Two new cards and a reprint for RCF Chicago

In a flurry of creativity, I made two new cards and reprinted an old favorite for Renegade. I present to you Malört Christmas Card, Chicago Dibs Love Card, and reprint of Meerkat in a Party Hat Birthday Card. Listings will go up on Etsy as soon as I have some free time to take some photos.

Katniss is just fine after her surgery. See a video here. Even with one less leg, she’s still getting around just GREAT. She was already so low to the ground, it seems she barely notices. The only bummer is that the amputation cost Z and I a bit over $800 total. We submitted the paperwork to VPI. Fingers crossed they pay a large chunk of this madness. Some think we are crazy to have pet insurance, but then things like this happen. This is where I warn again that if you are looking at getting a hedgehog, please know that the chance your hedgehog will end up having some form of cancer is EXTREMELY high. Please read the Common Ailments section of Hedgehog Central to see what you are very likely to face if you are considering adopting a hedgehog. Being a three-time hedge-mom, I can still say that I feel they are absolutely still worth it for me, but please think it through.

Also this week: biked to Neighborly and dropped off more Bean Baby onesies. On the way up there, my brakes were making a terrible screeching noise so I dropped my bike at Comrade Cycles for them to realign my wheel and decided to leave it for a complete tuneup. Love, love, love Comrade. Cannot say enough positive things about those dudes.

Renegade Craft Fair was this weekend and it kicked my butt. Lots of amazing old customers and new. My boothmate Jessica (di Palermo Body) and her friend helper Ashley were awesome and we traded, so now I have some Linger soap! Her soap and body goods are even more gorgeous in person. With all the stuff that has happened in the past week, it’s no wonder that my body gave out. I stayed home sick Monday and took two naps. I had to pull myself off the couch to go to my second fitting @ Mignonette, which luckily was a breeze. Stopped at Z and my new obsession Dimo’s and grabbed pizza. Nothing helps body aches like pizza, right?

Films watched 36th week of the year:

Rip! A Remix Manifesto *
Sinister
A Talking Cat!?!
Bamako [ Mali ] **

* documentary
** foreign language

If you are reading this post you likely have nothing better to do, right? Well, let me give you something better to do – fire up your Netflix Instant Queue and watch A Talking Cat!?!. Z and I were almost cry laughing throughout so much of it. I think it may be my runner up for Best Worst Movie of all time.

Beware the pig mask.

Drinking Buddies @ Landmark. Cake tasting @ Luscious Layers. Girl dinner gone wild @ Carmen’s (see photo above). Quesadilla la Reyna del Sur during a hail storm, drink @ Violet Hour, Co-worker Devon’s band (Lights Alive) @ Double Door, drink and fried pie @ Handlebar. Spin, Daniel Clowes exhibit @ MCA, pizza @ Dimo’s. Z and my 10-year Chicago-versary midwestern potluck party [Z’s Chicago-versary was August 1st and mine is October 6th].

Wow, looking at the list of everything I did last week – no WONDER I took many naps. So much stuff is happening. Wedding blanks are getting filled in. This week I really need to concentrate on making some new stuff for Renegade and then it’s ALL wedding stuff from then until our wedding October 19th. Whoa my gosh! My boothmate I was matched up with for Renegade is Jessica of di Palermo Body from New York and we’re super excited because we scored a corner booth. Come see us at Booth 174, South side of Division at Hermitage. These things sometimes shift around, but that’s the ballpark of where we will be! Can’t wait to see my awesome customers there – I’ve got some last minute surprises up my sleeve!

There is lots of happy stuff going on, but I should note some sad news. Z took Katniss (our hedgehog) in for our vet follow-up re: mites. The mites are gone, thankfully, but she had started limping and not putting much weight on her back right leg. We feared this was a side effect of the oral ivermectin since it can cause neurological damage. Z talked with Dr. Horton about it at the appointment and she took an x-ray. As it turns out, bone cancer has taken over Katniss’ back right leg and our choices were amputation or chemo. It was a no-brainer for us because there are plenty of very happy tripod animals out there, but it is still very sad to think about our happy Katniss with one less leg. We take her in on Thursday to have her leg amputated. Hedgehogs get many different types of cancer, so for her to have lived to be 3.5 and be absolutely healthy up to this point was great news, after having two hedgehogs with cancer. This comes at the stupidest of times, right before our wedding when we are trying to adhere so closely to our budget. The cost will be somewhere between $500 – $600 and we’re not sure how much VPI (our pet insurance) will cover of it, if anything. Sucky curveball to be thrown. Silver lining: I have an awesome friend Christina who is a fellow hedgemom who will watch Katniss and medicate her twice a day for pain while we go to Alex & Megan’s wedding and then have our own and mini-moon. Hedgemoms are the best moms.

Films watched 35th week of the year:

Drinking Buddies
Waiting for Armageddon *
The World’s End
Maria Full of Grace ** [ Colombia ]

* documentary
** foreign language

I am probably a *tiny* bit biased, being a featured extra in buddy Joe Swanberg’s Drinking Buddies, but I loved it. Z and I have been watching Joe grow up as a filmmaker in the time that we’ve known him and he has really come into his own. Favorite scenes: fight scene & malort scene. Only the REAL Jeppson’s malort, of course!