One World One Heart - my GiveAway!

I am delighted to take part in a worldwide blogging event called One World One Heart which was the brainchild of Lisa from A Whimsical Bohemian 4 years ago.

It is a giveaway to encourage bloggers to meet others and to win prizes at the same time!

.... and my Give Away is .....

Looking for Love - Look No More

Watercolour Collage with Mandarin Ducks

just in time for Valentines Day!
a very auspicious mixed media original collage by me, just for those looking for love and for those celebrating their love.

I will draw a winner at midnight on February the 15th from all the comments left on this post. Names will be written on scraps of paper and drawn from my golden fish. Please make sure to leave a way I can contact you.

I live in Scotland and spend alot of my time raising awareness about the plight of rescue rabbits. I am also the volunteer Business Development Manager for the Hare Preservation Trust. Rabbits are hares are integral to my being.

I have been making art of all kinds for as long as I can remember and I first made this collage for myself. I decided and chose the best images with which to compile my love luck painting. It is a highly symbolic piece of art and when coupled with good intent will enhance your chances of love luck and relationship success.

a little bit about this collage ....

This is an original piece of mixed media / collage art and the watercolour of the ducks is a printed image that has been hand finished in black ink.

This is a highly symbolic piece of art which will enhance your chances of love luck and relationship success. The mandarin ducks represent partners for life and fidelity. In Chinese tradition they are highly respected for symbols of a happy marriage. The Chinese character behind is called ‘double hey’ and is the character for double blessings and happiness. This is displayed prominently at all traditional Chinese weddings. Lastly the mountain is representative of the Feng Shui element of Big Earth, which is located in the south-west corner of one’s abode and stands for relationships.

A strong relationship has a large base, fidelity and love and happiness and like the mandarin duck will be paired for life.

When this image is displayed next to your bed or in the south west area of the living room it will generate good luck chi. If you are looking for that special someone to come into your life then be mindful of the art that you have on show in your house.

This lucky collage will be a reminder to you to think of long term happiness in a solid relationship. If you are with someone already then hopefully by displaying this image you will be mindful to concentrate on your relationship.

The mandarin ducks are a print of my original watercolour painting that has been printed onto watercolour paper and outlined in black ink. They are stuck onto the picture with 3-D foam tape and are raised by about 2mm.

The Chinese character ‘double hey’ is cut from an intense bright red card. It is stuck onto an original mountain painting with double-sided sticky tape. The mountain painting is done on 100% recycled black card with flecks on it from Australia and has been painted with white and blue acrylic paint. The paint has cracked and has a flaking look (viewable up close).

A card mount has then secured to the image by tape and the ducks sit outside of the inner frame.This mount is not removeable.

This is an original collage and is unique.

It's very hard to tell the correct colours in the pictures above but the red is an intense and bright colour, rich and velvety to the look. The card mount frame is in a slate grey with more of a darkness to it.

The frame is approximately 10” x 12” inches. The collage inside is 6” x 8” inches.

This painting collage will be sent world-wide in a flat envelope with a stiff board.

Please note – if you have a lonely heart it will open the door to opportunities and possibilities of friendship and love. It must be accompanied by thoughts of good intention and optimism for best results.

Good luck - and please remember to click on the link above to visit Lisa's blog and the see many other participating bloggers.

Toy Story III

Squeezing on the unsold and drastically reduced Post-Christmas Cat Stockings in the cheap section at my local supermarket I could feel an interesting round toy inside, bulging at the bottom of the stocking.

I donated the stocking's kitty biscuits to my local Cat and Dog Home in Edinburgh for their furries to enjoy and I washed and disinfected (with vinger) the 'interesting round toys' ....


After reading about Toy Story I featuring active Scamp and Toy Story II featuring delegating Sydney, Tyler and Amelia I decided to film Toy Story III here ...

I stuffed the white cat head dotted ball with the cheap store bought pellets that I had to rush out and buy a couple of months ago when my order of Natural Rabbit Pellets from Allen and Page didn't materialise!

I use the A&P because they don't put GM modified monstrosities in their feeds or any chemicals or artificial ingredients. Arabella and Wesley love them but now I have 3/4 of a bag left of this store stuff and when I dropped some on the floor by mistake Arabella raced over and gobbled them up! Must be some unhealthy concoction in there!

So I put some of the tasty, unhealthy pellets in the cat head balls with the adjustable opening at half open and gave Wesley one -

... he could smell the inferior pellets and went after the ball ....

... some tumbled out and he gobbled away ...

.. and gobbled some more ....

... mean while Arabella ran up to her ball and grabbed a slightly raised cat head in her mouth and picked up the ball ...

... and gave it a shoogle ...

... then another turn .. but no pellets came out ...

... so she managed to nudge it my way and some spilled forth ....

.... which were hoovered down extra quickly .....

the offending pellets were quickly depleted and then .....

Arabella lost interest ...

and Wesley turned to his parsnips and butternut lettuce ....

- another plastic toy made in a country far away starts to gather dust in the toy box -

and Arabella and Wesley remain slim and healthy now that the inferior pellets have gone!

(there are no plans for a quad-equel)

~

don't forget to purchase a raffle ticket to be in for the chance to win your very own Arabella Bag - and there are 5 runners up prizes of $10 vouchers from my etsy shop too!

All money goes to helping the rescue rabbits in Ohio at the Buckeye House Rabbit Society

Arabella helps the Buckeye Spring Raffle

I am delighted to donate another Arabella Art Accessory Bag to the Buckeye House Rabbit Society to raise funds for their rescue rabbits waiting for their forever homes.

Please meet Arabella wearing her favourite large red flowers amid the foilage jumper.

She is all ready to welcome in Spring after a snowy and chilly winter and do her good deeds for the rabbits not as fortunate as her (yet).

To help get the word out I do what comes naturally to me - I made a treasury on etsy! called Rescue Rabbit in Red Flowers

It took hardly any time at all and I had plenty of beautiful choices from an exceptional group of etsy artists.

From the top we have -

Kim from Veganessa with her Faith Beautiful Heart Brooch

Randy from RRobertsPhoto with his Spring Rain photograph

Mitzi from VintageGoodness with her Prarie Hares Antique Illustration Print (check out the HUGE fluffy white tail!!)

Tiina from AttilaDesign with her Metallic Grey Jersey Dress

Jean from JeanBradbury with her Snowberry Mouse Oil Painting

my other Arabella Bag in Red Flowers on etsy

Sara from Sara'sArk with her needle felted Snow Hare

Pat from PhotogenicGallery with her Little Bird photograph

Sharon from KnotOriginal with her Nocturne Snowfall Neckwarmer

Olga from OVGilliesDesigns with her Heart Necklace

Heidi from RedChair with her My Own Way Bracelet

Veronica from SurrenderDorothy with her 1887 Rabbit Varieties German Chromolithograph Illustration

Pey from PeyLu with her Lily Loves Me print

Debbie from ShadedMemories with her Whisper Sweet Nothings print

Eline from ElineOf with her Woolly Ted Valentine

and Billy from BillyCurrie with his Forever in Love photograph

Tickets are $1 each.

If you live in America you can send a cheque.

Or you can purchase by PayPal for a minimum of 5 tickets, $5.

Above is little Richland waiting for his forever home at the Buckeye House Rabbit Society.

I wrote about Richland a while ago, not long after he had been found alone on a country road and suffering from either a coyote or dog attack.

Richland received lots of medical attention and now he is fully recovered and well - and looking forward to that special home filled with love and happiness.

Richland has visible scars on the outside. Other rabbits will have scars on the inside. Every rabbit has a story to tell, some will bring tears to your eyes, others will outrage you. Rescue rabbits are precisely that - rescued from danger and harm.

All the rescue rabbits are waiting patiently for a bright future with someone who will love them forever.

Arabella is excited that she will be going to her forever home soon! (she wonders if there will be a rescue rabbit there too??)

Like a rescue rabbit she will need very special attention - every day she will need endless love and attention from her human, lots of admiring glances from, eh, admirers, a warm clean place to stay and snooze, and fresh yummy vegetables.

Uh! what do mean textile bag rabbits can't really eat??

Arabella will gladly show you the size of her small paunch - just make sure to get your ticket or two to be in with a chance of looking at her paunch in person!

Good luck - and Thank You very much! xxx

The Year of the Hare

As volunteer Business Development Manager for the Hare Preservation Trust I have been concentrating on increasing the products available in their online shop.

Arabella is wondering whether that includes treats and toys perhaps? - for her that is!

Well, at the moment it doesn't as it is only hare related items on there. That's not to say that hares don't appreciate treats or toys too!

I have just finished reading a book by Arto Paasilinna called The Year of the Hare published by Peter Owen in the UK and whilst Vatanen's hare does not have toys to play with he does have treats -

'For the hare, he felled several aspens from a pondside and hauled them into the yard. The simple creature busied itself with them all day, as if it too had it's building work to get on with. At any rate, the aspens turned white as the hare ate the bark.'

It was a good read, but there was a chapter added out of character, which I felt was unnecessary. None the less, any house rabbit owner will immediately relate to the book and the hare's nuances throughout. My two little hares could hear me laughing out loud rather a bit!

A few weeks ago I listed Baby Hare Jurgen on the Hare Preservation Trust's online shop and he is now off to his new home!

though little Forest is in the shop now and like Jurgen, 20% of the sale will be donated to the Trust.

Forest has fluffy felt eye patches with rather a bit of tuftiness at the bottom of them.

Baby Hare Forest – Soft Sculpture

Little Forest just loves to clamber about the shrubs and bushes on the edge of the field. Some of the other babies are not too sure if they should be doing the same thing because Forest always seems to have so much fun but it’s rather dark and spiky in there!
However she does come home with lots of burrs and thorns and small twigs caught in her fur that her mother spends ages pulling out. The ones that she can’t tug out have to be snipped off with the fur attached so Forest has a few bare patches here and there.
She has made friends with a couple of the birds who frequent the bushes and has been busy helping them gather nesting materials. Using her front paws and sharp teeth she is able to pull the prized sheeps wool off the outer thorny branches.
Forest is chuffed to be helping in such an important task and even more proud that she has been asked to be a Godmother to the coming babies!

Baby Hare Jurgen – Soft Sculpture

Jurgen loves to play amongst the leaves and since he was born in autumn he has had plenty to roll around in.

He is not fussy about what kinds of leaves there are, as long as he can scamper about them.

He even enjoys the evergreen pine needles which will never fall off the trees, mind you they are a bit spiky at times! though he has a penchant for collecting the cones in the forest.

Jurgen has been thinking hard what he can do about his leaf passion and has started to write down all the uses a leaf has in it’s life, what with insects being born on it (in eggs), being food for youngsters, cover for small mammals and play objects for others.

He knows every leaf has a purpose!

Jurgen has been sold and is off to investigate leaves further afield.

Arabella is now dreaming about some treats and toys!

Little does she know that I brought home a new toy for her and Wesley today. When she wakes up we'll see whether it passes the good toy test or not.

the Spots come to visit!

Actually the Spots come to stay and now have pride of place above Arabella's extensive castle.

Arabella was delighted, however she was not delighted in me taking yet another photo of her and managed to stick her tongue out at me in such a lady-like way.

She welcomes Sydney and brother Tyler from the Qi Papers blog. Here they are overlooking the castle.

Like a typical castle it has many escape routes and has had modifications made (mainly internal and by a rabbit's sharp teeth).

Unlike a typical Scottish castle it has heating on 24hours and it gets pretty comfortable in there, plus like a castle it is badly lit and the floors sometimes get food left on them.

(When I go in to clean I pick up the occasional half eaten carrot and wilted green).

I was lucky to be able to add to my art collection with a beautfiul print of two Engilsh Spot rabbits - Sydney on the left and her brother Tyler.

Done in my favourite print form of woodblock printing.

Diana from etsy shop the Qi Papers uses Moku Hanga which is the Japanese art of woodblock printing.

Art is so much nicer when you know the artist and the subject.

I had just the frame for it and I thought that a rough edged look would be perfect to set off the rough black markings instead of having it presented neatly under a card mount so I dry tore the edges of the print, making sure to leave Diana's signature and the title on view.

I thought it turned out perfectly!

Now I can gaze admiringly at the Spots all day long.

When Arabella wakes up from her lunch time snooze and emerges from the castle's depths she glances up too and counts the Spot's spots, just to make sure that they are all still there and keep her brain active.

~

She just said to me that that photo at the top was her licking her lips to get all the carrot bits in :)

~

Thank you Diana! Love your work and the variations in all the Spots!!

Midnight and Memories

Arabella wanted to stay up to bring in the New Year with me but her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier ....

Wesley tried too - but soon he was fast asleep under his fleeces ...

They didn't miss much though - when I looked at the clock I realised it was already 12:05! Goodness! I had been wondering what all the sirens and bangs going off were (fireworks) as I made up a delicious plate of biscuits with my tea to see in the New Year.

I want to say thanks to all my fantastic customers on etsy, and off, and that I could not have been so profuse in my creations without all your support!

Thank you also to the many very lovely people I have met this past year, life definitely becomes richer when you share!

I've been asked by these little chaps below to put on their stories. These are just a few of the Baby Hares and Rabbits that have found their forever homes around the world this past year - they wanted everybody out there to know that they were made with love.

Baby Hare Beryozhka

Beryozhka loves all plants and trees and is proud that his name is ‘little white birch tree’ in Russian.

He has been diligently collecting spores and seeds so that he may start his own wildlife garden. He is also enlisting the help of all slugs, caterpillars, grubs and flies to make the garden a success.

The deer have brought him seeds from the woods, and the birds have brought assorted plant spores from afar.

He has managed to collect nuts with help from the squirrels and tubers from the moles. Every day he updates his spreadsheets with the latest flora. He can hardly wait! He loves to sit on a shelf with a view to his new wildlife garden.

Baby Hare Arcturus

Arcturus is a rather shy youngster but she has a special calling in life.

The bees come to her with their pollen sacs and lead her to their nests where they make the honey. They are always very considerate of the other wildlife and make an extra big section for the wild bears to feast on.

They asked little Arcturus if she could tell the bears about the special section on the nests and not to disturb the Queen busily laying the next generation. Arcturus was rather scared of the big bears but she went to see them with a couple of her bee friends and the bears treated her very kindly and thanked her.

She is now the official bee messenger and has their protection and a limitless supply of honey! Yum, she rather likes honey! She prefers to perch on a shelf by an open window so that her bee friends may visit and she can go on her errands for them.

Baby Hare Cotton

Cotton loves the wind and catching the small things that get wheeked around in the wind.

She a steadily growing collection of leaves, plant spores, feathers and even a couple of very small pebbles (that was a very windy day!).

Cotton has been storing her little bits in a small jar she found on the edge of the field and is now on the lookout for a small display case instead as the jar is getting rather full. She prefers to sit on a high shelf by an open window to catch the breeze and new treasures. She is wondering if there may even be a small display case near her.

Baby Rabbit Bouncer

Bouncer is a very energetic little baby and she spends every daylight hour playing games in the meadow and hardly needs a wink of sleep.

Unlike the other baby rabbits she doesn’t need an afternoon nap. She has been learning all the games that the butterflies, mice, foxes and squirrels play and they have all let her join in. Bouncer has great dreams about opening an activity centre for mixed species when she grows up. She prefers to hop up and down on a cushion waiting for her friends to call by so that she can learn some new games.

Baby Hare Emerald

Emerald is a very persuasive and friendly hare and she has been the brains and organiser behind the woodland recycling plan.

All the forest and field animals have been spurred on by her enthusiasm to keep the land rubbish free.

Emerald has always been interested in recycling and reusing and has studied mother nature’s life cycles in detail. Nothing is ever wasted and everything has a purpose.

She is now working to do the same with the human’s litter. Earth worms have been called to action, as have ants, wasps and leeches. They finish the work started by the smaller birds, weasels and rabbits. The hawks, crows and magpies are the main locaters of rubbish and the deer and foxes bring it in for first stage processing by the badgers and otters.

Everyone has been working amicably side by side and the forest is nearly pristine again.

Many unusual but useful items are now in the forest free-shop for those who have a need (such as first time nest builders). They have been considering limiting woodland access to the humans.

Baby Hare Pippin

Pippin loves to get involved with everything though at first she is rather wary and likes to observe for a while.

She always wants to know what is going on and will be there behind you watching before she then decides to help you with your project in her own way!

The other hares know exactly what Pippin is like so they get stuck right in before she comes along. Pippin knows about this and that’s why she holds back for a bit.

It’s a good strategy though because a few times she has saved herself from being covered head to toe in mud, falling into a big hole and walking thru a hidden nettle patch!

Pippin picks things up quickly and she’s very bright indeed. Her best friend is Baby Hare Ann Mari. They spend a lot of time playing together. She prefers to sit on a high shelf with a good view so that she may observe what is going on.

Baby Rabbit Fallow

Fallow is one of the most adventurous baby rabbits in the warren.

She has made individual forays into the meadow to play amongst the grazing deer. The deer love her, ofcourse, and they lick her small body as she scampers around them.

After an exhausting day of play the eldest mother deer walks tiny Fallow back to the warren safely.

Fallow's mother then has to spend hours washing the deer saliva out of her daughter’s slicked back fur. She prefers to sit cosily on a cushion with a view to the meadow, so that she may join her deer friends when they come to graze.

Baby Hare Letta

Letta is a bright and happy little hare and she likes nothing more than to stretch out under the warm sun and have a snooze.

She always has a soft, comfy spot to sleep on and has been gathering dried leaves, dandelion fluffs and soft mosses to add to the mattress. Every now and again a breeze will blow a bit or two away so she is forever on the lookout for soft bits to take home.

Once she was lucky enough to find a very long piece of wool. She spent ages detangling it from the barbed wire but finally got it off in the end. It is curled proudly at the top as her pillow.

A couple of times she has had it wrapped around her ears after an eventful dream.

Letta loves the smell of the newly opened buds as she snoozes and the distant noises of the birds and deer.

Baby Hare Kinder

Kinder is a gentle and quiet hare who has many friends and even more acquaintances.

He likes to meet and greet everyone in the passing, the ducks at the pond, the llamas in the field, the deer in the meadow and the migrating swans as they stop by.

He usually has a small pocket full of assorted tasty morsels and makes sure to have a look first as he pulls out a treat for one of his younger friends, because once he gave a baby rabbit a worm instead of a dandelion flower! Goodness! The baby rabbit wasn’t impressed and the hedgehog went without as the worm made off as fast as he could.

Though Kinder would never harm a living being, he thought the worm had gone as it was lying so still (it was sleeping after ingesting a huge leaf underground and needed some fresh air). Kinder loves to receive so many smiles every day and knows that hearts beat warmly as he comes by.

Baby Hare Fly

Fly is a very handsome young chap with dark russett fur, bright white eye patches, white flashes and beautiful black markings. Not only is he very dashing but he has such a friendly demeanour and makes friends easily.

Fly loves to visit the edge of the marshes every day and he stays there till dusk. His mother was worried that he may get stuck in the mud but when she went along one day she saw that he was in perfect company!

He spends all his time with the magnificient cranes and they make sure that he stays on the dry bits. Mind you, he has been pulled to safety by a big long bill on a few occasions!

Just recently Fly has been helping the mother cranes collect soft feathers to line their nests. He prefers to sit on a shelf with an open window near by so that he may vsit his friends at the marsh. Perhaps you could put out a damp towel for him to wipe his feet on?

Hope you have a healthy, happy and prosperous 2010!