Rabbits and Walnuts

What do rabbits and walnuts have in common? 

Nothing, really, except that they are being gifted today as a 50th birthday present. The 50 walnuts - opened, emptied, filled with notes, and glued back together for the recipient.

The bunny? This is a hand quilted pillow of my first foster rabbit, Dixie, upcycled from leather and suede resale shop finds.  It’s been 6 years since I first took Dixie in, at the time with the thought that there would be many bunnies taking up residence in my home for only a few short months at a time.  She was with me for 1-1/2 years and partnered with two other bunnies that traveled through my foster home.  Now, four years and many bunnies later, I’m helping Dixie’s dad celebrate his 50th birthday!  Dixie is a very content, kissing, cuddly and smart bunny.  Her dad has taught her to do “tricks” like walking on her hind legs and doing left and right spins. Dixie went to a wonderful home and I’m so very lucky to again be the recipient of her kisses and cuddles.

Earth Day

While I knew that Earth Day was today it didn’t really hit me to do something about it until Google automatically took me to a search of Earth Day. (Could have also been my possessed computer clicking at random as it does.) Every day is Earth Day for me, sometimes by choice and sometimes by necessity. At $3.50 a bag for garbage collection I’m inclined to do as much recycling and reusing as I can.

Today starts the Easter weekend holiday so I my daughter will be home soon from college – I posed the question to her – what should we do for earth day? “Aren’t you supposed to plant a tree?” It’s too rainy to dig a hole today so I decided to save a tree. Feeling the “need” for a new purse lately I decided to spin yarn from newspaper to knit one. Spinning paper has been a “to do challenge” in my mind for some time now so why not today? I should be able to knit up a nice handbag from my yarn – and then I can figure out how to keep the ink from rubbing on to my clothes.

On with the yarn! I picked out a few of the most colorful pages from yesterday’s newspaper and cut a few strips to try. Too heavy! And the join that I usually used to connect my plastic bag strips was making impossible lumps in the newspaper. The yarn was stiff and clumpy and wouldn’t feed onto my bobbin. I cut strips about half the width and joined them end to end with a spot of glue. While it made for a nicer yarn I still had to manually wind it onto my bobbin. Still, I feel success!

A word of caution: bunnies love tearing up newspaper so keep your eyes peeled for rabbits lurking around corners ready to make shreds of your hard work.