A new visitor

No, we haven't got another cat.  Over the years, Ginny, Gonga and Scruffy have all appeared on this blog. They all adopted us and now it seems another one might have done the same.  This one used to follow Scruffy about and did come into the house, hoovering up any food Scruffy had eaten.  He followed Scruffy up to the bedroom one night too.  We did 'encourage' him not to stay, because we had Scruffy, but he was quite persistent.  Even though Scruffy is no longer with us, this cat continued to come to us, because we made the mistake of feeding him - he always seemed hungry.  Then he came in and started spending time in the house.

He has decided that my chair is his favourite place to be.  He also likes the red toy mouse.  He has certainly made himself at home.  We know that he belongs to someone in the next street and we have seen him out on the street on quite a few occasions.

We have called him Slinky Malinki (after the cat in the Hairy Maclary books by Lynley Dodd) because he has such long legs and is a thin and slinky-looking cat.  Currently he often spends the mornings with us and then is back overnight.  We are trying not to get too attached to him because he isn't ours (Chris is finding this quite challenging!)!  He is not a particularly affectionate cat, he doesn't meeow very often and has a very quiet purr. We are trying to keep him restricted to the sitting room but if the door is accidentally left open, he goes upstairs and has a good look round. I think he may be looking for Scruffy. How long he will keep visiting us is anyone's guess!

Wanderlust 2022 - weeks thirty-six to forty-two - Inks

I thoroughly enjoyed exploring Inks in Wanderlust.  We began with Distress inks, making a background and then using tea bags and photos to create linked images, showing elements of our personalities.  I chose to put a photo of my Granny and my Mum in the teabags and a stamped image of a woman to represent me - Granny gave me a love of nature and gardening and Mum gave me a love of music.  

We used acrylic inks for our next piece. We made lots of patterns using inks and blowing through straws. we then tried to bring out something we could see in the pattern.  I eventually decided I could see part of a face, so brought it out using watercolour pencils.  I think it is quite enigmatic!

Acrylic ink painted onto feathers was our next lesson.  I made envelopes and placed some family photos in them - my Mum and Dad on the left and my Granny and her family on the right with a small photo of Dad as a little boy in the middle. I have used these before, but they are great photos.

Another inky background.  This page took a totally different turn from how I thought it would be.  It ended up being a memory of Scruffy, our cat who we lost at the end of August.   I painted Scruffy in acrylic ink using a photo for reference.  The autumnal colours and leaves just seemed to work with the theme.  The two ghostly cats in the corner represent the other two who are buried in the garden, Gonga and Ginny.    

This was about using loose brush strokes, holding the brush right at the end and Acrylic ink. It is vaguely based on a self portrait but doesn't really look like me, although that wasn't the idea anyway.  Not one of my favourites, but an interesting process - letting go of perfectionism!

Much more to my liking was this layered page, using spray inks, stamps, stencils and a magazine focal image.  I like the feeling of movement with the leaves and the woman's hair. This also included a useful lesson on colour theory, so that we wouldn't make 'muddy' colours (unless we wanted to use neutrals, of course).

The last in the inks section was using alcohol inks and stencils.  I used Yupo paper (synthetic paper which doesn't absorb the ink) for the image on the left and glossy card for the one on the right.  I wasn't happy with the tissue paper image on the right as the tissue paper didn't fade into the image as it should have done. Possibly this was to do with the alcohol background.  So, I had another go... 

I kept the original which is now hidden under the flap on the right. This time I used alcohol inks and stencils on my gel plate.  I think this worked much better and the tissue paper faded as it should do.

The last theme for this year is Paper and Fabrics, which should be good.

Pocket Doodle Book 2019 pages 16 - 22 and new decorations

 I am nearing the end of this very enjoyable little challenge.  Page 16 was rounded rectangles.

Page 17 was lines in black and gold and page 18 was dots of white and gold.  I have tried to make the pages different from the previous ones so that has also been a challenge.

Page 19 was the most Christmassy image with floral and star decorations.  Page 20 was dictated by the eye patterns in the background print.

Page 21 was a mix of lines and circles (bit of a recurring theme, I think) and page 22 was more dots and lines following the spirals, in white and gold. 
In other creative news, I have been making some extra decorations for the Christmas tree, which are also a memorial to our previous and current much loved cats.

 I bought some mdf bauble shapes and painted them in suitably Christmassy colours, adding some gold stencils (oh look, circles again) and some glitter (well, it is nearly Christmas).  Their photos went on the front...

 ...and their names on the back.  Scruffy is our current cat and features on the blog now and again. They were all lovely cats and it will be a happy reminder every Christmas.

Goodbye Ginny

We had to say goodbye to our much beloved elderly cat, Ginny, on Monday evening.  She had various medical issues and we had to let her go.  She had been with us for twenty-one years, but may have been about twenty-two.

 Here she is when she first chose to come and live with us.  She actually belonged to a neighbour, but decided she liked our house better!

 She decided that the nativity scene was missing just one thing - a large ginger and white cat!

 She enjoyed being out in the garden, especially if we were out there too.

 She sometimes thought she was a ninja cat...

...and found lots of places to hide.

 She liked helping with jobs in a supervisory capacity - here she was checking that the patio slabs were being laid correctly.

 She also supervised my planting schedule each year.

She bravely ventured out in the snow (this photo does remind me of illustrations in Beatrix Potter's 'The Tailor of Gloucester').

Simpkin in the snow illustration from The Tailor of Gloucester – 

The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter F. Warne & Co 1989

from http://www.scotiana.com/two-of-beatrix-potters-tales-have-roots-in-scotland/

This large pot was her favourite place to sit in the garden.

She was very photogenic.

Here's the last photo of her that I took, sleeping on her cosy blanket, on her favourite chair.  Sleep well, Ginny and thank you for all the joy and companionship you brought us.  We'll miss you.

Questions and Answers

The lovely Alison at farmhouse traditions recently nominated me for a Liebster award.  It means I need to answer some questions she has set and then nominate other blogs I like and follow, to do the same. While I am very happy to answer the questions, I won't be nominating any other blogs from my long list, but if anyone wants to join in, please do.
Here we go:
What's your favourite craft?
I have two in particular - Jewellery making and felt making.
What's your home area like?

I live towards the eastern side of the UK, in a large rural county. I live in Lincoln itself, which has a Cathedral and Castle. The area I live in is is predominantly terraced housing, dating from Victorian times onwards.
What's your favourite childhood memory?
Holidays spent in Hunstanton, in Norfolk.  Going to the fair and riding on the gallopers, eating cream cakes and making sandcastles on the beach.
What's your day job?
I work as an administrative assistant in a University.
What's your favourite animal and do you have pets?
My favourite animal - I like members of the cat family but I also like the elegant lines of the greyhound.  Yes, we have two cats: Scruffy (in the box) and Ginny (on the chair).

  

How are your happiest days spent?

Visiting gardens with good friends or being creative at home.

What are your dreams for the future?

On a personal and selfish level, I would like to age gracefully without too many aches and pains, continue to be able to enjoy my crafts and upsize, so that I can have a studio/craft room and the craft materials will not intrude into the rest of the house!

What's your favourite quotation?

I have lots, but this one sprang to mind:

"No-one can make you feel inferior without your consent" Eleanor Roosevelt.

Well done for sticking with this post! In case you feel like joining in, here are a couple of questions for you to ponder:
What is your favourite book and why?
What is your favourite food or recipe?
Is there a craft which you would like to try?

My little polymer clay Christmas trees appeared on the TV yesterday - I sent a photo of them in to the Wall of Fame (where you can send in photos of your work, as long as the materials are predominantly bought from Jewellerymaker) on Jewellerymaker and they were featured! (Apologies for the flash off the TV screen).  As you can imagine, there was great excitement for those few seconds!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

Goodbye Gonga

 We had to say goodbye to our lovely cat, Gonga this week.  He had been diagnosed with a tumour and we had to let him go. He went very peacefully.  He came to us in 2008, as a stray and quickly made himself a part of the family.

 His favourite thing to do was sleep...

 ...but he occasionally roused himself to investigate the garden.

 Ginny tolerated him (just).

He was always alert for the sound of food being prepared.  His second favourite thing was eating.

 He got on slightly better with Scruffy.

 He had his own red blanket for when it got cold.

 He would make us laugh with his 'Little Red Riding Gonga' impressions...

 ...and he did a pretty good 'Grumpy Cat' one too.

 Sometimes, he even thought he was like Bagpuss (old, fat furry catpuss).

And, we loved him.

A Triptych of Cats

 Although we had some fantastic presents for Christmas, my favourite one just had to be this triptych of our cats; Scruffy, Ginny and Gonga.  The portraits were painted by Rachael, my colleague at work, who is an amazing artist as well as being an excellent singer and an all-round good egg!

 Scruffy was the most difficult to paint, Rachael said, because he is all black.  The portraits are done in watercolour and ink.

 Ginny looks very serene and peaceful, as she does when she's just had a plate of liver or some leftover chicken or turkey. 

Of all the portraits, I think this one is my favourite because Rachael has managed to capture Gonga when he is feeling rather fed up (to say the least). He really does look this grumpy on occasions! 
The only thing is, now that we have these portraits, I rather think we need portraits of the cats we used to have too - Sammy and Mrs Cat.  I think I feel a commission for Rachael coming on...

An uneasy truce

 Scruffy has very quickly inveigled himself into our family - finding all the best places to sleep, being first to be fed, demanding to be played with, and trying to be friends with Ginny and Gonga.

 Gonga tolerates him but isn't above swiping him with a paw if he gets too close.

Occasionally, it seems as though they quite like being together.