My Creamy Guinea Pig Plushie

I'm always looking for more furs. I search the local stores constantly so I can get them as soon as they arrive. When I found this lovely creamy yellow, I knew I had to make a piggy plush out of it.

This super-softie plushie is in both my Artfire shop and my Etsy shop. And I can always make a big piggy plushie out of this or any other of the furs you see my baby piggy plushies in.

Together at Last! Miso and Archie are Guinea Pals

As you may know, I have five guinea pigs in five separate C&C cages. Why? Because none of them seem to get along well. Naturally we keep the boys and girls separate, for obvious reasons. Miso got along well with his father Ponzu and his brother Shoyu, but since they passed away Kokiri has become overly aggressive (Miso literally jumped for joy when we put up a divider in their cage, poor guy). Mama Mochi and daughter Pocky used to live together, but being a bit bigger Mochi would bully Pocky around and so we separated them as well. Now, with her own space and uninhibited access to food, Pocky has grown bigger and more confident, and she tends to pick on her mom whenever I put them together! The latest addition to our guinea pig family is Archie, a friendly and ultra-hyper little guy, and his good nature seemed agreeable enough that he just might be able to have a cagemate.

We tried putting all the boys together for floor time. Again, Kokiri was just too aggressive, but Archie and Miso seemed to get along well so we tried giving just the two of them floor time. Aside from a bit of rumble-strutting, there weren't any serious conflicts. After a few nights of floor time sessions, the boys really appeared to enjoy playing with each other, and we decided to go ahead with our plans for a combined piggy cage.


First we started with a buddy bath. It was Archie's first bath, and he didn't like being wet at all. Miso, having received several in his life, resigned himself to his watery fate

We're at the start of another heat wave. The warm weather is good for piggy baths, at least when you have damp piggies who keep bopping towels off of them.

Miso and Archie even cuddled together so cutely, and eventually fell asleep side by side as they waiting ever so patiently for their new home to be put together.

We (and by that I mean my boyfriend) took Miso's and Archie's 2x3 C&C cages and combined them into a spacious 2x5. We got them a new Bigloo and put in their chubes, two litter trays, and a cute plaid dog bed. The grids along the top are there so that we can put a fleece canopy over part of the cage to shield them from sun and wind.

They're taking a bit of time to adjust to their new pimpin' pad. You go in the bed, not under it, Miso!

Archie doesn't seem to realize that Miso isn't keen on sharing whatever pigloo he's in, but I'm sure as colder weather sets in they'll be all cuddly. I saw them eating hay from the same hay rack just a few minutes ago. I'm really glad that they're getting along well, and that we can give them a bigger cage as a consequence. Next we'll be trying to get the girls together!

No Roasted Guinea Pigs Here

It's going to be 92° today. And I'm happy about that.

The past few days in the Pacific Northwest have been rather uncomfortable. The temps have risen well past 100°. Being in a third floor apartment with the only windows facing the morning sun and later the scorching afternoon sun, it was like being in a oven. Luckily we have a floor unit air conditioner. Unluckily, it only managed to cool down the living room and reached neither the bedroom nor my studio. The result was my boyfriend and I spending all of our time in the living room during the heat wave. I ventured into my studio momentarily to retrieve something to work on while sitting on the couch, positioned to recieve the direct airflow of the air conditioner.

Mochi stretches out for maximum comfort on a hot, lazy day.

What of the guinea pigs in this hot weather, you ask? OK, well you may not have asked, but it is an issue on days like this. Despite their homeland being in South America, cavies are not well suited for very hot weather. The three boys, Miso, Kokiri and Archie, were already in the living room, but the girls' cages were in my studio. With naught but a ceiling fan, the room had already reached uncomfortable levels on days when the temperature spiked up to 80°. My boyfriend, always the kind and considerate one, set about the task of taking the C&C cages apart and bringing Mochi and Pocky into the living room to rejoin their kin. Some shuffling of furniture was required, and my studio had to be completely rearranged. I spent a couple of days working on the redecorating a few minutes at a time, doing as much organizing as I could manage before the heat became too much and I had to retreat to the cooler clime of the air conditioned room.

"It's much too hot to be in my pigloo today," says the normally reclusive Pocky.

The end result was gaining more floor space, a new table to work on, and a leather recliner in my studio (which no longer fit in the living room with the addition of the C&C cages). All of my guinea pigs were now in a (somewhat) temperature controlled area and could be easily monitored. The thermostats in the bedroom and studio actually read 100° at some points in the preceding days, enough to give any small animal (or human, for that matter) heat exhaustion. Even when the nights cooled to around 70° we opted to sleep out in the living room with the ac running overnight. One of the advantages of a floor unit air conditioner is that you can roll it into another room and set it up rather easily, but we didn't want to risk letting the living room heat up overnight, as warm air so easily becomes trapped in an upstairs apartment. Out came the air mattress, a sleeping bag and some comforters.

It's a brick pig! Kokiri's favorite hangout on a warm day is a cool brick. He doesn't normally have to mess with his eyebrows to cool off, though.

To reiterate, the erstwhile days of this past week were, to say the least, hot. The kind of hot days where you just don't feel like doing much of anything. The kind of days where you can't help falling asleep in the middle of the afternoon, yet have trouble getting comfortable in bed at night. The kind of days where a grilled cheese sandwich is more than enough for dinner. The kind of days where you don't want to so much as lean forward from your seat because of the sound and feeling of your skin peeling off the leather couch. Ever since I was a kid I was the kind of person who was always cold, and was so very relieved when I moved from New England to Southern California. Somehow in the past few years, perhaps due to a change of diet and other circumstances, I can't stand excessive warmth. I'm looking forward to next week's milder weather, hoping that it'll bring with it some rain and the creative enthusiam for my ongoing projects that I'd previously been robbed off.

Custom Plushie Update! Ruby & Rupert, Hamtaro, and Gipsy, Luna, & Mocha

I enjoy making plushies, especially when I'm creating one that captures the look and character of someone's beloved pet. That's part of the reason why I started making plushies in the first place. Here are the latest of my custom projects:

This cute little piggy duo are a couple of abbyssinians (a breed characterized by the rosettes all over their bodies that cause their fur to stick out in different directions). The Ruby plushie is a little smaller due to how dainty she is compared to her buddy.

Hamtaro is a cute little guy who unfortunately passed away. I love his green hat. Pocky let me borrow hers for the photo.

This is my first cross species commission. Gipsy is an agouti grey guinea pig with a cute pink spot on her lip. Her two mouse buddies are Luna, white with a bit of silver on her bum, and Mocha, a rich shade of brown.

I'm available for commissions on plushies of guinea pigs and mice (and soon other critters, like hamsters and rats). For a full gallery of my custom plushies see here: http://morumoto.deviantart.com/gallery/#Custom-Plushies

Drawings

Before I ever sewed my first stitch, drawing was my main passion. My subjects were always animals, I found them infinitely more interesting than people. Throughout my childhood dogs were what I drew the most, with a sprinkling of unicorns (thanks to My Little Ponies for that) and some Nintendo fanart (those illustrations of Link and Mario in the game instruction booklets were too cool to not emulate). Later on I found a fondness for dragons. Now many of my recent artworks involve, you guessed it, guinea pigs. Here are a few of my latest and best artworks, all hand-drawn, hand-inked, and hand-colored.

"Mother's Love"

Mochi the mommy pig with her babies. Done with pen and ink, I really enjoy doing these detailed, realistic renderings. The pointalism background took a bit of time, but was well worth the effort.

"Koalphin Ahoy"

This was a birthday gift for my boyfriend's mom. She's a really sweet and supportive person. Dolphins and koalas are some of her favorite animals.

"Shoyu's Refuge"

A tribute for Shoyu, one of Ponzu and Mochi's kids. Passing away at a little more than one year of age, he hadn't showed any signs of anything being wrong so we're not sure why. RIP, little buddy.

"A Solitary Traveller"

This drawing was done a few years before any of the others shown here, but it's still one of my favorites. I worked on it on and off over the course of several months, til I'd had it completed to my liking. I love wolfies.

"Grapes are Fun"

This drawing began as a little doodle in my sketchbook. Little Pocky and her big brother Miso are enjoying a snack together while their dearly departed dad and brother look on.

"Happy Birthday!"

It began as a little birthday drawing for a friend on DeviantArt, but the idea grew and grew and I just went with it. Her guinea pig Minni dances on the cake as my little P climbs on. Mochi sneaks a pawful of frosting for herself.

"Chillin' Guinea Pig"

P loved that little couch. The day I got it, however, she kept moving around and around and constantly repositioned herself on it. I was able to do this drawing during the short moments when she came back to this pose.

"Autumn Falls"

Inspired by the loveliness of the season, this drawing was to have another to go with it featuring oak leaves. Maybe next fall...

"Dashielle"

This proud pooch is a borzoi, drawn mainly for the sake of experimenting with some new multiliner pens I'd recently purchased.

There are a bunch of other drawings and sketches that I've got tucked away, some dating back to my teen years. Perhaps I'll dig those out another day.

(All of these and more are in my DeviantArt gallery: http://www.morumoto.deviantart.com/)