Not on my bingo card

This is just a quick update/rant/vent.
A few days ago my notebook looked kind of weird. In one spot the case started warping, not much, but still in a way that didn't bode well.
I'm not going to go into details, let's just say buying a new notebook in a hurry had not been on my bingo card for the weekend.

Trying to make things look like I want them has been on my bingo card even less. I'm getting there, but there are still settings that are determined to fight me. Sounds that need to be turned off (my tolerance with beeping things has been going toward zero with age). A card reader that needs to arrive.

I'll be honest, I don't do well with change once I'm used to something that has been working for me.
Bookmarks, files, where to save what, change this in Windows setting, that in Firefox, the next here and there and everywhere ... and why the heck won't it let me change the start screen?? I would lie if I didn't admit that my motivation has dwindled by the second.
And having to start my video game again for the third time now, now that's just adding insult to injury!
At least I didn't lose any pictures.

Actually, I just wanted to let you know that I'll have to sort out everything - especially my patience - before there will be business as usual. Hopefully soon.
Until then have a cute and rare picture of my Gundel sleeping on my pillow. And not beeping.

I just live here ...

... and have been informed once again that I have nothing to say and nothing belongs to me (although I'm the one with the opposable thumbs).
Duly noted, mylady 😑

Happy Gotcha Day, Gundel!

It's hard to believe that it has been eight years since a beautiful little panther barged into my life.
Oh dear, you should see her face. Actually Gundel did nothing of the sort. She harmlessly walked into my sister's yard and got a friendly welcome from her later catnapper even if she didn't know it then.
I don't think I ever told Gundel's story here before, so it's about time.

As I said, one day Gundel just walked into the yard. She was so terribly thin, her fur looked really dull and overall she just looked sick.
After my sister had given her something to eat which she wolfed down, she left again.
I had seen her from my other sister's window, and as I do love me a black cat, I yelled down that I would take her.
Gundel had disappeared, though, which made us feel bad because she really seemed to need help. Luckily, she turned up again a few days later and my sister scooped her right up - no resistance at all - and took her to her flat.
It was probably the first time in a while that she could just lie down and relax, but of course she didn't know that it was off to the vet's the next day.
She didn't have a chip, she weighed only 2.9 kg (not even 6 1/2 lb.), she had one cloudy eye from herpes, and the things she did in the litter box could have wiped out a small country (not the first cat to try that in my house).
I tried to find out if she belonged to someone while she was staying in quarantine - we had to wait for her blood results and have the litter box issues cleared up before letting her get together with Greebo and Ponder - in the library.

The first day she stayed on the window sill, looked, slept, and ate. I can't imagine what her life in the streets had been like because she just looked utterly exhausted and happy not having to move. She didn't even seem to have the strength to show that strange human if she still had some fighting spirit in her.

If she had run away, got lost or if someone had thrown her out, I never found out, but I knew I wanted to help her forget about her experiences in the street.
I don't know if I succeeded in that because until today she sometimes wakes up yelling and looks around confused and scared - at least that what it looks like to me - and then goes back to sleep when I pet and cuddle and whisper to her. It's heart breaking to watch, but luckily it doesn't happen often.

When we got green light rom the vet, I opened the door to her prison (with two very comfy armchairs with nice blankets which was really all she had wanted at the point apart from food) and hoped for the best with the boys.
Greebo was not very interested in her. He was more like "Yeah, new kid, not the first one, it's fine with me, do you think she'll still want to eat that?". He was such a sweet baby.
Ponder, on the other hand, was interested. He wasn't sure what this small thing was and he was confused that the small thing wasn't interested in him.
The lady went straight to the bedroom and hid underneath the bed for about two days, only a little paw or the tip of her tail peeked out. She came out for food, though, which she still needed so badly that she ate half of a huge antibiotics pill I had put down next to her while wondering how to make her take it.

Then she spent a few days on the bed.
Can you tell how different her fur already looks here? She was still very skinny, though, more than you can see here.

Eventually, she started exploring the place and she didn't take any nonsense from the boys.
Greebo didn't mind her at all and Ponder was happy to play with her. They liked slapping the other's butt and then the offender ran until he or she was caught and slapped back. It was so fun to watch. They never slept next to one another, though. There always had to be a little gap which makes it even more amazing how close der Dekan is sometimes allowed to sleep near Gundel now.

This is one of my favorite pictures. I remember showing it and some other angles on Facebook and asking jokingly how on Earth I was supposed to tell them apart!
Believe it or not, a few people informed me - not as joke - that Gundel was smaller than Ponder. Seriously now? I'm so glad they pointed it out to me!
Not that she was a kitten. My vet guessed her age at about 3 or 4 which means she'd be 11 or 12 now. I think she must still be 3 or 4. 6 tops. (Remember I said I'm not good at math?)
And Ponder was just a really big boy. Not fat - he really wasn't - but big and wonderful.

Ever since Gundel has been the Lady of the House. Meffi was my Queen and Esme was my Princess, and Gundel doesn't look like a Duchess or a Marchioness, so Lady it will have to stay.

She's named after Gundel Gaukeley, by the way, which is the German name for Disney's Magica de Spell. The initial plan had been to make her a Nanny Ogg (Discworld), but her sleek black look and the way Gundel sounds to German ears - at least mine - made that a way better name.

My little witch lady was quite the fighter in the early days. Understandably, she was not sure how far she could trust me, and often when I petted her, she snapped at me, never seriously, but very quickly and it made me jump every time. That quickly got less and less, though, and she hardly ever does it now unless I'm terribly annoying (meaning I pet her three seconds too long, so that's fair).
Only if I try to pill her directly, she turns into a clawed octopus, a deadly one. Luckily, I can crush the pills she's getting (allergies) and liquid snacks - I call them squishies - are too tempting for her to refuse. I wish I could put eye drops in her food, too! She's fine with me cleaning her eye, but not putting something in it. Yeah well, I don't like that myself, either.

Lately, she has developed a few bad, but not tragically bad habits, influenced by the brat, no doubt. One of them is the ripping out of the kitchen baseboard/s under the cabinets (she definitely learned them from him).
I put her on a Wanted poster for vandalizing and she bitterly complained about that on Ponder's blog which she has taken over.
You know how cat people often are, though. We are secretly proud of what brats our feline overlords can be, and after Gundel had been down for months after problems with both knees, it was good to see her up to shenanigans again.

Gundel, my sweet, here's to eight more years (at least)!

Black nemesis

It's five years today since I had to say goodbye to Ponder.
I'm still struggling so much with that. I hadn't been prepared for it and so wasn't ready for it and he left the biggest hole ever.
It also reminded me that the story of Ponder and Esme moving in here has never been shared before, not on his blog, not on mine, and it felt like this would be the right moment to do that.

Imagine an ordinary Saturday at our little local zoo whose name literally translates to "animal park".
A lady comes down the path to the entrance. She stops me and asks me if we are the "animal home" - that's what we call the shelter. I tell her that people often confuse us, but no, that's not us and as far as I know the shelter isn't open that day.
She makes an impatient sound and informs me she has two black kittens in the car that she needs to drop off immediately. They can't keep them, they are trouble-makers (kittens, now there's a surprise), and she should never have given in to the pleas of her children when her friend's cat had kittens. They already have a grown-up cat and also one of the kittens has been dancing around on the balcony railing (I always thought that must have been Ponder).

To say that I didn't get a good feeling from this would be putting it extremely nicely. Just the thought of a kitten being allowed on a balcony, so it could jump on the railing, made me want to ... well ...
To this day, I'm deeply convinced that she would just have opened the car door on the way home if I hadn't said I wanted to have a look.
By now, the ex had joined me and when I said "black kittens", he just sighed and said, yes, let's have a look.

We got to the car in which her young daughter sat with a sad face, two kittens in her arms.
There was no crate, no blanket, nothing, which just convinced me even more that they would not have made it back home.
A short look to the ex - not that I would have cared even a bit if he had tried to say no - and I gently took them from her. You could tell she tried to be brave, but it was definitely the right choice for me to take them even if she didn't know.

Obviously the first step was to get them both home, this time me sitting in a car with two kittens in my arms one of which was clearly wrigglier than the other. We could have taken a crate from the zoo, but we lived pretty much around the corner and didn't want to confuse them with zoo scents, so the ex dropped me off at home where I put those two in quarantine in the bunny room for now and stayed with them until they fell asleep.

At the time we already had four cats, Gandalf, Merlin, Meffi, and Greebo, and we hadn't planned on two more, but a colleague of mine had asked me some time before if we knew of a kitten for a friend of hers. Maybe that friend would take two?
Let's be honest, I knew I wasn't going to ask her and so did the ex. He had seen my look when I told him they were black. Possibly I drooled a little over the mere thought.
Also I went to the chat of the cat diabetes forum right away and believe me, those ladies didn't encourage me to give them up, either.

At least they weren't sick and not too young, either, probably around ten to twelve weeks, something to be grateful for. Not only didn't they need milk anymore, they also ate like big cats, especially the boy. I have to admit that I don't remember if I named them secretly right away or officially which would already have been a sign they wouldn't go anywhere - named after a wizard and a witch as was tradition in our house.
Ponder was an escape artist even at that age. When someone opened the door to the quarantine room, the little fellow was out like a rocket and jumped right into the big cat crowd to steal their food. They were usually so confused that they didn't even try to put him in his place. Esme followed if you let her, a bit slower, but not less confident. I really wish there were videos of that.
After that had happened several times, the ex gave me a weary look and told me to leave the door open because "we both know they won't be going anywhere".
Believe me, he just played the victim. Just like Meffi, Esme fell in love with him right away which he loved and Ponder was my buddy from the start.

Ponder and Esme both grew to be big cats. When I looked down at them from the floor above, it felt like watching two panthers roam the flat, sometimes it was even a bit spooky which is why I gave them different names, such as "black nemesis". It often made me wonder what their parents looked like.
Ponder was loving and clingy and his loud voice and his nose reminded me of Siamese, Esme could bite for a warning if she hated something (like me taking pictures of things on the "cursed" chest of drawers or daring to whistle), her round head and cute little nose (not flat!) made me think of Persian cats. Ponder had the white spots on chest and belly that black cats often have, Esme was all black.
Ponder loved being picked up and snuggled and I loved to dance with him (sometimes even with him and Greebo at the same time), Esme tolerated it if she was in a good mood, but didn't jump into your arms.
Only after the ex left, she found out that I was a pretty good snuggler and loved falling asleep with her legs curled around my arm, my hand on her belly.

I could tell endless stories about those two, but cat fanatics can get a bit exhausting, I know.
Some of the stories are already on Ponder's blog and maybe there will be more to follow.

Sometimes I think Ponder sent den Dekan to me as a big joke or because he didn't want Gundel and me to get bored, couch potatoes that we are. Esme didn't get to know Gundel because I lost her four years before Ponder, but I remember Ponder and Gundel chasing each other once she had warmed up after getting off the streets. She kept giving him cheeky little slaps on the butt and then turned around and ran, and it looked so funny seeing my big boy running after that small girl, it was even funnier the other way round.

I think it must have been fate that the lady turned up at the zoo on a Saturday when we happened to be there and that I was the first one she ran into.
Ponder and Esme brought something special to the cat gang and I'm glad we didn't miss that.
Sometimes I call Gundel Esme by mistake ... when she falls asleep next to me with her legs around my arm, my hand on her belly.
I miss my gorgeous panthers.

On the wall

Isn't it funny how sometimes you can look at something and you just don't know what to do with it? I guess it happens to most if not all creative people.
And sometimes it takes years and years and years, then suddenly - boom.
I remember getting those moonstones, being intrigued by the different colors and the - for me - unusual shape. Unusual because I used round stones. The shape (and size), however, were a big problem for me as I couldn't come up with a way to incorporate it into one of my pieces.
Back then, I only did wire crocheting and knitting, and my only attempt of working with the moonstones was kind of okay, but definitely not okay enough. After having looked at the piece - it was a wire knit collar - again and again for some years, I finally ripped it up and the moonstones went back into the drawer.

The other day, however, I was looking for something in that drawer, taking out this and that, and when I held the baggie with moonstones in my hand, it was like an epiphany - a dry stone wall!
It was rather fitting that I had Midsomer Murders on for background entertainment. Rural England, here I come ;-)

Luck was on my side, the wall became straight. It just needed someone or something sitting on it. Wait, how about a cat?? That's of course a joke. A cat was the first choice, and with me having a black glass cab around in my "workbox" - mere coincidence actually - it clearly wanted to be black.
To enhance the 3D effect, I added more an extra layer of seed beads for the head and thighs and an additional layer of matte crystals for the tail. Also the cat got two rows of seed beads added around, so it wouldn't blend into the background.

I love the background. Those hexagon beads have some major sparkle which is increased by the random embroidering. You hardly notice the little "stars". It was so time consuming, but well worth it in my opinion.

While this is also a cat silhouette, it's not a HeatherCat, by the way. If it were, there would be a moon. Silhouette HeatherCats insist on a moon ;-)

Turning this into a pendant was more difficult than I had thought. Beaded ropes didn't work for me, the bails I tried weren't any better. In the end, I decided to get one of those faux silk chains and bead a tube bail for it.
Now I wish there were more moonstones left over because I am very tempted to make another dry stone wall. Didn't I have some Tila beads somewhere .....

Count Catula

First of all let me say I'm sorry for not wishing you a Happy New Year yet. You know how it is, life got in the way. So here I am, very late. A Happy New Year!

Now I want to show you some amazing footage from Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's Castle.
Seems as if the castle has a new owner, and I got an exclusive picture of him. I don't know, there is something odd about him, but I can't quite put the finger on it. Wait ... are those cat ears and a tail??

Picture of Bran Castle by Dobre Cezar on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0 ro)

Move over, Santa Claus! - The third door

Sorry, Santa, but there are two new kids in town.

First we have Santa Gundel. She's fine with the job, but didn't like the outfit much. Finally she granted me a minute to get it over with and take pictures.

Then there's der Santa Dekan. He didn't mind the hat, but the mere idea of having to travel the whole world and go down chimneys and back up was very exhausting.
It definitely called for a (not so) little nap beforehand.
Children, if I were you, I'd count on Santa Gundel to bring you gifts, I don't think der Santa Dekan is up to the task!

P.S. I'm not a fan of clothes for my cats, but I couldn't resist trying this after finding that the hat of my Steiff Santa Claus replica wasn't attached to his head (anymore?). The size was so perfect.
Gundel removed the hat a few times with a flick of her head, but then gave in because sometimes that's easier than being annoyed by forever.
Der Dekan made it more difficult. I had to lure him onto the bed for a nap, and when he was awake again, he was still too tired to bother about a stupid hat.

Bat Cat

I have shown you this winged creature before, my all time favorite among my friend Heather's paintings. It makes me think of Ponder and I love it so much.

It also inspired the different winged cats that I made over the years. They had wire wings in copper or silver, but after discovering bead embroidery and sequins which is easier on my hands than wire at the moment, I have fallen in love with making wings like that. I guess it was just a matter of time for a cat with bat wings to materialize.

This black cat bead came to me with a problem. The tail curling up in front was mostly missing, it looked as if it had just snapped off. I couldn't get myself to throw it away, but also didn't have an idea for it for a long time.
However, after making the Demon Guardians, bat winged skull earrings, I looked at my black cats and thought that would be perfect for them, but I would try it out with the flawed bead first.

When glueing him to the backing, I noticed a fine line across his neck, at the top of the horizontal hole. Uh-oh. Was this what I thought it was? Yup, just a tiny tug and the head broke off.
I still wasn't prepared to throw it away, though.
I glued him thoroughly, even filling the bead hole, which I didn't really need, with glue.  Then I made him a "fuzzy" little bat body to hide the missing tail and making him sit on the backing even more safely by sewing through the hardened glue in the bead hole.

Next were the wings.
I chose shiny black and black AB sequins for them. I had to make them smaller than I would have usually done because I hadn't left enough backing on one side, an all too familiar mistake of mine, but it's nice to have a challenge ;-)
Last I added some matte black firepolished crystals - which I had also used to cover the bead holes - at the loops for the chain and to the black crystal drop dangle.
What kind of chain or rope I will use, I haven't decided yet.

So here he is, Mister Cat Bat.
I think it was a pretty good save. Of course he won't be for sale, but I'll happily wear him myself.

Inspired by him, I made a vampire cat necklace (with bigger wings ;-)).
Meet Count Catula who will be flying across the seas soon.

SilhouetteCat and the mermaid

No, they are not a couple even if the title makes it sound like that ;-) Although you never know if they have met under a full moon, SilhouetteCat sitting at the pier maybe, looking down on his friend who has come from the depth of the ocean to say hello? I wonder what kind of conversation they would have.

Let's start with SilhouetteCat.
If you have followed me for a while, you may know that he is one of my favorite HeatherCats and I have made several versions of him.
This one is my second bead embroidered version and the first one in color, all because I couldn't resist turning a shimmering checkerboard cab into a moon.
I hadn't planned a HeatherCat. My first thought had been a tree "holding" the full moon, but luckily I used a big piece of backing as if Mabel, my muse, had been whispering in my ear that a moon needs a cat ...
Once I had beaded the bezel for the moon and added some rows around it, I knew that it reminded me of Heather's SilhouetteCat.

So I added the black cat -  with the body changed a little because I didn't want him to reach up to the moon.
Now some stars. In bead looming, my night skies often have dots for the stars, but this moon was so big that I felt they needed to be bigger, too. I didn't have any cabs that would have worked, though, so I went with more circles (that's probably why people are reminded of Van Gogh's "Starry Night", but if you have a closer look, you see it's not really that similar and it was not my inspiration).
It was also fun to add the fringe. I still have tons of those dagger beads from when an old project fell through, and the color was perfect.

Then I was at the usual point, what kind of rope to use. Of course I thought of my beloved Herringbone, but neither the 4 bead nor the 6 bead rope appealed to me this time because the different blue tones had different sizes.
I remembered, though, that I had just got some faux suede ribbon and there were still a bunch of crimps from my early bead looming days, and indeed the braids looked much better.
Now I'm really happy how the whole piece turned out!

And the braids actually brought me to a WIP that has spent nine months in my infamous WIP drawer - my mermaid.
I hadn't even posted about her here because I thought she would be done much earlier, but I had had the same problem with the rope. Bead loomed strips didn't sit right, the Herringbone ropes didn't look right.

Luckily the other spools of faux suede that I got were a dark teal and a light blue which went perfectly with the colors I used in the mermaid's tail.
Actually, the first idea had been to make just a fish tail with all those sequins, but a tail by itself always looks so cut off, so instead this large mermaid started evolving, getting more and more hair and this big fish tail. It was fun ;-)

It's amazing how satisfying it is to finish a long time WIP because the right idea has finally come along and I'm very glad she made it out of that drawer that has proved to be the end of the line for some other pieces over the years.