel was calm and very sweet with a gorgeous coat.

Two ferrets were twice the fun and twice the poop. Two needed more space than one.  We ended up purchasing a used Ferret Nation cage.  It had 4 levels, a luxurious ferret condo about 5 feet high, 2 feet deep and 3 feet wide. Quite an imposing edifice that didn't fit in my daughter's room with her other furniture.  Indie and Liesel took over the guest room.  Good thing there were not too many guests wanting to stay.

Here's the ferret condo:

Their new digs had a baby butterfly costume turned into a ferret sleeping bag on the bottom level with a hammock and tent on levels two and three. The penthouse level was devoted to food and water. What more could a ferret want?