Plan Ahead for International Rabbit Day

Bunny hugging earth
I didn’t know that anyone had designated a day for rabbits until someone sent me a link.  It is set for the Fourth Saturday in September which would be the 24th this year. 

Here is one suggestion for the day:  “Celebrate this special day with your pet rabbit. Learn a little more about him and how to properly care for his needs. If you don’t have a pet, maybe today is the day to get a pet rabbit! ” 

Click here to go to Holiday Insights for more information on the meaning and origin International Rabbit Day.

From Post a Week to Post a Day …

2011 Resolution Redux In January, I committed to blog once each week for all of 2011.  There have been ups and downs in that with the right number along the way, but not necessarily each week.  So now I am upping the game plan for the blog and doing a redux of the resolution and aiming to meet the post a day challenge from here on out.

It won’t be easy, I need to do two posts a day for a few months to catch up to the challenge. I want to do this now because the severe weather here in Georgia has been such a reminder of how little we understand of how much time we really have.  There are so many stories I want to tell about our rabbits to give others who would like to consider a house rabbit a fuller picture of what they can expect.  If you hop into house rabbit ownership, I also want to help you out with all of the bunnyproofing tips and tricks we have learned over the years.   Then there are all the inspirational ideas that come from our rabbits for art, jewelry and other products that we will share for other bunny lovers to buy and enjoy. 

I hope you will enjoy following along with Rabbittude.  Rabbits aren’t terribly predictable creatures and I am like that too.  Expect some hopping around in topics and themes and stories.  If you like it, you may be a rabbit person too!   

Signed,

Rebecca Pullin of Rabbittude

Weathering the Storm

Tigger & Shadow are content now to once again be napping in spring sunshine.

This past week was a hard one to get through.  The strong storms that came through the south brought so much destruction and sadness with the huge number of lives lost.  Multiple tornadoes hit here in Georgia,  more than a dozen died.  We were in the path of at least one tornado, but it did not touchdown in our neighborhood.  A road due north of us was not so lucky and many homes were destroyed, but again it was fortunate that no lives were lost there. 

Last Wednesday evening was unreal and too real.   We knew well ahead that the coming line of storms had already brought a great deal of devastation and loss of life. It was a full evening of blaring tornado sirens as multiple storms with tornadoes on the ground or in the clouds came racing through.  At one point there were two tornado warnings at once with one storm coming north and the other coming east.   When the final siren silenced near midnight, we finally came out of our half bath hiding place.  We were hot, stiff and sore from the cramped space, but feeling so relieved to be safe and sound.  We weren’t complaining, but feeling blessed to be untouched.   We decided to leave Tigger and Shadow in their cages in the pantry until the final watch ended since it had been such a strong line of storms.  Finally at 3 am after the final tornado watch for our area was declared over, we safely brought the bunnies out. 

We knew the next day that the reports were going to be bad and were so saddened.  We were humbled by the fragility of safety in learning how near it had come to us.

If the sirens hadn’t been going off and the weather alert radio going crazy with warnings, we wouldn’t have realized just how severe the storm system was.  There was an eery silence, almost no rain or noticeable wind and very little sound of hail.  Survivors in the neighborhood just north of us described the same thing.  They had a few seconds of hail and then silence until trees started falling and glass started breaking.  They didn’t hear the sound of a freight train that they had always been told to expect. 

These storms were the worst we have seen for devastation and loss of life and yet they didn’t come upon us with any of the obvious signs we were expecting.  It would have been easy to ignore the weather warnings as a cry of wolf.  Those in the neighborhood that was hit took shelter in interior rooms and survived as their houses collapsed or were torn apart around them, because they trusted the warnings rather than the deceptively quiet storms. 

Since tornado season will continue for several months, we will continue to keep on the watch.  We sure wish though that our home had been built with a basement!

Shadow Turns 10!

Shadow loves the sunshine

Shadow in his favorite place, soaking up the sunshine.

Ten years ago, sometime between now and the first week of May, Mr. Shadow was born.  We brought him home on Independence Day when he was two months or so old. He bounced into our lives with such joyous abandon.  He always keeps us smiling.

He still runs around like a crazy bunny, but not as often or fast.  He still wants to hop onto everything and leap from furniture piece to furniture piece.  The bunny spirit is very willing, but the body can’t keep up anymore and he has started to miss the mark.  We aren’t fond of looking at bunny x-rays at the vet.  So we keep a close eye on his activities. We relocate him as a distraction when he is clearly thinking about training for the bunny Olympics one more time.

Celebrate International Carrot Day

International Carrot Day Treasury on Etsy

Click image above to go to Etsy treasury

Seriously, as rabbit lovers,  this was irresistible.   Twitter users started sharing the link over the weekend for International Carrot Day, April 4th. Logically, an Etsy treasury devoted to carrots had to follow, with a few carrot loving rabbits too.

Here’s a carrot fact from Bugs Bunny cartoon history. The voice of Bugs, Mel Blanc, hated carrots. They tried all kinds of fruits and vegetables to see if biting in and crunching something else could sound like a carrot. Nothing but a carrot sounded like a carrot. So Mel would bite in and crunch on the carrots and then spit them out.

Sorry Mel, but for us it is time to pause and get our paws on some lovely carrots!

April Fool’s Day Fun and Silliness

Silly Rabbits & Friends Etsy Treasury for April Fool's Day

Click on image to go to Etsy treasury

At Rabbittude, we are always up for a good laugh year round, so we would wish for more than one day dedicated to silliness, laughter and fun.  Ah, well, that is why we have bunnies to keep us going with foolishness in between.  We will make do with the day we have to be our completely quirky, wacky selves today.

Here is a treasury I created of wonderful lighthearted fun things made by Etsy artisans:  Silly Rabbit’s & Friends for April Fool’s Day.

Great Blog Post Alert!  The Rabbittude Get Off My Tail bumper sticker has been included in this wonderful Feature Friday blog by Frostings sharing humorous Etsy items for April Fool’s Day: http://tncakes.blogspot.com/2011/04/feature-friday-april-fools-day.html.  It is wonderful to be included here, but I am not posting it here just to brag (okay, bragging just a little bit).  I think this is a great list of Etsy items, they all made me laugh and smile.  I am really partial to the take off on Keep Calm and Carry On created by Sad Little Crown, Fling Yourself on the Bed and Cry Uncontrollably.  It reminds me so much of Despair.com’s parody of beautiful photo art motivational training posters.  Sometimes the motivational stuff just really doesn’t do it and you have to let it all out and then move on.  ~Rebecca Pullin

Treasury Blitz for the Georgia Etsy Team

Nature Walk Treasury

Click image above to go to treasury

Moms Zoo Etsy treasury

Click image above to go to treasury

Handmade Georgia Etsy treasury

Click image above to go to treasury

It was a blast this morning participating in a treasury blitz for the Georgia Etsy team.  Our goal was to increase the visibility of Georgia Etsy team shops, all based in Georgia USA. We had a number of team members creating treasuries, clicking and commenting on the treasuries and promoting them on their other teams and social networks. It was a flurry of treasury activity between 7 and 10 am this morning.

Around noon, more than a dozen of the treasuries had made it to the top ten pages of the Etsy Treasury.  That is so wonderful to see when there are currently over 24,000 treasuries. We are celebrating that all three of the Rabbittude treasuries made it to page seven or above, with the Nature Walk Finds making it to page two!  Georgia Etsy Team Caption Mod MomMe  had all three of her treasuries make it to page one: Honey and Chocolate, Simply Seafoam, She Is Beautiful.  Awesome! We are honored that our new butter yellow freshwater pearl bunny rabbit bracelet was featured in the Honey and Chocolate treasury.

This was a golden opportunity to meet some new Georgia friends online and help to promote each other.  I hope this will be an activity that we can continue in the future and bring more views and sales to all the wonderful artisans on the team. 

Due to the Georgia Blitz and the start of spring, Rabbittude has been included in a baker’s dozen of treasuries during the past day,  the Honey and Chocolate listed above and these other lovely treasuries:

We are honored to have been included. Click on them and enjoy not only Rabbittude, but all the other wonderful Etsy artisans this spring.

Preview … April Showers Bring Spring Flowers

April Showers Bring Spring Flowers

Click on Image to go to this Etsy Treasury

Today was a relaxing Sunday with the time to do some window shopping on Etsy and create a treasury of items in lovely pinks and greens.  Everyone is waiting for springtime and the beautiful blooms it will bring. These lovely handmade items preview what is soon to come in nature.

The soft pink Spring Rose Rabbit is a favorite of ours!

Tomorrow we will be hopping from 7 to 10 am with an Etsy treasury blitz to raise visibility for shops based in Georgia, USA that are members of the Georgia Etsy team.   We will share some of our treasuries and links to others for anyone looking for handmade southern style.

Hello Again Sunshine!

Honey Bunny Rabbit Bangle BraceletYesterday brought torrential rains and flooding to parts of our area. Our puddles spread out to pondles.  As the sun is shining today, they are beginning to dry up.  Oh well, back to the drawing board, or in this case the jewelry supplies. I pulled out the sweetest 3D bunny rabbit charm in a  silver plated pewter and have the bunny bouncing quite happily now from a sunny honey colored bangle bracelet.

The glass seed beads I used in this piece are just such a lovely golden honey shade and glow with warmth even in low light. The larger round beads are also honey colored, but have a rainbow finish giving off soft glows of blue, peach, pink and green as the light reflects on them.  It reminds me of the colors you see as light hits pooled water.

I have fallen in love with memory wire bracelets since buying one from Cindylouwho2 on Etsy last year. They are so comfortable to wear. There are no clasps to fiddle around with to take the bracelets on and off. You wrap it around your wrist and unwrap to take it off.  Simple!  It holds its shape. Whatever your wrist size, the wire will expand or contract to fit.  If you want to give a bracelet gift, you don’t need to know wrist size.   

There was so much potential for versatility in design, using different sizes and types of beads, number of loops or adding charms or dangles.  I could see these bracelets in delicate feminine sparkly beads, pearls, big bold beads, with just a few loops or with lots of loops to create cuffs.  I could picture layering different ones together on the arm.  I was inspired to order some stainless steel memory wire in silver, gold and copper colors.   Did I say how much I love this wire?

There are several different styles of memory wire bracelets now available in the Rabbittude Etsy shop.

Bunny Now an Zen …

Japanese Crest

Inspiration: Mandarin Orange Flower Crest

Bunny Now and Zen Design

Bunspiration: Bunny Now and Zen Design

Looking back over the past ten years with Tigger has me thinking a lot of now and then.  Recently paging through a book of Japanese crests, one just looked so much like a couple of lop eared bunny rabbits that it inspired me to create a bunny rabbit crest.  Since I was thinking about then and now with Tigger and Shadow and I just really go for the bunny puns, the title for the design became Bunny Now and Zen

The design is now available on products in our CafePress Rabbittude Shop. Some handmade items with the design are in the planning stages for our Etsy shop. ~ Rebecca Pullin

Bunny Now and Zen Pajama Set

Tigger Turns 10!

Tigger Turns 10

Tigger getting into her food. This litter pan is completely filled with oat hay and being used as a food bin. You can see she enjoys her food now!

Sometime in early March 10 years ago, little Miss Tigger was born.  It is hard to believe that she has been with us for almost 10 years.   We brought her home in mid May when she was still a baby, just two and a half pounds of pure trouble looking for a place to happen.

Over the years Tigger has slowed down some.  Our anorexic model bunny retired a few years ago and has really put on some weight.  She now really enjoys her food instead of us begging her to eat something.  Now we can call her chubs.

An Etsy Treasury of Wee Rabbits

Wee Rabbits Treasury

Wee Rabbits Treasury

Be vewy, vewy quiet! This is a group of some of the smallest bunnies on Etsy.  All will fit in your hand.

The treasury includes items from some shops of the new Etsy Rabbits team. To check out or join the team, click here.