Review & Giveaway: In the Kitchen with Cookie & Compositions in Black and Green 2013 Calendars

We kitties do not need planners or calendars. But our humans do. Are your humans still looking for a 2013 calendar? Read on.

We were recently contacted by animal artist Bernadette Kazmarski, whose blog, The Creative Cat, I’m sure all of you know. If for some reason you don’t, I urge you to visit her website.

Bernadette is a multi-talented artist and an animal lover. My human and I enjoy the many ways she shares her passions on her website: from pictures of the members of her extended family of furry friends, to beautiful paintings, drawings, sketches of kitties (hers and others’), to beautifully written stories of rescued kitties, there is always something funny, moving, or inspiring (usually a combination of the three) to enjoy at her place on the Internet.

So we were thrilled and honored when she contacted us (really me, Texas) to ask if we would be interested in reviewing her 2013 calendars: In the Kitchen with Cookie & Compositions in Black and Green.

Compositions in Black and Green will be sure to meet your daily needs for mischievous kitty prowesses: playing in their human’s bathroom, offering their both cute and majestic mirror reflection to the artist’s camera. Each month offers wonderful and funny pictures of Bernadette’s five black cats in front of the white and green theme of the artist’s kitties’ bathroom.
Mimi, Mewsette, Jelly Bean, Mr. Sunshine and Giuseppe Basil Verdi will assuredly help you start each day of 2013 on the right paw. It will also help you see black cats in a whole new color.

In the Kitchen with Cookie will bring you an assistant chef in form of a calendar. When your name is Cookie, you make it a point to wear your colors (especially when they are tortoiseshell) proudly and that surely gives you a licence to spend more time than any kitty can dream of spending in the kitchen. This calendar is an adorably sweet (and savory) mix of beautiful pictures of Cookie and related (to Cookie’s postures) recipes from the artist. Evidently, Bernadette and Cookie formed a great team in the kitchen.
I tried to convince my human to try the cheesecake recipe (especially since Cookie seemed to require that kitties test the filling) but my human is on a diet too! She preciously kept the recipe though.





Both calendars allow for you to input important appointments and some notes. Yet they are small enough to fit in a hand bag if necessary. They both exist bound either on the top (as a wall calendar) or to the left (as a journal calendar). My human had a preference for the journal calendar, but it all depends how you expect to use it. Both versions of both calendars can be ordered here.

Bernadette has kindly offered to giveaway one copy of In the Kitchen with Cookie (wall calendar) and of Compositions in Black and Green (journal calendar).
To win a copy, please leave a comment telling us which calendar you prefer and why. Don’t forget to leave your email so I can contact you if you win. You have until Saturday, Jan. 26, 9.00 pm EST. A random drawing will give us the two winners, that I will announce on Sunday.

***Receiving a copy of the calendars did not influence this kitty’s or his human’s opinion.***

Will I be Westchester Magazine’s 2013 Pet of the Year?

My Dear Furriends,

Do you think I am cute? I think I am. And so does my human. That’s the reason why she entered me in Westchester Magazine’s 3rd Annual Pet of the Year Contest. Since we live in Westchester County, NY, I am eligible (VBP).

If you answered yes to the above question, would you vote for me (here) purrlease?

Each person can only vote once. But we can encourage our furriends to vote for us.

What do you have to do? Here is what the voting page says:

Help us find the county’s most darling, precious, special pets to feature in our April 2013 Pet Section. Peruse our entrants here and rank any or all from 1 star (yuck, what is that thing?) to 5 stars (pet perfection!). At the end of the voting period (January 17, 2013), the editorial staff will select 10 of the top 20 rated pets to be photographed for the pet issue; one of the 10 will be our pet centerfold—meow!

So, you can go to the voting page and vote for one or several pawticipants. Here is a screen capture of my entry, for you to find it easily:

Hopefully, if you decide to vote for me, you will give me 5 stars (pet perfection).

Once you are done voting, scroll down to the bottom of the page, enter your email address (if you don’t want to subscribe to Westchester Magazine’s newsletters, you can untick all the boxes) and click “VOTE.” You will get a page listing who you voted for and how many stars you gave those you voted for.

That’s as simple as that!

So, would you vote for me if you think I’m cute? You have until January 17, that’s just a little more than a week.

In advance, a big THANK YOU to all those who will do! And to everyone, here’s some cuteness from me.

Click to biggify

Click to biggify

Click to biggify

Are you resolute enough with your human’s resolutions?

Are you resolute (VBP) enough with your human’s resolutions?

Just yesterday, I was commenting on Sparkle’s excellent (as always, may I add) post on her resolutions for her human: I had planned this present post for yesterday but… guess what? Yesterday’s post was supposed to be posted the day before yesterday but the day before yesterday, I posted nothing because my human claimed to have hurt herself while doing the house cleaning (how worse an excuse can we get from humans, really?!).

So if I have, for myself, one resolution for 2013, that would be to be more resolute in having my human stick to her resolutions. We have to keep an iron paw on this stuff, because you know, humans can’t really stick to their resolutions.

Note that this resolution for me is really forced on me because of my human. We kitties don’t need no education, er, resolution. Whatever. We are purrfect. On this, again, I salute Sparkle for reminding this to the humans.

So without further ado (VBP), here are my resolutions for my human:

  1. Wake up earlier to feed Kitshka: she won’t bother me because she’s hungry AND that will give you more time to work on my blog
  2. Organize, plan ahead and schedule… and stick to it! In order to help you, human, I have offered you – okay unearthed (VBP) from your library – a book that will help you:
  3. In order to remind you what’s really important, put a sticker on the cover of the book, like this:
  4. Click if you can't see the sticker

  5. Never run out of Greenies again – EVER.

Well, I think that’s a good start. I don’t want to ask too much because, you know, humans have their limits (and these limits are quite… limited).

Do you think I am asking too much? Are you asking more or less of your human?

Our Best Wishes for a Purrfect New Year 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!

2012 brought us many surprises, good and bad.
The sad part was that we lost Grouik. We still miss you lots, Grouik, especially Milou.
The good part was that we met many furriends, may I add furry and human. Our furriends were there to support us in the bad times, we tried our best to support them when they needed some purrs too. We are very lucky to have found you and we really – REALLY – appreciate you visiting my little blog. So THANK YOU!

For 2013, we wish you all that your heart desires and deserves, as well as lots of purrs, treats, and for the humans, some of our fur to make your black pants a little more sophisticated!

Before closing the 2012 page, we thought we would do a small retrospective (VBP) of some of our 2012 posts. We decided to show you those that got the most likes, one per month.

I started the year in January with a Yeats poem. In February, bed sharing had only just begun.

Texas-in-Grouik's-bed-02

In March, bed sharing was in full swing.

Grouik-in-Milou's-bed-01

In April, Milou was trying to steal my wind (no pun intended – please!).

Milou-pic-ruin

In May, I demanded an explanation to Milou.

TexasVsMilou_04

June brought fresh catnip.

Grouik_catnip05

July was a very sad month, because Grouik went to the Rainbow Bridge. So instead of linking to a post, I will link to his page.

Grouik-Bday-2012

August brought us Kitshka!

Frisco_02

September was destroy-a-toy month for Kitshka.

New-Toys_07

October brought us cold weather. Brrrrrr.

sleepy-cold_08

In November, we purred for peace (still are of course).

Dona-Nobis-Pacem_03

In December, we kept ourselves warm and almost cozy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!