Kitty Christmas

Jon and I have 2 cats that have spent Christmas eating food and running about being loonie toons. All the wrapping paper, baubles, and tinsel has gone to their heads. If Weapon X has badoinged his way around the room once, he has done it a million times. Widget has been a little calmer, but even the lovely 12 year old beauty has leapt to his feet every time I go past his basket into the kitchen. In their honour I thought I'd do a bit of a kitty themed collection today.

This fabulous cat portrait is Christina Lyon's kitty, Guinevere. What a stunner she is! I hope both Christina and Guinevere have had a fantastic Christmas! Lots of catnip toys and bits of string to chase.

If you don't have a kitty of your own and would like one, why not buy this pattern from GultCoastCottage and make yourself a Miss Ginger Greeneyes. She looks like the kind of cat that wouldn't scratch your sofa to bits.

This little pendant from Art by MAR is a must for kitty lovers. I love the contrast of the blue with white of the cute cat. I used to have a 3 legged white cat living 2 doors down from my family home when I was small that looked just like this one.

This colourful cat collage from aegeansea is a tiny work of art. It measures only 2.5 inches x 3.5 inches. Small but perfectly formed. My favourite of the 4 kitties is the second one down with his flowery cheeks. I wonder which one gets the fishie!

This photo made me giggle so much! Charlie (BowWowzerZ spokescat) looks to me like he has eaten as much as he can this Christmas. That last slice of catnip chocolate cake just isn't what he needs right now. Maybe a bit of Pepto Bismol is what he wants.

We love our cats to bits, but sometimes they can drive us nuts with their freaky behaviour. We wouldn't swap them for the world. It looks like a bunch of other people feel the same way about cats as we do.

Written by Lynne of Hyperloop Hoops and Pirate Pixie Crew

I fed you already!

So it's 6.45am and I just got back into bed after seeing Jon off to work, and Weapon X will not stop bugging me to get him some biscuits. He keeps walking on me, pawing at me and meowing... "you were fed already!" I thought maybe he wanted a drink and as he drinks from water running from the tap I went to the bathroom and turned on the tap for him. He jumped up on the sink but as soon as I walked away he jumped down still whining for food.... Arrrrrgggghhh I fed you already!

I got so fed up with him moaning at me that I decided to give in and give him a couple more biscuits. I walked to the kitchen with him bouncing about in front of my legs trying to trip me on the stairs, we get to the kitchen and there on his food mat is a bowl full of food, which he sees and gobbles down.... arrrrggghhhhh! He just hadn't bothered to look before getting me out of bed. Grrrrrrr cats! Blah it's obvious who's in charge in this house... not me!

Fing made this cute little felt kitty. It even comes with it's own fishie lunches. Maybe if I tie fish to Weapon X's collar he'll stop pestering me. Fing has lots of these fabulous fibre cats in her shop along side beautiful bugs.

This picture from Trendy Photos made me yawn just looking at it, not because I think it's boring, but because it's a gorgeous photo. I seem unable to not yawn if anyone else does. Even reading the word yawn makes me do it.

Amy Jo's handmade, reycyled sweater cat is fast asleep. I wish I was fast asleep too, maybe snuggling up with feltie cat here. Sadly I have to get up, get dressed and finish off some hats and hoops. Blah, my bed is calling me!

I need these beauties from the Button Boutique. I have bedhead hair this morning and it's doing it's own thing. I need something to tame it so I can see what I'm doing or I might end up sewing hoops and taping hats by mistake.

Well, if you can't beat them, join them. Kitty in the box might be able to help me there. I could become a fabulous pink and purple fluffy cat. Pink not your style? Well she has lots of other colour kitty hats... My only problem is I'm vegetarian and the thought of eating kitty food makes me feel a bit queasy.

Ah well, better get up and get the day going. I hope you all have a lovely, fun filled, productive day.

The annoyances of making things.

Lynne currently isn't a happy bunny.

Her sewing machine downstairs outright refuses to work on a piece of waterproofed fleece she bought to make blankets out of. The problem is, that not only is the machine seemingly incapable of pulling the fabric through smoothly, but the needles keep snapping due to the thickness of the fabric and it's tough, waterproof membrane (it's doubled over as she is hemming the edges). So thus far, she, well - the machine, has snapped 3 three needles and has only finished one blanket. She has more needles, but she refuses to "waste any more flippin' needles on this *beep* *beep* *beep* material". I don't blame her as the only place we can get needles from (the seamstress and haberdashery supplies shop) is a 40 minute bus ride away, and given that the bus service around here is so rubbish, it's about a 3 hour round trip.

Everyone knows the saying "A good workman never blames his tools", but she isn't blaming the machine or the needles, but in this case, it is the needles fault, they simply aren't up to the task. Unfortunately, we don't know where to buy titanium alloy needles that could punch through rhino skin, so we are stuck with the good old steel ones. I would offer to stitch them all up for her, but I'm a man, and thus my sewing resembles a big pile of tinned spaghetti emptied all over the floor, replacing the tomato sauce with my own blood.

I'm just glad that making hula hoops requires no bits that can easily snap, or no bits that are under immense pressure. The tape can irritate me to the point of incredible annoyance when it sticks to itself, but I can just cut the stuck together bit off and carry on - I don't have to waste 5 minutes changing the needle then rethreading it all again.

What bit annoys you the most about the items you make? What's the one thing that if it happens, makes your blood boil?

If you are already at that point of wanting to break something and go and cry in the corner, here is a picture to cheer you up!

Weapon X made me do it!

Whilst I was trying to work out what to blog about today one of my cats, Weapon X, came and sat on my lap with his head and front legs sprawled across my wacom tablet , making it very hard to reach the keyboard or surf the net. He only agreed to move if I blogged about cats. So here is mine and Weapon X's blog on kitty cats.

As X is a bit of a naughty little cat that is always showing off, I thought I'd put this beautiful Jester kitty from Candicewestberg first in the blog. I could imagine Weapon X in the jester costume, leaping about and shouting "Look at me! Look at ME!" although I think X would look better in a green and orange costume. Paisley is not really his thing.

This painting looks a bit like X. I did ask him if he had sat for PopArtCafe when she painted this, but he said "Pffft No! I would have eaten the bird and Wendy would have had to paint it with no bird in sight and a feather sticking out of my mouth." Who's he kidding? He is too bouncy to ever catch the bird. It would see him coming from a mile off!

Exnihilo made this unusual Voodoo cat doll. I love it's smiley face and long gangly legs. He looks like he is just waiting for someone to give him a huge hug. X likes the Voodoo Cat's curly whiskers. He has a few himself but I wouldn't be surprised if I catch him in the bathroom with little curlers or mini curling tongs trying to replicate Voodoo cats whisker style.

X chose these magnets from TheSmallCatClub because the second from the left bottom row looks like him and the one top left looks like his girlfriend Rosy, from two houses down the road. The top middle kitty looks like X's arch nemesis Joey, the cat from next door. X hates him as much as Maggie from The Simpsons hates the Mono-brow baby!

I asked X if I would make a good Catwoman and showed him this mask from AlyssaRavenwood. He just did a sniggering laugh... I think that means no then, although he did like the lady in the picture dressed in the gorgeous leather mask. He purred lots for her.

X says I'd look more like this in a Catwoman mask... which is just fine with me because I think AbbyChristine's little finger puppet of Ghost World Enid is gorgeous!

X has now gone back to watching Jackdaws out the window, so I can get on with putting up new pictures for our new collapsible hoops on Hyperloop Hoop. I'm so excited, because now we can send hoops worldwide. The fixed hoops were way too big to ship but these will be shippable, so we can spread the love of the wiggle even further!