In which The Bunny Maker makes a Squid

I did.  Make a squid.  Thus, The Bunny Maker presents .....

"Sqwuideh"

He's almost 30cm tall, crocheted in cotton yarn, his legs containing those fuzzy pipe cleaner things .

I am very, very proud of him and he took all half term to crochet.  Next?  A lobster .... but of course!

Working on a Wedneday

Okay - that sounds rubbish but I missed 'Monday in The Burrow' - and, well, it is wednesday and I'm kinda working. 'Kind of' because somewhere, buried within the house, is a plastic sensor alarm.  Buried by a child.  Every time the sun comes out it sets it off.  Deenaa deeenaaa deeenaaaa deeenaaaaaaa.  Can I find it? NO!  It only does it for a few seconds to I can't track it down via the sound.  My teeth are on edge.

I'm uploading purple bunnies to the shop today.  And, as spring is in the air, lots and lots of little baby buns will be arriving this week too.  Spring is certainly in the air, which is why the sun keeps coming out AND SETTING OFF THE DEENAAAAAAAAA ALARM!

Spike is in full pouffy moult.  He won't let me near him and I want to pluck out the loose tufts.  Its tantalizing and driving me insane! I need to pull them out!!!

Look at that big clump all loose there on his back!  I want it!!!!!  Spike knows what I'm up to and is watching me carefully from, what he thinks, are strategically safe places ...

I've been up to some crafty things too.  My bag, made to order, and used every day for ever and ever, from Noah's Art Crafts needed a new handle.

So it got two, and several nice buttons, then I got carried away and it got another pocket too.

The bunny order for Japan was packaged up and sent off.  They are all very excited and snuggled into their green grassy fur box lining.

What a noisy box load I had to take to the post office! Having to explain to the queue what all the chittering and squeaking was turned out to be quite difficult.
"You've got 25 bunnies in a box?!!" etc etc etc

DEEEENAAAAA DEEEENAAAAAA

RIGHT! That's it ... Sorry, I'm off to hunt for the darn thing ....

Monday in The Burrow

So that was Half Term?  Pshaw, certainly gone quickly, eh.  Time to wake up and get back into The Burrow then.  What's a-happenin'?

I've started to paint up these mini fish for an order for wedding place settings.  50 weeny versions of my big bunches of fishies.

They are 4cm in length.  I have a free reign for colours and designs and am relieved not to have to come up with many, many variations of pink and white, in true wedding tradition.

Bouncing around in the background are a whole load of (very pink) bunnies, all waiting to be packed up and sent off to Japan.

I'm very excited that 25 of them are off to a lovely shop in Tokyo selling handmade British thingies.  Getting the bunzies to the home of all things pink and cute is excellent indeed.  One more step towards world domination!

So far that's it for the start of the week.  I've also got to get all ready for a house sale i'm having tomorrow - just selling off loads of bits and bobs for £5 and under.  A couple of friends are coming this evening to get in there first too.  So far everything in in boxes looking very unready.  So why am I here blogging .....

Monday in The Burrow

Well - another Monday is here - boooooo. Pretty dreary but lots of things are happening at The Burrow workroom.  A little order is off to Pink Blancmange, a soon to be launched website.  These are limited edition Mother's Day bunnies ...

I've also painted up the new range of wooden bunnies, to go on sale in my shops.  I've shifted ten of them already so i'll have to get busy now making some more.

Also in the pipeline are some more hanging birds.  I had these for sale about two years ago, but never repeated them for some reason.  So ..... here they are, on their way to be strung in twos.

And, remember I said I was going to teach myself to crochet this year?  Whatever it took - I was going to be able to do those cute amigurumimimilumi things?  Dun dun duuuuuuuuuun

I have to say that the pattern book was @$*& and, in the end, I kinda had to make it up myself.  Either that or I'm just @$*& at reading patterns.  So, the start of my rainbow ninja army.  Only 43 more to go.

What's on your desk, Bunny Maker?

Eh? What? Did you ask me something?  Oh, what's on my desk?  Why did you have to stop in today, everything is in a bit of a pickle ...

That is not fresh coffee either - age unknown. I can, however show you something less grim and more arty, seeing as you're here and all that.

I'm making up a new batch of wooden leaping bunnies.  Half of them are off to Fat Fluffs Rabbit Rescue to help them raise money at their Valentine's Day event.  The others will be for sale in ye olde bunny shoppe later on this week.  I have also been a-spending as usual ...

Possibly the most awesome and monstery fleece I have ever seen.  I have two precious squares of it, sent all the way from the U.S of A and it is so lovely that I will most likely never be able to put scissors to it.  All the BunSons want duvets, pillows and blankets made and BunSon3 would like his room carpeted with the turquoise one.  I'd like to cover our sofa in it. 
Tap..tap..tap..calculator bashing ensues..... Nope, too spenny, especially as I'm holding out for some renovations in our kitchen.  Mr Bunny Maker is not listening.

The Bone in action!

Quite a few people have asked me for a picture of The Bone in action.  So, for you all, I present .... The Bone in action!

Now, the question is ..... should I make some to sell?

What am I waffling on about?  Read this post and all will become clear.

A quiet festive season? - Part 3

Continuing the 'Parter' theme, of what I got up to on the crafting and making front over Christmas, I present ...

A fuzzy green apple.  Made for Bun Son 2, who wanted one for his favourite toy horse.  He also wanted 'a friend for Horsey' (Horsey being said fave toy).  I bought what was probably the hardest pattern in the world.  Or it could be because the only other pattern I have ever bought and made was for pyjama bottoms.
Anyway ..... I managed it.  He's a big dodgy in places ...

But looks pretty good if you don't have too close an inspection.  He is made from brown suedette stuff with cotton apple fabric (requested by Bun Son).

I am also determined to learn to crochet as I have a need to make a miniature army of ninja zombi amigurumi creatures.  This book is on its way ..

In the meantime I am teaching myself stitches and generally getting tangled up and using it all as an excuse to shop for lovely colour cotton yarns, needles, hooks, markers and other habby bits.

I'm making the little dog pictured in the book (for BunSon 3).  I've got as far as half a head, an ear and a nose.  It's going better than i anticipated.

A quiet festive season? - Part 2

So, what else did I get up to in the making department?

Oooo, something stripy!  On a whim I made a black and white fleece bone for my youngest, Bun Son 3.  (We don't do normal toys here).  It was going to be a sort of bone-sized bone but, as I had no pattern and no plan (as usual) it ended up about 6x bigger ...

It's nearly as big as Bun Son 3!  He loved, loved, loved it and so did everyone else.  He uses it as a big pillow and carries it around the house.  It's blooming comfy and Mr Bunny Maker and I might steel it for ourselves.

Are you looking forward to Part 3?  There is one and it's a-comin'.  Hold on to your hats!

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 ......

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 ......

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 BM excels herself in the matter of parenting.

I am feeling like a smug parent.  Not only have I combined craft with education, I have actually finished a task I started!  Bunny Maker's Son No.1 has a new desk.  'The Desk of Knowledge'.

Inspired by the boys' love of The Map Table and the fact that they all know where the Gulf of Bothnia is (seriously, there is one), The Desk is covered in facts and knowledge courtesy of Schotts Miscellany and The Ultimate Book of Lists.

Son No.1 chose the main desk colour, which the BM sprayed with her new and fab Montana Gold spray paint.  He chose Fuchsia Pink.  This is because, being the BM's son, he likes to do the opposite of what is expected of him.  So, a ten year old boy should NOT chose PINK.  So he chooses pink.  The BM is proud.

It has useful information such as the chemical structure of caffeine and lists of phobias, cloud formations and Pi to about a thousand places.  All great stuff for a small boy with an insatiable curiosity about the world.  And the BM got to cut and stick and 'create' something.  All-round happiness at The Warren.

The Bunny Maker is crying...

She is.
She is sobbing because she has a pile of 60 socks all ready to make into Easter sock buns.
60.
Sixty.
Six zero.
Six O.

 The last lot of Easter bunnies sold like hot ....er .. bunnies so it makes sense to make up a bulk load.  The remaining three came out to have a look at the sock mountain.  All their excited bouncing knocked the already wobbly pile off the table making The Bunny Maker a bit cross about the ears.

"Shoo! Get out of here naughty bouncy bunnies", she shouted in a quite cross voice reserved for irritating sock things.

It's sore fingers for The Bunny Maker this week .....

The Bunny Maker never could resist a bag.

It started with an innocent link on Twitter to the gorgeous Fabric Rehab website.  There was much virtual oooing and ahhhing and suddenly I'd requested a custom bag from Noah's Ark Crafts.  I told her what I wanted and she made it! Simples.

 

The outer fabric is soft, soft baby cord and inside is a funky mushroom retro print...  and, look! an inside pocket ..

All my bits are moved into it and my lovely, lovely sand-dollar bag made by Willywaw is having a little rest after nearly 2 years haulage.

The Fabric Rehab site is a dangerous place to browse.  I accidentally bought this little bundle the other week ..

And whilst I was waiting for that image to upload I've put a whole load of Fat Quarters into my shopping cart.  I am so weak.  I have no purpose for these fabrics, I just want to stack them up in beautiful, luscious piles on shelves in my workroom.  Ho hum.

FRESHLY BAKED SNAKES - GET 'EM WHILST THEY'RE HOT!

I've been a-snakin'.
Makin' and a-snakin'.
Making snakes.
'Widget and Friends' has finally got some friends - snakey friends. I always planned for it to be more than bunnies but hadn't got around to thinking what that more might be. Then one day a snake happened. Actually I saw a pair of tights hanging up in our local shop and though - hmmmm those would make a great snake.
That's how it happened.















There are four new ones in The Warren Sockbunny shop on Folksy - the last load sold right away so hurry if you want one!

Do you need a Norwegian Lurgle?

Well, out from the Sock Toy kit from Hotdogandme a Norwegian Lurgle was born....

These are funny little creatures, designed to clean up after biscuit eating. Usually only found lurking at the edges of Fjords this one seems to have left it's native habitat probably due to the Great Norwegian Biscuit Crisis. In case you are wondering if those are teeth, or tongues you'd be wrong. They are 'sweepers' and perfectly adapted for clearing up crumbs.

He is annoying the bunnies at The Warren with his tickly biscuit sweepers so has been put for sale in the Crafteroo Children In Need shop on Folksy to raise money for the charity.

Do you need any help around the house?