Pawsome customized Jack socks made by Socksery

Olivia from the Socksery Team - that want to spread joy by making pawsome customized pet socks with people’s furbabies on them - reached out to me last month regarding their custom socks. She was wondering if I might be interested in a free pair of socks in exchange for a review.

I jumped on board immediately. I was offered a similar opportunity a while ago but it slipped out of my fingers because I couldn't find the right photo of Jack to use. This time I was prepared as I had found one and kept it on hand in case I decided to buy a pair.

Because... Jack. He was just so freakingly handsome.. *sigh*

I sent off the image and Olivia said that would be great, so I sat back and waited for the "magical socks, personalized with (my) furry friend’s face" to arrive.

I chose a size Medium and to have the background purple. The background comes in different color choices such as blue, light blue, pink, red, green and orange. You can also choose two or even three faces to put on your socks. You can see those options here. They also have a face mashup where there is no background to it. (Okay, fine, you can even get your dog, or put your own face on a pair of socks. Heck, if you were clever you could probably use just about anything - but you know my preference.. kitties!!)

So.. what do I think of the socks? Well, come on, they have Jack on them, they are freakin awesome!!

I will tell you that I wear a size nine wide shoe.  I'm also not a completely fair representation of what they look like on because my calves are incredibly thick due to my lipedema.  Because I generally have an impossible time getting socks like this on my feet at all, I was incredibly impressed that I was able to get them on. They have some good give to them, but they aren't all loosey-goosey so you would have to worry about them falling down.

Negatives?? well, um.. well there is a seam down the side that runs all the way up the sock, but that's minimal... I mean like I'm digging for a negative here.

Now that I'm looking at the photos I will say that the purple is showing up on my screen as a shade or two lighter than they actually are.

So I grabbed some Crayola crayons to help you understand the color a little better..

The wrapper on the Plum and the Violet are very similar to the sock color, but the swatch of the violet was the closest in color.

I love them.. LOVE them.. Now, the question becomes if I had normal-sized calves would I wear them. I am so torn on that because I'd LOVE to show them off, but I would hate having them wear out. On the flip side of that, I could always buy new ones! 😸

If you have a pair, or you buy a pair, I'd love to see yours.. cause I think these things are so cool..

Fabulous Finds Friday Canvas Art from Collage.com

Jake from Collage.com reached out to me a little while ago to see if I was interested in reviewing* any of the products they sell in exchange for that product. I took a look around their website and found throw blankets, phone cases, bags, and canvas art. I am currently pairing down my throws or I would have been all over that (I mean do two people really need 17 throw blankets?) and the phone case would have been really fun but they didn't have my phone as an option.

I had been wanting a canvas print of Muffin. Oddly I don't have one. Over the years I have gotten free coupons from Shutterfly as well as a few other companies for free canvas prints as long as I pay shipping.  I even paid to have a few photos put on canvas for gifts for my family. But having owned eight cats (well nine, but Kodi died so young back in 2002 that we don't have really good photos of him) it simply takes time (or a lot of money) to get them all done.

This is one of my favorite memories of Muffin..

It is from 2011 at Christmas time when we were unloading the cat toys from the cat toy basket to put them on the Christmas tree. Every year since we started doing this Muffin would crawl into the basket after we started raiding it for toys. Every year it made me laugh and it brings me joy..

After I placed the order I did run into a little bit of an issue. My house does not have postal service so to get mail I need to have it sent to a Post Office Box. To compound this problem my home isn't actually in the town that my post office is. So, when I run across a website that won't allow shipping to a post office I am at a loss as to if they intend to send it to my home via FedEx or USPS or the such (so I need to give it one address) or if they intend to send it to my home via the postal service (you would be surprised how much of a problem this is)  I took the gamble that a currier would bring it to my house and lost.. I wrote to them about this and they informed me that they use third party shipping services so they have no control over this.. I am guessing most of you don't have this issue, so it is no big deal. They were quite apologetic and offered to replace the canvas if I wasn't able to track it down, which I did, it was just at the wrong post office.

The canvas was wrapped in a thin clear plastic bag and then put in a cardboard box and wrapped with packing ties. Absolutely none of this went to waste. The bag is being used for trash in my office, the packing ties were awesome kitten toys and the box is being used by Muffin who loves it VERY much.

I have hung it in my office where the painting of the mother cat with kittens was hanging and I absolutely love it. It has a nice color saturation and as you can see from the photo above it has a black backing on it which makes it feel much nicer than the other canvas prints I have.

I received a 16×20 Canvas for free including shipping. Standard price on their website is $89.99 and shipping for a canvas of this size is $15.98.  They are constantly running coupons and sales so if you are interested you can check them out. Right now everyone gets 50% off a canvas.. (I clicked re-order of this print to get what the standard price would be and it automatically applied the sales code)

I would not hesitate to order from them again. If I ever get off my duff and redesign the logo of this website I will probably order a tote with it for when I go to conferences. They have a wide variety of products from playing cards to pillowcases. The wrapping paper looks like it could be a LOT of fun!

Thank you Jake for the opportunity. I love my print and am very impressed with it.



*While I did receive the product for free that did not influence my review in this post at all. All opinions are mine. If the product had failed to meet my expectations it would not have made it on to the blog

An Ultimate Cat Scratching Post for the kitten room #artofpaws

I was on FaceBook the other day when I saw an ad for Art of Paws offering their new scratcher for a steep discount so they could get some reviews on their Amazon account and I immediately signed up. If you have been around this blog for a while you know I have their heated pet bed and my cats love it

As you can see, Fleurp was none too happy that this wasn't for her. I might have to buy another one to make her happy..

I put the scratcher together this weekend. I was dealing with a pretty severe case of bronchitis and I was moving pretty slowly so I was a bit daunted by all of the pieces initially

But, despite my infirmity, I was able to put it together in slightly over five minutes. The most difficult part was getting the two bottom pieces together and screwing the post on at the same time. A third hand would have been nice, but it wasn't necessary.

It was an immediate hit with both kitties.

It is nice and sturdy and as you can see the cats can hang off it no problem. Actually, at one point both cats were hanging off of it, but that didn't last long, as they aren't really friends.

And look, it comes with a really cool box.

If you are looking for a nice sturdy scratcher, you should check out the Ultimate Cat Scratching Post by Art of Paws

The kittens try #CatAmazing

I won this product from a review done over at It's all about the cats! I was not compensated in any way for this post, but I did receive it for free - because I won it.

It was sent to me via Amazon, so you can buy it there if you would like your own. I decided to let the CatMan put it together and the kittens "helped"

CatMan and Brutus contemplate the product

Zena thinks they are going to need a lot of help

I am here to save the day!

Dude, what are you doing?

I think you are supposed to do something with this.. 

CatMan reads the instructions while Zoey nibbles on them

oooh, something new to stand on!

Wait, we liked it the other way

well this is kinda interesting

How are we supposed to stand in this box if there is this insert?

The lady threw a ball in here.. 

What better toy than a friend to play with?

oooh, this is amazing!

The Cutest Cat gets to try Fancy Feast Purely Natural Filets Cat Food Topper - #chewyinfluencer

Since Fleurp won the Cutest Cat survey last week, I thought I would let her have first crack at this month's Chewy Influencer offering - where they send me free product in exchange for an honest review - of Fancy Feast Purely Natural Wild Alaskan Salmon Filets Cat Food Topper

This is an interesting product as it is just a few simple ingredients and it looks very much like a salmon fillet. Since they all look exactly alike and with the wording on the package I'd say they are formed and not 'real' salmon fillets but created ones, but I am okay with that.

I picked salmon over the other flavors because they called it wild Alaskan salmon, and I am trying to get more omega 3s in my older cats to help with their kidneys and their arthritis. But in the end it comes down to will the cats like it?

And to be fair, I put some down for the others.

And they promptly cleaned the plates.

Hey, can I have some more??

Art of Paws - Heated Pet Mat Product Review

I was recently contacted by Art of Paws to see if I would be interested in doing a review of their Heated Pet Mat if they sent me one for free. After checking out their website, I immediately replied yes. I was kinda hoping they would throw in a few of their cat shelves too, but it looks like I'll have to buy those on my own 🐱

Anyway, back to the heated bed. I had all kinds of ideas when Maya offered to send it to me. I was told it would fit two regular sized cats, so I thought I would put it on the guest bed for Eli and Skippy who tend to hang out on that bed more than our bed. When it arrived I didn't think it would fit two regular cats as it is 23 x 17 inches. I put it on the guest room bed, but no one was interested.

So then I moved it to the office.

What kitty doesn't love a heated bed. And as I suspected, it appeared to be the right size for one cat.. but then:

Muffin decided she wanted to be the new spokeskitty for Art of Paws and did her best to flirt her way into a good photo.

I didn't tell her that the mat wasn't made specifically for her, so she has totally claimed that to be the truth and she is loving having a nice warm soft place next to me to nap while I work. Just don't tell her that when she wanders off to make sure the house is still in one piece that someone else uses it.

Now usually when I do reviews, I tell you what I don't like about a product... the most negative thing I can say about this is I don't have a good plug to plug it in. Thankfully it comes with a six and a half foot cord so it reaches to the plug on the other side of the room. I like that it has bite protection from the switch to the mat and that the fleece cover is removable and washable. My cats like everything about it. When I forget to turn it on (I turn it off when I'm done working because my cats don't hang out in my office when I am not working) they still use it. It uses very little electricity according to their website - only 10w. Bonus: it comes with a three-year 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Thank you to Art of Paws for the opportunity and for the mat.
If you would like to check them out you can go to their website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.