Pink Friday at Make Mine Pink

Please join us at Make Mine Pink for shopping with a twist on Friday July 10, 2009 as we present
"SUMMER PORCH AND GARDEN"


There’s nothing more inviting than a summer porch and garden. It can be a source of shade when the temperature gets too warm, a place of shelter during a gentle summer rain, or just a place to sit with someone special on a lazy summer day. It can be a welcoming start your day with your favorite antique tea cup in hand or a front row seat to watch the sunset from the weathered oak rocker, that in it’s day sat proudly in your grandmother’s home.

A welcoming porch and garden can create a friendly entryway to your home. A welcome sign hand painted with pink roses perched against the railing or a lilac berry wreath with a scent as inviting as it looks, letting guests know that you're glad they're here before you've said a word. If entertaining guests, perhaps vintage chairs, refinished and made comfortable with dainty floral needlepoint cushions, or a white painted table set with a vintage lace-tablecloth like your mom and before her - grandmother used.

With the right accessories, a porch and garden can even become an extension of your home. For candlelit evenings, a candle inside a
topiary lantern casting a romantic glow. For lazy afternoons, a daisy metal basket filled with fresh cut flowers, a knitting project, or even as cliche as this sounds, a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade and a favorite books. Tucked in the corner, a vintage pink metal watering can kept handy to water the flowers in the window boxes while the lace curtains on the windows gently sway in the afternoon breeze. As much comfort as your home, with the right accessories.

You can add a cottage touch to your garden with decorations like ceramic garden mushrooms and inspiring garden plaques sprinkled with just the right amount of glitter. Tea cup bird feeders, handmade birdhouses, and antique iron birdbaths are all welcome sites for feathered friends. Remember to add a touch of whimsy just to make you smile - like a basket of flowers placed on a pink bicycle.

No matter what your summer days hold, a porch and garden can provide the ideal setting for friends, family and even a private retreat. Won’t you join me for a cup of tea as we help you design your summer porch and garden.

Joyce Lucas, Founder of Make Mine Pink
Photo Contributions: 1 Camelia Cottage 2 Shabby Shan's Cottage

The Shop Hop is Coming!

It's July already and every year I tell myself that I'm going to start getting ready for Christmas in July. I love to make my own cards and usually I'm running around like a crazy woman (more so than usual) trying to get everything done. Well not this year. I made myself a promise and I'm going to keep it. This year I'm starting in July so that when December get's here, I can sit and enjoy the season, the festivities and have some peace.

My pink sister's and I over at Make Mine Pink are having a fun and festive Shop Hop! You simply hop to each boutique, find the shopping bag and then get registered for prizes! Oh I just love prizes!

In addition, I'm offering a Mystery Stitchery Project and it's FREEEEEE. All you have to do is hop over to my website The Raspberry Rabbits each day and get your free stitchery pattern. The pattern will only be available for that day. Each day of the hop is a new one. Then... after you have collected them all, you will have two weeks to put the project together (don't be scared, you can do it). Then you send me an email and a photo of your completed Mystery Stitchery. I will pick three winners from those that participate. Your prize will be any pattern from my site and a bag of fusible fleece!

So join me on getting with the program early this year so we can kick back and relax at Christmas instead of kicking ourselves in the butt for procrastinating yet another year.

Looking forward to Hopping and Shopping with you!

bunny hugs,

shell

Brown and Blue

I'm just loving the combination of Brown and Blue together. The warmth and coolness of it. The contrast without harshness.

This picture of Razzy made me think of his gorgeous Brown fur and the Blue look on his face.

He was giving me the "I'll feel happier if you give me a carrot" look.


These are some fabrics that I just got. I've have the coolest pattern designed for them. Very "French Cottage." Stay tuned.

bunny hugs,
shell

Sugar is Sweet

I debated and thought and then thought some more about sharing this news with all of you. Mainly because we have a bit of a journey ahead of us. Mainly because we still have aching hearts over the loss of our beloved Chloe. Mainly because I couldn't get a grip on my thoughts and emotions. Then I paused and thought... Shell you have wonderful friends. People you have never met, yet their warmth, love and hugs, are felt. Oh heck, let's take them along for this journey. Traveling with good friends is always much more fun!




So.... I would like to introduce you to Sugar.


Last week I was forwarded an email by my good friend Paula at Cape Fear House Rabbit Society Paula is an incredible woman that I have had the pleasure to get to know. She rescues rabbits, nurses them back to health, finds them good homes, or if they are not adoptable, keeps them in her care to live out their lives in a sactuary. I adopted Rosey and Chloe from Paula. So... Paula forwards me an email from a couple just 20 minutes from me that have rescued some rabbits and they want to know if Paula knows anyone in the area that would be interested in giving a loving home to some female rabbits that just had babies.

At first I didn't know what to do. My emotions were running wild, the tears still falling and my heart still aching. Then the couple sent me her photo.

Here was this poor little bunny that weened her babies outside in the heat (we live in NC and it's been in the 90's!) I looked at her sad eyes and the scared look on her face. Then I read about where this couple got her. Apparently there was a crazy weirdo man that had about 40 lop rabbits in his back yard just running around. The bunnies would dig under the fence and try to escape. The man got tired of trying to catch the fleeing bunnies and decided it was easier to sit on his front porch with a shot gun and just SHOOT them!!!!!!! Sugar and her sister, both of whom were pregnant, managed to run to a neighbors house without getting shot! Then this couple came and took them and the remaining 8 bunnies back to their house. Sugar was placed in a pen outside with male rabbits on either side of her. The male rabbits would spray her with pee to "mark" her. She had her babies and they were weened.
These are the Sugar Babies. I wish I could take them too. They are up for adoption if anyone is interested.

I tossed and turned all night and couldn't get the sad image of Sugar out of my head. Her name came to me out of nowhere. The next morning, my good friend Michelle went with me to see her. Upon picking her up, she snuggled into my neck and pretty much wispered "don't leave me here." In the carrier she went and into the a/c of the car. My friend Patricia said she went from the slums to the Four Seasons in one fail swoop! hee,hee,hee.

Razzy has been doing ok, but I know he misses Chloe and the companionship of his friend. They always snuggled together and Chloe always groomed him and showered him with kisses. I thought to myself how bad off I would be without my friends. Getting Razzy some Sugar felt right. It not only felt right for Razzy's heart but for mine and David's as well. Giving a little critter a safe place to live and lot's and lot's of love is what we do, no matter how brief that moment may be.

So... now comes the journey part. We can't just throw her up in Bunnyville with Razzy. Bonding rabbits is a process and a journey. Right now she is living in a playpen in the foyer. Since she has never been properly fed, we are working on getting her diet in order. All her nasty pee stained fur will shed out and I know she will be soft and glowing. On July 28th we will get her spayed. The first weekend in August we will move her (in the playpen) up to Bunnyville where she will be able to sniff and see Razzy and he will be able to see her. From there it could be a couple of weeks to see how they do before we actually let them go free together.

So.... are you up for the journey with me?? We know Chloe is looking down on Sugar and saying , "don't worry, your safe now and loved."

Sugar is sweet.

hugs,
shell
This week IGF Paula at Cape Fear House Rabbit Society and her incredible heart and her friendship to me.

Thank you for this Award

Thanks so much to my friend "Sparklyjools" over at Adventures in Thread for this award. Jools is an incredible doll artist! Hop over and check her out!

I have to pass this award on to 8 other creative people. Here are a few rules when accepting your award (these are not my rules) Please feel free to deliver this gift to 8 other people and include the following text with the award on your site:

These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. I'm passing this award on to the following people who I've been inspired by, and love reading their blogs.

Tiffany at Shabby Scraps
Freckles and Deb
Charmaine at Beautiful Things to Share
Diane at Duda Daze
Lori at My Faerie Window
Margaret at The French Bear
Rima at Into The Hermitage
Kim at Prims by Kim

I so enjoy visiting with all of you!
bunny hugs,
shell

Dancing in the Rain

There seems to be a lot of storms around me lately. Storms of nature, Storms in the economy and Storms in the heart. Sometimes the lightning just keeps striking and the tears fall like rain.

But, if we can just stop for a minute, quiet our minds and open our eyes wide,

We will see that the blue skies of blessings always return.

That we have shelter and a refuge.

(my home)

We will see that there are always beautiful things to help us remember.

(a beautiful rose bush gift from my bookclub friends in remembrance of Chloe)

That our lives are still bountiful and we will continue to grow and ripen

with spirit and sweetness.

(my raspberry bushes)

That breathing the air can smell like perfume and calm the soul.

(my gardenia bush)

That creating comes from the heart and mends it at the same time.

(a peek of my newest pattern, "Fleur de Bunnies")

And that always and forever,

Love is the greatest of all things.

"Life isn't about waiting for the Storms to Pass, It's about learning to Dance in the Rain."

Wishing you a beautiful dance this week.

Shell

This week IGF friends in person and in blog land that helped me through this storm and held my hand for the dance.

Love you all.

Pink Friday at Make Mine Pink!

Please join us for shopping with a twist on Friday June 26, 2009 as we present "A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME"

I've never seen a rose I didn't love. From the first blossom of spring, gently swaying in the breeze, to an intricately stitched needlepoint rich in history, I love them all. Silk roses mixed with a bunch of silk hydrangeas, gracing a vase on the mantle. Cabbage roses on a sugar bowl and creamer, brought out for a grandmother's tea. Colorful rose cupcakes scented as beautifully as they look. Roses represent so many wonderful things and are often used to celebrate special milestones such as weddings, births and anniversaries. We might write a special announcement on stationery with long-stemmed yellow roses lying against a background of a French poem. Use white satin roses to create wedding memories in a vintage box. Roses have also been used throughout the centuries in home décor. Like wild pink roses painted on porcelain china plates. A crystal bud vase embellished with a pink silk rose, ready to hold a freshly picked rose bud from the garden. A French ribbon rose attached to a crocheted cushion in the living room. Hand built ceramic roses to use as drawer pulls, or as a magnet to hang up a special photograph. Milliners used silk roses to embellish the finest hats; perhaps one covered with embroidered lace and handmade millinery roses. Seamstresses stitched the richest brocade drapes adorned with roses. Grandmothers embroidered the most delicate rose patterns on tablecloths and handkerchiefs. Now we can give silky velvet rose pins a special corsage. For everyday occasions, you might wear a vintage pink rose apron or admire a rose-shaped pillow made of hot pink satin.
Throughout the years, famous artists have studied and painted every aspect of the rose. Antique lithographs and post cards from the 1800s grace our homes today with their everlasting beauty. From a rhapsody of roses printed on canvas and hung over a doorway to garlands of decal roses that make favorite items look hand painted, roses continue to gracefully fit every lifestyle and décor.

Photo Contribution 1: Katie's Rose Cottage Photo Contribution 2: The Decal Cottage