I’ve been very silent here on the blog lately.  The world has been very overwhelming for the last few years, as has my personal life.  While the first still terrifies me, the latter, thankfully, seems to be settling down.

Some things are changing because of what happened and is happening.  Here’s what they are:

First, I’m going to be moving myself, The Dreamstress blog & Scroop Patterns off of Meta owned platforms as much as possible.  Instead of FB and Instagram, I’ll be redirecting my energy (when I have it!) back to this blog.  So hopefully that’s a good change!

Second, if you get the Scroop Patterns newsletter you would have heard about the changes to the free Frances Rump pattern.  Because of bot attacks I’ve changes it from a free pattern to a ‘choose your own price’ pattern, which are less likely to be subject to attacks.

So now, you can choose any price from free ‘Students & Artists in Garrets’ to a supremely ridiculous price with the label ‘Look I just really love your patterns and want to pay an insane amount for this one’.  Whichever you choose is fine!

One of the price options is ‘Treat the darling furball who supports the patternmaker by paying for a supersize pack of cat treats’.

So, what furball is this now that darling Miss Felicity has passed on?

Well, I’m not ready to have another full time cat, but I still love cats and miss having cuddles and something to take care of.  So I’m fostering!

Over the holidays I fostered four super friendly kittens.  They are, counting their heads from left to right: Mimi, Faith, Wendy and Murray (all girls).

Wendy & Murray came first.  They are sisters:

I taught them how to be good sewing cats:

Then they were joined by Mimi, the runt of her litter who stayed too small to spay long after her siblings were big enough to fix and adopt out:

Mimi was well named.  An operatic diva with cold little paws.  She did not like to be left alone and had a VOICE to tell you her displeasure if you did.

Last to come was Faith, a kitten who got sick and lost a lot of weight after being spayed.  She had to fostered while she recovered before she could be adopted out.  Note her shaved tummy.

Faith was technically the naughtiest of the kittens but effectively the least naughty.  She would lie on all the things she wasn’t supposed to (like my stays), but never scratched them.  She figure out how to get into the food bag, but just sat there and enjoyed the fragrance.  She worked her way out of the sleeping cage, but quietly curled up on the couch and did not wake us up by rampaging around the room, quite unlike the chaos Murray caused the night she broke out.

Faith was the first to figure out how to get on to the tops of the high dresser and mantlepiece, but she delicately wound her way through the photos and lamps, and didn’t touch the plants.

Once her foster siblings, on the other hand, managed the same feat they knocked down lamps and pictures, and tore all the leaves off my maidenhair fern!

(and Mimi has zero remorse!  Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth!)

I had the kittens for over a month, and while it was delightful, I was glad when it was time for all the little rascals to go to other homes.  What mayhem!

After the kittens I asked for a quiet adult cat, and I certainly got what I asked for!

Miss Connie was a feral or abandoned mama cat.  She was caught when pregnant, had her kittens and raised them to a good age.  Once they were adopted out she came me to continue her education in trusting people.

It’s a slow process.  She spent most of her first few weeks hiding under the couch all day.  She’s only just in the last week agreed to be out in the same room as me during the day, and even then she’s only move about if she thinks I’m not watching.  Still, progress is progress!

Connie was briefly joined by Hugo, a feral kitten who came from a colony with calicivirus and couldn’t be with other kittens until they were sure he wasn’t infectious.

Before me Hugo had never been in a house.  In three days he went from scared, timid kitten to entitled little snuggle bug.

He expected at least three hours of interactive playtime and two hours of snuggling every day!  And decided he was only willing to sleep on the finest of cushions.

He was desperate for friends and absolutely adored Connie.  She, for reasons you can see in the photo below, wasn’t so sure about him:

Once it was clear he was well Hugo went off to a foster where he could spend time with other kittens.   Much Connie’s relief as she was tired of being tackled by an ecstatic kitten every time she ventured into the open.  Now he has friends to tackle – and to tackle him!

So now it’s just me and Connie.  And while I don’t get to snuggle her, the extra treats the sales of Frances Rumps fund are helpful for convincing her that humans are good.

In fact, I can hear her crunching on some temptations right now.