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If she could read, Pink would check out the tales of the Ginge Club and make sure she’s presented in the best possible light, as the most beautiful, alluring and fashionable pink cat who ever lived.  I’ve told her that’s exactly how she’s presented in the stories, and in the blog, but I don’t think she trusts me entirely.  That’s why she’s been staring at my Kindle, trying to see inside it.   She probably thinks it’s a mirror.  She knows what mirrors are because she spends hours every day staring into the one in our bedroom, preening herself and showing off to the looking glass.  Alleycat’s different.  He says he doesn’t care what anyone thinks so long as he can sleep whenever and wherever he wants and demand food at the drop of a hat.  Of course, he’s given me a few guidelines.  For one, thing. I’m never to give Snatcher too much attention or importance and for another I’ve got to impress everyone with Alleycat’s fine qualities.  Bamber alone of our three cats has little interest in such matters.  He doesn’t care about social media and his heart is set on being a cat and staying a cat and doing the best he can at being that.

This is Pink’s Snatcher look.  She learned it when Snatcher lived with us and terrorized the rest of the animals with his high-handed haughty ways.   Its years since Snatcher left Wayside Cottage and went to live with the Car-Man (who taught him to be nastier than he needs to be) but you can see there are things behind his eyes that he doesn’t bother to hide.  The same goes for Pink.   All our cats have secrets in one way or another, except for Bamber.  He’s simple and true and honest.  He wears no mask.  He’s the only normal cat we have.  Snatcher was a dreadful thief, and he lied all the time, almost without trying.  He never took the blame for anything but when he left we found a large stash of contraband (including some precious stories) behind the wardrobe in the spare room, where he had his quarters.

Pink thinks everything becomes her. Some animals change colour to match their surroundings, but Pink’s surroundings change texture and hue according to her whim and fancy. In her youth she was abject and easy to upset. I found her once on the worktop in the utility room, crying because one of the local cats had been nasty to her. She slept on my pillow that night, and for many nights afterwards, and sometimes I think I may have given her too much confidence and paid her too much attention for her own good, because now it’s all so different and instead of being a shrinking violet she’s a little tyrant. In the old days even Bamber used to bully her a bit, because that’s what boys are like. Alleycat used to wonder if she could really be one of us (meaning one of the Ginge Club) and when she went out of doors we worried that she’d never come back – she was that weak and puny. But now the Ginge Club are all at her command and she’s their Queen and even Alleycat does her bidding and makes way for her.  Her glass might have started off empty but it didn’t stay empty for long, and these days it only takes one look from her for her cup to fill up with her favourite liqueur just simply because she wills it so.

Even our kitchen is PINK!
And our glassware is PINK TOO!

This afternoon we couldn’t find Lucy.  We didn’t think she’d be anywhere except in the house, but one of the neighbours called over the fence to say she was out in the Six Foot, running up and down.  She’d been ignoring us.  We ran outside and saw Pink a few feet away,  looking down from a high fence post.  That little cat had been there all the time, watching and acting important and we realized that she’d tempted poor Lucy to slide under the gate and run over the lawned garden where the cats hold court; and once past that gate you can see the Six Foot through Alleycat’s hedges. You can bet Lucy didn’t hesitate when Pink showed her how to negotiate the twisted boughs and the prickly spears of hawthorn that stand guard on Alleycat’s turf.  Bernie didn’t miss her daughter at all and was quite happy to be on the sofa alone, without Lucy getting in the way and demanding our attentions.  There she is in the video, pleased as Punch.

5 Stars Silly Frilly Grandma Tillie Laurie A, Jacobs Anne Jewett Flashlight Press 32 Pages Ages: 5 and up Inside Jacket:  Sophie and Chloe are lucky that their Grandma Tillie knows how to be royally silly. To their delight, whenever Grandma Tillie babysits she seems to disappear, only to be replaced by a parade of [...]

Just a real quick little pink bear-guy to remember the day.

Quick study paintings and my digital paint sketchbook.

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I made this dress several weeks ago, strictly on a whim, inspired by a wee baby’s dress I found at a yard sale and a blouse spied on Pinterest (via Casey).  In my excitement and haste, I went about things rather haphazardly, throwing all caution to the wind.  It’s made in a typical 1920s fashion, the skirt is created from a series of squares and rectangles sewn in various ways, not wasting too much fabric.  2 rectangles for the front and back, 2 slits cut into each, and a triangle (half a square) set into each slit is all the skirt is, easy to do but looks extra nice.

While I love wearing silk georgette, I simply do not like sewing with it (see my dress using this fabric).  The nude fabric inset’s seams are a bit wonky.  I think if I had planned better and not rushed, stabilized the fabric (or something) it would have turned nicer.  All I can say is the next time I do a fabric inset like this, it won’t be with georgette!  The bodice and hem are finished with a zigzag stitch and the back closes with a single vintage button (that I forgot to photography).   I like to think it looks like an actual vintage garment and not something newly created.

But, despite the issues, I adore this dress.  Unlike many projects I have sewn, I wore this out and about–to the pet store of all places…ha!  Why wait for a fancy occasion to wear a fancy dress?  And the color is gorgeous.  I’m not sure how it looks on your monitor but I would describe it as salmon pink.

I have other sewing projects in the queue (as usual) that I hope to continue working on this weekend but I’m also going to start a knitting project, something I haven’t done in quite a while.  (And it’s all I can think about even though it was 98 degrees yesterday!)  I bought a skein of the prettiest mermaid green yarn that I’ll use to make this little scarflette.  I’m just going to ease into knitting slowly before I jump into anything more complicated!

Have a splendid weekend.

By Gayle Sulik Some people don't even know that disease-specific ribbons besides pink exist. Nan Hart wrote on the discussion board of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance (Sept. 19th) that after her daughter got a teal ribbon tattoo on her wrist, one of her daughter's coworkers asked why her breast cancer ribbon wasn't pink? Umm...Because it's not a breast cancer ribbon? The assumption that one ribbon

Don’t you love it when you are so inspired to do something that you have to do it RIGHT NOW?

Several weeks ago I saw these 1930s floral-pattern and metallic shoes on Pinterest (from the Thought Patterns blog):

Beautiful!  I immediately bookmarked this image, on Pinterest, and in my mind.  I knew there was a way to make/refashion similar shoes.  I had a starting base:

Very old, maybe 1920s or ’30s Mary Janes.  You can see me wearing them here.  I had been thinking about getting them professionally repainted/dyed a darker color for fall but had been putting it off for no particular reason.  (OMG, I just realized, looking at this photo, the perforations form a heart in the center!)

So I’ve been trying to figure out how I was going to get the roses on here.  Paint them?  (HA!)  Waterslide decals?  (Probably not suited to leather.)  Decoupage with Victorian clip art?  (Might be messy.)  I have a whole bunch of Victorian stickers on my stationery drawer that I haven’t used.  While decorating a package today (for a certain little fairy friend), I realized that the stickers were printed on thin, clear plastic.  Eep! Just the ticket.

I went to work straight away.  No, I don’t know how durable this is and what will happen when I actually wear them out and about.  But I didn’t care, I was having too much fun.

And they are not perfect, there is a wrinkle here and there but I think they look pretty good.  I’m going to wait a while to see if the stickers start to peel off; if so, I might put on a coat of satin clear acrylic paint over them.

To finish these off I painted the trim a pretty, faded gold (“Champagne Gold” metallic acrylic paint from DecorArt).  These are now the prettiest shoes I own!  OK, so where to wear them?

Bought peonies for the first time yesterday.  Aren’t they incredible?  They are the most beautiful things in the house right now.  I can’t stop smelling them and I even brought them into the bedroom last night so they’d be near me.  If friendly aliens from outer space came down to visit us, we should welcome them with peonies.

I’m not the only one enchanted by these flowers:

Here is Spoo Kee just before I shooed him away.  He likes to sink his kitty teeth into plants, the more fragrant the better.  The other day I found the most pitifully chewed up tea rose (from the garden) lying down on the mantle, OUTSIDE of its vase, due to this mischievous feline with an affinity for rosids.

Oh, before I forget to tell you, I’ve updated the vintage shop:

Have a wonderful weekend!