Jul 24, 2012

Common ground

 So, after being "terrorized" by baby diaper poop for a week, we went to visit my sister Doris, who has 2 incredible children, Mocha and Zima (there's a picture below with my Willow).  We had a most wonderful time, she had planned a great itinerary for us and everything was as close to perfect as possible!  This was my first visit in over 6 years (it's a llooonnnggggg drive) and it was a joy to see her all comfy and content in her home.
  That's me on our first day grinning like a psychopath in the Hallowe'en room at The Merry Christmas Shoppe in Merrickville.  Yesssirrr!  My sister brought me to Hallowe'en in July, awesome!  Go check out their website
  (The pictures in this post were taken either by myself or my sister, Doris.)


The next day we went to Bonnechere Caves.  Scott, our cheerful and very funny guide, brought us deep underground in cool, damp caverns that alternated between narrow and more open chambers.  The water-sculpted walls were lovely, and I was really pleased to hear that every year they let the caves fill with water and bats use it as a hibernation site.  They figure they get about 500 bats! Scott also informed the tour group of how beneficial bats are to everyone:  You're doing an awesome job, Scott!  Thank you!
Here are some pictures: 


 
And here is their resident bat!  This cutie was gifted to the owner and now hangs out in the visitor's booth. 


Shopping at Ikea was a treat!  Right from the "go", I found rats!!!  Various ratta (Swedish for rat) jumped into my shopping bag, and we happily shared our lunch with them in Ikea's cafeteria.                                                                            Just adorable, aren't they?  I don't know if Ikea would be pleased to know they had rats eating with their patrons!  
 Here's the rest of my loot (along with a bracelet with many little skulls creating a spinal column look from the Anarchy Gallery, also in Merrickville).  The mask is from Pier 1 Imports while the cookie cutter/stamper is from a shop called @Home.  These cookies are going to be such fun, I just need to find a good recipe where the dough will keep its shape. 

One of the best things we did was go to Morris Island.  We went three times with our pups.  The woods are not exactly dark and deep but they are lovely and the pups enjoyed floating (yup, Zima floats, on purpose!) and swimming in the clear waters.  The trails are very clearly marked and kept clean, obviously the friends of this park care about what happens to it.  Deer flies were nasty in places, ick!  

Demon dogs!  They sure do look a bit scary, don't they?  The flash on my camera went off for some reason... at least that's what I tell myself.

And here we are, sporting our new wide-brimmed hats in preparation for our desert vacation!  Plans are in the works to visit Utah, with a side trip to Vegas.  We need a hatty group name, any ideas? 

Thank you Dodo for such a fun time together!  So many memories!
(There's more about our trip on the Hallowe'en studio tour blog.)

Jul 23, 2012

Don't eat the baby!


It's been a crazy 2 weeks!  First we thoroughly enjoyed ScareFest on July 7th, meeting so many creative and downright scary individuals (scary in a good way, of course, not back-alley-get-the-hell-away-from-me scary). (I've posted some pictures on my Hallowe'en blog.)  Then I met my brother's 10 month old son, Asher.  They visited for 7 days and it was my first 24-hours-a-day experience with a human child.  It was scary, like Aack!- Who-is-this-little-munchkin scary and why does he drool on me all the time!?  Seriously:  spend exactly 3 minutes with a baby who's teething and your shorts and t-shirt will be covered in drool!!!  Yick!  And I always seemed to get him when he was cranky...  my role as an aunt definitely relies on the safety of the camera, where I can capture baby doing cute things without getting slobbered on!  (Puppy kisses are SO different, entirely another story!)

See, cute.  And me:  dry. 
And diapers?!?!!?  I will scrape dead animals off the road and spend hours, nay days, cleaning skulls with sun-baked on bits but poopy diapers send me racing for the outside air, close to gagging!  Wow, what an odor!  What a sight!  I could feel my fallopian tubes shrivelling up into tiny, prickly pin cushions! 
I am so the man in this cartoon!!! 

And then we went to visit my sister:  more on that later.

Jul 22, 2012

The ultimate accessory: bats!



I have new bat-head brooches!
These are 2 of my Short-Tailed Fruit Bats.  Just like Lil Drac who lives at Bat World Sanctuary, these little brooches have a somewhat diamond shaped nose flap, expressive ears and bright black eyes.  Unlike Lil Drac, they're made of mohair, ultrasuede and safety-lock eyes, and you can have one!



And here's my Honduran White Bat!  As you can see when comparing him with the bat in the photo, he's a pretty accurate replica of these beautiful white bats.





And these two don't represent any particular species, they're just darn cute.  Each pin is unique and has an ultrasuede nose that I've twisted, folded, tinted and stitched to create the shapes you see. 

Want one?  Write to me:  woosel[at]scratchingatthewindow.com

Jul 5, 2012

Need to focus...

...and just do it!
And here are words from Mr. Einstein himself:

Jul 2, 2012

Year of the Titanic



The first issue of the new Teddy Bear & Friends arrived and I was surprised to see they printed my letter!  Neat!  They chose also to include one of the photos I sent, of my mourning bear.  You can see more of him on my website, if you like.

Jul 1, 2012

Doggish fun!

Okay, did you know rats could do agility?  I've seen hamsters run agility courses, so why not?  Sounds like a lot of fun!