Category Archives: Pet Posse

Jun17

And full speed ahead into June!

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And full speed ahead into June!

Okay, I know, I know. I need to post more. But with Evie’s FIRST birthday quickly approaching (HOW HAS IT BEEN A WHOLE YEAR?! That sleep deprivation really messes with your head and time), she is getting herself into more trouble than ever and sleeps less than ever, meaning that what little free time I do have is devoted to cleaning the house, cooking, birthday party planning, and maybe a crochet project or two. And really, that works out great because it means that eventually I have a LOT to say.

So, until I have more time to do some decent posts, I’ll let these pictures give you a glimpse of life in our little household, for now.

A little of this outdoor time… (Not a lot, since it’s just too hot!)

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And enjoying these:

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Picture 7

A LOT of this…

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(Really. She already throws a fantastic temper tantrum. Looking forward to those terrible twos everybody seems to be going on and on about.)

Working on our skills:

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Making good food:

SAMSUNG(Doesn’t that look so pretty? I am hoping to share one of my favorite recipes here soon…)

We celebrated our favorite daddy in the world!

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And these last few projects and pictures all have one thing in common!

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Evie: So wait, you are saying those last few pictures have to do with me?

SAMSUNGOkay then, let me think about what they could be about!

Hope you enjoyed our picture-riffic post today! Hopefully there will be time soon to go into some more detail on all several of these great things we have going on. 🙂

Apr15

Poultry Update

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Poultry Update

Well, today’s been a bad day in the world, and I need something to take my mind off the sorry things that have happened today, though my heart and prayers go out to all that are affected by the tragic events at the Boston Marathon.

I decided it’s been a while since we had a chicken update! They are almost 4 weeks old- how wonderful, right?

SAMSUNG(Hey! You! Yes, you… you know you were missing us, right?)

It has taken us a while to get to know the chickens and their personalities, but everyone has a name now. Fliza was aptly named, as she is a bit flighty but clearly wants to be in the limelight. So unless Fliza turns out to be a guy-sa, I think that will stay her name.

Jared has named his chick Xena. Yes, you got it. As in Xena Warrior Princess. I told him he could name her and that is what he chose, so I will have no further comment on the subject.

The twins I decided to name after the more famous Bronte sisters, Emily and Charlotte. I know they weren’t really twins, but do you know HOW HARD it is to find decent girl twins of literary acclaim?! I settled. And if you are gonna settle, the Bronte sisters aren’t so bad. No Jane Austen, but you get the picture. 😉

Without further ado, here are the chickens at 4 weeks.

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Mar23

Chicken Adventures Begin

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Chicken Adventures Begin

For a little while now, Jared and I have been talking about getting chickens. I never thought I’d want to have chickens, but after hearing that one of our neighbors has them, I became curious and did some more research on getting chickens.

After a few attempts where I thought that things weren’t going to work out, but today we went on a little drive and picked up four chicks that are certified pullets (females), meaning that if they turn out to be roosters we can do an exchange. While I know we are allowed chickens, we may not be allowed roosters (the law was a bit confusing- plus I don’t really want to deal with the noise).

We have two Ameracaunas (sometimes called Easter Eggers for their blue/green eggs) and two Plymouth Rocks- Buff and Partridge.

Meet the chickens:

 

Jared is really fond of the coloration of the Plymouth Rock that I have labeled “his”, so he is in charge of naming her in the next week or two. I named the other Plymouth “Fliza Minnelli.” I couldn’t help it.

Now we need two good names for “The Twins”- our two Ameracaunas. I jokingly suggested “Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum” but Jared thought that was degrading to the chickens. (Because the insult “bird brain” came from nowhere, right?)

Any good ideas of literary heroines, particularly twins, that we could give them? We’re open to ideas! 🙂

Mar15

Crocheted Converse shoes and Barefoot Sandals

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Crocheted Converse shoes and Barefoot Sandals
Crocheted Converse shoes and Barefoot Sandals

When I came across this FREE pattern for crocheted baby Converse-style shoes, I couldn’t help myself. (Thanks again, Pinterest and Ravelry, for feeding my yarn addiction). I just had to make them for Evelyn.

Turns out, they are DARLING.

The first shoe took me a really long time to make. The pattern was really tough to follow and you kind of just had to pay close attention as you went with it. Jared found my frustration amusing, I think, as I may have cursed the creator of this pattern several creative ways under my breath.

By the second shoe I had gotten the maker’s style and was able to complete the shoe much more quickly.

Not too shabby, right? The first shoe probably took me four or five hours to make, but I think I cut the time nearly in half with the second. If I were to do it again, I think it would go even more quickly.

Oh, would you like to see these shoes on my lovely model?

Hmm… Nope. Bonnie photo-bombed, too. Let’s try again:

Huh. Still nope.

Guess it’s harder when the baby learns you can crawl away from the camera. I’ll have to try again sometime when my 8 1/2 month old will hold still long enough for me to take some better pictures of the product.

Another fun (not to mention QUICK and EASY and FREE!) pattern I tried was this barefoot sandal. This style is all the rage in the baby fashion world.

I did make little flowers to attach to the top, but this little girl’s daddy thought

  1. Sandals with no bottoms seem ridiculous.
  2. Sandals with no bottoms and a giant flower on top are even more ridiculous!

I don’t think my eyes can roll far enough back into my head for this major silliness. Just imagine me with my hands on my hips saying, “Men!” in the most exasperated way possible.

I will have you all know that I had at least A DOZEN people stop me and ask about those “Ridiculous” sandals when Evelyn and I went adventuring to Michaels, Target, and the vet on Monday. (AND in case you were wondering, they all LOVED them and wanted to know where I had gotten them, JARED. I still love you even if we disagree on Evelyn’s style.)

Fun times for yarn in this household. I am making some other new stuff that I am excited to share with y’all soon!

Dec29

Spoiled, much?

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Spoiled, much?

Evelyn’s first Christmas with us was absolutely lovely. I know she won’t remember it in the future, and she doesn’t understand what Christmas is, yet, but I still wanted it to be a great day for her and us. We weren’t disappointed!

She almost slept through the night, which was wonderful for me. When we both got sick over Thanksgiving, she went to getting up every 1-2 hours during the night again, and so we had to work on getting her to sleep in her room once she was well because I just couldn’t swing that schedule again. She’s gotten better and even slept through the night a few times, so it was overall a good night for her.

Of course, opening gifts for/with her was a blast. This little girl got SO MANY GIFTS. I would say that this almost-six month old girl owned at least 2/3 of the gifts under the tree, and most of those were from our relatives! 🙂 She doesn’t know how lucky she is to have so many people love on her like they do. I hope she does know it some day, because I am in awe of everyone’s generosity towards her.

To give you an idea, here’s Evelyn’s piles of Christmas loot she got this year:

I couldn’t get all of them into one picture very well, but I tried.

So to everyone who sent Evelyn something, THANK YOU! Everything was so adorable- I don’t think there was anything that we didn’t like. I can’t even name favorites because everything was so great! She was old enough and curious enough to want to grab at everything and play with it for a minute or two until the next toy/object came along… at one point, she was surrounded by 4-5 objects and you could tell from the look on her face that she was confused by having so many choices to play with!

Jared had a great time holding Evelyn and showing her all her gifts.

Both Jared and I were quite satisfied with all our gifts as well. He’s going to go to a car racing class in a few months, and I got a dehydrator and will be attempting to learn knitting and crocheting. (So far, so good on the knitting front! Crochet project is a little more complicated… hopefully I’ll figure that out, too!)

Even the dogs got in on the Christmas fun!

(The dogs got their pjs just in time, too! We had a cold front roll in later on Christmas day, and they were able to stay warm in the freezing temperatures.) 🙂

Once again, thank you everyone who thought of us and helped make our Christmas that much better.

I hope everyone else out there had a wonderful Christmas. Anybody get a favorite awesome gift? 🙂