That's exactly how I feel

Exhausted and on the edge where comfortable meets uncomfortable. This weekend was our first seminar of the school year. That means we had to turn in an album, original lessons, and a paper as well as take a practical exam on Saturday and we had class all day today. This time around it was our Practical Life album, original lessons and paper. I think mine all turned out well. I wasn't unhappy with any of them as we turned them in. Some time I will upload photos of my original lessons. The practical exam was for Sensorial, which also went well. I didn't have to retake either portion!

Our next seminar and due date is in December, so we have some time to breathe. However, I am hoping to have one craft fair in between and I am already signed up for a craft fair the weekend after the seminar. So I will need to plan my afternoons carefully. Besides all that, I have holiday crafting to do! Halloween is approaching fast and I have plans for goodies for the children...

I'm baaack!

Sorry for the lack of posting. T and I have been working on getting our place all packed up for the new floors. He spent all of last week packing while I was at work and this past weekend we finished up what was left. Sunday we moved into a nearby hotel. We even brought Tuz! He has managed the move very nicely. He didn't stomp once! In fact, he seems as excited as we are, even though we have to confine him to his house (cage) when we are out. That photo up there is of him being happy and binking in the hotel room. I took some photos of the progress in the apt, which I'll upload tonight.

Spring is shedding season

Sometimes after a difficult day, the best thing to do is to just go home and pet the bunny. Bunnies are good at giving their humans fresh perspective and the petting is really very therapeutic. This evening, Tuzi reminded me that Spring is shedding season. That means he's getting rid of his old coat and getting a shorter, softer, new one. He wants me to get rid of my old, heavy winter worries and move on to sunnier, happier new thoughts. Don't focus on the unknowns and potentially bads, think about all the wonderful things this new season will bring!

Spring is also the season for cleaning, and T and I have begun preparations for a massive, overhaul-style cleaning of our apartment. We got the go-ahead for replacing all of our wall to wall carpeting, throughout the whole place, with beautiful new hardwood flooring! Not only will it be great for my newly developed (and hopefully soon to be going away) asthma and allergies, but it will also vastly increase the attractiveness of our apartment. Sure, the week our apartment is turned upside down and packed away will be crazy (especially since I'll be working still), but it will be SO wonderful to be on the road to long-term continued healthiness. Just in time for summer!

Sunshine and earthworms

The weather has been quite kind these first couple days back to school. Nice weather always puts the children in a better mood. The big thing on the playground is earthworms. We received a lovely new layer of mulch over the break which holds moisture in its lower layers well; the perfect digging grounds for small hands in search of fat worms. One of our little friends even brought in a tub of worms he'd found at home. I tried to get a picture of a worm in a little hand, but the camera card is still full of Disney photos!

I'm uploading them as we speak, so there will be a nice link to an album full of photos for you at the bottom of the post. In the meantime, tomorrow is already hump day, and I have decided to go back to my Hump Day Goodies making ways. Tomorrow's goody is kettle corn. Ever since I first smelled the delicious salty, buttery popcorn in Disney World, I've been itching to make kettle corn. In fact, I had even planned to make some before our trip for snacking on the plane. Anyway, a nice big bowl is already made and cooling for tomorrow. Tuzi, who seems to dislike the smell of oil and the sound of corn popping is not impressed and even carried his carrot (an offering from the offending MamaTuzi) away to his room. The photo is from before we left. He has taken to napping in a little towel tent on T's office chair, and I managed to capture a few photos. Such the inventive little bun!

Big Apple

We spent a long weekend up in NYC for T to compete in a Moot Court. The weather was great, considering it's early February. It was a little chilly on Friday, but much nicer than our last visit when it rained (poured) and T bought a faulty umbrella. [Longish funny story, email or comment if you're interested.] I was not allowed to attend the Moot Court proceedings, so I had quite a bit of time to myself. Though I'd had my doubts about our travel and hotel arrangements, things turned out reasonably. Our bus was about an hour late leaving DC, which left us standing in the cold, but such things happen I suppose. The hotel made up for it; the Sheraton Manhattan. It's on the very edge of Times Square as you'd picture it in your head. The rooms were a decent size, check in was painless and prompt and best of all, it was clean; no mildewy bathrooms (like at the W we stayed in last trip)!

While T was away, I pounded the pavement around the hotel. I probably walked a good 5 miles, we suspect. I think I saw everything on Madison, Lex, 5th and Ave. of the Americas, plus a lot of the in between streets from 41st all the way up to 68th. I plotted a course to hit Japanese book stores (searching for crafting books) and Japanese groceries which are quite plentiful actually. It was very fun to see all the "real" Japanese goodies as compared to the primarily Korean and Chinese stuff around DC.

I ended up spending a lot on crafting books, as is to be expected. I found a really cool one for Mom with charts for all kinds of different, very intricate and complicated looking knitted patterns. I also found a "find the differences" book for Sneetch which is comprised of pretty difficult pictures in all kinds of illustration styles. I ended up getting 5 for myself. I will get some pictures when my camera is recharged. I think my favourite is one called Make a Box which comes with a CD of .eps files so you can put your own designs and logo on all sorts of printable packaging templates! I have dreams of making something supercute for the babies, since Valentine's Day is upon us. I'll get photos of that too, if it happens.

Sorry about the blurry photo, my camera seems to dislike me more and more each day. T and I have been contemplating splurging on a nice SLR (I still don't know what that means, and haven't had a chance to research it properly). The idea is that if we had a good camera, we would take more photos. At all the craft fairs we go to, we both see photos and other 2D art we like all the time. But, one of us (ok, me) always points out that we could make it ourselves and it wouldn't cost $x00000.00. So, we don't buy the art, but we also don't make the art and our walls are still bare.


Speaking of art, I come to the only other photo I took that came out well; a giant statue of Miffy. She was standing with some other notable kawaii friends; Hello Kitty, Pochacco, Keroppi, amongst a group of skateboarders doing tricks on their pedestals. An interesting joining of cultures.

Shop mode

I haven't updated in a while. But that's not because nothing's been going on! There was the end of school (which is always a crazy, hectic time), the start of summer, my agreeing to work an extra 40 hours (plus a little more, as always seems to be the case) and Silver Lining inventory production! Way back in May, I'd made weekly schedules for myself, including 5 solid hours of production time, time for exercise, inspiration, design all that good stuff. But as summer actually began, I have not only lost the sheets of paper I drafted those optimistic plans on, but have also not even attempted to dedicate 5 hours/day to building inventory. All this will come back to bite me on Friday if I get into Crafty Bastards (they let us know on Friday!). But, on the bright side, I will still have a whole week to work like a crazy person before we go on vacation!

For your photo today, a cute one of our little Tuzi playing with a prototype lime green, linen bunny:

Our family grows!

On 4 January, our little family grew by one little fluffy bundle of fun. Meet Louis Kablouis the Lapin! He's a Dwarf Hotot rabbit, and is already as big as he's going to get. After lots of research, wanting, calling, wanting, emailing, wanting and waiting, we finally settled on this cute little guy.


He was surrendered to the Humane Society of Fairfax County only a few days before we came to pick him up. His previous family had kept him as their favourite and cherished pet, until it was discovered (or admitted) that someone was just too allergic. Apparently his previous dad was sobbing as he dropped him off with enough supplies to sustain him for at least a month. Melissa, the super nice lady at the Humane Society felt it was important to make sure he found the perfect forever family. I guess we were just right!

Originally, he was named Olee, but he seems more like a Louis to us. A few days after we got him, we noticed a pretty distinct change as he started getting puberty-ful. When we got him, we had to agree that we'd bring him back for his neutering appointment. After the tiny taste of his crazed "burrowing," nipping, circling and biting, we were more than glad to gave made that agreement!

Yesterday, was his appointment date, so I dropped him off with Melissa in the morning and picked him up at the vet in the afternoon. The vet people weren't terribly nice, and didn't seem to want to answer any questions really. But they did read my note about concern over what seemed to be a decent amount of fur loss and poops strung together. Turns out he has a parasite! EEsh! It's something that buns usually have, but he just has a lot of it, so we have to feed him medicine twice a day for 7 days. Today we just barely got by getting him the proper amount. I think we're going to end up having to go for 8 days just to be sure.

Today, 24 hours after his surgery, he's definitely more energetic. He still stretches out his back legs as though he feels stiff and licks his "wound" occasionally. He's eating more though, and is still using his litter box for peepee. A couple poopies didn't make it, but as they are strung together, I think it's not entirely his fault. I mean, he can't help it if he thinks he's going in the box, but they stay stuck to his butt. Right?