The Confidence of Cats

Cats are the best. The internet was basically created so we can share cat videos and photos of them, and as a person who has spent 24 hours with a cat for the last year and a half, I can honestly say I will never have the confidence or relaxation skills my cat has. Keely will legit sit on a counter he's not supposed to sit on, slowly push something off that counter, and make direct eye contact with me the entire time. He knows I'll tell him "get down" or move him off the counter. That won't dissuade him jumping right back up later in the day. We should all have the confidence of cats. 

Specifically, we should all have the confidence of cats walking on the edge of a full bathtub.

I had a cat named Pumpkin before Keely. Pumpkin was about 8 months old when I adopted her, and never got any bigger than about 8 pounds her whole life. I had her for 16 years, and she owned the world. That was how she acted. It was amazing. She liked to sit on the edge of the bathtub all the time, but was particularly fond of pacing on it whenever I ran a bath. She'd walk from one side to the other, using the corners to make her turn. She only fell in once, but that never stopped her from doing it again. Keely does the same thing, and he's twice her size and the bathtub edge is not that big. He hasn't fallen in yet, but I'm waiting for it to happen. Like Pumpkin, he won't care. He'll probably try to eat my hand while I rinse him off and bundle him in a towel. And then he'll go straight for my bed or the couch and lay on it while he dries (which is what Pumpkin did). 

I was talking about confidence with someone at work earlier today and in the moment, I couldn't think of a way to help them with building their confidence that didn't sound smug and weird. It wasn't until hours later that the cat example popped into my head. I'll have to share this with them tomorrow.

So friends, go out in to the world with the confidence of a cat walking on the edge of a full bathtub.

 

I tried Pilot Frixion Erasable pens for today's transfer. You can use heat to remove any stray lines - compare this image to the above (by the "d" in confidence or the "f" in full) and you can see the lines are gone. I used a hair dryer for my heat source. Good times.

Details:
Stitches: back stitch
Thread palette: DMC 820 (2, 4 strands), 317 (2 strands)

Tools: A bunch of embroiderers and crafters I follow swear by the Pilot pens for transfers. I finally bought some this weekend, and so far am pleased with the result. The heat thing is cool, especially if you use a smaller number of strands of thread or you make a mistake when transferring a pattern. I need to try them on something a bit more detailed before I decided if I like them or not. I also use transfer pens from Sublime Stitching and chalk/colored pencil-like transfer markers I can find at the fabric store.