Category: Cats

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February Cats – Days 26-29, Of Cookies and Cats

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I had really hoped to post more during this month, but given that we had a couple bouts of stomach flu and cookie sales going on, I think I did the best I could.

I did NOT finish Catbug, and that’s okay. I will schedule a catch-up month, probably April, to finish off him and a few other projects I have lying around the house. I did, however, finish the cat bolster pillow for Princess, and I finished this little gem for myself…

 

Cat Hat!

The cat IS the hat…

 
I picked up this pattern back in October. It’s a Simplicity pattern and it includes a fox, wolf and bear hat in addition to the cat version. It also has very simple patterns for wrist and leg warmers. I really just wanted the hat though, especially once I found the blue leopard-print fleece. I knew that with cookie season coming up, I’d be spending a lot of time standing outside in the freezing cold, and this year I wanted something stylish that would keep my ears plenty warm. This hat pattern fit the bill perfectly. It not only covers my ears, but it also extends into a couple of scarf tails that have pockets at the ends. And the pockets have paw-print appliques! So I got to practice the satin stitch with my ancient Singer sewing machine again, and this time it cme out pretty good 🙂

And I just realized that I never posted ANYTHING about the cat bolster I made for Princess’ birthday, so here’s a picture of that as well!

 

Cat Bolsters!

The black one is Lucky, the green one is Clover!

 
You may recognize the black cat bolster from the “Creature Comforts” theme back in January. He’s mine. Princess wanted a green cat, so we named hers Clover.

I have spent the last couple days thinking about what I want to do for March. I need to make myself a dress for Easter Sunday, and I have a couple of other projects that I’ve been thinking about that I’d like to do. The fabric for the dress is printed with DC heroes on it, including Wonder Woman, and the other projects I’m thinking of are also related to heroes from comics, TV, and the movies, so I’m thinking the theme should be “Heroes” or “Girl Power.” I’ll ask Pixie and Princess tonight which theme title they prefer.

But that’s it for this month’s “Cats” theme. Here’s hoping I’ll get back to regular posts soon (We still have a couple weeks of cookie sales left to go, so bear with me).

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February Cats – Days 17-25, Cats vs Crafting!

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I mentioned this was going to be a crazy month, due to Girl Scout cookies coming in, and I did not lie. Since my last post, we have celebrated Princess’ birthday, my birthday, and picked up 1200 boxes of cookies which then had to be sorted out into each individual girl’s order. The girls then have to take those cookies and sort them into individual customer orders. And then we have to start making deliveries. And did I mention that booth sales have started? Crazy, crazy month.

We also had two cases of a stomach bug in the household (me and Princess, the perfect gift for the birthday girls this month). And thanks to the cold damp weather, my arthritis is acting up. I don’t like the arthritis at all. It makes me feel old. But not nearly as old as getting birthday greetings from my pharmacist and my financial advisor. Nothing says, “You’re almost a senior citizen!!” like birthday wishes from responsible institutions.

But back to cats and crafting, because that’s what this post is really supposed to be about. Yes, during the past week I did manage to get some crafting done. I just didn’t get the chance to write about it. I made another cat bolster for Princess for her birthday. Hers is green with big black eyes. She’s calling him Clover. I also did more work on the Catbug pillow, though I don’t think I’m going to finish him this month. I will keep working on him though. Then I stole some time to work on these beauties… 

Acrylic resin pieces

Ooooooooh, pretty things!

 

Now, you might look at these and think, “Helen, this has nothing to do with cats!” And in a way, you’d be right. These pieces are not cat-themed at all. But I had to work to keep my cats out of them!

You see, a long time ago, in a glaxay far, far away, I used to have a craft room/office. It was a room all to myself where I could write, sew, paint, make jewelry, and otherwise create a mess, and best of all, I COULD SHUT THE DOOR AND KEEP THE CATS OUT. That craft room/office is now Princess’ bedroom. So these days, I do all my crafting and artwork either on the couch in our living room (and you guys have seen plenty of pictures of that), or in the front half of our kitchen where we have this lovely beat-up old cargo box table that is perfect for working on. Unfortunately, the cats have decided that said table is also perfect for napping on, and anything they find there gets knocked to the floor when they want to snooze.

The pieces above were made with a two-part acrylic resin, which takes at least 24 hours to dry and cure. There was no way I could leave these pieces out on the kitchen table and expect the cats to stay out of them. So while I did all the mixing and pouring in the kitchen, I had to let these pieces dry in the only room I could keep the cats out of – our tiny downstairs bathroom. And I had to put up a sign saying “Do NOT use this bathroom” to keep the rest of the family out as well, because these people do not know how to shut a door to save their lives. And since the door WAS closed, and it had something in it that was NOT for the cats, the cats immediately crowded around the door begging to be let in. Thankfully, the family paid attention to my sign and kept the cats out.

Of course, the cats were not happy about that, so they took revenge by sleeping on the fabric for my next cat-themed project and left that covered in cat fur. Because it’s all about them anyway, right? Riiiiiiiight.

I hope to spend some time today sewing on the afore-mentioned cat-themed project, and then post pictures of the results tomorrow. We’ll see how much cat fur that project collects between now and then.

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February Cats – Day 14, 15, & 16, Catflu vs. the Stomach Bug! Wait, what?

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Well, when last we chatted, I was recovering from the flu, and I had done NOTHING on any cat-themed projects because I was too busy either watching my feet come out my mouth or sleeping like a dead woman. I started to feel better on Valentine’s Day, and Hubster and the kids and I met with some friends at the local hibachi place for a lovely dinner. Shortly after we got home, Princess complained of heartburn, only her symptoms didn’t sound like heartburn. Hubster laughed, but I made Princess put a bucket beside her bed that evening. Sure enough, by 1AM she was puking her guts up. I ended up sleeping on the floor in her room the rest of the night. She spent the next day on the couch, slowly recovering, and I. Spent that time trying to clean and recover my house as well as my brain.

So today is the first day since the stomach flu hit this household that I’ve been able to do any work on the Catbug pillow. While I’m still not completely satisfied with the last big spot I made, I decided to move on to another spot and try a slightly different method of making it. This time, I feel like I’m getting the results I want. Here’s a peek at the spot in progress.

 

Catbug's spot!

This spot I like!

 
As you can see, I drew a lopsided oval on some graph paper and used that to plan my stitches. Each square on the graph paper represents one single crochet stitch. I have to get a little fiddly at the bottom because this oval starts narrow but expands very quickly, but I think this looks okay.

I have no idea how many more posts I’m going to be able to make this week. Troops pick up their order of Girl Scout cookies this weekend, and then we start delivering to customers. Booth sales start then, too. So I’m going to be very busy with Girl Scouts for the next few weeks. I will keep working on this project though. I have a feeling that aside from Catbug, the only other project I’m going to get done this month is another cat bolster pillow for Princess’ birthday this month. It’s one thing I know she really wants. Other than that, things are pretty much up in the air. Maybe I’ll do another cat month in the spring. Pixie really wants a Franken-kitty, and her birthday is coming early June.

I’m going to bed now. Hopefully, I’ll see you tomorrow!

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February Cats – Day 12 & 13, Catbug vs. the Stomach Flu

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Big Spot

I’m too tired to fight with this anymore.

 
I am soooooooooooooooooooooo wiped out. I spent last night on the bathroom floor, a victim of a very virulent stomach flu. I wretched so hard, I think I pulled some muscles in my back.

I’ve spent most of the day asleep. I can finally eat again, but I’m taking it slowly. I spent a little time on the big spot for Catbug’s back. It’s not perfect, but since it looks more like an egg than an eggplant, I’m going with it.

Going to rest some more now. I’m restless but exhausted. Hopefully I can do more tomorrow.

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February Cats – Day 9, 10, & 11, I haz a cold

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Spot in Progress

No, it’s not a cape for a super hero cat.

 
I have a cold. Pixie has a cold. Hubster suspects he has a cold. Princess needs an outfit for her NJHS induction tomorrow. So none of us is exactly happy right now.

I’ve been doing more work on the main spot on Catbug’s back. I think I may have figured a couple things out, but we’ll have to wait and see.

I’ll try to post again tomorrow, but it’s going to be a loooong weekend. Oy.

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February Cats – Day 08, Frogging Catbug’s Spots

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Blorp!

What the hell is this?! Did I make this?!

 
Lovely, isn’t it? Looks like a purple turd to me. Five seconds after I took a picture of this “spot” for the Catbug pillow I’m making, I tore the whole damn thing out and started over. I told you. These spots are what brought me to a screeching halt the last time I worked on this project.

But I have started again, and I will continue to work on it. I may map it out in a grid tomorrow before I go any further with it, to save myself from heading down yet another wrong path. But for now, I’m tired of working on spots, so I’m going to bed. Good night!

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February Cats – Busy Day, Sleepy Cats

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I got up early this morning, spent 2 hours at karate class, did a bunch of crafting stuff with the kids, worked on a painting for the school auction, and then squeezed in a little time for the Catbug pillow. I didn’t get enough done to bother posting a picture of the work in progress. However, Princess managed to record a quick video of one of our real live cats taking a snooze. Turn up the volume (I promise, this is not a trick) and listen carefully…

  
Yes, that’s Mister Big, and he is snoring! Which is what I’m about to do right now. Good night!

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February Cats – Day 05, 3 Spots Down, 3 to Go

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Catbug's spots!

Technically, it’s really 3 and a HALF spots down.

 
So today, I was able to scale down the egg pattern to make a smaller spot, and now I’m working on scaling it up to make the really big spot in the middle of his shell. Hopefully, I’ll get the big spot done tomorrow or Sunday.

On a completely unrelated note, I spent this afternoon with Girl Scouts who volunteered to make bag lunches for a local homeless shelter. These girls put together about 200 lunches in under an hour! Way to go!

And now I’m tired, so I’m going to bed. Good night!

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February Cats – Day 04, More Than One Way to Crack an Egg

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Catbug in progress!

Marmalade models Catbug’s shell in-progress

 
If at first you don’t succeed, find another way to do it. I did a search online this afternoon and found a pattern for Easter Egg coasters that gave me a big enough egg shape for at least 3 of Catbug’s spots. I should be able to scale the pattern up without much trouble to make the larger spots as well. So thank you to the Whiskers and Wool blog for the egg pattern! It’s just what I needed!

In other news, I took another sick dy today. That’s my third in two weeks, and each one has been for the same reason – joint and muscle pain plus fatigue. I hurt badly last night, especially along my triceps, back, and thighs, and my joints weren’t giving me any happiness either. I (sort of) know what caused it – the water aerobics class I took yesterday morning. I’m still getting back into the routine of hitting the pool a couple times a week, and the change in exercise leads to muscle soreness. However, it shouldn’t lead to crippling muscle soreness like I had last night and twice last week. But it did, and there lies the problem. I need to exercise to maintain my weight and keep the normal arthritis at bay, but a little over-exertion can leave me in agony for the next 24 hours or so. This seems to only happen in the cooler months (I can’t recall it ever happening during the summer), which leads me to believe the problem is either related to weather or to stress, since the months of January, February, and March are the most stressful time of the year for me. I don’t know though, and in spite of multiple tets, I have no diagnosis for whatever it is that ails me.

However, I do at least have the liberty of taking a sick day when I need to, and that does seem so help. We’ll see how I do tomorrow, and maybe, if we’re really lucky, I’ll have another spot or two finished for Catbug!