Back to Work

It just so happened that over this Memorial Day Weekend, I was able to take a few days off to spend time at home in the Lilypad.  It was delightful!

Now I am back to work at the Library.  Unfortunately, there are no Rabbits there (on a regular basis, that is).

While I was home, I spent time working on quite a few projects.  One project was to make some paintings for our Favorite Local Free Range Cat Shelter, Orphan Angels.  They just moved into a brand new facility, so if you are local to Erie, PA, you need to check it out!!

One Very Exciting Thing about their new location is that they can buy the building, which is awesome.  In an effort to help raise some money for this purpose, Blueberry and Elizabeth and All the Cats and I have been working on some paintings to hang in their new space.  All proceeds from any sales will go directly to support this Awesome New Cat House!!

We call it "The Meow Translation Series."
You've always wondered what your cat was saying, right?  Well, let us help you with that:

meow. 

(play with me)
30 inches by 24 inches
$130 USD (plus $20 for shipping)

meow.

(turn on the water)
24 inches by 36 inches
$150 USD (Plus $20 for shipping)

meow.

(i love you)
16 inches by 20 inches
$80 USD (plus $15 for shipping)

There are a few more paintings in the Meow Series already painted and many more to come!  

DO YOU think YOUR cat has something to say?  SUBMIT YOUR OWN CAT by sending me an email with a picture and your translation of his or her meow.  No fair letting your cat help!

Let YOUR CAT help Orphan Angels raise money to buy their building!!

Monday Cat

In my head, I had an event to write about today. 

It is something fun that we did over the weekend.  I had taken a bunch of pictures at said event and was going to write about it and show some of the photos.

But, then....I got out my camera and I transferred the pictures to the computer in preparation, and in the process realized that what we in the Rabbit Room felt called to share today (for what is a bit of a Gloomy Monday Morning, here) are these other photos that were also on the camera.

BEHOLD THE MAGIC OF LILLY THE CAT!

Let these photos be your guide.  Tell the world to bring it, and then channel Lilly the Cat. 

 

Cuteness always overcomes!!

HAPPY MONDAY!

Miss Zoe Presents: Flip Friday, Cat Edition

Over the weekend past, we had a house guest.

When I say we had a house guest, I mean there was an extra human in the house in the form of Lisa, formerly of the blogs Nerdy Renegade News and The Vegan Daily. 

But the real house guest was Lisa's Air Mattress.

That's right.  House Guest in this case = Air Mattress.

Lisa first visited a couple of years ago.  And when she said she was going to visit again, we told Toby, and he thought back to her last visit and remembered her Air Mattress with A Great Fondness.  He smiled for days just thinking of it.  And when she finally arrived, and she took it out of the box, it was Magical.  Sure, he was at first put off by whirrring sound of the automatic air pump.  There may have been a related Tail Fattening.  But, overall he was Pleased.

In this movie, we see the end of Air Mattress' (and Lisa's) visit.  We see Air Mattress winding down its visit (a.k.a. Deflating).  We see Toby the Cat Hanging on to Each Final Second with His Good Friend.  We also see Other Cats Looking On.

Enjoy!

Air Toby from marcy hall on Vimeo.

Artful Monday

For a long time, I have been kind of...undecided about the role Painting has to play in my life.  I go back and forth about it. 

I'm not sure why.

I guess it's because, like anyone, I sometimes make excuses to block myself from doing the things I really want to do and the things that make me happy.  Who knows why?  Fear of the unknown, maybe?  I'm not sure.

Instead of focusing energy on this thing that I love to do and trying to make it into a vocation rather than a hobby, I poo poo it and say, "I would....if only I had time."

Sound familiar?  To some of you, it may.

In my world, "I don't have time" tends to mean one of two things.  Either, "I am not making time," or "I am not using the time I do have very wisely."

I want this to change.  No more excuses.

I will be 40 years old this Saturday.  It is time to live the life I truly want.  It can start small, but it has to start, and it has to be a Priority.  That is the point of this post.

I want you to notice Two Major Changes on Today's Blog.  Look, up at the top of the page.  See those new tabs?

One says ART HELPS BUNNIES.  

The other says ART HELPS CATS.

These two simple tabs are part of my new mission Use My Talents for the Forces of Good (instead of Evil, as I have been.  NOT REALLY!)

These two simple tabs are a representation of me starting to do Two of the Things I Want To Do Most in This Life.  These Two Things are as follows:
   
1.  I want to Paint
2.  I want to help Animals

50% of all proceeds from any Bunny or Cat Portrait (or DOG! or any other kind of Animal!!) you or others purchase will go to the no-kill animal shelters listed on the pages.  Helping Animals is the Mission.

There you have it.

There is more to come in this Fortieth Year.  Lots more.  Exciting New Projects and Lots of Fun Things.

But this?  This is a start.

Cinque Terre, Part Two

I think I said the next stop was going to be Riomaggiore, but it looks like I lied. 

Sorry.

Next stop?  VERNAZZA!

On this stop, we're going to to get right to the pictures.  All of the Cinque Terre towns are gorgeously amazingly awesome to the 4 millionth degree, but I think it's possible that Vernazza was my favorite one.  It's possible.

So, first, we got off the train...

...and, the train chugged away (see it escaping out the other end of the tunnel?

Then, we started to walk around.  Look at these crazily beautiful buildings!!!

We saw a lot of cute cute cute animals in Vernazza, (no bunnies, though...sigh!).  Here you see a very cute poodley dog looking around the corner of a barrel.  Look at that dog body!

And, then, there was this beautiful cat.  I pursued him for a while and he kept running off.  I'm not sure why....

He finally found a place to hide away for a bit, and as he did this, he also conjured up a pug to distract me with a very disapproving look!

OK, these next cats have a story, which is this.  I saw these GREAT cats napping on this blanket, right?  I mean, would you have been able to resist photographing them?  Really?  I didn't think so.  So, I went slowly up to them, and didn't bother them at all, just took their picture.  I mean, they wouldn't even look at me!  A second after I snapped their picture, an old lady poked her head out of a window about three stories up and yelled to me: "NO FLASH!  NO FLASH!  NO PICTURES OF CATS!!"

"OK," I said sheepishly, and I sloooooowly.....backed.....awaaaaaaaaaay.

More forbidden pictures!!  And, here are the cats:

This next picture says, "NON BERE (NOT DRINK)."  And, pretty clearly, you should not.  I mean, look at the guy who tried...  eek.

Random praying station.  More of these to come in a minute.

We walked until we got to the water.  I turned round and took this picture of the stuff right along the water's edge.  In this picture, you can see the Church of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia and the beautiful hills behind it.  WOWZA!

This is a picture looking in the other way form the water.  Oh, you can see my Aunt Anita in this one (in her shades!) and Alice (who is hiding behind a bit of greenery).

And another photo of something similar.  I couldn't get enough of these buildings and their colors.  Really, I couldn't.

And, now the water.  Again, this is the Ligurian Sea.  I like this shot, because not only do those boats look cool all in a row, but you can see the mountainous rockiness in the background.  That's some crazy strata!

Oh, and here's me crouching and looking a bit shocked about the fact that I was getting my picture taken.

Another view of the picturesque church and a few Sea Swimmers:

And now, another praying station:

And, another dog (also, you can see the forbidden cats in the background.  HA!  I got them AGAIN!)

Another praying station:

And, another backed up picture of the same praying station.  I edited out the very grouchy face of yet another old lady who had just been spying me photographing her Mary while she was hanging out her underwear.  I decided to edit out her and her unmentionables.  I left the Mary.

So that was a taste of Vernazza. I can't recall where we're headed next, and since I don't want to lie again, you'll just have to wait until Wednesday!

Rabbit Break

In past weeks, I've been writing a lot about Italy. 

"Italy this.  Italy that. WHAT ABOUT US???"  Zoe and Blueberry yelled in unison to me last night.

And they have a point--exciting things are happening in the Lilypad.

For one thing, there are Rabbits living here.  That's not at all new, of course, but it is always worth remembering and making a point of, because Rabbits living in your house is always both exciting and newsworthy.  The Double Buns of the Rabbit Room agree that They are not getting nearly enough attention of late.

Running closely behind in the Complaint Department are Certain Cats, who also live in the Lilypad and who frequent the Rabbit Room.  There has been a New Addition to the Lilypad who has gotten virtually NO AIR TIME ON THIS BLOG!  He had a fairly lame movie a couple of weeks ago on an edition of Flip Friday, and then....NOTHING!

"What's with that?" Toby the Mini-now-not-so-mini Cat said to me about that particular situation.  And, he does have a point.  What IS with that?

Today, then, let's dedicate this post to the Forlorn and Obviously Long Forgotten Mammalian Members of the Lilypad, and then on Wednesday, we will pop back to Italy. 

OK?

OK!

 LILLY!!!  So close you can see how dirty her little nose is.  Hmmmm.

 Miss Emmie is in constant motion but has a minute to thank all her loyal fans.  

She knows you're out there!!

 FreshCat Tuppy takes a moment to look surprised.  

Oh, wait, he always looks surprised!  Never mind.

This ghostly image is none other than the Great and Powerful Toby!  

That cat can jump!!  He's so fast, he is only a blur.  

Daisy couldn't look more annoyed with you than she does right now.  

Fortunately, Toby's going easy on you.

 An Oldie but a Goodie of Miss Zoe with a flower clip in her hair!  :)  SO PRETTY!

 Miss Zoe in a more usual pose... please don't tickle her.

Miss Blueberry doesn't know quite what to make of you, 

but She'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

I love this pre-Tuppy picture. 

And, of course, there's nothing quite like 

the love of a cat for his Bunny.

OK, so, now that you've caught up with what's going on in the Lilypad, we should be ready for more Italy next week.

Don't you feel better though?  They thought you would. 

Monday Tidings

There are so many things to write about today that I almost can't decide.

In reality, it's not an almost.  I really can't decide.  Instead of picking, I'm just going to write about a bunch of stuff.

The main things I've been doing lately is taking pictures.  Like on Sunday, we got home from a little adventure and I put the Chick down for a wee nap and unloaded 101 pictures (not Dalmations) from my camera.

I said to Zoe and Blueberry, "What will happen when I'm in Italy?  Think of all the pictures I'm going to take while I'm there!"  (Newsflash:  in case you'd forgotten or didn't know, I am going to Italy in just a little over a month.  Ummmmm.....SQUEAL!)

So, here are a couple of highlights from the most recent picture taking extravaganzas.

First, we have some pictures of water like things and water loving birds.  I work at the Erie County Public Library, which is right on the bay of Lake Erie.  It is a lovely place to be, especially at lunch or dinnertime when I get to go for a stroll with my camera.  Here's a few shots from last week.

Next are some cats.  I haven't posted any cat pictures in awhile, so I'll just let you gaze upon their beauty.  These pics are of the Fresh Cats.  Miss Emmie (who is not so fresh, honestly) wasn't feeling like being a star.  You know how it is some days.  Your hair isn't quite right or whatever and you just don't want to be the star.

This next set of pictures is from a cemetery that I used to be quite fond of when I was younger.  My best friend, Ann, and I used to ride our bikes there and hang out with a particular (dead) chap named Hiram Augustus Bell, who was some distant relation of Ann's mother's.  We would picnic there and sometimes even sleep.

Next is a Grasshopper that was not so hoppy that I found on our mailbox.  He was missing a leg.  Anyone know a maker of prosthetic bug legs?  Contact this fellow:

Finally, here is a picture of a couple of Rabbits who live in this Lilypad.  You'll notice that one of the Rabbits has longer ears than the other.  Don't worry.  That's normal.