The Warriors Cats website has just released a Warriors cats miniature maker, where you can make a Warrior cat in the style of their new new rubber Warriors miniatures.
So of course I had to make Warriors minis of our cats. Although, I did have to modify some in Photoshop; I couldn’t do Angel’s one eye or get Alfred’s colour exactly right using the mini-maker alone.
Dashiell and Lorelai required much less touching up.
My favourite, though, is Izaak. Somehow, the default pose and eyes just suit him!
We got the cats a remote-controlled rat toy for Christmas. We thought it would be a lot of fun for them.
It…didn’t go quite as planned.
I’m not sure if it was the motor noises or the crazy, self-righting wheels, but they seemed a little intimidated by the thing.
So, Björn got the idea of putting a bit of ham on the back of the rat. Well, that got Alfred’s attention.
And then the ham fell off.
And…then Freddy ate the ham. So much for that idea.
So we stopped the rat to see what they would do when it wasn’t moving.
Dashiell grabbed it and started dragging it off.
He was growling as he pulled it along!
I don’t think any of us saw that coming.
Here’s the video of the whole encounter. I sped it up a little bit, so you may not be able to hear Dash growling.
This morning, Facebook reminded me of Christmas three years ago. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was our last Jul with Logan, and it was also our last Christmas at Björn’s mother’s house.
We took the train to Jönköping Julafton morning. It was fairly chilly, so he wore Jacoby’s old snowflake hoody.
Jake had a snazzy new sweater of his own.
Jake had been to Björn’s mom’s house once before, but this was Logan’s first time.
As I’ve said before, Björn&’s mom always made the perfect traditional Swedish Julbord, and it was marvellous. We had the cold courses (hard-boiled eggs with caviar, pickled herring, and smoked salmon)…
…mustard-crusted ham, Jul cheese and red beet salad…
…prinskorv and meatballs (before cooking, here)…
…and sausage, cabbage rolls and Janssons frestelse, which is basically scalloped potatoes that are julienned instead, with anchovies added. It’s delicious, I promise.
Anyway, I had found this special Jul apple at the grocery store, and brought it to Björn’s mom because I thought she’d like it.
Christmas morning, Logan was sitting on a kitchen table chair, and he looked so cute I had to pose him with the apple. The rest is (Facebook) history.
Even when she was a kitten, Lorelai has been a very skilled shoulder cat. She can jump from the ground to your shoulder in one easy leap and stick the landing, without sticking your shoulder.
Izaak…not so much. But he really wants to be a shoulder cat. And he’s been practicing.
“Aw yeah, I got this.”
This is how I wake up most mornings. Izaak is usually involved, and then it’s either Alfred, Lorelai and/or Dashiell. I tried to take a selfie one morning…but it did not go well. The front camera, even on an iPhone 11 Pro, is really not that great.
So I had Björn take the photos with the back camera.
So, okay, not technically selfies…but credit for intent. And I absolutely adore the way Zak tries to hold my hand.
Isn’t that adorable?
Seven years ago this Christmas, I found Bruce the Spruce, the plush Christmas tree who dances and sings Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree. We didn’t put up all our decorations last year, but we bought a new tree this year, and we brought up about half our decorations from the basement.
Bruce was one of the decorations. I don’t think Lorelai had seen him before.
I don’t think Izaak had seen him before, either.
Given his plushie obsession, Zak was fairly fascinated.
Or frightened. Could be either.
Nah…I’m going with fascinated.
Don’t stick your tongue out at Bruce, Izaak!
The other day I learned that Jana Baldwin Katzalano Singapuras passed away. She was such a force in the Singa world…Katzalano is in so many Singapura pedigrees.
Although Izaak has no Katzalano cats in his pedigree, Logan did, and our friends Stellan and Hans Owe have some Katzalano cats. Although I only knew her through Facebook, she will be missed.
I finally got around to entering the CFA International Top Cat Challenge finale. After the results of the last show, I was a bit hesitant, but ah, what the hell?
So I entered Izaak,
and Lorelai in the Championship class,
and Dashiell in the Premiership class, using the regular photos.
The entry fees were $10 each, with the fourth entry being free. So, I entered Angel in the Household Pet class.
But the main reason I entered this show was for the “Haute Cat-ture” fun class. Cats…posing in costumes? Um, yes please! I entered Jacoby in four different outfits: His Red Sox uniform…
…His Don Draper suit…
…His super posey snow photoshoot wearing his knit cap and his boots…
…and of course, Jake’s fabulous Thanksgiving outfit! Wish me luck!
On Thanksgiving, the current president held a bizarre press conference sitting behind an odd tiny desk. Naturally, #tinydesk trended on Twitter, and the photo launched a thousand memes.
So, of course I had to make one, too.
The other day, I went into the bedroom for something, and I discovered all the boys in a pile on the middle of the bed.
I joked that there was a sausage party going on in our bedroom.
Then Alfred started to…move.
Freddy, I don’t need to see any sausages..!
Completely non-plussed, Freddy carried on with his grooming. I love the expressions on the other two boys’ faces.
Also, can we all just take a moment to admire Freddy’s grabby hands action?
This is one of those ideas that seemed better in my head. I was going to work on my Dashiell as Hamilton piece, but the meme of Rudy Giuliani looking like villian Simon Bar Sinister from the old Underdog cartoons…and I had an idea.
I thought I’d try to draw Izaak as Simon, adding the whatever it was that was dripping down the side of Giuliani’s head last week…but meh. Not sure I like how it turned out. I think I need to go back to the late 1700’s.
Hipstamatic jusr released a new a new Hipstapak with a new film and lens. I thought I would try them out on the “NOT brothers from another mother,” Alfred and Izaak.
It’s not a terribly exciting combination, to be honest.
But seeing Freddy with Zak reminds me of Freddy and Logan. And I wonder: what would they be like together now?
Today Björn posted a memory from this day last year, with the comment, “It’s a year since the last cat show we attended, and when we could travel like so many times before. How things can change in a year…”
This was the train to the ferry to a Turku, Finland, where Izaak and Lorelai earned their International Champion titles. We haven’t been to a show since then. A whole year without a cat show…hard to believe. And I haven’t been anywhere at all since July! Because of my asthma I stay in as much as possible, especially since the health officials in Sweden are still saying masks don’t help against the coronavirus…especially on public transportation.
“We don’t see that we are at a point where we might recommend general use of face masks on public transport,” Karin Tegmark Wisell, head of the Public Health Agency in Stockholm, told reporters on Thursday. “Face masks shouldn’t be used as an excuse not to keep a distance.” That’s a direct quote. Yeeeeaaahhhh…I’m not going anywhere by train for a while.
I submitted some of the professional photos we had taken at DjurMagazinet to the Facebook group This Cat is PHOTOSHOPPED. I thought they’d have a bit of fun with them, and I was right. I made the one at the top of this post…and here are the rest.
Miguel thought Dashiell belonged on a record album.
Another person said Dash looked “toasty,” and Laurel made him into a marshmallow.
Ashley thought Dash’s tail looked like a knife.
The photo of Lorelai standing up was rather a hit, too. Beatrice thought she looked like one of the mice from Coraline.
Renee turned Rory into a kangaroo.
Tom put Dash and Rory into a scene with Godzilla.
LaLa had Rory playing piano with Tom Jones.
Lita put everyone into a dinosaur scene, and turned Dash into a boss.
Lala turned Alfred, Izaak, Dash and Rory into emperors and an empress.
Beau thought Zak looked like a gargoyle.
And this one is my absolute favourite…but I can’t find who made it. Zak on Ron Swanson’s desk! I love it.
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Back in July, I found this awesome Etsy seller in Ukraine called Granny Lu who makes custom plushies based on your art.
Of course, I could NOT resist. I sent her these two drawings; Izaak as Baby Yoda and Toothless the dragon.
Well, they arrived on Friday…and they. Are. AWESOME!
Even Zak approves of them.
The detail is amazing. Just based on my drawing…she captured every detail.
I mean, look at the prosthetic tail attachment!
Zak likes it, too.
Zak’s name is also embroidered on one wing.
The Baby Yoda Zak is just as perfect.
He’s got his little bowl of bone broth.
I love his tail.
She assumed his robe has a hood, so she included one…that actually works!
And underneath the hood, Zak’s name. In a colour matching his fur. I love it.
Izaak and his alter-egos. The next great artwork I come up with…I am definitely going back to her! They were a bit expensive…but oh, so worth it.
Okay, so the new laptop arrived on Friday. I spent the rest of the day and part of yesterday transferring data from the old MacBook Pro to the new one.
Problem is, I had to upgrade the system. I don’t have a choice; there’s a Magic Keyboard that I don’t think will work with the older software. However, I must say, the thing is wicked cool. The functions you have change depending on which application you’re using. In Facebook, you get predictive text like on the iPhone. Listening to music on iTunes, you have the play, pause and skip functions. And in photo apps, you get controls for whatever you’re doing.
Also, no need for passwords; there’s a Touch ID button so you can log into everything with your index finger.
However…I am absolutely bereft without Photoshop. I did everything I could find to work around it…to no avail. I have been using Photoshop since…1997, I think. I can do everything so reflexively…Why, Adobe, why?!
Well, I absolutely do NOT want to pay $20.99 a month for a subscription. So I’ve been investigating other apps that have very high ratings. I’ve downloaded a couple of trial apps. The first one I tried was Acorn. It is highly rated, especially for Macs, and it’s only $29.99. It’s pretty nice…but I couldn’t figure out how to do simple tone, colour and contrast corrections (the things that are so easy to do in Photoshop). I’ll go back later and play with it. The other one I am trying is Affinity Photo, which is a LOT easier to figure out. It’s much more similar to Photoshop, and it can open .psd files. I can also import all my special brushes into both Acorn and Affinity, which is awesome. It’s $49.99…but it seems worth it (and, okay, it’s a lot less expensive than Photoshop was).
As a bonus, in learning about these two apps (and another one, Affinity Designer, which looks interesting), I discovered I can also import my brushes into Procreate. That means no more having to finish drawings in Photoshop…I may just be able to do everything on the iPad now.
Still, I really want Photoshop back. I have a lot of work and research to do in the next ten days.
The Daily Abyssinian...and Singapura 