Welcome to my blog. I am 'The Bunny Maker' - aka Anna, confuzzled mother of three boys, maker of sock bunnies for Widget and Friends, owner of The Warren Bunny Boarding and artist behind Half an Acre. Come on in and join the madness!


Sunday 31 August 2008

Hits the ground running....

I'm late! I'm late! A whole day late! I've missed two weeks of posting and I wanted to get my Saturday Shopping List in for this weekend - but I'm late! But here it is ...... QUICK! I'm still featuring new Etsy shops and here are three that I have discovered lately...

So - here we go! First up is a shop that I am very interested in! Stampingsisters. The shop sells decorative metal stamps - at present only a small selection but I love them already plus it promises more hard to find stamps and tools. I love stamps and tools! I'm a sucker for a tool! Hurry up Stampingsisters! Load more into your shop! I can't wait to see what else you have lurking! Apart from my wooden painted stuff I dabble with silver PMC and I need some tiny letter stamps - do you have any? Second up is JewelChunks. I'm feeling a bit autumny and chilly and these hats are the cutest and coolest ever. I love Jewelchunks' profile too! Lastly, this week, we have Danaruth, whose jewellery I would happily go bankrupt for! I am usually underwhelmed when it comes to jewellery as Etsy is oozing with it and much of it is a much of a muchness (!). I had real trouble chosing one piece to show you as I love so many of them .. oh, okay, I can't resist adding another .....

*PHEW*!! I've done it! I feel better now! There are loads of Saturday Shopping Lists for you to see - check out the list in my sidebar - great blogs featuring great Etsians. I'm off now to write up my next post about my holiday, a very large custraceon called Eddie and a bright yellow kayak! See you again soon!

Wednesday 20 August 2008

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside....

Just a very quick post - as I'm aware that I've missed my Saturday Shopping List this week. I'm on three weeks holiday on the Isle of Wight - there are some pics in an earlier post - Tomorrow is the hightlight of my year - a stall at the Village Regatta - YAY! I can't wait - I have a perfect audience for my things and I'm really looking forward to it. I have some cute promo packs made up for the Street Team and UK Handmade - I'll try and update this post later with some pics. I've had no internet access for two weeks now - it has been very odd! Now I'm using someone else's lappy with a remote plug-in access thingy. Get to the point, girl! Okay..... I got my WillyWaw t-shirts the other day - and i'm thrilled! The shirts are fabulous - soft, washed, gorgeous colours, great prints (they wash brilliantly) and i'm all round deeply impressed. Can't wait to get my Sand dollar bag too! Cheerio for now - i'll update this later as I go along.....
Hope you are all getting better weather than us Brits!! No wonder we do so well in the Olympic sailing and rowing ............. water, water, everywhere.....

Wednesday 6 August 2008

Three kids, no telly and its war in our house!

Forget what I said last week about how I was going to do my Shopping List features with one seller only - as I'm away on holiday soon and really busy I'm combining my Saturday Shopping List post with one of my normal, rambling posts as I have serious issues to cover .... oh, yes.
I have three children .... boys and no TV ... and whilst we're at it ... no game boys, no X-box, no Nintendo and no other small boxy square things that entertain. When I was growing up there was a children's tv programme called "Why don't you switch off the tv and do something more interesting instead" .... yup, it was quite a mouthful.... so this post is dedicated to just that. My eldest son has just turned nine and we have been without a television for 10yrs now. It started because we moved to a house with terrible reception downstairs so the TV went up to our bedroom. We never watched it up there so we got rid of it. My husband and I are a total geeks because of it! We love jigsaws, scrabble, doing crosswords, reading, talking, painting Warhammer .......... but this is not about us adults it is about the children. Television has become the new babysitter. I know people who, on a beautiful sunny day, still have the TV on in the corner of the room and the kids are sat there glued to it. Or the kids are playing a game but with it on in the background - causing them to stop mid-game to stand and gawp when the adverts come on. TURN IT OFF!!! I am proud of my children - they play beautifully. There is something magical about watching them (aged 9,6 and 4) all engrossed in a game together. The 6 and 4 year old play board games together. Okay - in their own way! They get out the Monopoly and make up their own ways of playing. And they do it for hours - seriously. The 9yr old may be reading all this time - he reads and reads and reads - or he might be outside kicking a football or skateboarding around using an old broken broom handle as a punting pole. Then they write, and draw and colour and ask me to set them maths sums to answer. In the picture, above and to the right, my eldest and my husband are playing their latest obsession - a game called Memoir 44 - a strategy board game using real senarios from WWII. Not only is it a war game but there are tanks and men with guns to use as game pieces - oh, and sandbags. These are popular for some reason. You can also buy add-on senarios and different terrains for more Western Front anihilation. The game has won numerous awards over time and is good for ages 8 upwards although younger ones can join in too, with help. You can just see the feet of the younger two watching - they help to roll the dice and other er..'helpful' things! It all sounds sickly sweet and perfect but it is how it is. I don't 'school' them when they are at home - its just what they find to do when there is nothing for them to do. They are mellow, laid back, imaginative, creative, filthy, muddy, dirty, ripped, grazed, bruised and gorgeous. When they do say they are bored I tell them to stare at the walls until they think of something to do. When they have friends over I always get asked if they can 'watch something' - "NO!!! You've come over to play!" is my reply. To the left there is the little play house in our garden that my eldest has converted into a 'reading room' - we spent a great weekend cleaning it all out, painting it and hanging some of my wooden decorations up in it. Below are some great ideas, from Etsy sellers, for other things for children to do instead of relying on one of those box things for entertainment.


Orangemoontoys makes fabulous shadow puppets in all designs - turn off the lights, rig up a torch and re-create a sea-battle with these wonderful underwater ones. Get them outside and running around with this clever game from Sallyscreations or send them on one of Mykangaroos scavenger hunts around the house and garden. Craftpudding supplies all sorts of rubber stamps for putting stories together or making cards to send to friends. Bombus covers notebooks in wonderful decoupage cartoon strips and maps - let a child write and draw in their own - keep all the notebooks somewhere safe so you can look back on them when they are older - remember to date them. Come rain or shine chuck them out in the garden - they can make a camp and take up residence in this fantastic teepee from Babypop. Switch off the entertainments, provide a few basics and leave them to it - it is amazing what they will invent, how much calmer and how their concentration will improve.
Don't get me wrong - this isn't a perfect household - I don't sit down for hours and play with them, I don't bake with them or let them learn by helping me doing things round the house - and I shout at them a bit too - I'm a forgetful, scatty, paint-splattered mum who should spend more time with her children but I am proud that I have given them the 'boredom space' to become these wonderful individuals that they are starting to be.

Digg!

Friday 1 August 2008

SATURDAY SHOPPING! Go on, have a little spend...

Today is Saturday!! YAY! And in honour of such a fantastic day I introduce.......... *drum roll* ........ 'Shopping List Saturday'!!!!!! A fabulous idea by fellow Etsian Fancypicnic .
Basically I show you some lovely things - there will be pictures and links to the sellers and their shops. Etsy is sooooo huge that its easy to miss thousands of gorgeous things. The idea is to make a mosaic of around 12 items with links to the shops. HOKAAAAAY. I tried but couldn't master the Flickr Mosaic Maker because I'm pants, basically! So each saturday I'm going to feature one or more Etsy shops. It will be a shop that is either new or has yet to make a sale or both. I know how hard it is to get noticed on Etsy and if I can do a wee bit to help someone then I will feel all warm and smiley inside!! But it will be a shop selling stuff that I like, that I am very excited to find and think that you will love too. So, don't expect much jewellery as its not often I get wowed - and this is my blog so you'll have to get what you're given ..... Mwhahahahahahahahahhaahha! (that's my evil laugh BTW)

This week it is WillyWaw.

Willywaw is named after the ferocious arctic winds that sweep down coastal mountains and slam onto the ocean. Designer Ashley van Etten lives in Narragansett, Rhode Island, which to a little British gal like me sounds impossibly exotic and awesome. Gah! I'm jealous especially as when she is not creating she skies, she paddles around in Narragansett Bay and artistically hangs out in such a wild, romantic sounding place. She has also published "Willywaw's Avalanche Booklet" which is in its fifth printing designed to promote avalanche awareness. Good grief, she is one cool chick! On to some products ........... Bags to die for!


Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous ...... one more time...... GORGEOUS bags in two sizes, a shopping size and a smaller tote. Hopefully to come are some shoulder bags too. Ashely screen-prints the fabrics as a whole single bag shape with the writing included in the design. I love the bottoms of the bags almost as much as the bags themselves. "Rhode Island" just sounds magical and far away to me - so the bottoms have sealed it - its a love affair, I'm afraid *sighs dreamily*. And if that isn't enough ..... there are t-shirts! YAY!
That mermaid t-shirt is such a fabulous blue! Oh no, I'm gushing - it's bad when I gush! I really want the Fish one and the Kraken is a definite for the 9 year old - who is ploughing his way through the Pirates of The Caribean films right now - (any excuse for me see Johnny Depp wearing eyeliner) - printed on soft, washed cotton too. I find it even more appealing that each design has a story behind it. The Mola Mola design is inspired by her husband's love of free-diving, the Squid after their boat of the same name, the Sockeye to celebrate the incredible migration the fish undertake. I've had a blast reviewing this shop - and will be slightly poorer after I've ordered some t-shirts and one of those sand dollar bags - I've got a thing about sand dollars ever since I spent a few summers on Ocracoke, NC. Ashley is also planning other fabric items to in the future too. She is multi-talented in a way that I am totally jealous of ... have a look at this beautiful print of hump-backed whales.......

She will be adding note-cards soon too.........
I've just ordered a bunch t-shirts for my three boys who are in wardrobe crisis ....... there are some fantastic colours to choose from and Ashley has been helpful and lovely coping with my "Do you do it in blue?" emails..... you've seriously got to check out this shop because I say so ..... so, off you go ..... shoo!

I'm looking forward to next week already - I've got another treat instore for you for Shopping List Saturday - and a mid-week post coming up too - thrills and spills with Half an Acre ... *coughs*...
For more Etsy finds to read over your saturday morning coffee check out the link list at the side here.