Memories of my days in the sun ...

When you have a five-year-old that has exactly one line in the school's production of Cats and you can sew stuff, well, you may be guilty of going a little overboard on the costume.

My favorite part of the performance was this dance where the kids spun around under each other's arms and in doing so would knock off each other's cat ears, which would go flying across the stage. A bunch of five-year olds with cat make-up reciting T.S. Eliot, tails peeking out from under the curtain, flying cat ears: That's good stuff.

Avalon jacket and Solana pants. No real cats were harmed in the making of this outfit.

Look at the little strawberry mice one mommy made. And see how the kids hang their backpacks outside? Remember watching television shows, where the schools had no hallways and the kids had their backpacks hanging outside? Growing up where getting to the bus stop often meant conquering a snowbank five feet high, I always thought a school with outside hallways was the craziest thing. Of course, now I know, that's the way schools are in Southern California and that's where the television shows were filmed.

The tail on this costume: The tail kills me. It has a mind of it's own. I wish you could see this tail in real life. I'd post instructions, but I don't know if the tail would be as crazy if I made it a second time. A bit of cat magic must have slipped in.