March 2018

LISBETH’S EASTER ART

Caturday Art

This is not the original art Lisbeth and I created for today. Though we used the same photo, which we both liked, the colors of our original creation were quite dark. After we put it in our post, both of us realized tomorrow is Easter and we should create something bright and springy. The finished product is definitely vibrant and also looks as if some kitty got carried away with the Easter egg dye. Nonetheless, we like it. As always, Lisbeth hopes her beau, Charles, will as well.

 

Lisbeth's Easter Art

 

I always like to tell you how I created our art, but I kept bouncing around from app to app this week, so I can only give you the barest of details. We started in Painnt with the Starry Painting effect. I did manipulate that quite a lot with the various settings available. Next I add the Beauty art filter from LunaPic and the metallic texture and floral border from piZap. By that time the colors had faded quite a bit, so I took the the photo into Picassa and bumped up the saturation, for a more vibrant effect, and then added the blue borders. The last step was to add the flower cut-outs in piZap.

The original photo shows Lisbeth enjoying a sunpuddle on one of the last days of winter. In fact, it was one of the few sunny days we had all winter. I absolutely love how the sun was shining through her ears and turned them bright pink. They almost look like bunny ears!

We are joining the Caturday Art blog hop hosted by Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty. To join or view art by your fellow bloggers, click on her badge.

Sunday Selfies Reminder

Tomorrow is not only our Sunday Selfies blog hop but also Easter. I have no idea which of the Kitties Blue will be here. I do know whichever kitty is here, they will take the opportunity to Easterize their selfie. Though not necessary, I hope you will do the same. It will make for a very colorful and festive hop.

Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow.

 

SOFT KITTY

Friendly Fill-Ins: Week #99

1. For Easter (or Passover), I usually make Dad Tom an Easter basket with some of his favorite candies or some other little gift.

2. My favorite Easter (or Passover) treat is anything made of dark chocolate. I am not a fan of the popular Peeps.

3. Lately, the song “Soft Kitty” from The Big Bang Theory, is stuck in my head. Misty May is our soft kitty. She has the most luxurious furs. I love running my hand through them.

 

Fill-Ins

 

4. The A-Z Blogging Challenge is fun to see and read on the blogs of others. I’ve never participated as I don’t enjoy the constraints it would put on what I post.

Friendly Fill-Ins is a blog hop hosted by Ellen (15 and Meowing) and Annie (McGuffy’s Reader). The intent is to give bloggers the opportunity to learn more about each other, and in this case, a couple of the Kitties Blue.

Ellen and Annie each compose two incomplete sentences for participants to complete. If you’d like to play along, you can find the blank fill-ins on their blogs each Thursday.

The blog hop takes place at McGuffy’s Reader. To join, click on the badge.

A Few Words from Sawyer

On our Wordless Wednesday post, Sawyer the Crusher, many commenters suggested I should have gotten in the paper bag on which I was laying. Trust me, I did. In fact I totally destroyed it going in and out. The bag beneath me was liberally ripped.

DANDELIONS – THE HARBINGERS OF SPRING

Thoroughly Poetic Thursday

Today’s inspiration photo is a beauty—full of the colors of spring.

 

Tulips in spring.

 

Spring showed up here a couple of weeks ago when the daffodils began to open. It took off almost as quickly as it arrived, leaving us once again very cloudy and cold. We thought the sun had abandoned us for good. To add even more misery, the winter snows finally arrived. It kept covering up those daffodils, but once the snow melted, those hardy little flowers perked right back up again.

Here is our poem, inspired by the last winter weather and this photograph.

 

Dandelions – The Harbingers of Spring

We’ve been doggedly waiting for spring
Hanging out on the catio in inclement
Weather, watching snow falling in March
And burying the daffodils that bloomed early.
After a frigid winter, the late snows; though, pretty,
Were unwelcome. Some think robins
Are the first sign spring has arrived, but they
Never really leave here…just winter in the
Trees unseen. Whatever you think marks the
Beginning of spring is probably different
Than what others think: Is it major league
Baseball’s spring training? Maybe it is prom
Season or even flea season. Whatever
It may be for you, Mom knew for certain
Yesterday that spring had finally made
An appearance. It wasn’t the 75
Degree temperature or the light rain.
It was the bright yellow dandelions dotting
A nearby lawn that announced spring’s arrival.

© Janet Buickerood Blue 03/28/2018

So seeing a robin around here does not mean spring is imminent. Regardless, I am sharing a photo I originally posted in May, 2015.

 

Robins in Spring

 

The photo was taken in our carport. Each year new nests are built or old ones refurbished and a robin or sparrow will move in. This robin has three hungry babies to feed. It will be several weeks before we see any nest activity or hatchlings.

Each week Two Spoiled Cats, challenge us to write a poem inspired by the photo Mom Pam posts the previous Thursday. And each week Angel Sammy writes an exceptional poem, which he transmits to Teddy from the Rainbow Bridge. Even if you don’t write a poem, it is always worth a trip to the Two Spoiled Cats’ blog to read his poem. While there you will find other poems or links to poems in the comment section.

To pop over and see what Sammy wrote, click on his badge.

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday is a blog hop hosted by our pal, Brian. To participate, you only need to tell for what you are thankful, visit Brian’s blog and let him and his fursibs know and then enter your link for the hop. You can do that by clicking on his badge.

We have two thankfuls this week. The first is for dandelions if they really do mean spring is here. The second is for the badge we earned at Two Spoiled Cats. We had the right answer to this week’s Tuesday Teaser. We weren’t the first to guess correctly, but we were right so we got this cool badge.

 

That’s it for today. We hope, wherever you live, spring has arrived and you are enjoying some fragrant window whiffies.

 

GIULIETTA DELIVERS OUR SPARK

Sparks: Week #25

When I was creating art for the Caturday Art blog hop, I produced this design. I did like the final product but decided not to use it. However, it seemed appropriate to use as the basis for today’s Sparks blog hop.

 

Giulietta delivers week #25 of Sparks.

 

This is not a traditional Spark. It doesn’t offer an inspirational or uplifting quote. Regardless, it spoke to me. As most of you reading this have animals in your lives that you dearly love, I thought it would resonate with you as well.

The author of this quote, Ingrid Newark, is an English-born British-American animal rights activist. She is the founder (with Alex Pacheco) and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). PETA is the world’s largest animal rights organization. Newkirk has worked in the animal-protection movement since 1972. In the 1970s, under her leadership, as the District of Columbia’s first female poundmaster, legislation was passed to create the first spay/neuter clinic in Washington, D.C., as well as an adoption program and the public funding of veterinary services. (Information from Wikipedia.)

I am joining Annie at McGufffy’s Reader for her Sparks blog hop. In establishing the hop, she wrote, “I believe we are meant to be lights in this world. If we allow our light to shine, we can see where we are going. It is then that we can begin to truly see each other clearly. Together, we can light up the entire world!” This is what makes Sparks so special and why I look forward to participating each week.

If you’d like to join the hop, click on the Sparks badge.

Sparks badge

 

SUNDAY SELFIES GUEST HOST

Sunday Selfies: Week #189

It’s snowing again! We are not happy. When Mom turned on the weather channel this morning they kept saying the name of our city over-and-over again. The dang storm was headed right for us. As we are all grumping around, Mom and Dad found a guest host for us today. We think you’ll like him. He’s pretty darn cute. (Please don’t tell our friends at the Trout Towne Tabbies that we said this.)

 

Eastern Screech Owl hosts Sunday Selfies.

 

We’re calling this fellow, Screechy. He is a red Eastern Screech Owl. Screechy is an Ambassador for the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center of Roanoke. He has an injured wing and cannot fly. Those tufts on the top of his head are not ears but feathers. His ears are on the side of his head. Unlike humans, his eyes are fixed and he has no peripheral vision without moving his head. He is very small, only seven to nine inches tall.

We hope you enjoyed meeting our guest.

Time to Hop

Now it’s time for you to share your selfie with all of us. If you are new to hopping or just need a refresher course to enter our hop, here are some pointers.

  • The link to add your selfie to the hop is below.
  • You also will find below the code to use if you’d like the hop to appear on your blog.
  • Posting on Sundays is not necessary to join.
  • You do not need to be a cat to enter. All anipals are welcome regardless of species.
  • The hop remains open for entries through Thursday midnight.
  • Please be so kind as to display our badge and/or link to The Cat on My Head.

Thanks for hopping.

Purrs and paw-pats, Kitties Blue

 



GIULIETTA’S SPRINGTIME ART

Caturday Art

Last Sunday Giulietta celebrated her birthday and hosted Sunday Selfies. In an attempt to get a great selfie, she snapped 23 photos of herself. So as not to let 21 additional photos (she posted two last week) go to waste, Giulietta has returned for Caturday Art. And since spring itself has been anything but “springy,” the art is.

I created two versions of the art and am posting both as neither Giulietta nor I could decide which we like best. The photo is the same in both versions but with different frames.

 

Springtime Art #1 with Giulietta

 

Springtime Art #2 with Giulietta

 

I used PhotoFaceFun exclusively to create today’s art. I’m unable to give an exclamation of what I did as the app does not have names on their filters.

Let Giulietta know in the comments which of these is your favorite.

We are entering Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty’s Caturday Art blog hop. If you’d like to create some art, the internet abounds with free photo-editing apps. To share your arty creations and join the blog hop, click on Athena’s badge.

In addition to the art, Giulietta asked to share the beautiful birthday card she received from Pipo, Dalton and Petcretary Ingrid (Meezer’s Mews & Terrieristical Woofs).

 

 

Sunday Selfie Reminder

Another week has flown by. We celebrated the first day of spring with four and one-half inches of snow. Most has melted, but another storm is heading our way today with a mix of rain, sleet and snow predicted. We could get as much as another five inches or more of snow. This makes all of us, both humans and Kitties Blue, very unhappy. Whoever shows up as your host tomorrow could have a major case of stink-eye or helicopter ears. We hope that won’t scare anyone away from joining us. And remember, you do not need to post on Sunday to join the hop.

Looking forward to seeing you.

 

 

NAP, KITTENS & SNOW

Friendly Fill-Ins: Week #98

Once again, I received some assistance with the fill-ins. Not only is Sawyer completing one of the fill-ins, but Mauricio is as well.

1. Sawyer: I am the baby in my family. But then you all know that. Mom will use any opportunity to show photos of me.

 

Sawyer helps with fill-ins.

 

2. Mauricio: I have two sibling(s), Misty May and a brother I have not seen since Mom and Dad adopted Misty May and me. Here we are as kittens (2004) shortly after our adoption.

 

Fill-ins with Misty May and Mau.

 

3. I am looking forward to the BlogPaws Conference in Kansas City, MO, this Spring, as we used to live there.

4. The first sign of Spring this year was snow. Some daffodils, forsythia and our quince bush were blooming when they were covered in snow. Another snowstorm is forecast for Saturday.

 

Snowy fill-ins

 

Friendly Fill-Ins is a blog hop hosted by Ellen (15 and Meowing) and Annie (McGuffy’s Reader). The intent is to give bloggers the opportunity to learn more about each other, and in this case, a couple of the Kitties Blue.

Ellen and Annie each compose two incomplete sentences for participants to complete. If you’d like to play along, you can find the blank fill-ins on their blogs each Thursday.

The blog hop takes place at McGuffy’s Reader. To join, click on the badge.

 

COOPER AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

Thoroughly Poetic Thursday

Cooper Murphy is our poet this week. He wrote a poem about himself and his BFF, Teddy. He interpreted the inspiration photo a bit liberally, but then it’s meant to be just that…inspiration.

Here’s the photo followed by Cooper’s poem.

 

Cat Scout Adventure

 

Cat Scout Adventure

I’m a Cat Scout, and I like to explore
Whether in a cave or at the shore.
But I must be careful and super vigilant,
So I don’t have any type of accident.
In fact it’s always good to have a buddy,
Like my gingersnap pal, Cat Scout Teddy.
We can watch out for each other
Exactly the same as real brothers.
Helping each other up if we fall in the dirt
Or going for help if one of us is hurt.
We have our compass and a snack,
Rope and a first aid kit in our backpack.
As Cat Scouts we remain purrpared
To keep our wits and never get scared.
Teddy and I are strong and brave.
Now please excuse us while we explore this cave.

© Cat Scout Cooper Murphy Blue – 03/21/2018

Two Spoiled Cats, Teddy and his big brother, Angel Sammy, host Thoroughly Poetic Thursday. Mom Pam selects a photo to serve as inspiration. And each week Sammy transmits a poem from the Rainbow Bridge. it is always exceptional and not to be missed. To read it and find links to other poems in the comment section, click on the badge below.

Thankful Thursday

Cooper Murphy not only asked to write today’s poem but also requested the opportunity to do today’s thankful. His thankful also pertains to Cat Scouts. He, Teddy and Cat Scout Ætheling participated in a Cheerleader Workshop and tried out for the Cheer Team at Cat Scout University. All three made the Cheer Team and received certificates, badges and their official cheer uniforms.

Cooper Murphy will share the cheer he wrote for the try-outs in a future post.

 

Cat Scout CSU Cheer Team Member Cooper Murphy

 

Cooper Murphy would like to thank Scout Anya for conducting the workshop and the judges, Sammy, Gracie and Raz, for selecting him for the Cheer Team.

Thankful Thursday is a blog hop hosted by Brian’s Home. To join in, click on his badge.