Ruffles and Ribbons Rabbit

Hey there!!  What are you doing in my very special suitcase?  There is every manner of precious lace and ribbon and oh, just general treasures. Its not a 'rabbit' nest after all.

I believe it should be off limits to rabbits – but then again I hate to deny them a little fabric and frou frou frolic.  So go ahead, stir it all up, make a nest and have fun.  I shall straighten it out later.

"Whoever said less is more never had dessert and never bought fabric." - Carrie Nelson

Who Would Have Thought?

These days, as I play with rabbits, testing, trying, stitching, photographing I wonder what I have become.  Yes, I've dabbled with lots of craft but as you know I've been a doll maker longer than any other 'thing' I've taken up.

For a long time I didn't even like calling myself a doll maker -- and always said it with a quick back-up statement about what kind of dolls I made.  Otherwise I would get that look from my listener like they wanted to pat me on head and say "oh that's nice".  

Then rabbits came into my life.  I would never, ever have thought that I would make a rabbit (although I did make a couple of stuffed animals for my son way back when). But I was enchanted with the idea of making rabbits and there I find myself.

And then I made an even different transition - 'to the small'.  The hold-in-the- palm-of-your-hand small.   I'm loving it - every minute of it.  Lots of hand sewing because of the size, lots of moving these poor old fingers through the turning of very small pieces and parts.  

But most importantly  -- lots of fun!!

"Out there things can happen, and frequently do,

To people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don't worry, don't stew.

Just go right along, you'll start happening too!" 

- Dr. Seuss

Changing My Ways

For quite awhile now, I have made dolls (and birds) using colored and or patterned fabric as the body.  Each one was made individually from start to finish.  And then rabbits came into my life.  Because each rabbit is made using the same coffee stained fabric for heads, bodies, legs and arms I found that I could make up a group (or is it troupe) and then add their 'decorations' later.  I can even make all of the faces at the same time, add whiskers and decorate their toes.

This probably seems like nothing to write about -- but its made a huge change in the way I prepare these little critters and I love it.  I work for a day or two and make up 5 or 6 blank rabbits at once.   They will then sit there waiting patiently for me to take one at a time from its perch.  That's the fun part, decorating, making up the stories, etc.
  

I love this new-to-me way of working and I'm looking forward to many hours ahead in the company of rabbits.

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Wayne Dyer
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Greta Grass

"Gotcha" -- that's what I cried when I spotted this little rabbit collecting the grass seed my resident gardener had just sown.  "Whatever are you doing?"

"Winter is coming and I need to collect the seeds for our grass plot next spring" she said quite meekly.  Oh my, was that me acting so rudely?  Of course there is plenty of grass and seed to be shared.  Happily we went about fitting each seed into her small collecting vial.

As she turned away I couldn't help but admire her flowery tail.

"Nourish beginings, let us nourish beginnings.  Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest.  The blessing is in the seed." - Muriel Rukeyser