Look what I won!

Hi everyone

As much I love running my own competitions, I always enjoy entering someone else's too. Facebook makes this so easy as well - sometimes it is just as easy as clicking 'like'.

This is how I won this fab prize from Your Cat Magazine!

It's a James Wellbeloved Christmas Cat Basket and contains:

James Wellbeloved Turkey & Rice dry cat food 225g

James Wellbeloved Duck & Rice dry cat food 225g

James Wellbeloved complete wet food 85g

1 catnip mouse toy

Can we open it please?

All of this is for me? Wow!

Wow there is so much! Surely this little box can't hold anymore?

As you can see, Tabitha rather enjoyed helping me open it up and I am sure she will like it even more once she can get stuck into the food!

For those of you who might not be familiar with it, Your Cat magazine is actually a really good read. It has lots of interesting stories and handy hints on being a cat owner. You can find it in most large newsagents and supermarkets http://www.yourcat.co.uk/

I would love to hear what kind of competitions you like to enter.

Take care, Jen



Winner of the Snowman Christmas Cat Collar is......

Hi everyone

Thanks so much for all the competition entries across Facebook, Twitter and my Blog.

I am very pleased to announce the randomly selected winner is....

Linda Ferrigan (selected using a random generator tool)

Congratulations to Linda! Please email us your address to jen@tabbycatcollars.co.uk and we will pop the collar in the post to you.

Don't forget if you weren't lucky enough to win this time around, you can still get your hands on a gorgeous handmade collar from our Folksy shop.

Keep you eyes peeled for more giveaways in the New Year!

Take care, Jen x

Giveaway - Christmas Collar

Hi everyone

As hinted about on my Facebook page, I'm going to run a lovely Christmas giveaway!

Fancy having your kitty look super smart this Christmas? You can win one of our lovely Snowmen collars!

You have 3 ways you can enter - either Facebook, Twitter or here on our blog. Whichever one you pick, just make sure you have either 'liked' or followed us and then just leave a comment (the comment/tweet can say whatever you like - something nice though please!).

This competition will run until 8.00pm Friday 16th December. After that time we will be picking a winner at random. The winner will then be announced and contacted to get your address.

Good luck!

Jen x

What to buy your kitty for Christmas

Hi everyone

Hope you are all having a great weekend and maybe starting to think about Christmas. The tree is bought but it's currently outside in a bucket of water having a good drink before it comes in to be decorated.  I have done quite a bit of my shopping now, but definitely some presents still to go.

One person (or should I say cat) I have sorted is Tabitha and I thought it might be fun to do a 'What to buy your kitty for Christmas' blog post.

Here are some of my favourite ideas! I have done it for every budget so I hope there is something suitable for everyone's purse or pocket!

A new scratching post

This is what we have bought Tabitha this year. It's a super tall one (I read in Your Cat magazine recently that the post needs to be as long as your cat can stretch to and this is the longest one I have ever seen). It cost £20 from Pets at Home (although it's not shown on their website)

Some tasty treats!

Tabitha goes nuts over something called 'cat sticks'. You can get these from lots of different places but her favourites seems to be good old Tesco's option! Tesco 10 Cat Sticks Treats Chicken And Liver 50G cost just £1.09 (price drop recently) and the other flavours are Salmon & Trout or Turkey & Lamb (£1.19 for those). You get 10 per pack and them come in a strip - a bit like cat Peperamai! We break little bits off at a time to feed to her (otherwise she would swallow them whole!)

A pretty bowl

For some time now I have been toying up with the idea of getting Tabitha either of these bowls.

The first one is from Emma Bridgewater and is personalised to your cat! How cool is that? They can do different colour options (pink hearts, blue stars and now red stars too). You can have your cat's name added too which is the bit that really appeals to me! Prices start at £20 for a small bowl, plus £1 per letter for a name to be added.

The next is from Alessi - Tigrito is the name of the design. It comes in 4 different colours - black, grey, yellow and blue. It's a pretty hefty £42 which is what has put me off buying one up until now. It is gorgeous though so maybe one day I will be persuaded!

A warm bed

For a really cost effective gift for your cat, why not make something yourself? I made Tabitha a new bed a few months back out of an old (but perfectly good) fleece blanket from Primark I had in the airing cupboard. Why not read more about how I did it here?

A special Christmas collar!

Ah come on, you didn't think I could go a whole blog post without mentioning the collars did you? ; ) Lovely Christmas designs available in my Folksy shop - £6 each plus P&P. Each one is individually handmade with a safety buckle which snaps open should your cat get in a sticky spot! Any if you fancy making it every more special, why not add a bauble with a tiny mouse - all ready to hang on your Christmas tree!

I would love to hear what you have or are planning to get your cat for Christmas!

Take care, Jen x

Christmas Collars and Baubles!

Hi everyone

It's been a while since I blogged, partly because I have been working on our Christmas collars and baubles!

I'm pretty damn excited about the baubles - they aren't something I have ever seen done before so I hope you like the idea and finished results as much as I do!

You can purchase a collar individually for the normal price of £6 + P&P from my Folksy shop.

There are 3 designs - red and white snowflake, snowman or Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer.

The baubles are priced at £10 + P&P but for this you get something really special. Each bauble contains not only a Christmas collar, but also a tiny mouse for your kitty! The baubles hang from your tree with their red and white gingham bows and also have a hand embossed Tabby Cat Collars label for you to write a message on. These are also available to purchase from my Folksy shop.

Maybe you know someone who is a cat lover but are never too sure what to buy them for Christmas? Hopefully one of our collars or baubles will fit the bill!

Or why not treat your own kitty - the baubles make fab decorations and will look gorgeous on your tree.

I know it's not even November yet but I just couldn't wait any longer to share these with you!

Jen >^.^<

A lovely surprise

I had a lovely surprise through the post last week which I haven't had a chance to share with you until now.

I helped to promote Nessa of Coloured Ribbits Facebook Page as she wanted to reach 100 likes to be able to do a competition. She actually did another prize for her 76th like and because they came via my Tabby Cat Collars Facebook Page she also gave me a little prize too! So very kind of Nessa!

She sent me an email and asked me what colour I would like to I pinked pink (no surprise really!) and this is what I got through the post:

It's a really pretty handmade necklace, which was packaged beautifully (just right for either popping in the post or displaying at a craft fair).

Why not check out her page for more brightly coloured beautifullness! (is that even a word?!).

Take care, Jen x

Upcycling - heart print blanket

I decided to try my hand at a bit of upcycling! Tabitha's hammock bed was well past its best - as you can see there were some serious holes in it! Only caused through lots of use - the material isn't the strongest and I like to run it through the washing machine too.

 

You can see in the photo that the hammock sits over the back of a chair. Really these are designed as radiator beds but they don't fit the modern radiators in our house, so the back of a chair works just as well.

So I had a think about what to do - buy a new one (not a massive cost) or try my hand at upcycling! For those of you who aren't familar with the term, it means turning something either useless or not being used into something rather fantastic and useful!







I decided to use this old fleece blanket and make a new cover for the hammock. It's only an old Primark blanket, but I love the heart print!









I did some measuring and realised that the hammock was made from one long piece of fabric, folded in at the top and bottom and then you just stitch along the sides. This gives you the shape you need to then slot the hammock frame in.

Blanket cut and sides folded in and pinned, it was then to my friendly sewing machine and a few minutes later a new bed was created!

I am really pleased with the result and I still have a half a blanket left so I can make another one!

I was a bit worried as Tabitha didn't jump straight in it, but like she is with most new things, a chance to test it by herself without pressure meant she now loves it and is having pussy cat dreams in it as I type this blog.

Sweet dreams Tabby Cat!

Has anyone else had a go at upcycling? I would love to hear if you have!

Take care, Jen x

And we have a winner!

So the competition closed and the time came to select a winner.

But we didn't want to use one of those simple online generator tools! Oh no - that would have been too easy!

So instead I wrote each entry name onto a slip of paper and then got Tabitha to pick the winner. That's 131 cat names I had to write out!

Have a watch of the video below to see how she got on!

Massive congratulations to straysuzi who entered via our Blog. Straysuzi's cat's name is Mikita and we understand she is a Tonkanise cream point and very bossy!

Please email us jen@tabbycatcollars.co.uk with your details to claim your prize.

You can now see the collar online in our Folksy shop, proudly named after Mikita! Maybe straysuzi will let me have a picture of Mikita to add to Folksy so everyone can see how the collar looks?

Competition Time!

Lucky Kitty Arrives

Hey everyone! This is my first ever blog post so I thought I would make it all about something very close to my heart.

Ok, well 2 things close to my heart! Cats and Momiji Dolls.

I ordered this brand new one as soon as it became available to ensure I would get one of the first 200 which are individually numbered.

Welcome to my house Lucky Kitty number 100 (cool number huh?)

The packaging is really cool - I love the hot pink noodle box and how she comes in a special inflated pod to keep her safe!

If you want to find more about Momiji, just click here

What do you like to collect?

Love Jen x