KARABOUTS

Feline World Mourns The Passing Of Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs died last week. The world lost a true visionary and design genius.

With Steve at the helm, Apple designed revolutionary products that we have come to know and love like the iPhone, iPod, iPad and iMac.  

However, one product that hasn't received much attention is the product our cats consider Apple's greatest technological advancement - the iPurr cat bed.

These portable, heated cat beds come in three sizes (13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch) for small, medium and large cats.  The beds have an adjustable LED back support panel and a sleeping surface made of individual "keys" that depress to cradle your cat in comfort - much like a coil-spring mattress.  Every bed has a battery that heats up and keeps your cat warm, and an internal fan that makes a gentle hum to lull your cat to sleep.  The beds are made of aluminum which won't irritate kitty's coat and is easy to wipe clean.  Sure they're a little more expensive than other cat beds (new models start at $1,199.00 on Apple's website).  But if you love your cat, it's worth it.  As you can see, our cat "sleeps different." 

Cats and Felt

It's a fact that cats like felted wool.  I first learned this a few years ago when I made this felted tote bag.

(The pattern for this bag is in the book Holiday Knits.)

I loved this tote and so did my cat Trinky, who often used it for her afternoon cat naps.

I made a couple of felted cat beds to try to keep Trinky out of my purse, but my cat beds didn't compare to these amazing felted Katzenhohle (cat caves) by German artist Dornroeschen Filzunikate. 

You can see other Katzenhohle designs here.

 
 

Bored Today

If you're bored too I suggest you go here.

You can do this

or maybe this...

Days like today remind me of why I sometimes hate having a job that requires us to stay away from home.  If I was home I could be getting a million things done, or at least I could be distracted by our cat Jing who officially guards the MacBook Pro:

or our cat Trinky who demands a treat everyday at 3pm.

Trinky looks so evil here.  She's actually very sweet.  Boy do I miss my kittens!!!  Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

Summer On Location

Mike and I are currently working on a job that requires us to stay in a hotel across the river in New Jersey. We've been here for 46 days and we could easily end up being here for 46 more.
Hotel life has its ups and downs.
On the up side:
- Someone makes our bed everyday.
- We can have anything we want to eat at any time of the day or night and it's all paid for.
- I have time to crochet and work on my Karabouts patterns during down time.

Right now I'm working on two Sophie Dolls for two lovely women in Kansas City.

While making the dolls, I'm writing and checking the pattern so the Sophie patten will soon be ready for distribution.

On the down side:
- We desperately miss our kitties (this is Iris).

- We also miss our reef tank, our apartment, our friends, my Stitch n Bitch group, and our lives in the city.

Also on the down side, our hotel is in the middle of a bunch of freeways with nothing to do within walking distance.

Luckily, there is a bit of animal life nearby. These are some of the many geese that frequent a low spot in the hotel parking lot that floods every time it rains.

For the foreseeable future I will be spending my days working, crocheting, writing patterns, and feeding the geese that wander over to our hotel-parking-lot-pond. I hope you all have a great summer wherever you are!