Happy Holidaze

What has the Bunny been up to? A LOT! Like a trip to the zoo with five kids under 12....


And decorating cookies with that same group the next day....


And having a very merry Christmas! There were loads of presents, but my favorites came from Etsy...here are a few goodies from my favorite group, the Etsy Maine Team!

Jack with his new bling! "Mama's Boy" tag from LoftedDesigns.

Me being a ham with my new sign from WordBoards!

And this one wasn't for me, but for my grandparents from all 19 of us grandkids, grandkids-in-law, and great-grandkid =) I wish I had been there to see them open it! All I got was a little bitty cell phone picture which was kind of lame. So here's the photo Melissa of Little Pink House took after she completed this masterpiece!


Well, what else has been going on? We added some new furniture and re-arranged the house a bit! Now my parents are visiting from Massachusetts and we've been having fun shopping and sightseeing with them. My favorite sight so far?

Oh yeah. That's a shrunken head.

Happy New Year, from the Bunny to you!

Designing Designs

Here at the Bunny Abode it has been a LONG week. I have been sick for the past four days and there's only so much daytime TV I can handle. I made a few pairs of earrings for Christmas and Hanukkah gifts, and strung up the Gators bracelet I mentioned in my last post.


I made the earrings for a friend...I love these aqua blue glass beads. I use them here and there in a lot of designs, because they're so vibrant and fun! They're vintage lovelies from The Beadin' Path in Freeport, ME.

And speaking of the BP, on Tuesday I received a batch of pretty pink beads, after I badgered my former boss and owner of the shop to make me a Design Partner. I love that they sent me PINK, which is pretty much my favorite color in the NBA off-season (during the season it's green, because I'm superstitious and a Celtics fan).



I haven't played much yet...ohhhh but I will! Just wait til I get this fever down...


THESE babies are going to be perfect for my cousin Liz's Christmas gift...Liz is like me...a magpie and a lover of pink!

I hope you're ready to see lots of PINK this week! =) And I also hope you're ready for a story tomorrow...because tonight was an interesting night...to say the least! Let's just say I had an unexpected visitor in an unexpected place...

Good night Bloggers =)

Works in Progress

Here's a few peeks at things that don't have anything to do with decorating Christmas trees...really!

There are a few new items up at BunnyBaubles, and a few to come at BunnyBeads, but I have been spending a lot of time working on gifts for my friends and family...and gifts from my friends and family.

Check out these bracelets my sister ordered. One for her Mother-In-Law and one for her Stepmother-In-Law (SMIL?)

This one is her MIL's two sons and one grandson's birthstones. This could have been disastrous...pink, purple, and red! I decided to use pearl for June instead of tanzanite and white opal for October instead of pink...imagine all boys and having the most girly-colored Valentine's-esque bracelet ever! Yuck.

And this is for the "classy crunchy granola" SMIL, hematite and turquoise...not my fav combo, but I don't have to wear it.

I found those great clasps from lilysoffering on Etsy...she donates 10% of her sales to Domestic Abuse Awareness, which is great! The money is used for counseling service, housing, and transition services for women and children affected by domestic violence. I got my beads and findings super-fast and I'm glad to have helped a good cause in some small way.

My Swarovski crystals and pearls I bought from 411Crystals, another Etsy shop. Her crystals aren't horrifically overpriced like so many other sellers' are, and they arrived quickly and in mint condition. It's a great shop to find just about any color you'd need in all the basic shapes. Fantastic!

The lovely stone beads came from my favorite B&M shop and former employer, The Beadin' Path. I'm happy to say I'll be one of their "Design Partners" soon and I can't friggin wait. The lovely Heather, a co-owner, will be sending me some bead-y lovelies and I'll get to play and show off the results right here...keep those eyes peeled! =) It'll be fun and awesome!

Speaking of the BP, does anyone remember the Tweet Your Studio contest the BP had with Dawno a few months ago? I won a lap-desk thingy for beading and it has been a GODSEND. With my non-studio space (the couch!) I needed some help! Thanks so much again, ladies!


That was a necklace in the works for my BFF Nelda's birthday...freshwater pearl, labradorite, and Swarovskis with a sterling cross. She put it on as soon as she opened the box! Hooray!

Tada!

Next up? A Florida Gators-themed bracelet. Again, glad I don't have to wear that one! Gimme Celtics Green and we'll be all set =)
Also coming soon...my Etsy Maine Team secret santa gift...I wish I could show it off now! But we're not opening gifts til the 18th...y'all gotta wait!! And so does my Secret Santa..>=) Whoever they are!

Happy creating!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

...I finally got to decorate my trees! We have been dogsitting a HUGE dog all week (See above!), so we didn't want to put out the trees til he was gone. Now I have FOUR trees in my house, woohoo!

There's Pants with our REAL tree...our first real one as a married couple, which is great! We picked out a really great one, I think. Here is it with my Crunchy Country Bumpkin ornaments...

You can see my hideous pink tree up there in the corner too =D I love that thing. And I love my tree! Here are some of my ornaments...I'm silly, I take pictures of everything!



Here is our old artificial tree. It's got my usual Peppermint Theme, which I am carrying over to the ugly light fixture. All red and silver and white and pretty in my front window.


And here is my fourth and final tree...this is the Pants Tree, because he doesn't really care for my white-lights-themed trees. So I gave him a two-foot colored-lights-themed tree. Yep...those are Yoda lights. And Star Wars ornaments.

What, don't you have Star Wars trees?

Decorating frenzy

I got my huge Christmas ornaments! Target had every color but red, so from left to rght you can see blue, pink, green, silver, and orange. Look closely! I got a red one last night but it's been rainy and I haven't put it up yet!



There's just something so wrong about all the greenery here in Florida. I'm a New Englander, and I love winter. It's odd to have no snow or cold weather. I'm going to make a few hats and scarves for my pink friends, anyway...



I stole my patio lights to liven up my ugly fireplace! heehee! =)

And now I am off to work, where I am helping my boss decorate her three trees and hang garlands over the huge doorways leading to her patio, because of course this Saturday's holiday party is going to be an indoor and outdoor event! I wonder when I will ever get my own trees up??

Deck the halls with faux garlands

Fa la la la la, la la la la.


I have been a busy bunny, between birthdays and making our own two-person mini-feast for Thanksgiving (above) and getting ready for Christmas! Christmas is one of those holidays I love and hate...I love the cheer and fun, I hate that it's the anniversary of a friend's death, which is a wound on my heart that's still quite open. The past few Christmases I have been relatively miserable, but this year I'm making the attempt to push past and enjoy myself and celebrate life (even a life lost) rather than death. So I'm going all-out with holiday cheer and decor...and trying to keep to a budget.


I bought some garlands and a wreath last night at AC Moore, I've already decorated my front door with them. I bought plain ones and decorated them myself with picks, which brought my total cost to $30 for 3 garlands and a wreath...pretty good considering that one pre-decorated (and unlit) wreath is around $30. I kept it simple and I like it! The picture was before I made a few minor tweaks, but it's still purty. And don't you just love my kitchen canisters?


I also got these really cute miniature lit trees from Bed Bath & Beyond (for $7!!) that are a set of three two-foot trees. They are adorable and line my front path. I may need to get more...and a shorter extension cord...

On today's agenda? Decorating the big tree in my front yard with HUGE Christmas ornaments ($5 each at Target!) the size of a soccer ball. I'm also garland-ing the mailbox and hopefully stringing some lights around the front bushes and trees...I may need the hubby's help with that, so that may not get done til the weekend.


I also just got in all my components for two bracelets I am making for my sister's Mother-in-Law and Step-Mother-in-Law (SMIL?), both are going to be three-stranded deals but they'll also be very different. Check back for progress on them =)