Alternative advent calendar #3

Why am I furiously making pom poms?  Well, because of this little beasty really:

Little Pigga who sadly died in May this year paid no attention whatsoever to the Christmas tree which meant I could have my lovely, lovely vintage baubles adorning my tree but Mewster here, Mewster is another story entirely.  This one will walk across the sideboard or table knocking things off just for the hell of it, what can I say?  She loves to play.  Which is fine, but it's not fine anywhere near the vintage baubles so I'm busy working on Christmas version 2.0, an unbreakable, pom pom and plastic decoration Christmas.  I'll show you the results when they're up....

Trouble

Excuse the terrible photos but beasty doesn't sit still long enough to take a good picture.  In fact she spends a lot of her time getting into trouble; climbing curtains, ripping up loo roll and getting it stuck in her collar, sitting on the toaster (huh???), drinking whatever drink you don't rigorously guard, batting you in the face, sitting in the bathroom sink, or having a whinge to be fed ALL THE TIME.

But she'll also come up to you and lick your knee, or loves to play or mews in such a way that it sounds like an 80's telephone.  So not all bad then.

New Cat on the Block

This is the new cat on the block.  She doesn't have a name yet despite MozzyMr pushing hard to call her "Supertube" (yeah I know, I don't really get it either).  This little beasty was abandoned, how could anyone not love those big eyes?  My colleague found her wandering about looking like she could do with a good meal and a cuddle.  She had no identichip or collar so after a couple of weeks, lots of posters, the vets across the region being informed and trying to find the owner, notices on the Cat Protection and RSPCA websites no one came forward to claim her.  

The vet she was taken to was the vet I had little pigga registered at and so my colleague and the vets thought  that we might like to home her.  Part of me thinks it might be a bit soon after we lost Pigga, but equally I'm a sucker for a sob story and after 48 hours of having her home it has been great to have a mewster buddy to hang out with.  She's taken a real shine to MozzyMr but I hoping a bit of ham bribery might re-address the balance a little?  

So the things I love about her so far?  Her white fur around her mouth at certain angles looks like a hipster moustache, her paws have a mixture of pink and black pads no two paws are the same, her meow sounds like an 80's phone and she's confident; from the moment she stepped out of the cat carrier she was off exploring, no running under the bed and hiding for this one.

Crikey It's All So Normal These Days.

Crikey.  Ever since, well after the wedding last year life has been, frankly dull.

I appreciate we're all going through the daily grind of getting up, going to work, coming home, doing the chores, eating, sleeping and repeating the whole process again and probably I shouldn't be complaining.  I have a job when others are struggling to get one, I have a lovely husband who has an ace moustache, and I'm lucky enough to have some acebag family and friends in my life, but crikey it's all so normal isn't it?

Here I have compiled a list of things to do over the next 6 months to perk things up a bit, feel free to comment or make suggestions!

1. Make one significant and productive (i.e. more than an hour and not just a tidying up) visit to the studio per week.
2. Get my ETSY business back up and running, one customer comment was "this is the best purchase I have ever made on ETSY" and I let my little online shop slide?  Crazy.
3. Do a giveaway on my blog, you lot read my nonsense I really should reward you for that.
4. Go on a daytrip once a month.  I need to rack up some more of those Middle-Age Postcards!
5. Give at least one of my Pinterest projects a try (yeah we've all said that, right?).  If you're not already reading Pintester then you really should be, a blog about messing up the projects found on Pinterest, this will be me, I will provide photographic evidence of the disaster...
6. Re-design my blog.
7. Cook up a storm, or at least try one new recipe a month.  I am the weirdest cook on the planet, if it can all be boiled up in one pot in less than 20 mins that is a win in my book, things need to change!
8. Adopt a rescue cat.  I miss Pigga, and I miss having a cat, and MozzyMr is concerned that when I'm left in the house on my own I will lure all the neighbourhood cats into our living room where I will make them have a tea party.
9. Celebrate my 31st Birthday in style or if not in style at least with fun!
10. Complete a charity event.

Perhaps not the most inspiring or crazy list ever but if it stops me being BORED that's all I ask for.

Pigga

I know many of you will probably roll your eyes at the indulgent nature of this post, but bear with me.  Little Pigga was killed by a car last week, it's really sad.  I know she was 'only' a cat, but I spent 9 years with this little beasty and I loved her a lot.  She was my first cat and the best I could have asked for, at 13 she was turning into an old maid but she was well loved.  To quote my friend "she was as crazy as a snake... you know, good crazy" and that's true.  

Thanks little Pigga, miss you x

New Tricks

I would love to be good at photography, I did a multitude of photography projects at university but my frustration with the ridiculously complicated and seemingly nonsensical settings ends with me reverting back to the default automatic settings and a 'I'll crop it later' attitude.  (Look I know most of you will think I'm being dumber than a rock here but I really struggle with the technicalities of taking a good quality photograph.  Give a blank canvas and some paint and I can rustle up a better than average painting, give me an embroidery ring and some thread and I can produce a pug embroidery with sparkly thread dentures, hell I have other talents!) 
 So to improve my skills I set myself a weekend project; to take a subject that was continually changing, and not to use any automatic settings or flash.  So here is the view from my bedroom, inspiring isn't it?

It was a struggle because I just don't retain this sort of knowledge but I started to get the hang of it having gone on something of a journey via the too bright:

Too dark:

All monitored by a watchful cat who just wanted me to naff off.

The learning continues...

The Wonderful Box of Happy

Sometimes life is rubbish, it just kicks you in the nuts and spits in your hair and I think some of our lovely friends are going through one of these times.  It came to a head when they discovered that someone had shoved a rock through their rear windscreen an expense few can afford during these lean times.  When I spoke to my friend she sounded utterly deflated and pissed off so I thought a Wonderful Box of Happy was in order....

Pigga helped with the glow bracelets, bicycle spoke beads, sweets, seeds, cat toys, 'Eat Your Greens' pencils, bubbles and tiny pom poms.  Actually she just wanted the pom poms.

All packed and ready to go...

The cardboard box was a little uninspiring so a little tarting up was in order, happily I have been building my rubber stamp and washi tape collection which came in handy.

I hope it puts a smile on their faces, it put a smile on mine collating it :)

Indulgent Pigga Post

Ok, ok I get this is a little bit of a crazy cat lady post, but little Pigga was having a snooze in the late winter sun on her favourite blanket and being all cute.  She's an old maid now so we indulge the little beast far too much.  In fact MozzyMr and I would both admit she plays us like a fiddle.

Alternative Advent Calendar #24

So here we are, Christmas Eve and the last post of my alternative advent calendar.  I hope you've enjoyed the journey.

The final Christmas touches have been made to the house, the candles are lit,

and the cat is eyeing up the presents under the Christmas tree.  So there really isn't anything more to say than...

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a fantastically Happy New Year!

Love from MozzyMrs xxx

Alternative Advent Calendar #9

On the 9th day of advent my true love gave to me a ferret. 

So last night I went for a swift pint after work, whilst there I received a text from MozzyMr to say 'the ferret had been removed from the house but it still stank', to which my response was very much along the "yes dear" line.  I get home to be told we'd had a rouge ferret visitor in our kitchen, he'd escaped from across the road and decided behind our fridge was a good place to hang out, you know with the dust and stuff.  So he was swiftly housed in the cat carrier and Mozzy did a door to door search for anyone who might have lost a ferret.  Apparently ferret is safely home and happy about it.

Catface was suitably unimpressed.

So that was exciting, tonight is our office Christmas party.  See you on the other side!

Holiday Projects cont.

The yo-yo project is ongoing, in fact a touch endless so I thought I would share a project I started for the wedding and has been used non-stop since:

I started making this blanket to go with my Habitat Exmouth Cushion (sorry I thought I had a picture of it but don't and I'm not near my sofa to snap it, sadly).  Catface as you can see spends most of her time snuggled into the blanket, and if she isn't I am.  MozzyMr doesn't get much of a look in!