Craft ideas: scratching pole for your cat

My cat loves to scratch his nails on the carpet, stairs, couch and so on. It was surely time for a scratching pole, but the bigger ones are always quite expensive so I decided to make one myself.
Things you need:
– an old bookshelf
– 24 meters rope
– cd holder
– fluffy cushion
– old scarf
– saw
– hammer
– paint
– glue
– nails

1. I used an old bookshelf for the top and the bottom of the scratchingpole. I cut in into two parts, one part bigger than the other so you get a stable base. Cost: €0,-

2. I bought a wooden cd holder to use as the middle part of the scratching pole. I would attach the rope on to this part.Cost: €2,- second hand shop

3. I painted the part of the shelf that’s gonna be the bottom part. I just searched the shed in the backgarden and found some blue paint. Cost: €0,-

4. I bought 24 meters of rope in a  hardware store and I wrapped this around the cd holder, glueing it at the corners. Cost: €10,-
5. Then I attached the top and bottom part to the cd holder and put an old fluffy cushion on the top so my cat could chill on that part. Cost: €0,-
6. At last I wrapped the rest of the cd holder with an old scarf so the whole thing would be covered. Cost: €0,-

And the result is there:

Easy, cheap and fun!

The sweetest thing..!

How cute is this? *melts away*

Bucketlist # 50. Get a pet! ✔

Here he finally is! My new and first pet of my own! I didn’t really intend to get a pet at this stage, but I just fell in love with him the moment I saw him. My friends here all have pets. This could have to do with the fact they’re all vet students, but that’s another story. A week weeks ago one of my best friends from Holland was over for a visit and she loves horseriding. Lucky for her there’s a few people here that own horses so she could ride a horse if she wanted to. We went to the stables where both of them could do all the horse stuff and I could watch my friend struggling to stay on the horse. I’m not a horse person, never was. The few times I’ve sat on a horse are not the best memories of my childhood. Horses can smell my fear and seem to do anything to give me a fright, or better, throw me off their backs. Anyway, as I was nearly freezing to death in the cold riding area my attention went to this sweet little cat who seemed to love the attention. The moment I kneeled down and started stroking him it felt like he was supposed to be mine. When I picked him up he immediately started to lick my scarf with his little paws grabbing my coat.  Back at home I couldn’t stop thinking about this little one wandering around by himself with noone to take care of him and giving him cuddles. So I just decided to take him. After informing if he really didn’t belong to anyone (imagine just taking someone’s pet) I could start buying catstuff. Unfortunately I had to wait for him for a bit longer, after seeing him at the stables that first time, he dissapeared from the scene for a while. Me and friends who have their horses there went looking for him several times. Just as I thought he was gone and almost decided to get a kitten from the shelter instead, he appeared. And so it happened that my friend rang my doorbell on a Wednesday afternoon with my cat in the back of her car. When I say in the back, I mean in the back, as close against the glass of the back window as possible. But he’s all happy in his new home, with my roommates dog as a future friend. And after thinking of a name for weeks I decided to name him Darwin. My fifth grade students thought of this name as a joke after we had a lesson about Australia, but I kind of like the strong, original name. It kinda stuck with me so this is it, my little boy is called Darwin from now on. I’m crazy about him, it’s strange how pets can make you want to come home 🙂 But you gotta admit, isn’t he gorgeous?

Lots of love,smiles and happiness,

Evalina