Rainy Day Activities

My ACEO artwork of "Raindrops and Kitten No. 4" was first featured on 365 Cat Ladies on Nov. 6, 2009. It is the size of a baseball card and was painted on super-heavy Arches 300-lb.cold-press watercolor paper with professional quality watercolor paints. I initialed it on front, and signed, dated, and titled it on back.

It represents several of my favorite rainy day activities:

• Painting watercolors (what else?!)
• Walking in the rain with a pretty umbrella.
• Snuggling with a warm and fluffy friend.

It's POURING here in the Willamette Valley at this very moment, so I guess it's time to get out the watercolor paints, snuggle up with Buttonwillow, and since it's dark and cold outside, I'll just imagine walking in the rain for now.

What are your favorite rainy day activities?

Click on image above for more information about "Raindrops and Kitten No. 4".

May Showers...

Illustration Friday

(theme:"soaked")

Here in the Pacific Northwest we know that "April showers bring May flowers", but what do May showers bring?

Lots of HOURS for indoor activities like coloring, drawing, and painting...!

If you find yourself with rainy day hours to while away, you might enjoy downloading my free coloring page available at this link: Let's Play!...Free Coloring Page and a Giveaway

You'll also find details about a Giveaway for a $20 gift certificate to my Etsy Shop.

Have fun!

Cat Ladies 305 and 306...Gobble Green Idea No. 3

Cat Lady Delia and Cat Lady Tehani aren't quite ready to become full-time vegetarians, but several months ago the two friends started a Meatless Monday Supper Club. Knowing that eating less meat is healthier for their families and for the planet, once a week they get together to share recipes and enjoy a meatless meal.

Even Kittens Inky and Keoki get in on the act and enjoy a vegetarian meal each Monday, although the jury is still out on whether cats should have an entirely vegetarian diet or not...

Meatless Monday has been such a success that Delia and Tehani are now planning a Vegetarian Thanksgiving!

The Veggie Table.com has some great menu ideas and recipes for a Non-Turkey Turkey Day....and VegCooking.com has some suggestions for Faux Turkey, if you aren't quite ready to give-up the turkey tradition....

Enjoy!

Cat Ladies 302 and 303...Gobble Green Idea No. 1

Cat Lady Rebecca and her sister-in-law Roxie have decided to make their Thanksgiving meal a little more earth-friendly by becoming "Locavores" (also known as "Localvores").That means eating foods grown locally and in season.

When you eat locally-grown foods, it means that the food has fewer food miles, meaning the carbon emissions associated with local foods are smaller. An added benefit is that the food is fresher and picked at peak ripeness, meaning more nutrition value for you and your family!

For Thanksgiving menu ideas, visit the 100 Mile Diet website, where you will find links to localvore recipes.

Feline friends Pippi and Chipotle have their own ideas about eating local and have high hopes of catching something right outside their back doors....Doesn't get any fresher than that!




These original ACEO watercolor illustrations have just been listed for sale in my Etsy shop...give the gift of original art by visiting
Let it Snow No. 10 ACEO Art
Raindrops and Kittens No. 4 ACEO Art

Cat Lady No. 296...Hummin' In the Rain

If ever Cat Lady Debbie is feeling a bit blue, all she has to do is hug kitten Chompers, get out her brightest umbrella, and hum a little bit of "Singin' In The Rain".

Debbie is not quite bold enough to sing it out loud with joyful glee and wild abandon, like Gene Kelly did. But she has been known to stomp through a splishy-splashy puddle or two and swing around a light pole when no one is looking...

Perhaps one day she will be slightly delirious (as Gene Kelly possibly was--he was coming down with a flu bug and had a high fever when the sequence was filmed) and she will bust out singing:

I'm singing in the rain, Just singing in the rain
What a glorious feelin', I'm happy again
I'm laughing at clouds, So dark up above
The sun's in my heart, And I'm ready for love
Let the stormy clouds chase, Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain I've a smile on my face
I walk down the lane With a happy refrain
Just singin', Singin' in the rain

Thanks for visiting!

Look at what Cat Lady and Etsy Seller ElleJays made out of some of my new quilt blocks!! I can't wait to see what else she comes up with!

Cat Lady No. 295...Bumbershoot Blunder

Cat Lady Katie in Chicago depends on her bumbershoot this time of year to keep herself and her new kitten Chloe dry. Until today she had always assumed that the word "bumbershoot" was a British expression.

Not so, said her co-worker Alice who hails from London. She said she had never heard the word until she came to the U.S. So they went to the internet and found this helpful, and apparently well-researched, explanation: The Word Bumbershoot

Who knew that it " seems to have been yet another of those gloriously facetious bits of wordplay so characteristic of America in the nineteenth century"...

Thanks for visiting!


This original ACEO watercolor illustration is the second in a brand new series called "Raindrops & Kittens" and has just been listed for sale in my Etsy shop...add it to your collection by visiting
Raindrops and Kittens No. 2 ACEO Art

Cat Lady 294...Raindrops and Kitten

It's raining and Cat Lady Freda and Kitten Clooney are thrilled--Freda because she's been wanting to try out her brand new umbrella, and Clooney because he gets to snuggle up with Freda.

It's also been raining comments on the 365 Cat Ladies October Giveaway post, and Freda and Clooney are amazed at just how many cats have been entering the giveaway by naming their favorite cat shelter or rescue organization...

Kaze, Latte and Chase said: Darn it Skeezix beat us to our favorite rescue- Siamese Cat Rescue in VA. However, we will then put up in the running Rocky Mountain Siamese Rescue because they are awesome too!!

Da Fambly Kitties wrote: We support the Chippewa County Animal Shelter. I am furry proud to say that we are one of only a few county run shelters that are a no-kill shelter that uses foster homes for momma cats and their babies and have 100s of volunteers that walk dogs, groom cats, play with kittens, you name it - they do it.

Morgan the Pirate Gato commented: Our favorite rescue is Save A Sato. Although they do a lot of doggy rescues - they really do a TON of Kitty rescues! They are located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

I was born with Diabetes and Cat-A-Racts - and I now live the life of a spoiled Pirate in Bethel, CT. My cousin Montoya was born blind, and thanks to Mom he now lives a spoiled life in Calgary, Canada. Mom did a fund raiser with Catster Moms and they bought some new kennels for the shelter. She and Aunt Tracey have been helping to do fund raising to get the shelter re-done little by little. They had old wood cages with bugs living underneath, and many rusty ones too. We love your portraits, and the Interview on the Catster Blog was PAWSOME!

To date there are 47 comments which means $47.00 will be donated to the Oregon Humane Society plus each commenter is entered into a drawing to win a gift certificate. There is less than a week to enter, so if you haven't already, visit this link: Gift Certificate Giveaway . Thanks for participating!



This original ACEO watercolor illustration is the first in a brand new series called "Raindrops & Kittens" and has just been listed for sale in my Etsy shop...add it to your collection by visiting
Raindrops & Kitten No. 1