Of birthdays, Maine Coon kittens and artistic presents

I have just had my first big ( as in the number of people attending, as well as in the number of years I have been alive) birthday party as an adult, courtesy of my family and friends, who organised it all, and I had the most brilliant time!  Great food, the best of company (ranging from just borns to nearly 90 year olds), freakily good weather, and held in my own home and garden.   Plus, all i had to do was tidy up the house and garden!  I am such a lucky woman!

I asked for no presents, unless they wanted to donate to the Asylum Seekers, but I still managed to get some lovely ones, from some naughty, but generous, friends  and relations.  So many of them are of an artistic bent!  Here are some of them:

a felted woman:

a cardboard dragon sculpture, courtesy of the artist, Kirsty Fletcher:

 

 

 

crocheted doilies:

 

a runner with embroidered birds:

and some brilliant books:  Betty Churchill's "Australian Notebooks", Alain de Botton and John "Armstrong's Art as Therapy", and Lena Corwin's "Made by Hand".  I am looking forward to sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea!

My husband and I also decided to spoil ourselves with some Maine Coon kittens for our birthdays this year.  They were amazingly shy at first, which rather surprised us after reading so much about them, but after staying  home 24 hours a day, and persevering in the face of sheer terror, they have finally settled in and are busily making the house look lived in.

Here they are recovering from a morning of mayhem:

 

This is Loki, who is the most timid, and who follows his brother everywhere, but who loves to snuggle under blankets

 

And, this is "my" cat, Smudge, who is very brave and has even sniffed the dogs.

Both are enjoying teasing our older cat Bridie, who hisses a lot but has not really tried anything vicious.

As well as partying, and playing with kittens, I managed to finish knitting the little fox for one of my grandsons,

 

and am in the throes of making it a little pair of shorts and a jumper.  This is taking longer than it should because the kittens are helping.

I also used some of the cord I won from Knotmore, as well as felt and embroidery thread to make these little pictures:

I am going to use the rest of the cord to make some embroidered felt pennies into mobiles.  Stay tuned!