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| Liza's feline-themed wedding dress. (Image courtesy of Mark from Gold Hat Photography). |
I met Liza at a blogging workshop. I had themed my outfit dogs, she was head to toe in cats. Its fair to say we connected. Her energy, enthusiasm and passion for all things feline is infectious. Her blog is awesome, but when I found out about her wedding I had to take a look at the photos. I go weak at the knees for a themed event, and themed weddings just rock. Liza was kind enough to allow me to share some insights about her blogging, her bond with the non-humans in her life, and her awesome wedding snaps.
What’s
your day job?
I run my own HR Consulting
and Executive Coaching business called Small Solutions. It’s another part of my “Small” empire!
What
is your blog, thesmallworld, about?
My blog is about “All Things
Feline”. The focus is on fashion and
unique finds, art, gifts and collectables and a few anecdotes about our own
cats and living in a house that is entirely dominated by its felines.
Who
is Archibald and how did you meet?
I find it quite hard to put
my relationship with Archibald into words.
He’s the love of my life and my soul mate (and luckily my husband is OK
with that). He’s a beautiful ginger and
white Cornish rex who is now 15 years old.
I’m not especially romantic about my human relationships but I feel like
Archie and I were destined to meet.
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| Liza and Archibald. |
As a child I started
collecting artwork containing ginger cats and always called them
Archibald. I felt I would meet the real
life Archibald one day - and then in my early 20s I found him - in a pet shop called
Heavy Petting in Sydney. I generally never shop at pet shops (although it’s not
your average pet shop - he was bred by a very reputable Cornish Rex breeder and
housed in luxury) - but that particular day I walked in and there he was! He
has been everything I ever dreamed of and more and has truly inspired my creative
pursuits as an adult. He is always by my side when I am working at home or putting
my blog together.
Who
are the other non-humans in your life?
We have 3 other gorgeous cats
- Soho is a 15 year old Devon Rex, and Atticus and Sam are both 2 year old
Cornish Rexes. Unfortunately we had integration issues when we adopted our
kittens, so we run two separate households - we are part retirement village and
part kindergarten! Luckily we have a big house and both my husband and I run
home offices in different parts of the house so it all works quite well. I
feature their many adventures on my blog and via my instagram feed.
What
is the appeal of cats in particular?
I have loved cats and always
had a cat since I was 3 years old - and as an only child they have always been
my siblings, best friends and confidantes.
I love all animals and have lived with other species, but I find kittens
through to big cats so visually beautiful, and also so complex and interesting. Cats can have such a diverse range of
personalities and traits but I love their independence and intelligence. If a cat truly befriends and respects you,
then you have definitely earned it! Plus
they are hilariously funny.
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| We've been invited to a peak at Liza and Dean's wedding... |
You
are world famous for your feline-themed wedding. How did you feline-ify the
day?
I’m not sure I am quite
world famous! But yes our wedding did
have a very strong feline theme and we were honoured to have it featured in
Rock’n’Roll Bride.
Most of the wedding
decorations and accessories had feline touches - from invitations and place
cards to our wishing-well (a cat piñata) - right through to my dress by Sandie
Bizys. We really wanted to make sure our pets were front and centre on the day so
we had framed “quotes” from them at the entry.
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| Liza's mum handmade this stunning robe for the day. (Image courtesy of Mark from Gold Hat Photography). |
My mum hand made the robe I
wore getting ready and a beautiful pillow for our rings. Possibly my favourite
thing was our beautiful cake-topper, which featured our whole family of 8. We had 2 dogs at the time - 14 year old
cardigan corgis who sadly both passed away later in 2014 - and they were
featured too. They were such beautiful,
loving members of our household and are very sorely missed every single day.
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| All of the little details featured cats. I love the card-eating cat! (Image courtesy of Mark from Gold Hat Photography) |
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| Feline-themed place settings. (Image courtesy of Mark from Gold Hat Photography). |
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| Is this the best cake ever? (Image courtesy of Mark from Gold Hat Photography). |
The
term “crazy cat lady” is often used in jest or even disparagingly. But you
apply the term to yourself. How come?
Yes it’s definitely a term
that I claim and am quite proud of! On one hand I recognise that living a life
so obsessively focussed on one “thing” is outside the norm. My house and wardrobe are literally filled
with feline inspired things and I am covered in cattoos.
But my own quirks aside, I
think the things that make us “crazy” or unusual are in fact the things that
make us unique and interesting and should be celebrated. I spent a very long time feeling like an
outsider for all the things that made me “different”, but now I think that one
person’s “crazy” is another person’s “fascinating”! I wish more people would be
open about their quirks, obsessions, craziness or their challenges to “fit in”.
I’m pretty sure every human will experience those feelings at some point in
their lives.
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| Oh yes, Liza bagged the man of her dreams. (Image courtesy of Mark from Gold Hat Photography). |
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| I feel like I was there on the day! Thank you Liza! (Image courtesy of Mark from Gold Hat Photography). |
What
could we do to make the world better for non-human animals?
It makes me sad that there
isn’t more compassion (or more resources) for animals - and that we live in a
world where battery farming, live exports, habitat destruction and animal
exploitation (circuses, racing, fighting, etc) still exist. Similar to my comments about humans, I wish
more people would see animals as different but equal and worthy of the same
respect and dignity that we afford ourselves.
Educating adults and
children about animal welfare is a great place to start. There are lots of advocacy and rescue groups
that do amazing work and I am really proud to do my very, very tiny bit for the
Mini Kitty Commune in Sydney - a really wonderful community-based organisation
who are setting a new standard in cat welfare.
As
the owner of senior pets, you’ve spent plenty of time at the vet. Is there any
advice you’d like to share with veterinarians and future veterinarians?
Genuinely I can’t imagine
improving any of the vets I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with! In my
experience vets are wonderful, compassionate people as are vet nurses and
administrators. I think working with
sick animals and their guardians would be incredibly challenging and
heartbreaking at times and I have such admiration for people who enter into
careers in these fields.
If I’m allowed a shout out,
I’d love to acknowledge all the staff at Animal Tracks Vet Clinic and the
Animal Referral Hospital who have provided us and our family with so much care
and support over many, many years. Dr Kath Briscoe at ARH in particular does so
much for Archie and Soho - she is genuinely one of our favourite people on the
planet! So my only advice - keep up the
good work gorgeous vets and know that you are well loved and appreciated!
Thanks
Liza! And thank you also to Mark from Gold Hat Photography (http://goldhatphotography.com) who took the photos (except invitations).
You can plug into Liza’s social media channels here:
