Lotus's Bad Week

It's been a while since I posted up photos of Lotus!  She had a pretty crummy week last week.  After her bath on Wednesday, she got a nail tangled in the towel that I was drying her with - it was caught like a hook, and there was no way to get it out without clipping it.  It was like torture to her.  Then on Friday night in the wee hours she bumped her face on her wheel and got a nasty bruise, and refused to do anything all weekend.  Finally she came out Sunday night and I played with her on the bed, and she fell into a corner and was so embarrassed she wouldn't let me hold her for a good hour.  She's finally eating a lot and running on her wheel again, so I'm not worried.  I just hope that she doesn't end up like the wheel horror stories I've heard...

Anyway,  we like to sit and read together (well, I read, she naps) and then usually W comes up and we go to sleep. And by we I mean W and I.  Lotus doesn't sleep at night - she's too busy guzzling down water, knocking down her food bowl, and running around on her wheel.  It's actually hard for me to sleep when she's not running - then I know she's upset or something is wrong.  (That's how I knew that she had hit herself.)

When I was putting her back W got out his iPhone and took some photos.  She's afraid of bright lights and sudden noises, so the DSL camera doesn't turn out so well.  As I held her she started licking my hands and foaming.

In the bottom picture it looks like she's biting me, but that's just the face that she makes when she foams.  She's learned that when she bites me I yelp, and that's not a fun experience.  She still bites W occasionally while foaming, but not mean, leave-me-alone bites.  More like tastes :)

And yes, I have huge boobs.  Sorry they just happen to be in every one! XD Blame W for that!

Vacation Update

I've had a nice time on vacation so far, time to craft and time to spend with family.  I'm pretty frustrated with a current WIP, which I'm thinking of abandoning (at least for a while.) Another is finished, and the pattern is being written up!

Good luck Rocky! Erm... Pinwheel!

Rocky has been passed on to Tanglewood, and I'm sure he's happy to be there! They kept his original name, Pinwheel, which W and I gave him.  He seems happy, though it's hard to see it through his huffly exterior.

And on the bunny front, we have had success getting Samson to use a potty pad! I woke up this morning to this sight.

His pee isn't really that color, it's the pen liner showing through ^_^;

Okay, his pen looks totally gross but I HAD to run and take a picture, I didn't even think to clean his cage... whoops.

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their week, whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not! :) We sure are.

Happy Halloween!

 This picture of Rocky is pretty scary!

We've found him a great home at a local nature center, so sadly I won't be able to baby him for very much longer! :(

A Quickie.

Just an update - my life is kind of crazy right now, preparing for a convention all next week. Lots of schoolwork... boo!

But a few things you should know.

1. We have aquired another hedgehog, hopefully temporarilly, but he is too cute.

2. I'm going to Rhinebeck! I didn't know for sure what the plans were until a few hours ago, but hopefully I'll be there with Ash :) I'm super excited!

3. I really need a hat. Today is cold, rainy, and gross and I wish I had one :(

4. Today is W's birthday. :)

Just Say NO to Knitting Without Paying Attention!

Another day, another mistake on my Spring Pools Socks.

Yes, I did. I knit from the wrong skein! I blame the television, since I was watching it and knitting.

Also, I'm starting another project... a secret sock project, in this yarn.

All I can say is that I've been wanting to design these socks for a LONG time! They were originally meant for W, but look what I noticed when I read the label on the yarn.

100% Merino wool. That explains why this yarn is SO delicious feeling... but, that's not a W yarn. I love him to pieces, but I don't know if he's ready to take the step to 100%, non-washable, can't-just-throw-in-the-machine socks. He IS a guy, and it's not like I do his laundry all the time. Just some of the time. I'm not going to risk it.

So, maybe these socks will be me socks. Or, maybe I'll give them away to someone ;)

While I was sniffling over my stupid mistakes, I figured I would take some time to photograph Lotus.  While I was cleaning out her cage I snapped some photos of her.

Lotus always brightens my day. Or, at least, punishes me for being gloomy. I like to lie in bed and read while she rummages around the covers, playing cave explorer, I assume. Today she crawled up my pillow and attempted to eat my hair.

It's pretty hard to get good photos of Lotus, because she's happiest in the dark. I use my drafting lamp to give light, but direct it away from her so that she notices it less.

But I love looking at pictures of her :)

My Random Monday: Fall Week 4

1. Last weekend was crud.  I didn't want to do anything, which is a kind of bad idea, because that means that nothing gets done (except a lot of knitting.)

2. Today is looking up, though.  I have homemade chicken soup (from yesterday) and I love the weather. It's rainy, but a special type of drizzle that I will always associate with school.  *sigh* It's good to be back.

3. Except for all the freaking work!!!!!!

4. Okay, now that that's over with, they're making a movie out of one of my favorite books, It's Kind of a Funny Story.  It's about a 15-year-old kid who becomes suicidal, goes to a psychiatric ward, and discovers wonderful, warm fuzzy life lessons. 

I totally relate to the main character (the over-pressured kid, not the drug-experimenting-eating-disorder-having kid... though those are all coping mechanisms to the over-pressured-ness) and I can't wait until the movie comes out :)

5. I am almost finished with my knit tie, and progress has been made on Borneo test knits! I'm super excited :)

6. When I was in the bookstore, I was looking through the magazines and guess what I found! Hedgehog cross stitch!!

I love all things hedgehog :)

7. Now for something completely random: the chair in W's apartment has a face.  I swear.  Can you see it?

Maybe I AM having a nervous breakdown.

A Post Full of Hedgehogs

To recap: This is what we added to Lotus's cage a couple of nights ago.

And here are all of the cute pictures of her playing around in it!

I especially like these two. Can you find the hedgie?

I would totally recommend doing this.  It's was relatively cheap, (the plastic fishbowl was only $1.50, the bedding was kind of expensive but we will probably use shredded paper in the future) and Lotus is so happy about it!

Worth the money? I'd like to hear your opinion!

Plus, we have been having some sanitary problems (we don't use a litter box, the cage is just too small) with Lotus ending up sleeping in her own business! Nobody wants that for their hedgehog, and we change the paper in her cage every day, but she just does a lot of  ... business. Now, where she sleeps is completely different from where she goes to the bathroom, so we won't have that problem!

The downside of the whole thing is, if she goes in, we have to wait for her to come out! I guess if we really needed her, we could take the beddign out and "dump" her out... but that would make a rather angry hedgehog.  We're developing a way to lure her out involving meal worms... we'll see.

Lotus's new floor plan

Anyway, this was definitely my crafty thing of the week (though, I admit, it was mostly W's idea.)

My Random Monday - The 17-Hour Monday

1. I feel like I've been up forever.  Really, I've just been up since 7 this morning.

2. I'm starting to feel more at home in my apartment.  The assimilation process has been slow, but there was a huge skip forward with the addition of this:

It's a hutch donated kindly by the lovely Rebecca.  Thaaaankkks :)

3. I did manage to do a lot today.  I went to all of my classes (They all meet on Monday and Wednesday, what an inconvenient coincidence), cooked dinner, met a ferret, baked banana bread, and hung out with Lotus.

4. Apparently this

is like Chuck-E-Cheez for hedgehogs.  W and I have been taking part in "Lotus Recreation Projects" to give Lotus different things to do.  When we were in Petco over the weekend, we saw this bedding.

We snatched it up and a cheap fishbowl and the rest is history.  Lotus loves it, and I have a lot of cute pictures. I know that she can get out of her bedding box... but she doesn't want to.

5. I think I'm going to have to make a separate post of cute Lotus in a box pictures.

6. Knitting? Oh, yeah, this is my current thing:

I was going to start it on Friday, but the skeins totally tangled up on me, and I required the assistance of W to untangle them.  There was much cursing, crying, and gnashing of teeth.  It all ending with me whining "Yarn swift... WHY DON'T I HAVE A YARN SWIFT!?"

My Random Monday

1.   

This week is a major "Get stuff done" week for me.  I want to work on every little thing.  Erm... actually, I have to work on every little thing. I'm moving out on Saturday.

2.  

I'm pretty bummed about everything.  No W.  No Lotus.  Leaving work.  Having to do dishes.

3.  

I just saw a ten-year-old girl wearing a suggestive tee shirt.  Why am I leaving this town again?

4.  

I turned this:

Into this:

In 36 minutes. It will be the FROG for my old floor once school starts, which is why it's so simple. Each week, a new person that has done something nice (like helped someone out, or done something good for the floor) is given this doll and must add something to it.  By the end of the year it is decorated to the nines! I must remember to post a picture of it in May.

5. 

Why didn't I put my sewing stuff in the living room table six months ago? Maybe the reason all of my sewing has been neglected all this time was because it was shoved in the studio.  Oh, no. I remember the reason! It was because I messed up on every project that I started on the machine.  Because I don't sew so well.

6.  

People seem to think that I sew well, which sometimes makes me think that I sew well, then I sew something and I realize that the people that think that I sew well don't sew.  This puts it all into perspective.

7.  

When I was downloading photos of the narwhal, I found out that I had photos of Lotus that I had forgotten about, so, here you go:

She is cuddled in a blanket in W's arms after a bath. No clear pictures of her face (she was moving around and being fussy) but you get a good idea of her mood.

My weekend in pictures!

This weekend I went to sunny Philedelphia with my friend from high school.  We didn't do a ton - we just saw the Philly Art Museum and hung out at her aunt's house, but that was more than enough! I was too tired to drive all the way home yesterday, and so I went to bed early at woke up at 5 today to get to work.  Even worse idea than driving at night... because now I'm so tired! Boo!

But we did see some totally awesome things! The coolest being this painting by Van Eyke:

It may look unimpressive, but it was so tiny! About the size of my hands! The curator said that it was painted with a brush of two hairs...

And this photoshopped gate.  Yes, I did commit a horrible faux pas, as soon as I saw this painting I said... 

..."That gate looks totally 'shopped."

Though I have to admit that my friend said something equally funny, when we saw this altarpiece...

 ..."There's a bird trying to steal her hair!"

I love how the two of us did extremely well in Art History class, I got a 5 on the AP and I think she got a 4... if not a 5.  And now, 3-4 years later, we're in a museum poking fun at altarpieces. Hey, we did appreciate some stuff! They had some great impressionist works (I'm sorry that the Renoir exhibit wasn't open yet, because that will be AWESOME!) and some cool non-western art as well. Here's my top three (besides the Van Eyke, but photgraphs can't do that stuff justice, it's like Dali or Color Field paintings, you have to be there.)

Lotus spent the weekend at her grandmother's.  I'm such a typical teenage mom, dropping my hedgehog child onto her grandmother.  Both of them like it, though, I think.  At least, Mommy's never complained and Lotus has a whole room of her own, with a bed with piles of blankets to dig in.

  She was sooo happy last night, but she got grumpy as soon as I tried to get her under the light to take her photo.  I asked her "Don't you want to be famous on the internet!?" and she only replied by curling up into a ball and hissing.  She wouldn't stop, even when I put her back on her mountain of blankets.  So I decided she was done with playing and she went back in her cage, where she knocked her bowl over and then had me put it back, knock it over, put it back, until I finally gave up and went to bed.

Well, now I'm going to go back to work, then home to go to bed. Have a great week!