Follow this Link to Visit and PLAY with 
the Weekly Photo Challenge
It runs for one full week from Friday mornings to late Thursday nights. 

 

The challenge beginning May 14, 2010 is:

 ”Unusual Takes on Everyday Objects”
suggested by  BumbleFish

 

I have to be honest, this was a hard challenge for me.  It isn’t that I don’t have tons of objects but an unusual take of them has me stumped.  I was thinking upside down, backwards, inside out?  I finally decided on photos of our cat, knowing it isn’t actually an object.  (I stand corrected, Tim_Beddard/graphic_excesses gave me a dictionary definition for object and seems I’m okay on this entry.)

SOME of MY PHOTOS

 

1-  Many of you know this cat was a foundling.  Actually he came from a family just down the street who told us it belonged to anyone who wanted it.  I’m not sure how much it was wanted by us at first but as I had company at the time and it was being thrown scraps of food that it readily ate, it hung around knowing a good thing when it saw it. 

 

 

2-   It is a very smart cat.  It hasn’t forgotten where we live and it knows how to get into and out of the doors.  We hung some wood napkin holders on string and hung them on the outside door then showed it what to do to let us know it wanted in.  That lesson took about two shows and it had it down pat.  The above photo shows you it knows where door knobs are and what to do with them.  If it had fingers it would open and shut doors itself.

 

 

3-  My sweet husband is an animal magnet to begin with.  I’ve not seen a dog or ?? that didn’t like John.  Thinking I really wanted the cat, he made up to it while it was still outside.  Being a smart cat (its name is BobbyFischer) it has never forgotten it was John who first made up to him with petting.  After making his way into the house he slowly took over learning the proper meows for food and if we didn’t see him sitting by the door waiting patiently or we ignored the ring of the inside bell that lets us know he wants out, he uses his I want out meow which gets louder if he has to use it more than once to get our attention.  He also made it known to both of us who it still prefers to allow to continue making over him.  My taking photos doesn’t bother it at all so that is a plus.  I am allowed to feed it and it tolerates me brushing and sneaking in the flea drops to the back of its neck while he eats.  I can pet him but it’s never for long and though he has been on my lap, mine is usually the farthest lap from his mind.  The above photo, he is dead to the world on John’s lap while we watch television and the scenario is a daily/nightly event.

 

 

4-  John isn’t safe while at the computer either.  As sitting down forms a lap, it is expected that the lap is fair game no matter how busy John is at the computer.  To keep the cat off his lap, John has to swivel and move about and push the cat away.  The cat promptly takes an attitude and finds a spot at John’s feet and goes to sleep. 

 

 

5-  Nothing is safe from the cat unless it is encased.  My plant did have growth overall but the cat possibly thought it should be a litter box or at least a cat seat a little higher up.  He bared some of the soil with us protesting every time we noticed him working at it.  I finally put another shallow planter on the bare spot which he welcomed as a higher seating arrangement. 

 

 

6-  Notice the satisfied smile with a bit of an air of I knew I could get what I wanted if I hung on long enough.

 

 

7-  He has cat toys but the brush, which I use to brush him with, is the target in this photo.  The bite and the claws do mean business.  We get dead snakes a lot and mice now and then but as we fatten him up, though he is still as crafty, I am hoping he is slowed getting any birds.  I don’t have bird feeders up at this time because of the cat. 

 

 

8-  I move back a foot or two when he shows his open mouth which in this case is a yawn.  His mouth is nearly as large as his head and very scary.

 

 

9-  So,now to the more or less “Unusual Takes” part.  I really can’t say for sure but I grew up with the notion that most men don’t like cats.  My dad didn’t and I’ve known other men who felt the same way.  In my husband’s case, he has always been kind to any animal we ever had and in this particular case, this cat has John’s number.  I’ve never had a pet that wouldn’t let me move into its affections like this darn cat  but, it has a lot of funny moments about it and I pretty constantly have the camera out for a shot of it doing something that if I’m quick enough will give me some photo diary fillers of “Unusual Takes”. 

 

 

There you have it.

Thanks so much for comments and visits.

Have a great week.

Follow this Link to Visit and PLAY with 
the Weekly Photo Challenge
It runs for one full week from Friday mornings to late Thursday nights. 

 

The challenge beginning May 8, 2010 is:

“Museum Pieces”

suggested by  MattBarber

 

My whole house is a museum, with an eclectic mixture sitting on shelves and window ledges.  I have had children knock on my door to see if they can come in to shop and that isn’t a joke.  I like a lot of things and wish I didn’t but most of it has cost very little as I love to shop at thrift stores and I was an avid yard sale addict.. 

 

Some Photos

 

1- This is a wedding lithograph that hangs in our hall, an angled view.  It has a copyright of 1894 and was printed in Berlin, Germany.

 

 

2- The nested Robin is a Westmoreland piece and the bowl is Nippon.  The jar and box hold old shell buttons.

 

 

3- More buttons in the box and a Santa from Taiwan dated 1984.  I probably would not have purchased the santa in 1984 but now, the stores are filled with similar items but made from molded plastics.  Comparatively I like him much more now than I would have then.  He is a painted, not a fired, piece so you need to be careful how you clean it.

 

 

4- I’m not a big collector of Lladro but I have 5 pieces and there are several more I’d like to have.  All of them involve Turkeys or Chickens in the theme.  My Lladro are all older pieces.  People selling it push the importance of a box but the papers that were originally with them are even more important and the Lladro mark on the bottom is a must.  Lladro has no interest in verifying any of their pieces without the papers even if they were an inheritance.  People collecting the smaller pieces think they have a worthwhile investment which I decided was not really the case.  I only buy what I really like and want for myself.  Lladro sells pieces for under a hundred dollars up to in the nature of $25,000. and possibly more.  They do have pieces in museums and though a relatively young company, Valencia, Spain 1955, their pieces are very desirable.

 

 

5- This is my tallest piece.  She will go to another spot when I have some display cases finished.

 

 

6-  I bought the turkey on the left years ago and broke it.  You can see the glue lines indicating the really bad fix.  I liked it so much I hunt EBay for a replacement and found the one on the right which I like but the colors are so dark it doesn’t do for me exactly what the first one did.  I keep trying for the exact replacement but nothing so far.  I have found one with different numbers than mine on it and a shade different coloring.  I’m not sure I’ll ever find the exact one.

 

7- My mother collected bottles and some of these were hers.  Mom’s windows were always full of a wide variety and I guess I inherited the love for them.  I have bottles that were manufactured for practical uses as well as decorative. 

 

 

8- A Lenox Pepper Mill some newer toby mugs, a gift from one of my sisters, a Norman Rockwell mug done by Dave Grossman.  As you can see I collect a variety of things from dolls to bottles to cups and mugs to ???  Some of it was a gift and some cost as little as a quarter at a thrift shop.  Most all of it has a special spot in my heart as well as in my home.

 

So a bit of a peek at my personal museum. 

Have a great week,