NOT JUST ANOTHER BUNNY

I've finished the second of my bunnies and at this point there are only three more to go. I'm trying to keep them from looking like anything that you've ever seen before. I'll leave the vintage style Easter rabbits to those who are good at it and concentrate on showing you what sort of rabbit I see when I think Easter Bunny.

All of the work of dying eggs and making up the baskets is done in a factory now adays you know. Sure, it's still being done by bunnies but now they have a union and have a  great benefits package.  The medical alone ... well you can imagine what that can mean with the size of rabbit families.

The head bunny at the North Pole Easter Egg Factory or the NPEEF as we like to call it, is Pugsley who you've already met.  I've heard he can be a real task master but that is just what I've heard. The bunny you're meeting today is one of the master colorists and has been working at the factory for all of his adult life. His name is Beauboo Bunny and he's shy and somewhat timid and doesn't have much to say but I'm told he's an excellent worker.

After coloring his eggs Beauboo must take them to be inspected. Quality Assurance or QA has become a big deal in the Easter Egg industry.

Uh....hello?

Is anybody here?

Uh...Guys?

Where is everybody?

Yoohoo!!

Has everybody left for the day?

There you are Beauboo, getting in a little overtime are you?  I don't suppose you feel like going for a nice cold carrot juice after work now do ya'?

Uh...sure boss.

I was told Pugsley looks somewhat like one of my Santa figures. It might be the white fur on his face and chest does make him look a wee bit like Santa. I doubt anyone will mistake Beauboo here as being a Santa impersonator.

I've painted him a soft pale gray with darker under tones and have given him a white face and cotton tail. Beauboo is sculpted from paper mache clay and the eggs in his basket are made with cold porcelaine clay.

I'll be painting or sewing for the next few days while I wait for paper mache to dry. What are you working on?

As always, thanks for stopping by.

GREEN WHITE AND GOLD

Happy Friday, it's Bellamine & Wendy and it is time for our guest post. We've been promised by our mom that we can have Friday to post any time we want. We're okay with that for now but we're still hoping  for our own blog some day.

We're calling this post Green White and Gold cause that's the color combination we used to decorate our little tree for St. Patrick's Day. If you remember we talked M into keeping it out when they packed away the Christmas decorations so we can change it for the different holidays.

We asked her to buy us a shamrock cookie cutter cause we were going to make salt dough ornaments and she did buy us one but it was like humongous!!! Like, Mom, what's with you? Did you even think about why we wanted a shamrock cookie cutter? We didn't want it for cookies but since we have it we guess we wouldn't mind if you made us some sugar cookies. 

Since we didn't have a small cookie cutter we had to think of something else to decorate with. Lucky for us we're clever at coming up with ideas. It's that and the fact M took us to the craft store to see if there was something there we thought we could use.

Here's how our tree turned out. We think it's pretty and hope you do to. If you don't think so, don't tell us cause we worked on it really, really hard and spent all of our allowance decorating it.

So, what do you think Sampson, do you like the tree?

There are only three different types of decorations on this tree and they are either green or white or gold. There's a checkered bow on the top that is all three colors.

The gold is the leprechaun's gold coins. Neato!! We got to drill holes in the coins with M's drill. That required supervision cause it's a power tool.

Sampson is really taken with the bowl of pillows. M is making some that look like shamrocks and 4 leaf clovers.  She says they're called tucks or bowl fillers. We just call them pillows.

We wrapped the basket that the tree sits in with green and white fabric and tied a white ribbon around it.

We think we had a good idea when we decided to keep the tree out. M said, "I can't wait to see how you're going to decorate it for Ground Hog's Day." She thinks she's funny but we think she's a doughnut short of a dozen.

Is anyone else hungry? Talking about doughnuts made us think about the birthday cake in the kitchen. We're going to get some cake and then we're going to visit our bear friends who post on Fridays.

We almost forgot to tell you something really exciting. We got out applications for Camp Good Bear in the mail this week and M said we can both go. We're so excited cause we're going to see a lot of our bear friends there and it's going to be so fun!!!!

Have fun and eat lots of peanut butter and honey with plenty of hot chocolate and laugh and play all day. That's what we always do.

Heaps of hugs,

Bellamine & Wendy and the North Pole Bears 

FIRST OF MY PUDGY BUNNIES

February is a month for birthdays in my family. Today my son Ken is celebrating his and  yesterday my grandson AJ had his. The day before that was my brother-in-law Ron's birthday. My grandson Donovan had his birthday on February 2nd and my mother's birthday was on the 8th. For a short month we made the best of it.

I told Ken I was baking him his favorite cake and here's his reaction:

Do you think maybe he likes cake? Happy birthday Ken!!!

I've been working on some paper mache rabbits for Easter and I finally have one painted and ready for his debut. The ones I have made so far all appear to have packed on a few pounds over the long winter months. I was trying to come up with a name for this one and finally decided to name him what I've been calling him all the while I worked on him.

I would like you to meet Pugsley Cottontail.

Okay, turn a little to your right so we can get a better look at what you've got there. Pugsley is carrying a green painted metal bucket with a rope handle that holds a bouquet of flowers.

Let's get a look at that tail. It really does look like it's made of cotton. Okay, turn a little more...

Without the bucket in the way you really can see the pudgy tummy.

"Hey, who're you calling pudgy?? You got a problem with chubby rabbits?? I didn't think so!

I should be able to start painting another bunny tomorrow. It seems to take forever for the paper mache to dry this time of year. 

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already. I have an idea for something else to add in with Miss Kanin but it's a surprise so I can't tell you what it is.

As always, thanks for stopping by 

BLOG ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY

My first year blog anniversary is coming up on March 6th so I thought what better time than now to have a giveaway. Since there are also two holidays coming up I took that into consideration for deciding on a prize. 

Easter wins hands down for being the most popular holiday of the two for decorating so I needed to come up with something that would be special and unique and would be something you could use to decorate with for Easter. I say special and unique because nothing short of that will do as a prize to be given to one of my fabulous followers.

Trying to decide on something that is special and unique is a lot harder to do than you may think. Well, it is for me anyway. I'd thought about making some sort of Easter eggs but have been seeing them pop up here and there on some of your blogs so I ruled them out. Not quite unique enough.

I then thought about making a pattern for a one of a kind bunny doll and that sounded like it just might be the perfect prize. After some trials and errors this is what I ended up making.

This is little Miss Kanin (Danish for rabbit) who is out for a stroll. She's carrying a basket for the wild flowers that bloom in the field near her hutch.

She is wearing a hand stitched cotton dress of dusty rose with small blue flowers that is topped with a white cotton apron trimmed with pink and blue stitching.

She is made of muslin and is button jointed so she can be posed either sitting or standing.  She has embroideried features and stands  8 1/2" tall. 

Here are the rules for entering this giveaway.

1.  Be a follower of this blog.

2. Leave me a message on this post telling me you would like a chance of winning this doll.

That's it!! Nothing more than these two requirements.  I will have the drawing for the winner on March 6th.

What could be easier? Since there is still a little over two weeks until my anniversary I'm bound to be making something else to add to my giveaway. I'm not sure yet what it will be, guess we'll just have to wait and see.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

SEW, WHAT'S NEW??

As usual I'm having trouble deciding what I want to work on next. Since this is now my full time job, I'm my own boss and I'm not very good at disciplining myself. My problem stems from having too many ideas and not being able to settle on doing one thing at a time. While I'm waiting for my paper mache clay to dry enough to paint I've been looking for other things to work on.

The day before yesterday I stained some fabric so I could use it to experiment with. Now that I have my wooden bowl looking so nice I'm going to need bowl fillers. The hearts were my first attempt at tucks and once I'd had a taken a step into the world of prim I want to see what else I might come up with.

At this point I'm trying my hand at making a few patterns for Easter and here is my first attempt.

Okay, I never claimed to be good at this, cut me some slack, this is the first bunny I've ever made. I'm bound to get better at this if I keep trying. Right??

I was trying to come up with ideas for making bowl fillers for St. Patrick's Day and decided I need to do some more thinking on the subject. I could always do shamrocks, that was easy to come up with, but what else is there? Maybe little pots of gold at the end of little rainbows? How about cabbages or maybe potatoes? Mugs of green beer? Do you see the problem I'm having? St. Paddy's Day is a bit complicated so I shot right past it for the moment and straight on to Easter.

Today I'm going to be making a few more patterns and testing them to see how they turn out. I have a cloth bunny doll pictured in my mind that I need to make a pattern for. Then I need to get the woolly worm rug finished so I can vacuum up all of the fuzzies. Then I need to tear up some more strips for my next crocheted rug. After that I have fabric to sort through and that could take hours. 

What are you working on now? Guess I'll go blog hopping and see what you've been doing.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Bellamine & Wendy here and we want to wish all of our friends a beary happy Valentine's Day. Mom didn't tell us about Valentine's until after it was too late to make some cards and get them mailed to all our friends so we are doing the next best thing and giving you this cute little bear Valentine now.

Yesterday we got a package in the mail from our Oma Linda. We knew we were going to be getting something but we didn't know what because it was a surprise. This is what was in the package.

Oma made us this beautiful Valentine with pretty hearts and building blocks. There was some chocolates for us and we didn't even have to share. We are keeping the pretty pink paper heart and next year when we decorate we will put it out with the blocks which we're going to leave sitting out all of the time cause we love, love, love it so much. Did you hear that Oma?  

We already ate our chocolates but Mom bought more. 

We hope everyone is having a wonderful day and getting lots of chocolate and Valentines and cakes and kisses and hugs. Love is what Valentine's Day is all about so we wish you all a day spending time with those you love and who love you. We're lucky cause we've got a lot of love going on here.

~Happy Valentine's Day~ 



Heaps of hugs,

Bellamine & Wendy 

 the North Pole Bears & Maddyrose

An Enchanted Tree With Heart(s)

I've been working on several projects this past week and have one finished and I thought I'd share a few photos with you. Last post there was a tree covered in hearts and fairies which ended up sitting on the buffet in the dining room.  This time I'm going to show you what an enchanted tree might look like dressed for the holiday. I decided to try something different with the decorations for this tree.

Okay, laugh if you must. It's not like this little guy is going to hear you. You may remember this tree from a previous post. I used a pattern that my sister Maggie was selling on her blog. He normally has three leaves and a crow adorning him but for this occasion he's covered in hearts.

The hearts are made from paper mache clay and I painted them with a base coat of black gesso then two or more coats of acrylic paint then after sealing them I dry brushed a metallic antique gold paint lightly to give the hearts a soft patina.

Some of of the hearts have eyelet hooks screwed into the V of the heart and then were threaded with black and gold metallic ribbon. Others I threaded gold jewelry making wire and metallic gold thread through a hole I drilled.

  

I've always thought the objects made from paper mache clay have the look and feel of wood. In this instance it makes me think of stone or metal. These little hearts have a jewelry like quality. They would make great pendants which is why I hung the largest one the way I did.  

Our little enchanted tree has such a sad look about him I decided he needed someone to cheer him up and who better than Myrtle the Queen of Luv?

Myrtle arrived in the mail this week.  She is the prize I won in the giveaway at LLA Creations. Over at LLA Creations, Lisa has the most adorable and whimsical creations that she carves from wood. If you haven't been to her site you should pay her a visit.  I'm sure you'll keep going back.

I've also been working on a rug crocheted from "woolly worms" that Maggie gave me. It would be done if I'd work on it more consistently but the worms which are long narrow strips of wool blanket are very fuzzy and they make such a mess not to mention make my hands itch. I'll probably finish it up today.

I'm also working on something for Easter and a few other projects that you'll have to wait to see. Hope you enjoyed your visit and leave here with a smile on your face. 

~Happy Valentine's Day~

As always, thanks for stopping by.

BUSY BEARS CREATING

Here we are again. Good thing for Mom she has us to pick up the slack. Seems she's been in a bit of a slump where creating is concerned, but not us. Nope!! No way are we in a slump!

This week we made some pretty Valentine's hearts out of salt dough and painted them. There are 50 hearts and we painted them four different colors. The lacy edged ones we painted white and then gave them a pearl finish. The plain edged hearts we painted with Sweetheart Blush for the darkest color and then mixed it with white for the second color and then more white to make a really pale pink for the third color. We finished them with crystals sprinkled over mod podge but it doesn't show up very well in the photos. Darn! The crystals make them look really sparkly.

We used gold jewelry making wire to hang the hearts on our little tree. We convinced Mom to let us decorate our tree differently for each of the holidays, not just Christmas. Neat idea, don't you agree? 

We covered the basket that the tree sits in with light pink fabric and tied it with a pretty ribbon.

We thought this little music box looked nice sitting near the tree. It used to belong to our grandma Audrey but we have it in our room now.

Here is a close-up of one of the fairies that have come to sit in our tree. There are two different types and we're not sure how many of them there are and we're afraid to count them because we don't want them to get spooked and fly away.

Here's where we set our tree first. It's a table in front of the window of our room. Mom said it was so pretty we should put it somewhere everyone could see it, so we told her we would let her put it on the buffet in the dining room.

It does look nice sitting there next to the bowl of hearts and the pretty little doll with Sampson on her lap.

Wave at the camera, Sampson.

Isn't he the cutest little bear? He likes being held.

Mom has more hearts in this room. There's the heart shaped wreath on the wall with a really pretty felted heart she received as a gift from her friend Jan hanging from it.

There's another wreath, not heart shaped, but it does have a heart hanging from it that she got from our Oma Linda.

We're already starting to work on ornaments for another holiday. Here's a sneak peek.

There they are, next to some of the hearts we just finished. We can't figure out why Mom says that pink isn't one of her favorite colors. We love it. Pink and purple. We love them both.

Well, we're off to visit our bear friends who blog on Friday. Hope you enjoyed seeing our tree. It was fun to make and we think we might have inspired Mom. She's making some little hearts out of paper mache clay. We tried to make some too but that stuff is sticky and messy and our hearts didn't turn out. They looked like yucky, nasty lumps, not very pretty. You don't want to know what they really looked like. When Oakley said what he thought they looked like, Mom said, "That's enough potty talk." Our friend Wilbur made some and boy oh boy he's really good at it!

Well, thanks for visiting and do come back.

Hugs from the North Pole bears,

Bellamine & Wendy

BLOG AWARD

My blog was recently tagged by a dear friend, Miyako, who has the delightfully entertaining and informative blog, Orchid's Daily Voice with the Liebster blog award. Liebster is German for favorite. This award is given to blogs with less than 200 followers. I'm supposed to list the names of five blogs I follow that have less than 200 followers and it hasn't been easy.  I've finally settled on the five that are listed below.

1.  Dianie Mac Designs 

2.  Colony Mountain Stitcheries

3.  Kay's Kids

4.  Sharon's Fancy

5.  Ye Olde Crone's Gazette

The rules are to list the five blogs and make contact by leaving a message in the comment window letting the blog owner know they've been tagged. 

Do a post telling who the award came from and finally put a copy of the award on the side bar you your blog to be copied by the award recipients.

Thank you for thinking of me, Miyako and hopefully the bloggers whose blogs I have tagged will know I tagged them because their blogs are deserving.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Today we're going to show you how we spend those long winter days when Mom is too busy to play with us. We should mention that she's too busy most of the time. If we were insecure little bears that might be a problem but we're not so it isn't.

Not too long ago we read a post about a bear who was bored and didn't know what to do to entertain himself. We thought it would be helpful for us to show you how we combat boredom.

First off we have stacks of books to read and are working our way through the Harry Potter books. We can spend a whole morning or afternoon reading cause the books are so good we don't want to stop. We take turns reading out loud.

We also have games and jig saw puzzles. We got some new puzzles for Christmas and have been putting them together. Some of them are really hard so we can spend days working on the same puzzle.

This can't be all of the purple border pieces. Clarissa, hand me those piece you've got. I think they fit here somewhere.

Mom says to do the borders first so look for the borders.

This isn't all of the pieces for the snowman. Look for more of the snowman.

The piece is the right colors but it doesn't fit. It's gotta fit.

Grab that piece right over there...

When we get tired of puzzling we have crafts supplies to work with. Since Valentine's day is less than two weeks away we're thinking about making decorations. Mom has left some pretty pink fabrics laying out on the cutting table so we're going to make something with it.

Hang on, this pattern making isn't as easy as it looks. Let me try another one.

Ah... Bellamine I think you're supposed to pin the pattern on the material before you cut.

Mom bought us some cookie cutters and promised to help us make some salt dough so we can try our paws at making ornaments for our Valentine's tree.

Hope this was helpful in giving you ideas of things to do to pass the time on those long winter days.

Since Mom hasn't let us have our own blog yet, she said we can do a guest post any time we want so we're thinking up more things for future posts.

Please come back and visit when you have time. We love to show off, we mean we love to visit.

Hugs from the North Pole Bears,

Bellamine & Wendy