Henry, Anne and the Egg

I did promise to keep you updated on some of those various goings-on from my marathon-posting last month, and I'm happy to say there's some good news!
Early this morning, Anne laid an egg!

Below you see the happy couple side-by-side, celebrating their achievement with a spot of mutual feather preening.

The egg is about the size of my thumbnail. What will likely happen is Anne will lay one egg a day til her brood is complete - usually they consist of four to six eggs. After that, she'll sit on them for about two weeks til they hatch.
If they hatch!
When birds mate, they do it very quickly. So, I can't really be sure that these eggs are fertilized, seeing as how I never actually witnessed Henry and Anne being amourous.
If the eggs aren't fertilized, it's best to remove them after about three weeks. Otherwise the little hen will sit and sit, all for naught.

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Rue
Blog: Tinks and Frogs
Rav ID: Rue
Some Great Designs: Rue's Rav Designer Page

I really hope this designer continues to create and publish her work, because her first pattern, Larch, is so absolutely lovely!

This wee shawlette has great texture and just enough lace. It's infinitely wearable, and appears to be just the sort of knit that would be perfect for a Pure Pleasure Knit - that is, a knit where you don't have to stress, and end up with a fantastic FO to show off.

I suggest keeping an eye open for Rue's knits. If this piece is any indication, she's certainly my kind of designer!!

Tweet Tweet Twitter Twitter

Every place, every one and every thing (it seems) needs to be on Twitter, even the museum where I work.
It was after playing with this account at work that I decided dear Twitter was the bee's knees, I was keen on it, and that I needed to have one for meeeee.

If you dig it, you can see my inanity located in one, easy to use space.
Look no further than the linkage on the button below.

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Linda Skuja
Blog: eleven
Website: Eleven Handmade
Etsy Shop: Eleven Handmade
Rav ID: LindaBelinda11
Some Great Designs: LindaBelinda11's Rav Designer Page

There's many-a-time that I've heard crochet poo-pooed. The prejudice against this fibrey craft seems to be rather deep rooted and strong.
While I admit I've seen my fair share of toilet paper cozies, unnecessarily silly doll dresses and (the sometimes unsettling) holiday "decoration", I think you'll agree with me when I say that this week's designer casts away all doubt that crochet can be beautiful!

Check out her Bolero sweater with high collar (picture © Linda Skuja). I love fun and interesting pieces like this. The collar is fantastic; the shape is functional (cause I can't tell you how often my arms are colder than the rest of me!) and the lace is wonderfully understated.

A free pattern, Cardigan by eleven, is a prefect way to use crochet to great effect. The undulous structure and openwork natural to this craft adds interest to the piece; when the cardigan is belted, it exudes a casual chic that is both cozy and attractive.

Finally, for a bit of cool retro fun, check out her Hoodie by Eleven. The shell stitch and other variations, along with colour changes, make this a throw-it-on statement piece. I love the hood, the length is perfect, the U-shaped neckline dips down to just the right depth - I could go on!

So, did my attempts at a persuasive argument work? I certainly hope so - this crochet is beautiful!

But, before I go: there's been plenty this designer has been up to since I first asked to profile her! Here are some recent pieces of news:

-she's been nominated for the 3rd Annual Crochet Award as a best new crochet designer! Good luck!
-she's become a member of Crochet Guild of America; they have a design contest in September which she'll be participating in
-she's recently opened a brand-spanking-new etsy shop! Check out the link at the top of this post
-in a wonderful bit of designing delight, she's created a multi-purpose, multi-wear piece of crochet, Transformer4in1. This piece is a hood, cowl, scarf and shrug all in one! Check out her blog post here to see how she devised this fantastic design!

This Month's Words; Or, Here's My March Wrap Up

So today brings an official end to my Post-A-Day challenge for March.
I did it! Hoorah!
(though I quibble within myself as to whether or not I've cheated by making this last post simply a "yeah! I done it!" celebration....)

The image above is from Wordle - a cool little tool to make an artistic layout of your bloggy word usage. I'm happy to see so many of these words painting a positive picture!

Hope you all had a great March. It's a grey, rainy day out - heralding the upcoming season. I've always been a fan of the rain, and now it turns my mind to that wee garden plot that's mine! all mine! oh so very soon :)
All the various and sundry tidbits you've seen me post about this month, I'll keep you updated on them. I have ambitious plans for this year! There's a surprise or two in store.
I'll share real soon. I swears.

For now, here's what my Thursday brings:

-a regret that I've left my umbrella at home! (and it's a really cool one, linky here)
-watching a new set of BBC loveliness, Victorian Kitchen Garden. It's way retro, and so very neato.
-continuing my obsession with and additions to Pinterest. So many beautiful things and innovative ideas, so little time! (thanks to all those helpful readers who pointed me in the direction of this site!)

How about you?

Oiseau Wednesday

Maybe I can start a new feature on Cuteoverload - Canaries n' Racks?¹

Again, Hilts is not happy.

And of course, no canaries were harmed in the making of this post. Just pissed off, and confused.



¹If you're not aware of the reference, there's Cats n' Racks on Cuteoverload.

I Plot my Plot; Or, Wheeee! I Get to Garden!

There's a sordid past of plant murder on this blog.

As has been my claim, it's not me! It's my north-facing balcony.

So, with little hope of acceptance, I joined the süber long waiting list for my community garden last autumn. Hundreds of names were ahead of me.

*le sigh, methoughts, I suppose I just wasn't meant to plant and tend and harvest.

But lo!

At the beginning of March I got a joyous email, approving me for a plot this year. Huzzah!

Much of March has been devoted to me cramming as much as I can into my brain about gardening. I've picked brains, read articles and gone a-purchasing.

I bought several types of seeds (vegetable, flower and herb) from this website.

Wish me luck! I want no more herbicide attached to my name!

Egg Painting; Or, How I Need A Steady Hand

Having dug out my long neglected art supplies, the fancy has taken me to not only play with my watercolours (as yesterday's post can witness), but with my acrylics as well.

Here you see two eggs I've been painting today.

With tiny brush in hand I set forth, with grand visions of gorgeously decorated eggs dancing in my head.

The sad reality is that:
1) my acrylic painting skills are severely out of date
2) my hand is just not that steady!

With a bit of practice I hope to do the lovely shelly canvas better justice. For now, the rewards of my afternoon spent painting sit happily, awaiting the next few hours I can devote to their colourful additions.

In the meantime, I'm off to a Jane Austen book club meeting.
(which I suppose you might be able to guess have affected my writing in this post. How I do long to speak well, with the poise, grace and dignified vocabulary of an early 19th century lady!)

Sneak Peek

Here's a quick look at what I've been up to for the past few days.

I hope to have some finished work to show after the weekend.

Apartment Bird Feeder; Not The Place To Be

I'm a burgeoning birder. I thought it would be cool beans to have some of the local cuties fly on over to my balcony and have a bit of a snack from the bird feeder you see pictured. This feeder sits, unloved, unvisited, unfound? attached sadly to my living room window.

The seed is fresh; I live on the 3rd floor; there's certainly no predators (well, except for this human); and yet, no birdies come.

I suspect they're not down with the lack of flight cover, and I guess they might simply not have discovered it yet.

But, I thought I'd ask: anyone else try installing a bird feeder on their apartment balcony? If so, was it visited?

In the meantime I sit and wait, hoping I'll get to see (at the very least!) the prolific local sparrows and chickadees.

Indie Designer Revisited

Designer: Kelly McClure
Blog: Bohoknits
Rav ID: bohoknits
Etsy: Bohoknits
Some Great Designs: bohoknits' Rav designer page
Original Indie Designer Post: August 21, 2009

A very prolific designer, bohoknits has published over twenty new patterns since I profiled her in 2009!
I've included a couple of these new designs, Cockleshells Scarf and Abyss Leg warmers. I couldn't decide which of these two I liked best, so both of them are pictured!

I dig the lovely lacy simplicity of the Cockleshells Scarf (and it's photographed very nicely, too!) And I always love me a good pair of legwarmers, and Abyss are very pretty.

I've shown you these patterns because, firstly, they're lovely and wearable, but also because they're atypical from her most oft designed garment, the hat.

Check out her Rav Designer page for all these interesting and fashionable toppers. And, in some exciting news, bohoknits has told me about the following project:

"I’m currently consulting and designing for a company [Ambler] that is local to my town but sells their hats all over North America!"

Before I go, I'd also like to point out the multi-talent of bohoknits with this incredibly stylish piece of crochet, Titan's Stole. Please check it out, it's very unique and defo cool!

I Heart the BBC

Are you:

-a history nerd? (hehe, an history nerd?)
-looking for something cool to watch?

Then seek no further. I have something for you!

You may or may not have heard of the excellent series Victorian Farm. I watched it, I loved it. See the series, linked here below.

It's a way awesome show that spans a whole year, with archaeologists and historians living on a farm, everything period sourced and appropriate.

But, I've just recently discovered a sequel, Edwardian Farm. Also way cool!

And, for those who are interested in historic medicine, there's also the Victorian Pharmacy.

Oiseau Wednesday

Oh, the things the human will do.

Here is Hilts, enduringly humiliated in a pot-too-small to fly out of.

Cuppa canary, anyone?

*No canaries were harmed in the making of this post. Just really pissed off.

Which Generation and Y?

I was listening to the radio this morning; it was an interview on the CBC with David Foot, a Canadian economist and demographer, famous for his book Boom, Bust and Echo (1996).

The general bent to the discussion was the lamentation of missed milestones for Gen X; that is, the celebration of the first wave of Gen Xers to begin turning 50.
It was noted that no such oversight happened for the Boomers.
And of course, there's more boomers than Xers, etc, etc, etc...

(picture contains Gen Y and the "Greatest"/"Silent" generation. That is, me and me grandma.)

Interesting tid-bit: the passage of power (at least, voting power) won't shift from the Boomers-as-majority to us younger generations until 2014 (as I recall... I did hear this interview in my pre-coffee stage).

My interest was piqued, of course, when they had a wee bit of talk regarding my supposed generation, the Millennials, Echo Generation, or Gen Y (all interchangeable, I believe).

Apparently, we're:
-trusting of authority
-getting married in our late 20s
-able to multi-task (traced to our familiarity with and constant use of technology)
-perceived by some (ahem, Boomers...) as undedicated and lazy. This, so I've heard, is connected to the job market, and the (sad?) reality that it's highly unlikely anymore that a person will keep the same job throughout their working life.
-and yet, were able to get jobs "easily"

I wonder, for all you fellow Gen Y people:
Does any of that make sense? I have to admit I've read conflicting descriptions of our demographic.

I have noticed that I can process information (be that a quick scan through radio stations, channel surfing, sorting through the constant bombardment of images and sounds) much more efficiently than some of my older friends and family.
Perhaps multi-tasking at work?

__________
This is an old (from 1996) but interesting video. Talking about us Gen Y kids, as kids. It's like looking into history.

What be This WIP?

Just a quick WIP photo today. Sadly, my wrist is doing that thing where you're really keen to knit, and then it says "oh no you don't!", and gets all tense and tender on ya. So, I'll be back with an FO pic (hopefully, surely!) soon.

Photo deets: this is some of that purty madelinetosh I had blogged about a few days ago. The knit's coming together pretty well - I can't wait to finish it and show you all!