Six Things Every Cat Lover Understands

Think about all the delightful things that exist in the world.
I bet patting a kitty belly is right up there with the best of the best.
The fur on a belly is so soft and when a cat lets you touch them they are
basically telling you they trust you, a huge human with big hands that are probably cold.








If I am presented with a choice of products and one of them has a cat on it,
hands down it will be the one I select.
If your steering wheel club lock doesn't have a cat on it,
is it even worth owning?












We have a cat scratching post in our front room and our cat has taken to
sitting on it when we leave and arrive home.
Seeing her as we pull into the driveway is so sweet,
we wave as we come in, she doesn't wave back.

 


Imagine you're watching Game of Thrones.
Now imagine all the swords are replaced with kitty litter scoops

Dirty kitty litter scoops. The show just got so much better yeah?








This seems to happen to Gareth every night,
and he has this weird cat allergy that comes and goes.
Sometimes the cat sitting on his lap with claws digging in causes huge welts to appear,
yet he will never say no to her sitting on his lap.

 

When you visit someone's house and they have a cat,
it can turn a good day into an amazing day.
Even if the cat hides under the bed the whole time
(you're willing to get down on all fours to take a peek!),
it's still nice to know there is a cat in your vicinity.

 

Here is an image with all the drawings for your fancy kitty board on Pinterest.
Because if you don't have a kitty board on Pinterest are you even a cat lover?

The six types of cats you meet on your walk

If you're anything like me then the highlight of walking around town is spotting cats. We know we are not the only ones, there is a Facebook group dedicated to the activity and points can be won for the best cat spots. Internet points! The world really is a magical place.

With that in mind we have compiled a list of the six most common cats you will meet on your walks around town.

The classic cat is all about showing you all of the skills they have learned at Kitty Academy. They spot you walking down the street, they run over, they rub their smell over you and the footpath. They purr, they meow, the are friendly, then aloof moments later. When you get your phone out to snap a picture they move just at you press the button, leaving you with a blurry mess that will get you no internet points. Typical cat.

In my cat spotting experience big boys are always friendly and always willing to let you go in for a belly rub. I wonder if they are friendly because they think you might drop a few chunks of chicken on the ground for them? Personally, this is my general motivation for being friendly with people.

Oh, hard to reach cat, why have you forsaken me? Just move four inches closer and I could be touching your gloriously fluffy coat. I rub my fingers together, I slow blink, I make weird purring/brrring noises and hope and pray that they will edge just a little bit closer. Often a stranger will walk past and give me a funny look and I get embarrassed and pretend I'm tying my shoe laces. So darn frustrating and so darn cute!

You spot them, they are super adorable but as you get closer the scaredy cat runs off. You stop and look, darting your eyes around looking to all the best kitty hiding locations. You spy them hiding in a bush, staring you down like you're some kind of mutant dog beast who hasn't showered in 8 weeks. I usually give these cats a friendly slow blink and wave goodbye and hope three doors down there is a big boy who will want a mega pat.

Oh dear, it's the scratchy cat! Let's just start by stating that as cat lovers the scratch is worth it. But jings, it comes as a shock. We have a cat that lives near us that I have dubbed One Eye McScratchins after it clawed Gareth's hand. He was being very ambitious, going in for a belly rub on a cat that has one eye. McScratchins was swift in his scratching maneuver, there was a flash of the paw followed by the squeal of a man in his mid 30s who realised he had made a terrible mistake.

Oh, now this is my favourite find when walking the streets, the two for the price of one cat. If one acts aloof and walks off, the other is there to make up for it with friendly leg rubs and longing looks, then they grow bored of you and the other one is back at you with their tale curling around you legs.




What is your favourite cat to meet when out and about?
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Love the drawings? We have it available as a Tea Towel!
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What is the perfect way to spend your birthday?

 What is the perfect way to spend your birthday?

We love birthdays and so we are celebrating Happy Birthday Month here at Able And Game because September is a month chock full of birthdays. So much cake! So much fun! So many greeting cards to send.

Do you need to send someone a birthday card?  Shop our full range of awesome birthday cards now.

Happy Birthday Month at Able And Game

We are celebrating Happy Birthday Month this September because so many people we know seem to be born in this awesome month.

If you're after a card to celebrate someone you know who is turning one year older head over to our Etsy shop to buy a birthday card.

Mother's Day 2016

Our range of Mother's Day cards now includes over 50 cards. This year we have nine new designs and we would love to share a bit of the backstory on how we came up with some of them. If you want to visit the full range of Able And Game Mother's Day Cards you can see them here.

 

Mighty Morphing Power Mum! This card is a ode to the hardworking mother. I looked at some cosplay costumes for the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers and used a combination of those to create this bright and fun look.

I often say, one of the greatest things you can do as an adult is have a drink with your parents. We have had a few cards that use the line "I'm glad I inherited", but only had them for Father's Day and I thought, after 6 years I should do some for Mother's Day. The image could have been a woman sitting with a fancy bottle of wine, but a bag of goon seemed much more funny, especially when it's a rather conservative looking woman drinking from it.

Fitness is a big thing these days. #fitspo #cleaneating #running #doyouevenliftbro so we have a couple of cards for this area of people's lives. The running Mum card is perfect for the marathon training Mum. Did you know they even have prams that are designed so you can run with them? Crazy! We just use our solid pram for bringing discount bags of crisps home from the supermarket.

Sweet and sentimental cards are always lovely. We have a little boy, and as you know little infants are not really capable of buying cards. So we have a few cards like the one above on the left that the partner buys on behalf of the little kid. We didn't include the word Mum on it so it can work for either Mother's Day or Father's Day. I used a photo of Gareth, Clyde and I when drawing the people, but changed the features so they don't really look like us.

Is your Mum on Facebook? There is something really exciting but also embarrassing about a Mother on facebook. If you're with a group of people and the conversation has gone quiet, bring up this topic and there will surely be someone in the room who has a funny story about something silly their Mum did on Facebook.

Puddings I like to eat in no particular order:

• anything that is self saucing
• pavlova
• chocolate ripple cake
• tiramisu
• fancy ice-cream
• lemon meringue pie
• banoffee pie
• frangipane tart
• apple pie
• golden syrup dumplings
• pineapple upside down cake

Nice Work Mama. Don't Forget Your Pelvic Floor Exercises

This is my new favourite Able and Game card that I will give to every new mother from now on.

The Crisp Problem

Gareth has become heavily involved with crisps lately, which is a problem because I find it easier to say no to crisps when they are not in front of me. I often find them in front of me, so to help with the problem I tell him to buy salt and vinegar flavour, a flavour I don't much care for. However this does not solve the problem and I still end up eating too many.

Does Your Cat Do This?

One day our cat Bubsy decided to do this to Gareth as he sat on the couch working. It was about the cutest thing every. Photographs were taken, possible Able And Game card ideas were hatched. It was a joyous moment for all involved.

Who needs a social life when you have cheese?

Hello Cricket!

A few months before Clyde was born another litter of stray cats arrived at the office and there was one that looked just like Bubsy.  Gareth managed to tame her and although we had just shifted house and had a baby we decided we needed her in our lives. Before Bubsy Gareth wasn't really a cat person, he had allergies and thought they were a bit standoffish. Since we adopted Bubsy he has become crazy about cats. Maybe even more than me if that was possible. So even though we knew it might not have been the best timing we had to keep her as he would have been heartbroken when something would inevitably happen to her on the mean streets of Brunswick.

Her name is Cricket and she looks very similar to Bubsy but with a bit more grey. They are getting to know one another and it seems like they are getting friendlier, but there is still a fair bit of play fighting, possibly even real fighting going on. They can sleep near each other without too much trouble, so we are taking this as a good sign!

 Adopting a stray cat isn't easy, they are not so adept at going to the toilet, but we figured we were more prepared after dealing and learning from Bubs. Although I think we have hit our kitty limit with two, so my dreams of becoming a Wacky Feline Woman with 11 will have to wait! You can follow Bubsy and Cricket on Instagram for updates on their antics.

What Cha Been Up To?

So things have been a wee bit quiet on the home front, because the home is now full of baby! After 9 long months of pregnancy we welcomed our first child into the world at the end of January. His name is Clyde and he is pretty adorable! I think everyone thinks that about their own baby and if they don't we doubt they will tell anyone. Work wise we are now learning what the new normal is, juggling a business with a growing human. We hope he will inspire a whole new range of cards, including a new type of birthday card in which on your birthday you send a card to your Mum to say thanks for going through labour just so you could enter the world.

You can still find us each week at Rose Street Market and we are still updating our Instagram and trying to limit the amount of cat baby photos we put up. Stay tuned for our next post introducing another new member of the family. Yes, we got another cat.

Long Haul Flighing - must have items!

We recently flew over to Scotland and I realised it was my 5th overseas flight in 16 months. Here is a list of my must have items.

Frankie Illustration

If you've picked up a copy of the current issue of Frankie Magazine and made it almost all the way to the end you might have seen my illustration for the feature on what is on your bedside table. When I read the brief I did a big old happy face because I knew it meant I could draw two of my favourite things, my teddy bear Pinky and our cat Bubsy.

When I was about 8 I had a made up gang called the Freezer Beezer gang. It was a little strange as it included myself and the Pinky, along with one of our dogs, one of our cats and my horse. I had this weird thought obsession that one day the gang would only include Pinky and myself, but somehow inclusion into this gang would prolong the lives of the pets included. 8 year old girls, always thinking of death!

As you can see the picture is pretty true to life, Bubsy does love to ransack my bedside table, they are real scratches on the front and that weird green thing is the ugliest drink bottle I've ever owned. The lamp is part of a matching set by Tamara from Retro Print Revival and I think the based might have been a hand made job by my grandad that I stole from home a number of years ago.

Life InStyle wrap

We just finished up our annual trade show Life Instyle on Sunday here in Melbourne. It is the 6th time we have exhibited in Melbourne and it feels like we have come a long way from our little First Instyle stand back in 2009. For those who don't know, Life Instyle is a trade based event where people can showcase their products and shop come along and place orders. So if you have a shop you buy our cards from, there's a strong chance we chat to them at the show.

For this show I wanted to do something a little different, but sadly stand design isn't my strong point. While I can come up with good ideas, actually making them happen is another story. A few years ago I got my Dad to make some A frame stands that were good, but could only hold one card. While I didn't think this would be an issue, if you had a few people in the stand looking at the cards while at the same time someone was placing an order by taking cards off the shelf, it didn't really work. So this time we went back to the Ikea Ribba shelves we used way back in 2010 and had been gathering dust under out bed. They could hold a few cards so it made things much easier.

The sink was aquired by another request to Dad (living on a farm there is always loads of sinks??) but both Gareth and I had worries that it might not work, but I had a vision in my head and often when that happens there isn't much to stop it happening. Whether it happens well is a totally different story. We built a wooden stand to sit behind the sink, sourced the taps a few days later (a friend had some, they were perfect) and the landscape image was a printout from Officeworks with the view looking out from my house back on the farm. I sewed up the bottom sink skirt and the curtains were a last minute a-ha moment I put together during bump in.

The bricks sadly are not real, I printed them out and then went on an date with some double sided tape. Tip: Always buy more double sided tape than you need and don't calculate how much you need while walking to get lunch.

When I was putting the photos into my folder I spotted my planning drawing and had a giggle at the side by side so I thought I would share that. It's almost identical!

Now we just have Top Drawer in London next month to plan for!

Magnificent Betty

Some of the images of Sunday night's Mad Men episode popped up on our facebook feed today and we noticed resemblance to one of our cards. When we designed it we did have Betty in mind, but this shot (apart from the ciggy) is pretty spot on.

I think I'll need to reference that jacket with those over sized collars in a future card though, they are just too good. Our Mum the Magnificent card is available on Etsy, for those lucky enough to have a Betty Mum (hopefully without the withholding, emotionally immature ice cold thing she has going on!)

How to save some bucks

Getting Hitched

Things have felt a little slow at Able and Game HQ due to some distractions in the way of us getting hitched. We've not been talking about it too much, to the point that some of our closest friends didn't even know until a few weeks before the big day. We had a tiny ceremony in a tiny park in Brunswick and everything worked out just right, and not just because Gareth turned up! Afterwards we drank champagne and then headed to Pope Joan for a lovely dinner to celebrate.

We have not organised a honeymoon, we don't have any rings and almost 2 weeks in and I'm still saying partner instead of husband, so as Gareth said all along, it doesn't change much. Although I am sure our parents don't agree!

My housemate from art school, Karina, took photos on the day and did a pretty amazing job, you can find her at Radio Halo photography. My hair and make up was by Poppy and Dana at Kenny and the Sunshine Girls in North Melbourne.The dress was the first one I tried on when I went shopping with my Mum and Sister in January. I walked past it and my sister brought it over. I almost poopoo-ed it because I don't love love purple, but I tried it on and turns out it was the one (after putting it aside and trying on loads of other dresses!).

Oh and it was my birthday, so I said my present was my husband enough times to possibly annoy people. Happy birthday me!

Going away?

I was walking down the corridor of our office building and overheard a guy say this to his friend. I'm trying to always wear my that's perfect for a card thinking cap so I quickly ran back to my desk (after making a cup of tea, the reason I was up in the first place) and drew it up right away. I think the mood of this card is a mixture of I'm excited for you yet masking my sadness with this thumbs up.

The card is available from our Etsy shop here.

You don't make friends with the iron

In our house we have a lot of our own tea towels. I like to think of it as a perk of the job that I get to keep the dud prints that have accumulated over the last the 4 years. Although not technically free, they feel free. The tea towels are a 100% linen via Eastern Europe that we source from a supplier in NSW. When they arrive they have a slight stiffness from starch and don't feel like they would be very good at drying the dishes. In fact they are rather terrible at drying things until the first wash when they shrink a little and become a lot more like a tea towel and the linen is lovely fabric to use in the kitchen as its hard wearing and absorbent.

A few months back the cupboard we keep our tea towels in a hot mess with tea towels shoved in and knotted up so much that they all fell out on top of you when you tried to remove just one. I decided to solve this problem by ironing my tea towels into a neat pile and putting them away. A lofty plan I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up, not because I didn't revel in the fact that it was the easiest ironing job in the world or from the satisfaction I got removing all the creases and turning a crinkly, wobbly pile of mess into something neat and ordered. No, it was lofty because retrieving the iron and board out of the cupboard was something I would avoid for no reason other than a good old fashion case of the can't be bothereds. The other night when I opened the tea towels cupboard and again saw the mess they were in I quickly got the iron out before my lazy brain (yes, there is a right side, a left side and a lazy side) had a chance to realise what was going on.

Now look at them sitting there all neat, with the sun shining in like some kind of aaaaahhhhh laaaaaa divine moment in a film. That is the universe telling me I need to iron them more often.

You can buy our tea towels on Etsy and if you, like me, are a lazy brained person then just stretch them our before hanging them up on the line so they dry nice and flat.