Pumpkin Festivities Day 4 - Inside Here We Come

Expanding the entrance hole to inspire the rats has met with success.



Jimmy nibbling on her hard earned yummies.


Front entrance - We shall soon have rats able to hang out inside the pumpkin.


The sky light is still in the beginning stages, but apparently they want a BIG skylight.


Here's Jimmy demonstrating her excavation technique.

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Pumpkin Festivities - Day 2

Report from the Pumpkin Cage-

Well, it's Day 2 of the Pumpkin Festival.

Nighttime is when most of the excavation occurs.




Here we find the starter hole has mostly been ignored.




However, a fairly significant excavation is occurring in the roof of the pumpkin.




So, we have made a minor alteration to the starter hole, and we shall see over the next 24 hours how this affects pumpkin excavation operations.

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Pumpkin Festivities 2012 BEGINS

Pumpkin time is a special and eagerly awaited for time in my household. And, this year's festivities has officially begun.




First, the pumpkin.




This year's start hole is ... small.




And, this photo was taken within minutes of placing the pumpkin in the cage. Yes, Lily has already begun the excavation festivities.

1916 Sewing - Post 4 - Origins of the cross stitch design for my needle case

This beautiful pin keeper comes from the blog, Heart in Stitches.

I'm using the central portion of the design for my needle case.  So, far my purple portion is this one's blue portion.  And, I still have to decide what color to make my center.

Isn't the original stitcher just fabulous?  It makes me a tad embarrassed, but hey, I'm learning.

Mouse or Is It Something Else?

This little fella was wandering (at times in circles) on the road on my way to the post office. I thought he might be a hamster, so I stopped, but he's definitely a wild rodent. Not a baby rat because he's too small and well-developed.

I scared him back into the bushes. I'm worried that he won't survive the winter or even the day if he's running around on the road. But, my fear of a rodent-borne illness kept me far away from him. (The camera provided the close-up).

Mabel has recovered as well as she will from her pneumonia, and I don't want to risk losing any of my rats after having just lost Rose.

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1916 Sewing. 3rd Post

The cross stitching begins on my sewing needle book.


But, I must have lost count somewhere because one of the "leaves" is a tad long. I was hoping it wouldn't be too noticeable, .... but...


it's lopsided. And, that's just one line too many. So, I'm going to have to figure out how to unpick it. The stitches aren't perfect either. Counting 3 lines up and across for each stitch is not easy. But, I'm pleased with the overall appearance, except for the "obvious" oops.

This would have come together an awful lot faster if I'd used aida fabric. So far, it takes one episode of Battlestar Galactica (40 minutes) to complete each of the four sections.

And, it's really amazing how my old skills at cross stitch are helping. It reminds me that this is why I'm doing this course. Some skills you learn by doing. And, once you've learned them, you have them for life.

Oh, And, I'm using a purple variegated embroidery floss. I'm pleased with the variation in color, and I'll just have to see how the oops repair affects the color.

My pattern calls for a contrast color in the center of the design. I still have to decide what color to use.

And, hmmmm did I post about where I found the design? I'll have to double check on that. I think I did not, so I will just have to do another post on that.

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Rainbow Bridge - Rose

Rose as a baby. She's the beige hooded. She, later, became a Siamese.


Rose passed in her sleep last night after a prolonged battle with pneumonia, the same pneumonia that troubled Mabel. Despite hand feeding and antibiotics and theophylline, Rose just did not gain weight, and our vet had cautioned us that she was just not going to recover.




Sweet Rose doing what she loved, hanging out in a sleeve.




Rose with her sister, Martha.

Rose was always a shy rat, and she had struggled with skin irritation and a breast lump. Since we'd switched to a wheat free diet, she'd been much more assertive and active and her rash improved, but then, the pneumonia.

She will be joining Curly, Doctor #1, and Gwen at the rainbow bridge.

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1916 Sewing. 2nd post

And so begins my 1916 sewing project....

I've dilly dallied enough, so here goes....

First, I had to find some fabric, and a garage sale had what I wanted.


The blue marks are from my water soluble marker. This photo is pre-ironing. Sigh.. I hate ironing.



Now, I'm designing the decoration for the cover. I can't stand Aida fabric, so I'm trying to use an even weave fabric, but the weave may be too fine. We shall see.



The orange embroidery floss is just for testing. I haven't decided on a color other than for monochromatic. Maybe brown, purple, red, or black.

One of the odd things about this project are the anachronistic (if I'm using that word properly...) moments. When I was measuring with my quilting square, I was thinking how wonderful a product it is, and that in 1916, these didn't exist. I shall just skip mentioning water soluble pens.

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Halloween Hammock Sets on Etsy

Finally, I got them listed.  (Here's one of the hammock sets) I've had them sitting around the house for weeks, but with Halloween coming soon, they needed to be put on sale.  I'd been working on a garment that just took forever which had kept me from my other sewing.

This time, I made 3 sets made up of flats and a couple of bunk beds.  So, more fun for spoiled pets.

A Rittles and Bittles Rule

Do not use paper money for a bookmark.

Last weekend I funded my garage sale shopping from the contents of one book I bought for less than a dollar. Inside the book, a crisp $20 bill was secreted. That so made my day.



Here's Doc playing with a pile of buttons.

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It's the Season for Squirrels

This is Stripe, one of our neighborhood's resident squirrels. He is named after his two grey stripes along his back.




Stripe busily doing squirrel things.




And, Super Stripe....

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