A Pink And White Friend For... ?

and so,

I was itchin' to crochet again, so I grabbed some yarn on my way out the door this morning. The commute was thankfully quiet so I was able to find a seat early on. With the balls of yarn tucked neatly inside my work bag, I pulled out two threads and started the base chain. I already knew what I was going to make. I smiled secretly to myself, thinking how odd it would be if someone stopped to ask me what I was making.

I'll post pics of this mysterious new friend soon. I'm looking at the new friend now, and I can safely say that SHE is super cute.

Have a lovely day!

I Dream Of Moss Terrariums

I saw this moss terrarium in Blithe Gardens Etsy shop the other day, and fell in love. I instantly wanted a moss terrarium of my own, and rushed to Michaels with 50% off coupon in hand. However, I was dismayed to discover that I could not find the jar of my dreams. Only delicate, ultra-breakable jars were to be found, and I knew without a doubt that such fragile bottles would not survive my accident-prone nature.

V. and I stopped by the thrift store next, only to discover that it was closed on Sundays. Nooooo! How could it be closed on the one day that I needed a vintage jar! I went home with a heavy heart. It was then that I remembered that my mother liked to recycle. So off the recycle stash I went, and found this! The former Citron-tea jar! I tore the labels off the sides and top, scrubbed off the glue with eye-makeup remover, and washed the whole thing down with sudsy soap. Ta da! A jar ready for terrarium making!

But when I returned to Blithe Garden's store to examine her moss terrariums, it occurred to me that she would never make a terrarium from a run-of-the-mill citron tea jar. I felt saddened, and resolved to continue my search for the perfect jar another time.

Luckily, my mother had just the tasty dinner to wipe all my sorrows away. Mmmm!

And my brother surprised me with something he found at Daiso that day - some Lilo and Stitch cotton swabs which are really too cute to use. Can you believe these things? They are individually packaged too! The Japanese make the cutest things.

After such a fun time with my family, I went downstairs to find my jar looking rather empty. Blithe Gardens had little toadstools in her terrariums, and it occurred to me that I had just such a toadstool in my arsenal of made things. I popped my bottlecap pincushion felt toadstool in the jar, and thought it looked very amusing indeed.

I think this should tide me over nicely until I do find that dream moss terrarium jar. What do you think?

Baby Fishies Growing Stronger

"How many hours do you spend in front of your aquarium?" my co-worker asked me.
"A lot." I replied.

And after so many hours of tireless peering and counting, I can safely conclude that there are 6 surviving "red" platy babies from the last batch of babies, and that there is one blue one (the Hopper) from the first batch of babies. The Hopper is not looking very healthy. He appears to have a bend in his back, and he is smaller than the rapidly growing red babies. He should be much bigger than them considering that he is older. He is also mostly absent, hidden behind the small forest of aquatic plants. He doesn't even come out when it's feeding time, but I have seen him lurk in his characteristic hopping and creeping way along the edges of the tank. The new babies don't seem to like him and peck at him if they see him. Luckily, his odd behaviour and blue colour make him extremely difficult to see among the blue rocks.

The new babies are growing rapidly. They can swim quite fast and strong now, and dart about the tank fearlessly. They are curious and come to look at me when I look at them. For now they seem more pale pinkish white than red. I wonder when they will take on the full red colouration that their dad has?

Making Your Packaging Memorable

As you can see, packaging up goodies from my shop is a labour of love. I like it when others put effort into their packaging so I make sure that mine is very special and unique. I think my favourite part is folding the little origami bird and drawing on it. Each little bird is one-of-a-kind since it's hand-drawn, and it's fun for me!

I'm starting to run out of mulberry paper, which makes me very sad. It's so pretty! I hope the new owner of these "Felt Owl" stickers will like them. I've always really liked their unique shape and how vivid they look, and I'm glad that they have found a new home :)

Do you put a lot of effort into your packaging? Tell me about it! I'm always looking for goodies that come with some really nice or creative packaging.

Have a happy day!

Rainy Day Snail Journey

Are you off to see the...

or the beautiful...

"No," replied the little snail. "I may do all of those things or none of those things. Really, I am..."

And he carried along on his way.

It's a dreary rainy day outside, but I woke up refreshed and went exploring in the garden. I came upon so many bright and delightful things, and a little wee snail slip-slippering his way around. I tip-toed around and peeked high on a shelf, discovering seeds left over from last year's blooms, ready to be planted when it's warmer.

What pretty designs they do make!

Have a happy weekend!

Fat Grub Easter Drawing In Progress

I had a little time yesterday night to do some drawing, and guess who was my subject - Fat Grub, of course! I'm winding up for Easter and I felt like making a nice drawing of him. Fat Grub likes holidays. There was a cute drawing of him last Halloween. I'm quite fond of that one, and this Easter drawing is turning out nicely too. I have a cute idea in store for him :)

I had a pretty good day today. It was sunny outside, and the air had the perfect cool, crispness to it. I caught the bus (instead of just barely missing it like the day before), and the driver was a friendly lady that told good stories. She told us today about how she regularly drives this one route where there is a lot of wildlife. She saw some deer cross the road the other day, run into someone's yard, and begin to frolic and play! She was so delighted! And another day, she saw a family of raccoons cross the road.She also told us one sad story about seeing two baby raccoons that got hit by a car. A third sibling didn't get hit, but he wanted to stay with his fallen brothers. He kept running out into the middle of the road to stand with them. When a car came, he would run to the side of the road, and then return when the car passed. The lady bus driver was worried that the last baby would be hit too, so she actually got out of the car, put medical gloves on, and moved the two baby carcasses to the side of the road. The live sibling watched anxiously from a distance, and when she stepped back, he quickly ran over to look over his brothers again. Poor fellow! It must be a very sad thing to be the last one left.
During lunch break, I walked up to the cafeteria, choosing the outside route so that I could enjoy the sunshine. There was something about the way the pavement looked lit up with the sunshine, and the chill nip in the air, that reminded me of high school. I could remember the cool, hard feel of the textured stone pavement against my hands as I sat on it with my friends chatting in the bright sunshine, and the way the grass was sort of dry enough to sit on, but not for long.

There is one single daffodil in my garden blooming right now. I'll have to remember to take a picture of it for you.

Have a good week!

There's Nothin' Like Flowers To Cheer You Up!

Home Depot, for me, is the one place where man and woman can both find what they love. My man has got his tools, and I've got my garden center. I was feeling droopy today because of Tiggy's passing (he's still floating in his container of water), but it was sunny outside so my sweetie took me out for some fresh air. In my dozy state, I hardly noticed where he took me until we stopped and I looked out. We were at Home Depot! I was instantly alert.

My sweetie told me I could go get some flowers for my garden. He left me to browse in the garden center where I started to build an army of potted flowers. When he returned, I had already narrowed my army down to a select few favourites. To my surprise, however, when my sweetie handed me the basket, it was already filled with 6 lovely primulas - and they were better than the ones I had amassed myself! I traded out one duplicate colour for a pretty peachy yellow one that I had found, and I rushed him to the check-out before he could change his mind about buying so many of them. I need not have worried though, he seemed perfectly content to let me keep them all, and I was so delighted.

I snapped a few pictures to show you them when we were getting ready to put them into the car. They looked so pretty in that orange Home Depot basket!

Now my new flowers are lined up in a pretty row on the balcony. I like them very much, and I'm looking forward to another sunny day when I can plant them.

Have a good weekend!

It's a Bug's Life

It was sunny today, so I hefted my bucket of compost from last year down to the communal garden. The compost is still in decomposing mode so it was pretty mucky and smelly. I spread all the contents out with a shovel. It should dry out and continue breaking down into nutritious soil by the time I can start gardening in earnest.

When I stuck my shovel into the dirt, I came upon a mysterious inhabitant. Here he is below:





No, I didn't smash him with my shovel. I buried him again. He's safe and sound waiting for some yummy roots to eat now. Technically, I SHOULD have smashed him since the roots he'd be eating would be my plants, but I'm not ready to garden yet and I hate to kill anything unnecessarily in the garden. I found this same kind of grub last year, and it didn't seem to do any damage. Besides, he might be a June Bug larvae, and I LOVE June Bugs. I think they are so cool cuz they're so big and look so pretty with their pale green and white striped backs.

Maybe I'll see this little soil inhabitant again one day when he's all grown up!

Good-bye, Tiggy. I will miss you.

Tiggy passed away, just a few minutes ago.

He started swimming upside down and gulping ferociously late afternoon, and we already feared the worst. When his gulping slowed down a few minutes ago, I thought he was getting better. I sat down to watch him and to coo at him, trying to cheer him up. He made a few motions like he was trying to eat (like usual when he sees us) so I felt kind of happy, thinking he was okay. But his mouth soon stopped moving, and his fins started an unusual light, erratic twitching. When the light shaking stopped, his eyes, usually actively moving, didn't move anymore. He slowly floated in the water, at peace at last, but so forlorn.

"Good-bye, Tiggy." I had said when the shaking started. "I love you." I knew it was the last part of his journey.

I will miss Tiggy very much. He was such a fun, interactive fish - always coming to look at me when I came by, curious about my camera and whether I had something tasty for him to eat. He was always hungry. His googly eyes were so bright and alive, and his colours were so vivid.

I'll miss my little photo hog. I hope there's lots of yummy food for him in Fish Heaven. Rest in peace, Tiggy.

Fish Circus

In an attempt to give Tiggy some quiet rest, we've set up the extra compartment that was originally for the Mummy fish when she was pregnant. Tiggy is resting inside, but it's pretty boring there for him. The Husband fish was trying to chase the Mummy fish when they comically got stuck behind the extra compartment. I didn't even notice that the Mummy fish was stuck at first because she's facing the right way, but Husband fish was pretty obvious because he was stuck facing down. Ah, those fish are so funny! We let them be and after a few minutes, they wriggled their way free. Tsk, tsk, tsk!

Poor Tiggy's Sick

I think something is amiss with Tiggy. He's been laying around the tank in corners, visibly listless or tired. His fins are droopy and he eats his food while lying down. It's very sad. I hope he gets better soon. He doesn't appear to have any injuries, parasites, or disease so I'm not sure if he's just old.

When my sister first found him, he was in the "slums" of the aquarium store where all the diseased fish go to die. My sister spotted him among hordes of fallen fish, apparently living off of them. It was a sad fate for such a pretty little goldfish. My sister had pity on him and believed him to be the perfect little goldfish she was looking for. She asked to purchase him, and got him at an excellent deal. In our little pink aquarium, Tiggy had to undergo a period of rehabilitation before he was in good health, but he's been a favourite since the first day. My mother affectionately calls him "hut-yee jai", which means hobo boy, and Pineapple Bun is apparently in love with him (tee hee hee!) even though she's a very different variety of goldfish. For the most part, Tiggy just ignores her.

I'm crossing my fingers for Tiggy! We'll be keeping a close eye on him.