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Cats and Boxes

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“Best Bed in the House”

-Painted with watercolors
-Approx. 10″ x 7 1/4″ x 1″ Piece of pine
-Topped with two coats of matte varnish.
-Signed, titled, and dated on the back by me!

Oh silly cats! No matter how beautiful and fluffy our beds are, they really would rather have a plain old cardboard box. This family loved their simple box!

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Merlin really loves boxes, and is usually the first one in the house to get inside a box.

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Claire only agreed to the kissing booth because she could sit in a box. =P

 

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Portrait of a Ginger Cat

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A Portrait of a Ginger is painted after my Puddy cat. He’s so old these days, maybe 15-18. We never knew his age for certain. We found him one snowy day in Klamath Falls, Oregon. There was an abandoned house on the property next to a house we just rented. Lots of cats lived there, they came and went, and we’d leave food out for them. One day, with a plate of food in hand, my Mom called out, “kitties! puddy!” and this super fluffy ginger cat came running. He was the only one who came to us. We soon found out someone had declawed him and dumped him.

We asked the neighbors around the area if they knew who he belonged to, but no one knew. We asked how long he’d been out there, and most people said they’d seen him for at least a few years. We took him in. That was 14 years ago. Puddy has since lost the majority of his fluff, and is so thin these days, eating about 5-6 plates of food throughout the day (small amounts really.) But he’s still as playful as a kitten! I thought it was definitely time to paint Puddy’s portrait. =)
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Photo of Puddy from just the other day. <3

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Snowfall in Pink Hues

Well, it wasn’t actually pink snow, but the hue was definitely pink when I took these photos today. =P
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Time For A Catnap?

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It certainly seems like it in my house! Painting for the day, inspired by my lazy loungers. (It’s so cold, it’s hard not to join them!)24111358341_fb84827a3d_b

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Merry day-after Christmas!

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I hope you all had a wonderful day, whether you celebrate Christmas or not. It was basically a normal day for us, as the children decided they didn’t actually want wrap-able items. Well, that coupled with the fact that I couldn’t wait to give one child a speaker system for an iPhone (my old iPhone) so she could listen to all the itunes music she got to pick out. New shoes for all, clothing, books, and Steam games. I figured, why wait to hand out the needful things? So we all just relaxed and did our own thing on Christmas day.

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Did I mention there’s no snow? No snow at all, not even a flurry. Hell,ย it was 60 degrees! It’s been so long since I’ve lived in my native state of California, that I forgot how it feels to not have snow during this time. =P

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Now the kids will go down and de-ornament the tree, so that I can wrap it up and put it back down in the basement. It’s time to de-Christmas the house and get things back to normal. That includes me getting back to normal and painting!

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Icelandic Yuletide Lads-Stekkjarstaur

I’m sure some of you know by now, that my children are half-Icelandic. Even though we no longer live in Iceland, it’s always fun to participate in the traditions. Sure the Jรณlakรถttur is not going to come all this way and eat either child because they didn’t get new clothing to wear before Christmas…because obviously I’ve bought them new clothes to wear! But still. ย I looked through my stuff and came across the Jรณla Spil card deck, and decided to take a picture each of the 13 nights with the yule lad who’s said to visit. Tonight it’s Stekkjarstaur, or the sheep worrier._MG_8321

Stekkjastaur kom fyrstur,
stinnur eins og trรฉ.
Hann laumaรฐist รญ fjรกrhรบsin
og lรฉk รก bรณndans fรฉ.
Hann vildi sjรบga รฆrnar,
โ€”รพรก varรฐ รพeim ekki um sel,
รพvรญ greyiรฐ hafรฐi staurfรฆtur,
โ€”รพaรฐ gekk nรบ ekki vel.

Gimpy was the first,
Stiff like a tree.
He snuck into the stables,
And fooled the farmer’s sheep.

He wanted to suck milk from them,
– They did not care for that,
And because he had peg-legs
– It did not go too well.

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Bringing Home the Christmas Tree!

Or if you’re like me, you simple drag the Christmas tree parts up from the basement, give it a good straightening out, throw some ornaments on it, and call it a day. (We *almost* decided to get a real tree this year, but then I thought, “what if there are ticks on the trees since we’re in PA?”)

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Happy Veteran’s Day!

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Happy Veteran’s Day! Enjoy some nautical themes and kitties,, and my old fresh-end-of-bootcamp portait. =)

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Halloween 2015!

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Another Halloween success! I managed to pick the perfect sized pumpkin for Rosebud this year, and he looked so cute sitting in it!

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Front of the house, with Bandit the neighbor cat, who always stops by for a picture, and a bowl of food._MG_7709

Bandit made sure to show up at night too, for more photos and food._MG_7256

We should just call Bandit our porch cat, since we’re always feeding him, he’s always on the porch. We even ended up buying him a flea collar since his owners failed to do so. (Who’s in the window?!)_MG_7357

My daughter thought she was going to dress up as a rotten clown this year. I may or may not have gone over the fact that she hadn’t yet acknowledged her Icelandic/Norwegian heritage, and that maybe she should pick a goddess to dress up as. We went with Hel. =)_MG_7360

I hadn’t fully planned out the outfit. She told me a day before this photo was taken, that there was a trick-or-treating event in the mall, and her friend invited her to go. Thankfully I have a thing about saving fabrics, and we just so happened to have some faux fur laying around. Was it an outfit the goddess of the underworld would wear? Who knows, but it worked!_MG_7365 _MG_7409

Anna and friends._MG_7658

Taking Anna trick-or-treating. Also doing our part by cleaning the sidewalks with the train of the dress.ย _MG_7668

My Mother had waited on the corner, as we went to the last house of the night. Walking towards my Mother, she looked pretty creepy. The picture ended up out of focus due to how dark it was, but I like it!)_MG_7682

Our Jack-o-lanterns.22632546906_f09c172530_o

Instagram pictures-doing my makeup. Just eyeshadows and powder!12122434_10207079185473745_6946767352102455540_n

Me and my Mother. We decided that the three of us (my Mom, son, and I) would just be simple skeletons this year.
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Family of skeletons and Hel. =P I hope you all (who celebrate) had a Happy Halloween!