To Tree or Not to Tree

It took me ages to decide if we were going to have a tree this Christmas...in the end it was yes :-)

In recent years I have been struggling with the reality that it is unfair to put out all kinds of dangling, sparkling temptations and then tell the cats they can't play with them.  Molly lived to nineteen, so it had been a very long time since I was concerned young cat shenanigans but that all changed when Casper arrived on the scene almost four years ago.

Kip has shown no interest at all in the tree

I still have some glass baubles on the higher branches, but since Casper I've been modifying things so now the tree is mostly decorated with ornaments made from substances that are pretty harmless if they fall off.  Here are just a few...

fabric snowballs

cardboard snowflakes adorned with fluffy stuff

these are paper if you can believe it...hand quilled

wooden hummers

feather and metal

lucite

So perhaps my tree isn't quite as elegant as in years past but I'm happy to know that if the boys just can't leave things alone (Ben) at least they will be as safe as possible :-)

beaded snowflake

 

Tuesday Treasure - Nano Lopez

Hi cats and kittens, meet Simon.   He is a bronze sculpture by Colombian artist Nano Lopez that Robert and the cats gave me for my birthday today ...

Simon is 7" high and 4lbs of strutting, preening fabulousness!!!

I first saw him back in May at a Gallery in Hawaii when we were on our honeymoon and I've been pining for him ever since.  See Simon's official description below :-)

Simon~

 He is a proud student, expert whistler, seen here strolling down the street on his way to the grocery store, hoping to be seen by any of the neighborhood cute girls. And he believes in angels and well combed hair.

Monday Memories; Molly and Max

Last year was our first Christmas as part of the Cat Blogosphere and we learned of a wonderful tradition from our friends over at Cory Cat Blog.  They hang stockings for their angel kitties who have gone to the bridge. These stockings are not filled with toys because they are already full of memories. Isn’t that just the nicest  tradition you ever heard of?  The moment I read it I knew I wanted to do it too :-)

In November I contacted an incredibly talented woman from Calgary, Alberta who knits the most beautiful sweaters, hats, mitts, slippers and stuffed animals you have ever seen.  At this time of year she also knits custom Christmas stockings.  I had these two exquisite stockings made for Molly and Max which arrived the other day.  I couldn’t be more pleased with the way they turned out.  Check out the poms and the chubby little mousies!

 

Sadly we don't have a fireplace to hang these but I think they look lovely by the window. 

Friday funk

Hi cats and kittens, we are in a bit of a funk here today because our Drinkwell fountain broke, the motor won't pump the water through anymore.  It was working fine but after the last cleaning it stopped.  We're not talking about the snazzy new stainless 360° fountain that mum wrote about here but our old work-a-day plastic fountain which we've had forever and was up in Archie's room one of the guest bedrooms.

Mum knows that we like to have a selection of waters, still and sparkling just like in the restaurants.  So, we have three waters bowls and one fountain upstairs, one fountain in the kitchen (the dog bowl is in the kitchen too but even in a pinch I can't imagine any self respecting cat stooping to such depths) and one water-cooler type bowl in the basement rec room.  We like the fountains the best but you see when we're upstairs we don't want to have to walk all the way downstairs for a drink form the kitchen fountain.  We're cats, we're lazy...as an example, we have FIVE litter boxes but we only really use the two which we feel are the most convenient, this drives mum crazy (hee, hee).

We've written to Santa and we are hoping he brings us a new fountain for Christmas that we can have upstairs...I think we have been very good this year so keep your fingers crossed everyone :-)

One Word Wednesday

BLISS

 

Friday Fun

Back in August I had a custom illustration made for our Christmas cards this year.  A very talented artist from Boston created our family in a wonderful winter setting based on photos that I sent her via email.  As you can see she's drawn Robert and I standing together with Rio beside me, Jimmy is beside Rio (stealing a bauble from the tree), Casper is popping out half way up the tree and Archie and Ben are standing beside Robert with their tails entwined in a heart.  I received an 8x10 illustration for framing and the Christmas cards, inside the cards was a printed sentiment in beautiful script that said

Merry Christmas!!!

With love from

Cat, Rob, Rio,

Casper, Benjamin, Archie

and Jimmy

  I was thrilled!

biggify for full effect :-)

Then something happened...we adopted Kip.  Sadly Kip would not be included in the illustration but I could hand write his name inside the cards and at least he would be part of the sentiment.  I had asked Ann from Zoolatry to make a Christmas header for me using my illustration and when she read on my blog that Kip had been adopted she contacted me and said when we decide on a name she would revise our header to add him in.  How kind, at least he would be mentioned and that was something.  What I didn't realize at the time is that Ann, using her magic photoshop skills, managed to put Kip into the picture!  If you look to the left of my blog header you will see Kip peeking out from behind an evergreen tree!!!!  Oh Ann I can't thank you enough.  Kip won't be on our cards this year but thanks to your ingenuity and thoughtfulness he is on the blog, I am so happy :-)

PS - Ann made our Christmas wallpaper too!!!