Sad turn of events

In a tragic turn yesterday night, the papa bird died suddenly. He took a bite of a toxic plant when he came out. As always we beat ourselves up. I knew that the plant was on a toxics list... he had accidentally nibbled a leaf before and I put it aside in my head that it must not be too poisonous.( kind of like poison control for babies where they actually have to eat a ton of something for it to be harmful). Last night though he bit into the rib of the plant and died within minutes. There was nothing at all we could do. He died in my hands. We were all devestated. I was so worried and still am for his mate. They are best friends. I cant even put into words how close they are. Her sad calls for him last night just reduced us all to tears. We went and bought some bird formula just in case she has trouble feeding them. I am still unsure of how it will go because he always fed her. If we come close to her she makes little nibbles in the air waiting for someone to feed her. She is eating this morning though, and I watched her feed the babes. We took the plant out in the night last night and buried him with the boys. So sad.

Hmmm...

The dyeing didn't quite go as planned. All I have access to here right now are the Dyson dyes. I was experimenting really! I had really good success with the other wool I dyed as it turned out nice and dark and super saturated. I tried the Dyson Cold dye at first but it didn't take AT ALL. I had washed the fleece really well this summer , so I didn't think that it was because of the lanolin. I ditched the cold dye for the time being and just used the colours that I had in the regular dye. Too bad because I was looking forward to a bright leafy green in there too. When I was dying the rest of the wool the tips were taking the dye, but the rest wasn't. I thought that it was going to just become a learning experience, but as it is drying the colour is looking a bit brighter. The opposite of what I have experienced before! Not my favourite colours necessarily but will make a really cute baby sweater or something. I can't wait until spring to get into natural dying. I am much more drawn to the colours I could get from the natural dyes. Outdoor dying is appealing to me as well!

We have guests coming this weekend. Papas sister ( second time we have met her) and she is bringing her mom who we have never met. I am planning on an East Indian feast of some sort! Any excuse to put on a spread!( and since I have to cook more " boring" stuff for the kids usually!) So cleaning, grocery shopping and meal planning are in the cards today. National Geographic videos online have been my best buddy this very very rainy week! Oh the shame!

Just pics

Whew!

Just finished a spinning project this morning. I was given a bag of fiber a few months back and it is just really weird stuff. I don't know what breed of sheep it comes from, but it is super stretchy and slubby and weird. Think stretchy cobwebby. I tried carding it but it didn't help at all with the slubbiness of it, so I just decided to spin it from the locks... even though it wasn't very lock like! Oh well. I couldn't bear to just toss it so I thought that I would spin it, dye it fun colours and then give it all to a preggy friend who really loves to knit. Maybe some longies and soakers for the new baby? It turned out cool anyways. A bit thick and thin and slubby, but soft and sproingy. I dyed one skein about a month ago to experiment with dying and it turned out nice. I have no idea how it will knit up though. I finished about 600 yards more and was finally finished plying this morning. I had planned to get out the dyepot this afternoon but it was so pretty and creamy looking in its natural state. I called up my friend and gave her the option of keeping it in its creamy natural white colour and she would love to give it a go that way. I still have a bag of cheviot/shetland mix that I am going to dye in locks this afternoon. Maybe I will throw some onsies in there to tye dye with the boys as a gift. Now I am looking forward to spinning something consistant and clean looking!

I have been looking for ages ...

I have been looking for ages on Craigslist and at thrift stores for a good bookshelf. They are hard to come by! When I do see one that is real wood they are in the 250 dollar range. We had made do for almost 10 years now with one my father in law built out of some sort of awful prefab coreboard. It has been saggy and terrible looking for the past 8 or so of those years! Finally yesterday we purchased some wood... we walked into the wood store and there were tons of pine shelving bits for sale. We put together a nice big bookshelf in an afternoon for MUCH cheaper than anything we could have bought used... besides, it is really nice and big. We both went to bed with big smiles! Anything that makes our 800 square foot place more organised and livable... hey! It makes me very happy!

I sold a loom that I had bought used yesterday, gave away another that I had been given ( who gave us a bottle of wine!) , decluttered and organised the boys play/ learning space ( got 5 bags off to the thrift store!) . I has been productive around here!

Somehow I have been super supported in the fiber arts community and have recieved 2 new looms in the past week. A beautiful Salish upright loom, a nice lightweight rigid heddle as well. You meet fiber folks everywhere you go. A woman fom the local fiber guild was telling me that the youngest member in the guild is 60 years old. Some are in thier 90s and are just itching to pass on thier knowledge. My hubby and I were marvelling at how somehow I have amassed everything that I needed for spinning including two lovely wheels, carders, combs, spindles, niddy noddys, an antique skein and bobbin winder, and 6 fleeces all for under 200 dollars( over the past year). People have been very generous! I really NEEDED something like this in my life though for sanity reasons! ( parenting can be so intense and creative balance is a real need in my life. )I am very thankful when I feel so supported by the universe in these ways.

Piccies

So in the end only two of the eggs hatched and the final egg was empty and unfertilised. The babies are doing great and are super cute!! The oldest we named Piper and the younger one is Cricket. We just started taking them out of the nest briefly to clean the poop out. So there is a quick pic in the meantime.

We have a baby!!!!

Baby budgie number one hatched yesterday night!!!! I could hear little peeps from inside the egg yesterday and by bedtime last night the peeps got a lot louder . I knew something was up yesterday because papa bird was super attentive and all of the sudden squished into the nest with mama... weird beause he has never done that before. I was worried about him squishing the eggs... but they seem to know what they are doing!!! He squishes in there and feeds the mama, and preens her and coos to her. A loving papa!lol I watched the mama turn the baby over and around to get access to its little beak and feed it. It is like a little pink bald jellybean!

I will take pics of the baby (babies?) in a week or so. I don't want to disturb them too much.

Into fall!

Brrr! The mornings are getting chilly! I can hear my hubby scraping the windows of the van before heading off to work in the morning.... at his new job!!! Good news, as EI would have run out soon. Was hired and started last week as the Maintenance Manager at a very large hotel!!!! I am seriously crossing my fingers that this will work out long term. Partial medical/dental and life insurance... luxuries that we have never had! Working in the same place every day, regular schedule. I cried when he got it. I will always make it work... living on 1400 dollars a month for the past 6 months has gotten to me though. It will take us a while to catch up again, and I will be so thankful to have the basic needs covered again.

Things are good here, getting back into a routine of things. We have all been under the weather for a bit here, so it will be nice to get back into the swing of things. Interesting news, our budgies have laid three eggs. If they are fertilised and all goes well, they may hatch in a little over a week. We are all prepared for natures will... not trying to get our hopes up. It would be nice though!

Yesterday the boys and I took on the task of trying to make felted soap! Fun project , even for someone with fine motor difficulties. All of our soaps worked out! Today we are going to try to make some felted acorn ornaments for our Norfolk pine houseplant. Last year we made origami ones... should be cute with the acorns. I think we need to go hunting for another acorn tree to find more caps because these would make perfect Christmas gifts for the grandparents.