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1. You stash pet hair remover rollers everywhere — inside your bathroom, your car, at work — EVERYWHERE. You may even have mini travel ones stuffed in each and every one of your purses.
2. You’re friends with all the neighborhood cats, and you even know what treats each and every one of them likes/doesn’t like. 🐈
3. Occasionally, random cats you’ve never seen before will enter you house and kick it with you for a few hours, and you’re totally fine with it. Side note: One time I came home to find a stranger cat on top of my fridge. I called him Katmandu, and he loved bacon.
4. You maintain a list of potential cat names you like, just in case the universe decides to send along another kitty friend. Current names on my list include Sheila E. (my brother lives with a cat named Sheila E. How cool is that?), Baroness Schraeder and Sugar.
5. Even though your heart has broken into a million pieces after the kitty love of your life leaves you, you’re eventually able to make space for another feline friend, and you remember why you love cats so, so much.



6. You’re often surprised by how finicky some cats are about food. Like, one minute they loooooove Sheba Salmon and can’t get enough of it. The next minute (LITERALLY THE NEXT MINUTE), they won’t have anything to do with it. In fact, they’re utterly repulsed by the very idea, and you end up stuck with 24 cans you just ordered from Amazon Prime. 😽
7. Teary-eyed, you wonder things like what your friends or family will do with the wooden memorial box of your former cat’s ashes when you pass away…
8. You keep cat treats in your purse…because it never hurts to be prepared.
9. When you come across a new cat in the neighborhood, you immediately bestow a name upon him or her. Because it’s the right thing to do. 👍🏼
10. When you find a stranger cat sleeping in the back seat of your car, your first thought is, “Oh, cool. Make yourself at home.” And, yes, this has totally happened to me more than once.
11. You’ve often wished that you could bring your cat with you on family vacations.



12. You have cat-related reminders scheduled on your calendar. (Side note: “Siri, remind me to buy cat litter and litter pan liners.”)
13. When your cat talks to you, you can hear her “voice” in your head, clear as day. 💖

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict (and cat lady at large),

Karen

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of five more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a good start.

1. How skilled are you at using chopsticks?

I won’t be winning the gold at the Chopsticks Olympics or anything, but I can hold my own. I can wield them adequately for sushi, rice and most dishes, but noodles are rough, man!

2. How often do you go to sleep with the TV on?

Never. We don’t have a TV in our room because it’s too stimulating for me. I can’t do it.

3. What comes to mind when you think of ”eyebrows”?

Right now? Super sharp blocky Instagram brows, but only because we were talking about them at the bakery the other day.

4. What comes to mind when you think of ”cabbage”?

Corned beef. LOL! And Cabbage Patch Kids. And this dude my high school friend Cindy dated for, seriously, a day (she claims he smelled like cabbage, which is part of the reason she broke up with him).

5. Describe your favorite sweatshirt.

Girlfriend, I’m wearing it right now. It’s a mauve sweatshirt by Wander Beauty, and it says “Off Duty” in rose gold letters. It’s about two sizes too big for me, but it’s warm and super comfortable, and I seriously live in it!

Sweet thang

Yet another important question for you: WHO WANTS CAKE FOR BREAKFAST?

(Hiya and happy Monday, by the way.) 🙂

My mom recently turned 71, so we took her out to brunch to celebrate, and then we popped over to my house for dessert.

I made her Italian cream cupcakes, which were a hit with my fam-bam.

Have you had an Italian cream cake or cupcake before? If you haven’t, you have to grab a slice ASAP…and then grab another and save it for breakfast the next morning. 🙂 Ha.

Seriously! It’s the best cake to have first thing in the morning with coffee. It’s a fluffy butter-based cake with shredded coconuts and pecans, topped with a tangy cream cheese frosting… The light melt-in-your-mouth texture comes from whipped egg whites, which are folded into the batter. Since it’s a butter-based batter, it’s a little more finicky and requires more steps to make than an oil-based batter, so it takes as little more time and effort, but if you’re in the mood for it, it’s worth it.

I posted this recipe as a cake (rather than a cupcake), 10 years ago here on MBB (!), and it’s still one of my favorite cakes to this day.

Today’s my day off from the bakery, so I’ve got lots of writing and makeup testing on my plate. Whatever you’re up to, I hope you get to ease your way in back into things. It’s tough getting back into a regular routine after the holidays, isn’t it?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to ya soon.

1. How skilled are you at using chopsticks?
2. How often do you go to sleep with the TV on?
3. What comes to mind when you think of ”eyebrows”?
4. What comes to mind when you think of ”cabbage”?
5. Describe your favorite sweatshirt.