Slug Lovin'

When I was a kid and first learned about where babies come from... Well, I mean when I first learned that the act had something to do with having babies. I had cats, of course, and they all went into heat a couple of times a year, so I was familiar from a young age with the way it was done. And that it led to babies. I just didn't realize exactly what was going on until later.

Don't worry about the invasion of these snails' privacy.
They were doing it on my front porch.
They didn't care who saw them.

Anyway, when I realized the cats were having sex, I started to wonder how other animals did it. Not animals like cats and dogs and similar shaped animals, because even at a young age I had a pretty logical mind. I assumed animals that were shaped the same way did it the same way. No, I wondered about fish, snakes, birds, spiders.

Did none of you ever wonder about that? No? Just me? Fine.

Anyway, I was reminded of that line of thought recently. I came home from work and there on the porch were two snails, making sweet, sweet love to each other. It was pretty gross. Slime trail all over the cement, where they had apparently met, and then up the wall where they could no longer resist each other.

The child in my head just said, "Hm. So that's how they do it."

The Portal Is A Lie

Woke up this morning to see this on the living room wall:

Maybe it's because I'm a nerd, but I immediately thought of this:

FYI, it's the sun shining through the peephole on the front door.

Caron Cakes

Looks a bit like sushi, doesn't it?

Whoo hoo! Take a look at this lovely yarn. It's Caron Cakes. It's a beautiful yarn, dyed in chunks to give it that pretty colorblock effect. And it's soft. Soft like Caron Soft, only not as splitty and floppy. (I think it must be plied tighter.)

It's 80% acryllic and 20% wool, and the label says handwash, lay flat to dry. But you know me. There is never going to come a day where I hand wash a blanket. That 80/20 split is the same as a bunch of other yarns that I always machine wash/dry, with no ill effect.

And there is a lot of yarn here. 383 yards per cake. So now the hard part is, what to do with it?

What do you think I should knit?

Pillow Craft

My class this month was another embroidery class. In this class, we turned a tote bag into a pillow. This was a pretty involved craft.

Step One: Tape off the chevron pattern on the tote bag. (I guess Pre-Step One was to cut the handles of the bag off.)

These chevrons are just freehand
tape placement. I didn't really
measure them.

 Step Two: Paint the bag/pillow. I used a fabric paint pen, but that was a big pain in the butt. And it took for-freaking-ever. I think I would use some sort of liquid paint and brush it on, if I did this again.

Takes forever to color in all the chevrons.

Step Three: Embroider some of the chevrons with coordinating yarn. This turned out to be pretty time consuming, too.

I was not happy with my crappy stitching,
but in the end, Achilles liked it.

So, Step Four would be to stuff and seal the bag into a pillow, but I'll be honest with you. We only had a two hour time slot to do this. My class went over by 30 minutes and I still didn't finish.

It's okay, though. I brought it home and Achilles loved it without the stuffing. He has claimed it as his own little sleeping mat. So it works out.

Tinkerbell Loves Babies

Another baby shower, another baby gift. The mom-to-be is a big Tinkerbell fan, so I decided to make a Tink doll for the baby.














The pattern for this is Cinderella Inspired Lovey Blanket, from TMK Crochet Designs.  I altered it a bit (changed the colors, made plain hands instead of gloved hands, added wings) so it would be Tinkerbell. It looks pretty good, I think.

She was pretty happy with it, and it fits the Tinkerbell theme of the nursery, so I feel like that was a good choice of pattern to crochet.

I still have a bunch of this green yarn, though. So I'm thinking, after Christmas, I might have to crochet a dino lovey for future grandkids.

My Email Makes Me Laugh

I've talked about all the crazy emails I get for penis enlargement (I don't actually have a penis of any size), single Russian women that want to meet me for matrimony and friendship (no idea how I got on that list), and drug counseling. And those are all pretty annoying. I mainly just hit delete delete delete all the way down the list.

But once in a while I get something that makes me laugh. Like this one:

Oh really? Guess I'd better not shit down my laptop or desktop then.

Miss Gracie

Friends, I am sorry to tell you that my Miss Gracie has passed away. She has been suffering from cancer for several months now and just could not hang on any longer. We had taken her to the vet because we noticed another lump. (If you remember, Miss Gracie had breast cancer about 4 years ago.) I thought having the surgery meant she would never get breast cancer again. But, apparently, if there is one little cell of cancer left in the body...

She did not seem to have any pain. She was mainly just a little stiff because the lump, as it grew, impeded her walking. She remained as friendly and as sweet as she has always been, right up until the last. In fact, these last few months have turned her into a lap cat after only 16 years with us.

Her appetite remained pretty steady too, although the last few days she ate small amounts at a time and I tried to supplement those meals with kitten milk (like Ensure or Boost, but for cats). I knew she was fading, though, when she was unable to eat even the kitten milk.

The only trouble she had was right at the last hour, when it was difficult to breathe. T and I stayed with her and held her so she knew she was not alone. (I called off work, bawling my eyes out.)

We will all miss Sweet Miss Gracie,

Hello Baby!

I love Hello Kitty. Isn't this a sweet
little set?

I really like it when I get invited to a baby shower. It's a little weird, but I like the stupid baby shower games. I like the cake. And I like to make baby things. So, I was a little disappointed when I got invited to a baby shower for a co-worker and then had to work during it.

But, I did get to make a gift for her, so I suppose one out of three isn't bad.

I made this Hello Kitty Hat and booties. The hat is my own pattern, available on the sidebar here (just click the link) and the booties are a basic bootie pattern.

The mom-to-be loved these, so I was happy with that. Another co-worker is also expecting, so I need to get busy on another gift!