A quiet festive season? - Part 1

As most people settle down for a restful Christmas, putting aside crafting and making, I rev up with a vengeance.  The coffee table had to change.  It was brown, it was boring, it was old and we didn't like it much at all and kept telling it so.  As is my way, I decided to start on Christmas Eve.  Yup.

I bought the papers as a PDF download from LilliBimble on Etsy - had a play with the colours, and got Mr Bunny Maker to print them off at work (heee heee).

Snip, stick, snip, stick ... Ta daaaaaaa....

It will need many many coats of varnish, because I always slop wine and coffee on it.  The feet have very neat sticky-backed plastic covering to protect the paper edges.

It now looks much better in the living room ..

So, what's Part 2?  You'll have to wait ......

Wee Widget arrives at The Warren.

At last, Widget is home for Christmas aaaaaand someone came with him!  'Wee Widget', created by Kirsten at Quernus Crafts is here!

Wee Widget is quite small .. 'wee' in fact.  Widget is most impressed.  He feels famous.

Widget keeps insisting on getting in the pictures, in case 'people think I've frozen'.  Odd bunny.

You will be able to own your own Widget now too!  They will be for sale from January.

Do these look familiar?

This is a sneak preview of 'Wee Widget', made by Kirsten of Quernus Crafts - she of the 'Wee Mice' and 'Wee Highland Cows, not to mention the snails!  He is on the way to me as I type this.
Widget has spent the last few weeks visiting Kirsten and being modelled into a little polymer clay figure.  He managed to keep his ears pretty still considering.

We will be taking pre-orders for a January delivery (Kirsten is snowed under with custom orders for Wee Angel Mice and other lovelies this side Christmas).

As soon as Wee Widget arrives .... there will be pictures!!

December at The Warren

The run-up to Christmas is always fun at The Warren, but this year there is something missing!  Widget, the bun himself, is away being modelled by Kirsten at Quernus Crafts.  There is no one to keep the other bunnies under control and it has all gone a bit pear-shaped.  Nosy has been trying to help ...

We have had a big whoofle of snow here too, meaning that Nosy and Spike get to stay in The Burrow workroom a good while longer. 

 They now have a semi-permenant structure taking shape.  This must be alarming Mr Bunny Maker somewhat, although he hasn't said anything. Yet.

Nosy and Spike have been getting into a whole heap of their own trouble. Left alone at night, not content with chewing the back out of the cardboard box house, they can't resist LIVE power cables.  I forgot to hook up my sewing machine one the other night ....

They killed it!  I'm suprised they didn't kill themselves!  Faced with bunny orders and no means to sew them I employed by Girl Guide knowledge and cut, spliced and re- wired the cable.  The sewing machine even works again.  I am smug.

In spite of the lack of Widget and the freezing weather, lots of new snow bunnies have arrived and are now waiting for you in the bunny shop.

By the way, If you give the bunnies a dedicated power cable, just for them, one you have no need of anymore, they won't touch it. It has to be plugged in!  I think they get a kick out of setting their teeth on edge!  Odd bunnies.

(I never was a Girl Guide).

Busy, busy bunny bunny ...

Things are quite 'happening' at The Warren these days.  We all headed out to Winchester Handm@de on saturday last.  The Moveable Meadow was covered in a lovely blanket of snow (seasonally appropriate) and I can tell you that we didn't half shift some bunnies!  Everyone wanted one.  People wanted two.  Some people even came back for three!  Result = The Bunny Maker needs to get a shift on and make some more!

I have also been up to things.  Covering and sticking things. Without much know-how and planning I decided that the fabric stash had to be used for something and that most notebooks are way too dull .... so, I got out the PVA...

 .. and covered some of those notebooks.  I've started to help people with their websites and found that it is easier to have one notebook per website.  All those notebooks kinda need to stay together too so .. i did some sewing too.  I made them a nice mushroomy bag to live in.

I KNEW I bought all that fabric for a reason!  Now I am all organized - with all the website login, logon, admin, user, email, html stuffy stuff all laid out and easy to find.  I can kid myself that I am organized so easily.

That's it for the moment really.  Well, actually there is more stuff but I need to get some pictures off my phone (forgot the camera) and dig around for some other bits and pieces.  More bloggage soon ......

In which The Bunny Maker gets all tangled up again. Ho hum

If it's not the CE Testing getting me all confizzled and confuzzled it's blooming Trade Marking.  I'm ignoring the CE problem at the moment and have buried my head in the proverbial sand.  Trade Marking has been bothering me for ages.  But what does it all mean?  Sit down and I will tell you.  By the way, how long have you got?

This might be something that a Widget and Friends trade mark could look like ..

Oh headache.  It's all a headache.  Every single thing I try to do with all this handmade, selling thingy malarky, involves first teaching myself all about it.  Which means googling, reading, head-scratching and asking. Luckily I have a weakness for books and the staff in my local Waterstones greet me by name.  Sigh. 
Now - I could apply for my own Trade Mark myself.  I've done all the research I can, read all the books - and i'm still not 100% certain of what I am doing.  I 'get' doing the UK registration and doing it myself would cost me around £300, and that is just for protection in the UK.  Getting someone to do it for me will cost me around £600. When I have UK protection I can then apply for European and international protection

I THINK (and don't quote me on this) this can be done via something called the Madrid Protocol, which is an agreement that lots of countries signed to show that they agree on something. 
As far as I can make out it is done country by country - and if I tick them all I clock up £1000s.  So which ones do I choose?  I have no idea.  Anyway, I have had a quote for registration within the EU for about £1,400.  So, we are up to £2000 already.  SOB.

Why am I bothering?  No idea.  I will just hate myself forever if I walk in to Clinton's Cards and see their new Easter range of sock bunnies, all looking exactly like one of mine.
I already have design registration and that, combined with a trade mark, legally prevents anyone making and selling anything looking, resembling or eluding to one of my bunnies or my company. You know when they ask on Dragons' Den?  About protection?  This is what they mean.  Not that I would have any money whatsoever to fight a large company anyway BUT at least I couldn't kick myself for not having done as much as I could.

I may be going nowhere but it's MY design, MY idea and MY hard-work.  Grump.

Everything you need to confuse yourself is HERE >>>> www.ipo.gov.co.uk

NEWSFLASH UPDATE:  I've done another U-turn - scared at the last - decided to abandon the above idea and spend some money at Fabric Rehab instead (and buy a new pair of jeans).

Halloween at The Warren

So, what goes on here at Halloween?  All sorts of things.  I found myself in a rather strange, very appropriate and not at all contrived, position last night - on the very eve of Halloween itself ...

Is this some sadistic ritual?  Is The Bunny Maker not all that she seems?  What on earth is she doing?
Yup - sorry folks, its just a custom order for a Skelly Bun in progress.  Off to France no less!

And as for this lot, I've not idea who they are or what they are doing .....

A few Thock Thakes insisted on posing for the picture too, before they were shooed back to The Burrow workroom.   Just for the record - we did eat the kids.

Waddya up to, Bunny Maker?

Er .... ooops, you've caught me unawares and all in a pickle. The Burrow is a bit of a mess as I have been re-vamping my Half an Acre shop on Not on The High Street . I've been checking I have the designs ready for posting off, all bubble-wrapped and that and that. I'm also painting up some new fish, which I haven't done for ages. I have some new fishies ...

 It's all the fault of those bunnies, they won't let me do anything else but make new ones and write about them! 

You can click on the image to see a bigger one - its messier close up!
I'm doing something most unwise, painting amongst all my socks and fabric bits.  Heading for a messy disaster.  Using the sewing machine for drying painted things on is perhaps not the best of ideas.

Most of my paints have dried up of over the summer.  Ho hum.  Time for a shopping spree then.

I've sneekily brought the bunnies in to The Burrow too.  It is VERY cold out, you see.

Can you see Nosy, fast asleep in his favourite spot?  Mr Bunny Maker doesn't like them inside, in fact, he doesn't like then at all! Old meanie.

It's my workroom .......... *stamps feet*

Widget, money-raising ambassador!

The other day Widget was packaged up and sent off to stay with Kirsten at Quernus Crafts.  She is going to measure him and squint at him and make a wee widget out of polymer clay.  It seems that he has been out and about.  Kirsten took him to met everyone at Ilkley Arts Market and Widget persuaded just about everyone to have their photo taken with him, for a small donation to the Rabbit Welfare Association.  Go Widget!
So, for your delectation and amusement, Widget, The Bunny Maker and all the other assorted sock things at The Warren presents .......

'Widget goes to Ilkley and raises money'.  

A slideshow, created on a steep learning curve in Google Docs by The Bunny Maker herself (who has had to have a little lie down).  Click on play (of course).

Thank you to Jo Whitehead who let a small bunny run wild at her event, and thank you to everyone who PAID to have a piccy taken with Widget.  A total of £20.00 was raised for the RWAF.  Woooo wooo!

Widget SockBunny: Super Model

Widget! Wake up!  You're going in the post today!

You are being posted off to Kirsten, of Quernus Crafts, she is going to make a little model of you.  A bit like this ...

and this ......

Only Widget shaped.  She might be making lots of you, and lots of you might be for sale.

So, if you wouldn't mind, could you just snuggle in this padded envelope?  Don't look so worried, Widge, it'll be okay, it's only a short trip!  When you get there you will have to sit very still whilst she models you.  Then, if it all goes well, and you don't twitch your ears too much, she might give you a nice carroty treat!

Halloween Sock Bunny takes to the skies...

Widget and the bunnies are getting ready for Halloween.  This pleases The Bunny Maker as she is getting tired to Christmas lists being left on her workroom desk.  A welcome diversion from the long, long haul of day counting until the festive event.

Halloween Bunny has arrived - he came last night, flying in on the cold night air.  His cloak is rather marvelous and shimmers in the light....

Some of The Warren bunnies think its a bit show-offy and flashy, but its only because they are jealous!  The cloak is magic (apparently) and means that he can fly (apparently), although no one has seen him do it in the daylight yet.

Widget is muttering about 'smoke and mirrors'.  The Bunny Maker is tired of all this harumphing but is just glad that there is a respite from the Christmas present demands for a while!

I'm putting my foot down!

That's it!  No more!  The bunnies are getting far too good at ear-typing.  Widget and his pals have only gone and signed this blog up for a competition.  That's what happens when you leave them alone with nothing better to do.

Anyway - there it is.  You can vote for this blog HERE (there are only two pages, i'm probably right at the end of the second!) - which I would love you to do as its all a bit Norman No Votes at the moment!  I never win anything, except a packet of Fruit Pastiles I won for Bingo in the childrens' club on a cruise on the now-deceased Canberra when I was about 7.  I think they only gave them to me because I was sniveling about not ever winning anything.

So - apart from having to have a good talk to the bunnies about this and that, and to ban their ears from typing, let along sitting UP ON MY DESK and TOUCHING MY COMPUTER, I have added some more to the shop.

The autumn air is getting chillier and these two wouldn't have their photos taken without scarves.  And now they won't take them off.  Ho hum.  So, 'Bunnies With Scarves' are now in The Bunny Shop on Folksy.  I need them to find homes before my whole stock of bunnies ask for accessories for the winter!

Skelly Bun rides again.

Woooooooooooo woooooooooo.  (That's my scary Halloween noise).  One of those yearly events is coming this a-way and at least I can say that it isn't Christmas.  Phew!  The Skelly Buns are on the march, looking for new homes.

They may be half-dead but they are all bunny.  There is still a lot of bounce left in them, you know, don't be a-thinkin' they are all still and lifeless.  They love cabbage fried with crispy bacon too, and will eat bowlfulls if you cook it for them.
Here's the recipe:

Cabbage
Bacon

Steam cabbage.  Fry bacon until crispy.  Drain cabbage.  Add bacon.  Give to bunny.

They don't call me Jamie Oliver for nothing.  They don't call me that?  Oh. Okay.

Each bunny is made to order, so will have a little personality of his/her own.  You can find them in the Etsy shop and on Folksy - so, er, go there .......

The Bunny Maker or The Monster Maker?

The Bunny Maker suddenly had an urge.  It all started when she shrank her nicest top in the wash.

Tank Designs on Lasso The Moon (they do adult sizes!)

It was from Tank Designs and made of lovely Merino wool, which, incidentally, needs a nice cool wash, not slapped in the machine with the school polo shirts at 80 degrees!  It came out very small and perfect for a 2 year old girl!

She took it out of the machine, took one look, and though 'Oh No!" and then "OOO I can make a monster out of it!".  So she did.

Snortle Monster

Now, The Bunny Maker has discovered that Monsters have very cute personalities and it's going to be hard to part with them.  She has made some others too ..

Tatty Monster

 Big Red Hugger Monster

Now she's not sure what to do with them.  The house is filled with such things.  Should she put them into the shop? 

(If you want to get hold of The Bunny Maker, you'll find her in her wardrobe, looking for old jumpers .... and heading for the washing machine!)

They are pink and they are here!

The Girls have arrived in the sock bunny shop on Folksy!  Twowence and Thelia Thock Thnake are waiting for new homes.  They can't wait to get rid of each other, always fighting and arguing, they can't see eyeball to eyeball on anything.

Widget is getting fed up having to stop their arguments, dodging their snakey tongues as they bicker.  Sometimes he just sits on their tongues to stop them.  One of the main topics of argument is hair.  Thelia has it and Thwowence doesn't.  Thelia flicks it around whenever she can, and this annoys her sister, and everyone else.  Thwowence's only come back is that she has a fancier pattern on her skin.

 Thelia

The Bunny Maker is sure that they would miss each other if apart, but it would have to be a strict owner who took on these two sisters!

 Thwowence

They are hissing at each other in the shop >>>> HERE

The Handmade Bunny Giveaway Winner is picked

Phew! That was fast!  Thank you so much to all of you who signed up for the first Handmade Bunny Giveaway.  It was all over in a few hours and, as soon as this one is finished I'll be launching another one, as we exceeded the 25 people signing up.

The bunnies have been quite bored today, it's raining and they really don't like getting damp ears, so a few gathered round to see what was happening.  Carl offered his felt basket to hold the entries and Widget dithered as usual.

He said it 'needed stirring' and spent far too long finding a suitable spoon.  Everyone got a bit impatient but, at last, the winner was picked.

YAY!  Everyone clapped and 'Happy' bunny got down into her jute bag ready to be packaged up.
"Hang on," said The Bunny Maker, "We need her address before we can send you off."

Congratulations to Sarah-Beth - We will be in touch!

It's Flopped.

It's a day I thought I would never see, I hoped I would never see.  It is happening.  Nosy's ear is flopping.  Boooooooooooooooo.

I loved it like this ...

I am sad, he looks odd but least I can tell which is which!

The Bunny House is Finished!

It's done.  It cost twice as much as it was meant to and is twice as fabulous as I hoped.

Inside there are up bits and down bits, corners for hiding in and straw for drying off and being cosier in.  There is a chair for me and somewhere to put a nice cup of coffee.

The sleeping area in the Wendy house has a smaller hutch in it, now filled with straw and baskets for curling up in when it's very cold.  As the nights get chiller and colder I'll just keep adding deeper and deeper straw and hay for them.  Their favourite spot is up on the top there, so they can see out of the windows!

Something new arrived today too - to complete everything.

It took them about 2 minutes to notice it but then they spent a good twenty going in and out, in and out, in and out ... you get the idea.
My favourite bit is still 'the tunnel'.

I have now fulfilled my childhood dream of having one of those play houses, the ones with the ladder up to an upstairs and little windows.  I've always wanted one of them and tried desperately to argue for one for my own children.  My plan was too transparent though! Now can rearrange all the plants and boxes, sweep things and plant flowers around the door.  My fantasy has been fulfilled.  In life, that is a good thing.
And to think, this is what the pet store sold me as a 'large run'.  Nosy and Spike can't even stand up in it.  Disgraceful.