Howling at the Moon

I found this cross stitch pattern at  Subversive Cross Stitching  (you can buy it  here ) and the pattern just reminds me of my beloved black cat Sjakie, who could have said it himself.  www.betweennapsontheporch.net It's cotton yarn and burlap, which is great material to cross stitch. ~*~ My Crochet Flower Dress is both featured by The Cottage Market  and Go Crochet Crazy this week! Thanks,  Andrea and Mary!!  

Sometimes I just feel like making a Cat Thing, so I made this: www.betweennapsontheporch.net   ~*~ Wow!  The Cottage Market  has featured me! Again! And I was also featured by The Silly Pearl! Thanks, Andrea and Steph!!

  Still miss you, little friend...  Y Pattern found at Mamou  via Graft Gossip www.betweennapsontheporch.net

One day a couple of month ago I suddenly couldn't load up new pictures anymore. I thought maybe it would help if I removed some older posts with pictures from my blog, to make place for other pictures. It didn't help at all, but someone gave me the advise to use Google Chrome . That was the solution, but the removed posts were lost and I didn't make a back up. But I just saw that the pictures I placed on my blog once, are still there!  On the pictures below are the projects I made last year for X-mas. Glad I still have those pictures! Love, Peace, Joy Garland X-mas Cats Salt Dough X-mas Ornaments  The cats on the painting are my own cats. The black cat, my beloved Sjakie, died last february, but by placing the painting under the X-mas Tree, he's still with us a little bit.  www.betweennapsontheporch.net

Last week I started a somewhat larger project (at least large for me, as it will take a couple of weeks to finish it). I found the book Twisted Stitches by Phil Davison via my favorite blog of this moment Feeling Stitchy  and am embroidering the Sugar Skull that’s on the cover. I LOVE sugar skulls! Let's hope it's finished just in time for Dia de los Muertos, november 1st and 2nd.  www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~ This week I got an award! Katrin  of Me dLux gave me the award. Great honor to know that someone likes my blog so much she wants to give me an award for it!! But… I think anyone who takes the time to write a blog and wants to share ideas with others does deserve this award! So I guess I have to say ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ to the award. Not that I don’t appreciate it, because I certainly do, Katrin!! I hope you understand… ~*~ And my Cat Pumpkin is featured again! This time by Meg of Nutmeg Place . Thank you very much, Meg! ...

I’m not really ready for fall yet, because I adore summer sun way too much, but I love Halloween, so I couldn’t stop myself from crocheting a cat style jack-o-lantern (or a jack-o-lantern style cat, for that matter). Just this one pumpkin and then nothing more autumnish for the rest of this month. www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~ This week my Chain of Letters was featured by Toastie Studio ! Thanks, Stephanie!!  

A couple of weeks ago I started to crochet a top of a 40’s pattern . It was quite a lot of work (mostly because I like short projects, that are finished in two or three days instead of weeks), but it’s finished!!! Front (with Black Cat Brooch ) Back www.betweennapsontheporch.net

For two weeks now I’m working on a crochet top of an old vintage pattern and I’m still not much further than the front. Takes a lot more time than I thought! But I love the result, so I think I’m gonna finish this one, no matter how long it takes. To break the mint color of the top a little bit, I hope to win a beautiful black dragonfly brooch in a giveaway by ChronicallyVintage , but in case I don’t win anything (bigger chance J ) I made a brooch myself in advance: Shaped after my grumpy but nonetheless endlessly beloved black cat Sjakie, who isn’t among the living anymore for a while now, but still isn’t forgotten. You can see the mint colored top in the background. A picture of the total top follows after it's finished.  ~*~ And…. m y Fingerless Lace Gloves are featured again!  This time by Blissful Bucketlist !  Thanks, Sarah! www.betweennapsontheporch.net

Another Black Cat  Project: I made this little heart, for which I found inspiration at the blog of Dutch Sisters again (by the way: they're having a GIVE AWAY at the moment).  At first I embroidered the cat on red cheesecloth. The pattern of the cat I found here . Actually it's a pattern for filet crochet, but you can easily convert it into a pattern for embroidering .  From fabric that was left over from one of my playmats , I made the heart and decorated it with a crochet scalloped edge. Linked to: Blue Cricket Design (Show and Tell Linking Fun) The Sasse Life (Crafty Sasse Wednesday Link Party) Tales of a Trophy Wife (Will Craft For...)

About three weeks ago I lost my beloved cat Sjakie . He was very attached to our family, especially me, and before all he wanted to protect us from what he thought was evil. Fighting with other cats and even (large) dogs he therefore saw as his duty. Because of a fight with a neighborhood cat he got an abces in his neck, so we had to go to the vet to release it. But the vet identified cardiomyopathy of Sjakie’s little heart, also. He recommended us to go for an echografy of the heart at another clinic, because our vet didn’t have the proper equipment.  I wanted Sjakie’s abces to heal first, before going to another clinic, because my cat was so stressed, he scratched everybody in the treatment chamber and even bit me. Three weeks later I came home from work and found him panting and with paralyzed paws and tail. Due to his heart disease two embolisms had hit him, one in his aorta and one in his lungs. He was in a lot of pain, very short-breathed and scared to death. ...