Where's My Mama?

The Lazy Cats are kind of sad this week. Our Mama has to work night shifts at the hospital. Nemo is keeping the bed warm for her, while he waits for her to come home so he can have sleepy cuddle time. These days are very quiet, because we like our moms so much! We miss them when they are gone. Plus, it is hard for them to work on the shop when they have to do their real jobs so much.

We didn't get to watch the Oscars last night, because no one was home to turn on the TV. Although, we did hear the Jennifer Hudson won. Go American Idols! The Idols are on this week, so we have to make sure to help our mom vote. Mittens is good at dialing, because he can use his thumb. :)

Mittens took a turn in the lightbox again. Isn't he a beautiful cat? Like Nemo, he is very photogenic. But, no jewelry? I guess it's cuz our moms didn't post some tonight! Bad moms. They need to work on the store more! But, they did post one of our great-aunt's quilts. And Mom put her first Crochet Sculpture up for sale. And the Soho chandelier earrings. Maybe they can do more tomorrow. Nana is coming for dinner tomorrow, so we can say Hi to her. :) We love Nana. And she tells our moms to give lots of treats! Hooray for treats. Hmm.... I think it's time for us to get some treats soon! Do you hear that Mom, Mama? We need milkie and crunchies, and we'll tolerate grooming and mani-pedis to get it! :)

A special shout out to Mama: We love you! Meow! Purr! Come home soon!

Love, your kittens, Nemo and Mittens.

Geometric Crochet: Results!

Here are some pictures of my first geometric crochet attempt-- a hyperbolic plane in dark blue, dark purple, and red that I am calling "The Floral Reef":



This piece was made with acrylic yarn and stitched with an H-hook using the N=4 pattern. It has 12 rows: 7 of dark blue, 3 of purple, and 2 of red. The number red stitches (490, 2 rows) > purple stitches (427, 3 rows) > blue stitches (361, 7 rows).

You can see how it starts as a twist, but can be formed into a whole variety of shapes! You can change it daily! :)

I have one more piece I am working on, pictures coming soon. I may post both of these for sale on my Etsy shop http://lazycat.etsy.com if I hear any interest in them.

Mom's turn at Geometry and Crochet

We're going to let Mom explain this one....

I was inspired by a thread in the Etsy forums http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5042733 to try to make some "geometric" crochet. I started out with the hyperbolic plane, where you add a stitch ever N stitches such that the surface area of the plane expands with each row. It starts out as a curly-q and then can be twisted to form all sorts of cool shapes. Here are the beginnings of my first attempts:

H-hook, N=4

F-hook, N=2

I hope to add more rows and more colors to these as they grow.

Here is the original article (love the pictures in this one)

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061223/bob10.asp

and here are crude instructions (I'm going for rho=4cm)

http://www.math.cornell.edu/~dwh/books/eg00/supplements/AHPmodel/index.html

I'll come back and post more pictures as this progresses. If anyone is excited about purchasing it, use the email link to the left. Please feel free to leave any comments below.

And, I promised I would put something in about the cats, so here are Nemo and Mittens being super cuddly:

PS (from the Cats): Our moms' shop has also been featured as a "spotlight seller" on DIY Divas! Check out their feature! http://diydivas.myfastforum.org/sutra253.php#253

Also, the Aspen Necklace and Earrings set is featured on http://nolestyleandbeauty.wordpress.com/ so please check that out as well!

We are working our way up the ladder to fame... ;)

Mittens Tries Modeling

Mittens has been working on his modeling skills, as he is becoming jealous of Nemo. However, he keeps getting distracted by the pretty shiny beads of Mom's necklaces.

The light box is a favorite place for us cats to sit. It is so warm, with all the daylight bulbs shining on you! Mom loves to take our pictures, too, so it works out great!



Aren't we just photogenic!

Too bad Emma and Zorro aren't here with the light box too! They would look excellent with all their black fur! We'll have to make sure to get some pictures from their mom to post up here too.

How are things in the shop? Pretty good. Our moms worked really hard to get everything up and ready for their showcase, so now they are taking a little bit of a break. They will make some more items this weekend that they can post throughout next week. It looks like they may have another custom project in the works, too. How did the showcase go, you ask? Well, pretty good. The view counters aren't always correct, but it looks like a lot of people checked out the Lazy Cat Gifts site. And we got lots of hearts! We made it to over 100 hearts! Hopefully some people will come back to buy our moms' beautiful crochet!

We're famous!

Ok, we're not famous yet, but we hope to be!

Our moms are being featured in the Etsy Showcase on Tuesday (2/20)! You can see them here from 12:01 AM - 11:59 PM: http://www.etsy.com/showcase.php or from the Showcase link at the top of the Etsy home page: http://www.etsy.com. Hurray!

Also, Sara from Purple Papaya has featured our mom's store in her "First Item of the Week" on her blog! You can see it here: http://purplepapaya.net/news/ .

Our poor moms worked so hard this weekend! It was Mom's birthday, and Zorro & Emma's Mom was heading back to Philadelphia. But, they had to get ready for their showcase! So they made lots of new necklaces and earrings and are posting them in the store: http://lazycat.etsy.com.

Also, they donated a necklace set to the Holy Angels Church silent auction. It was a $60 necklace that went for $100! Yay! Apparently, the way the silent auction works is that the bidding starts at half the value ($30) and then people walk around and write down competing bids. The Highest bid at the end of the night wins! We were all happy the church did well in their fundraiser.

So, we want to be famous cats, so we are recognized when we go out (like to the vet). So get the word out! The Lazy Cats want to build their fame!



PS: Mittens wants to show off his paw:

Big helpers

Happy Valentine's Day! Tonight, we decided to help our moms make some new jewelry to put on their website. They got a special showcase on Etsy for Feb 20, so they need to post more items! We were so helpful! Look how Nemo helped model!

What a sweet kitty! He is wearing the "Park Avenue". You can find it for sale on Moms' etsy website: lazycat.etsy.com

Mittens wanted to help take pictures, but he's not tolerant as Nemo. He's not as much a model, as he wants to get behind the camera and organize the shots.

Here, Nemo is modeling the goldstone-based Sedona necklace. Our moms are donating a similar piece to a silent auction for the Holy Angels Catholic Church in Chagrin Falls outside of Cleveland, OH. Nemo and Mittens' grandma works there and is helping them put it in the auction. Hopefully lots of people will see their work, so that they can stay home and make more crochet! Yay!

Alright, we need to say goodnight, because Mom needs to use the computer to post new items. Go check them out! :)

Our favorite...

...video on YouTube!

Our moms play this one for us all the time. Of course, they make us dance too, which isn't always fun, but they love to sing along. :)

Check it out!

Now, another video that our moms like a lot involves Justin Timberlake singing about going "in the box".... we hate that song! Do you know why? Because.... do you know what "the box" is? It's our carrier! When we go in the box, we have to ride in the car, and that is scary! We hate it! So whenever we here anything about "the box" we run and hide!

So, no posting that song here! It's too scary! No boxes for us! We run free! :)

Welcome!

Hello! Welcome all humans, and meow to all felines!

We are the Lazy Cats. Our names are Nemo Puff, Mr. Michigan Mittens, Zorro Kole, and Emma.

Zorro Kole was the original Queen Bee, and she is the oldest of our family. She turns 5 on Valentine's Day! She is all black, with one little white spot on her neck. Zorro lives with her sister Emma in Philadelphia. Emma will turn 3 on St. Patrick's Day! Emma is also all black, except she has an itsy bitsy teeny weeny white bikini bottom on. Zorro and Emma used to live in Ann Arbor, near their cousins Nemo and Mittens. Hopefully they will move back soon!

Emma's biological brother is Mr. Michigan Mittens. They were adopted from the shelter at the same time. Mittens will also be 3 years old on St. Patrick's Day. He wears a tuxedo all day long and has extra toes. His polydactylity allows him to open doors, play catch, and generally get into trouble. Mittens lives with his little brother Nemo. Nemo is fluffy and orange, and he is the baby of the group, because his 3rd birthday isn't until June 3. He acts like the baby kitten too! He still looks up to his big brother Mittens.

Our moms are all friends and used to live in Ann Arbor together. And they love to crochet! We love to help, because wire and yarn are fun to chew on. The Lazy Cats are good crochet-ers, just like our moms! So many people paid our moms compliments about our work (yes, we take the credit for it--we are the inspiration!), that our moms decided to try to sell some of their work. As they recognized our significant contribution to the work, they named their little business:
Lazy Cat Gifts.

The started selling at a craft show, and now they are selling online in their Etsy store, which is also named after us: LazyCat.etsy.com. See--we are very important to this endeavor!

However, we wish our moms would work a little less and spend more time sleeping and sitting with us. (We think they would like this, too). But they say, "Someone has to bring home the Kibbles!" And we sure do love our Kibbies! (especially Nemo).

So, while our moms are working hard at crochet, we decided we would make a blog. (Mittens is an extra good typist, because of his thumbs.) That way we can let all know about how special we are.

Well, that's it for our little welcome. Hopefully we'll be back again soon to tell you more about us and our moms. And pictures! We need more pictures! In the meantime, you can find some more pictures of us in our mom's store. Also, we have some Catster pages that are worth looking at. All these sites are the Links area to the left. But, with this blog, we are going BIG TIME!

Meow to all!
The Lazy Cats
Nemo, Mittens, Emma, and Zorro