Happy Gotcha Day, Cannoli!

I saw "gotcha day" used on a friend's Facebook page to describe the adoption day for one of their pets.  Love that!  So - today is the first anniversary of adopting Cannoli.

Cannoli was a terrific find.  We worried about obtaining a friend for Pinniped, since she had been such a bully to Willow (and attempted to bully Bertie).  I had been told that Cannoli was accustomed to living with several sows, and was likely a good match.  What an understatement!  They immediately hit it off.  A year later, they are still very happy together.

Her laid back attitude is why she gets along so well with Pinniped.  Pinni will strut her stuff and assert her dominance; Cannoli remains unfazed then goes off and does her own thing.  It's pretty funny to watch.  Noli doesn't seem to care about her social status - she gets fed regardless, so life is good.

She's still quite timid when anyone comes by the cage.  Which is so silly for a guinea pig that frantically calls attention to herself several times a day (she's a bottomless pit).  Cannoli is such a wheeky pig!  Yet she always runs and hides.  Once she's caught, Noli seems happy enough to be held and snuggled.  She's a great lap pig (she's peed on my only once).  What an odd mix of contradictions.  

Happy Gotcha Day, my roly-poly Noli!

Got Cake?

My sister painted this card for my birthday many years ago, featuring Teddi and Eclair.  I loved the little party hats.  So I framed it and it hangs in my kitchen.  Cake?  Cookies?  It all smells good to me.  After all these years, this little painting still makes me smile.

Pinniped and Cannoli prefer my savory dishes to baked goods.  There's more chance of getting veggie trimmings when I make stew than baking chocolate chip cookies.

Oatmeal Bread

I've been baking bread.  Not the quick breads that I know and love but real bread that needs to rise before it bakes.  So far they've all been edible, although one loaf was so doughy it needed toasting before eating it.  I've tried several different recipes and this oatmeal bread has become our favorite.  It's wonderful toasted, with just butter or jam.  It works well with soups and stews.  I haven't made sandwiches with it, but I'm sure it would hold together well.  Try it, you'll like it.

The best thing from this recipe was rising instructions:  Preheat the oven to its hottest setting for 1 minute.  TURN OFF THE OVEN.  Place covered bowl in the oven to rise until doubled.  Since I started doing this, all of my breads have risen better.

Not Quite What I Expected

I set up a photo shoot to get a few photos of a pepper tug-of-war to go with the pepper-stealing post.  I failed to account for one thing:  Cannoli's un-pig like behavior when she's frightened.  Usually a scared guinea pig will grab any food offered to them because if one is going to die, one should die eating.

At least that's been my observation.

Not so with Cannoli.  When placed on the table and offered green pepper she sat there, not moving a muscle.  Such unhappiness.  Meanwhile, Pinniped helped herself to the first slice of pepper.  Um... definitely not the reaction I was hoping for.  Bertie would occasionally refuse to eat when stressed out, but most of my pigs have been excellent stress-eaters.

Quilt-As-You-Go Mug Rug

Have you ever heard of mug rugs?  I discovered them recently on a quilter's blog:  bigger than a coaster, smaller than a place mat, intended for a mug and some goodies.  I could certainly use one at my desk.  Seemed like a fun little project to do.  I bet they'd make good gifts, too.

This one used my left-over double disappearing nine patch pieces.  I'm so happy to find a use for these two strips since it killed me to cut them off of my mixer cover project.  The pieces were already quilted so I decided to try quilt-as-you-go to assemble the mug rug.  I found a few different methods and decided to try the one on Instructables.com.

Lying in Wait

Bell pepper tastes best when stolen from someone else

Cannoli is usually the first up to the second level for morning pepper.  Pinniped takes her time, if she bothers at all.  She had been begging from the first level, but recently she's done one better.  Cannoli always grabs the pepper, turns around and bolts to the corner of the first floor.  She pauses before leaping from the second level.  Pinni took advantage of that hesitation and grabbed the pepper from Noli before she jumped.

The first time or two this happened, Noli was under the hammock before she realized the pepper was gone.  Confused, she searched for a while before returning to me for another piece.  Or worse, she'd try to wrest the pepper back from Pinni, which was a losing deal.  I think at first Pinni just happened to take advantage of the opportunity.  Later she often sat waiting without any intention to beg.  Why bother waving your nose about when your roommate just hands over the goods?

Still Not a Cranberry

There have been lots of blueberries at the store and I can't resist them.  Oh, yum!

Wednesday morning I grabbed a handful to snack on and decided to share with the girls.  This was Cannoli's first experience with blueberries.  She was cautious, but curious.  Pinniped immediately nabbed it, but there was no victory wave.  She quickly confirmed that this was the not-cranberry:  good enough to eat, but nothing to get excited over.

Alas, fresh cranberry season is gone.  We are slowly depleting  the stash of frozen ones.  Defrosted cranberries tend to be limp and soggy and lack the satisfying crunch of a fresh one.  But a soggy cranberry is still preferable to a fresh blueberry (at least that's Pinni opinion).  Noli could be convinced otherwise, since she's still not sure if she likes the cranberry's tartness.  Blueberries are sweeter.

Looks like I'm the only blueberry lover in the house, given that they weren't immediately snarfed down.  I could even get a photo of a half-eaten one?!?  At least I know they can't make me feel guilty for not sharing.

Cork Board

I have some neat push-pins my sister gave me.  Several look like pairs of shoes; some newer ones she made from Sculpey that have teacups on them.  I had a nice cork board at our old place, but it was glued/nailed to the wall and was left behind.  The pins have been in storage since we moved.

I didn't like the plain cork boards I saw in the store.  Besides, I discovered my stash of wine corks after the move and decided to make my own cork board.  I found the frame at Michaels and then discovered I didn't have enough corks to fill it.  (My wine-drinking friends are now laughing at me or gasping in horror.)  I finally collected enough corks this week and set to work on gluing everything down.

I'm happy with it.  There's two small gaps I may eventually fill in, but I'm likely to be the only person to notice.  It's a tiny cork board compared to others I've seen with this design.  But it's big enough to show off my push pins, keep track of a few receipts and it fits right over the coat hook in the kitchen.  Perfect.