Spot's New Collar and Third Cross Stitch

Little Spot

Is not so little anymore.  In fact he grew to big for his collar.   I kept finding his grey break away collar around the house and when I went to put it back on him I realized it was a bit tight on his neck, so he was rubbing against thing's to get it off.  (Of course we only use break away collars on our cat's for safety.)  All our cat's are strictly indoor only, but Spot is the only one of the four to show any curiosity about the outside world.   He has gone out the door a few times and of course we always bring him back immediately, but I still feel he must wear a collar in case he escapes.  

15 years ago our now 16 year old cat Baby opened a screen in our Brooklyn basement apartment and was missing a week.  We papered Bay Ridge in fliers and miraculously found her but the experience has made me a maniac about preventing cat escapes.  (Interestingly it has also made Baby terrified of the outside world and she never even goes near the door.)   I never open windows, even with screen's, and I'm very careful about the door.  If a delivery person is coming the cat's get locked in a room.   I'm constantly checking on the cats, particularly, Spot, to make sure they are inside.  So the second I realized Spot's collar wasn't working I knew he needed another one.

Luckily I found a cute larger collar in the adorable etsy shop Furocious Kitty  and bonus!  It's a Star Trek collar, Spot is named after Commander Data's cat on Star Trek The Next Generation:

so this collar is perfect.   Spot and I both love this collar.  He has been wearing it three week's and hasn't tried to get it off yet.  

I love how the retro Star Trek fabric look's against his white fur and the live long and prosper tag is too cute.

I really recommend Furocious Kitty if you are in the market for a cat collar.  They have ton's of collar's with adorable charms in lot's of different themes Holidays, animals, food, etc.  I can already see myself purchasing some Holiday collars.  It's also nice that the shop caters exclusively to cats.  I think that's partly why the collar fits so well.   The collars are very reasonably prices, between $10 and $12, Spot's collar was $10 and the seller was very nice about answering my questions.  

In other news I finished my third geeky cross stitch.  This one is Fry and Leela from Futurama and I'm really happy with how it came out.   

I'm working on Twin Peak's themed cross stitch next.  

Spot's Star Trek Cross Stitch

From what I've seen on the web most vintage ladies, and even dog moms, are incredibly crafty.  Not me, I've failed at knitting and crocheting and can't even sew on a button, but I think I've finally found the craft for me.  Something so simple and basic that a six year can do it well, which means I can do it ok:

Cross stitch.

  I decided to give it a try whenI saw that there where lots of geeky sci-fi and fantasy patterns available on Etsy.  I started with a really simple Star Trek The Next Generation inspired pattern from the etsy shop  Quote Stitching.    This pattern was perfect because it referenced my beloved Spot, who I named after the cat belonging to the Android Science Officer Data on Star Trek The Next Generation.

In one of my favorite Data/Spot moments Data explains to one of his friend that Spot is a feline and not a canine and thus does not respond to verbal commands.  

(This might not be true of all felines, but it seems to be true of mine.)

It took me about 2 days of stitching in the evenings while watching TV to finish my project and I'm pleased with my results.

I bought the threads and supplies at  Everything Cross Stitch which I found very reasonably priced with a huge selection and cheap shipping.

I tried to take Spot's picture next to the finished cross stitch but you know he doesn't respond to verbal commands.  So here is a picture of him playing on his cat tree instead.

I'm really happy to have found a craft simple enough for me to do while I watch TV.  I've started my next one, A Super Natural inspired pattern.

Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair

Today marks the 47th anniversary of Woodstock:

Despite a brief flirtation with grungy hippie style when I was in high school and college in the 90s, I've never been much for hippie fashions (I prefer the more polished looks of the early 60s), but since childhood I have had a great fondness for one hippie accessory, the flower crown:

Now to be fair, the flower crown made its appearance long before the 1960s.  There are plenty of images of gorgeous Edwardian ladies in flower crowns

and 1920s flappers sported them too:

  

But the look achieved its full glory in the late '60s, and floral band headgear will forever be associated with the optimistic hippies.

And it is a beautiful look, one that takes a little big of courage to wear, but once you take the plunge you'll see its fun and fabulous.  I now feel a bit naked with out a flower or a hat on my head.  

In honor of the 47th anniversary of 3 Days of Peace, Love, and Music here is my take on the flower child look.

 The dress is from Bernie Dexter.      It's the Paris Dress in My Deer print and I got it through the face book group: The Bernie Dexter Collective.  This is a group of Bernie fanatics like myself, many of whom re-sell dresses they have tired of or which didn't fit properly, so I managed to get this dress for a great price.  

Sometimes a comapnies designs just suit you, and that is how I feel about Bernie Dexter, she clearly shares my love of novelty prints and all of her dresses seem to fit me well.  I'm quite short, five feet, and they are never too long on me.  I wear a large in Bernie and so far I've tried the Kelly, Paris and Veronique style dresses and all have fit me well.  

This dress is in the Paris cut, and initially I was a little nervous that I would find the spaghetti straps and neckline too revealing, but I really like it.  It's cut high enough that it doesn't show underarm chub and it stays up well.  It reminds me of some of the spaghetti strap styles Marilyn wore.

I like the back too, low but not shockingly so.

This outfit makes me feel  a bit child like, like a fairy princess, in the best way possible.  No doubt it is the flower crown which I got about two years ago from Chatter Blossom and which is a copy of the 1920s crown worn by Louise Brooks.  I couldn't find any woodland animals to commune with so I settled for Fry and Spot.

Peace!


Outfit Details:

My Deer Dress-Bernie Dexter (I got mine for a very discounted price from the facebook group, Bernie Dexter collective)
Vintage Flower Crown-Chatter Blossom
Bakelite-Thrifed
1960s Novelty Purse-
1940s Style Canvas Sandals-Remix Vintage Shoes

Happy Gotcha Day Spot!

Last year on father's day we got a little surprise.

My husband, the world's best cat and dog father, found a little white kitten up a tree in our yard.  After a few days walking around the neighborhood knocking on doors and calling the local shelters and vets offices with no results we decided to keep him.   

Thus Spot, named after Lt. Comander Data's cat on Star Trek the next generation, became our 4th cat.   (It's good he was named after Data's spot and not the spots on his head because those faded to white over time.)

Of course all our pets are equally special but I think Spot has the best "gotcha" story, after all he found us!   I'm so glad he did because Spot is a wonderful cat.  He's very comfortable hanging out with our dogs, as the video below demonstrates:

and he even gets on OK with our older, crankier cats, Baby, Scooter and Ernie who are 15, 14, and 12.  They all spend alot of time on the dining room table, which is not a table for eating on but rather an area where we keep cat toys and food and water so the felines have a dog free space.  

Scooter isn't in this picture so here he is below:

  (To be entirely truthful there are occasional cat spats but then that has always been the case)

We celebrated Spot's one year anniversary with us with a tuna fish cake:

Spot had a typical finicky feline reaction to the cake, he could have cared less!  Despite the fact that in the past he has seemed to like Tuna.  Luckily his older brother Scooter seemed to like it.

For his gift Spot got a Catit wellness grooming center, we have a lot of catit toys and I really like them, 

I think his favorite part was the box it came in:

  Ernie however seems to love the grooming center:

At least Spot enjoyed his other toy, his catnip Little Red Riding Hood 

Happy Gotcha day Spot!

Spot's Stew

While opening our mixed bag of Halo pets cat food.  I found our new favorite flavor Spot's pate.   All the cats liked it, especially Spot. After all it's named for him 

He seemed to enjoy it as much as feline supplement 221, his namesakes favorite food (Star Trek reference explained below) 

Cookies with a Cat

I made the NY times recipe for perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies on Sunday and I  had a feline helper in Spot.  Don't worry I kept cat hair out of the dough.

Wordless Wednesday-Checking Out the Neighbors

Cat Tree

It's been a week and we've officially decided that Spot is staying with us, either he was a house cat someone grew tired off and tossed out or he was born a stray.   Either way he has a good home now! Since we have dogs and cats we've always had elevated surfaces for the cats to get away from the dogs.   Our dining room table isn't for dining, it's for cat toys.  Here you can see Ernie and Spot hanging out.

But with the addition of Spot I felt we could use a new cat tree.  I found ours on Amazon Prime for 80 dollars it's by Go Pet.  The price has since gone up to 100.  It was fun putting it together and I took a TON of pictures so prepare for photo over load.  

I thought it was pretty cute watching the dogs snoopervise.  It took about an hour or a little less to assemble.  That's Baby cat on the table.   

I sprayed it with kong naturals cat nip spray

So far Spot and Scooter, the black cat, like the tree a lot.  Ernie has tried the lower levels, but I missed
 the photo op. Ernie has only 3 legs so that makes cat trees harder for him.  Baby hasn't touched the tree yet. 

Evidently Fry feels it can be used by pugs too 

So right now we have 5 dogs and 4 cats be we couldn't be happier.  Oh and if anyone is wondering about Spot's name it's not just because of his grey spots there is a Star Trek connection too.  Spot is the name Data's cat on the Star Trek The Next Generation. 

In one of my favorite scenes Data writes the best cat poem ever for Spot. 

PS: Spot is getting neutered today so good vibes are appreciated.