That Friday Feeling...08/07/11

I love penguins. I think they may be my favourite animal - from the cute but totally silly waddling on land to the grace and ease with which they move in water. My favourite kind of penguin has always been Rockhoppers because anything that has such a great tuft of hair must be pretty cool, right? 

Because I like penguins, I am totally cold towards seals - yes they have cute eyes, but they EAT my favourite animal, and therefore they must just be evil. So today's Friday Feeling is dedicated to my favourite animal... there are LOADS of penguins over at Etsy so you should probably go and check them out. But for the moment here are few of my favourites:

Not technically possible but I love it anyway  Iotaillustration! Hitching a Ride print 

Awww! If I had a baby it would be wearing this penguin babygrow by NoahandMole

And isn't this crocheted penguin hat the cutest? Great pattern from  MicahMakes

I love all of these - but I have to admit I did initially have about 10 penguins in my shortlist of items to feature this week. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the little critturs. Thought I'd share some penguin facts with you too...

• Penguins and Polar Bears don't mix: penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere while Polar Bears are Northern bound.
• While we all know penguins live in Antarctica, they actually live in much warmer climes too... the Galapagos breed live close to the equator and they are not alone: lots of penguins live in more temperate zones.
• The largest penguins are Emperor Penguins - they grow to the heady heights of about 1.1 metres and weigh around 35kg. I remember being quite shocked by how small they were when I first saw one!
• Penguins and puffins are NOT related. It's like saying a bagel and a doughnut are the same. Yes there are similarities but they are totally different species.
• The penguin got it's name from Auks (pingouin) but there seems to be a lot of dispute about why penguins kept the name - some people think it was a case of mistaken identity: a penguin was mistaken for an Auk chick! Whether it's penguin because the word 'pinguis' meant fat is possible but improbable.
• There are about 20 different species of penguin - and some of them are pretty small.