Author: Caryn

Really, he fits

On By CarynIn Cats
Photo description: Gray tabby (15 pounds) sitting in front of two open cat carriers

Our two female cats had their vet visits, and since Thor the cat’s visit is coming up, I wanted to make sure he would fit in our current carriers. I was not hopeful, but I poked him in one and he was able to turn around and come out, which is one of the criteria to show the carrier is big enough. The crates are rated to 20 pounds, which has to be liquid cat measurements, because there is no humane way our stiff, dense, 20-pound dog would fit.

Photo description: Gray tabby inside, filling up a cat carrier, photo credit to my eldest

Later, my eldest was in the right position to snap a picture when Thor crawled into the carrier on his own, turned around, and laid down. Yay.

Guess what I’ve been doing

On By CarynIn music
Photo description: the finger tips of my left hand with deep linear indentations

If you’ve read my blog for even a short while, it is clear that I am a dabbler. Many things catch my inquisitive attention, I like a puzzle, and I’m easily distracted. Making music takes more concentration, but I still can’t focus on just one instrument. My latest enamor is the ukulele. My kids gave me a tenor uke for Mother’s Day a couple years back, and I recently changed out the strings to make it a low G ukulele. I love it! I would like to build a small repertoire, to expand past the dabbling a bit, and my fingertips are reflecting the work. I feel that this fits in this blog because music is craft, even though it is hard to capture in photos.

Fawn

On By CarynIn Wildlife

I haven’t checked the trail cam in a couple months, and when I did there were only 39 pictures. Several of those 39, though, were of a Doe and her fawn.

Photo description: night vision scene with momma deer on alert and her young one investigating the ground

I wasn’t sure at first if the smaller one was a fawn, or if the picture had some perspective magic happening, since there are not visible spots on the fawn. A quick internet image search brings up other night vision photos of fawns where the spots don’t show up. Interesting.

Kazoo catch

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

My chorus is using kazoos as a training device to learn to increase resonance. To keep the kazoo close, I made a lanyard with sliding knots and a Lucet cord.

Photo description: kazoo secured to a sliding knot loop with the rest of the cord braided with a Lucet fork. Antler Lucet fork in the background.

It took me a couple hours to braid and knot the cord, and it is rather fiddly to work. When I stepped away, my brain came up with a much simpler way. Here is a video on how to do a simple, removable wrap on a kazoo using a string necklace (large loop of string).

Sometimes it is good to take a step back, or go do something else for a while, or go for a walk, to let ideas coalesce.

Throwback Thursday: book weight

On By CarynIn Craft

Today we are going back to December of 2004 and a leather book weight I made and decorated with painted bees. It seemed appropriate to share this in nod to my bee visitor this week.

Photo description: tooled and painted leather book weight with painted bees on red, blue, and green circles on each end, the sides have been sewn with leather lace with a braided edge. Black velvet background (which was totally a thing back then).

The ends of the book weight are filled with small bags of sand to give it enough heft to hold a book open. The back side is suede to be gentle on the pages and have a bit of grip. I’m still quite pleased with the stitches around the outside, I love a good decorative braid stitch. I do have to admit that I have to look up how to make the braid every time.