In which The Bunny Maker succeeds at something - finally.

At the start of this year I announced to anyone who was listening (so that's just me and the bunnies) that I was going to teach myself to crochet.  I can knit.  I hate knitting.  I hate it because I can't do it properly.  I hated to crochet too, the one time I had tried and got all tangled and confuzzled.  So, 2011 was going to be the year I got on and did it because, quite honestly, I can just about most other things with my hands.  The first things I did were a little doggie and some Ninjas, just to warm up.  Then, finally, what I wanted to do all along ..... bunnies!!!!

 

He is purple with green inner ears, with lots of soft fuzz, plus a removable hat (because it might get hot).

Of course he now belongs to BunSon No.1 who has named him, with great originality, 'Bwunny'.

Anyone who knows anything about crochet would take one look and gasp at the terrible stitching and the fact that neither arms nor legs are the same size as each other.  But, for my third crochet attempt - i'm pretty happy.

We've just come back from a stonking week on the Isle of Wight.  The boys swam, caught crabs and built yet more stone piles.

It felt like summer and noone wanted to leave but we had to because the gorgeous Henry was arriving. 

He is a lovely, Mini Rex boy with THE softest coat in the entire world.  Nosy and Spike might be soft and fluffy but Henry feels like satin.

 

I bought them a new house, just in case they overheard me cooing over Henry's coat and felt sad.  Oh the excuses I can come up with!

In which The Warren gets bigger ..

We have an addition to The Warren.  The Bunny Maker went to the pet shop and tried very hard not to give a home to any unwanted bunnies there.  It was hard.  Very hard, especially as there was a beautiful 14 month old girl.  Her owner had to pay out £200 in dental bills because she fed her the wrong food and all the teeth had grown too long and painful.  She stormed back to the pet store and dumped the bunny back on them!  It makes me veerrrry angry - but, I won't go into that.  Today is for celebration!

Welcome to Scooter!

He's a 5 month old male Chinese Dwarf Hamster.  He was up for re-homing as no-one had bought him or seemed to want him.  I have no idea why because he is adorable, gentle and sweet. He has no inclination to nip or bite and, as seen in the picture, likes to sleep under his wheel (which I removed to take the pic).  He's not what I went in for but he's what I came out with!!

Wake up Scooter!

Mr Bunny Maker is NOT amused.  He muttered about 'animals ALL over the place' but was told to stop being so horrible by all three Bun Sons, and it was pointed out to him that Scooter's house is about the size of our bread machine and he, himself, is no larger than a plum.  In the face of the truth of such minimal impact, Mr Bunny Maker, not having a leg to stand on, humphed off with resignation, muttering about light snacks and toilet flushing. This elicited Bun Son squarkings of high volume and The Bunny Maker left them to it.

The BOGOF Bunny Bonanza!

To celebrate Widget reaching 1500 friends on Facebook The Bunny Maker is running a 'buy one get one free' bonanza for March.

Yup - you buy one and ... er ..... you get the picture.  Bunnies bought this week will also come with red noses - and £1.00 donated to Comic Relief.
Widget has his ..

Get to the shop >>>>> BOGOF BUNNIES

The Warren opens up for Bunny Holiday!

Its been a long time in the planning but, like spring, it has finally arrived! The Warren Bunny Boarding is now open for business.  There's a website ... www.sussexbunnyboarding.co.uk

http://www.sussexbunnyboarding.co.uk

And THE BEST bunny accommodation EVER for your buns. I've maxed out on space - the largest housing covers 81 square feet - not including access to the lawn. I'm thinking of moving in myself!  We've also got space for Guinea Pigs, rats, mice, gerbils etc etc plus I would love to look after some reptiles too.
The website has loads and loads of pictures of the accommodation on it, so I won't post any here but you can look HERE.

This area above is going to be for Nosy and Spike now.  It's down the side of the house, away from the main garden.  The shed at the back is going to be converted for them, the fence has been bunny proofed with wire, there is going to be a nice fence and gate thingy where I am standing taking the picture.  The flower beds there have been cleared - mainly so I could wire the fences - but also to mamke way for lots of bunny friendly herbage. The kitchen door is just on the right there - so, they will be able to hop in and out of the house and still be safe.  I've bought a three storey hutch for them, to go into the shed.  They iz spoilt bunz!

The Warren has its first guests booked in - two bunnies and three guineas. I'm really very excited.  I've bought lots of exciting things from the garden centre too - but you'll have to wait for the next post for that .....

In which The Bunny Maker gets new boxes and a handful of birds.

Things are getting done this week.  Not like last, but we won't go into that.

New boxes arrived yesterday.  The Bunny Maker found that the place she got her usual ones from weren't stocking that kind again, but they did have these acetate ones. 

Widget thought that these boxes were much nicer as he could see out. The Bunny Maker agreed, and said they seemed sturdier too and would do very nicely indeed.

The Bunny Maker has also given Widget a very special task, one he is not all that happy about.  He does such a good job of looking after the baby bunnies that she thought that he could do the same with these VERY early Easter chicks.

This little one took a real shine to Widget.  Widget is feeling a bit too fuzzled by all the feathers at the moment to decide whether he likes this new duty or now.  He is just muttering about Easter coming earlier and earlier and how he hopes they don't make a mess all over The Warren.

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 .....

In which The Bunny Maker has a spot of bunny trouble

It was going well.  There were new bunnies arriving to have their photos taken for the shop.  The Bunny Maker had everything all set up nicely, Wilf was posing ready for the shot, when she noticed something.  Something troublesome.

Can you see anything?  Yes, exactly.  Bunny chewing.  Real bunny chewing.  Nosy and Spike chewing.  Not only are they systematically trying to fell my work table by nibbling through the MDF legs but they are setting about remodelling my light tent.  Grrrrrrr.

But the miracle that is Photoshop came to the rescue and Wilf was retouched and cropped and got ready for his shop debut.

 
The Bunny Maker was left muttering (as she often is) about bunnies and real bunnies and chewing and nibbling and annoying pesky things .....

Wilf is looking for a new home and you can find him in the shop on The Bunny Makers NEW website.  It's very yummy and she is quite pleased with it.

In which The Bunny Maker nearly trips over ...

The Bunny Maker opened the door this morning and nearly tripped over.  Tripped over with surprise and because she nearly stood on three little bunnies.  Standing, shivering and a little damp, on the doormat were three Eastery Bunnies.

"How early are you?" She exclaimed, "I've only just got the Christmas ones packed away and put the Love Bunnies in the shop for Valentine's Day!"

"We know we are early," squeaked the bunnies, "but we really don't think that people will only buy us for Easter."

"I suppose so," said The Bunny Maker, "come on in then, you look very cold."

After hot chocolate and Wagon Wheels the bunnies were all warmed up and ready for their photograph to be taken.

They did have a little grumble about the three eggs being plastic and NOT chocolate but apart from that it all went rather well.  They are now, very excitedly, waiting in the bunny shop on Folksy for new homes, leaving The Bunny Maker grumbling about lack of space, too many bunnies, who's eating all the biscuits etc etc

The Bunny Maker is famous ... (she thinks)

Oh yes.  Oh yes indeed.  I have column inches.  I have almost a whole page.  I am featured in the latest issue of the RWAF magazine 'Rabbiting On'.

I would just like to say that that is NOT me sky-diving.  I am the one looking, with rather sickly expression, at the basket of bunnies.  Trying to get a photo of me not looking grim was very distressing and I had to employ heavy usage of the 'Photoshop Botox' tool.  I still think I look 25 and always get a nasty shock when I see the 'real me'.  I suppose you want to know what it says?  Okay .. *engage speed typing function*

Handmade help for real-life rabbits
Designer and bunny owner Anna Hull, who runs a small craft business selling sock bunnies from her West Sussex home, has come up with a novel idea to raise money for the RWAF.  And in just six months has raised an amazing £500.
The Handmade Bunny was founded on 1st August last year and is quickly becoming the 'in place' to look for beautiful handmade products inspired by our bunny friends.   The artists featured on the site all pay an annual subscription in the form of a donation to the RWAF.
The Handmade Bunny was born of her involvement with the handmade online community, combined with her passionate support of the RAWF's 'A Hutch is Not Enough' campaign.
Anna told Rabbiting On: "I was driving one day and this perfectly formed idea popped into my head, along with the phrase "handmade help for real-life rabbits".  That night I messaged as many people as I could to invite them to join the project, bought the domain and drew up the outline for the website.  Our cute bunny logo was donated by an online contact and within three weeks the site was up and running with twenty sellers on board.
"On the site we have a great range of items including silver jewellery, custom pet portraits, water colours, fabrics, toys, stationery and cushions.  Each piece is lovingly designed or made by hand by fabulous artists and designers and all feature our favourite furry friends.  These is also a 'Zoo' section with other animals from woodlice to dogs to unicorns," she said.
"I wanted people to discover what amazing things the people I know are making," Anna explained.  "I have my own shop online, selling my sock bunnies, and every day I come across beautiful things made by artist, just like me, who are struggling to show the world what they can do.  Selling online is extremely difficult and this is my way of doing a bit to help at the same time as raising money for a fantastic charity.  At The Handmade Bunny you can shop for your bunny-loving friends and help the bunnies you love at the same time!".

There you are - that's what it says!