tis the season

Hope you all are having a great Christmas season and remembering to share the gift of love and compassion.

I've been busy working my side biz while doing all my normal activities and naturally some are getting cut out...well, that just can't happen. I usually knit or paint a little gift for family members so I need to get going. My wrists are not able to handle all the long hours of knitting I used to do but I will try to balance it all.

A photo posted by Debbie T (@moodybq) on Dec 7, 2016 at 9:00am PST

Shadow has been in-your-face and pet me type of mood so it's sort of funny. When we first got him, he was super skittish and aloof but now almost 2 years later he is the most aggressive about getting his head pets. Shadow will head butt, put his paw on your face or hand in order for you to move that unused hand and pet him! Then when you finally bend to his will, he will make these soft grunts and it racks me up.

Okay, back to knitting... I knit a couple of small things that I think my family will like.

Today: one #hexipuff and one #tinywindowcat from #opaladventcalendar2016

A photo posted by Debbie T (@moodybq) on Dec 6, 2016 at 8:39pm PST

This little cat is adorable. I think I used a smaller weight yarn but pretty much everything is adaptable. 

The best one is my zero calorie donut. Really just the cutest thing. This one made my wrists ache but I plowed through because I wanted it done. Off course I want to knit more in more color combos so I'll have to try. 

Zero calorie donut. #knit #beads #ravelry

A photo posted by Debbie T (@moodybq) on Dec 7, 2016 at 11:26am PST

Caturday

I'm slowly dipping my big toe into video and what's cuter than cat videos?? Here are my two cats, Shadow and Phil. These videos are filmed on my iPhone 5s and edited with a free app called Pocket Video that is easy and can be done on your phone.









As you can see, I can add text, graphics and music and much more.  It's a start and I'm having fun with it. Hopefully, my skills will become better with practice as most things in life. Thanks for watching.




This video is from my Sony a6000 camera. Looks good so far but I need some editing software because I have some ideas running around in my head. :)

Snapshot:TBT

To when our kitties were small and adorable! They are still adorable!

Here's another one with their favorite knit ball toy. I should find it now because it has been patched so many times over with yarn thread hanging off but they still love it so I keep on patching it up with more yarn.

Yarn and Cats

A deadly combo to have so much yarn and 2 playful cats in the house but for the most part, there hasn't been any horrible tragedies.

Sometimes I find a random ball of yarn undone and tangled but I think I can limit that to about 5 incidents in the year we've had our cats.

They did do me a favor this week by picking the most ugly yarn that I recycled from a sweater I found in some thrift store years ago and left it on the stairs. Okay, I wasn't planning to knit with it anyway since it was rough, scratchy and would fall apart at the slightest tug so I knit a ball with a tail and used that old crappy yarn as the stuffing. Everybody wins!!

I fired up the camera and came up with photos!!




Shadow in a rare moment of being in the sunlight and still. He has some type of injury in his back legs that flared up this week so he is on house arrest. Hopefully the rest will fix it and he can stay healthy otherwise he needs to see the vet again.






Phil is his usual self. 

Okay, so back to yarn. My mind hasn't been keeping up with the calendar because all of a sudden, a couple of family members are expecting babies. At least I have this spidey sense with my cousin and I texted her if she was having a shower since this is her 2nd baby. She texted back yes, told me the date and the invites are sent out. That day I got my invitation! Freaky, huh? So they live in Arizona and don't need any handknit baby clothes or hats so I try to knit other things like plushies. I knit her a catepiller along with The Hungry Caterpiller book and over the years she has kept the other animals I've knitted her (way before she had babies). A bunny, an armadillo and little cute monsters.

This time I am knitting a sock monkey since it is the Year of the Monkey. I'm about halfway done.




It's looking really cute so far...

And then I began thinking, well I better knit the older brother something to ease the transition of having another little person to their household.

Since he is almost 2 years old, he needs a bigger plush so I found a free pattern called Big Snowy Owl using super bulky yarn. As usual, my wrists started complaining and I realized I would not have enough yarn to finish the actual size. I was using scraps and leftovers so I improvised a little and made the owl smaller. This is probably about 1/2 the size it was supposed to be but still fairly large. It's taller than a 16.9 oz water bottle and it came out so much cuter than I thought it would be. 




I'm planning to knit another one probably using worsted weight yarn for our niece who is expecting a girl in June and both family members are having their showers in April. Eeeek, I've got to get a move on then...

Phil and Shadow

We've had our cats for over a year now since we adopted them from Kitty Bungalow. The cats have adjust really well and I can see all the signs that they are totally happy and trusting in their environment. 

Originally, we thought Shadow would be the skittish/standoffish one but Phil has that slight edge in wackiness. Phil freaked out one day for no apparent reason (to me) and he took almost a week to finally calm down in the freakout area. It was fascinating to observe but also felt awful since we didn't know how to deal with it because we had no idea what freaked Phil out.

Otherwise, Phil is my baby. He is laid back most of the time (with me) and let's me do all sorts of things to him...because he loves me.

#philthecat makes such a cute bunny.

A photo posted by Debbie T (@moodybq) on Jan 30, 2016 at 6:50pm PST

For some reason, people can't figure how I got Phil's ears to do this. It's temporary plastic surgery where I place my fingers behind his head and pinch slightly to bring his ears together. Duh!

Another 'bunny' pic of #philthecat

Another picture using the same technique.
Phil is so chill he allows a certain amount of dress-up time...

A photo posted by Debbie T (@moodybq) on Feb 2, 2016 at 7:37am PST

#philthecat doesn't care.

A photo posted by Debbie T (@moodybq) on Feb 2, 2016 at 7:49am PST

#philthecat lays out on his beach towel.

A photo posted by Debbie T (@moodybq) on Nov 23, 2015 at 11:05am PST

Different cat, same beach towel. #shadowthecat

A photo posted by Debbie T (@moodybq) on Nov 23, 2015 at 2:44pm PST

Shadow is so much harder to photograph since he is a mini black panther. Toss in our black furniture and he becomes ninja cat. Literally. There are numerous times that we walk into the family room, do whatever we're doing and then spot him sleeping on top of the sofa. I think he's learned not to sleep in my sitting spot so he won't get squashed. 

Lately Shadow has picked a more visible spot to sleep...in the middle of our stairs which are light gray. Now we just have to be careful to not step on him.

Oh that reminds me of an incident where Phil did not move when I closed the door. He managed to get his tail caught and I took a strip of fur off his tail. I felt so bad for Phil. Luckily for me, Phil did not blame me for this accident and still loves me just the same.






Those are the latest photos of our cats. 

Love Cats

Here is your dose of cat pictures.





They do crack me up with their antics.

I think I crack them up too.