Albertus Seba

For many years Ethel has admired a very perculiar man who went by the name of Albertus Seba. Born in 1665, Albertus became an apothecary and through his work created many recipes and remedies from the natural world. Collecting natural specimans became an obssession. Albertus would hasten down to the nearby ports, trade his medicines and know-how to the exhausted sailors and in exchange the grateful sailors would sell any natural specimans they had picked up on their travels to Albertus.
'Wow' thought Ethel 'how can I collect just like Albertus right here from my armchair'. Ethel gathered together all her old maps and started to cut out her very own bugs and butterflies. 'I'll keep them all together' she thought, so started sewing the little paper insects into collections, just like the Victorian insect cases she admired so much.

Homeless Dogs

For the past few weeks I have been searching for something special. Having hankered after a greyhound for sometime I realised that my home and I would be far too small to house and handle such a hound. I was on the look out for a special companion which would fit into my tiny terraced home...and along came the whippet. My cat seems horrified by this so I am trying to find a cat friendly whippet to befriend Frankie. In the meantime I am settling for another homeless dog. This is quite simply one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen on Etsy. I would love to give him a home.

Homeless Dog by Lemmikkiapina. Lemmikkiapina.etsy.com

Leviathan

Sitting at home with the flu is bad enough, but sitting at home when you could be whale watching....Confined to the house, under doctors orders, has meant that I have missed my chance to go on a planned puffin and whale watching trip. I'm sad. So I've been doing a spot of whale exploration from my armchair. Luckily I have Leviathan, or the Whale to keep me company.

I spie with my little eye something beginning with E.

Shuffle through your bookshelves. If you look very carefully you'll see Ethel and Iris cards in a new book called 1000 Handmade Cards by Laura McFadden published by Quarry Press/ Rockport.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

Ethel likes nothing better than feeling the sand between her toes . As a child her Dad built a tiny sandpit in the family garden, between the rabbit hutch and the flowerbeds. Ethel would close her eyes and pretend she was by the sea, building sandcastles and fetching buckets of water to form a moat. Inspired by these memories we present to you the seaside collection.