Huggle Time!

Hello, dear friends. Chani here. Mom has been horribly remiss in documenting our lives. No proper photos of us since St. Patrick's Day! We would be terribly upset except, she does give us a lot of attention and hugs. In fact, tonight, she stayed home with us instead of going to her yoga class. It was quite pleasant.

She did, however, spend a great deal of time on the computer playing a game. And so, my dear little brother, Sheamus Popoki, got her attention by knocking over one of our empty kibble dishes. Can you imagine that? An empty kibble dish? But it gets worse. ALL 3 kibble dishes were empty! It was quite horrific.

Each dish was quickly refilled. Thank goodness.

And now to the topic of the day. "Huggle Time". Honestly, I don't know why Mom does this. Look at us! All 3 of us captured in one ginormous hug, being snuggled by Mom. Look at our faces! Can you tell how much we 'enjoy' this act? Ugh... I cannot begin to tell you how annoying it can be. Sometimes, I am in the center. But sometimes, I escape. Mom usually begins by capturing Sheamus Popoki and 9. The boys do get along with each other quite well. Then, she comes after me. If I am awake enough, I run away because I see what is happening.

Most of the time, my brothers do not see it coming at all. Well, 9 loves being snuggled and Sheamus Popoki... well, he's kind of dim. He hasn't caught on yet. I wonder if he ever will.

Mom is quite right in that she enjoys these huggles much more than any of us do. I am quite vocal in complaining about it. Sheamus Popoki complains too. 9 just takes it. He's kind of passive aggressive that way.

Sigh... we really better start training Mom again. She is such a slacker and obviously requires constant supervision and managment.

Marlene's been painting...

I think I might have shown off some of my yin/yang kitty plates. I've been painting these for the past year or so. Each plate is different (so many types of kitities out there!) and I have a hard time keeping these in stock. In fact, the one above is the last one in my stock and I have promised it to a charity auction that will be coming up. I used to paint back in the day and stopped.  Pottery sort of took over my artistic endeavors. However, recently, I started on painting on canvas again. Which led me to paint on boards.

I really like the finish that comes with that medium.

Originally, my goal was to build a body of work large enough to start selling at my local farmer's market in August. I just need time and of course, subject matter.

Cats were definitely the main focus. Imagine that! ha!  At any rate, I knew I could paint cute cats, but I wanted something more. The images had to be simple and yet show off that I can, in fact, paint and draw.

Now, during a manic phase where I was posting a sketch a night, I drew one based on a friend's cat who had crossed the Bridge (she had sent me a photo of her darling Phantom). She told me that if I ever did anything with that sketch, she wanted it. And so, I did the above for her. So, my style of cat was basically set.

After a conversation with another friend about my painting as well as how much I was enjoying hot yoga (yes, Bikram yoga... I'm no where near the point where I can do all the poses, but I am starting to enjoy the heat), plus seeing little wood carvings of kitties meditating, my friend suggested combining them all. After all, cats and yoga... they sort of go together.

And so you see the first two paintings. I haven't been able to do more because of time constraints. But, I do have plans for a few more. I'm thinking a Rainbow of Meditating Lotus kitties. Eventually, 9, Chani and Sheamus Popoki will make appearances in these (Chani will be on an orange background, Sheamus Popoki on green... I haven't decided on 9 yet. Purple, perhaps).

I have created a few as cards on Zazzle, but those are kind of expensive per card. And so, I'm looking into other print options and opening up an Etsy store. I'll keep you all informed with how that goes!

Spaz, 1995-2012

Spaz was an adorable kitten who belonged to a good friend. After 17 years, Spaz left us to run free across the Rainbow Bridge.

She was part of a trio made up by Q who came before and his buddy, Sylvester. The poor girl really didn't get involved with the boys too much (being a girly girl didn't help), but she did put up with them both quite well. She wasn't the brightest of kittens, but she was pretty.

Run free, dear Spaz, our former 'shiro baka neko', who turned out to be a bit smarter than we all imagined.

Re-furring laundry

Mom went on a trip last week to Austin, TX. One of her cousins was getting married. So, of course, when she got back, she had to do laundry. I, of course, had to make sure the dark clothes were properly re-furred once they came out of the dryer. Teehee... I'm good, conscientious lady cat!

At work, Mom has been making 3d models of buildings. And so, her eye is really attracted to interesting buildings these days. The Frost Bank Building in Austin is the one that she has become obsessed with. She took a bunch of photos of this building and hopes to model it soon.

Austin is known for having a large population of bats. Unfortunately, there was no time for her to see them. She'll have to go back one day.

AND as for wild life that she did see. There was this awesome sign next door to the house where she was staying. Plus, she saw an opossum AND an armadillo late at night. Mom was thrilled!

Chani and the unmade bed

 Puuurrrrrrr, how I love when Mom makes the bed

So much space to stretch out upon!

Happy Birthday, Sheamus Popoki-kins!

I'm not really sure what Sheamus Popoki's exact birthday is, but I do know that it is sometime time in May. And so, I dub May 25th as my darling gingery buff boy's birthday.

Happy First Birthday, Sheamus Popoki Aloysius Mango! Love you and so happy that you have joined our family.

Tuesday Shenanigans

The boys like to snuggle together. What you don't see is where exactly on the bed that they have chosen to snuggle. My feet are to the left. I had about 6 inches of space for both feet. The boys are in the center of the bed. There is the whole other half of the bed for them to sleep, however, they like to be right up against me.

Chani was up towards my hips. She also likes to snuggle against me. I had about a foot of space for my upper body... I think they are trying to push me off the bed here!

But here are some portraits for you to remind you that they can be sweet and not always out to push me off the bed.

 9 lounges on the blanket storage box under the window.

 Sheamus Popoki lounges on the bookshelf next to the window.

Chani lounges on the bed.