a new pal

This is Mary, our new housemate.

Isn't she sweet? We adopted her from the RSPCA two weeks ago and she seems to be settling in well.

I decided to make her a little welcome present in the form of a knitted worm...



A french knitted worm.

It's funny how quickly I forget how to do french knitting and have to look it up on youtube each time for a refresher. It was so quick to make once I got going though.

And Mary seems to like it...



We woke the other morning to find that she had carried it up to bed in the night.
Sweet little one.

giveaway

I have one remaining catnip sardine from the batch I made just before Christmas, so decided to have a little giveaway over on Instagram. You can find me over there as @debbie_hill and I'll announce a winner on Monday.

Oh, and if you have any sweet pictures of your cats over on your account then please do share!

handmade christmas: catnip sardines

As well as making presents for friends and family this Christmas I also made some presents for the furry friends in their lives.

Christmas for cats!



To make them I started by cutting out some felt sardine shapes from a paper template I made. I then sewed some little fabric pouches to hold some catnip that I bought online (highest potency apparently).

After that I embroidered on some markings and sewed on some felt eyes to give them a bit of character.



Finally I sewed around the edges, put the catnip pouches in the middle of each fish (for maximum protection from sharp claws and teeth) and added toy stuffing around the edge.

And voilà! A shoal of sardines.

And just look at these little fellas enjoying themselves...



Clockwise from top left: Tiffin, Eddie, Louis, Pixel, Harry & Holly. 

Sweet ones! They were a total hit I think. So much so that a few of them are fish no more.

I'm taking this as a good sign of appreciation.

seed bombs for cats

Towards the end of last year my friend Lyndsey, who runs lovely online shop What you sow, asked me to illustrate a label for the packaging of the new product she was launching: Seed bombs for cats.

I jumped at the chance to help out (especially as it gave me an excuse to spend some time drawing cats).

[Photo above courtesy of Lyndsey]

The seed bomb packages are a collaboration between Lyndsey and Josie Jeffery of Seedfreedom and contain 6 seed bombs packed with catnip seeds, peat free compost and clay, 2 seed markers (varied colours) to remember where you’ve sown them, a water sprinkler (varied colours) to convert your water bottle into a watering can and full instructions on how to use your seed bombs.

You can buy them here. A lovely gift for any cat lover (and cat!).

a summer birthday

Here's a card I made for my mum's birthday earlier this month. She threw a garden party with a hog roast, and luckily it landed on the first warm day of summer.

 It was a very good time!