A Sad Sunday with Caspurr

Greetings, Effurryone!

We woke up this morning, looking forward to taking part in the weekend blog hops - the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful  Athena and her HuMum, Marie and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by the Delightfully and Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet. But when Mummy checked her notifications, the furrst thing that met her eye was the shocking news that Our Dear Furriend, sweet Stippie of the Angelswhisper2011 blog had been suddenly and unexpectedly called to the Rainbow Bridge. We hadn't even known Stippie was sick! We are completely devastated and We can only imagine what his brofur Peachy and his Granny and Grandpaw must be going through. We loved him so much.

Fly free, dearest Stippie. We shall meet again one day.

********

After such a sad start to the day, We weren't really in the mood to go blog hopping, but then We realised once again how impawtant it is to spend as much time as We can with those We love, because We can neffur know how much time We have left. Howeffur much - or little - it may be, We want to spend it with Our Furriends and with Our Family. And We count you all as part of Our Family.

So here are two selfies of Me, each one of which has been artified by Mummy. This week, She tried something different. You remember how She mentioned not being able to download artifications She made on BeFunky to her PC? Well, She found a way round that. She made screen shots of the art work and then cropped them. They still have watermarks because the only way to get rid of those is by getting a paid upgrade, and We don't want to do that when there are so many free apps available, but We may use it from time to time. Not too often, because having to work round the download and save problem takes so much time!

So, here goes with a snoozy picture of Me displaying My Little Pink Tongue:

Effurrybody loves Tongue and Tummy pictures, don't they?

The furrst artification uses LunaPic's Kandinsky effect at 21%:

And now, here is a really artsy-fartsy version, using BeFunky's Pastel 1 effect, at about 50%:

In this second selfie, Mummy thinks I must have been having a lovely dream, because (she says) I seem to be smiling:

I was probably thinking of Our Jerusalem Day picnic which We shall have tomorrow, Monday May 26th, up in the Enchanted Forest overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem (what more suitable place could there be?) at 3 pm Israel Time, to which, of course, you are all invited.

We made two artifications of this picture too, one with LunaPic's Skeletor filter, at 27%:

The other one, bursting with colour, uses BeFunky's Oil Painting 4 effect, again at about 50%:

Next, here are the blog hop badges:

        

And that just about wraps things up for today. See you all again, COD willing, at our picnic tomorrow, or if you can't make it to the picnic, then next Sunday - same Cat Time, same Cat Channel. 

Till then, be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Trixie In Triplicate: Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies

Greetings, Effurrybody!

I am back - Queen Trixie, Furrst of My Name, Empurress of Jerusalem, Israel and the Entire Middle East, Queen of Hearts, the Panfur Princess, Guardian of the Boudoir, Alpha Kitty Extraordinaire! It is once again My Turn to lead the J-Cats on this weekend's blog hops - the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by the Deliciously and Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

We had such a busy week - well, Mummy did, anyway - culminating in Step-Grandma's birthday. And this coming week is going to be even busier, with three Caterwauling rehearsals and a lecture, and finally, the Caterwauling end-of-the-year Gala on Thursday. That being so, We hope you will forgive Us if We don't manage to visit effurrybody this week, though naturally, We shall do Our Best.

Now, before We present My Selfies and Art, We would like to tell you that if you enjoy reading about Mummy's archaeological field-trips, She has posted about another one on her own bloggie.

Okay, let's get down to business.

As usual, We have chosen three selfies, which We then artified with some help from LunaPic.

 

Furrst of all, here I am on the living-room windowsill, which almost always is a good choice of background because the white wall shows up my beautiful panfur coat so well:

And here is the artified version, in which We used a combination of the Psychedelic and  Skeletor effects at 32% and 24% respectively:

Selfie #2 shows off the glorious floofiness of My Tail:

And here is the same picture, all artified with Our Favourite Dark filter at 60%, followed by Smoke at 38%. Don't you agree it makes Me look Sultry and Mysterious?

Now for #3. Mummy thinks I look rather wistful in this last selfie:

Purrsonally, I think I was not wistful but, rather, bored. My Pawsselain Dolly sisters, one of whom you can see in the background, were taking a nap, rather than keeping Me a-mewsed, and I had nobody to talk to about Girl Things. At all events, Mummy brightened this one up considerably, with a lovely textured mixture of Storytime at 68% and Yarn at 33%:

It looks kind of like a tapestry, doesn't it?

I think this last one might just be My Favourite. Which is Yours?

Next, here are the blog hop badges:

        

And that just about wraps things up for this week. We will see you again next week, same Cat Time, same Cat Channel. Till then, be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Happy (Early) Gotcha Day to Shimshi: Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies

Hallo there, Effurrybuddies!

I, the Mighty Shimshon (Shimshi for short) am back again - the Little Purrince (aka The Baby Mancat), Furrst of My Name, Master of the Queen's Mischiefs and Captain of the Guard -  to lead My Fellow J-Cats on this weekend's blog hops: the Caturday Selfies blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Snoozies Selfies blog hop, hosted by the Delightfully and Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

It's My Turn because - well, it's My Turn this week, since Caspurr led Us on last week's blog hops and Trixie, the week before. But it works out furry nicely, because this coming Thursday is My Gotcha Day, May 15th, so I can take the op-purr-tunity to invite you all to My Pawty up in the Enchanted Forest at 4pm, Israel Summer Time. You know the drill by now, right? Coordinates will be sent to your transportation devices later in the week.

Thursday evening is also Lag Ba'Omer, so We can celebrate that too.

And now for the bloggie hops. 

We have chosen three mewtiful pawtraits of Me, all of which have been artified with LunaPic's lovely filters.

Furrst up, here I am relaxing on the sofa next to Mummy, trying to get her to look at ME, rather than at whatever stupid programme She was watching on TeeVee - and obviously succeeding, by dint of being impawssibly cute (mol):

Since I was so impurressed by Trixie's Negative selfie a few weeks ago, I asked Mummy if We might achieve something similar for Myself. This is the result, using the Negative filter at full strength, followed by an overlay of Night at 23%:

Next, here I am all wide-eyed on the bed, with such a purrty coverlet to enhance the artiness even of the Original picture:

For this one, We chose a truly artsy-fartsy blend of Smoke at 70% followed by Beauty at 51%:

For My third selfie, We chose this stately pawtrait of Myself enjoying a Sun-Puddle on the sofa, It would have been a much bigger Sun-Puddle, only Mummy pulled down the shutters so She could see the TeeVee better:

It was only Right and Natural that this last one be artified with the Sunshine filter at 64%, with an overlay of Dark at 32%:

But We're not quite finished yet. In honour of My Gotcha Day on Thursday, We dropped in on PhotoFunia to create a Gold Commemorative Coin:

So, dear Furriends - which do you like best?

Now, here are the blog hop badges:

        

Before We go, since today is Mother's Day in the USA, where many of you live, We wish you and your HuMoms a Happy Mother's Day.

Don't forget to join Us on Thursday up in the Enchanted Forest. Since the Summer seems to be upon Us (it's 31 degrees C here!), it's going to be a Picnic and Barbecue. Anyone willing to come a bit early and help set up the Bar will be welcomed with open paws (but don't feel obligated, come when you can).

That's it for now. See you all next week, same Cat Time, same Cat Channel.

Till then, be well. Be safe. We love you all.

May the 4th Be With You: Caspurr's Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies

Greetings, Effurryone!

As you can see, I am back again - Me, Sir Caspurr the Courageous, the Caspicatious, Furrst of My Name, The Snuggle-Bug, Commander-in-Chief of the Impurrial Forces, King of the Tigger-Tabbies. It falls to My Lot today to lead My Fellow J-Cats on this weekend's blog hops - the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by the Delightful and Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

We have had a furry eventful few days. The Evil Humans in Yemen, with whom We have no common border nor any quarrel really (apart from the fact that they keep firing ballistic missiles at Us) fired several of said missiles at Us over the past week, including this morning! Nobody was seriously hurt, fortunately, but We can't keep trusting to luck or to Divine Providence!!! Then on Wednesday, the day before Independence Day (on Miaowmorial Day, in fact), there were huge forest fires in the Jerusalem Hills - some of them apparently started deliberately by terrorists. It took the firefighters a day and a half to get them under control and they caused a lot of damage. This also caused the cancellation of the beacon-lighting ceremony at Mt. Herzl, which always marks the start of Independence Day the evening before, because you can't have a ceremony involving beacons and fireworks displays without Fire Brigade supervision and, of course, there was no purr-sonel to spare, as they were all busy fighting the Raging In-furr-no! So they decided to broadcast the recording of the previous day's Dress Rehearsal instead. And of course Some People weren't happy about that either because Some People will always find something to complain about!

Now, to the business at hand. We chose three pawtraits of Me, but We had some trouble with the artifications because there seems to be some kind of outage on LunaPic. It hasn't affected effurrything, and it only happened after Mummy had already artified the furrst picture, but for the second picture, She went over to PhotoFunia. For the third, She thought She would try BeFunky, but it wouldn't let her save anything unless She upgraded to a paid account, so She went back to LunaPic and made do with what was available. Tell Us what you think of the results.

Furrst of all, here is a picture of Me enjoying My Own Couchie again, now that Uncle D. is no longer here (he flew back to England on Wednesday - and he was lucky to make it to the airport in light of the fact that the fires caused the closure of Route 1, the main motorway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and even of the railway which runs directly between Jerusalem and the airport).

Yes, furriends, it's nice to be able to sleep on One's Own Couchie and eat in one's own room again - though We do miss Uncle D.

And here is Mummy's artsy-fartsy creation, using LunaPic's Neon and Glow effects at 69% and 52% respectively:

Next up, here I am getting in Mummy's face up close and purrsonal as Mummy watches tries to watch TeeVee:

For this one, We dropped in on PhotoFunia and after trying several filters, none of which We found acceptable, We used the Watercolours effect:

Actually, We also tried one of their Cloudy filters, but that didn't seem quite right either:

For My final selfie, We went back to LunaPic. The AI art effects were still down, but the filters seemed to be working.  Here is the original picture:

And here is the artified version, for which We used the Surreal Painting filter, with an overlay of the Skeletor effect at 15%:

As We mentioned before, We aren't really satisfied with any of these, but We did Our Best.

And here, now, are the blog hop badges:

        

Before We go, We want to remind you (as if you needed a reminder - MOL) that today, May 4th, is Star Wars Day.

We will be back again next week, same Cat Time, same Cat Channel. Till then, be well. Be safe. We love you all!

And - MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!