A Sea Bisquit's Life

My apologies to those of you who found yourselves craving some Tuesday Finds yesterday. I am Officially Worn Out, zombielike and not very talkative (type-ative?) right now. I took the last of the pre-holiday orders to the post office yesterday and it seems that the knowledge that I am now free to relax immediately set off some kind of total inertia. I'll try to be good next week though.

So, instead of much typing, I thought I'd share another video of underwater coolness for your viewing pleasure. It shows the life cycle of sea bisquits (Clypeaster subdepressus), a creature I admit I had never heard of before. I found it fascinating, I hope you do too.

Mmmm, bisquits... *wanders off in a highly zombielike manner in search of nutrition*

A Sea Biscuit's Life from Bruno Vellutini on Vimeo.

Need a fun, silly game? Also, an announcement!

First, a little announcement. Morrgan's Creatures will be closed for the holidays from Dec 20th 2008 and will fully reopen on Jan 7th 2009. This means my Etsy, Art Fire and DaWanda shops. Patterns will be available from Jan 2nd, the rest from Jan 7th. So, if you want to order something before next year, December 19th is the last day to place it. Just So You Know.

(Hopefully I'll get the chance to visit my blog and yours occasionally during this time. We'll see.)

Now for the fun fun stuff. Are you bored at work sometimes? In need of break?


Let me introduce you to QWOP. This silly little game made both Mr Morrgan and I actually Laugh Out Loud, many many times. How far can you get? (I made it to a whole 53 meters, such a proud moment.)

Tuesday Finds: Relaxation

It's been a busy week, ladies and gents. A busy month, really. Completing orders (such as the pile of little ones on the right), packing them, running about after supplies and to the post office... I do love it, don't get me wrong, but at the same time I'm glad this only occurs once a year. ;)

One thing is certain: after such weeks, one is in dire need of relaxation.

When I think about ways to relax, one of the first things that come to mind is a nice cup of tea. 'Orient Express' by Tea Noir looks like a lovely alternative - a green tea blend with jasmine. (I recently tried this blend and while not perhaps the first choice for relaxation, it was indeed simply delightful!)
($10, TeaNoir.etsy.com)

Imagine a nice hot foot bath, while reading a book and enjoying the tea above. Mmm, the thought alone makes me a little less tense. How about a little something extra for the poor tired feet afterwards? Perhaps something like this Twinkle Toes Foot Repair balm by Dress Green?
($5, DressGreen.etsy.com)

I'm sure this doesn't apply to everyone, but the one thing that's guaranteed to relax me is knitting. Yes, even after weeks of it, non-stop. This gorgeous handspun mohair yarn looks oh so tempting indeed. While I haven't tried the yarns from The Fuzzy Bunny, I can happily recommend this seller based on my purchases from her bath and body shop.
($30, fuzzybunnyfibers.etsy.com)

Project Advent Calendar: Mission Completed

So as mentioned in a previous post, I decided to make an advent calendar after seeing this one. After all, I'm in the middle of the holiday season rush with many orders to complete, so it made perfect sense to start something like this. (Yeah, I'm real smart aren't I?)

I'm the kind of person who reads a recipe for baking, goes "oooh, that sounds good, I have to make that" and then exchanges pretty much every ingredient for something else. It comes as no surprise then, that my version turned out a bit... different.

We (I recruited Mr Morrgan as my assistant) had a lot of fun, but completing Project Advent Calendar wasn't all that easy. After solving the first problem, finding empty matchboxes, we were faced with another dilemma - matchboxes are really too tiny for most of the yummy chocolates and toffees we wanted as "surprises". In the end we had to settle for pieces of nougat and toffee we could squish into the right shape. Mmm, squished toffee.

Francis and Freddy Raven approve of this project.

Then came the construction. Mr Morrgan and I, both fans of more unusual shapes, had an exchange that went something like this:

Mr Morrgan: "You know, it'd be cool if we could make this in the shape of an Aztec temple."
Me: "Haha, silly!"
Both: *laughter*

A few moments later:
Me: "Hmmmmmmm..."
Mr Morrgan: "Actually..."

Unfortunately, an Aztec temple proved too tricky a shape to create with only 24 matchboxes. Perhaps next year we will be equipped for more challenging projects. Instead, we decided on the spiral tower you see above. I taped the paper onto the boxes and boxes onto each other, while Mr Morrgan lined them with foil and wrote numbers on them. However, when the time came to fill our lovely tower with goodies, we came to realise two things:

1) Toffees and nougat pieces are rather heavy.
2) Spiral towers made of paper, tape and tiny cardboard boxes don't have much in the way of structural integrity.

This thing was already leaning dangerously to one side when empty, nearly toppling under its own weight. Filling it with candies was out of the question. Oh no, what to do? Well, after a brief moment of despair I found the perfect solution: bottle corks! Covered with paper and cut into suitable pieces they made excellent supports. Problem solved! And thus our creation was finished.

Time spent on project: A few hours.
Cost: More than I expected, even with partly recycled materials. So much for saving money making your own.
Difficulty: Pretty high for a knitter.
Fun level: High!
Injuries: Minor

Tuesday Finds: Finland Finland Finland

...Finland has it all. Or so say Monty Python.

Finland's Independence Day is coming up on December 6th - happy 91st, O Finland! So, I thought it'd be a good idea to show off an eclectic mix of items from shops based in Finland for this week's Tuesday Finds. Enjoy!

With its turquoise cherry blossom print and cute frame, karuski's frame pouch is such a pretty thing indeed. It's earth-friendly too, as it's made of recycled materials.
($24, karuski.etsy.com)

Speaking of recycling, Finns do quite a lot of it. Here's the reason why. We like having our pants intact, thank you very much. This fabric patch by Andy eats only candy can be sewn on anything, to serve as a warning to others.
($4, andyeatsonlycandy.etsy.com)

Last up this week we have a lovely aquatint print called 'across the sea' by the littleblue shop. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about this image that really reminds me of the place I grew up in. Ah, nostalgia...
($22, littleblue.etsy.com)