Wednesday 26 October 2016

Nayu's Craft Time #179 Easing back in

My cat was very curious when I rewound this ball of yarn today!
It's midway through the week, although in some ways it feels my week is just starting. I've been otherwise occupied since Saturday with recovering from stupid flu jab reaction. I didn't react last year, possibly not the year before that either. This year I did, so I crashed out watching Gilmore Girls, gaming, and managed to finish a craft project which I'll show in the next post! I'd say in tomorrow's post, but I've no idea what life has in store. Next post will do! Ok, maybe I can show you a peep now...
Tada!
It was wonderful to finish it, and I've already started a new project which I really will show in the next post - right now I need lunch which I'm having as soon as I've finished my online work. Have you started anything new today/this week? There's satisfaction in finishing a project/task, and excitement in starting another so long as it's a pleasant one!

Friday 21 October 2016

Nayu's Craft Time #I can't remember

I'd love this as my work space!!!
Very briefly saying hi, ended up having mega meds on Sunday so currently letting them zip through my body which takes about 4 or so days to adjust to. Hello mega fatigue, feeling hot & cold, & unable to do much except watch Netflix shows & do simple games. I am almost back to normal now (I started this post on Weds), managing a bit of online work today which is good! I drama binged Netflix (finished Mako Mermaids, and Good Witch (which is more herbal remedy than hocus pocus, is hilarious and such a great watch).
Fun family themed show about small town life


Friday 14 October 2016

Nayu's Craft Time #178 I've got eggs!

Sadly I don't have my own chickens yet
Not cooking eggs, but bengalese finch eggs! It's so exciting, even though I am not breeding mine, and remove them from the nest soon after they are laid, it's sweet to see Ushio and Tanuki sit on them together. 
Example of zebra finch eggs: they are the size of a Cadbury's mini egg
I did wonder if they had some from their behaviour this morning: there was always one in the nest and I was suspicious. I genuinely wish I could breed them, but there's only room for 2 birds in the cage. One day I'll fulfil my dream and try and breed them! Or zebra finches. Still miss Zack, it is phenomenally quiet without him chirping at the top of his voice. Thankfully Youtube helps with cute videos of zebra finches to keep me happy with far quieter but still gorgeous bengalese finches. 

This squirrel needs to hibernate elsewhere! (It may have been taken in Spring, who knows as I got it online)
This week has been normal for autumn in so far as I want to hibernate. >_< I've rested lots though, because I need it & this weekend is a bit busy: I've a friend staying over on Saturday - she's the one moving down to Devon in November (several hours away so impractical for our hourly meet ups but will go for a longer stay when I can), then on Monday I'm doing craft with a friend. It's busier than I usually like, but with lots of rest before, during & after I should be fine. 

Plus it'll be time for my mega strong meds on Monday night, which I do get quite relaxed with for a short time (the climbing the wall stage is not fun, and I've no idea why people would take it for a recreational drug. Or any drugs.) So a sort of busy week in it's own way. Tomorrow I'll show you what I've made crochet wise! Or maybe Sunday, as I'll be resting tomorrow morning. Either way I hope you have a super weekend! 

Friday 7 October 2016

Nayu's Craft Time #177 Meet my newest winged family member!

My beautiful Bengalese finches Ushio (left most head & body) & Tanuki!
As I mentioned in the post the other day (so sorry this isn't posted on the day I'd planned to, I hadn't uploaded the pics and wasn't feeling well enough to do blog work) today's post is all about my new birds! I was meant to be catching up with a friend on ThursdayI haven't seen for a while, only it didn't happen. When I removed the towels I use to cover my bird cage at night off, I spotted Zack the zebra finch sitting on the bottom, very quietly. If you own a bird you know that that usually means something is wrong. I was 98% certain he was going to die, so I shoved my cat out of my room, picked him up, and was able to spend the last few minutes he was alive with him, chatting to him and crying lots. 

Zack's on the right, Flower is on the left and is the one who Ushio replaced
Zack, also known as Zack Zack, was a gobby/chatty & loud zebra finch. I've had him at least 5-6 years, which for a finch is a decent length of time. He's been through 3 wives: 1 escaped from the cage into the big wide world (who I still imagine as having a new hybrid family somewhere because thinking about reality of a cage living bird in the wild is too awful to consider), 1 died in her sleep, and the 3rd who I only got a few weeks ago (& who could be male) survived Zack. He was so noisy I could hear him wherever I was in the house, he loved making his presence known and communicating his happiness/displeasure about pretty much everything.
I feel extremely blessed to have been with him when he died. As awful as it was, that time with him really helped, just as it did with my last bird who died, Flower. Needless to say I cancelled my friend, mostly because grief sucks and uses up a lot of energy so I wasn't up for being social. I cleaned out the cage ready for the next newcomer - I hate only having 1 bird, and do my best to eliminate scent of the deceased bird so it's nicer for both the current bird and the newcomer. I bought a new nest at the pet store, as I just think it's too weird for the birds who need to keep using it. 
Tanuki (left) getting used to its new home while Ushio watches on. It's not overly clear how scruffy Tanuki's 'crested' head is - the wayward hair rivals the lack of tail feathers!
I'd hoped to get another zebra finch, as I adore their type of tweeting. Unfortunately at the pet store, which is the closest to me that isn't over 1 hour away) their policy was only to sell zebra finches in pairs. For some reason bengalese finches could be sold individually, so I could only get another bengalese (which Ushio, my current bird, is). My choice was limited because there weren't that many Bengalese finches, and most of the ones there had a lot of feathers missing around their tales - birds can be bullies/easily stressed and feather shedding/pecking does happen. 

I spotted one I really liked, then saw it had a dodgy foot so I ignored it and tried to find one without many feathers missing. There really wasn't one, and I as I watched the birds to see how they flew and waiting for them to turn around for me to inspect (which of course they took their sweet time about doing so), I kept looking at the bird with the poorly foot. I loved it's colouring. It looked healthy, was able to sit on the perch resting the not so good foot on the perch, and had pretty much all it's feathers, minus the tail ones (but no skin exposed). 

You can guess what happens next! I phoned my family to explain the situation, and what I wanted to do. They said to ask the pet sore about the foot, and to be sure I wanted to bring it home. Of course I did! I couldn't leave the poor thing at the pet store, knowing it might get bullied by the other birds. Who would want to buy a bird with a dodgy foot? The pet store staff said it was a recent injury, it hopefully will heal on it's own, and I got an extra 3 days on the existing 7 day return policy (due to the foot). I really appreciated that gesture, and feel that it's fair given the fact I'm buying a bird which isn't quite perfect. It probably helps that I'm a regular at the pet shop so they do 'know' me a little. 
At the time of writing this post I'd hoped to not reveal Tanuki's name until this point, but it felt wrong not giving the name at the start of the post.
Meet Tanuki! Tanuki means raccoon in Japanese, and would have suited a zebra finch who frequently have grey and white stripes somewhere on their body. I was attached to the name so Tanuki seemed a fit for this cute bird! I'm not sure if I've shown you Ushio yet, sorry if I haven't. They are both bengalese finch, which you can see in the colouring, only Tanuki is a crested bengalese - hence the funny hairdo. Used my tablet camera hence no close ups, but you can see how cute Tanuki is! I won't know if either is  boy or girl unless I get eggs from them. 

I hope that they become friends quickly and share a nest together - Zack was bit stroppy when Ushio arrived, making poor Ushio spend the night perched on the bath (which is their water supply) or on top of the nest while Zack slept inside. Thankfully that lasted less than a week, so I have great hope for Ushio being friendly to Tanuki, more so as Ushio isn't chasing Tanuki around like Zack did to Ushio. 

I keep calling Tanuki and/or Ushio Zack - going to take a while to get used to him gone. It is so quiet without him: Ushio and Tanuki chirrup, but not to the strength of Zack's tweets. Whoever dies next I may then leave on their own so that I can eventually get zebra finches again, but hopefully that won't be for a few years. Until then I am getting my zebra finch fix on Youtube each day - they are so funny! I love seeing the new ones.

Tanuki is blocking Ushio from view - it is so hard to get the pose I want as they won't do as I ask!
Updated after post originally written: There's something to be said for getting birds of the same species, but on the very first night Ushio let Tanuki in the nest!!!! So exciting. They currently spend most of their time in the nest, poking their heads to watch what goes on in my room (not much). I'm thrilled they seem to love each other! Ushio needs it's claws cutting, but my family will help with that as the last time I tried it myself I managed to take too much off and was terrified Flower (now dead) was going to bleed out (lose so much blood she would die). Thankfully that wasn't the cause of her death, but I'm too scared to do it without supervision.

Thursday 6 October 2016

Nayu's Craft News #176 Cookie Mission Part A & Some Mixed News

A good motto for life be you a crocheter or a knitter!
Recently I've realised that frequently my Nayu's Craft News doesn't always contain craft, but who really cares! It usually gets a mention, even if it's how little I've done in a week (life, huh?). Anyway, it's been a crazy week. I had so much fun staying over at my friend's, even if it was tiring & I needed Monday to recover. I baked Tuesday as I wasn't good enough for computer work (in hindsight I shouldn't have baked...), then needed the expected day's rest after (which I had hoped I could do work but really I should have known better).

Cookies!!!!
On Tuesday I baked some cookies as I wasn't up to blog work. I made these delicious chocolate button cookies by halving Cadbury's milk buttons (the mixed bag with white & milk chocolate buttons), and working them into a recipe instead of chocolate chips. I'm on the hunt for a super yummy cookie recipe which results in lovely soft chocolate chip cookies that resemble the store made ones which are enviously soft. While super yummy these particular ones weren't all that soft, and I'd taken them out when soft in the middle. So the hunt continues! If you know a recipe, please point me in the right direction as I'm desperate to find soft chocolate chip cookies! I'm not putting this in one of my recipe posts because I'm using other people's recipes rather than my own. 

This was over a year ago, with Zack on the right (not that you can see he is mostly a dark grey) & the now deceased Flower (who was replaced by Ushio, not pictured here)
My mixed news in summary is that my zebra finch Zack died today, and I've got a new bengalese to keep the current bengalese finch called Ushio happy. As I am trying to post more regularly when life allows me, I will leave that post until tomorrow, which will include the reveal for the new bird's name! Which yes like Ushio is Japanese ^o^ I'm an anime fan, what do you expect? 

I'm a bit worn out from today's events, which included being up since 3am (because my body likes doing that to me), so no craft tonight. I'll be gaming like crazy as I'm trying to place high enough in a current event for the game Love Live! School Idol Festival  
 (I really want to get the Ruby card (red head)! It will take a lot of work & a bit of luck to get there - I'll do a post soon on my other blog, Nayu's Reading Corner, which I wax lyrical over anime & gaming (or will be...)  and putting anime I've seen many times on the dvd player for background noise. 

Please do tune back in tomorrow to meet the newest member of my family! 
Sneak preview of my new room mates!



Monday 3 October 2016

Nayu's Craft Time #175 Blog post swap!

Everyone deserves this!
For an update about this weekend head over to my other blog, Nayu's Reading Corner - I just happened to put the post up there first, and I'm not repeating myself!