Animal welfare issues

No pictures to include today, but a couple of links for folks to maybe look at if they feel inclined.
Care2.com has an article explaining some of the animal care practises in the rearing of sheep for the wool industry and I have to admit I hadnt known about them. Using Merino for felting I feel really guilty now on reading about some of the awful conditions they are kept in.
http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welafre/blog/think-wool-is-a-great-fur-alternative-not-quite

Cut and paste the link and read about it. The link wont be horendous to look at dont worry but it will certainly make you think. For example I didnt know that sheep would only grow enough of a fur-y coat to keep them warm, if left to themselves. We shear them to provide us with wool and given that shearers are paid per sheep they decloathe........then sheep are often cut and bleed in the process.
And breeders rear sheep to have such hugely thick wool fur coats, that in the heat of Australia, many die.
Worth thinking about folks.
Thanks to Christy on the yahoo crochet group for that link.

Now I call myself 'RecycLin' since I use second hand clothing and items, to make something else with and I found reference to 'Zakka' recently. Well now Wikipedia's explanation about it is worth reading, and I simply loved the description included therein, that says...
Zakka has been described as 'the art of seeing the savvy in the ordinary and mundane'.................... now dont you just love that comment!!!
Apparently to qualify as a Zakka, a product must be attrcative, sensitive, and laden with subtext.

My teacups and lampshade trees HAVE to be considered Zakka surely? !

I may be able to move back home next weekend and I am SO ready to do so! Things seem to be going to plan, ( fingers are crossed, have Hail-ed Mary and have thrown afew bones....)with laminate flooring all but laid, the kitchen mostly in place and a painter is painting the ground floor, stairs and landing.
Next week kitchen flooring goes down, tiling is to be done in the kitchen and loo and a couple of additional airbricks are to be placed in front and back walls.
I will use next sat and sunday to get the upstairs clean of all the plaster dust that has settled on every surface, despite bedroom and bathroom doors being closed. The furniture comes back in on Monday 16th and the animals will come home tuesday. So I will still need to sleep at the hotel sat and sunday but it should be the last weekend there! Waheyyyyyyyy
I caught sight of a catalogue that I buried a while ago, so must go out tomorrow and raise it so it can begin its drying process.
Maggie Grey has published on her blogspot about what to do with them and it tickled me so much I have buried a couple of items, so hope they might turn out to be fun to work on. ( what a clever lady and her blogs fun to follow)
One is a ledger I picked up which has lists of burials in it! From way back when I have to say, not recent and I will be sure to obliterate nay names anyway. Must take some pics of them if its another bright sunny afteroon. Okay time to go back to Colditz on Humber, the hotel lol
:)