MILLY'S DIARY

Hello everyone

Grey and soggy weather here, not good weather for cats.  Lots of leaves to collect and chase, but not many feathers to bring indoors at the moment.  Perhaps all the birds are wise to me and hide when I go outside.

The good news of the week is that Rosie and Violet have been re-homed.  A lovely family came to see them on Saturday and on Monday Rosie and Violet were taken to their new home.  We will miss them (well, I might not miss them all of the time) but I know they will be very happy with their new family.  Jill said there will soon be more kittens here, so I will be able to pull faces at them through the door.

This time last year I was a foster kitten here and it's quite hard to remember what that was like, because when I moved in I became the Boss Cat!  Despite being rather small I am in charge; I tell the other Pie cats what to do, push them out of the way if they dare to move in on my food bowl and I make sure I get all the comfortable snoozing spots everywhere - preferably on a lap.  However, I do remember what it was like to not have a home or have any idea where one might be found for me and there are lots of cats and kittens out there in the same position.  If you love cats and would like to adopt one, please visit the Woking Cats Protection website and have a look at the gorgeous cats and kittens (although not quite as gorgeous as me) who are looking for homes.  You can tell them that Milly sent you.

Don't forget to make sure your cats are kept in at night - particularly at the moment with these weird things around called bonfires and fireworks.  Not too sure what they are, but Jill and Richard have told us that they can be dangerous.

Have a good week everyone - see you next Wednesday.

Milly

MILLY'S DIARY

Hello everyone

Woweeee, it is windy here!  Cats and kittens like windy weather, makes us run around more.  Lots of leaves to chase.

We had a terrific storm last night.  Lots of thunder, wind, heavy rain and some lightening too.  I wasn't bothered by it because I am a very brave cat.  Jazz lifted up his head, wondered what it was and then went back to sleep.  The rest of the Pie cats slept through it.  Jill sat with Rosie and Violet during the storm and they didn't seem to be bothered by it either.  Talking of Rosie and Violet, Jill managed to get some photographs of them which have been added to their page on the Woking Cats Protection website - here is a sneak peek of one taken while they were having lunch:

Jill is taking part in the Woking Cats Protection Christmas Fayre at Brook Hall, Brox Road, Ottershaw, Surrey, KT16 0HG on Saturday, 26 October 2013 (10.00 am - 1.00 pm).  She would love you to go along and see her and she can tell you all about me and how wonderfully gorgeous I am.  Okay, okay, she will tell you all about Rosie and Violet too if you would like to know more about them.

That's me blogged out for the week - the sun is shining and I have to make the most of it.  Jill said something again this week about the clocks going back this weekend - again, she didn't say where they are going back to!  Why do humans have to make a cat's life so confusing.

Have a good weekend - see you next Wednesday.

Jill

MILLY'S DIARY

Hello everyone

A down-in-the-dumps day today because it is raining, it's dark and it's cold.  All five Pie cats are indoors because none of us like this sort of weather.  Wet fur is not nice - the choice is either lick it dry or let Jill rub you dry with a towel.  Decisions, decisions.

Jill has been busy all week making crafty things for the events she has this weekend - this is great fun for us because we keep pinching bits of felt, cotton, ribbon and playing with them.  Not so much fun for Jill, because she wants them back!

Rosie and Violet are getting bigger every day and are very friendly - when I go up to the door of the room they are in, they rush up to talk to me.  I can tell them apart because Rosie is a little bigger than Violet.  They love to play and have lots of toys - some of them are ones I used to play with when I 'lived' in their room.

Pauline from Woking Cats Protection is coming to see me next week - ok, not me, but Jill and the kittens but I am sure she will want to see me.  I am actually rather famous - a lady at the Therapy Garden event on Friday told Jill that she reads my weekly diary.

I think it is time for a snooze - I wonder if the sun will be out soon.

See you next week

Milly

MILLY'S DIARY

Hello everyone

It's busy, busy, busy here!  In the garden I have lots of leaves to collect, play with and then throw all over the place.  I imagine they are all sorts of things: the red leaves are butterflies, the brown ones are moths and the few green ones that land on the ground are frogs.  I seem to be spending less time in the garden every day as it doesn't get light until much later than I am used to and gets dark even earlier than I am used to - Jill said something about the days being even shorter when the clocks go back.  Not sure what a clock is and have even less idea where it goes back too.

Rosie and Violet are still with us.  Violet was a little shy when she first came to us, not any more!  She is nearly as brave and confident as her sister.  Every morning and a couple of times during the day Jill tidies up their room - cushions back on chairs, covers over the back of chairs - five minutes later it looks as though I have been in there!  Toys everywhere, cushions often on the floor, water bowl sometimes splashed all over the floor.  I am sure I behaved much better when I was in that room.

It's Coco and Poppy's birthday tomorrow - they will be one year old.  Not as old as me because I am 14 months and 8 days old, so very grown up really.  What shall I get them for their birthday?  A mouse, a frog, how about a dragon fly?

A very late Milly's diary today - Jill wasn't around first thing to help me open the laptop.  I am off to play with more leaves now, although Richard tries to beat me at collecting them!

Have a good week everyone.

Milly

MILLY'S DIARY

Hello everyone

It's very misty here and it's raining - I am not so keen on getting wet, so it could be an inside day for me.  Lots of snuggling up in warm places, treading on Jill's work and possibly sitting on her lap if she sits still for a few minutes.

I hope you enjoyed Rosie and Violet's post last week - I turn my back for a few seconds and there they are, tapping away on the keys as though they write a blog every week!  They are still with us and nobody has been to see them yet, so don't forget if you are looking for two little black kittens, I have them here so take them quickly please!

Did you know that black cats are not very popular, I am sure you did.  However, did you also know that black and white cats are not very popular - how can this be?  Look at me, I am gorgeous!

Well, that's enough about me, it's time for me check out the weather.  I think it has stopped raining, so I could go outside and check on the local wildlife.

Have a good week everyone - see you next week.

Milly

HELLO AUTUMN

Hello everyone

Last day of summer yesterday, first day of Autumn today - how mild it is though, quite muggy really.  Is there any other country where the weather is so frustrating?

It has been a hectic week making goodies for forthcoming Christmas fairs and because I was contacted at the beginning of last week with an invitation to take part in a wedding fayre today.  After a bit of negotiation over price, I agreed to take part and as I was going to be the only wedding stationery there, how could I refuse?  I am an early bird, but getting up early to go to work on a Sunday is not really much fun - I don't mind getting up early on Sundays if I know I can take my time getting going.  However, an early start it was and and when I arrived at the venue, I was surprised to be only the second exhibitor there.

The information received from the organisers suggested that if leaflets were to be included in the fayre's goody bag, they should be delivered or dropped off by Friday of last week.  The name of the person they were to be addressed to was an unusual spelling and I wondered at the time if it was possibly someone I knew.  A lovely surprise when I arrived at the hotel this morning, it was an ex-student of mine and I was so pleased to hear how well she had done since she left college.  Even nicer was that because of her enjoyment of a Unit she studied with me, Event Management, she had made a career in that subject - I love to catch up with ex-students and find out how they are doing.

The wedding fayre was very good, a steady flow of visitors throughout the day and I have three quotes to prepare, one of which is 99% a definite order, so I am a happy bunny. Here are some photographs of my stand and some of my wedding stationery, as well as a photograph of a gorgeous red Cyclamen I took with me.  At wedding fayres I always like to take either flowers or a plant on my table - I think it looks rather nice.

As everyone who takes part in craft fairs of any sort knows, it is exhausting and you can't wait to get home.  It was a good day and I met some lovely people - both potential clients and fellow wedding exhibitors.  I have a question for my blog readers though, how do you think one should dress for wedding fayres?  I feel it should be smart and certainly not casual.  One person today was dressed in jeans and baseball boots - am I wrong in thinking they hadn't really dressed for the occasion?  At the wedding fayre I exhibited at in August, one person was wearing denim shorts!  My feeling is that we are business people and as such should dress accordingly.  What do you think?

Thank you to everyone who left comments on my blog post of last weekend, I love to read them.  A message of Lesley, yes, I have lots of Christmassy decorated jute bags.  Would you like some pics of them?

I am off for a glass of wine, feet up and watch Young Montalbano - I love the 'old' Montalbano and this is proving just as good.

Don't forget to drop into Handmade Monday this week - always very inspiring and great fun to catch up with everyone.

I am also taking part in this week's Creative Mondays blog hop - great fun so do check out the participating bloggers.

Have a good week everyone - I will be back next Sunday and Milly will be here on Wednesday (catching up for missing this week coz those cheeky foster kittens, Rosie and Violet, pinched the laptop from her).

Jill

NOT MILLY'S DIARY - A POST FROM ROSIE AND VIOLET INSTEAD

Hello everyone

While Milly has nipped out to catch her usual quota of wildlife, we have jumped onto the laptop to write her (ours really) diary post this week.

We are two 9-week old black kittens and Jill collected us on Thursday of last week.  Our first day was rather frightening because we didn't know anyone here and our surroundings were very strange to us.  Friday was a little better for us and a couple of Jill's friends came in to see us and we played with them.  Since then it has been fun, fun, fun all of the time!  We know we are only here temporarily, but we are really enjoying ourselves.  We play a lot - our room has lots and lots of toys for us to play with: footballs, catnip mice and lovely wooden blinds that we climb up!  That last 'toy' isn't so popular with Jill though - not sure why.  We also sleep a lot - well kittens do, don't they?

Here is a photograph of us playing with one of our toys:

Oops, think Milly has just come back in and will want 'her' laptop back - sorry, Milly, not this week.

If you would like to find out more about us or are thinking of adopting two gorgeous black kittens, we are just the ones for you and you can get further details on the Woking Cats Protection website.

I think it is time for a snooze now, so forgive us if we drop off to sleeeeeeeeep

Rosie and Violet

FAREWELL SUMMER

Hi everyone

Summer seems to have disappeared rather quickly, although (ever the optimist) I am still confident we will have a few more sunny days before the bad weather sets in.  Perhaps we will have a warm autumn.  The forecast for today is pretty grim, although at the moment (early morning) it looks lovely outside.  Cool, but very sunny - hope it lasts longer than predicted.

This week has been full of bag-decorating, card-making, list producing (for what I need to get ready for Christmas events), an 84th-birthday supper, collecting kittens that I am fostering and, despite the frequent soggy weather, gardening.  It seems to be a bit of a rush to get things tidied up in the the garden for winter now that the weather has changed.

The working week began with decorating bags with my cake-making friend, Linda.  We made some lovely cupcakes (sadly not edible ones), which we lightly padded and then fixed them to the jute bags.  I forgot to take photographs (what's new?), but will do next time we meet up - they do look good and I hope they will be popular.

Decorating jute bags seems to be a popular activity at the moment and it is interesting to see the variety of methods that are being used: ironing on pictures, material, etc, making things, ie cupcakes, to fix to the bag, as well as printing - not sure how this is done, although I know you can buy pre-printed ones using your own design.  Here are a couple of photographs of ones I have decorated this week:

This was produced using a panel of fashion and sewing pictures that I found.  I have cut the small pictures up and using Bondaweb, fixed them to the bag.  A slow process really, lots of cutting, trimming and ironing.

This is a work-in-progress as I want to add glittery mini-butterflies to the design.  I used a similar process to the above bag, good old Bondaweb.

Last week I promised that I would post pictures of some of the beautiful Heucheras I bought from the Wisley Plant Fair and here are some of them:

The colours are so gorgeous.  The first flower bed nearest to the back door into our garden was turned into a Heuchera bed last year and the plan for this year is to move the table and chairs on the patio well over to the left so that when we look out onto the dark, grim and grey winter days we will see these beautiful plants and the weather will not seem so grim and grey.

Many years ago we purchased two geese (no, not real ones).  We put them in various places around the garden and have to anchor them to the ground because various members of the Pie Five like to jump on them or knock them over!  Here is a rare photograph of them upright.  We, unimaginatively we know, named them Goosey and Gander:

Final picture for this week is of my two new foster kittens - I was able to name them and in keeping with my love of plants I called them Rosie and Violet.  They are 9 weeks old and, as you can imagine, very small.  On day one (Thursday) they were nervous, Violet more so - she is on the right hand side of the photograph.  Three days later they are bundles of adventurous inquisitive fun.  You can find out more information about them on the Woking Cats Protection website

Last but by no means least, don't forget to visit this week's Handmade Monday blog posts.  I love to see the variety of work the contributors to this event make - everyone is so talented.

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog post last week - I love to read your comments and the feedback and help is always appreciated.

My Friday Guest Blogger spot is 'open' if anyone would like to join in.  I have some lovely bloggers signed up already and I am looking forward to getting things up and running again.  If you would like to be a guest blogger, do get in touch: christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.

Have a great week everyone - 'see' you next weekend.

Jill