Rattributes

I just finished cleaning the cage, and put up the gorgeous set that Pink made for me. Don’t you just love the frog / camo print?  The boys seem to enjoy it and have been hopping in and out of the double decker and spending an inordinate amount of time sniffing around the treatbox, although they haven’t seemed to figure out that they need to chew on it to get to what is inside. I imagine that it won’t take them too long to figure it out!

The set just looks so fantastic!  I’m happy that I had some nice brown fleece to match for liners.  I also tossed on some squares of leftover green fleece from my Secret Pal’s hammocks as little “place mats” to add a bit of life to the brown liners.

I am very interested to see how the boys feel about the cuddle cup this week.  Lately Hamlet has been spending a fair amount of time lying on the top shelf in the area where I put the cuddle cup, so I am wondering if he will use it.  If so, I’ll definitely have to make a few for future sets.

I’m so excited!  My presents from Pink arrived today and they are soooo beautiful.  Not only did the boys get an assortment of hammocks (a stand-alone tube, a double-decker, a triple hammock, a cuddle cup, a pocket hammock and a star dome home) and a huge treatbox, I got homemade marshmallows which are seriously delicious and fantastic, and Amish friendship bread starter.  I’ve been nomming on the marshmallows since I opened the box (you can’t even compare these to store bought ones, they are that much better) and the bread is in the oven baking as we speak.  I’ve got a bunch of pictures in the gallery if anyone wants to see close-ups of the presents!

Well, this post is a day late.. but the pictures are current! The boys joined us at the table for Thanksgiving dinner last night. They had a fantastic time running around and sampling everything. I made them up a little plate of their own and they happily pigged out like crazy. The favourite item seemed to be turkey, although turnips and carrots were also popular.

The little pigs ate so much that they passed out for practically the entire night!  In the picture on the right you can see Hamlet snoozing on his back (I think his tummy was too stuffed to lay on)!  I took them out about two hours after dinner to see if they wanted some of my special rat-sized apple pie, but they were still too full to even consider eating — they just wanted to keep sleeping!  All in all, rats had an excellent Thanksgiving!  I had an okay Thanksgiving, but I sure missed my kids..

On the other hand, I had a fantastic time doing my Black Friday shopping at JoAnn’s!  According to my receipt, I saved just over $405.  I picked up a lot of great fleeces, adorable snuggle flannels, a few cute cottons, a nice pair of Gingher mini-scissors and a whole bunch of great patterns.  I’m soooo excited to get sewing.  I’ve got a few things I need to finish up for Pink today, and then I think that I’ll do my older sister’s bag.  After that, I believe I’ll stare at my new patterns for a while and decide what I’d like to make.

Just weighed the boys. They are both somewhere between 315-320. I ordered a new digital gram scale, I can’t wait until it arrives. This one just sucks..

Apparently the new scale came today.
Othello: 321
Hamlet: 310

I just finished the bag that I will be giving to my Mother-in-Law for Christmas.  I’m really liking this pattern quite a lot.  I’m so excited for Friday, too!  Dan and I are going to hit JoAnn’s really early in the morning and see what we can get at the Black Friday sale.  I’m hoping to snag a whole bunch of fabric, and some new ($.99) patterns.

I still need to find a good fabric to do a bag for my older sister. I didn’t really see any fat quarter sets that I liked, so I may just pick up some regular fabric and have it cut.

I started working on my Christmas presents today!  I’m not sure if I’m actually going to give this bag to anyone — I bought a little quilting bundle of fabric and used it to make this as a “test run” for a bag pattern.  I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, and I think I’ll make bags for my sisters for Christmas.  

My younger sister is a HUGE Patriots fan, so I’m thinking that I will do hers in Patriots fabric.  I’m not really sure what to do for my older sister.  I guess I’ll just go to the store and see what catches my eye for her.  She loves the Tooth Fairy, so maybe I can find some Tooth Fairy fabric?  Anyway, yay, I’m happy to be getting going on my gifts!

Well, I finished Pink’s Octopus this morning!  I was planning to finish him last night, actually, but the camera battery died and I had to stop so that I could get enough pictures for the tutorial.  Not that it really matters, I couldn’t have mailed him this morning even if I had finished last night.  I still want to make her a few more things (a bonding pouch, for one) and then I’ll probably get to the post office on Friday (if it is open) or Saturday.

I’m not entirely sure when the tutorial will go up.  I’m feeling a little “octopussed out” at the moment and I have a handbag that I really want to work on (a present for my sister).  Soonish, in any case.  Not that I see anyone trying to make an Octopus anyway, it is a right royal pain in the butt.  I say that, but I suppose I’ll probably end up making more in the future x.x  Dan is (hopefully) getting me a serger for Christmas — I’m hoping I can adapt the “pattern” to use the serger and be a whole heckuva lot easier.

Yay!  I think my flu is gone — I’m feeling pretty good this morning and definitely don’t have a fever.  Guess it was a little 24-hour bug?

Anyway, my Secret Santa pal e-mailed me some pictures of the hammocks in her cage today, so I thought I’d share a few here.  On the left is the top half, and on the right is the bottom half.  It still looks a touch empty.. almost wishing I had sent a few more hammocks.  I didn’t really know what-all to send since I don’t have a 142, myself.  Ah well, still looks nice and snuggly!

On another happy note, my Secret Santa sent my gift today.  We’ve become quite good friends over this exchange (she is the one I am making the Octopus for, Pink) and I’m sooo excited to see what she has made for me!  I just know it is going to be absolutely fantastic.  I’ll definitely post pictures here once my gift arrives.

My good little boys were in their cube when I came out this morning!  I was actually planning to take out all of the hammocks and do a full cage cleaning today, but I was so happy to see them sleeping somewhere other than the liner that I am going to leave things be for a little while.  The bottom pan was cleaned out, since that is where they have been doing all of their poops and peeps, but the hammocks have been basically untouched so I don’t feel too bad about leaving them in for another few days.  Maybe they’ll finally move back into the hammocks!

And here’s a random pic of Hamlet demanding belly rubs from Daddy.  He reminds me so much of a little dog when he begs for rubs that way.

As an aside, I’m almost finished making an Octopus as a gift for a friend, which means that I’ll also be posting the Octopus tutorial soon.  I should probably be done by now, but I’ve got the flu at the moment and I’m just so tired.. I’m not getting much done at a time before I feel like lying down for a nap.  Hopefully I can finish the Octopus today or tomorrow, though, and then the tutorial will go up soon thereafter.

Jamie sent me a picture of Anya wearing the dress this morning.  I think it looks cute enough, although it is definitely a bit longer on her left side than on her right.  I suppose I can fix that when she comes up by adjusting the hem a little.  It is also fairly shapeless (I was afraid of that.. she was much skinnier than the measurements given by the pattern, but I was afraid to make it in a smaller size and have it not fit at all, guess I know for next time).  Perhaps I can add a cute little ribbon around the waistband to take it in a touch.

The ratty boys were adorable yesterday eating their pea soup.  They weren’t particularly interested in it the first time I put it in the cage, but were all about the pea soup when I put offered it again later in the evening.  Othello, as you can see in the picture on the left, was too lazy to stand around eating his pea soup — he had to lounge in his tube and leeeaaaan out toward the food.  Hamlet, ever active, was almost too busy bouncing around to eat.  He just stopped in occasionally for a nibble.  There are some more pictures of pea soup eating up in the gallery if you wanted to see them.