DIY: Cat fur keychain

Today is a clear fine day..I mean, enough about the haze already! I've been seeing grumblings on facebook about 3 hour check on PSI, the out of stock N95 mask, the no-more-in-sight skyscrapers, blah blah blah...enoughhhhhhhhh. If you don't like the haze, stay at home! If you have to go out, wear a mask or bear with the haze for awhile, no big deal. Really. The funny thing is, people don't wear mask when they are sick and outside. Instead, they make a big fuss over haze that happens every year and then queue all the way to get N95..One more thing, why smokers still need to smoke when they can have free smoke now? Some smokers even wear mask!! Irony.

I love going out during hazy times, love the smell and the dreamy sight. There was a kind Indian lady who offered me a mask when I was waiting for bus at the driving center and told me how bad the haze will do to me..I politely rejected her and continued appreciating the environment. This isn't Chernobyl. I won't die instantly. I even walked from Dhoby Ghaut to Orchard, no crowd and peaceful..great!

So since today there isn't any heavy haze for me to enjoy outside, I stayed at home and did some DIY while watching Long Island Medium (SCV opens most of the channels this weekend, how thoughtful!). This time is quite special one, using car fur! If you have furry kids and you want to keep a part of them with you (not chopping off their tail to keep), groom them and store their fur in a bottle 'cause you can make things out of them! From keychain to tie pin and little puppets.

Thanks to my BFF, she bought me this book from Taiwan. Love it soooooo much!

That is in Chinese and version 2.0, alternatively you can borrow the version 1.0 in English from our nice library:

So how to make the keychain? First and for most, you must have some volunteers who can contribute the fur..I've got 3 brave donors:

 Bosh. She's the leader of the pack and the mastermind. She's "venomous" because her hair is super fine and once the hair gets onto your face, you are gone in the next breath.

 Mayo boy. The mommy's boy. He has thick shiny hair.

 Oonee. The faithful follower, leader's BFF and daddy's girl. Hate people who mess up her precious hair.

Most of our local cats shed quite little compared to cats in other countries because we do not have 4 seasons. So I collected for a few months to get a ball of fur from the 3 combined..

These are the steps.

1. Comb the volunteers once a week. If they start to run away, stop combing. Cats have very sensitive and thin skin that is prone to scratches. For Bosh, she always screamed to get groomed. She loves it totally until she can doze off.

 

 2. Collect the fur in a bottle. Do not put in a bag as the fur will be flattened and hard to tame later.

3. As long as you have a handful of ball, you are ready to make a keychain! Use your palms to gently roll the fur into a ball until it is smaller and rounder.

4. Prepare a basin of warm soapy water. This can help to wash the fur and at the same time, shape the ball. Squeeze the ball in the water, and roll it until it becomes tighter and rounder. Remove and do the same in the basin of clean room temperature water to rinse out the soap.

5.  Leave it to dry. Best method is to put it in a laundry net and hang up.

6. Prepare felt needle. You can get it from Spotlight at about $5. 

7. Poke the fur ball non-stop into shape illustrated below to make a paw. 

 The back of the paw.

8. Prepare a felt sheet. You can get this from Spotlight too at $0.99. Draw the shape of paw pad with marker and cut it out.

 I chose pink for memory of Ah pink who ran away 1 year ago and didn't come back.

9. Put the cut paw pad onto the furball and poke the pad in using the felt needle.

10. Once it's done, it's time to tag it to a keychain. I like to put some other little decorations, so I chose small cotton ball, also from Spotlight, to put at the bottom of the paw using a T-pin.

11. Bell. Cats and bells..cute right? I think I got this from People's Park Complex.

12. Hook up the fur paw and bell with the keychain using a jump ring. Ta-da! The keychain is done!

Cute right? This is the combined donation from the 3 kids in memory of Ah Pink. She had pink paw pads and the 3 kids miss her everyday.

Have a great weekend everyone!

P.S. For those who curious on how my driving test went, I passed! It was really a great hazy weather, quiet traffic and the tester was not fierce at all. Of course, my instructor was the best! If you are interested to learn driving or refreshing your driving skill, let me know.

xoxo