CATCHING UP

Hi everyone

Life has been hectic at Christmas Pie Crafts these last few days.  Card orders and 'things' for my event on Saturday, plus 'the return of the stray cat'.

A few months ago a big black cat began visiting my neighbour and us.  He was friendly, if cautious, and we assumed about 8-9 years old.  My neighbour and I asked around locally to see if  he belonged to anyone, or if anyone knew anything about him.  The answer was 'no'.  We fed him when he turned up at either of our homes, which wasn't every day day and he had a very healthy appetite.   Last week we noticed he was limping quite badly on his left front paw.  Richard, who as well as being a big animal lover is a coward where they are concerned when they are in pain, injured, etc said 'I think you need to catch him'.  I spoke to my neighbour, to whom he was a more frequent visitor, and as he often nipped into her conservatory, she said she would try to contain him.  Move forward to today, following discussions with CP and RSPCA, he is coming home having had his leg platted (it was fractured in two places), he has also been chopped and chipped and he is moving into his new permanent home with my neighbour.  The biggest surprise was that he is only 2 years old!  Our vet (we both use the same one) advised my neighbour that as he had been living rough for all of his short life, he had clearly had some tough times out there.

His name is Shadow - because he comes and goes like one, and here is a recent pic I took of him in our garden.  He looks pretty fierce, but is really a big softy and a beautiful cat:

I had some great responses to my request on the Handmade Monday post about guest blogging - many thanks to everyone for your advice and support.  The general feeling was to open up my Friday spot to non-craft related topics as well as craft-related, so I did and the good news is I have fabulous posts for 9, 16, 23 and 30 March - 2 craft and 2 non-craft.  It would be lovely to have some lined up for April too - so if you are keen to join in, please do contact me on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.  One suggestion was to provide ideas on what to blog about, so below is the original list I mentioned a few weeks ago but I am happy to include topics not on the list:

What inspires you to create

Do you still make (and  sell) the item(s) that set you on the road to being a professional crafts-person

How do you motivate yourself

Is blogging a good communication platform

What does handmade mean to you

That's me for today, have a great rest of the week everyone.  I will be back with my Handmade Monday post and hopefully lots of good news about my first event of this year.  Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that for the last few days Jazz has been walking around with a limp - yes, in his left front paw!  Jazz was originally a stray cat and I think this is stray-cat-left-foot syndrome.  We took him to the vets, where he is fast reaching the status of having a seat in the waiting room with his name on, and they couldn't find anything wrong.  He is on anti-inflammatory liquid but is still limping - so watch this space, as it could be another trip to the vet in the not too distant future.

Jill