January 19, 2008
January 15, 2008
Pysanky Time
I've gotten back into decorating Ukrainian easter eggs (pysanky) in my "copious" free time. I'm somewhat limited by the fact that I'm completely incapable of drawing a straight line for more than about a quarter of an inch. I am really enjoying it though. The process of wax resist dying with an egg and bee's wax heated by candle is just satisfying in a way that most of the other crafts I do aren't. I mean I love the results I get out of drawing and sewing, but I don't really enjoy the process so much.
Anyway, I think the eggs I've done so far have turned out pretty well. I got most of the patterns from Luba's Pysanka site. She's got some stunning eggs. I'd like to be that good some day, although I probably won't have the patience to get quite that good. ;)
There are a few other existing patterns I still want to try. I've got a some pysanka books including the one I bought when I got into making the eggs back in high school. There's really no end to the neat things you can do, since the technique itself limited to traditional patterns. While I was going through my old stuff I actually found one of the first eggs I did way back when. It has a cute little Hello Kitty holding a stuffed giraffe. It is nice to just copy existing designs sometimes though. It can be more relaxing not to have to be creative all the time.
On a sort of unrelated note, my mom is going in for (relatively) minor surgery on Wednesday. So please think good thoughts for her if you have a chance!
January 08, 2008
As the picture suggests we brought home these two adorable fuzzballs on Monday. They're female purebred Siberian cats from Absolutelay Siberians in New York. I would definitely recommend Absolutelay Siberians to others. The breeder, Lori, is really nice and worked very hard to help make sure Alan has the best possible chance of tolerating the kittens.
The gray kitten is Una (short for Unaussprechlichen, as in Unaussprechlichen Kulten ;) and the silver tabby is Miska (short for Miskatonic). They're both very sweet, although poor Una is only just starting to recover from the trip home. Our flight was canceled because of fog in Madison, so we had to wait an extra four hours, fly into Chicago, and drive a rental car home. Fortunately Mark very kindly let us crash at his place.
Miska is very, very people oriented so far. She's perky and interested in everything and every one. She actually follows us around in a very puppy like way at times. Poor Una spent the first day or so hiding behind the stereo and TV. She's just starting to relax a bit. This morning she was sleeping inside the bookshelf behind the Webster's Dictionary, but now she's out on the cat tree and she's letting us pet her or walk around her as long as we are a bit quiet and slow. Hopefully she'll be feeling a bit better by the end of the week.
They both love the climbing structure and are enthralled by the Cat Dancer and laser pointer that we rounded up for them. We wedged the Cat Dancer under a book on the coffee table so that one end dangles invitingly and they are both very amused by it. They've also got a pile of different balls (some with noisy things inside) which they play with on and off. The other toys seem to be sort of hit or miss. They've been keeping to the living room, but I expect they'll get more adventurous as they get more used to us and the apartment.
They've got very different "play" mannerisms than I'm used to. They both make squeaks and chirrups, but only Miska seems to meow. They tend to rear up on their hind legs with attacking something small and bat it back and forth between their front paws. They also do an "I crush you!" pounce onto things with both front paws extended to slam into it. I think the only other cat I've seen do that sort of pounce is a serval. They also have the cutest leaps and bounds. I'm not even sure how to describe them, but they're not like other little kitten jumps that I've seen before!
Alan took them into their first vet visit today, and apparently they were both very good. Apparently many of the staff commented on how pretty Miska is. Alan was joking that poor Una will have to put up with being the geek child, since Miska has already claimed the supermodel slot. :P
Despite the fact that I can only photograph them reliably when they're sleeping, I've already got over 200 pictures to sort through. There will be a gallery at some point when I'm not quite so wiped out from all the traveling.
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