Peek a boo and cleaning day

 Tommy:  OK Mom if you are going to clean and move my tunnel then I'm going with it! Does the snake come with it? And, you know you probably should vacuum a little more often since our furs are still coming out so much! 

Quick post, but wanted y'all to know we are still alive. Love you all!

Purrs,

Tommy and Teaghan

Caturday Art Pretty Tabbies

In keeping with some Saturday Cat art, I wanted to show you some different styles that I have learned in AI art recently.  The first one is a double exposure, with a field of flowers inside the beautiful Tabby. And the second one is a mixup of a few things like alcohol ink colors, flowers, and lace in the furry features; and including words like panpsychic and utopic connectome. Loving the vibrant colors that come out of some of the images. Both created in NightCafe.

And, just for fun and giggles, Snakie came by for a visit! We think it's the baby of the big snake from a month or so ago. It slithered off into the stand of pine trees just off to the side of the house. I won't be going over there at all now. I have a feeling that's where it and maybe more of its kind are living. Ugh. At least Tommy and Teaghan got a little thrill out of seeing it. And when I finally scared it off, it was FAST! There is no outrunning that thing. Although hopefully I believe they will be running away from people not to them. 

Purrs,

Brenda and the Ts

 

Caturday Art with Tommy

Caturday Art

AI art creation of a red and white Norwegian Forest Cat made by me in NightCafe. And, NO I am not getting paid anything or getting credits on this post for telling you about Night Cafe. This post is my opinion and for information only.

Now y'all know Teaghan and I cannot go outside but we can pretend in a picture.  It's a pretty picture right? Mom makes these with a thing called AI. To get this picture, all Mom did was type in the words in Night Cafe (because she has thumbs she can do this and we cats cannot...): "beautiful red and white Norwegian forest cat painting done in pastel style".  I'll let her tell you more about it.

"Lately I've seen how easy it is for others to confuse an AI generated image with something that I have photographed. Many know I have posted many of my photos on FB over the years so I can see why some would be confused. But it's all over the place now where it's hard to tell the difference in many instances. You can see how easy it is to confuse a picture as something that is a real photo or as a painting actually painted in real life. In an AI art creator, like Night Cafe, all this is done with just a few words describing what you want and the style you'd like it to look like. 

Thank you Tommy.  Because of the closeness and inability of many to distinguish between AI art and a photograph taken by a human, or a photo of a painting, even "FaceBook is going to require images that users post to Facebook, Instagram and Threads when they can detect industry standard indicators that they are AI-generated so that people know they have been created using AI." 

Night Cafe is the program that I use the most. There are many ways to get a different output, choosing a different painting style, or a different preset that already has a particular set of modifiers in it. It's very addictive, as you enter the words and wait literally seconds before you get your result. It's as someone said, "it's like pulling the handle on a slot machine, and waiting for the jackpot".  The "jackpot" is a creation that comes out perfect the first time. It doesn't happen often. Many times there are extra paws, two heads, six or seven fingers, no thumbs, too many thumbs, the wrong thumbs, you get the idea.  

As with a slot machine, you have to use credits. With Night Cafe, you get credits to use to make your creation for things such as liking other's creations, publishing your own creations for 5 days in a row, welcoming and commenting on newbies creations, entering challenges (there's even a "Caturday" challenge) to win credits, and other things for credits. 

There are many other AI art generators that are free besides Night Cafe and/or you pay for a subscription. I just happen to use NC the most because of the ease of use and learning it and the community that is in there. It's like blogging, with commenting and meeting and liking others through a common interest, such as with us and our cats.  It's a dream for someone like me who likes to learn new things above all else.

In learning how to create AI images, I have learned from others in the Night Cafe community so many things about art terms that I never knew before. For instance, ever hear of "tenebrism"? It's a style of art mostly associated with the painter, Caravaggio, to do with the use of light in highlighting a subject. I had studied Caravaggio, but never heard of the term. And being able to create anything with a style of art like quilling, alcohol and ink painting (my favorite), watercolors, palette knife, just to name a few is simply amazing.  

So I will continue to create these beautiful images until I get tired of it and I will. I tend to jump from one thing to another all the time and never quite stay with something long enough to master it. But that's what makes my life so interesting to me. There's so much to learn and create in this wonderful life we live. If you've read this far then thank you. I just feel like I needed to get it out of me. :-).  Surprisingly though, I have stuck with blogging here for so long.  I have been on and off many times but that's all relating to me running off and spending time on something new. Thankfully I don't work anymore although I seem to spend the same amount of time on my computer as before if not more! At least now it's for me and not for work. lol.  So thanks again for reading and I'll be back writing, reading, and commenting again soon.  XO everyone and hope you continue to read and enjoy Tommy and Teaghans (real and AI created) photos!

Purrs,

Tommy

And Mom Brenda

Tommy and his plants

Tommy:  Hi y'all! We have been a little bizzy doing a lot of nothing lately. As you can see I have taken over the dining room table. Mom says if I stretch out end to end I can reach both sides of the table. I can do this because she took the orchids off the middle of it. Now I can be the center piece! 

As far as the plant scenario, you know how I like my tunnel time with the "fake" snake. Now here we have a real "snake" plant. Somehow I got blamed for a big piece of it that has broken off.  Just because I run back and forth watching the squirrels and the rabbits out there doesn't mean it was me. The rabbit WAS eating all the cucumber plants out there and I was trying to scare him away. That's all. That's a good thing right?

Tommy's the centerpiece

Back in my sunny spot.

I don't know how that got like that

 Purrs,

Tommy (and Teaghan)

Happy Earth Day from the Ts

Happy Earth Day!

We pledge to support and keep our planet healthy as much as we can within our little micro world inside our house. Here are some things we can do:

1.  Since the Earth Day theme this year, 2024, is "planet vs plastics", the pawrents will buy no more plastic toys because we have enough to play with already. And we hardly play with them anyway, well except for the springy ones.  Also, Mom wishes someone would invent a small box that you put on your counter and add all the plastics from the store into it and it melts down into a little tiny ball that gets recycled. Or somehow the plastics disappear after being put into the box. 

2.  We will be nice to the plants in the house and not put the bitey on them. 

3.  We will reuse any and all cardboard boxes that mysteriously appear in our house. Sometimes we put the bitey on the boxes but it does not seem to hurt them. 

4.  We will play with all the remaining feather toys and not chew them so Mom needs to buy more.

That is all we can think of for now.  

Purrs,

Tommy & Teaghan

xo

Joining Awww Mondays today!

Thankful Thursday and a real Snake!

Thankful Thursday already! Mom is thankful she is inside because guess what's outside? 

What da heck??! Is that a snakie?

Oooh look! I see you snakie! 

Let me out let me out! I wanna chase the snakie!

Tommy:  Me and Mom kept an eye on Blackie the snake as it went around the house. We went from window to window, then we didn't see it anymore.  That could only mean one thing... it found a place it liked in the pine straw next to the window. We kept an eye out and no more snake, until... after Mom came back from a store visit to get some purrvisions, she took a look see around the house and there it was - sittin' up staring at her from probably the same spot it stopped at before. It started to move and then slithered down into and under the pine straw. It looks like we got us a real live snakie to keep a watch out for. Mom will not be going outside for a while... 

MomB:

We will keep you posted on Blackie the Snake and his whereabouts. We do know it's a good snake because it eats poisonous snakes, but where it's hanging out is right near the water faucet we use to water the plants. Eeeeeeekkkkkk!

Till later....

Purrs,

Tommy and Teaghan

 

Thankful Thursday with the Ts

 

Tommy: "You back? I'm bizzy".  

Teaghan: "Where you been all this time?"

The Ts:  The pawrents are home! The pawrents are home! We are so thankful for all the great care we got from Auntie Mary and Uncle Mark. They played with us three times a day. Mom gave them special instructions to make sure they played with us in our tunnel. We like the snake game remember. And while they were gone a REAL snake a loooooong black snake much bigger than our stick fake snake, was in our yard! So Mom is thankful she wasn't here to see that in person, even though she knows they are good snakes.  And we got fed lots and everything is good. We are very happy they are home and so are they. 

The other best news we could give the Mom is that we got our story about our BIG MOVE from Connecticat to North Carolina (warm land) published in our local community magazine, CAT-TAILS, April 2024 edition.  That's something to be thankful of for sure! 

Mom B:  We also heard the news about Brian's Home Forever's Dad, Terry, and are sending prayers and love that he gets the best care ever and heals quickly and can come home to all his furry loves. xo.

We hope to be back to a normal blogging schedule very soon and post some Australia photos. Happy to be home!

Purrs,

Tommy & Teaghan and. Mom B

Joining the Thankful Thursday Bloghop at Brian's Home. 

And GREAT NEWS! Terry is home! 🙏