little things

brandon and i found this little guy hanging out on our patio a few nights ago. look how tiny he is!

he was a sweet little guy, too. didn't even pee on me! :p

and i spotted this creepy baby scorpion on our house. it's getting cold outside... what's he doing out in the open?!

♥,

melissa

meet pete

we have a little roadrunner friend who hangs out around our house. he's an interesting little guy! i love his call - it sounds like a dove, only almost electronic sounding, as it echoes. i call it the "electronic dove". we named him pete, who knows why :p.

i'll miss pete when we move!

♥,

melissa

zoo

as promised, some of my favourite pictures from my trip to the san antonio zoo:

♥,

melissa

lizard life

hi there!

i talk about my leopard geckos on here from time to time, so i thought it might be helpful if i showed you their homes, with them in them, looking cute :).

when people find out we have no dogs or cats, but a handful of lizards, we generally get strange looks. don't get me wrong... we love dogs and cats! if we had the room (read: a suitable yard), we would definately have a dog by now, at least. but i have always had a warm place in my heart for geckos. when i was younger, i would catch the little house geckos that would hang out by the patio lights outside at night and catch them, give them a tiny little kiss, and let them go. i was a strange child :p. okay, it continued into adulthood, don't judge me! ;). i only learned after i had a real pet gecko that you can get salmonella from kissing lizards, so i don't do that anymore (you think i'm so weird right now, don't you?), but i do have a lot of fun watching and caring for my little critters.



that's asuka on the top left. she was a gift to me from brandon, on our first christmas together ♥. the first time i held her, she bit the crap out of me, so i named her 'asuka' after the bitchy anime character on my favourite anime, neon genesis evangelion.

trent is on the top right. he's called trent because he looks mad all the time, and that reminds me of the most dreamy, angsty man alive, trent reznor ♥.

sonny is on the bottom (you can only see his illusive tail in this picture, sticking out of the hole in his rock on the right), and he is an albino leopard gecko. he may not be as pretty and colourful as the other two, but he has a lot of character to him (they all do, actually! they each have their own personality and behaviours), he's very sweet, and he often looks like he's smiling. i call him 'cling peach' because of his colouring and how he grabs onto my thumb when he's in my hand. brandon named him after the character from his favourite movie, the godfather.

sonny had a brother named mike, but he died last fall after being very sick and a terrible mishap at the vet :/.

anyway, those are my little ones! definately not your standard pet, but they're low-maintenance (which is great for me!), silly, and bring joy to my little life :).

see what i mean about personality? asuka's being sneaky in her hidey-hole :p.

♥,

melissa

animals and a new haircut

what is this new evil?...



it's a tarantula! UGH! the other night as i was crafting at my little crafty-time table, i looked out the window and saw this monstrosity hanging out on our wall. when i took this picture, i was standing about 12 feet away from it. it was huge.

then i spotted this weird thing chilling on our house:



anyone know what this creature is?!

and the past few nights around 10, this little guy comes around and eats the peanuts from the bird seed mix off our patio:



he is soooo cute! (please forgive the strange lighting; i had to use the 'night' setting on my camera). brandon and i sat inside the house at the front door and took pictures of this sweety. he knew he was being watched, but he ate anyway, and it was simply darling. he had a companion, but they apparently aren't getting along; he scared the other raccoon off every time it got within a foot or two of him :p. ps - how weird is it that he has two shadows?

and lastly, i must update you on my new haircut. i went into austin yesterday to hang out with my best friend, sarah, and we went to get our hair cut together.




i love it! my stylist made me blush, too: she wouldn't stop telling me how good i smelled (jasmine body spray) and how pretty my hair colour is, heehee. it felt nice to be pampered, even if it was just a shampooing, haircut, and a few nice compliments :).

no big news to report on the shop front. july has proved to be very slow, after all. oh well, this way i can start preparing my inventory for autumn and xmas :D.

♥,
melissa

little critters

i'm sure i've mentioned this before, but brandon and i are the proud parents of 4 leopard geckos: asuka, trent, sonny, and mike. it all started when brandon bought me asuka for christmas nearly 3 years ago. she was a feisty little thing at the time; i fondly remember, she bit me almost immediately. a few days later, brandon caved in and bought sonny and mike for himself (we weren't living together yet). those guys are albino leopard geckos. two months later, i wanted a second one, so i bought trent. trent, it turns out, might actually be a female, but i think he just has an identity crisis :p.

and here they are:

asuka - named after asuka langley soryu from our favourite anime, 'neon genesis evangelion'. here she is, sleeping on her food bowl (wtf?):



trent - named after trent reznor, my favourite musician and hot guy behind 'nine inch nails':



sonny and mike - named after the characters from 'the godfather'. here's mike (sleeping so cutely on top of his log!):



and sonny. he's an illusive one:



we're probably going to get another leopard gecko in the near future. we already decided on a name: chopstick :).

♥,
melissa