A NEW FRIEND

When offered free baby animals I often have trouble saying no.... but ever since the death of the Best Puppy Dog in the World, Trevor; as well as the heartbreaking time of the Baby Bunny Breeding Fiasco of a few years ago, I have been resisting getting more animals.... well, mostly.

Possum was "on special" being 5 months old when we got her, so how could anyone have "helped" getting her..... and besides she has always been my favourite kind and colours of cat...... AND BESIDES when I first met Possum she loved me! How could any little girl say no to cuddles and kisses from the cutest fuzzy little ball ever? Well, not this little girl, in any case.

That was a bit over a year ago now, and I haven't got any other animals ..... till now.

I've been impressed with my restraint.

We crossed Possum about 4 times with Annie's ragdoll, but with no success stories of litters of furry ears and bellies to tell from any of those matings.....SOOOOO, when we were at a friend's one day and were offered a little boy Himilayan..... well, how could anyone be expected to say no?

I held up the little boy kitten and asked him how he felt about arranged marriages - he voiced no objections - so I arranged to pick him up in a week or two when he was weaned off the mother cat.

Well a week or two later Josh came with me and we went to pick him up. I had told Josh that he had racing stripes on his forehead (the kitten I mean haha) so i thought we could call him "Barina"....

Josh, OF COURSE, had other ideas; and although sometimes I hate to admit it, sometimes those are good ideas.

Josh's idea for the kitten's name was "HUMPHREY"... related to his job of the future... BAHAHAHAH

Gawd! As if that wasn't the perfect name for him!

So, Humphrey it is!

As excpected for the first few days Miss Bigglesworth and Possum didn't think a whole lot of him.... but on the less than expected side of things, the kitten WASN'T weaned as I was told he was!!!

The first two weeks of having the Humpster here, I had to dripper - feed him every few hours. I mostly didn't mind this... you know, bonding and all that.

I guess being such a baby meant that Possum accepted him all the more readily (we don't expect Biggles ever will), and before a fortnight was gone, Possum was in 7th heaven with her new pretend baby.

I've heard of animals suckling other babies, but i've never seen it before.

Possum has totally accepted Humphrey... cleans him, suckles him, plays with him... sleeps with him..... in fact they are like little inbred lovers gone wrong. It's cute in a weird kinda way. I hope the boobie action now doesn't effect the pussy action later.... if ya get my meaning?

At any rate, Humphrey is the next most adorable little critter in the long, long list of adorable critters Josh and I have owned.

He likes to "help out" round the house and with my crafting endeavours, the sewing, the SKIN and BLOOD loss from my legs and arms.... coz like I needed help with THAT!!! hahaha

He makes sewing a real joy......

If he was 6 weeks old when we got him, he'd have to be 10 weeks old now. He's stopped needing the eyedropper to eat, but as yet still won't wat "real" cat food, but would prefer stirred egg and milk , please!

 I've started putting Weet Bix in with the egg and milk, and he's quite partial to a piece of fresh bacon or ham, so it won't be too much longer before he's eating like a normal human.... or cat. lol

So that's the story of Possum's new friend so far.....

THE MERMAID CUSHION

                                                    Magic happens.... if you let it!!

As with many a piece of fabric from my bedroom of fabrics and craft supplies, a small piece of mermaid - print fabric had been sitting around waiting for just the right moment to be used for just the right thing.

Just the right moment and just the right thing came after a lesson last year in "trapunto", a style of quilting and then stuffing the quilted picture from the back, in effect making the picture 3 - d

It took many an hour to trapunto (painstakingkly stitch around each outline for each creature, and then stuff tiny piece by tiny piece at the back) the mermaids, dolphin, shells and seahorse, but in typical renay - fashion i was not happy with JUST trapunto so i ended up combining several more crafting / sewing techniques to finish the cushion and get the desired effect.

I used at least three beading techniques to highlight and enhance the shells, as well as adorn the mermaid's hair, create mer-jewellery, and outline most things in the picture. 

Sequins were sewn on one by one to make the mermaid's tails appear to glisten like wet fish tails; and I used a method called "vermicelli" to attatch some pretty shiny braid in squiggly lines to appear like the water for the background.

In all it took 4 solid days of work to finish, but with almighty results.......

The Mermaid Cushion complete, I entered it into the 2009 Nowra Show, and was well justified in my time - to - make - it - and - wreck - my - wrists - and - arms - in - doing - so , by winning first place in it's section!

A CAT IS AN ATTITUDE WITH FUR

THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCESS POSSUM........

*Cats are smarter than dogs......... You can't get eights cats to pull a sled through the snow!!

*Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function......

* Cats leave paw prints on your heart.

* Cats are just children with fur!!!

* Thousands of years ago cats were worshipped as Gods.... cats have never forgotten that!

* Cats aren't clean - they're covered in spit!

* Just hand over the brush and no-one gets hurt!!

* *Follow your dreams....... unless it's the one at work in your underwear during a bomb scare!!!

* Have you hugged your cat today?

I don't really know what to write today - so cute little sayings will have to do for now. My brain is the land of confusion.... more damn age is about to get me... it messes with my head!

* Some days you're the dog.... some days you're the hydrant......