Russian Dolls Satchel from Jenny Gale

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Slate Coffee Table from Free Range Designs

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Wonderland Silver & Garnet Ring from Sian Bostwick Jewellery

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Ship’s Crew Russian Dolls from hole in my pocket

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Dark Navy Cotton Asymmetric Long Full Pleated Skirt from Fashion Couture

London Ice Sculpting Festival

We started off yesterday by visiting The Ice Sculpting Festival at the National History Museum (of course we ruined the ‘free’ bit by also going to see the Darwin exhibit, but that was well worth the £17 especially as they gave us free passes to go back as we didn’t finish). It was absolutely freezing but the Ice Sculpting still drew quite a crowd and it was pretty fascinating seeing the ice blocks being slowly transformed. When we went back in the evening they were backlit by purple lights which made the whole place rather magical.

Next free event we plan to take advantage of: Ukulele Wednesdays. We can’t play, but we can singalong!

I have a lot of blogs that I try to keep up with and normally fail miserably (how do people have time to blog everyday?), but Two Fish Illustration and Designis easy enough as designer Jacob Souva blogs even less frequently than I do. But in his case it’s definitely quality winning out over quantity. In terms of design, his blog is probably my favourite and will be an inspiration for this blog whenever I get time to redo it properly. Even if you’re not that interested in illustration and design, it’s worth a visit. It’s not flashy, but it’s very beautiful.

And he seems to have made something for my nephew Jonah:

]]> http://bonbah.co.uk/2008/10/25/two-fish-illustration/feed/ 0 http://bonbah.co.uk/2008/06/11/shes-up-the-tree/ http://bonbah.co.uk/2008/06/11/shes-up-the-tree/#comments Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:37:40 +0000 joanne http://bonbah.co.uk/?p=21

We have two cats. They’re sisters with very different personalities. Luka (black & white) is the cleverer one but she’s kinda lazy, definitely greedy and has the longest whiskers and loudest purr ever. Lea (tabby) is the little scaredy cat, she’s very cute and very sweet but unfortunately also very curious.

Neither of them go outside because for as long as we’ve had them we’ve always had train tracks at the bottom of the garden (eventhough we moved) and I’m terrified of them getting run over. The master plan is to move somewhere where they (and me) can happily be free-range kitties. But in the meantime they make do with starring out the window. The windows have been wide open since spring and Lea often either sits on the actual window pane or stands on the windows that open horizontally, but she always comes back in. Well, not last Thursday…

She must have gone out just before I closed all the windows to go to bed because the next morning we found her 40 feet up a sycamore tree instead of at the bottom of the bed.

So what do you do when you’re cat is stuck up a tree?

We had no idea.

• We joked about calling the fire department but a quick look on their website showed that any extra ‘humanitarian’ services cost £284 + vat. Maybe a last resort then.
• We rang the vet as soon as they opened to see if they had any ideas and they said that some painters and decorators will get cats down. But we don’t know any painters and decorators, so phoning throught the yellow pages was perhaps going to be the option before the fire department. Although who knew which would be cheaper?
• We had a look at the RSPCA website. They strongly suggest trying to get the cat to come down on its own as any attempts to get it down may just send it up further or out onto more dangerous branches. They do say that if the cat hasn’t come down in 48 hours that they should be called for advice.

Well our cat had only been up there anywhere from 1 to 7 hours. So we decided to follow the RSPCA’s advice and at least give her until the evening before we called anyone. So Jeff had to go to work and I had a deadline which I couldn’t really break because my cat was stuck up a tree. So I sat in the kitchen with the windows wide open talking to Lea really loudly (much to the amusement of our upstairs neighbour I’m sure) and every 15 minutes or so I went out and rattled treats and wafted tuna up the tree at her, but apart from turning around a bit and crying very pathetically, she didn’t move. I ended up sitting under the tree talking to her but she was still too scared to try to come down.

When Jeff got home he stood on top of the fence looking up the tree talking to her for about an hour but she still didn’t try. Then he had an idea! He set himself up in all his climbing gear and went halfway up the tree. She tried coming down a little bit, but slipped and went back up. So Jeff came down and we went inside to get a drink and it must have been at that point that she realised noone was coming up to get her because when we went back out a couple of minutes later she was starting to find her way down. Jeff went back up the tree to help her but once she started coming down she did it pretty damn quickly and she shouted all the way down. But despite the fact that she’d been up there about 18hrs and hadn’t slept or eaten (she had pee-ed almost on my head) she was absolutely fine. And I’m pretty sure she’d do it again if she had the chance.

So what we learned to do if your cat gets stuck up a tree:

• Give them a chance to come down on their own, depending on the weather, but if they’re up there for more than 48 hours they will start getting dehydrated so you’ll need to get them down. But be careful because they might get frightened and go further up or out on more dangerous branches.
• Rattling treats didn’t work for us although apparently it does work for many cats. But Lea doesn’t eat a whole lot, she’s more attached to us than she is to food so I think us going in the house was actually what seemed to do it. Wait for me!
• If you can climb the tree safely, it helps just to go up a bit so the cat can see you. But be careful – I didn’t try it, I left it to the climbing expert!

Who can help?

• RSPCA or another animal protection agency
• The fire department
• Painters and decorators – or anyone with a tall ladder – tree surgeons & landscapers

Don’t be afraid of the bear, he’s been around a long time and although he has a maniac’s stare, he’s never hurt anyone. Yet…

I love Halloween. I also apparently love pumpkins. This became apparent when I ran across the high street to claim the pumpkin I’d spied before anyone else could nab it. I needn’t have worried, most people, well adults, in the UK put Halloween down as another over-commercialised holiday. It’s sadly under-rated here and no-one ever understands why I love it.

I can only put it down to childhood memories because I can’t remember the last time I actually celebrated Halloween (except for carving a pumpkin or two). I remember being fascinated by Halloween when I was little and still in the UK. My brother and I even went trick or treating once and luckily our neighbours were pretty welcoming about it considering we were essentially begging door to door. Then we moved to Houston and found ourselves living in an incredibly cool Halloween subdivision. And I’m not exaggerating even though I’m remembering through nostalgia-coloured glasses. In our subdivision people literally turned their homes into haunted houses. Even the back gardens in some were involved. It was brilliant! Although perhaps a little disappointing when all your candy was taken away in case it had razor blades embedded in it.

So for me that’s what Halloween is all about (well not the razor blade bit) – being a kid and feeling like the world is a little bit magical, even if it’s just for a night. So it makes me really happy to see photos of our nephews in their costumes. It brings it all back and I hope they have as much fun as I did.

So we may be the only house in the neighbourhood with a pumpkin and we may be eating all the non-existent trick or treaters candy ourselves yet again, but I don’t care. I’ll make Jeff watch Nightmare before Christmas for the millionth time and keep the jack-o-lantern burning. Who knows they might even show The Great Pumpkin on TV.