Tunnel Turnover

I keep the guinea pigs' cage stocked with a few cozies and cuddle cups.  I usually put their tunnel on the second level, since that area gets a lot of through-traffic and a tunnel doesn't disrupt the flow like a dead-end cozy.  Bertie disagreed with my choice and regularly insisted that the tunnel belonged on the first floor.  She'd usually pull it down at her first opportunity.  I figured that Bertie had some kind of quirky opinion about it.  Now I'm beginning to think she had an ulterior motive.

In the past, if the tunnel was on the first floor, Pinni would tend lay on it, or ignore it entirely.  I've been watching Pinni over the last several days, and I see her often taking naps in the tunnel, but only when it's on the second floor.  Interesting.  So maybe Bertie's first-floor preference wasn't due to some kind of piggy aesthetics.  I can totally picture Bertie moving the tunnel downstairs just to hassle Pinni.  After all, Pinni would regularly oust Bertie from favored sleeping spots.  I bet Bertie was just returning the favor in her own unique way.

A Solo Anniversary

It was three years ago tonight that I picked up a frightened Bertie and curious Pinniped from the Dedham shelter to bring home and be friends with Willow.  And what a three years it has been!  We've had adventures in stew pots, trips to pignics and many outings in the back yard.  We had a brief period with one big happy herd, then a couple of years in which we were content with no fighting during floor time.  There's been popcorning around in clean cages, exploring on the floor, lounging in hammocks, careful arranging of the cage contents and time spent storming the hay rack. 

Pinniped:  then and now

2012 was a rough year for the herd.  We lost Willow in February, which wasn't entirely out of the blue; she was already an old lady when the Newbies were adopted.  Pinniped was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst (which appears to be in remission).  Then we lost Bertie in December, which was very unexpected.  Although she'd been battling illnesses for over a year, she had been holding together quite well.  I wasn't prepared for the outcome.  Bertie was only three and a half.

So my trio has become a solo.  We are celebrating Pinniped's adoption by herself.  My little nosy rodent has grown to be a big, chubby, nosy rodent, in constant need of squeezes and love.  Pinni could do without the squeezing.  She'd also be happy if I limited my showering of love and affection to melon rind and tomatoes and skip the kisses and snorgling.  Sorry Pinni - it's a package deal.  You should be used to it by now.

Happy Anniversary to my old Newbie!

This and That

Every year, when I finish my ornaments, I leave out the Sculpey, hoping to be inspired to make something more.  Generally, it just sits in the corner of the living room, adding to the clutter and gathering dust.  This year, amazingly, I pulled together a few magnets.

Our bird feeders have been very popular with the local birds this season.  We don't have bluebirds, but I was watching feeder activity when I made the birdhouse magnet.  The bear is an old standby of mine.  My very first ornaments, when I started working with salt dough (decades ago!), were teddy bears that looked very much like this.  

The pile of apples will go to a friend of mine who picks tons of apples each year and makes lots of applesauce.  Delicious!  I still have a jar or two from this year's batch.

Bertie: Determined Rodent Extraordinaire

Less than a month ago I begged the vet that I wanted my old Bertie back:  the one that liked to run laps and defiantly climb into hay racks.  I felt like a little kid, demanding my dad fix a toy that was beyond repair.  I wanted this so much that I threw practicality to the wind, and scheduled surgery to remove Bertie's kidney tumor early in the new year.

Bertie had improved since her Thanksgiving vet visit.  By the week before Christmas, she had finally crept up over 700g, wasn't fighting the hand feedings as much and was generally looking a bit better.  I allowed myself to hope that the surgery would be successful, and after this year-and-a-half of gradual decline from viruses and kidney issues, I would get my active, happy Bertie back. 

Alas.  It was not to be.

Peter Pan

Did you guess what the Lots of Green was?  One of my coworkers correctly identified the pair of legs hanging out on the side of that photo.  Several people figured out I was making something many tiny leaves.  But there wasn't enough in my first photo to identify the ornament as the beginnings of Peter Pan's outfit. 

In researching this ornament, I discovered that Peter Pan was not well described in the original books.  He was a young boy, "clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that flow from trees".  So I went with that (and some of the original drawings I could find) as the basis of my Peter Pan, rather than the more popular Disney version.  The best part of this ornament?  I made him flying.  What fun!

Holiday Piggies!

You have to admit, guinea pigs are cute.  Every year I get more requests for my guinea pig Christmas cards.  In turn, I receive one or two more holiday pig pictures to decorate my wall.  This year, I acquired guinea pig photos and cards from five different guinea pig people.  They're all so cute,  I had to share:

Thank you so much for sharing your holiday piggy cheer!

It's the End of the World as We Know It

What else could be better for a 2012 ornament than a Mayan with his calendar?

I have been making my godson an ornament every year since the mid-1990's.  I had originally intended to stop making him ornaments when he turned 21.  However, he liked them so much, and I enjoyed making them so much, I continued for a few more years.  The end of an era has finally come.  It made this last ornament for him so fitting.

I have been interested in the Mayan civilization (and the Aztecs and the Incas) since I was a kid.  I've been toying with the idea of a Mayan or Aztec ornament for a few years.  Then I was truly inspired with the whole end-of-the-world calendar thing, and decided to make a Mayan and work a calendar into the ornament.

Teach N Treat - Level 3

The girls have been mastering the first two levels of Teach 'N Treat.  I had a chance to try the remaining challenge with them today.  This level keeps the four covers used in level 2, but locks them onto the board.  This allows the covers to be pushed around, but they cannot be picked up.

Having watched Bertie and Pinniped play with this toy over the last couple of months, I figured this level would be a non-event.  And this was true.  Pinni walked over, immediately nosed over the first cover she encountered, picked out the melon piece and took off to enjoy it.  The two of them had no problems maneuvering the pieces.  Their biggest frustration was their inability to lift up the covers or knock them over.  You can see Pinni tries several times to pick them up to move them.