Back From the Summer Daze

Hello all!  The rest of July flew by after our return from Europe, and I'm feeling the dog days of summer in the worst way. Heat always kills me and now we enter into August, which I'm sure will show no mercy with the temps.
Enough about the weather though! Lots still going on, like the little birdie up on top. Quincy passed away on the 1st of August. Always so hard and sad to see a little living creature die. Enter Riki! He is already proving to be quite charming and talkative. I actually got him to get on my finger today, which is one step closer for me to release him from his cage to roam. I'll keep you posted on his progress.
Even though it is hot out, the leaves are showing me that fall is around the corner. We have a gazebo out back with grapes, and lucky for us, they are delicious and ready to enjoy right now. The persimmons are going to be beautiful when they ripen and I will have to dig out some recipes for them. My mother in law gave me her persimmon pudding recipe, that she use to make for Christmas. I may give that a try when they are ripe.
This past weekend we helped move Caitlin and Cyrous to their new apartment. They will be much closer to the school now which is good, and I'm loving their new neighborhood. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen a pic I posted of the area. Caitlin will finish her last year of college this school year, and I'm sure she is more than ready to move on from University life!
I'll be working on some little linen mice, like the one pictured above(with clothes of course) for the holidays. I'll announce when they will be in the shop as usual. The liberty top that I started before I left for Europe, is finally done, and will be for sale either today or tomorrow.  It's a cooler day today, so I'm off to work in the studio.    Didn't want too much time to slip by without a new blog post :)

Darn little Quincy!

Up date on Mr. Quincy: stubborn and frustrating me is the update! Sunday, I went into the store where I purchased little Quincy, and talked to the lady about finger training him. I have been patiently putting my hand in and trying to get him to get on my finger. All previous parakeets I have had, do this in about two weeks time from buying them. Not this little guy, he just keeps running away from me.
The lady at the store, told me to just let him out, and get him use to being out of the safety zone of the cage. We did, and he still ran , hopped and fled as far away from us as possible. That was day one of taking him out. I tried to settle him down by putting my finger on his tail feather, which worked for one second. Then blast off!! When I put him back in the cage, I had noticed that I was a bit too forceful with one of the tail feathers, and it fell out :( Well, shoot, I feel so terrible, and now I think he hates me even more! We have taken him out two more times since then
and just let him explore and roam. On the third day, Caitlin managed to get him on her finger. It took quite a bit though, but we felt like something was accomplished. I think He likes Caitlin better.....so, I think I will have her work with him on finger training, so he can forget the fact that I accidentally pulled out his feather!
Look at him! What a little devil :)

Meet Quincy

Last January or February, I can't remember now, my other little birdie named Lucie, died. We decided not to get another little one since we were going on a long trip in the summer, and we just wanted a little time to pass in between getting another bird. Yesterday, on a beautiful sunny fall day, we hopped in the car and went to our favorite bird store and chose this little cutie.
The very knowledgeable owner told us it was a little boy bird. That means that you can train them to talk. The female parakeets can talk, but not very much. We are all excited to teach him all kinds of words and to become a part of the family. Today he is a little shy and getting use to his surroundings, but we can tell that he is going to be a fun pet. He seems to not be bothered or frightened easily, which is good for training.
I'll keep you all posted on his progress.