The Adventures of the Amazing(ly Pesky) Kitten Luna, and Apol the Human Cat Climbing Pole

Even before my first cup of coffee, she jumps on me.

I'm responding to e-mails, wishing Little Miss Pesky is finally going down...

... but nope, she climbs back up again.

And how is your Monday morning?

Shopping List Saturday

First row: Bouquet by JKphotography; Sand Storm by Glasfaden; Crochet Stole by Dinaladina
Second row: Summer Girl Mini Book by HeliS; Happy by Pamela Angus; Ivory Winter by Paper Flower Girl
Third row: Odd Scarf by Odd Creations; Vanilla on Ebony Brooch by Kraplap; Fat Great Tit by Mirthquake

What's this all about?

Like most anyone who uses Etsy, I have a list about 10 meters long of artists and products found on the site that I covet! To satisfy my shopping urges even virtually, I've decided to participate in Shopping List Saturday, a meme by a group of bloggers who feels the same as I. You can find the list of other bloggers who make Saturday lists in the right sidebar of Charlotte's blog.

And just because I'm feeling chatty this morning, I'll tell you that for this, my first venture, I looked around my home for inspiration, glanced at the wooden bowl that I got for just 50 cents at a flea market, and decided to be moved this Saturday by the fruits whose name I share.

Organic apples in a bargain bowl.

And, because I tend to look for sellers on the continent when I do shop, all this great stuff is made by sellers from Europe. I love them!

What I'm Working On

I have always and will always be in love with the works of Portuguese artist Rosa E Chocolate. But except for that it is a pillow and Rosa makes some of the most fabulous pillows I have ever seen, the pillow I'm working on right now has not much to do with her works :) Just thought I'd mention her, since I've been wanting forever to say here how much I'm a fan of hers, and this seemed like an opportunity to do so. So, Rosa, if you ever have time, send me an autograph!

Anyway.

I have this charming cotton tablecloth that I found at the brocante in Fontvielle a few months ago, and I knew I wanted to make decorative pillows with it.

My friend Tara once said I should embroider my fairytales on pillowcases, that way you can read yourself to sleep. She was joking. I took her seriously.

The photos here show the initial sketch and some details of my Jasmine Fairytale Pillow.

I still have to work on it some more, but if this turns out nice, it'll probably be my entry to the European Street Team's weekly creative challenge. This week's theme is "Things That Go Bump in The Night." Challenge king Frances has all the details in her blog here. Now I just have to convince the king that Jasmine IS scary. I mean do you want to be nine years old forever, lice, runny nose, and all? Shudder.

Ta-Daahhh!

Just showing off my ACEOs ...



By the way, if you have no idea what an ACEO is (just a few short months ago, I sure didn't!), Mr. Wikipedia has the answer here.

Attack of the ACEOs

Although the term did make me think of boring men in grey suits, I've been wanting to make ACEOs as soon as I heard of them a few months ago. So today, as it was raining and rain always makes me think to stay indoors and do some sewing, I whipped up these:

I'm going to be listing them in my book shop in the days ahead. The first one is here. What do you think?

Shameless Self-Promotion (again)

This makes me happy:


My Inspiration Apples are on the cover of the weekly newsletter of the super design blog Poppytalk. Yip-yee!

Seven Things from the Land of Meow

1. I used to have asthma, and up to now have allergies to everything and its mother.

2. But that doesn't prevent me from owning cats. I used to have two, the sisters Dolly and Sally. Sally got lost, and we never found her back. I cried for weeks and weeks after.

3. We adopted kitten Luna a week ago, and since then Dolly (now three) has been deeply unhappy. My sweet bundle of energy of old has transformed into a cantankerous diva who withdraws into her room and with her body language is clearly doing a Greta Garbo, saying, "I vont to be alone." She is breaking my heart.


4. When Dolly deigns grace us with her presence, she takes to growling and hissing and swatting at Luna, who, from this cute little bundle of innocence, has understandably been occasionally transforming into a grouch.


5. Meanwhile, a natural magnet for cats (or so my husband claims), I am now covered in scratches, courtesy of Luna, who seems to think that I am her own personal climbing pole. In this photo, I look happy, but let me tell you, five minutes before it was taken I was howling in pain from the new scratches on my back, because how do you think that kitty got there on my shoulder?


6. To ease tensions between my feisty felines, I bought some cat Prozac that comes in a plug-in electric dispenser.
7. Now I'm wondering, can somebody give me some human Prozac in a plug-in bottle too?

This is a blog tagging game, and I have been tagged at least three times, by Kreativlink, Meltemsem, and French Landscapes, so I figured that it was time I did it!

The rules are:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

But because I can never follow rules, I'm changing this a bit. Instead of tagging seven bloggers I know, I am tagging YOU. Boo!

The Dog Went Crazy...

... because he heard me sing.

Click here to see more photos of the animals Montpellier artists made for Expérimental Babote. And here for some photos of the afternoon show. The third image is a video showing a little bit of us singing. I have an almost-complete 30-minute video of the evening show, but I would have to be absolutely without shame to show you that!

P.S. The crazy dog is one of the Mitouls that form part of sculptor Samy Sulem's slightly demented universe.

New Love

As I write this, somebody is kneading my shoulders and murmuring sweet nothings in my ears... and it's NOT my husband! Yep, I have embarked on a brand-new love affair:

I've been feeling a little down the last couple of days, and so yesterday my husband came into my workroom with a white box, saying, "To make you feel better, I have a gift for you." To be honest, I wasn't very excited, as Pierre is a computer geek, and his gifts are almost always some kind of hi-tech gadget thingie whose brilliance is often unfortunately lost on a girl like me who owns probably the most battered and oldest Nokia cellphone this side of the Mediterranean.

Anyway. I opened the box, and kind of screeched in surprise as I saw fur and a mouth. Then I found this sweet little face staring back at me and in a second my heart had melted. Awww. Just like a Hallmark commercial, right?

By the way, her name is Luna, and she's a month and a half.

Still on the Sleep Angels' Makeover...

Antonia's Sleep Angel, originally uploaded by la pomme.

Here's a custom work I especially love.

The Back View

Antonia's Sleep Angel, originally uploaded by la pomme.

The Weekend...

... was partly spent walking five long, long hours, mostly through tracks meant for sheep, sometimes on the sides of mountains so steep that if you had the misfortune to fall, you'd be landing a few dozen kilometers down at the bottom, bloody and broken and dead quite possibly.

We looked at rocks.
We looked at dried plants.

At one point we found ourselves at our destination: a man-made cave that was so uninteresting I took no photos. We had lunch, some members of our group began singing snatches of opera. It was too much for me, I went down to pee.

On the way back, we looked at even more dried plants.We heard the clanging of the bells of grazing sheep.We found bones scattered in a field, and spent a good few minutes reconstructing the skeleton.
We went home.

What can I say, my party-happy days are seriously over.