Friendly Fill-Ins and Photo Fails

Welcome to one of the seven best days of the week! Friday! We'll start off with the Friendly Fill-Ins challenge. In case you missed the fill-in statements yesterday, I'll share them again here. Ellen of 15andmeowing came up with the first two, and I came up with the second two.

1. If I had _________, I would _________.

2. _________ sparks my creativity.

3. _________ keeps me up at night.

4. I only just recently learned _________.

My answers are in bold below. They're all about the furbabies!

1. If I had a hefty sum of money, I would try to help as many homeless animals as possible.
(I'm sure all of you animal-loving friends of mine would do the same.)

2. The animal kingdom sparks my creativity.
(I don't know if anything inspires me more than my family of furbabies, my angel Rosie, all of my furry and feathered childhood angels, wildlife, and essentially all the creatures and critters who make this world a better place. You've all probably noticed that my doodles pretty much always star something furry. A great many of the tales of fiction I'm in the fun process of penning also, of course, have their fair share of furry stars. This is because they inspire me more than I could ever explain.)

3. Eddy keeps me up at night.
(Not all cats are truly nocturnal, but this girl is. She thinks sleeping is for losers. Her favorite nighttime game is running around my bedroom, playing, and loudly announcing that she's running and playing.)

4. I only just recently learned that Tonks turns into a statue at the vet.
(Tonks went in for her first annual exam as an adult cat this week. This calico of mine is usually an active little lady known to quite literally bounce off of walls. At the vet, though, she turned right to stone. Thankfully, the poor, petrified girl passed her exam with flying colors.)

Now it's your turn!

To add your link to the Friendly Fill-Ins Linky list, just click HERE!

You can also click on the badge below to add your link.

You are also welcome to complete the fill-ins in the comments below,

or in the comments on Ellen's blog, 15andmeowing.

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It's that time of the month when everything falls into place perfectly. What I mean is, Friday is the day when you all get your fix of Eddy, our resident blooper queen. What's so perfect about this is that the last Friday of every month is the Pet Photo Fails! Blog Hop, hosted by Melissa's Mochas, Mysteries, & Meows.

Of course, Eddy is more than ready with some bloopers for you all. These photo fails were all snapped during the same photo shoot from which we've been sharing surprisingly non-blurry photos of Eddy. The first couple bloopers below were snapped after I gave Eddy some treats in hopes of distracting her.

I don't know what came over me, thinking that giving Eddy her favorite treats would result in clear, non-blooper photos.

When I realized that the treats weren't going to give me any non-blurry Eddy shots, I opened the window in hopes of distracting her that way. Though that did result in some clear shots, which we've been sharing over the past couple of weeks, other shots look more classically like Eddy. You know, like this:

I think the dirty state of that window is another blooper in itself. Yikes.

Wishing you all a fantastic Friday!

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Doodle of the Day: Flashback Friday

I was honestly quite hesitant to rehash today's flashback doodle. There are various reasons for this. For one, it's one of my especially weird and wacky doodles. Aren't all of my doodles weird and wacky, though? Anyway, in particular, this doodle is based on the Harry Potter series. I know Harry Potter isn't everyone's thing, and I'll readily admit that many of its elements really are quite eccentric. But, I grew up with a father who instilled in me a love for reading, most especially when it comes to the fantasy genre. That's why, as I've mentioned here before, when the Harry Potter series came out when I was a kid, it hooked me in real good.

What's more, I created today's flashback doodle over three years ago, way back in April of 2016. Since those many moons ago, my style as well as my preferred art supplies have changed quite a bit. Back when I created today's flashback doodle, I was still using fineliner pens to draw my animals and other main subject matter, and I was using ink pads to create my doodles' backgrounds. Nowadays, I use actual art markers, such as those with brush tips, to create my doodles.

I guess the above statements are sort of forewarnings. In summary, today's flashback doodle is one you haven't seen in three years, it's got some real weirdness going on, and it was created using styles and art supplies I no longer employ. That being said, here it is:

Despite my reservations, there's a reason I chose this doodle as my flashback for today, and it's because I've decided I want to do a more current a series of doodles that more or less recreate this old one. Lately, I've been trying to create doodles inspired by summer, since it is, after all, summer. But, if I'm being honest, I don't feel all that inspired by summertime. Summer is not even remotely my favorite time of the year (I'd like me some autumn, please), and trying to create doodles reminiscent of summer usually results in me feeling less than creative. I realized recently that, rather than summer doodles, I'm simply in the mood to create something more magical and whimsical (honestly, I'm just trying to tide myself over until I can finally start going hog-wild with autumn doodles). I recalled this old doodle of mine, and decided I'd go with recreating it.

I apologize to anyone who is not a fan of things like Harry Potter. However, the reality is that I've reached a point in my creative life where I've learned that I have to create what I feel inspired to create or I won't feel inspired at all. Don't worry, though, because of course the wacky doodles I'll be sharing over the next few days will still indeed star furbabies. I hope you can enjoy them in that regard, if nothing else.

Oh my goodness, how do I get so long-winded when merely talking about an old drawing? My apologies. You'd never guess that I'm not a very talkative or social person when you meet me in real life.

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Did you know?
Did you know that the papillae on a cat's tongue are not just for removing dead hair and other dirt and debris from their coat? The papillae are the backward-facing barbs on a cat's tongue, and for a cat in the wild they also serve the purpose of removing as much meat as possible from the bones of the cat's prey. These barbs on a cat's tongue, therefore, serve some very significant purposes. That being said, these papillae can also make things such as yarn and tinsel especially dangerous for cats. This is because, since the papillae are barb-like and face backwards, removing string-like material from their mouth is not something a cat can easily do. So, keep that yarn and tinsel away from your kitty, because the papillae on their tongue might very well direct it straight down their throat.