Category Archives: Pets & critters

Finished It Friday! Blanket

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IMG_9207I’m happy to report that thanks to the week of ice & snow
I focused on my blanket and it’s now finished.
It has the Shelibean nap-test approval.
smileywreath
I kept up with everything, so I have stats on it.

Cast-on 1-1-2015
Bind-off 2-19-2015
Finished size 54″ x 69″

1 198 peg KB S-Loom & Kniting hook
8 skeins of Montana Sky Lion Brand HomeSpun Yarn 6oz 185 yds
256 rows
50,432 stitches (I used only 197 pegs)

I’m surprised and happy that I have this blanket finished so soon.
I washed it in a normal wash cycle in a washing machine & dried it on Knits Low in the dryer.
It turned out beautifully and is soft and cuddly.
I’m thinking about starting another one… stay tuned 😉

According to the calender, Spring’ll be here in a few weeks so warm weather can’t be too far off.
I hope you all are staying warm and safe during this rough winter weather.
t09017
spflwrsln

Monday Mix

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IMG_8752I haven’t excelled at being productive on loom knitting my new blanket. I’ve worked on it a few hours, so far. After this update, I’ve decided to give updates on my blanket only when I’ve made significant progress, so it may be one a month or none-a-month…
But for now, I’ve 14 rows done and happy to have them. The first 10 rows are the toughest (and the last ten).
I’m off to a slow start after 11 days, but at least I’m off to a start. 🙂
~*~

IMG_8745I’ve been working on a plastic canvas project for my Grandson. He enjoyed the minecraft blocks that I made for him and I wanted to make him something else. I decided on a tissue box cover and was inspired by a pin on pinterest. I made my own pattern. I enlarged it to where everything is centered and made it large enough to fit a tissue box. I’m working on the top, I hope it goes as well as the sides did.
~*~

00IMG_8729I bought a couple new lamps the other day. The main selling feature to me was the swing arm. So, far it’s worked out great. The swing arm helps when I’m reading and crafting.
~*~

IMG_87132In sadder news, Sunday 1-11-2015, Rex the triop (tadpole shrimp) lived to the ripe old age of 21 days and then curled up his 80 toes and died. I’m not sure what went wrong with the little feller.
He was a fun new friend and we’ll miss him.
Thursday 1-8-2015, I switched Rex to a beta bowl tank . Rex moulted within a half hour after I put him in the new tank. I figured he would continue to grow larger, so Friday I went to the store and stocked up on distilled water and even bought a small aquarium that’s about a gallon or so. I was saving it for when Rex grew larger, but it won’t happen now… sigh…
I’m going to keep the new tank & water. I might grow some more triops someday and probably will… but not right now… or I might get a guppy… or a beta… we’ll see…
~*~

s-1-8-2015Shelibean will miss Rex too. While I tended to Rex each day Sheli would enjoy napping on our spare bed. It was short naps, but enjoy them, he did.
~*~

IMG_8695There’s not much going around here lately, except for cold weather. Brrr. We got a dusting of dry snow on 1-7-2015. Over the course of the next few days, the temps got down to as love as 3° during the night. Fortunately, our pipes didn’t freeze.
The temps have warmed back to the mid 20’s to 30’s and if the sun happened to make a rare appearance the temp went up to nigh-on 47°. lol pull out the shorts and the sunscreen… oh yes… lol
I am so ready for Spring!!!
~*~

Do you have many projects going at the same time?
Wishing you all a great week!spring-017

spgrnbgln

Triop 16 days old eating spinach

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shed16daysIt’s hard for me to believe how quickly our dinosorta has grown. I figure you all will may get tired of seeing posts/videos about him. But I can’t help myself. lol It’s fascinating to me to see how fast Rex changed.
He shed his exoskeleton yesterday. It’s the light color thing on the left, Rex is on the right. I kind of hope he doesn’t get very big. I’m setting up a beta bowl for him right now. I plan to put some aquarium gravel in with the sand. Rex likes to dig and maybe the small gravels will keep him occupied.

I figured that Rex might have been hungry after shedding his exoskeleton, so I went online and looked up some things he can eat. He’s an omnivore, so he can pretty much live off anything within reason.
I par boiled (blanched) a sliver of carrot and a small spinach leaf. I wasn’t sure how Rex would react to the food. I was surprised when he pounced on the carrot. He didn’t seem to care much for it, but then he pounced on the spinach and ate his fill. I’m happy I was able to video a few seconds of his spinach feasting. It was something to see and I’m glad to be able to share it with you.

I hope you all are keeping warm during this freezing cold snap.
I hope that none of you are getting iced or snowed under.
Wishing you a warm & healthy rest of the week.
🙂spgrnbgln

Triop – 14 days old

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Right now, my hubby & I fondly refer to the triop as ‘Rex’ (our grandson may rename him though). Rex is growing quickly (it’s probably partly because he ate all the fairy shrimp.) Rex may be full grown, depending on which website you read.

Yesterday, I managed to make an okay video of Rex swimming. It’s pretty neat that he/she actually looks like the 200 million year old fossil of it’s forefathers.

Rex’s a pretty neat critter. I’m happy it’s doing so well, so far.

Wishing you all a pleasant week!

🙂spgrnbgln

Triop – 12 days old

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I was sad that the triops (tadpole shrimp) didn’t hatch out. I haven’t tried my second ‘Smithsonian Prehistoric Sea Monster’ kit yet. I let the tank alone with the fairy shrimp and a couple Daphnia (water fleas) happily making it their home. I figure they have a short life span and require little or no attention. I checked on them everyday and noticed one of the shrimp hung around the bottom more than the others. I paid it little attention… until I noticed it was turning brown and was a real live triop!
I’m guessing it’s about 12 days old. It’s a fast little critter. I plan to transfer it to a larger tank when/if it grows larger.
I felt the need to try and video it, but it’s still tiny. It’s the little blurry critter swimming down at the first of the video and then running around the bottom of the tank.
I’m so happy that one lone triop hatched and survived (so far.) Cool!

Wishing you a Happy January 2nd 2015.
b0614
spgrnbgln