Search Results for: illamasqua

I approach today’s 500th installment of Sundays with Tabs with a sense of pride coupled with bittersweet melancholy. Tabs and I have spent an average of 2-3 hours working together on these posts each week for more than 10 years. That’s literally more than 1,000 hours!

As silly as these posts are, I’ll cherish the time I’ve spent creating them with Tabs for the rest of my life, because why not? Life is serious, and there’s always going to be something important going on. All of us face important decisions and challenges every single day — lost jobs, car repairs, breakups, work conflicts, overdue bills, taxes, health scares, financial difficulties, emergency room visits, sudden illnesses…

Nothing lasts forever. Everything is temporary. Change is the only constant, but I believe that it’s the little things that keep us going, like spending time with your cat and sharing pictures of him wearing a leather collar with a pink bow, a glittery “500” and a flower on it with people on the Internet.

Thank you for coming along with me on this marvelous ride so far.

Here’s a look at what Tabs wore on this morning’s patrol around the neighborhood, followed by a brief kitty modeling career retrospective. 🙂

[Continue reading…]

Tabs puts a lot of time and effort into his kitty modeling shoots, but he doesn’t usually get into the mechanics of them in public very often (he likes to think of himself as modest). Still, it’s interesting to see what really goes on behind the scenes. Some of these shoots can be quite complicated.

Earlier this week he and I sat down briefly to discuss some of his favorite kitty modeling shoots of the year.

Here are his 10 favorite kitty modeling shoots of 2014, complete with the behind-the-scenes commentary. 🙂

American Shorthair Hustle

TABS: “We had to go through dozens of hairpieces to settle on the caramel brown I wore for this shot. The costume department had me try on — I think it was more than a 100 — 70s-style wigs. Eventually, we narrowed it down to a rich obsidian black, a strawberry blonde and this caramel brown, which made the final cut because of how the color played off the gold glints in my eyes. I think it was the right choice.”

CATEX Claw and Nosetint

TABS: “Betcha thought this was me for a second, didn’t you? Nope, this is actually my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather cat, Franklin, one of the original trendsetters in the first feline print ads for cosmetics in the 1930s and ’40s. I must admit — the resemblance is uncanny. Even I’m surprised sometimes by the depth of kitty modeling talent in my family.”

Covercat Fur Illuminator in Main Attraction

TABS: “I trained with Cirque du Soleil for two months in preparation for this shoot, which required precise timing and a keen sense of body awareness. If I’d been off a single inch, the entire shot would have been ruined. The photographer anticipated that we’d need at least 50 frames to get a usable amount of material, but I nailed it on the first shot.”

The Illamasqua Arctic Artist Palette

[Continue reading…]

Wow. Overnight, we went from 80-something degrees, t-shirts and shorts to me noticing the leaves changing colors on the oak trees outside. How’d that happen?

I miss summer already. When it’s over, I always feel like I didn’t do enough outside while it was hot, like I didn’t take enough advantage of it, but I did… I’m just sad to see it go.

At least we have boots…fall boots and fall makeup and fall sweaters and fall snacks. I’m definitely gonna be going to DSW more often.

Tabs is none too pleased about the changing seasons either. His little deck garden is on its last legs. There’s just not enough sun to keep the plants happy. The cat grass and zinnia, which are probably his two favorite things to snack on whenever he goes outside, are withering and starting to yellow, and now he nibbles on them disdainfully, as if he’s forcing down a bad salad because he thinks it’s healthy, but it’s all he has.

It’s so weird, but two days ago, this is how it looked in San Francisco. El Hub and I took the ferry in from Larkspur to watch the Blue Angels, and it was hot! I was walking around holding a bottle of water, and now it’s 20 degrees cooler, cloudy and smells like rain. Go figure.

Time to shift gears to Halloween and Thanksgiving. To get myself in the right mindset, I like to look back through my folder of kitty modeling ad campaigns that Tabs worked on in previous falls… 🙂

[Continue reading…]