Posts from Diane Nesom

WHS 10 year reunion and catch up

2008-09-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the last time I posted was back in February. So much has happened but I won't fill in on that now. I just wanted to post about my 10 year high school reunion which happened this past weekend. It was so much fun seeing folks that I haven't seen or spoken with since graduation. It was nice to see how everyone has grown up over the last 10 years. I added some photos of the reunion to my photo album and I am hoping to add more as I get photos from others. My camera was pretty crappy for the indoor, nighttime pictures so I am relying on others.

I have 10 foster rats right now that are looking for homes and I am hoping to be able to bring them all to the next fair in Sunnyvale in September. I have so many things that I would like to do and I really have to cut back on fostering rats but there are just no homes in the bay area right now for them so I don't feel like now is the right time to step back. I am still hoping to find a way to get to do all that I want to do.

Katrina started kindergarten and she is really having fun. Anthony is huge and becoming quite a little handful! Both the kids love animals and we are hoping to start fostering a dog soon when we cut down on the rats in the house.

My rats are doing ok. Willow, who is already paralyzed from the waist down, had to have one of her arms amputated recently. Alby is starting to show signs of his age but loves to spend time with Willow. Widget had to have one of her eyes removed but she is recovering well and Cutie is doing very well too. I am also getting more and more interested and involved with Rat Agility - yes, you read right! I am looking forward to jumpstarting some rat agility meetings in the area and I have a counterpart who will be starting them in Sacramento. It should be a blast!

D

Rain, rain GO AWAY!!!

2008-02-19T23:11:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, which generally means that I am busy as usual. The new Rat Shop site is looking very nice but is coming along a bit slower than I had hoped. I am working on getting a bunch of new products and working out the last couple of kinks before we think about launching it live.

It's pouring rain too...which is usually fine but it is flooding the garage again. I had moved the sand bags thinking that the rain was all gone only to walk out to a flooded garage tonight. So, the sandbags went back and the towels came out of the closet and I am hoping that it'll all be a bit drier tomorrow.

Almost time for bed...

It's official! I can KNIT!

2008-01-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

Yippee!! I went to my crochet meet up group last night in Saratoga and it was loads of fun, as usual. Everyone seemed to be doing crochet so I started out by practicing that but then Caroline busted out the knitting so I jumped on the opportunity to learn :) I am now proud to say that I am knitting my first scarf for Katrina! I picked up some US size 10 bamboo knitting needles and some nice pink yarn and off I go. I only have about 3 inches done so far but, maybe by the next time we meet up, I'll have it ready to learn to bind off. Then I can learn another type of knit stitch!

People just don't get it!

2008-01-16T16:31:00.000-08:00

I am SO pissed off right now that I thought it best to come online and write simply to get it off my mind. I went to the Humane Society of Silicon Valley today to intake some rats for Rattie Ratz and one of the males there was this senior rat who must be AT LEAST 2 years old with a massive respiratory infection, messed up greasy skin, and just simply pathetic looking BUT HE IS SO SWEET!!! How can people accept an animal into their family and then just dump them in their senior year when they need you the most. This poor old fogie probably gave some family a lot of love and kindness and they repay him by abandoning him at the shelter. What's up with that? I hate people sometimes!

On another note, I had my monthly sew club at Eddie's this morning and that was fun. The class was suppose to be doing embroidery on jeans but, I figured I probably will never do that in my life so I decided to play around with applique instead. I designed THE cutest little rat applique image and I am making a simple messenger bag out of it. I'll post it to the site as soon as I finish...as have pictures...and have time because I have several other projects photographed on the camera...probably in my computer already but just haven't made it to the site yet! The bag is cute. Hunter green on the outside, camo on the inside, and the appliqued rat is a soft beige material. I also bought one of those hot fix tools for the jems so I can give him a sparkly eye and pink little nose! It'll be cute. I am excited about it.

I have also been spending some time getting TheSocialRat.com finished up so it is a pretty good starting point now for the Rattie Ratz adopters and from there they can find a lot of valuable information. It's a good supplement to Rattie Ratz after they have adopted their rats and want to find out more or get ideas or inspiration so that's nice to have basically finished.

TheRatShop.com overhaul is dragging it's feet. I was hoping to go live by the first of the year but...it looks like it may go live in time for the official Year of the Rat so that is cool too! I have SO many great new products to add to the site, I am sure everyone will enjoy all of the new goodies that I have found for the ratties!

My top secret project is getting underway! I have started talking around on the DL and getting some interest in it from all over so, I am excited about that. Once the shop is finished then I'll be able to spend some more time ironing out the kinks on that project and getting things up and going so that I can finally announce something for it. I am hoping to have something going for that by World Rat Day which is April 4th, for those of you who don't know.

Katrina's 5th birthday party went very well. We had about 20 kids there and they all had a blast and the Jungle Island down near Kooser and Camden. She is finishing up dance lessons (which is 15 min of tap, 15 min of ballet, and 30 min of gynastics) and she has decided she wants to transfer over to just gym so she'll start doing 1 hour of just gym. She also started taking swim lessons at the Almaden Valley Athletic Center. They have a nice indoor heated swimming pool for the kids and she LOVES it. Gav and I got her a bike for her birthday so she has been riding that around a lot of like it. It's her first "big girl" bike so that was exciting for her.

Anthony is getting bigger. He's got 8 teeth now and is a heafty little chap. He is walking about now and is a pure joy...most of the time. Katrina loves being a big sister and Anthony loves playing and spending time with her. It's very cute to watch them with each other.

Have a great 2008!

Quilts, quilts, and more quilts!

2008-01-03T09:10:00.000-08:00

*sigh* I think I am just about quilted out! It seems like I have been stitching quilts for an eternity now. Every time I get a chance to sit at my machine to work on something, Gavin kindly reminds me that I still have quilts that I wanted to finish :/ I should have never gotten my hopes up to getting them all done for Christmas. Those that didn't get done for Christmas got postponed to become birthday presents for the kiddos having birthdays in January, which still means I have 2 that need to get done! Thankfully, I am just doing the rag quilts which are nice, easy, and VERY forgiving if I don't measure out perfectly :)

Right now, I am working on Amy's quilt. It is going to be my 3rd twin size one. Then I finally get to start on my own daughter, Katrina's, quilt. Poor Kat! She's been so patient watching me work on and finish everyone else's quilt and keeps asking when I will be working a quilt for her. She love the quilts SO much. She's been borrowing the quilt that I made for Anthony (my very first "practice" one).

I really want to work on a rat/mouse quilt for me but I think that will have to wait because I have several other projects that I want to do and I don't want to start on any more quilts for quite a while :) They are nice and turn out very fun and pretty but, my oh my, they take about 3 days each if I work relatively hard on them. It's just a lot of work - but fun work.

TTFN

Happy Belated Holidays!!

2007-12-27T21:03:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness Christmas has been and gone! I was up on Christmas eve frantically sewing away in a last ditch effort to finish family presents on time - which I managed to do :) I was far too optimistic about how much I could get done though and several poor souls got axed off the list at the last minute because I simply ran out of time. Priority went to family so friends who were on the list to get something handcrafted by me will have to wait for another opportunity...maybe an upcoming birthday or something.

The new year is right around the corner and I am very excited to say that Gav and I have hired a small firm to redesign TheRatShop.com for 2008! This year marks our 5 year anniversary and we wanted to celebrate with something special for the shop and our customers so, we have decided to invest in the "web face" of our shop and make it better for our visitors and easier for me and we are still working on something fun for our customers.

2008 is also the year of the RAT so I am sure there will be some fun rat events in the works too. I am prepping for a presentation at FurCon 2008 in San Jose at the end of January and then we also have our annual Wonderful World of Rats event at the end of March.

Katrina turns the big 5 in January so I am a busy bee trying to organize her first ever "real" birthday party. I think we'll have it at The Jungle Island near our home in San Jose and we are hoping her friends from school, and social events will be able to come and help her celebrate.

I am working on a new rat project this year, which I am very excited about, but I am not quite ready to spill the beans yet so - stay tuned for some great new gossip about that in the not so distant future :)

Happy Holidays!!

2007-11-30T14:16:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it is almost December. Juliet came out for Anthony's 1st birthday and celebrated Thansgiving with us. She just flew back to Scotland yesterday. Today, I have been busy updating my personal website with many more photos of my most recent projects for you all to enjoy. If you haven't checked it out lately, please take a moment to take a look. I have the ambitious goal of crafting all of my holiday gifts this year so I have a VERY busy month ahead of me but it should be lots of fun.

TTFN!

Finally up to date!

2007-11-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

OK. I have spent some time transferring some of my blogging comments from my website to here so now all of my comments are in the same place. I will change the website blog link to come directly here so that all of my blogs will be in one area. That will be easier for everyone. I have added some links too. I look forward to maintaining a record of what I have been up to.

October 4th, 2007 (transferred from site)

2007-11-02T23:10:00.000-07:00

Oh my, where did this year go? I can't believe it's already October! Crafting has been a bit slow because I have been working on other projects including The Rat Shop and The Social Rat. I found some wonderful material and I am looking forward to crafting my first patternless skirt. I use my own measurements and a formula to generate a pattern perfectly sized for me! It looks pretty simple so I am hoping to get time to work on that this weekend. I have also collected some fabulous fabrics that I intend to incorporate into some custom handbags in the future! It should be lots of fun. I finally started running low on wool for my needlefelting so I have a huge order coming in any day now - it's always fun to get more crafting stuff in the mail!!

September 24th, 2007 (transferred from site)

2007-11-02T23:09:00.002-07:00

I have added some new content and photos to some of the pages. I am working on taking pictures of my work so far before I start any new projects but I am eager to get started with some new things that I have been fantasizing about. Namely, I recently got 2 books -- one on sewing skirts and one on handbags! I also have some ideas about embellishing t-shirts which I got from another book but didn't bother buying that one because most of the techniques I didn't like. The few that I did like, I want to try out soon and document before I forget them!

September 21, 2007 (transferred from site)

2007-11-02T23:09:00.001-07:00

I am pleased to say that I think I have mastered the art of incorporating photos into MS Office Live. There is definately a slight learning curve to this software but, all in all, it is a pretty neat service considering it is FREE!! I have been adding several photos and slideshows but you'll have to search to find them. I am looking forward to taking pictures of my other pieces to add to the site soon. Thanks for reading!

September 18, 2007 (transferred from site)

2007-11-02T23:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my online studio. This is my first experience designing a website on my own. I am very please with how it is turning out already! It was a little complicated, at first, to figure out how all the functions work but once you get the hang of it -- away you go! I've been wanting to put my creations online for a while and now is my opportunity. As Murphy's law would have it though, I have managed to loose the cable from my camera to my computer. I am temporarily disabled with regard to adding images but they will be coming very soon -- as soon as I find that darn cable. In the meantime, feel free to browse and see what there is to see...even though it isn't much yet.

Welcome to my blog!

2007-11-02T22:39:00.000-07:00

I am glad you found me and are interested in reading what I have been up to. I will try to keep you as updated as possible. It'll take a little while for me to figure out what I am doing, but once I get the hang of it, blogging should be a relaxing way for me to share my experiences with others.