Little Bird Takes a Bath

Little birdie boy came out of his cage this morning when I opened it to give him his breakfast so I thought perhaps he might like a bath. I put him on the sink divider and turned on the water and he immediately starting flapping his wings and dipping his head under the stream of water. After he was done he hopped over to the edge of the sink and looked at me like "ok I'm done now-take me back to my cage". It's very cute to watch him taking his bath.

Rock Candy

We had dinner at Bob Evan's last night. On my way out the door I spied some rock candy. Haven't had any in years so I bought a stick of the purple candy. There were some obnoxious people in line behind us - in a hurry to go nowhere so I quickly made my selection and threw it in my purse knowing it would make a good snack for work today. When my brother and I were little our dad took us to Woody's grocery store in West Carrolton, OH (mostly on Saturday's when mom was working) and we used to be allowed to buy those Indian bubble gum cigars and rock candy. The process of making rock candy is pretty interesting. Click here for instructions.

The Barbie "Pink" Line

My friend and co-worker Diane asked me if I wanted to make a trip to Toys R Us with her during our lunch hour. She needed to get a birthday present for her grandson and knows that I like to browse the doll section. Going on this excursion was a bad idea and I knew it going out the door; tis the other season for new releases. She found her 200 piece jumbo (and I mean big) barrel o' Tinker Toys and I found this awesome Barbie with her stuffed albeit plastic bunny. There are two other dolls in the line; one with a little "Daisy" look a like dog and the other in a pink party dress. They were all cute. I don't collect Barbie's in particular but this one caught my eye for obvious reasons and I thought it would be a nice addition to my doll collection. We had a great time at the toy store. You should try going sometime.

Grooming Indy

None of the adults in the rabbitry has any wool in condition. They've all blow their coats at some point between January and the present. I've been a grooming fool for the past few weeks. Indiana was quite content to be combed tonight. He had some butt mats that had to go. I gave him a treat afterward. Doesn't he have a sweet face?

Progress Report IV

Andrew has the storage unit built into the book nook. Lid and cupboard doors will be last. The next photo will be the unfinished unit built into the room. Hopefully that will be sometime this coming week. (BTW I bucket filled the messy garage wall on Photoshop for better viewing.

Show Girls

LH Garnet (red) and LH Sienna (choc. agouti) have lost their baby coats and are growing their first adult coats. If they make weight (and the weather cooperates) they will debut on the show table next Sunday.

Tussah Silk/ Wool Blend yarn

This is tussah silk (that my friend brought me from Wales last fall) that has been plied with a wool blend yarn made of mohair and wool from Corriedale/Border Leicester cross.

Earlier this week you might recall I plied the wool blend with teal BFL and Wensleydale to make a novelty yarn. As of tonight I have all the brown mohair wool blend roving in my stash spun.

Daisy Goes to the Doggie Spa

Daisy hasn't been groomed since November and it was starting to show. I finally decided this week that she could wait no longer. She loves to go to the groomer-I call it her day at the doggie spa and she gets all excited and starts dancing around. There are actually two women that groom and Daisy likes them both. They are nice to her-she' s been going to them for 6 years- and today she came home sporting a new collar cover that they made for the dogs.
Anyway here's a before and after picture. She had some mats on her feet (despite my diligent brushing) from them getting wet in the snow many times over so they shaved her feet a little closer than usual. Tonight she's all cuddly because, as Andrew would say, her wool has been shorn .

Progress Report III

Not much to say other than the second bookshelf is finished now and Andrew is working on the bench seat portion. This means I have to get busy this weekend and start painting. First I am going to have to psych myself up....big time. Please excuse the mess in the garage.

Novelty Yarn

After months and months of practice and working very hard to spin yarn that is perfectly uniform I decided tonight that I needed a break. Right now I don't have much color in my roving stash. Just some teal and purple amongst the earth tones. So I made do. Here is my attempt at novelty yarn. I wish I had something sparkley to ply with it but I don't so maybe next time. I plan to use this to knit yet another hat. The white is Wensleydale, the brown is mohair, corridale and BFL? (Lisa help me out here) and the teal is BFL.

Students in the Spotlight

Last night was our annual recognition night. We were all beaming with pride over the fact that 60+ students in our deparment have done something outstanding in the last year in regard to professionalism and community service. They were honored at half time of the Men's Basktball game (which we lost...ouch) and received a 1G flash drive with our logo as a reward for their efforts (I'm in the photo below handing them out on the sidelines-that's our department chair on the court shaking hands with the recipients). A student and I also collected donations during the game for the America Heart Association via a program called Hoops for Heart. We made close to $100 last night and that along with the money the students collected by hosting a basketball tournment will enable the PHED Club to make a $300 donation to AHA. It's rewarding to watch the students progress through their educational programs to productive young adults.

Storage Solutions

For months I have been pondering over a storage solution for all of my roving which up until tonight was stashed in plastic bags and stuffed into a wicker clothes basket. Every time I wanted to see what was available I had to unload the basket and dig through it all. I was reading Maple Corners blog today and she provided the perfect solution. Of course I had to run right out after work to Kohl's to get a shoe storage bag which, per her suggestion, I took the seams out of to widen the individual shoe pockets to fit a bigger ball of roving. While I was at it I picked up a sweater stacker and spruced up the disaster otherwise known as my closet. I was so pleased with it I offered to get Andrew a sweater stacker but he politely declined. (He likes his closet disaster just the way it is.) Cost of storage: under $20. Organization at last-priceless!

Roving neatly tucked into the pockets of a shoe organizer. When the roving is spun then the finished yarn can be stored there. No more buying any roving until all this is spun. Better get busy.

One half of my closet shown here-nice and organized. (The other side has a metal shoe rack and more clothes).

Angora Rabbit Sweatshirt Design

Growing ever tired of not being able to find a suitable sportswear item with some type of angora design on it-I commissioned one from a local shirt shop. Since we do a lot of business with them through work (and have for years) they gave me a nice price break on the artwork for the design. These shirts will soon be available to anyone who is intersted via The Sullivan Company online store. I will not make any profit from them and simply had them made for the reason stated above. They will be available as a gray sweatshirt or tee shirt. Stayed tuned and as soon as the link to the store is available I will get the word out.

Nifty Little Computer

My brother's 10 year desktop computer that he custom built gave up the ghost after the main board went bad last week. He got this nifty new computer to replace it. It's a Acer Aspire I and it was on sale at MicroCenter for $299. It's about the size of a textbook and it's wireless! DVD player has to be purchased separately.

Antique Shopping

We decided to go over to the antique mall in Reynoldsburg today. We usually go once a year. Andrew wanted to look for some tools and I just wanted to look. He ended up finding everything he needed to replace some items that he was using to de-ice the gutters (that turned up missing after the big snow storm). He also made a neat find for me in this bunny shelf. Isn't it cool? I don't yet know what I am going to do with it but I couldn't pass it up because the price was reasonable and I have never see anything like it before. Its not an antique though-I think its made of resin.

Happy Valentines Day

I received 2 and a half dozen chocolate covered cherries (my favorite) from Andrew. That should last a week or so. LOL

Darwin's Birthday

Yesterday the students in the Department of Life Science held a celebration for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. My colleagues and I attended, took in the various displays, and had a piece of cake. Being an alum of that department I wanted to go to support the work the students put into having a party for which they invited an entire campus. Near and dear to my heart was the beetle collection, having spent many hours in the field doing an insect collection myself, constructing transect lines and surveying the plant preferences of the Monarch butterfly. We received criticism from other colleagues who thought that a Christian college should not be supporting such an activity. I guess they didn't realize that what Darwin didn't theorize about is the fact that when cake is served people will come.

Big Wind

We had a huge storm last evening and then endured various levels of sustained winds to 70 mph through out the night. My friend, whose house the tree fell on, called this morning and said her other pine also fell during the second "squall" that went through and it went right on to her neighbors house. My husband (the Arborist) said that unlike the big storm in September from the hurricane the casualties from this storm would be mostly pines. He explained that the ground was dry in September so they were able to hold their ground. Now that the ground is mushy and saturated with water the big pines uproot and topple over much more easily in a storm.Meanwhile over on campus a huge tree feel on some poor students car. Here are photos of that disaster. Glad its not mine but the important thing is that no one got hurt. I went outside this morning to check the rabbits. They were all fine and ready to be fed. Duke managed to escape from his pen (again) and was running about inside the rabbitry. Luckily it didn't take much coaxing for me to get him to let me pick him up and put him back inside.

Progress Report II

The book nook is coming along. Andrew has been working on it most evenings. He's had a few annoyances (think aggravating sewing project that requires set in sleeves) this evening but this is what it looks like so far. I've decided that the final finish will be a white wash (did I mention that already?) We are under a tornado watch this evening. Earlier there was a squall that blew through accompanied by about 70 mph wind and sideways rain. A friend called and said a huge pine tree feel on her house and it was probably going to take a crane to get it moved. (Groan).

Fuzzy Slippers

My friend Kathy emailed me this morning and said these two looked like a pair of fuzzy slippers. I think she's right. Aren't they cute? This is Lilac Haven's Rory and Garnet-my red Satin babies from SH Phazana and SH Cameroon. The should be debuting on the show table sometime in March and my hopes are that they do well at the Ohio State convention in May. It poured down rain last night. The yard is a mud hole but I guess its better than ice. I have no other news to report. It's that time of year. Only 37 days until spring!

PA Rabbit Convention

The convention hall filled with rabbits
The wool breeds judging schedule
Open show-judging the Giants.
Dr. H examining what is to be the BOB Satin in the specialty show.
Me with fellow breeder Charlotte and the buck I got from her.
Fuzzies Dylan born 9-14-08 French

Jailbirds Robert born 12-5-08 Satin

I took part of the day off on Friday and met my friend Lisa in Guernsey County and we drove together to Lebanon, Pennsylvania for the PA State Rabbit Convention. The roads were clear of snow and ice and this may well be the only decent travel weekend we get all winter. We arrived at the fairgrounds around 6 pm, unloaded our gear, met with some members of our rabbit club and went to dinner. We arrived back at the showroom the following morning at 8 am and folks were already there furiously grooming their rabbits and preparing to show. I didn't bring any rabbits to show because none of mine were in coat so I busied myself by looking for a suitable herd sire for both my French and my Satin angora lines. There were also numerous vendors in the show room peddling their wares. I got a cute pair of socks and a decal for my car. The angora open show was held around 9 am and the UARC specialty show was held right after lunch. There were many beautiful rabbits shown. My friend Lisa took BOS with her French buck in the open show and BOB Satin with her doe in the specialty show. I found the rabbits I was looking for, bought a couple pens and we hit the road to come home by 4:30 pm which put me back here at 10:30 pm. It was a good trip. This morning Andrew unloaded the cages from the car, and refilled my hay container with a new bale. I got the rabbitry cleaned and rearranged and my new bucks groomed, photographed, and moved to their new quarters. Everyone seems happy that it is a nice sunny day today.

Feed Sacks

Yesterday I stopped at the feed store here in town to get some parrot food for Sir Bird. The store has been there for about 20 years but recently changed ownership. The new owner has done some decorating with the addition of a collection of feed sacks. I thought they looked pretty neat in the display that he had arranged. This really wasn't a good thing for me to see because now I am on a mission to find a vintage rabbit feed sack. He had two!

Progress Report

The Book Nook is coming along slowly but surely. The sides are glued up and the grooves are cut for the shelves. It still doesn't look like much but its come along way. I got some paint samples at SW and am leaning toward something in the butternut range for the walls in that room. Now to get excited about painting.
There was a lot of dust flying around in the garage when I took the photo.

Evander's Day Out

Evander got to come out of his pen and into the garage today. I think he thoroughly enjoyed himself. I plucked a bunch of loose wool from him; his new coat is evident beneath it, and brushed him out. Look at that mound of wool! Currently I am saving all black wool so I can split having a yarn blend made with Andrew's sister's alpaca wool.