Friday Four and More: Trying to Fit Five in a Cat Bed, 2013 - The Creative Cat So clearly this cat bed can only fit two and one half cats.

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#mrsunshinecat #giuseppeverdicat #bigbeautifulmewsette #fourhousecatsoftheapocalypse

I was, of course, at my desk trying to get work done, good luck with that.

As I edited these photos from 2013 I found the reference photos I'd taken as I created two daily sketches from that week! They never ceased to provide a variety of inspirations for me.

I love the interactions, the body language and silent drama among them as Mr. Sunshine, Giuseppe and Mewsette nap in the basket without concern while Mimi and Jelly Bean circle trying to figure out how to fit themselves in the series of photos in this post.

Friday Four and More: Trying to Fit Five in a Cat Bed, 2013

They look like just a bunch of legs. How would this bed ever fit five? Well these five were going to have their daily cat pile where they all slept in a heap, and that was going to be that.

I framed this sketch in a frame with a pattern similar to the pillow shams.

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#catart #catartwork

...squares arranged in a repeating geometric pattern, as well as the pillow shams with the ruffled eyelet edging.

How to render the details in pencil when much depends on color, and how much detail is just enough without drawing every little eyelet opening and every flower and line on each square?

This was just as much about capturing all three, each of whom moved enough that they needed extra sketching, as it was about the bedding.

I enjoyed the challenge of depicting the pattern on the postage-stamp quilt, each little square with its own pattern and color and the...

Curled on the Bed, pencil, 5 x 8, 2012 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

From 2012: What else to do on a lovely sunny afternoon but curl up in the sun on the bed? Some of us have to work, but kitties need their beauty sleep. They gave me a break from the computer when I decided they’d be today’s subject.

It was so cold overnight that the bird baths froze but suddenly it feels like spring again and the air is warm and breezy and the sun is actually kind of hot.
#mariposawhitemittens #siennafostertortie #hamletistobe

I turn around and see three sweet kitties looking at me...

I would say something about constant feline supurrvision by three very intent felines, but I know that I'm not what Mariposa, Sienna and Hamlet are interested in this morning at the basement door.

But the rest of them, because they grow pretty straight and tall while still about an inch in diameter became pretty good plant stakes.
#natureart #artbynature

These are butternut shells, also called white walnuts. She's been kind enough to plant a few in my yard which grew into trees, and I've chosen one to keep, thank you squirrely!

Photo of three half Walnut shells that look like owls.

Feeling a little owly?

I've been digging up a few of Squirrely's winter treasures as I work in my garden. She tends to bury things and then forget where she put them.

Daily Photo: Mimi in the Light, April 15, 2024 - The Creative Cat Mimi in the light.

So I will be sharing photos of what was blooming in my yard then, same as now, and I'll be sharing some photos of just Mimi as I remember her, that year and all the other springs we spent out there.

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#littlemimicat #littleblackcat

Daily Photo: Mimi in the Light, April 15, 2024 - The Creative Cat Mimi in the light.

I focused on her, and taking the most beautiful photos of her and everything growing and blooming was a balm to my soul in those months.

But I used few of them.

Daily Photo: Mimi in the Light, April 15, 2024 - The Creative Cat Mimi in the light.

In April 2024 Mimi was recovering from losing Mr. Sunshine, and all the others, and was just getting back on her paws. I knew I could lose her, and if I didn't that she was in her last months.

Daily Photo: Mimi in the Light, April 15, 2024 - The Creative Cat Mimi in the light.

This year while I'm renewing my garden I'm barely taking time for photos. I saw that my dogwood was blooming and thought I should get my camera, but then I remembered photos I'd taken that month and looked them over.

Daily Photo: Mimi in the Light, April 15, 2024 - The Creative Cat Mimi in the light.

Mimi in the light, April 15, 2024.

That's her in the light on the fresh green grass. Prescient, perhaps, is she looking into her future? A photo of Mimi captured from April 2024.

After a particularly rough winter spring has sprung all at once in my yard.

Brilliant - Today Suddenly so much color under the brilliant spring sun, even the smallest violet in the grass is joyful. It's overexposed but I didn't correct it, I like it that way.

Brilliant

Suddenly so much color under the brilliant spring sun, even the smallest violet in the grass is joyful. It’s overexposed but I didn’t correct it, I like it that way.

www.bernadettestoday.com/brilliant/

#springflowers #photography

Having a lazy, rainy, surprisingly chilly Sunday morning. I've been immobilized by Bella and Mariposa purrs. I guess they're glad I'm sitting still for the first time in a few days.

So am I, and that I got a lot of the gardening done before the rain came last night.

Blossoms Filled With Spring - Today And here we are with a new year of dogwood blossoms, just opened, filled with the sunshine of spring.

And here we are with a new year of dogwood blossoms, just opened, filled with the sunshine of spring.

www.bernadettestoday.com/blossoms-fil...

Blossoms Filled With Spring

My dogwood barely bloomed last spring. I thought I would lose it from drought or a disease but saw no signs of either. The leaves were healthy, no branches were dropping, no signs of damage or change to the bark, so I just waited for this spring.

Mimi's Garden 2026 - The Creative Cat Just some arugula, spinach and kale coming up way at the top so it doesn’t look like a real garden

The area on the other side--ask me about free forsythia bushes!--will be a wildflower border.

Can't wait to see it grow.

Read more here:
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#backyardgarden #backyardgardening #sustainable #organic gardening

I use cardboard boxes to layer under the bricks as a weed barrier.

Way down on the right-hand side I have old dresser drawers that I'll fill with soil and compost for my herb garden--the old herb garden got too shaded by a neighbor's tree.

I don't cut anything, I use it as is, that's what determines how big the raised beds are. Wood breaks down and decay over several years (surprisingly long) then I look for some more.

The brick paths are all used bricks from neighbors years ago and from free sites on the internet now.

Mimi's Garden 2026 - The Creative Cat Just some arugula, spinach and kale coming up way at the top so it doesn’t look like a real garden

The wood on the sides of the beds is mostly from my neighbor's three-level steps and landings on the back of their house when they made the mistake of putting it out at the curb where I could see it.

It's all built from used, recycled, upcycled stuff. When I had my first garden back in the 80s I realized how much a garden could cost. I love repurposing things anyway, so that's what I've always done.

Mimi's Garden 2026

Just some arugula, spinach and kale coming up way at the top so it doesn't look like a real garden quite yet, but it's as close to that as it's been in over a decade. Mimi would be thrilled with all the paths to walk and all the wood to scratch!

No kitty is being neglected, but I have been spending a lot of time out there, clearing away overgrowth and building out the larger portion of the garden I haven't used in a few years and I'm really excited! Get ready for garden photos!! Can I have some more exclamation points, please?!!!!!!

Mariposa helps me measure out my garden with her big white mitten holding the end of the tape measure. What would I do without her!

I've been spending what all the cats in this house feel is an undue amount of time out in said garden so maybe she just wants to be sure she gets some attention.