A fortnight in photos: June 2015
A friend made this amazing meringue… to celebrate another friend’s 30th (which we photographed on her instant camera, hence the glorious 70s tinge to the second photo)…
Paws on my shoulder, whiskers in my ear
And what nicer way could there be to wake up?
Luna and Clover have been with me just over a year – I picked them up from Brenda’s amazing rescue at 4pm on 27 November last year.
And I can’t remember what life was like before, nor imagine life without, my wonderful, ridiculous silly kittens.
Here they were on the day they came home:
And here they are, merrily taking over my life in the most wonderful way possible:
Illustrated by the wonderful Eli Trier:
Claiming their cat palace (and all the space in my conservatory):
And immortalised in Christmas decorations by the immensely talented Chloe at Slightly Triangle:
<3
Wonderful, silly kittens. You can find more of their antics on their blog, Silly Kittens.
They came from Alresford Cat, Kitten & Feral Rescue, which Brenda runs from her home and finds new forever homes for more than 300 abandoned cats and kittens a year. Should you wish to donate, please use the button below and I will ensure funds get to her when I next take cat food over 🙂
Day 15: Blue
Ahh, my favourite colour. There is blue all over my home and my life, and I’ll share some photos on instagram today (a day late, but no matter). But this one made me smile 🙂
Postbox: Custom cats!
A few weeks ago, I spotted a post by my friend Chloe on her artist page on Facebook, of two hanging decorations which had been painted as portraits of cats.
After some excited squeeeee-ing and some emails backwards and forwards, my very own commission was in the works. It arrived last Saturday – and look how gorgeous they are!!
The parcel:
The decorations:
Squee-inducing extras (I adore Chloe’s work, and one of her paintings has pride of place on my mantelpiece):
And finally, Clover investigating her miniature self. Luna wouldn’t sit still long enough and has sharper claws, so I didn’t let her anywhere near her mini alter ego!
Chloe is an artist specialising in mixed media illustration – her work makes me squee on a regular basis, and we are hoping to feature some of her prints in Ink Drops boxes later in the year.
You can find her at Slightly Triangle, and also on Etsy (so much gorgeousness there!) and if you want to commission your own pet portrait or custom work, you can get in touch with her via her website or her Etsy shop.
I haven’t decided quite where to hang them yet – they’re making themselves at home on my mantelpiece in the meantime 🙂
Two kittens and six months later…
Somehow, time has flown past, and these two little darlings…
have been with me a whole six months, and have become these rather gorgeous young ladies…
You’ll notice Luna still hasn’t grown into her ears…
They don’t snooze together much, but they’ve grown into the most loving, affectionate, perfect pair of cats I could ever wish for. It’s their first birthday next month (so the vet says from their teeth) and I think I might treat them to some kind of jumpy scratchy post with platforms.
Most recent pics, when I just got home from holiday and they were happy to be home, happy to see me and especially happy to “help” with the unpacking…
I do love my silly kittens cats!
Most of the Luna & Clover pics live over at Silly Kittens – pop over and subscribe (at the bottom of the page) if you’d like to see more kitty pics than make it onto this blog!
Carla xx
Sneak peek: best ever cat toys
Or so my kitties think!
Now, the downside of living by myself is that it’s nearly impossible to play with my kitties and photograph them leaping through the air at the same time.
However, here’s a quick sneak peek of the cat toys that arrived in the post on Give A Girl A Unicorn Day:
I was particularly taken with the Las Vegas Show Gulls!
The butterfly is from the same people that make Da Bird and the Cat Catcher, which I have to say are my cats’ favourite things (so much so that they’ve managed to break both – there’s a lot of gaffer tape used in this household) and early tests have proved that they find the butterfly equally captivating. And anyone would be entertained by the sight of me running around the house and garden like a lunatic, waving a pink butterfly around and hotly pursued by two excited kittens at high speed.
My poor neighbours.
The last of the bunch is a mat with a rustly insert, and a clever twist – you unzip the side, pour in some catnip and re-zip the side.
Luna and Clover have never taken the slightest bit of notice of any of the catnip toys I’d bought them before – I assume they were too young. But when I took this downstairs, they were definitely more enthusiastic about it… and are now crashed out on the landing, snoozing.
It’s exhausting, this playing thing!
Keep an eye on Instagram and Twitter, and their own Silly Kittens blog, for more pics of them using their new playthings!
A peek into my life, through my handbag
Good grief. I work almost exclusively online – here, with The Website Beautician, and as a web content editor at the university. So what I want to know is, how on earth has my daily handbag ended up full of all of this?!
Yeah, not Clover – she was just being “helpful”.
That’s a makeup bag, four eyeliners, two blushers, three lipglosses, a mascara, two mirrors, a pair of tweezers and foundation – and I don’t wear makeup during the day at work.
A CD (wtf?!), a pencil case with 15 (15!) pens and one pencil, chocolate, biz cards in a Loughborough holder, a notebook (green) for a course I’m doing, my beloved Moleskine diary, £20 I’d forgotten I’d got out of the cash machine, my little camera, half a pharmacy (ibuprofen, iron supplement, antihistamine, rescue remedy), my clip in dreads, various hairbands, my purse, two forks, a spoon, a cloth for cleaning my glasses, a plug for a phone charger (but no cable) and a USB stick. And a half written letter to Chloe.
Which would kind of be ok, if a) I didn’t also carry a bag with lunch and two big folders in it everywhere and b) I hadn’t cleared it out literally two days ago. At which point I removed two types of eczema cream, antiseptic cream, more pens, my TV remote control (again, wtf?!), the cable for the charger, two books, a magazine, the beads I bought on Thursday, half a brownie, four packs of tissues and a necklace. And today I left tap shoes and a scarf on my desk at work.
No wonder my back and shoulder hurt!
What the contents of my bag say about me: I reckon I’m prepared for just about anything, but that I REALLY need to pay more attention to the state of clutter in my life. So it’s just as well that the fantastic Anna Kunnecke is teaching the Queen Sweep course for free. It sarted on Monday and prompted this post. And, well – if the rest of the course is as effective as this first week, hopefully I’ll be much more aware and much less cluttered in the not too distant future!
What’s in your handbag? I suspect I’m not alone in my delusions of travelling light…
Just helping
Some of you will know I’m running four workshops at this year’s Essex Book Festival, on social media and writing in the digital age. (Details here if you want to join us – tickets are selling fast!)
I know what I want to cover in the workshops, but yesterday I’d set aside some time to get the structure in place and make sure I’m not cramming too much into the hour-long sessions, so that my writers actually take in the information and can apply it.
So after getting my big flipchart pad out, I went upstairs to get some coloured pens. I came back and was greeted by this:
Luna was snoozing in the conservatory by the heater, but Clover definitely wanted to help…
I love my kitties, but I’m learning to add extra time onto everything to account for watching, laughing at and cuddling them along the way!
I'm Carla, a quirky thirtysomething with a penchant for unicorns and glitter. I believe in magic and make-believe, and the gorgeous rebellion of making your life absolutely your own. And I'm a proud multipod!
I am a photographer and catalyst for small business owners, and a real life mermaid. I photograph people as they truly are, help women see and step into their brightest and best selves, add a sprinkling of magic to the mundane, and am a happy ambassador for stationery and slow living.
Proud to be both girly and geeky, when I’m not writing, photographing or daydreaming, you can find me dancing burlesque, riding my bicycle Bluebell, growing herbs and collecting typewriters.