Bunny Haiku...A Spring Giveaway!

It's time to flex your creative writing muscles and enter the world of Bunny Haiku! Give it a try. Just for fun. See what you can come up with, and leave your haiku in the comments section of this post for a chance to win one of my new desktop dioramas. Read on for details...

Haiku is a beautiful and simple form of Japanese poetry. For each haiku submitted, I will add $1 to my donation to the Red Cross, with Japanese Disaster Relief in mind. Each person may leave up to three different haiku in the comments, for three chances to win.

New to haiku? The simplified version of haiku is usually described as an un-rhymed, three-line poem of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables. Pick one of the diorama scenes pictured here, then write a haiku about it. For example:

(I chose D.)

rabbit haiku fun:
the carrot patch smells sweetest
with posies in bloom!

There are many examples of haiku online-- and you can find wonderful examples of cat haiku in a past giveaway here at 365 Cat Ladies: Cat Haiku

Haiku may also be submitted on my identical blog post on The Hive. Giveaway ends the evening of March 31 at 7 p.m. PST. One winner will be selected at random and will receive their choice of one desktop diorama, which will be shipped anywhere in the world.

Please make sure that I have a way to contact you if you are a winner, such as a link to your blog or e-mail address (you may send info directly to my email if you don't want to make your contact info public). If you visit http://www.susanfaye.net , you will find an email link

Also, if you encounter trouble with the Comments feature, you may send your haiku entry directly to my email ...

Thanks for participating!

And Now A Word Or Two From Buttonwillow on St. Patrick's Day

[May your day be blessed with family, fun, and non-cranky cats...]

And The Winner Is...

Garden Fairy Ellette is so pleased! Thanks to your wonderful suggestions and your votes, her new kitten now has a name: Faerydae.

It was suggested by Chrissykat who said: I think this new kitty should be called "Faerydae." Which means "dark child, a gift from the fairies." And we all know that kitties are gifts we're so very lucky to have. >^..^<
Everyone who suggested a name in the original post was entered into the drawing as was everyone who voted on the final 10 names and left a comment on the second post. If you did both, your name was entered twice!

The lucky winner is Cat Lady Sharon (aka Fuzz) from the United Kingdom. She says "I got my nickname Fuzz at school - my hair was frizzy and it didn't help that my Mum would cut it without wearing her glasses! I love cats and I'm a frustrated artist - I'm a 'colour junkie'."


Sharon will receive a special 10-inch Ellette Garden Fairy doll (as seen in my Etsy shop) that includes her tiny book, a bouquet, and BOTH the bunny and the kitten!

Thank you to EVERYONE who participated and for all of the wonderful and creative kitten names!

My Inner Child Is Alive and Well

My latest creative endeavor is a melding of two totally unrelated things that absolutely delighted me in childhood:

shoebox dioramas
+
panoramic sugar eggs

Shoebox dioramas were my specialty in the fourth grade. Using paper, sometimes clay, scissors, glue, crayons and a shoebox (the ones that my dad's or Uncle Ernie's shoes came in were best, because they were so LARGE), I enjoyed re-creating scenes of Native American and pioneer life--particularly Gold Rush scenes of Forty-Niners.

When I was even younger, it was a special treat at Easter to receive a beautiful sugar egg from my Grandma, a magical confection that had a tiny peephole and a detailed scene inside. We had to keep them on her dresser for a week or two and enjoy looking at them before we were allowed to eat them.

So some time last year, right before Christmas, my inner child came up with this project for Spring and we've been working on it off and on for weeks: It's a desktop diorama!


Peek into this little shadow box and you'll be transported into Rhonda Rabbit's peaceful garden where she'll invite you to relax a bit and commune with nature.

I hand-crafted this mini diorama/shrine/tableau using a "tin" (actually steel) spice box, plus hand-cut paper Rhonda figure and details using a mini-print of my watercolor illustrations made on heavyweight paper.

The box measures 3" square and is 2" deep. It has a clear plastic window in the front.

I hope your inner child enjoys it as much as mine does!

I've just listed two of these Rhonda desktop dioramas in my Etsy shop at this link:
Rhonda Desktop Diorama

.Are You an Opsimath?

Cat Lady Mary S. told me recently that I was an opsimath, a noun meaning "a person who becomes a student or learner late in life", derived from a Greek word meaning 'late in learning'. A few of the things I've learned since turning fifty are: how to make a hyperlink, how to make pickles, what the little bucket does in Adobe Photoshop, how to thread a new-fangled computerized sewing machine, and what the word opsimath means.

As I mentioned earlier this month, I was recently bitten by the doll bug, after drooling for a couple years over the many art dolls I was seeing on Etsy.com and elsewhere, including those of Snippet Girl/Cat Lady Carrie.

So I recently joined an online group called Cloth and Clay Dolls, and thanks to tutorials and helpful hints from many wonderful doll-makers, I'm learning the basics of using paper clay combined with a fabric body to create sculptural dolls. In a bold display of opsimathy, I am proud to introduce the results of my first cloth and clay doll:

Tiger Lil

She started out like this, with a paperclay head formed over a cloth body:

...and wound up like this, a little ginger tabby girl named Tiger Lil. She's all ready for Spring in her little frock that has a tulip border at the bottom.

This opsimathy stuff can be really, really fun!
What new thing are you going to learn this month?

Learn more about Tiger Lil at my etsy shop, where she is available for purchase (she's a wild one and wants to see the world and hopes to wind up in an exotic new locale...)

All Stirred Up

Illustration Friday

(theme:"stir")

Most likely due to cruel taunting as a child, Cat Lady Betty Cracker never uses box mixes when baking, and prefers to stir up her baked good from scratch with the help of kitchen supervisor Ginger Snap. Here is an all-time favorite recipe that is super-easy:

Gold Rush Brownies

2 C. graham cracker crumbs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 (6 oz.) pkg. chocolate chips
1/2 C. pecans or walnuts, chopped

Mix all ingredients together. Spread in a lightly prepared 11 x 7 x 1 1/2-in. pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 min. Cut into squares while still slightly warm.

ENJOY!

International Cat Ladies...The Story of Zoe

How does a multi-lingual half-German, half-Italian Cat Lady jewelry artist from Torino, Italy wind up with a Greek calico cat? Read on...

Anna tells us: "I grew up bilingual and I guess that's where my passion for languages comes from! I graduated in Foreign Languages and Literature from Torino University and I have been teaching German and English ever since, but my greatest passion has always been art and creativity! And, I've always loved cats."

Anna fell in love with the the Greek Islands of the Aegean back in 1997, during a trip to the island of Rhodes. She has returned many times since and that's where the story of Zoe begins.

"The gorgeous light and color of the Aegean are one of my main inspirations in my work. I have lots of friends on Rhodes, both human and feline. One of my favorite places is a beautiful old Turkish cemetery that is one of my favorite spots on Rhodes. It's a peaceful ancient place with old beautiful engraved tombstones under the shade of old magnificent eucalyptus trees...A beautiful little mosque from ancient times and a graceful white minaret make it a really dreamy place full of poetry. Many lovely cats have chosen it as their home, and I love just sitting there and cuddling them... and of course bringing them some goodies!

"My friend Sirpa and other lovely people help the homeless cats living there...In the summer of 2003 Sirpa and I rescued seven kittens from the cemetery, as they were too small to be on their own. One of them was a sweet calico kitten. We took them to the local Animal Welfare society so that people could adopt them. But I had already fallen in love with Zoe... she was so sweet and I just couldn't leave without her!

"Sirpa arranged everything for me: the papers, a cat box, and she took Zoe home for a night before my departure. Everything was perfect, we drove to the airport and I was allowed to keep my kitten next to me in her box: she had her own seat and everybody was in love with her! I still remember that a steward asked me if I needed water for my kitten (before departure - as they do for human babies!), and at landing the captain asked me if it was 'a boy or a girl' and then he said 'Auguri' (best wishes).

"Zoe was an angel... she never cried, she purred when I talked to her and when I put my hand into the box to pet her. Thank God it was a direct charter flight to Milan. Since then we've been happily sharing our home in Torino, in the North West corner of Italy and very close to the Alps.

"Zoe's name is Greek (Zωή), it means 'Life'. A friend of mine suggested this name, as she said I was "giving her a life". Zoe is a sweet, lovely girl who brings a lot of joy into my life, each and every single day! We live in an apartment and we have a nice balcony with plants, where she loves to spend hours in the summer dozing and daydreaming... it's her little garden. She is very sweet but she also has a strong personality: she's a real Greek girl!"

Read more about Anna, her art, and her travels and Zoe at her blog Annuk Creations.
Then be sure to check out her beautiful Greek-Isle-inspired jewelry creations in her Etsy Shop!