Rabbit!

Rabbit Pin

We had pets rabbits while I was growing up.  Our first one was named Shadow.  He was black (shocking, I know) and we had him for close to a decade. 

Our second rabbit was names Simon.  He was a black and white Dutch rabbit and very pretty--but he didn't make a great pet.  He always had poo stuck to his butt, and he failed to ever be litter trained (he almost was at one point but then mom changed the litter on him and that was that).  We still have stains all over the living room floor from him (he mostly lived inside).  He also wouldn't cuddle or hold still while I pet him (he'd bite--but it might have been rabbit adolescence, I don't know anymore).  But he got flystrike (maggots living in the poo on his bum, eeeeewwww) one day, and even though mom took him to the vet, his heart was weak and when they sedated him it was too much.

Now I like to say he was an evil rabbit; he had a bad heart.

Then we went for a few years without a rabbit before mom decided that the compost pile wasn't the same and we needed a new one.  So we got our lovely, calm brown-with-white-paws rabbit (he's a "broken dutch" according to people who'd know).  We spent a year debating the poor rabbit's name but couldn't really agree on anything. He was almost officially 'Captain Rabbit' but then I told a guest that we hadn't decided on a name and...he remained nameless.

Until I started calling him Bunny-kun because I'd been watching too much anime (it happens...). But then I shortened it to 'Nii-kun' and mom figured it was a name.  It's technically more of an endearment, but that's fine--or it would be if mom could spell it.  At best she thinks it's 'Neekun' at worst...well, on her last blog-post she wrote 'keekun'.  I'm not sure if this is better or worse than 'Kneecoon' which she originally thought it was.  We've had several conversations about this (like the one after she asked my sister's Japanese-speaking friend what 'neekun' meant) but mom just keeps forgetting.

Sometimes I think I should make him a name-tag or something, but usually I try not to worry about it.  At least he has a name, right?

And then about two years ago I decided to get my own pet rabbit, whom I love far more than I probably should, even though she limits certain parts of my life. She's a silver-Siamese Netherland Dwarf and her name is Mithril (because it's dwarven silver and she's a silver dwarf). I got her from the House Rabbit Society and I could probably write a whole blog just about her (but I'll spare you).

Another Pinguin

Penguin Pin on Etsy

I basically sold two of these in the past week, which is nice, but started as a bit of a problem, since I only had one. I was sitting there, making a second one, and I thought, I might as well make a third so I can relist one. and then I did. I needed to re-photograph it, since my new thread is slightly wider than my old thread (it shouldn't be, but it IS, and I am Annoyed by this).  It made a bigger difference to the Acorn Pin (of which I also sold two and had to remake), but I wanted to make sure.

I also wanted to give all my new background papers a trial-run.

I bought five scrapbooking papers on the reinterpreted advice from some of the Etsy Success newsletters, but they've never turned out quite how I wanted them to.  My camera seemed to think most of them were gray when only one actually was, and I almost always had a hell of a time fighting with my photo-editing program to get them into the proper color scheme (it's nothing fancy).  Then my dad lent me one of his digital cameras, which takes way, way, way better pictures than mine...but still can't figure out that the paper is green and not gray.

So I took what I'd learned about the camera's preferences and went back to my local craft store, where I found five new papers.  My favorite is the one at the top; black with golden flowery-things on it. Very pretty, has a nice depth, the camera realizes it's black.

I also got a plain black:

It's shinier than I thought, but not too bad. It should be fine with the larger shots (and if it's not, I probably won't know about it for a few weeks)


And I got a double-sided paper with dark green and some sort of glittery snow-covered branches on it:

The green might also turn out to be too shiny, although I think I like the snowy-branches effect; I just forgot to lighten the picture in this one. It's a gray that doesn't have elephants marching along the bottom; I can't ask for much more than that.

And I got a bright orange-y-red color:

It's slightly out-of-season now, but it matches li'l Penny here's feet and beak nicely.

Maybe I'll still be trying to sell stuff next fall, and I can use it then.  Or maybe you can't tell it's supposed to be fallen leaves and I can use it for spring or summer. Things are red in summer. Like books, newpapers and some flowers.

And, lastly, I got this paper:

It's another red one, but---wait. Hang on. This is not the last paper I got. This one was kindly sent to me in the mail but my Netflix subscription. Aren't they thoughtful?

Actually, the last paper is another grayish one; it's currently living as the background for my tapestry photos, though, so I just left it there.  It's got a grid-like texture on one side, and then on the back there's the grid-like texture, but it has some hilarious ghosts on it--also a bit out of season this time of year.

Pinguin

Penguin Pin

Back in middle school my friends and I would each bring a pocketful of tiny toys to school. We called these toys 'doo-dads' and spent many of our free hours making up kingdoms and worlds involving them and the various playground locations.

The toys my friend Anna brought included a set of tiny penguins; four or five adults and one baby, all of them so well-loved that there were completely white. I believe they each had a name, but mostly I just remember that the baby penguin was called 'Pen' and he was my favorite--probably among all the doo-dads, actually.

Toys were not the only things in Anna's pockets, either. She had a newspaper that she carried around for years, as well.

I've always thought I was a hoarder, but then I'd look at Anna and realize that I was just on the far edge of normal--not that she needs to be on a TV show over it, just that my family didn't tape 'hello my name is' badges to our walls.

...although I noticed the other day that mom seems to have a collection of all her convention-related name tags down in her studio.  And I do keep movie tickets for longer than I should admit (I have been working on throwing them out, but old habits die hard, and I know there's still a box of tickets around somewhere).

Maybe Anna's pockets weren't all that strange after all.

Something Clever

Today's Listing: Rose Pin

Well, according to my stats at least one person other than me may have looked at this blog. I'm feeling all sorts of pressure now; I have to watch what I say and try harder to be funny.

Not that it'll work anyway.

Why, when I press the enter key does the cursor jump UP rows?! or back to this start of the one I just finished? it doesn't type there, but it's distracting to have a jumping cursor like that. Makes me want to cursemore.

Okay, well, there's that rose pin. It's kinda pretty. I made a rose bracelet, and then made it into a pin when no one was looking. I like roses because they remind me of fairy tales, and I love fairy tales. There's just something so Beauty and the Beast about roses.

I've received one rose as a gift in my life. It was last Valentine's day when I went to see my long-distance boyfriend. I broke up with him later that week.

Well, that makes a pretty crappy story compared with the stuff I had to say about goldfish yesterday.

My older sister used to get flowers for various things--she was into theater and choirs and such--and she'd hang them in the closet to 'dry' after receiving them. But then she'd forget about them and they'd get squished between and other things that were hanging up in the closet, and drop petals on the things that were supposed to be hanging up in the closet, but weren't. Eventually I'd get fed up and ask if I could remove them, but she wouldn't let me.

So I just stopped using the closet.