Rabbits, Carrots ......................................... & Teasel Hedgehogs

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Goodness I did not mean to be gone for so long 😉 (again!!)

After the two Primitive Rabbits I made in my last Post to give my Grandsons for Easter, I decided to make one for the biggest kid of all ...... Yes - Yours Truly !!

Once again I had an oddment from an old candlewick bedspread.  When I got the name tags made for my Grandsons I also got one made for the actual name of the Rabbit Pattern  - "Wesberry Wabbit"
 

Of course I had to give her a Tilda scarf 💜

She is displayed on my old Telephone Table amongst a few Easter decorations & I love looking at her sweet little face.

I think it was on Pinterest that I first saw the idea of taking apart wooden clothes pegs & then gluing them back to back to make into carrots.  I thought the sizing of these would be perfect to go with my little Tilda Rabbits - A free download from Here (scroll nearly down to the bottom of the page)

However - I didn't want bright orange carrots - I wanted more of a salmon pinky colour.  I mixed together some yellow, pink & dark red paints until I was happy with the colour & then painted my carrots.  I used some Dark Green Perle thread for their carrot tops which I hot glued on.

They are just the right size (& colour) to accompany the Tilda Rabbits I am making 💗

I wanted a jug to keep my Easter Egg Picks in ... the one I used last year was pretty but it got broken.  I saw a lovely pastel one Online with flowers on it, but the price tag was $40 plus $9 freight.  $49 for a Jug .... I don't think so 😕.  I saw the green one above left in Hospice for $3 .... perfect size - wrong colour  ... I painted it with my pale duck egg chalk paint then sanded it ever so lightly.  

I applied some oddments of transfers that I had left over & scuffed the edges of my Jug just slightly before waxing it.

Seriously dear friends ... you do Not need to spend alot of money to get what you are after ... just try thinking 

outside the square sometimes.

The second hand Bookstore in my local village of Kihikihi has a large cart out front with Free Books written on it.  It is full of hard cover & paperback books & they are All Free !!    I came away with an armload last week as I was more than happy to help her disperse with some books 😉.  I removed the dust covers, hot glued 3 of  them together, & then chalk painted them.    I downloaded the Hare Picture free from The Graphics Fairy onto plain photocopy paper 

I modpodged the picture onto the books & then cut through each gap individually ... before tying with some twine & faux greenery. I thought it made a very cute Easter display with my mossy rabbit on top. 

(I also distress inked the edges of the books to give a time worn look)

There is a really great tutorial here on Julies designs & signs YouTube channel where I got my inspiration for the book bundles. 

It is well worth a watch as she explains the whole process very clearly.

Before I sign off dear friends I have had a few emails & comments left lately requesting the pattern for my Teasel Hedgehogs. Unfortunately when you come through as a no-reply-blogger I am unable to contact you to pass it on - so I will insert the instruction sheet here for you to copy off & also if anyone is wanting pictures of the Teasel Hedgehogs then go to this post Here from 2017 ... & there are lots of photos from the class I taught. 

                                          Have a lovely rest of the week dear friends

Remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much love & friendship to You All,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x

Farm Life, Juno 💕 .... & Primitive Rabbits

Greetings lovely friends & readers

From time to time my dear bloggy friend Woodfairy Betty asks to see more aspects of farm life so I thought I would share some in this post.

I rarely get called upon to help on the farm these days but lately I have been helping out a bit due to our Milker/Farm Worker being on a months holiday.   Last Saturday I went out to help The Mr with some fencing & a few days prior we tagged cows together.

This is the Farm Buggy that I got to drive down the farm - I had to follow The Mr in his digger as we put in alot of new fence posts along the main race.
 

We also moved the Herd.  The cows are dry at present but will be calving in early autumn. They were happy to get a fresh paddock with some grass in it.  We own the Herd but not the farm & we milk 220 Freisian Cross cows, which by todays standards is considered a small size Herd.

This is how you fence on Peat Country ... also how you shift heavy concrete troughs.  The farm is 288 acres & is all flat.  We replaced many broken fence posts in the main race & the two farthest paddocks.

On the way back the clouds rolled in & the rain started.  And there was Fluffy waiting on the cold concrete cowshed yard - waiting for The Mr ... certainly Not Me 😉

On Sunday Juno & her parents came to visit, which was lovely as it had been The Mr's birthday during the week.  Look at the arrow in the top left hand pic & you can see there was a certain someone who did Not think Juno's visit was lovely.

She very much enjoyed the pond which I have been busy working on lately & trying to clear & sort out - it was much neglected (by me !!) 😉

She also enjoyed the morning tea I made including (birthday) chocolate cake, home made sausage rolls & pikelets.  It's hard to believe Juno will turn one next month.

I came across this very old Homespun Magazine last year during our Lockdown when I re-read & culled alot of my craft magazines.

I had always wanted to make the chenille rabbit in there called Ms Wesberry Wabbit - a pattern by Melissa Duncan of Mogs Designs.

When I saw online that Love from Seventeen were reducing all their Easter tags I ordered one each for my Grandsons - at half price I could not resist.

Fast forward to a whole year later & I actually got to make the Rabbits.  I had some candlewick fabric that I found in my stash, remnants of an old bedspread so I cut out two rabbits to make up for the grandsons for Easter.

I put the finishing touches to them yesterday - instead of wire for the whiskers as the pattern suggested, I just used some leather thonging I had.  I love the quirky, slightly Primitive look to them.

Now I am under no illusions that the grandsons will much prefer their chocolate Rabbits but I have packaged everything up ready to give them at Easter time.

Thank You for staying with me through this photo-heavy post dear readers

(Just a small note before I sign off .... I was asked a question from Loraine UK but I cannot find a way to reply  as you come up as a no-reply-blogger. If you go back to my post dated Friday July 28th 2017 where you asked the question - you will see I have replied to you in the comments section.)

Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week. 💕

With much love & friendship to You All,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x

Welcome to March ❤

Greetings lovely friends & readers & Welcome to March 💗

March is officially the first month of Autumn here in New Zealand & I must admit I am enjoying that little nip in the air after our hot dry summer.

 I picked a straggly vase of roses as we were forecast rain this week but it hasn't amounted to much & the ground is still very dry.

I had the most delightful surprise package arrive all the way from Australia last week from Sue of                 Kiwikids blog

Everything was packaged just So Beautifully !!

 I had admired some beautiful upcycled silver spoons that Sue had featured on her Instagram page - so when the lady that creates them put more up for sale, Sue chose two & sent over to me as a gift.

As you all know - I just LoVe 💚anything that is giving new life to something old ... I poked them in a plant that sits on my bench top so I can look at & enjoy them whenever I am at the sink.   Thank You SO much Sue for your thoughtfulness.

Also a wee Thank You gift last week from a young Moto Cross rider - I mended her torn Moto X pants & she gave me this beautiful pink begonia as a Thank You. I have planted it in an old metal bucket & it seems quite happy there.

(Click on the pic to enlarge to see the sorry state this was in)

When Sue came to visit back in January she tossed me this vintage wooden drawer set that she had thrifted at some stage, but decided she no longer wanted.  It was heavy solid wood & the drawers were lined with very stained fabric so I imagine it had been used as Jewellery or Makeup drawers at some stage.

I scrubbed it & then gave it two coats of cream chalk paint in the colour Vintage White. I ended up having to give it a 3rd coat as some of the original stain bled through my paint.

When I was happy with my coverage, I found some remnants of transfers that I had cut in to & added a few to take the plain-ness away from the drawers.

I removed the old fabric that was glued in the drawers & used a scraper to remove excess glue.  Then I covered some cardboard with wadding & fabric & re-lined the drawers.  After painting they did not slide in & out so easily so I ran an old candle along the bottom edges of them & this made a huge improvement.

The wee drawer set fits perfectly on the end of my sewing bench & I look forward to filling it with some sewing notions.

I follow the blog A Spoonful of Sugar  & saw this sweet Easter pattern featured at the weekend.  It is now so simple to just click "purchase" & it's instantly uploaded to your inbox - no longer waiting weeks for patterns to arrive in the post.

I first made a pink version - it is so handy when you have a large scrap bin of offcuts to go through & I was able to find a nice selection of pink fabrics to make it up.  I enjoyed it so much that the next morning I enlarged the pattern on my copier & made up a blue version.

This is more of a placemat size & Yes I went through my scrap bin again but also tossed in some offcuts of Tilda fabrics.  

I am really happy with my coasters & it has made me feel like pulling out my Easter decorations now that we are into March & Easter is only about a month away. 

(I should note here that I am supposed to be working on a large Candle Order but am waiting on an Order of Soy Wax to arrive & as Auckland is once again in Level 3 Lockdown - the postage is taking forever to get anywhere.)  

Many of you comment or email me when I do a post that doesn't feature my two furry friends so I thought I would show you where they both are today as I sit typing this post. 

  Miss Pippi is on the spare bed where she is "warming" a piece of chenille I pulled out this morning to make a rabbit from,  & Fat Black is tucked away in the back of my Sewing Wardrobe where he has been sleeping since Tuesday when Sid pulled the buckets of toys out to play with - No we are not able to put them away as yet 😉 (but we live in hope)

Thank You dear readers for your ever-welcome visits here today,

I hope the week is going well & treating you all kindly,

With much love & friendship to You All,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x0x