I didn’t sleep very well last night, unfortunately. Margot and Rosemary were playing in the movie room around five or six which made it difficult to fall back asleep for me since the sun was starting to rise. I got up at the same time as Alex and went downstairs to begin my day but I was pretty tired.

The chatty grey cat visited our garden and was upset to see all of the cats in the catio. I think that the grey cat is jealous of my cats’ lifestyle because he is always so happy to see me it’s pretty clear he likes my garden. He got really close up to the catio and sniffed Ichabod, growling unhappily the whole time, but he stopped as soon as I stepped onto the patio and called him over for a petting. I played with him for a while, even getting him to jump up onto the swing seat to play with a bit of dried foam, and then I said goodbye and went back in the house.

After that I decided to try to take a nap and ended up sleeping for around five hours on the sofa. The thing that finally knocked me out was the combination of a cosy blanket, elevating my legs on the sofa with a pouffe, taking some rescue remedy drops, and watching doll customisation videos on youtube. Before the first video was done I was out like a light!

When I woke up I felt slightly panicked because I knew I needed to sand and paint two of the mushroom heads. I got set up and did it very quickly, Alex helping with painting the mushrooms. The large mushroom took a surprising amount of time to paint, but it’s all painted now. After dinner Alex brought the mushrooms inside even though they’re not finished drying. The large one is taking up all of the floor space in the dining room and Ichabod got some red paint on a couple of his paws while trying to jump over it. They’ll both need another coat of red before they get their white spots and a clear coat to seal everything in, so I’m hoping they don’t take too long to dry!

I also went ahead and carved the stems down a bit so they’re now ready to be shaved with the surform. I’m not really looking forward to it because that step is just so messy, but I’ve managed to bring Alex onboard for that step so that’s a big relief. But once the stems are shaved they’ll be ready for a coat of white paint and then all they need is a clear coat so there’s not much left to do!