A Treasury of Buns in the Grass and Everywhere Else!

Buns in the Grass Etsy Treasury
Click on image above to go to treasury to view item details

Today a cute and colorful treasury of mostly bunny rabbit items created by members of the Etsy Rabbits team.  The variety in exploring the shops is bunderful!  Tomorrow I will have my last treasury rounding out the Etsy Rabbits team members who were members at the start of September and don’t have their shops on vacation.  I plan a few more bunny rabbit themed treasuries up through International Rabbit Day that will include team members but will also widen out to even more of the bunny rabbit items available from all shops on Etsy.

Treasury Tuesday – Color Me Woodlands

Color Me Woodlands Etsy Treasury

Click on image above to go to treasury and see items

Today a beautiful treasury of items with a woodland feel. After the storms and tornado sirens last night, I needed the feel of a quiet walk in the woods which is always a stress reducer for me. All items in this treasury have been created by members of the Etsy Rabbits team.

Treasury Tuesday – Sweet Bunny Blue

Etsy treasury sweet bunny blue

Click on image to visit Etsy treasury

I created this treasury a few days ago dedicated to an Etsy Rabbit’s team member in honor of a bunny she lost way too soon. The combination of the lovely soft blues, the florals and the sweet bunny feel is proving to be well liked. So I wanted to share it here too for others to enjoy.

Sassy Rabbit Supervisor Still Hard at Work

sassy concrete rabbit garden stateu

Our sassy garden rabbit supervisor is still minding the plants needing to be potted.  I can just imagine what she is thinking:  ” I’ve been minding these plants for 24 hours now.  You wanted the Purslane to show blooms, now you got blooms!  Get these poor plants into the pot.  Its hot out here and they need to get a good drink and get some rest.” 

Our concrete cottontail will just have to wait a bit longer.  Only the black thumb is home right now*.   The green thumb is off at his day job. 

* It is sad but true that Blaine took immediate custody of all my house plants when we got engaged, to save their lives.  I’m good with rabbits, awful with plants.

Sassy Rabbit Supervisor

Sassy concrete cottontail

Everything is a bit hot dry and parched here in Georgia right now. So we hit some garden centers this weekend and picked up some succulent style flowering plants.   They hold more water in their leaves to survive and thrive in low rain conditions.

These will make a pretty planter for our back patio. Our sassy concrete cottontail supervisor was on hand to check all the supplies out as they arrived. Unfortunately for the picture, the coral Purslane’s proved bashful and closed their beautiful blooms before I could snap a group shot.

Treasury Thursday – Autumns Edge

Etsy Treasury Autumns Edge

Click image above to go to treasury and view items

This week, I find myself dealing with an on and off summer cold or allergy. So today I felt like visualizing myself enjoying one of those crisp clean days of autumn walking out in the woods where everything is so fresh and clean and you feel so good. It is not too hot or cold, the birds are singing, little animals are scurrying and nature’s fall colors are gorgeous.

I love to create treasuries on Etsy since I can take myself visually anywhere I want to go with them. At the same time I can show some goodwill to other sellers by featuring their lovely items. Enjoy!

A Treasury – One Last Summer Getaway

Click image to see treasury and items on Etsy

If you can’t find a bunnysitter to physically get away, at least take visual vacations. That is what I like so much about treasuries on Etsy. I can curate 16 items that take me away to somewhere else for a time. Sometimes I buy an item and sometimes by doing the treasuries I help a buyer and seller connect by promoting other’s on Etsy. This treasury celebrates the end of summer and that special quality of light seen this time of year as summer is closing out.

Enjoy!

All Kidding Aside, Bunny Poo Is Great for Gardening!

Bunny poo fed blooms

Bunny poo assisted blooms in our garden

I have been poking fun at rabbit manure for sale on the web for a couple of days.  It is funny how silly some serious listings and terminology can sound when the product being sold is poop.  Today I switch over to the real value of bunny poo.

If you have a rabbit and a garden, rabbits really do create the perfect compost.  If they are fed properly, the only things going in are veggies or hay products.  Then what comes out of a healthy rabbit are nice dry round bunny poo marbles that have extremely low odor.

Someone connected with a rabbit rescue told me they have provided gardeners with rabbit manure and used the rest for gardens around the rescue building.  I think that is terrific idea for rescues.  Added value to the community with a usable product and use it to make the grounds of the building more attractive.  It also provides another positive talking point on an unexpected side benefit of having a house rabbit.  Waste not!  What other composter will look so cute?  Rabbits are just so totally vegan, green and eco conscious little beings.

Here in Georgia, the soil is red clay based, so the soil needs improvement for gardening.  We moved in with the rabbits nine years ago and have regularly used their offerings in the parts of the yard we picked out for our gardens.  I won’t say we have had raging success, because our part of Georgia has been in and out of drought mode with a switch over to flood stage a couple of times.  To say our plants have been stressed for much of the time we have been here is an understatement.  We brought in several rain barrels to collect water from our gutters when it does rain and are putting in more plants that tolerate heat and low water conditions, xeriscaping.

The other thing we have noticed in our gardens is lots of wild cottontail rabbits who will come to visit.  It seems to us that the bunny poo fertilization has hung out a wild bunny welcome mat.  They will sit right below the windows of the house eating quite comfortably.  One time a mother brought her babies with her and they were snuggled up underneath her as she ate.  The babies took off running when we accidentally moved.  I found one of the babies napping in the sunshine curled up in a patch of grass by the backdoor the next day.  We can watch the bunnies through our windows and sometimes sit on the back patio and enjoy the yard with them as they feed. 

So use the poo, its good stuff!  On to the plan for the remainder of this week and next.  Tomorrow, I am going to talk about rabbits and territorial poo, bunnyproofing info.  Thursday, I plan to share some of the unusual things for sale on the web related to rabbit poo.  Friday, I will have a follow suggestion or two.  I figured on getting all the messy stuff out-of-the-way this week, since the first week of August is designated as a Simplify Your Life week.  During that week, I plan to share lots of the tips and tricks and supplies we find most handy for keeping things clean and simple with rabbits in the house.

The Wonderful World of Bunny Poo

oat hay & rabbit poo

Oat Hay + Rabbit = Cheeripoos ?

As a cottage industry, seriously.  I have often fantasized about getting the bunnies to earn their own keep.  I had read at one time about a how-to book that had information for using bunny poo to start a worm farm and then sell the worms to fishermen.  Blaine has a wonderful green thumb and we use bunny poo in our garden.  So I have always been aware of the rich fertilization in the poo since it is already composted veggies and hay.  It is also nice hard dry little marbles that are easy to pick up and don’t have much of an odor.

However, I had never heard or thought about the possibility of actually selling bunny poo online.  I had just recently joined the Creative Breakroom forum.  In one thread I learned about a challenge they had a while back for “Jars O Crap”.  Everyone was to take a Mason jar and fill it with whatever, take pictures and then list their jars online.

Looking through the challenge thread and the very creative responses had me laughing myself silly.  This is the one I loved the most:  Un Bocal des Peaux D’Oignons.  Oh so very special, I am almost tempted to buy it myself.  If I had been there at the time to take part, the title had me thinking quite literally about my most available free item here, a jar of bunny poo!

So I got into a discussion in the Breakroom on the topic of bunny poo.  What do you say the expiration date is on a bottle full of bunny poop? What kind of shelf life does that have? Or does it become vintage at some point? Rapid thoughts were running through my head as to whether that would be tagged as handmade or a supply.  Do I say I made it myself or it was created by my rabbit collective?  Some pointed out that a bottle could have explosive gas issues and that holes in the top or a plastic bag with a nice label might be better. 

As we were verbally flinging the poo back and forth in this discussion, one member asked another if they had heard back officially on this.  That is when I found out that someone had investigated whether selling bunny poo on Etsy was allowed.  They were told that it was, as long as local laws and regulations in regards to animal compost are met.  Hey, I am living in a farming community!  I will just bet I can find out about that!  That is where hysterically funny idea meets up with actual business opportunity.  Too funny! 

I suppose I should be incredibly alarmed with myself that the idea of selling bunny poo has generated more creative marketing ideas in my head than anything else this year.  Perhaps there are whole huge cottage industries out there for the unemployed to sell pet waste and help feed their families.  I did check this morning on Etsy and there are current active listings there for both Rabbit Manure and Llama Beans.  

Objectively, the picture for the Llama beans was a great deal cleaner (does that term ever apply to compost?)  than the Rabbit Manure.  The Llama Bean title is also more appealing than Rabbit Manure which sounds a bit too down on the farm for eco conscious urban viewers.  So I sense an opportunity to upscale the market for rabbit compost / fertilizer.  I am intrigued in my research today on Etsy to see how many people have tagged their items with fertilizer when they aren’t selling compost ???  I am not at all certain about the thinking on that one for SEO keyword searches.

At this point, I have no idea where I am going (is that a poor word choice?) with this.  The minimum I expect is to have some great fun and laughs here for the blog.  Since laughs have been in short supply at many points this year that will be oh so welcome.  So stay tuned for poo!

Timeless …

Click on image to go to treasury on Etsy
I am having a very rough day today for a lot of reasons and found myself feeling quite down in the dumps.  Each Thursday, there is a new nonteam challenge item to inspire people to create Etsy treasuries around the item.  I decided to see if that item today would inspire me to find a better more beautiful place to be.  Gazpacho and Alfred the snails inspired me to find some dreamy timeless beauties and I feel soothed.  Here is more information on the nonteam challenges:  http://treasurychallengenonteam.blogspot.com/
 
Enjoy!