When I was taking the photos for last week’s Hipstamatic Miniature Monday, I had a little help.
Well…perhaps the assistance was somewhat driven by jealousy..?
But I was taking photos of mini-Jacoby…
…real Jacoby decided he needed to be involved.
“Involved” as only an Abyssinian can be.
Jake had to distract the attention – and my camera – away from his Mini-Me and onto himself.
Jake, you do realise you’re competing with an inanimate object, right?
When Björn was here, we had all-you-can-eat Taco Tuesday at Tavitas in South Station.
While we were there, the “Corona Girls” were going around handing out free bottles of beer, all dressed up in an adorable Corona serape.
Well…of course you know what we had to do with that, right?
The little serape was just about the right size for Mini-Jacoby!
So, okay, maybe Cinco de Mayo was a few days ago, but apparently Mini-Jake is still celebrating.
Today Björn and I were married in Manchester, NH!
We got a lovely room at the Manchester Radisson which included Champagne along with a cheese plate and chocolate-covered strawberries.
We weren’t able to bring the real Jacoby along (he’ll come to the wedding we have in Sweden), but mini-Jake crashed our little honeymoon.
He tried to act like he was helping us open the Champagne.
And he swore he wasn’t interested in the strawberries or the cheese…
…He just thought the decorative orchids made lovely hats.
He wanted to check out our rings, but of course they weren’t in the box anymore.
They were on our fingers!
My friend Mary sent me a “lucky sixpence” for my shoe.
It’s a 1965 sixpence – the same age as Björn and me!
Our friends Molly, Kelli, Meg, Barb and Donna were all able to to come to Manchester to help us celebrate. It was a simple, yet moving, ceremony at City Hall…but it was wonderful! Thank you all!
On New Year’s Eve, Björn and I hosted a dinner party with our friends Karin, Roger and Martin.
Mini-Jacoby, as you saw last week, was also there.
He wasn’t exactly invited…he came for the venison and stayed for the booze.
We had a glorious side of venison for dinner.
Our friend Martin hunts, and he brought the meat as his contribution to the collaborative meal.
Not only that…
…he cooked it for us, too! And it was wonderful.
Mini-Jake was fascinated by all the food, as you can see.
It was a real, grown-up dinner party, too. Everyone dressed up and everything. It was one of the best New Years Eve parties I’ve ever been to.
And, finally, after so many years of calling each other on New Year’s Eve – usually at the wrong time, because we’d messed up the time difference – Björn and I were finally in the same room at midnight! And we finally got our New Year’s kiss.
While going through my photos from the New Year’s party Björn and I threw, I discovered these photos of mini-Jacoby and the bottle of Canadian Crown I’d brought Björn for Christmas.
I did not take these photos! I’m not sure how they got on my camera.
That was a brand-new bottle, though, when I brought it from Boston…now look at it!
Björn and I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at his parent’s house in Jönköping.
Of course, Mini Jacoby came along.
The Christmas tree was absolutely lovely.
Björn’s mother made the paper heart decorations in the 1960’s. They’re wonderful.
She also had a little display of Dalahastar (Dala Horses) around a bowl.
Mini-Jake had to join them, of course.
He had to also ride the largest one, a tech geek one with glasses from IKEA. That kind of got him kicked out of the Dala Horse party.
So he went to play with the Jultomten instead.
One thing we did while we were there, Björn and I, was build a puzzle map of Sweden that his mom had in the living room.
It was fun and quite educational.
Mini-Jake is studying the location of Jönköping on the puzzle map.
But then (just like the real Jake) he got hungry.
So he went into the kitchen to look for a snack.
He finally found the Julost, the Christmas cheese ball. And no, he didn’t eat it all!
Björn’s mother has a lot of awesome little cat sculptures scattered around her house. These lovely glass cats are typical Swedish glasswork.
She also has this adorable little pottery cat from Kalmar, a city in southeastern Sweden known since the Middle Ages. Kalmar Castle was one of the most important in Sweden. Kvarnholmen (“Mill Island”) is the location for the city center. The eastern part of Kvarnholmen is called “Kattrumpan” (“Cat’s Butt”) for unknown reasons.
So, this little cat from Kattrumpan has a little heart on her butt. How cute is that? Evidently, Mini-Jake thinks it’s pretty adorable, too.
My Thanksgiving pheasant turned out so well…and was so small…that I decided to cook an actual turkey on Thanksgiving Saturday.
I mean, pheasants are tasty and all, but as it happens…I really missed the leftovers (Note to self re: living in Sweden).
While I was able to keep the real Jacoby away from the turkey, I wasn’t so fortunate when it came to MiniJake.
He was all over my turkey! I’m pretty sure he drooled on it, too (ewwwww)!
He was ready to eat any part of the turkey…
…even the wings!
But of course, his most favoured part was…
…the great white expanse of the breast meat!
Nom nom nom…
A regular feature at almost every New England cat show is Arubacat‘s vendor’s booth. Arty is a great guy, and I’ve come to rely on him for so many things…I end up needing to buy something he has at every show.
Of course, he was at the NEMO show. So mini-Jacoby and I went to check out the goods.
These little barrel scratchers are awesome. Tessie won one at the Seacoast show in 2007 when she was Best Household Pet and it still gets daily use.
Arty has cat trees in all shapes, sizes and colours…including patterns!
But he has more than just cat trees. I get my chamois and bay rum to groom Jake from him, as well as various other grooming supplies. He also has treats, toys and other accessories. And it’s amazing…he shleps all this stuff all over New England nearly every weekend.
I don’t know what we’d do without Arty. But I’m glad we have him. Thanks, Arty!
One wonderful thing that happened at the NEMO show was Meg gave me an old Sturdi carrier of hers because the one I’d brought Jacoby to the show in was…er…destroyed in action, shall we say.
I’d been thinking of getting one of these, so it was a welcome gift. Thank you, Meg! Both Jake and mini-Jake really like it.
And best of all…this carrier is completely machine-washable if necessary!
Hey, guys…don’t look at me like that!
It’s always fun to go to a cat show…but finally, on Sunday, it’s time to go home.
Jacoby and mini-Jake waited in the carrier while I packed up all the cage accoutrements.
I really wonder what Jake thinks of his Brazilian mini-me?
Yeah, come on guys. Let’s go home.
As I mentioned last week, my friend Donna was selling her jewelry, cat toys and other goodies at the NEMO show
After seeing Jacoby with that amazing catnip log, the miniature Jake had to check it out.
He got a bit distracted with the mylar and feather wand toys…
Oooooooh, sparkly!
Finally, mini Jake discovered…the mother lode!
He took a moment to pose nicely with the sign…
…and then he kind of lost it.
Yep, that’s some mighty fine catnip right there. I guess mini Jake won’t need to worry about getting glaucoma.
I brought the Jake ball-jointed doll made by Ana Vonborowsky to the NEMO show. You saw him with judge Carla Bizzell last week.
He also hung out in Jacoby’s benching cage when Jake was up in a ring so the spectators wouldn’t have to look at an empty cat bed.
The rest of the time, he was on top of the cage with Findus, a little kitty from Sweden.
But, best of all, he got to spend some quality time with the illustrious Jake from State Farm!
You may recall that, back in 2012 when CFA judge Carla Bizzell saw Jacoby for the first time at the Seacoast Show in May 2012. She was so impressed by his relaxed nature on the judge’s table, she called him a “posable action figure.
Well, Carla was judging at the NEMO show this past weekend, and I had to show her the Jacoby ball-jointed doll Ana VonBorowsky made for me.
She was very impressed that my action figure had his own action figure!
The Saturday Photohunt post a couple of weeks ago about “Toes” made me think about how amazingly detailed the toes are on the two Jacoby ball-jointed dolls.
These are the toes on the larger, cold porcelain Jake made my Ana VonBorowsky.
And these are the tiny toes of the Russian Jake made by Elleo.
Today is a holiday for me, so I’m a little brain dead. I’m not sure why I got two days off for Independence Day, but believe me, I’m not complaining!
Here’s Ana VonBorowsky’s mini-Jacoby wearing his red hoodie.
If you saw Summer’s blog post last week, you saw her photos at the Hauspanther Cat Style Lounge.
Well, since I wasn’t able to bring Jacoby with me, I had to visit the Hauspanther lounge with Jake’s mini-me.
But I think he enjoyed it at least as much as the real Jake would have.
The first stop were the Pet Tree Houses with leaves.
I absolutely love these trees. I wish I could fit one in my apartment. Especially with the autumn foliage. Besides looking pretty, they also are very well built.
Next we played with the Jackson Galaxy Cat Crawl.
And then we checked out the Jackson Galaxy Comfy Cocoon.
CatastrophiCreations, an Etsy store, makes some awesome cat climbers, like this amazing Indiana Jones rope bridge…
…and this system of wall furniture that can be adapted and customised to your cats and your walls.
Next we checked out the ökocat litter display…but the resident flat cat didn’t seem to approve. I’m just glad that Rufus wasn’t there. That cat creeps me out (even if he does look a bit like an Aby).
This Vesper Tower cubby had such a fluffy lining!
The Vesper V-Cube is really elegant too.
I really loved My Katio which can hold a litter box or just be a little mini-porch for kitties. I just don’t think my building would allow them since we have central air conditioning rather than window-mounted AC.
I can’t for the life of me remember who made this cat tree. I can’t find it on Hauspanther’s style guide. It was awesome, though.
I really liked the Cattino cat-shaped, all-in-one cat centre. It has a bed and a scratcher in one compact, cat-shaped package!
The PurrfecTower trees were amazing. I could totally see one of these in my apartment.
Finally we checked out the CatIt Wellness Center
Mini-Jake seemed to really enjoy it. I may need to get one for big Jake!
When we were done playing with all the toys, we hung out at the Hauspanther craft table.
There were little cardboard cat toys scattered everywhere.
We even got to meet the lovely and amazing Kate Benjamin! I was flattered that she had heard of me!
Finally, just for fun, here’s me with mini-Jake. My dress is from Modcloth and I just adore it.
But you can see I really missed having Jake with me. He would have loved all this.
Today on a very special edition of The Daily Abyssinian…My custom, hand-made, cold porcelain ball-jointed Jacoby doll, which she has been working on since February 2014, arrived on Friday!
It was funny, because I had just tracked the package and the website didn’t show any shipment progress since the 12th.
The Jake doll was very well packaged for his trip from Brazil to Boston.
In fact, Ana even made a video about how she packaged him.
In amongst the packing peanuts and bubble plastic, there was a little bag of candies and tea. Aww!
The doll himself was in another box, well-wrapped in more bubble plastic.
Which, of course, the real Jacoby was more than happy to assist me with.
“Come on, Mom! Open it!
Inside the bubble plastic cocoon, there was a little plastic box wrapped in brown paper and tied with string.
Naturally, once I untied it, I had to put the string on Jake.
Then it was time to open the box.
Ana made him quite the little wardrobe, too.
She made a video showing them off and explaining how she designed and made his little outfits.
Even the clothing was packaged with care. The little jackets were wrapped around little styrofoam balls.
Jake really liked those little balls. There were two of them and they’re still rolling around the apartment.
Although, the starch peanuts were fun, too.
The wardrobe consists of jackets, shirts, collars, scarves and even a little hoodie.
There was also this sweet little souvenir magnet. I was loving every second of this grand unveiling!
With all of her dolls, Ana sends a satin storage bag for the dolls.
Also included in the box were the patterns to make more little outfits…
…instructions on how to care for the doll, and also restring it if need be…
…And a certificate of authenticity.
Finally, I got to the moment of truth – it was time to unwrap the actual doll! All the while I was chatting with Ana via Messenger.
That was fun for both of us!
It was kind of like he was being born.
And at last he was out! Isn’t he adorable? I think his eyes look like the Geico gecko‘s eyes.
Ana also made mini-Jake a little green braided collar and a set of miniature tags that just match his real ones.
They really do look just like the real tags! She said she made them from plastic soda bottles with nail polish and foil tape.
Jake was quite impressed with his little effigy.
“See? He looks just like me!”
After all the excitement was over, Jake and his mini-me went to go sit in the wrapping paper.
Thank you so much, Ana! I love him! And I think Jake likes him, too. You can see more photos of mini-Jake in Ana’s DeviantArt page.
“Iz mah cuzin from Brazil!”
The Daily Abyssinian...and Singapura 