Studio reveal with The Altered Page

What studio would be complete without a bed for a furry friend. Shame my furry friend would not oblige today! he is a good boy and sleeps in it however, his predecessor was more inclined to want to be right where I was working!
So enjoyed my 2 days with Seth last month. Another thing ticked off my bucket list!

Visit the rest of the studios here

RIP my beautiful Babies

My heart is still heavy. It's 3 weeks since i learnt my babies were to die. Once they got back to the Shelter, 3 of them showed symptoms of ringworm again, so the shelter made the decision to kill them all. I cant begin to tell you the pain it has caused me, the fact that i wasnt given the option to adopt any of them, the fact that they took a further 3 days to let me know that they had all died. i am disgusted by the excuse given, the fact that they tried to sugar coat it using the term "euthanaese". To them they were just numbers, but to me they all had names and personalities - The Fab 4 who I had for 3 months - Lucy the head strong adventurer, Molly the needy one who cried for attention, Elsa the one with the pointy little face who was cuddly too , Felix the most beautiful of them all who had a gorgeous personality and loved to play with the babies and suckle on the sheepskin rug, then there were the babies Dot named as she was such a tiny Dot when she came to me, such a sweet little girl who growled when she had food she loved or a toy she loved and would carry the toy around in her mouth (which Felix would do as well), and her sister Rosie, who had a funny little face with ET ears who loved her bed and was always up for a scrap!

but if the shelter think it is over then they have another think coming. I am hoping to show them that there are better ways to handle ringworm. I feel i owe my babies that much and I don't want them to have died in vain.....

April Tag

At least I got this tag made in April! You can see Tim's  here 

 I start my new job soon! So ends 11 months of bumming around!

New Kittens

Well have had these girls a couple of weeks now. They were so TINY when I got them. The baby has gone from 550grams to 690grams. Can you believe that a family had them for 2 weeks and then decided that they didn't want them anymore!

. They are very cute. The Fab 4 are back as one got sick and if I hadn't taken them back . well you can guess what would have happened!

Tim's March Tag

Finally got March's tag done!

Socialising Kittens

There is so much pleasure to be had in turning hissy frightened kittens into purry confident kittens. Also watching them flourish with a little love and care. You dont have to give a lot to reap this reward. There is also the fact that by fostering these sweet little things means that you are saving their lives and giving them a great start to finding their new home. My first foster was Miss Bella. I scoured the internet for hep after she was defecating inappropriately! Poor little girl, looking back now, I feel it shows the trauma she was feeling She was a stray, separated from her mother and siblings and sadly almost didn't make the cut at the shelter. Such a beautiful girl and now has a home of her own. Next were the Fab 4. who came to the shelter with their Mum and 2 other siblings. When I met the fab 4 they were all huddled together. So this is what I have learnt so far!
Limit them to one room. Give the foster a good 24 hours before starting any socialisation (other than stroking it, if you are able to without force). Make sure they have the basic necessities, warmth, plenty of food and water, clean litter trays (1 per 2 kittens), warm comfy bedding - preferably something partially covered in (I used a box on its side at first) as this seems to make them feel more secure. Just sit in with them and talk gently, so they get used to you and eventually realise you are no threat. It took Bella less than a day. And the fab 4 about 3 or 4 days to show trust. Some will have a "light  bulb moment, where 1 minute they will be hissy and then suddenly they realise that stroking and chin rubs really are the bomb!
With the fab 4 I noticed after a couple of days that they didn't feel the need to all sleep together. This was the first sign they they were feeling safe. You will also notice after a few days that they dont run and hide when you enter the room.
The shelter prefers me to only give them the food they provide plus water. In the beginning I like to add cooked chicken to their diet which I feed by hand, and a little yoghurt, again fed by hand and kitten milk watered down. I find these get them used to me quicker and gets them eating. Bella was always a good eater and slept a lot, so her weight went on quickly. The fab 4 werent such great eaters at the start. But once you get their tummies used to food, they soon find their appetite. The baby of the litter took about a week to start playing. She used to sit on the sidelines and watch the other 3 rough and tumble. Now she is one of the ones climbing my legs and I have to be careful as she will just launch herself at me from the vanity and land on my back! Such a change in her.
It's a good idea to have scales so you can weight the babies and make sure they are putting on weight. I have had the fab 4  for 2 .5 weeks now and the baby has gone from 600+grams to 870grams and one of the bigger kittens from 840  grams to over 1100. Once they get to about a kilo they should start getting a layer of fat so that you don't just feel fur and bones!

Meet the new Fosters - The Fab 4

Although there are only 3 pictured, there are actually 4 and there are actually 6, bit 2 don't need socialising so they just have me the four......

Good Bye to Bella

It was hard to give Miss Bella back. She swnt from being a skinny hissy trembling stray to a sleek confident cuddly girl.  She quickly learnt my bed was a comfy place to hang out. The first week she seemed to mostly eat and sleep. Her tummy was a bit upset and took a few days to settle down. She wasn't very playful but that all changed about the 7 day mark.  During the first week she was recovering from her op and also putting on some much needed weight. You could feel every bone in her body and she was light as a feather when you picked her up. She was an eating machine though so with all the food and sleep she quickly put on some weight. She is a very sweet cuddly girl and I hope she finds a fabulous new home.

Meet my first foster Miss Bella!

She is such a sweetie.  Will be hard to give back!

Tim's Tag for Feb!

Can't say I liked this one much, but Tim had been busy leading up to and at CHA and then took off to Germany which I guess didn't leave him much time or energy for tags!

Mine is pretty simple, but I like it's simplicity and I LOVE the SU Love die!

Tim's Tags 2014

Well I wonder how many I will make!

Collab Book 2013

Well it's done and dusted for another year. A lot of time has gone into the contents and the covers. Thanks to Gail Smith and Deb Larcombe for helping me put the 13 books together!  There is one book left over (as someone pulled out last minute).  So leave a comment on this blog if you are interested in purchasing it (all money to go to charity). The minimum price is $AU15.00 as this is the cost to the participants for the binding costs. I will donate this cost to the charity.  There are 11 beautiful pages bound into a Tim Holtz cover and decorated with lots of buttons and ice resin elements.

Gulliver

Gulliver continues to settle in and about a month ago I felt like he had really accepted me as his Mumma. A lot more Gulliver cuddles (not like Jasmine cuddles) and he acknowledges me entering the room. Such a cute boy.  His favourite food is yogurt and I find it is easier to serve him some first if I want any peace. The other night I thought he had a full tummy, having polished off the rest of his breakfast and his dinner. But oh no while I was eating my yogurt

he sat at attention watching every mouthful. He is obsessed with it!

Sydney

On the way home I spent a few days in Sydney.  No trip to Sydney is complete without a visit to the Rocks Button Shop and I found another fabulous shop in Newtown! I also went whale watching and we followed 2 young whales for about an hour. Caught up with a couple of friends too!

Donna Downey Workshops

I attended four Donna Downey Workshops in NSW earlier this month.  Donna is a great giving teacher and such a lovely warm character.  LOVE her to bits.  I am trying to get her to Melbourne next year so if you are interested please join my facebook group!

Well it's been about 9 weeks since I lost Jas, and to be honest it still doesnt seem real when I really think about it. I know I kissed her goodbye, and I have buried her ashes and she even has a headstone, but I still cant really comprehend that she is never coming back.

I am very lucky to have this beautiful boy "Gulliver" aka "The BIG Guy" come into my life. I don't know how I could have got through the last 2 months without him. He found himself homeless after a marriage breakdown. They had to downsize their pets and poor old Gulliver was the one they had to part with. I felt so sorry for his owner when I came to pick him up  and she had to say goodbye. I did say she could come and visit, but maybe that would be too hard as I haven't heard from her. The poor boy cried for the first 15 minutes or so. It was a long drive home - 3 hours - so I talked to him a lot so he would get used to the sound of my voice and hopefully feel that I was not a threat. He has settled in well, and seems quite happy! He cant climb fences which is good!
I do love him and each week I sneak in more cuddles!

Jasmine 6-Oct-1993 - 11-Feb-2013

Last night I lost my best friend in the world.

 

She has been the most consistent relationship in my whole life, I have lived with her longer than any one person – even my Mum. She has always been such a character I would talk to her and she would answer back. She would cuddle me like a small child, nestling under my chin, and the harder I squeezed her the louder she would purr.

She was always a very sweet natured and cuddly cat. Right up to the end she would be sitting beside me occasionally pawing at me for pats and remained to the end very headstrong and very determined if she wanted to do something or be somewhere! We had a very close relationship.

For a while now she has had a cancerous tumour growing in her nose. It became apparent a few weeks ago and her symptoms for the last 6-8 months now make some sense.

So yesterday I had to make THAT decision, the one I NEVER wanted to have to make - the decision to let her go. So many people told me “you’ll know when”. Well I didn’t really know when but I suspected she was in pain and I could not let that go on.

This was –so– not the way I wanted us to part - not that I would ever be ready to say goodbye. I would have another 19 years gladly.

I feel so empty inside, I feel like I have lost a limb.

It was such a privilege to have you in my life Miss J, I love you to the moon and back sweet girl and you will live on in my heart forever, XXX

Christmas

It's been a while......

I had a lovely time in NZ over Christmas.  The weather was FAB so I thought I would share a few photos from my sister's garden!