Roo

This is a very difficult and heavy post for me to compose.

I've been putting it off but fact is that if I don't do it, I'll continue not wanting to blog.

I'll continue with this numb feeling & not wanting to say out loud that...

Our Roo Boo is gone...
He passed away on January 26th at 10:05pm

Our handsome Roo has had to leave us and has flown away to be with his Ella Luna.

He passed away just as he lived his life, peacefully, gently & with giant strength & beauty.

We miss him like mad...he was an amazing rabbit and an amazing friend...a real solid soul.

He left us just a short 8 months after Ella Luna passed away...
I am not ashamed to admit that Ella and he were the apples of my eye...
so it's been a really rough year to see two of my best & favourite babies go.

I send out to the universe, a big thanks to our Jaks, for becoming buddies with Roo

and giving our big boy lots of snuggles & kisses during some of his last months.

Love to our Teela too, for being understanding that our boy needed few but gentle visits from her.

Also, thanks to our best friend Maria, she was Roo's Auntie & she spent lots of time stretched out on the floor with him, when he was well & when he was sick, he really grew to love her.

And to my mom & dad, who never left our house without giving Roo a pet first.

But mostly I thank my Jonathan...

whose shoulder I constantly soaked, whose strength & gentleness soothed my torn heart &

who helped me bolster myself up to be the best mom I could be to Roo in his final days.

He hung on as long as he could.  Our giant Chinchilla, our 12 pound baby...he had an enormous spirit.

We got the hypercalcemia disease under control & his bladder emptied of calcium and sediment

within a week of diligent & patient work but apparently this was just a 'surface' problem.

He started falling over at the beginning of December not because of the bladder issue

but because he was suffering from spinal/neurological degenerative disease.

Apparently 9 years old is very old for a large bunny like him.

Over just a few quick weeks, he lost of the use of his back legs then his front legs.

So I put him in a giant basket and never left his side...(that's why I was away for 1.5 months)

I carted him around the house with me from room to room.  He even slept in the bed with us.

He had to have assisted feedings 4 times a day for over a month, he wouldn't give up, so either did we.

I am so grateful that the last week or so of his life was very sunny,

so he spent alot of time napping away in the sunlight which he always loved...our sweet boy.

Right up to the end he was smothering my face with a million kisses...

seriously I think I got over a million kisses from this precious precious heart.

Near the end he couldn't hold his head up, he didnt' want to eat...and well it was the hardest decision to

help him pass right up until the moment we knew it was the right thing to do.

He went surrounded by immense love, with sweet words whispered in his ear & encircled in our arms.

I still can't believe my boy is gone.

He was a best friend and one of thee most special rabbits I've ever had the honour of being a mama too.

I'll miss him every single day until the end of my time.

I fall asleep every night with visions of him and Ella bouncing around together somewhere wonderful.

And whenever I start to fall apart, I quickly remember Roo's grace & strength & utter sweetness

and I remember that he was extremely happy in his 9 year life.

Every time I take a nap, I think of our boy....because boy he LOVED to nap our handsome boy....

and every time I hear a snore, I will smile & think of him again because oh boy did he snore our boy.

I will go forward with his strength now part of my strength & I will always always feel

blessed and grateful that I was the one who found him in a park so many years ago...

one of the best days of my life.

Miss you baby....miss you so so much...thank you for all that you were and will forever be.

Ode To A Gentle Giant

Honestly, I wasn't going to post today because I don't have any new artwork to share
and  well I am usually very fussy with equally mixing rabbit posts with art posts
BUT this blog o' mine is a truthful space
and well  you all know by now that lately bunnies are more present in my days than art-making...
but I have a plan...
a tentative plan, which will allow me to get back to more work!

In the meantime, do let me share some more bunny goodness because indeed
Life feels good
when you have a Gentle Giant Gentle-bun to gaze upon & snuggle the day away with.

I can't believe this is the almost starved little thing I found in the forest a few years ago.
When I found him and he saw me, he laid down...when I pet his head, he stretched out.
When I picked him up...he closed his eyes and fell asleep in my arms the whole walk back home.
And he slept slept and slept some more for almost 2 solid weeks after he was home...
He was just so exhausted trying to live in the wild by himself...

Is my big boy just not one of thee handsomest buns ever

...AHHH, I can barely stand it, ha ha.

He's such a good boy...sometimes more like a puppy than a rabbit.
He runs to you when you call his name...
And when he runs you can really hear it cause he's so big &
well it's one of thee best sounds in the world to me, I just adore it.
He gets the most precious look on his face when he's shy or embarrassed.
He sulks like no one else when he gets in trouble after doing something bad...
Or, when you don't spend enough time with him.
When he's really happy he throws himself over with all 4 legs up in the air &
his pure white belly exposed to the sky and because
he's so big & his back so wide, he usually sticks it and will fall asleep upside down, ha ha.
He loves sleeping and falls asleep at the drop of a hat...
AND
He snores loudly, like a human (truthfully!)...
Sometimes we wake the poor guy up from his snoozes because his snoring is just so loud
and so funny that we can't help but burst out laughing.

He's a happy, calming, soothing & solid soul and I am so grateful to have him around us.
We are especially glad for his gentle and patient ways when it comes to our spazzy
& bossy Ella Luna, we couldn't have asked for a better partner for her.

XO Mandy & Her Snuggle Bud Roo

Side-Tracked By A Furry Face...

Today I worked on this new coloured pencil...

Well, I am tried my hardest to work on it!

Apparently it was a day to be easily side-tracked...

...Because I was working in the dining room

(to be near Ella Luna, in case she needed help),

and whenever I looked down I was greeted by this adorable face...

...Begging for treats

(he knows that we just did a dehydrating batch of pineapple, blueberries and apples for the buns!)

And than he wanted snuggles...

oh boy this rabbit LOVES to snuggle...

And today I didn't seem to have much will power to resist, ha ha.

And well since I can't always be a superstar in the studio, ha ha...
(not that I come anywhere close to that lately, not with my migraines & Ella Luna, yikes!)
...I am calling it quits early
to go enjoy some cake & some wine with my Dad
Because today is his Birthday, and we love my Dad oh-so-much...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD.
WE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU

XO Mandy & Jonathan & The Furry Crew

Roo Boo

I thought today should be a rabbit dose...
a dose of our big boy Roo...just to get my heart a smilin' and hopefully yours as well...

...Cause sometimes when the world is feeling all jumbly and crumbly around you...
Snuggles with a giant grey rabbit are just what the heart needs...

Have a Good Snuggly Day Everyone.

XO Mandy whose spending the day with her Giant Roo Boo

Inspiring Roo

I get such a kick out of our Roo-Boo...

...we are on a mission to get a photo of him when he rolls over & sleeps flat on his back but this side-ways nap is all we've managed to snap a photo of...he's elusive & sneaky that way...it's like trying to catch a good shot of a rabbit yawning, which they do alot but the camera never seems near by when they do, ha ha.

 He's inspired a new series...(I know, for someone who started out so reluctant to do any series work at all, I have so many series on the go now, ha ha)...these will be acrylic washes on birch...I am hoping they'll turn out sweet, simple, & soft like our Roo...

Have a superbly fantastic day everyone...

"Being Happy Doesn't Mean Everything Is Perfect.  It Means That You've Decided To Look Beyond The Imperfections"....loving this quote right now...

XO M & Some Very Inspiring Bunnies...

p.s. End Of This Week Will Be Another Giveaway. 

Roo Boo is All Better...

It was either a milder case of g.i. stasus, a tummy ache...or the long days of intense heat in a house with no A/C that got Roo feeling not so great & not wanting to eat...But he was back to being his handsome bright eyed & bushy tailed lovely self (if not a wee bit fussy!) in the early hours of Monday morn...

...Just thought I'd pop in & tell everyone that all is A-Okay & now we're just catching up on much lost sleep, trying to rid our bodies of all the stress & tension and really looking forward to our next long weekend holiday...

...I am off to a movie date with my sweet mama, to see the 3rd installment of the Twilight series, ha ha I admit I can't wait, I love this series & devoured all 4 books in less than 2 weeks!...see you all very soon for a post about the garden show this past weekend...

p.s.  I just have to share the link for this beautiful Artist's Mantra reading...if your at all feeling pulled away from your art & wondering what it's purpose could possibly be in the grand scheme of things...listen to this, it's so beautiful & uplifting...and true.  Enjoy.

My Process and Summer Days...

I've been feeling abit on edge the last couple weeks and I didn't quite know why, than it hit me, something sooo simple...too much time online which is often, for me a pretty quick and direct route to a whole bunch of stressing, worrying & negative thinking about running out of time to make my dreams come true and not being brave enough to let my creative biz soar...

It's okay, no worries, this is just my routine...the magic that is me, ha ha...I work and work and work and dream really hard, I spend to much time bouncing around online, I flounder about abit, I feel like I am spinning my wheels, I wonder who's looking and caring, I get discouraged (yet my flame is never even near being extinguished!) and than I remember what works for me, what my best process is and what really matters at the end of the day....

...I remember after a couple tiring and tortured weeks that all the stress and worry and excess time online takes me away from my healthy balance and my creating the work that is the main part of my dreams! And once again, like a hundred times before, I realize I can't rush this creative journey of mine, it is what it is and it will be what I want it to be but rushing won't help anyone, especially me...

...SO, I am once again only allowing myself only a few hours online each day and than I get back to what has always embraced me in kindness, calm and abundance...to all of the simple pleasures that help fuel my creativity; coffee, naps, favourite old movies, bike rides, lunch with friends, playing outside, reading, rearranging furniture, baths...and of course days which are beautifully full of time for art making, honey loving, bunny snuggling, music blasting, dancing, good food, time outside with large pastels whiles bunnies romp around my feet...

...you get the point....I am back in my balanced state, it probably won't be for long, I am after all a creative through and through, ha ha but today...today indeed my spirit is calm, my heart is smiling wide and my creative aspirations are feeling incredibly strong willed...

...Ahhhhh...and even my headaches & migraines haven't even been that bad this month, whoot whoot...

....Today I am wishing you all a great weekend with full, calm, happy and hopeful hearts...the photos below show what our weekends usually look like...

We don't have any big & exciting summer plans, no travel will be had...well we did have 1 event that I was looking forward to all year but that was cancelled on us...the bunnies keep us pretty housebound, which sometimes is abit hard because even though we are both homebodies, we are also equal part road hobos who love jumping in the car at a whim BUT when it really comes down to it, we never complain because we wouldn't trade our bunnies for a trip around the world...so indeed, we're having beautiful summer days...hope you are all as well...especially to all you 9-5ers...See yous next week. XO Mandy and the Buns, Ella Luna, Roo, Jin and Apple Jaks.

p.s. Some of these shots will be in my "Bella Bijou" photography shop, opening soon, I am going to take a leap with this, I believe in my photographs and hoping others love em too!

p.p.s I am going to take a couple days off from posting and will be back with you with some new work, oodles of bunny pics and other goodness next Wednesday...

Update On Roo Boo...

Our Handsome boy is doing great. Thanks to all you lovely souls who wrote little messages and left little comments wishing him well. He started to feel better late in the evening Sunday. Tummy Sludge was defiantly a problem, the worse case he's had. Usually his pee goes abit milky and we know to back off on any high calcium foods for a few days and normally it clears up on it's own but this time there was no warning. He started straining and peeing out calcium dust! Our solution was almost 48 hours of flipping him on his back in my arms and force feeding him abit of water pretty much every hour, flipping him upside down allows the calcium sediment to dislodge from the bottom of the tummy (if you look at a diagram of how a bunnies bladder is shaped you'll understand why the sediment gets stuck!), than we would flip him back over and would massage his tummy right away (you have to know to apply gentle pressure and where to do it before you attempt this) after just seconds of massaging his bladder, he would pee and we'd see lots of calcium expelling. This was our routine until we saw consistently clear pee coming out...but than!...

...he still wouldn't eat! Roo also has teeth problems, he has since he was a little babe. So we took a closer inspection of his teeth, which is never easy! and sure enough they were badly aligned again!

I whipped up this quick sketch to show proper alignment and how Roo's teeth looked...

...so it was pretty clear to us that this was a problem also, perhaps leading to the calcium build up possibly. So, we grinded down his teeth with our dremel tool. I don't suggest this for the faint of heart! But we've done it before for Roo and whiles it's tricky and takes alot of patience to get him into the right position, get his tongue and lower teeth and lips covered and therefore protected etc, we were able to grind them down to a normal length and alignment. Grinding them down is much safer than clipping the teeth, when you get rabbit teeth clipped they can actually swallow fragments and it can also lead to hairline fractures of the teeth which would be a whole other ball of trouble...so grinding always works for us... ...about 30 minutes later after doing this, he started to eat with beautiful gusto, ha ha... ...Tummy Sludge totally cleared up...Teeth alignment once again perfect...everyone is good and everyone is happy, thank goodness! p.s. If anyone had tummy sludge or teeth stories/advice they'd like to share, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me. p.p.s. Don't forget about my print giveaway over at Gotta Lot To Give.

More Rabbit Drama and a Sponsor GiveAway at 'Gotta Lot To Give'...

Cross out all that planned stuff and relaxation from the previous post because there's more stress and worry happening here at the Peterson-Saile Warren! Late Thursday Roo suddenly became ill, curled up in a ball in an unusual corner and suddenly refused to eat a single thing. It took us a few hours to pinpoint the problem as Tummy Sludge. We've been through this with Roo before, just not such a severe case. It's partly his fault because he doesn't drink enough water, it's partly our fault because we were giving him too much greens high in calcium and it's partly no ones' fault because from the get go his little system just never seemed to process calcium quite right. We've been up over 24 hours, again...every 30 minutes we're force feeding him water, massaging his tummy and laying him on his back to help dislodge the sludge. At first his pee was coming out as a fine dust, much like baking soda, poor thing. It's very scary and alarming but the constant hydration and other tlc seems to have dislodged most of it and now we're seeing some clear pee coming out without him straining so much...we'll keep doing the same as we've been doing and now we're just hoping he'll start to eat again....how much stress can my little heart take, I don't know!

BUT for some good news....if your interested in a chance to win a free print of mine (the one shown above), please head on over to Melissa's cool blog called "Gotta Lot To Give". I am sponsoring a giveaway with her and there are multiple ways you can have your name entered to win. She hosts a blog that gives things away almost daily and there have been some lovely things up for grabs...I am happy to be included in her oodles of goodies and really thank her for her kind words...let's hope lots of people enter their name, the giveaway is on from today and for the next 10 days...

and let's hope Roo is okay very soon....send us some good energy pretty please. I don't know when I'll post next, most likely only when Roo's better.

A New Hat & Roo

Because our handsome Roo was not feeling well this week, I've spent alot of time at home yet away from my work and studio. With Roo not being well we've had worry and stress, long nights and little sleep and on top of that because of the crazy weather I've had a persistent and annoying week long headache, so I guess my mind just wasn't 100% on my work. So I don't have any new images to show you but I did make another knitted hat, ha ha... This one in a reddish orange colour. After I finished it I weaved a fluffy pure white wool through the bottom half and ended up really happy with it. This one turned out better than the first as I altered the pattern abit. and because I've been mentioning Roo, I thought I'd show one of my recent favourite photos of him...it's kinda washed out and grainy but there's something about it that's warm and nostalgic and I love it. He's doing much better today...the tummy 'sludge' and bladder infection are slowly clearing and he's looking more like his normal self...hopefully he'll be 100% in another day or so.

Another Etsy Showcase and A Sick Rabbit

Hi Everyone, just another quick note today to show you what the Etsy Showcase is featuring today...my lovely hand-made and hand-stitched felt stars. They are getting lots of views which makes me happy.

I must go, our Roo is very sick today and I am completely useless until he gets better...so armed with my mp3 player and an audio book, I am off to go and lay next to his side once more. Wish us good energies during this time...and bear with another day of me not showing you the new picture I've finished, our Roo is priority. See you hopefully either tommorow or next week. Be well and again, wish us and Roo well.

Another Happy Birthday Wish and My New Toy

Firstly today, I am wishing my little buddy Noah, a big Happy Birthday today. Noah is the wonderful and cute-as-pie son of my oldest friend Lisa (who just celebrated her b-day on Monday) and I know he relates me to rabbits quite often so today, I picked this older illustration of mine to share with all of you and to wish Noah a wonderful 5th Birthday. I wish I could be there to celebrate with you little one but some presents are on their way.

So, I got a wonderful new toy. I wasn't going to share my joy of it with anyone because well in the last year I've been 'punished' for my good fortune, nice life and the fact that Jon likes to spoil me and the bunnies! But I realized that hiding my good fortune, innate cheer and luck did me no good either and if people don't like it or aren't happy for me then they really aren't my friends than are they! So with that said a couple weeks ago, Jonathan and I treated ourselves to a new toy, a Sony Alpha slr camera and I just adore it. I seem to be dragging it with me everywhere despite it's weight and it serendipitously fits perfectly in my lovely new Kimono bag, ha ha. Today, I thought I would just share some of my new favourite photos.

I wasn't going to post this one, but my best friend Judit, seems to really love it so I am posting it for her and to show off the cute knitted hat my mom made me awhile back (Judit has the matching one of course).

This little butterfly was so funny. Whenever I got to close he would crawl upside down on the under side of the leaf to hid his beautiful pattern but I finally got a decent shot.

I grew up surrounded by raccoons and I still love them so when I saw the opportunity to snap this close up I took it. He kept laying down on the deck but every time I'd open the door to get my picture he thought I'd have food for him and he'd jump up, ha ha.

And of course here is our handsome and majestic Roo.

So with this new toy finally exposed, I shall be slightly nervous of my honesty in sharing it's delight but I will hold fast to the positive fact that my real friends won't give a damn. Hope your all well and until tomorrow...Happy Creating...or photographing.

p.s. My best friend Judit has just passed along this lovely interview she did for The Organic Mechanic blog. Read the article here. Congrats Judit, it's a very good article.