hey little birdie

So I saw this little guy on my feeder today. He was kind of pathetic & wet looking & sat there for ages.

Blurry photo but you can kind of see his tail. Which is important because a couple hours later....

This is what I found on my doorstep. Head under the wing and there's the long tail. I think it's the same little guy.

I hope he's just looking for a place to dry out.
And I hope the neighbourhood cat doesn't come out tonight.
Any guesses on what he is? (or she?)

Not found in a store near you

Roo works with someone who knows someone who has chickens.

And so we get to enjoy these absolutely delightful eggs. They don't just look great - they taste amazing.

And the folks who pack them go through the trouble of putting in at least one araucana blue egg into each dozen.

Backyard Ballistics - Tennis Ball Mortar

Best blogosphere places to be on Mondays

I start my week with a visit to Clusterfuck Nation, written by the author of

which is a book I wholeheartedly recommend.

Then I pop into Money and Markets just to see how wonky the global economic outlooks are.

My copy of The Economist drops in my real life mailbox on Monday mornings and I give it a fast skim. (Roo steals it for the week when he returns from work & gives me the past week's edition for a thorough reading. I don't mind being a week behind and anyway, I can always go online to catch up on whatever important current thing is. I'm also trying out the podcast thingie - having The Economist read out loud to me by calm British voices is quite nice. But the entire magazine is almost 9 hours!)

Having reassured myself that, yes indeed, things are still crap, and understanding now why I have no money to invest in any of the sectors "Money & Markets" thinks will dodge the fallout from the saggy balloon which is our economy, I can start my week. It's a wonder I don't just crawl back into bed and refuse to come out.

Sewing Lessons

Last year Amelia's grandmother taught her to sew using a sewing pattern. This (scroll down past my damaged rings) was the result.

This summer, Amelia tackled a bigger project on her own. This is McCall's 5094 which has a lined top and bodice, unlined skirt, and a hidden zipper. Lots of new techniques for her to master & we needed to consult a number of books. Undersewing especially did not make any sense to us no matter how many explanations we read, until we saw a quick clip of it in the internet.

It's a good pattern though we had a similar problem which is mentioned by a few other people on the web who have made this dress: the shoulder straps are set too far apart in the pattern. We tucked them in a bit, and also had to adjust the overall bodice width as it was too baggy (although according to the size it should have been just right).

Here she is with Roo.

Roo is 6'4" btw.

Though you'll notice she's wearing awesome shoes. She's tall but not quite that tall yet.