Pepper's continued hatred of plastic

For your amusement.

Sharpie madness

Today I bought some new sharpies, and decided I finally needed to organize them. It can take time to dig through them all to find the right colors.

I was in for more than I bargained for.

First of all, I have 132 sharpies. Had not counted them all until today! The organizer I ended up making only holds 123, but the extras are repeated colors that are wearing down.

This took me a couple hours to make and I'm quite happy with the result:
Just now need to make a drawstring bag to keep the roll in, so I don't lose any. Might make it difficult to find a place to roll it out when I'm drawing, but I usually choose my handful of colors before I start a project.

Anybody else have a sharpie addiction?

What I've been working on

Been getting back into the sewing groove, just in time for some custom orders.

This was made for a good friend of mine back at school, it's her pet great plains toad. Though of course a lot bigger than the real thing. As usual the shapes were complete guesswork, a real challenge and for a while I was worried it wouldn't work out. Luckily my spatial skills pulled me through and yes, indeed, it looks like a toad. Another order - a trilobite and anomalocaris. Love these! Makes you wonder if they were this colorful in real life?
I have a great watch tan, don't I?

Alright and finally something new in the shop... figured I should make a trilobite available to the masses.
The body plan was simple enough, I'm thinking about making more of these in other colors. And my tardigrade finally sold, so I'll have to make more of those as well! So many things to sew, so little time.

Mice are yummy

At least my corn snake thinks so.

Etsy treasury

I managed to get one... some really great items here to check out.

I created this one in honor of today being my snake feeding day... time for me to start thawing the rodents.

Thanks for the support everyone

A heartfelt thank you to P.Z. Myers who mentioned me on his blog Pharyngula. I am a HUGE fan of his and his blog gets me through my lunch break every day. Thanks also for all the comments on the post, and the tweets, and the sales!

Custom orders are starting to trickle in again, and I'm always happy to accept more. I can be contacted through conversations on Etsy, or email weirdbuglady@gmail.com.


New piece in the shop: giraffe weevil drawing. I should really make a plush one of these, expect to see one in the shop within the next few weeks!

Best thrift store find EVER

I went on a thrift store/garage sale adventure today and found a lot of great things... but this beats all!I'm so completely and utterly thrilled about this glass I can't let it out of my sight.

My pets are very helpful

I do my sewing upstairs in my room, where the cats aren't allowed. I get really obsessive about preventing cat hair from entering, I've got an army of lint rollers.

But when I come downstairs to draw, they just have to get in my way. We've got two cats, picked them out as kittens when I was 3 years old (they're 18 now). Skyler and Sherman, sister and brother, and they're more like dogs than cats.

I tend to talk more about my more unusual animals (like the snakes) but my cats are pretty fabulous. They are indoor/outdoor (big backyard on a dead end street with no traffic), come when we whistle, follow us around (inside and outside), and know when we're not feeling well. When I was little they would wait for me at the bus stop and walk me home - they're very protective of us! They also love strangers though, and are super friendly. Whenever someone comes over they have to examine the car, sniffing and circling it for a good 10 minutes until they're satisfied and come back inside.

Here is Skyler in her usual pose (paws crossed) hogging the tv remote. Meanwhile Sherman is trying to get on my lap, nuzzling my arm as I'm trying to draw.
Notice the huge jingle bell. We always ensure they have correct tags and bells so we know where they are, and so that potential prey has a bit of a warning (hasn't stopped her from getting her fair share of mice, though). The problem is Skyler keeps losing her little bells! So, fed up one day, my dad sent me to the craft store to get her a big bell. So that's what I got! The day we put it on her (a few years ago) she was NOT HAPPY. You could tell... she had this "I hate you all" mood for a couple days. But she hasn't lost it!

The kitties are getting old now, Skyler has a lump on her shoulder (could be cancer) and Sherman has thyroid and other health problems. They're hanging in there though.

Oh, and Pepper likes to help as well. If "help" means "throwing markers on the floor".

More sharpie drawings

Been feeling the drawing vibe lately and haven't been able to resist the pull of my sharpies.

Went thrift store shopping and scored big time, got 8 great frames for about $8, so now I've got to fill them up.

I really like including the frames with my drawings, I pick ones that I feel match the piece and make it feel more complete. What do you think? Click the photos to be taken to the listings (and you can see more photos).

Triops

New addition to the shop: Triops (tadpole shrimp) plush soft sculpture.Triops are fascinating animals, crustaceans in the order Notostraca, related to the infamous "sea monkeys" (fairy shrimp). They haven't changed much since the Triassic, making them a sort of a living fossil.

They get considerably larger than their fairy shrimp cousins, reaching up to 2" long. This makes them interesting additions to an aquarium and can be kept as pets. They live in ponds and temporary pools in the wild, and have eggs that can stay dormant through long periods of drought.

When I was little I had these as pets once, they came in a kit, similar to sea monkeys. They didn't get very large before dying off though, they need a good aquarium set up to really thrive. If I ever get a fish tank later in life I'm definitely getting some triops!

Treasuries

I'm in two Treasury West treasuries on Etsy, check them out, they're pretty fabulous! Click the image to go to the actual treasury, though remember they expire soon.

Putting my sewing skills to good use

It's not too often these days I make something for myself, or something actually useful (plushies might be fun and cute but they're not exactly utilitarian).

So at work we got a bunch of new safety vests for our next field project.

Apparently, they only come in extra large. I could fit three of me in this thing, the picture doesn't do it justice. It goes another inch or two past the bottom of the photo, and one side is folded over a bit.
I tried it on and was absolutely swimming in it. Not exactly... safe.

Looking through the catalogue all the basic vests were also only in large or extra large, the only ones that came in small were the expensive fancy vests. So I decided to do some tailoring.
It was like liposuction for fabric, haha. Took out fabric from the back, sides, bottom, and front edges. Reshaped the neck opening, put in new velcro, and it's perfect! If anything I made it a tad too small, but it still fits over a jacket. It's quite comfy and nonrestrictive when I move (unlike the last plastic-y vest I had). The other girls in the office are jealous. There might be more alterations in my future.