Thursday, March 28, 2024
catsdaily photomimi

Daily Photo: Such a Pretty Flower

black cat with fabric flower on collar
Mimi loves her flower

I think Mimi needs a flower on her collar, don’t you? I can tell you right now she would disagree with me to say the least.

black cat with fabric flower on collar
Mimi is such a model…

About that flower…Mimi models it so well. I think she likes it! I was at Dogapalooza yesterday (Sunday) and was next to a friend who makes all sorts of collar decorations.

Mimi fees very special.

I don’t typically like to dress up animals–I think they are more beautiful just as they are. That’s what inspired me to paint them years ago. But I had the feeling Mimi would like this, and I think she does. She was happy I came home so I could take her outside to enjoy some of the afternoon.

black cat with flower
Mimi and her flower.

The flower is backed by a strip of velcro so it can wrap around the collar at any point you’d like it to be. It’s from Goblin Girl Designs @goblinthebulldog (Instagram). And here is Goblin Girl herself who was sharing my tent on Sunday to stay out of the sun. She’s a therapy dog, and a very famous costume wearer. And her mom and I have been at events together, unplanned, for years. It’s good to see old friends again.

And speaking of Dogapalooza, it was a lot of fun. I rarely attend dog-specific event because I don’t have enough dog-specific stuff, but I decided that my portraits and pet memorial votives and garden flags were purrfect for this event.

my tent at Dogapalooza
my tent at Dogapalooza

I didn’t get a chance to post over the weekend—for one thing, I had a 32-page event program to design for my local library for Monday morning, then I had equipment failures getting ready for this event! I had all the signage and other things to make for this new display. I had designed the new garden flags you see above, and I needed to print the design on a fabric transfer, transfer it, then stitch up the pocket at the top. Eazy, right? I also wanted to make myself a tablecovering with the rainbow clouds background. I do this sort of thing all the time. But first, my printer had trouble with the prints. I worked it out, but I wasn’t happy with the print quality, so I’d need to work on that again later.

Then I needed to transfer the designs onto canvas I had purchased. First the switch on the heat press wouldn’t even move, let alone turn it on. I got it to move in a few minutes, but then it wouldn’t heat up! And then the control screen wouldn’t register changes to the settings I needed to make. Oh, no! If my heat press decided not to work, with all the products I depend on it for! Eventually that worked out too.

AND THEN, I had picked up a portable sewing machine at an estate sale several years ago helping my friend Judi from Carnegie Antiques. The “good” one needs a cleaning, and it’s so cramped in my bedroom that I decided to move the portable to the basement, where it produced really loopy stitches that just would not work. I stitched them up anyway, just to get things done. the implications of all those things needing to be repaired was almost more than I could handle because I rely on these materials, equipment and processes for more than half of what I sell, and I really want to launch the new garden flags now.⁹

I took the time today to run through the process again and everything was fine, my printer printed, my heat press warmed up and I could transfer another flag design onto the canvas. I opened up the portable and gave it a run through with machine oil and dusted out all the nooks and crevices inside. Then, I started out with really loopy stitches on fabric scraps, finally I could coax good stitches out of it and got the garden flag finished. Hopefully everything will continue working!

And now I’m going to go and catch up on the sleep I missed over the weekend. Talk to you tomorrow!

 

From around this date in past years

Big White Mittens All in a Row, 2021

Mariposa's mittens
Mariposa’s mittens.

It’s Tabby Tuesday! And little Mariposa has all of her white mittens tucked neatly in a row while she takes a nap.

~~~

From Instagram

I’m caught up on all my Instagram kitty posts, but I did manage to have a great day in the yard and wrote a little bit of flash fiction about one of my photos. It’s called “The Bumblebee’s Visit”, and you can find the little story on Paths I Have Walked here or click the photo.

spiderwort
The Bumblebee’s Visit

 

From around this date in past years

Funny Mariposa, 2020

cat with paw on face
Mariposa celebrates Whisker Wednesday!

Mariposa celebrates Whisker Wednesday, or do I with a silly photo I got while I was photographing her taking a bath? Either way she’s one of the cutest things alive.

The joke is kind of on me. I did take a pile of photos of Mariposa having a bath on the bed with the evening sun shining in, so many that I don’t even know what to do with them all. This was only one of them. She did this to me. She’s cute on purpose, and then I think she laughs at me and does it again!

~~~

Wednesday Night…

Three little kittens will be getting TNR surgery on Thursday. They were born to the same mom from last May near Carnegie Park. She disappears, then returns with kittens who are almost too old to be socialized. The wonderful person who has been attempting to trap her has actually trapped the kittens and successfully socialized them up to now. This year it’s not possible because they do take several months to be pretty much adoptable, and with the business they run, three small children, and work on their century-plus farmhouse there isn’t enough time. But their mother is still waiting for them outside, and they’ll be fed and sheltered right there. If there’s a chance any of them can socialize with regular association with the family, they are more than welcome to come inside and be adopted by someone.

~~~

From Instagram

They’re going to be really disappointed when they find out it’s dried apricots.

five black cats in the kitchen
Five black cats in the kitchen

 

From around this date in past years

Sunny Nap Silhouettes, 2019

Basil and Bella have a good nap in the sun, on sunnier days.
Basil and Bella have a good nap in the sun, on sunnier days.

Mimi Chooses a Seat, 2019

Mimi on the rocker.
Mimi on the rocker.

On Friday, Mimi and I did a little photo shoot outside, and despite Mimi’s insistence, she was not the subject! But of all the photos I took Friday I love this one best. Mimi is such an inspiration and such a talented model, using the crappy stuff we have on hand to make it all look beautiful. She is on the old rocker that’s literally rotting away, and not even the rocker feet stay on it anymore. But she had her fun then looked for a napping spot. A peeling old rocker looked just fine.

The rocker is red violet and the bricks are red with green in the background, but it’s one of those shots that makes a good black and white, in part because of Mimi and her solid black, then all the random detail and patterns in every area of the photo. She had started out centered on the rocker, then moved to one side and it was even more perfect than at first. She has her paws tucked and her tail curled up around her hip, so she was really happy.

Mimi hasn’t been outside since it’s been warm enough for ticks to hatch… I found one on me last year and I don’t want to put her in danger so until I find a good tick treatment for her she has to stay out of areas where the deer hang out. She is not happy with this.

But I finally had some clear weather and okay lighting to photograph the new keepsake boxes. She was just checking my lighting and composition. She had a great time and I got some nice photos of her as well as my keepsake boxes.

 

From Instagram

Just a quiet morning gathering to watch me eat my pancake. Note the very empty dishes. (They eat well before me. I was soaking cat food cans to clean and recycle.)
.
Sorry for the very bad photo, sometimes all I have is my cheap little cell phone but I have to share.

Watching me eat my pancake.Watching me eat my pancake.
Watching me eat my pancake.

Sienna Says It’s Naptime, 2019

Sienna says it's naptime.
Sienna says it’s naptime.

Sienna says, “It’s naptime. Would you care to join me?” Sienna LOVES to sleep with a human. She’s so happy she can’t settle down, and she purrs and rolls around and head butts me, and gives me nose taps on my nose. So purrhaps it was a good thing for Sienna that I needed to get back to work instead of napping. Someone’s got to pay the bills around here, you know.

Sienna’s response to that.

Oh, Bernadette, you bore me with your excuses.
Oh, Bernadette, you bore me with your excuses.

From Instagram

Basil’s Caturday morning mystery: what is that lump under the quilt?

Basil wonders about that lump under the covers…

It’s the melodramatic master cat who thinks it’s chilly this morning.

It’s Giuseppe!

Photos shared in past years

What is Mewsette Thinking? 2018

What is Mewsette thinking?
What is Mewsette thinking?

Mewsette has always been the intellectual of the little family of Mimi’s kittens, pausing for long, deep thoughts. I often find her staring off into space, obviously visualizing…well, I’m not sure. In this case she may be visualizing a piece of artwork, sitting on my drafting table in my studio with the brushes in the background. Or, perhaps I’m visualizing…

Apparently thinking so hard made her very tired.

Big yawn!
Big yawn!

Even more tired. I know I yawned in response! I liked this blurry photo just as much as the clear one. I know that very soon after this Mewsette joined Mimi in a nap. I don’t think I did though.

Kind of like the blurry one too.
Kind of like the blurry one too.

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pastel painting of cat on quilt on bed
“Bath, Interrupted”, pastel, 13″ x 10″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

This little meowdel is featured this month in her debut painting! Read more and purchase.



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From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

2 thoughts on “Daily Photo: Such a Pretty Flower

  • Very pretty flower for Mimi.
    The purple flower with the bumblebee is spiderwort, and I have a few coming up this year, after transplanting them from the neighbor’s yard (with permission) last year.
    Am looking for white spiderwort, so I can have a whole batch of purple and white ones.

    Reply
    • Every so often, Mimi likes something like that. I wrote about the purple flowers in the linked post, and many other places. It grew in both of my grandparents’ yards and I always loved it. The purple flowers are native to the Americas from top to bottom, it’s one of the few plants that made the trip back across the seas to Europe in the 1700s and is now flourishing all over Europe, Asia and the middle east, the opposite of all the plants they brought here that compete with our natives. The genus is Tradescantia and the plant has as many species names as regions where it grows, each a little different. It also has nearly as many common names–in my area its common name is widow’s tears, I’m looking for the magenta one! I have a flourishing culture of feverfew, that resemble chamomile which is starting to bloom now.and that’s my sea of purple and white.

      Reply

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