My Cat & Mice Quick Crafts for Christmas

Here it is, that time of year again, when the holidays are fast approaching. I always like to take a bit of time to think about what Christmas ornaments I can make for my tree. I love whimsical things, and I love to make ornaments that are fun and easy, so I set myself the task of coming up with something I hadn't done before. Staying with the up-cycle theme, I used a bit of cloth scraps and felt, and came up with these cute mice and kitty cat.

While making these I was reminded of a time long ago, in my teen years, when we lived on a big wheat and dairy cattle ranch. There was a huge barn on the place that held hay for the cows for the winter and also had a feeding area for the cows. In the feeding area we had large troughs we would fill up with corn and feed pellets.

In the barn lived a giant yellow cat. Its job was to eat the mice that lived among the hay bales. However, this cat loved to get down into the feed troughs and eat the hormone enriched feed pellets for the cows instead. This caused the cat to grow far above its proper size. (In those days they didn't know growth hormones were a bad thing, they just wanted the cows to grow faster.) This yellow cat was the king of his domain, and all of the other barn cats were afraid of him.

I thought this cat was the coolest thing and I always wished it was friendlier, but it preferred to stay among the bales and didn't come near enough to be petted. I don't know how many mice it actually ate because it was far too big to get down the holes between the bales. No doubt the mice ran circle's around him.

Inspired by my memories, here are my two cloth mice. I named them Farmer & Molly Mouseberry. They were just made of triangle's of cloth, with little felt ears. Easily sewn by hand, they use up some very small scraps. A bit of poly-fil plumps them right up. I used tiny felt balls for their eye's and a bit of yarn for their tails. This works as a loop to hang them on my tree too.

Just like in my memories, Farmer and his wife, Molly Mouseberry live on a farm. They love the smell of new mown hay and have a cozy little nest deep in the stack of hay bales, in the farthest-most corner of the Big Barn. They love to come out at night and snack on the wheat kernels in the grainery. They must however, keep a wary eye out for Kitty Goldenrod, because they think he is very fierce, even tho his name is so sweet.

Here is Kitty Goldenrod, he loves to laze in the sun, and isn't really much threat to the Mouseberry's, if they only knew it. He would rather mosey over to the dairy barn at milking time, to get free squirts of milk when I am milking. Or help himself to the cow feed. He really is a lazy cat.

Kitty Goldenrod turned around to get another squirt of milk, and the next thing he knew, the Mouseberry's appeared. It was not what he expected at all.

You might think they are playing Cat and Mouse, but in fact I caught this shot right before Kitty Goldenrod saw them and made a mad dash out the barn door. Seems Farmer and Molly Mouseberry had also been into the cow feed, and had grown as large as Kitty. Their sudden appearance nearly scared the liver out of him.

Here is Kitty Goldenrod right after the incident. He is trying to smile in spite of his shakes. He came to me to complain, tho not about the mice. Seems I had failed to give him the one thing that can insure a cats survival. Can you guess what it is? I felt so foolish, as I had forgotten to give them to the mice too.

                 Have you guessed it yet?! You Did?! You are so right! It was their whiskers!
                    Now they are all ready to come and stay on my tree this Christmas.
Tho Kitty Goldenrod has asked he be put on the far side, away from Farmer & Molly Mouseberry.