Kitty Angel Chalkboard

I am so excited to be a part of the 3rd Annual Thrift Benefit for Sheltered Animals blog hop. When Jeanette from Country Design Style invited bloggers to participate, I knew that I wanted to join in the fun. Besides the normal ways to help support your local animal shelter by donating money, food or supplies, you can shop at animal shelter run thrift stores. Although we don't have any local thrift stores like that  anywhere near us, I was still able to participate and do two of my favourite things... thrift store shopping and repurposing… and...

Let me start by sharing our furry friends with you… but I have to preempt this by saying that growing up, we never had any pets and it wasn't until I married that I was introduced to the wonderful world of cats… I became "step-mom" to my hubby's cat, that he rescued from a dog's mouth when he was 10 days old… yes you heard me right… he was about to be a dog's lunch… and hence he was dubbed "MILKBONE", the dog biscuit. He was a little aloof… I found out later as a result of not having that bonding time with his mama. He has since gone to kitty heaven.

After my first experience with a cat, I was hoping to one day own a lap kitty… then about 3 Springs ago we heard a meowing under our truck for several days in a row… and found a kitten all alone hiding and living under it. I don't remember whether it was my husband or my son who finally got her to eat some food and come inside. "LILU" entered our home and our lives… and has been a blessing ever since...

… becoming the lap kitty that I had dreamed of.  She knows when I am feeling down and will jump into my lap and will give me a look that says "Everything is going to be okay!" I never thought I could love an animal as much as I do her. I love to shower her with affection and for the most part she is a quiet kitty unless there is the aroma of tuna in the air… then she gets very vocal and nothing else in the world exists. ;o)

A year later we heard another meowing under my husband's same old truck and "MIESHA"whom we think is "LILU's" sister, entered our lives… she's the princess in the family and is very vocal. She is all black except of a little spot on her neck. She's a Southern Belle with green eyes and a beautiful velvet coat. She keeps us entertained and miffed when she jumps up on the roof and refuses to come down. lol

I am so happy to at least have two female fur babies since I don't have any daughters. ;o)

They have been a source of adventure, amusement and comfort for all of us but especially for my munchkin. They both sleep on his bed with him at night.

Knowing now what a blessing pets can be and have been for our family… I have since seen them as angels.  And so my idea for this blog hop was to use my cats as models for a kitty with angel wings.

Since we don't own a scroll saw for cutting wood,  I set out to search for something in particular… and when I saw this little home made angel at our only local thrift store, I thought it would work well… or at least the wings would...

I cut the angel wings in half so that they would span the shape of the cat on the right a little better. The brown kitty had been thrifted a few months earlier and was in my stash waiting to be brought to my booth… but thankfully I had not brought it there yet… cause when I saw it, I thought the two items would be a good match. Since the plan was to remove the peg on the cat I decided to replace it with two wooden knobs that would be the cat's paws and allow for things to be hung from them.

I began by painting the knobs and cat in white and then added the black in certain areas to make it stand out against the wings. I used our cat Lilu as a guide… and I used hot glue to attach everything together. I left the wings as they where. I like the aged white in contrast to the snowy white of the kitty. and even the faux stitching pattern on the edges.

I was originally simply going to make a door hanger with the cat, but then decided to add it to one of the many chalkboards that I had been working on…  made from my stash of cupboard doors.

I am really pleased with the way it turned out. I think it would look perfect in a little girl's room. What do you think, do you know a little girl who would like this chalkboard?

I will be bringing it to my booth to sell and will give the proceeds to our local "Animal Shelter".  That was the whole idea behind the blog hop to raise awareness and help out in some way. If you are looking for your local animal shelter and thrift store… this LINK may help.

Make sure to check out all of the other thrift store makeovers by my fellow fur loving bloggers below…

Blessings,
Lucy

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