Kermit’s new sweater arrived mid-week and neighbour Krista immediately sent me photos

It fit perfectly! I couldn’t believe how perfect! But there’s just one problem with that…

He’s still growing. He’s going to need a bigger one, and soon! I’ve got another one on the needles already!

It’s starting to feel like Wild Kingdom around here….

On Tuesday, I was up in the office working away as normal, when I hear Dave coming down the hall. He popped his head in the doorway, and said “Umm… so I was just in the basement… and I found a little lizard…”

WTF???? My mind was racing… because…

1) We don’t have have many native lizards in Ontario. In fact, we only have one. The Common Five-lined Skink. And it certainly isn’t from around here. (and in my 42 years, I’ve never actually see one)

2) How in heck would a lizard even get in our basement???

So he hands me a little plastic takeout dish and l look inside…

Holy crap on a cracker!!! That appears to be a lizard. But how?????

So I do some quick image searching/googling. It’s not a lizard… but a newt! (Which is a type of salamander and an amphibian, of which Ontario has several). But still how did it end up in the basement??**

At that point, it wasn’t the most pressing question. What we really needed to answer was… what the heck were we going to do with it??

I knew that salamanders, like toads and frogs, usually dug in an hibernated over winter. But it was far too cold out to put him back outside. (Another quick google search confirmed this. Temps would have to be consistently above zero).

More googling told me that he was a Red-Spotted Newt, and a juvenile one at that. And that newts are frequently kept as pets. Dave looked at me and said… “We have an aquarium, and a light. He won’t need heat like a tropical lizard, so we don’t need a heater… we just need some ‘decor’ and food… we have all the expensive stuff, so we might as well keep him.”

So after work, I headed into Sarnia to PetSmart… and $140 later (so much for having the expensive stuff…)

We made a nice little set-up for him. Because he’s still a juvenile (what they call and ‘eft’), he’s actually terrestrial. He won’t go back to a mostly aquatic life until he’s an adult. So for now, we just needed to give him a moist, forest-floor type environment. I did it with a layer of fish gravel, a layer of coconut fibre, and a whole bunch of sphagnum moss. I added in some cuttings from a few of my house plants, and spray everything down so it was dripping wet to create the level of humidity he would need.

And while I decorated, Dave gave our new friend a name – Newt Scamander!

I bought him a pile of different freeze dried bugs, but he didn’t seem to have much interest. He did seem happy to be in a nice, damp environment again. I imagine he was pretty dried out in the basement.

Eventually, he buried himself in the moss. The next morning, none of the food was gone. Same with the next day.

I did some more googling… and apparently efts are a little picky…. while the adults will eat freeze-dried insects and pellets, the efts are notorious for only eating live food. So off to the store I went again, and came home with a couple tubs of live meal worms.

It’s been a couple day now. I haven’t actually seen him eat anything, but the worms are disappearing. He is a bit of an anti-social little guy, and it can be really hard to find him in the tank. But the basement was surely a dry death trap for him.

Dave and I talked, and if we can get him through the winter, we’ll probably release him in the spring. But for now any time I see/hear the word newt… this is all I’m thinking…

** To answer how the little guy ended up in our basement…. a little more research told me it’s not that uncommon. As the weather cools, the newts go looking for warm/dark places to hibernate for the winter. Normally, they find old logs, leaf litter, etc.. but every so often they find a basement. It seems good at first, there usually even a good supply of insects for snacking… but basements (even wet ones) usually end up being too dry, and the poor guys dehydrate.

I’ve heard of garter snakes (and other types of snakes) coming into basements for similar reasons, but never thought about newts doing it.

The fact that we only have a partial basement (just under the kitchen), with a crawl space under the majority of the house, makes it even more likely to attract these guys.

Dave is now on newt watch every time he goes down the stairs!

It appears we adopted a wee baby sphinx…

On the weekend, I got to work putting together the rest of the blocks I needed to finish up the Dozer quilt. I only needed five, so it didn’t take long to put them together. And since it was a simple design, it didn’t take to put the whole top together.

I love using gradient fabrics! Sometimes you can make them do all the work

I got the perfect chunk of flannel for the back, and some more of the fabric I used for Dozer for the binding.

I won’t have a chance to quilt it until the New Year, but I’m happy to have it off my to-do list for now!

Once again, I’m cheating on Walkabout Wednesday. I haven’t had time for much more than my regular walks to the post office, and there just hasn’t been much interesting happening along my regular route.

So once again, you’re getting a view of the walk by my house…

You see, on Saturday, the weather got up to a balmy 11C/51F, so I decided to take advantage while I could and get my porch decorated for the season.

I know… I’ve said several times, I don’t like to decorate before Dec 1… but the weather really was too good. Plus, this coming weekend is set to be a busy one.

I changed a couple things up this year, but it’s still pretty similar to last year.

As with last year, it’s a base of pine garland, white lights and icicle lights. But last year, where I embellished with gold and green balls, I switched it up for red and silver.

The biggest change, of course, is that I have my planters on the porch now.

I took out the dying mums, and filled them with fresh greens and willow twigs, which was purchased from a local nursery. I had a few silk poinsettias from old decorations at the townhouse, so I added a few of them in for a nice pop of red. And as pretty as it is during the day…

I think it really shines at night!

I am sad to report, that No-Spender November has been a total bust.

It all began with a chair.

It might be hard to tell from the picture… But it’s not an adult-sized chair. It’s toddler-sized…. or as I thought when I first saw it – KITTY-SIZED. It was at our favourite used shop and was just $15.

And… all I could see was how cool it would look in the patio. So it just had to come home with me.

Dave’s already painted it in our signature green. I can’t wait for spring so I can put it out amongst the plants. And yes, I’m totally going to make a little cushion for it. Nothing but the best for my babies.

After buying that… it was just all downhill.

A few days later, I finally gave in a bought a basic metal bed frame. Our bed frame broke years ago, so we just made do with our box spring and mattress on the floor. But lately. Dave’s been complaining about the bed being too low. So a new bed frame was in order.

Of course, once I got the bedframe (which I ordered from Amazon – super easy to put together!), I decided I need to make a new quilt. There’s nothing really wrong with the ones I have – they just don’t hang over the sides as much as they should. Dave and I share a lot, but we don’t share blankets. And with the bed off the floor, my short blankets just look silly.

So… I went shopping for fabric.

I love the colours in my disappearing hourglass quilt, so I wanted to keep to something similar. Fat Quarter Shop had the above Fat Quarter bundle. Naturally, other things hopped into my cart so I could get free shipping.

The above fabrics (border and backing) were among them. Though there were several “just for fun” things including some cute cat fabric.

I managed to avoid the Black Friday Sales, but finally caved to Old Navy’s Cyber Monday.

And these two cute cardis are on their way to me now. And I know… I knit… but not fast enough and not for less than $30 a cardigan.

I’d like to say next month I’ll do better… but it’s December, so what’s the point?

January is going to be super thrifty though!

I am happy to report, that Little Kermit’s jumper knit up in a flash. I even surprised myself and had it cast on and cast off in just one evening.

I used this pattern: Pebbles Dog Sweater. It’s a very nice little pattern – simple and easy to follow. And like I said – knit up super fast.

It’s a pattern designed for a chihuahua, and since Kermit half chihuahua, I thought it would work well. I tweaked it just a bit to make it work better with the measurements Krista sent me.

And I learned an interesting fact: Apparently, many Chinese Crested dogs have allergies/sensitivies to real wool. So I made it out of some Patons Canadiana I had kicking around the stash.

Sadly, they aren’t the best pictures… but I don’t have a dog to model it on. (And I didn’t think the cats would volunteer)

I popped it in the mail last Thursday, so Krista should get it sometime this week. I’ll shared modelled pictures as soon as I have them.

You may recall that our boy Burton isn’t just handsome, he’s talented too. And his biggest talent is playing fetch.

His favourite way to play is to have me throw the ball down the stairs. At the old townhouse, that was a lot easier, as the upstairs hallway was small, and both my studio and bathroom had a straight line to the stairs. He loved it when I was in the bathtub – that was his absolute favourite time to play fetch.

This house, of course, isn’t set up quite the same way, so we stopped playing fetch as much. Every so often, when I was working in office, he’d bring me a ball. But the game never lasted very long. After a few months, he stopped playing all together.

But then Lemmy came along… and all of a sudden, Burton started bring my toys to throw again. Last weekend I was working in the sewing room, and he came sauntering in with his sparkly ball. If you look closely in the picture, you’ll see Lemmy lurking behind him.

I threw the ball for him several times, and every time, Lemmy was hot on his heels. I never taught Burton to play fetch, it was just something he did on his own… but I started to wonder if Lemmy might pick it up by watching him.

Eventually, Burton tired of the game and went off to nap. But Lemmy was still a little ball of energy. So I tossed another ball for him. And not long after…

I don’t know if it’s something he’ll keep up as he grows, but it was certainly cute!

When I showed off my cool, blooming cactus last week, a couple of you mentioned that, with the size of my indoor plant collection, I must have a few other “bloomers” over winter.

And you’re right!

I have five different shades of African violets. Pink/white, solid pink, purple/white, light purple, and dark purple.

Only the pink ones are blooming right now. But when they are in for the winter, they stay under my grow lights, which really keeps them happy. At any one time, at least one is in bloom, all year round.

My goldfish is blooming. I don’t know if this plant has a “season”, but it always seems to bloom in winter for me. It was on the sun porch all summer and didn’t bloom once!

My white Anthurium has a couple nice big blooms. I have a pink one too, but it’s not blooming at the moment. I need to add a red one to my collection.

This mottled crown of thorns is also in bloom. I have a solid white one (not blooming at the moment), but I kind of prefer this one – there’s something so interesting about it’s greenish petals with the little pink blotches.

The pale yellow orchid I keep in my kitchen window is thriving. This is it’s second bloom since I bought it. It surprised me by putting up a bloom stem almost immediately after the first one died off. I was planning on re-potting it as I think it needs a bigger pot, but I’ve had to put it off. I don’t want to disturb it while it flowers.

I have seven orchids in total (all Phals), and I was very excited to discover that TWO more are getting ready to bloom.

I have no idea what colour these will be – I didn’t mark the pots, and I can’t remember what I had. I think one of them might be pure white, but I’m really not sure on that! Regardless, I am thrilled they are blooming again. My “trick” is to put them in north or east facing windows. I discovered this a couple years ago with one I had at my office – and so far it’s worked to give me these re-bloomers!

And last… these two aren’t bloomers, but I recently potted them and they just make me so happy. They were both candles that I bought specifically so I could put plants in them after the candles burned out.

Naturally, I put my String of Turtles in the turtle pot!

But for this grand lady, I bought this succulent specifically – I thought it would look so cool – like wild and crazy hair coming out around her crown.

As you can probably imagine, it’s been hard to get a picture of all four cats in one place. But the other day, I finally managed it.

Of course, it was in the bed I was about to make… but what can you do.

And no… Rupert was not thrilled about Lemmy’s proximity to him. The bed is 100% Rupert’s territory. Unless it’s nice outside, you can pretty much count on finding him there. Happily, Lemmy hasn’t shown much interest in the bed… unless, of course, I’m in the bedroom. Then his favourite thing to do is jump up there and dive bomb poor Rupert.

Happily, this time I managed to keep him distracted long enough for him to settle down. Still he insisted on being as close to Rupert as he could get.

Rupert kept a wary eye on him, but refused to give up his rightful spot. And eventually…

…there was peace in the land.

Yes… Lemmy is almost as big as Rupert, even at this young age. Rupert is a little taller and longer, but not by much and not for long. Rupert is a very small cat, and it’s not going to take long for Lemmy to outgrow him.