San Diego star

Hi Sea Fans!

I wasn't in the papers or on TV (yet) in San Diego, but I visited Keli (the illustrator of my books) and she and I went aquarium visiting.  Check out this YOUTube video:

http://youtu.be/esdr870orwY

Have a great week Sea fans!!

Cheers

Abby

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Otterly confused

Hi Sea Fans!

I've been travelling for over a year now and I've met some amazing people who love what they do and the animals they care for but I must tell you, home is a great place.  When I call my friends in South Africa there's always an interesting animal story to be told.  Where else do you find baboon troups wandering the streets like gangsters, Vervet monkeys stealing food from kitchens, hippos pitching up at your back door (given, this was at a friend's house who works for Nature Conservation), traffic jams caused by whales and Dassies (a Rock Hyrax) eating your lunch?!  And the latest story is that an otter walked into a restaurant in Cape Town.  Man, they must have been serving really fresh "Catch of the Day"!

The otterly confused restaurant patron. (Photo from the Divesite website).

Apparently, the otter walked straight through the front door!!  Not only did it make a high profile entrance, but it walked straight over the cocktail waitress's feet and went and hid under a cupboard....leaving it's tail sticking out for everyone to see.  I don't think this otter knows how Hide and Seek works. : )

Anyway, after causing a bit of chaos amongst the staff, the local retired harbour master was called in to help catch the "guest" but his attempts ended up with a chunk bitten out of a broom.

Yum, yum, a broom!  

The SPCA were eventually called in to help and they managed to catch the confused otter and set it free in the nearby wetlands so that it could hook up with its mate again.  (They reckon it was one of the local breeding pair).

So never a dull day in SA!

I'll be posting more travel pics soon, Sea Fans so keep your eyes peeled.
Have a great weekend.
Cheers
Abby }(*)8

20+ Cheap Aquarium Crafts for the Holidays

Hi Sea Fans!

Happy New Year and I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!  What better way to enjoy the holidays than to get crafty.  Here are some more ideas I found on the Internet (I have quite a bit of time on my hands when I'm traveling between countries) to get your creative juices flowing:

There are so many things you can do with styrofoam cups, Google it or check out Pinterest and you'll see!

Styrofoam or pot plant shark.

 Paper plates are another item with which you can make lots of different crafts.

Paper plate whale.

 Hand prints and foot prints can also be made into all sorts of animals with some wiggly eyes and pipe cleaners...maybe even glitter and buttons!  The options are endless as long as you think outside of the box!!

Hand print crab.

 Toilet roll and paper towel roll insides can be made into anything!  This otter is a great example of this.

Toilet roll otter.

  Popsicle sticks can be used to make animals and then you can build an aquarium for the fish rather than using a shoe box.

Popsicle stick fish.

 Egg cartons are always fun.  Crabs, turtles, jellyfish, clams, puffer fish...whatever your heart desires!

Egg carton crab.

Marbleized art can be cut up to make these funky fish.  Using different blues and white, a background of sea with ripples and waves can also be made.  A starfish and funky seashell shapes would look nice with this too.

Marbleized art fish.

 Another styrofoam cup:

Styrofoam cup or pot plant whale.

 Simple, plain cardboard can also be made into animals:

Cardboard octopus.

 I love this seahorse made from glass picked up on the beach.  You might need Mom or Dad to help you with the wire and pliers.

Sea glass seahorse.

 I wasn't sure what these were but I liked the idea of filling them with sand, a rock or beans and making them into doorstops or microwave heat pads for winter.

Whale doorstop.

 Bottle tops are something we all have plenty of so why not recycle them into something cute?!

Bottle cap turtle.

 Recycle soap bottles or any other bottles you have and make some penguins...or fish.

Soap bottle penguins.

 More paper plates:

Paper plate crabs.

 And more...

Paper plate fish.

 Bowls can be recycled too:

Styrofoam bowl and peg crab.

 Bubble wrap printing makes cool scales!

Bubble wrap painting.

 Another cup:

Styrofoam cup or pot plant crab.

 Buttons also make really cool scales and moms generally have quite a few random buttons lying around.

Button art fish.

So go wild and have fun Sea Fans!
Chat soon.
Cheers!
Abby
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