Rest in Peace, Darling Mackie: February 2011 - November 14th, 2013

 

Yesterday, our world lost a small but strong little light.



Two and a half weeks ago, we learned that Mr. Mackie only had a little while left to live.  Since then, he has eaten grandly, spent hours on our bed hanging out with us, and been showered with love, attention, and visits from friends.  A few days ago, I started noticing that he was cuddling a lot more than he usually did, and exhibiting signs of pain.  We took him to the vet to weigh him and found out that he had already lost 30 grams of body weight - a sign of rapid decline in small furry ones like him - so he was prescribed an opioid painkiller.  I pretty much knew then that we needed to start saying goodbye.

It's been pretty horrible watching such a sweet, energetic, and inquisitive little dude get so sick, so fast - only a week ago, he was bouncing around and snatching treats straight from the bag, but by Tuesday he seemed to have lost a lot of energy.  Wednesday night was spent with him curled up in our arms, and around 2 am we decided that it was time.  Blake was up every hour checking on him while I slept, and we took him into the vet's office the next afternoon.

It's going to be hard to come home and not immediately say hello to him, or to get ready for bed without him poking around in the pillows.  He's followed us through so much growth and change in the last two years, and he has been a constant source of solace, entertainment, and companionship.  It's amazing how such a small presence could bring so much joy into our lives.

So to celebrate Mackie, here are a few of my favorite photos of him.

His favorite places: our bed, any couch or interesting piece of furniture (including people), and his various nests of blankets, tissue paper, and cardboard.

Mackie enjoying a boop, in our first apartment in Seattle.



Always up to something.

Rest in peace, my handsome little buddy.  You are so loved, and so missed already.  <:3O~

WIP: Portfolio

I'm taking Portfolio class at school, so during class yesterday (and, let's be honest, until the wee hours of the night), I worked on my spreads for my Spring 2013 Collection.  I think I'm going to do a post about my graphic design inspiration later, but right off the bat, you can probably tell from these pages that I'm gravitating towards a very simple, clean look.  I like using neutral backgrounds and relying on photography to tell the story, and I've definitely already used some elements I've used on the blog as templates for spreads.

It's been really cool to learn more about graphic design, work more extensively with InDesign, and play with color, layout, and details.  Graphic design always used to seem like a scary, inaccessible medium to me, but I've started to learn that I'm actually very attracted to minimalist graphic design - which, when done right, still isn't easy, but it makes a lot more sense to my brain than amazing, elaborate spreads!  (This strikes me as funny, because in no way does my personal style usually read as minimalist; it's rare that I meet a loud, bright color combination I don't like.)  I'm inspired by more complex graphic design as well, but I don't find it to be as compelling as a clean page with beautiful photography and a few well-chosen words.

We'll see how well my portfolio lives up to those lofty standards - in the meantime, I'm having an awesome time booping around on my computer to find out what works!

Rastita Design Challenge Part III: Call for Test Knitters!

As of 11/15 at 1:43 PM, I have the test knitters I need, and I am closing the call.  Thank you so much, guys!

  

Hello friends!  Sorry I've been remiss in posting - we've been dealing with some urgent personal stuff, so I've been spending all of my time on that instead of fun things like knitting, sewing, and creating blog posts.  Sigh.

However, in exciting news, the Folded Lotus pattern is just about ready for test knitters!  What I need from test knitters is feedback, particularly about:

 - readability, clarity, and difficulty of written and/or charted pattern
- layout and flow of pattern
- other notes, comments, or concerns about any aspect of the pattern

Edited to add:  Test knitters should be able to cast on, knit, purl, do simple lace, and work with two colors of yarn.  You will need 2 skeins of the main color (shown in blue) and 1 skein of the contrast color (shown in pink) of Rastita, or 500 yards of the main color and 200 yards of the contrast color, both in a DK-weight yarn.

In return, all test knitters will receive a copy of both patterns from the Rastita Design Challenge.  I will be closing the call this Friday, November 15th.  The deadline for submitting test knitting notes is Sunday, December 15th.

If you're interested, please send an email to:

cory at indieknits dot com

with the following information:

- how long you've been knitting
- your approximate skill level
- your favorite color and animal
- why you'd like to test knit for me

Thanks again for joining us for the Rastita Design Challenge!  I've had a great time doing this - so much so, in fact, that Ariel and I are already scheming another design challenge... stay tuned!

Rastita Design Challenge Previous Posts

Cory
Introduction
Part I: Conceptualizing
Part II: Execution & Pattern-Writing

Ariel
Introduction
Part I: Design Process
Part II: Pattern Writing

Family Pictures

  

So after my last post, we took Mackie to the vet again and got some very bad news.  He has a growth in his urinary tract that is causing pain and inflammation, and the associated surgery to remove it would be risky, complicated, and unlikely to improve his quality of life, so we made the difficult decision not to pursue further treatment.  Since his diagnosis, we've been giving him lots of treats and snuggle time, giving him pain medication, and trying to enjoy the time we have left with him.  (Not gonna lie - there have been a lot of tears.)

Mackie is my first rat as an adult, Blake's first rat ever, and our first pet together, so he has been an integral member of our little family.  He has been with us through two moves, my fashion show, and our wedding, so he's become the go-to furry dude for cuddles during both happy and stressful times.  It's difficult to even think about what life is going to be like without him.  Since we realized we didn't have many photos of us with Mackie, our friend Sooz was kind enough to take some photographs of all of us together this weekend.



I think she nailed it.