Who can resist a fat black cat?

This is my (as of now) newest design--and one of the ones that Robin will be turning into a cool screenprint on t-shirts and napkins and other fun stuff. In the meantime, however, it's also available as a print or magnet in my etsy shop--if you don't see it right away you can click on any print or magnet that is the size you want, order it, and just note that you want the fat black cat as your design in the "notes to seller.

Or you can find it on a whole bunch of goodies with your own customizable color background in my zazzle shop!

(EDIT NOTE: This post was edited to remove the PayPal buy direct button on 3/30/10 because I get notices more consistently from Etsy when a purchase is made an an issue came up when someone tried to buy direct via PayPal. Until I get that issue sorted I'm keeping everything going through Etsy for my handmade stuff).

Puppy love is soooo passe

...especially for Valentine's Day.

Okay, yes, so this is an obvious set-up for my new so-adorable-they'll-change-your-life [insert eye roll here] "Not just puppy love" card + magnet set that I conveniently made just in time for Valentine’s Day, but still: roses, Hallmark poems, and "every kiss begins with K, now-I'm-wearing-the-same-thing-as-half the-housewives-in-America" pendants all scream (to me at least) either uninspired puppy love or panicky significant others who know they're supposed to do something, right? Or else they're in trouble.

I've been known to be a bit, shall we say, dubious regarding V-Day: The Institution. If so, this attitude might be left over from the Valentine's Day 15 years ago when...ehn, but I'll skip that story. The point is, Valentine's Day used to be distasteful because I associated it with unoriginal and insincere sap. (Amazing, I know, to discover I’m actually including a point. I think I might be breaking some unofficial rules of my blog or something.)

I don't hate V-Day anymore, because of my new self-imposed decision to take it back from the same-old sap—or make it some fun sap, at least. I, as you may have guessed by now, made this magnet for my husband for V-Day with ironical sap in mind.

I think it would be fun if people got just a little funky for V-Day, whether it's by making, doing, or buying something unusual [hint, hint to the hubster--though he's been on a roll lately, so he may not need one (grin)].

Fortunately, I'm not the only one making fun V-Day goodies. One of my personal faves right now is this anatomically correct heart pendant, with a latin inscription that means "from the bottom of my heart" (placed literally at the bottom of the actual heart. Who can resist tongue-in-cheek, joking-with-sincerity sap, as opposed to just your run of the mill stuff? Certainly not me.)

So will you be my funky Valentine, and share your funkiest V-Day idea? Besides suggesting I get off my funktified soap box, that is ;)

(Gee, I'm a little obsessed with variations on "funk" huh? I wonder if there's a treatment for that...beyond soap and water, I mean.)

(Okay, I'm truly and for real shutting up now.)