I've just been talking to one of my close friends via that fabulous invention of Skype and asked her what I should pick as my theme this week. She didn't really know what I was talking about when I said 'theme' but asked if it could be anything, like... for example...giraffes? Well yes, yes it can be a shout out for giraffes! This week's Etsy shout out is dedicated to you Shannon of MosaicGeek fame - I hope that next time we speak on Skype you sing me the song I've added at the end...!
Anyway, for those of you who don't know, I do a weekly shout out of some lovely things I've found on Etsy based around a theme. This week's theme is giraffes, of which there are many cute examples on Etsy. Do go and have a search yourself but also visit the shops I've featured - they are great!
What little snippets of giraffe information shall I add?
A giraffe can clean its own ears with it's tongue. Personally I wouldn't want to but always a good party trick I suspect... Their tongues are about 2 feet long.
Because they are always on the lookout for predators, giraffes sleep very little. They average about 30 minutes a day. And other animals use giraffes as lookout posts for predators.
Giraffes can eat about 35 kilos of food a day. They are herbivores and have a strong liking for accacia trees which have all the nutrients they need bar calcium and salt. Because accacia stores water in its leaves, it also helps in keeping giraffes hydrated.
However, when giraffes do go and find some water, they can drink up to 12 gallons of water in one go.
A baby giraffe is about 6 foot tall at birth.
If they are attacked and cannot run away, giraffes will kick at their predators - and their hooves have been known to sever a lion's head!
Giraffes can run at 35 mph although only for a short period of time.
It is illegal to tie a giraffe to a lampost in Atlanta. Which makes me wonder when giraffes were so prevalent there that they had to introduce that law...?!
Giraffes cannot cough. Must be a real pain if they get accacia leaves stuck in their throats...!
Giraffe markings are all individual - no two giraffes have exactly the same markings.
Today's YouTube clip is verging on the ridiculous but for some reason I don't know many songs about giraffes... can't think why! Anyway, it MUST be fun to be a giraffe!
I am super excited at the moment because... I've had my first ever quilt commission! I was showing some of my quilts at Tootopia back in September and a lovely customer asked about some of my designs. Last week I got an e-mail asking if I could make a commission quilt featuring some owls and foxes for her expected niece/nephew. I found a few options and we put this combination of fabrics together:
When I actually got the fabrics I realised that they needed something a little extra to stop them from being too busy and mind-boggling so I tempered them with some plain lime green fabric as well. My lovely customer was quite specific about the quilt being non-gender specific so I used green instead of blue which would have been the more natural match in my head. As a finishing touch, she wanted the quilt to feature some stars as well so we used some red fabric with white stars as the binding. What do you think of the finished product? It has a stripy backing as I couldn't find another suitable backing material (which is insane considering how many colours are featured!) so I've used the same fabric as the stripes in the main quilt. It still needs me to sew on a label and finish off some of the threads, but other than that, it's done and ready to go.
Brrrr, I know it's only November so the proper cold, snowy months have not yet started but I haven't been able to feel my toes for days now! I am soooooo cold! So what better theme for this week's Friday Feeling than Winter? Here are some of my favourite finds of the week - please do go over to Etsy and have a look at some of the shops I've featured (click on the links in the captions) and also go and have a search generally. It's that time of year when we start thinking about Christmas presents (I said it, the dreaded C word) so Etsy is a good place to start looking. Lovely handmade gifts all round!
I'm not sure whether I want to share any wintery facts with you today... they might make me feel even colder! I'm presently wrapped up in a scarf AND a cowl in a cafe which technically should have heating. And when not typing I'm clutching a mug of hot tea! OK, OK, here are your fun facts for the week:
Icicles most often form on the south side of buildings
The record for most snow angels at one time was made in Ontario, Canada in 2004. A number of schools joined forces and 15,861 were created.
Wind chill is a measurement of heat loss on exposed skin
The coldest temperature ever recorded was in Antarctica (no surprise then!) of -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius)
Snowflakes fall on average at 3.1 miles per hour
The tallest snowman was given a name! He was called Angus and measured 122 feet (37 metres)
Ten inches of snow melts down into 1 inch of water
A single snow storm can drop more than 40 millios tonnes of snow, which has the energy equivalence of 120 atomic bombs.
Apparently if squirrels start building their nests on the lower branches of trees it means we're going to have a really cold winter. The same goes if ants build higher than normal mounds or birds start migrating early.
