Coziness Wished Your Way

Just hopping in to wish you a very cozy jazz filled long Easter weekend...

May you offer & receive nothing but warmth, peace, love and kindness XO

2017 Book Pile

I completely forgot, again, to do my yearly book pile post.

The following 5 are ones that I loved so so much, that I am keeping on my bookshelf,

that I couldn't put down & which I would highly recommend giving a try...

The following 3 were really great too, just a step down for this reason or that

from me super loving them but I still would recommend that you check them out...

(yes that is my poor honey in the hospital bed in that photo!)

The following 3 were in my opinion good but ones I can't put on my great or best piles...

(and yes I know, one of them is Alice Hoffman, my all-time favorite, but I've got to be honest!)

The following 2 I truthfully kinda felt like I was wasting my reading time with but I am sure some

out there might find redeeming qualities, I just for whatever reason in the moment couldn't...

 And these 4 books, sadly, I just couldn't recommend, these 4 I had to push myself to get through...

that's just my humble opinion, I can be pretty hard on books, sometimes it's just the flow of writing

that throws me off from enjoying it, sometimes it's just too much detail that feels useless,

you might want to give them a try, I think any book is worth a try, but these ones I just didn't enjoy.

17 books read...not a stellar reading year that's for sure!

I try to average 2 books atleast a month but it was a hard headpain year

and a very hard year for loosing buns & dealing with sick buns etc.

Let's hope 2018 is stellar and that I find way more to recommend to you.

Thanks so much for hopping in and as always don't forget to check us on on Instagram.

Betty Loves The Outdoors

We're still getting to know Betty...building trust with her is a bit trickier than normal

because we're dealing with her wonky teeth which I am fearing will always be wonky.

But one thing I do know about her already is that she's very very smart...that she loves it outside

& that she's a pro at stairs & has already learnt the way to the back deck all the way from downstairs!

Higgins Is At Home

Higgins is all settled in and doing really really well. 

He's not half as nippy or dirty as the shelter peeps found him to be which is a huge relief.

  

He's still on a special diet because he still has lots of calcium in his pee

but he's looking super duper comfortable & content and that means the world to me to see.

I soooo highly recommend adopting from a shelter...

it's the best feeling to make such a difference in an animals life.

Working, Working, Working

I am whirling in circles between the studios, my new website currently underway & the bunnies...

Things feel crazy but my migraines & headaches have been a lot better the past 3 weeks, hooray!

Betty-Loo's Story

Whew things have been a bit busy around here, I am honestly feeling a bit pooped!

with art work, head-pain, two new buns and the rest of the busy-ness of life etc...

I haven't been able to blog as I normally have been but that's okay...

it's all about fluidity right!

but finally....finally I wanted to tell you a bit more about our newest adopted gal

Betty-Loo

So we adopted Betty-Loo from the Toronto Humane Society.

Meeting and falling in love with her was unexpected.

We drove all the way to the big city to adopt Higgins

but before I even laid eyes for the first time on him

(because he was a special needs adoption agreed to without ever meeting him, like normal)

and as we walked into the room to find our Higgy, we saw Betty and we both said "who is she?!"

We went straight to Higgins of course to meet him but as we were doing that,

I have to admit our attention was also pulled across the aisle to the pen with Betty...

she just sat there like a fluffy ice white princess,

super quiet, calm, lonely against the glass gate of the pen.

So we asked a bit about her.

She had been there a whole year...nobody seemed interested in her

and with a whole new batch of bunnies coming in from an Ottawa shelter,
it was most likely that she would have continued to be overlooked.

The caretakers at the shelter think it was because of her age
& because she has constant weeping eyes that tended to make her look quite sick.

We just had that feeling of 'this one is meant to join our misfit crew...'

and boy we sure were right!

We didn't mind the weepy eyes one bit, I mean of course we wish she didn't have that problem
but a lot of bunnies do because their tear ducts are so small &
can not really be cleaned out once they are clogged up....
we knew we'd clean them for her & Henrie has that problem too,
so we already have to clean his eyes all the time,

adding another bun into that routine didn't feel like a big deal whatsoever.

When we left with our adorable and infamous Higgins...we told the people at the shelter

"We will be back for Betty if at all possible"

I think we deep down already knew that day that we would be bringing her home too.

So when we got home, we proceeded with he usual settling in of a new baby...

but we kept talking about Betty...

when we decided to adopt Higgins we had two places where we could put him,

so why not adopt her and put her in that 2nd area not being used...

Well once we realized we could comfortably do that,

that she'd have 3 times the space as at the shelter & way comfier and cozier

with loads of company, sunlight, music, etc, well we couldn't wait to go get her and bring her home.

So six days after bringing Higgins home,

we made the long journey back to the city to get our girl.

We've done it twice before, bringing un-bonded buns home together, it's a crazy chaotic time

but overtime things settle and than we have the fulfillment & beauty of a completely full home
& the satisfaction of knowing we're helping as many as we possibly can in our current set up.

Her shelter name was already Betty and my hon really found it suited her,

so we just added the 'Loo' for a tiny bit of pretty whimsy...she deserves that.

So this precious heart is over 5 years old, our oldest shelter rescue yet

but she could have been twice that and we

still would have fallen in love and wanted to bring her home.

We know it means we'll have less time with her but we've seen old ones go on and on

and young ones die way to soon so we just love them as long as we're lucky to.

This was her 2nd time being adopted from the shelter, she was in a home before with a sister

but apparently her and her sister were always sick,

the previous person had a baby, than was moving and

apparently the 2 buns were to much to deal with so sadly they were both brought back to the shelter.

Than, maybe because they were never properly bonded, maybe because of the stress of the change

and the loss of their home etc, the two girls started to fight like crazy & cause harm to one another,

so the shelter saw no choice but to separate them.

(which may explain the sadness that we find Betty-Loo has sometimes)

Apparently her sister,

even with liver & kidney problems was adopted long ago but never poor Betty.

Betty-Loo comes to us as a special needs adoption

because she did have a history of teeth problems and we were prepared to face that with her

but we weren't expecting issues right from the start, ugh!

The very first night home, we were watching her eat, or rather try to eat

and we knew something was wrong

because it took her almost 5 minutes to get just one piece of parsley in!

We picked her up, checked her mouth & saw the worst teeth...

top & bottoms were way way to long and splayed on top of that, no wonder she couldn't eat properly!

So she's unable to eat veggies with ease, it takes her half the night & she can't eat any hay at all.

It's been shocking for us that she and her health somehow slipped through the shelter cracks

and it did for a spell cause our faith in the shelter to slip, but mistakes happen, we know it wouldn't have been intentional whatsoever and she's our 12th rescue from the shelter

in half as many years & the care is usually outstanding, so we don't want to hold on to any anger

and they did take steps to offer us and Betty out as much help as they could, which we appreciated.

We just want to get her fixed up and eating normally...which is proving to be a long process

and we are possibly looking at a big dental surgery soon...

but we're so glad this gentle quiet soul is here, right where she belongs.  She is loved so so much.

Lovely Lino

I have a few new lino blocks all cut & ready for printing with a couple in the works, here's a peek...

But I find that I wait until I have a pile of several before I actually get to the process of hand pressing.

An Accident & Reminder

Hi guys....

well Lady Leisel decided to try to take the tip of my dominant finger off a few days ago!!!

so I haven't been able to type much or do much of anything in my studio...

I think I have a few more days of healing before I can start again

because even typing this hurts...argh!

Yes, Leisel has behavioral issues for sure but this was just an accident between us ladies,

she saw me coming with a carrot piece for her...

she apparently was starving and couldn't wait and she jumped up unexpectedly,

chomped down on what she thought was the carrot but was indeed my finger tip

and the weight of her falling back down with my finger in her mouth

just about sheared the whole tip off!  Fun stuff!!!

I can't stress enough...rabbit teeth are incredibly sharp!!!

It took about 4 hours of holding it above my head for the bleeding to stop

but the whole time instead of panicking about the nastiest bite I've ever gotten,
I was panicking about what if I had to get stitches...!

what if the doctors thought I had an evil rabid rabbit & tried to come take her away!!

So I was convinced I couldn't go to the hospital for stitches no matter what...luckily I didn't have to!

But yep, that's where my mind went
than I calmed down a bit and started worrying about infection because it was pretty deep...
no one could know that my Lee Lee did this...
Yep, ha ha maybe I do watch to much Grey's Anatomy!!

My goodness....ugh....
but ya know this is the perfect example with Easter around the corner,

to remind people that rabbits are not good Easter presents unless you've done your research.

Rabbits are very emotional little beings, some more than others and as cute and cuddly
as they look a lot of buns do not like to be held or picked up or are fussy with how they are handled

and for whatever the reason, be it mistreatment, mishandling or a very hungry tummy...
sometimes their nasty pointy teeth make an appearance!
So please think about that & make your Easter gifts chocolate, not living breathing beings
that deserve the world but instead might be dumped outside or in an already crowded shelter,
like Leisel here was, she was clearly abused and clearly neglected before finally
she was dumped at a shelter where she had to wait a long time for experienced adopters!