In December 2011, daughter and I embarked on our usual adventure Boxing Day to fight the crowds shop at the mall. While there, we discovered that the pet store was closing. Squeezing through the throng of customers snatching up discounted inventory, we came across a large cage with a tiny, solitary baby Love Bird rocking away on a wheel. Her two siblings had been adopted earlier that week, so the poor thing was left all alone.

Of course our hearts just melted when she hopped up to us, chirping away. Daughter already had a budgie, so we decided to bring her home and the two birds could keep each other company (in separate cages, of course but in the same room).

Meeka the Lovebird has grown a lot in the last year, and since daughter's landlord doesn't allow pets, when she moved out, Meeka and Zazu the Budgie remained  here in my studio. They are both so much fun and are used to the curious stares from the cats - who are locked out of the studio when I'm not home, just to be on the safe side.

A few days ago, Meeka had quite the surprise for me...

Well, holy crap! An egg!

(Good thing she is alone; I knew for sure it wasn't fertilized...)

Of course the first thing I did was to Google "My Lovebird laid an egg" and found this is quite normal; she may lay a few. It was recommended to remove the egg, but I waited a day until she had pushed it away from her "nest" herself.

Since I was able to blow it and wash it out, it's going to be

The. Smallest. Decorated. Easter. Egg. Ever.

erm... is a penny SAVED, I guess.

Well, it has begun. On Monday, retailers in Canada started the "rounding up / rounding down" to the nearest nickel; no more pennies will be used for cash transactions. Signs have been posted near registers: "Goodbye Penny". (Which, sadly, must be giving an awful inferiority complex to anyone NAMED Penny.)

Of course this historical event means that Canadians across the country, including yours truly, have begun the hoarding of the copper discs. (Actually I started to purposely set aside a few older ones last year when it was announced that no more pennies were going to be made - I don't leave my hoarding to the last minute, you know.)



Some are making jewelry.

Some are making art.

I am making... um... so far? A mess.




The smaller jar below contains around a hundred of my collection of older coins, going back to the 1940s. The larger jar has about 400 pennies: recent change from daughter, hubby and myself... and under couch cushions, on top of the fridge, in drawers and anywhere a feline shot them whilst playing a cat version of floor hockey.

Another 150 are in rolls - unused 2012's still in their plastic wrappers. I bought them last June from the Royal Canadian Mint since they were only struck for 4 months last year; I wanted some pristine examples of our final copper coin.


I'll figure out what I'm going to actually DO with them later.

For now, I'll just enjoy the memories of all the things I could buy many years ago with just a few pennies in my pocket.