Bunnies – Page 2 – Thimbleanna

Adventure & Giveaway

159 Comments / March 28, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Bunnies, Recipes

I had a little baking adventure this weekend. For a long time I’ve wanted to buy a kitchen scale – mostly because I see so many recipes on non-US blogs that give ingredients by weight, rather than volume. I discussed a scale purchase with TheManoftheHouse and he poo-poo’d the idea. His reasoning was that my culinary skills have survived just fine so far and therefore I didn’t really need one. So, I did what any self-respecting wife who really wants something would do — I went and got one anyway and “snuck” it into the kitchen.

TheManoftheHouse walked into the kitchen, just after I had installed the batteries. (Busted!) “So, how does it work” he said. “See for yourself” I replied and I placed the stick of butter that says 4 ounces on the scale. That was that. He was sold. (He’s easy.)

Now to try it out. A few weeks ago, my blog buddy Anne in Scotland (you know how I love me my Scottish bloggers!) shared some cookie recipes and I really wanted to try them. I decided Anne’s recipe would be perfect for the inagural run of the new scale. First up was 3 ounces of sugar. I took a wild guess and scooped up 1/2 cup of sugar and poured it on the scale.

A little bit too much, so I removed some until it hit 3. I’ve read some volume-to-weight converts say that they think measuring by weight is more accurate and easier than by volume. I’ll definitely concede that it’s more accurate, but it doesn’t seem easier to me. Scooping up a cup just seems easier than putting an ingredient on the scale and then adding or removing to hit the right weight. It’s not a big deal though, just different.

Next up, was the flour. The recipe called for 5 ounces, so I guessed with a cup of flour. This time it wasn’t quite enough.

I was beginning to feel like goldilocks here! Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything else to weigh — I’m betting I would have found the just right size on the third attempt!

Anyway, I made Anne’s Melting Moments. TheManoftheHouse gave them his stamp of approval, and he’s pretty picky about his cookies. I wasn’t too sure about the cherries, so I saved one without a cherry and pressed an M&M into it when it came out of the oven. It wasn’t necessary — I loved them just the way Anne’s recipe suggested.

I also made Anne’s Mars Bars Cakes. Anne suggested that what they call a Mars Bar is what we call a Milky Way, so that’s what I used. I molded them into little nests and added some jellybean eggs. They’re yummy — they taste like chocolate rice krispy cookies.

Thanks for sharing your recipes Anne! And, if you’re a US cook and you’ve been on the fence about a kitchen scale, jump in. I heard on a radio cooking show several months ago that within the next five years all cookbooks in the US will be published with weights in them, so you might as well be ready!

Ok, now that you’ve suffered through my cooking adventure, we’ll get to why you’re really here. You’ve all been so fantastic to comment and give me lots of project love, so I thought we should have a little giveaway. How ’bout a bunny giveaway — it’s been awhile since we’ve had one.

Make Life by Sweetwater is my new fabric crush, so I’ve made a Make Life bunny. He’s excited to find a new home — and he’ll be bringing along a 1/2 yard security blanket piece of my favorite Make Life print.

To be entered for the drawing, there are six things you have to do. Just kidding — I’m not going to make you touch your toes, stand on your head, or sell your soul. Just leave a comment. Easy peasy.

I’ll have TheRandomManoftheHouseGenerator guess a number next Monday — so you have until 12:00 p.m. EST next Sunday, April 4th to enter. Good Luck!

XOXO,
Anna

February Recipe Box Swap

36 Comments / February 5, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Bunnies, Quilting, Recipes

Oh well, once again, it’s the first Thursday of the month so that means it’s time for another recipe box swap.

Our hostess, Randi, at I Have to Say, has chosen Fun Foods as our theme this month. In my book,

Fun = Easy.

For fun and easy, I have one Go To snack … but wait, how many of you remember THIS commercial? (And while we’re sidetracked here, can someone please tell me how to embed a video into a wordpress blog? I’ve done it before, but I can’t seem to make it work. ???)

I’ve always loved that commercial. It’s one of my favorites — that’s one of the few old commercials I can actually remember (and now, through the magic of YouTube, I can re-live my childhood commercial experience — woohoo!)

Rice Krispy Treats are one of my very favorite FUN foods. Kellog’s Cereal company feels the same way, because if you go to their website, you’ll find lots of fun things to do with Rice Krispy treats. (And, apparently Judy and I think alike too, because she has posted a recipe for Scotcharoos — Rice Krispy Treats on steriods.)

And, because the hardest part about making Rice Krispy Treats is throwing flour all over yourself, I wanted to show you another of my favorite fun foods that you’ve probably already seen.

The Pear Bunny Salad. MeMum used to make this little salad for us all the time when we were little. It’s so simple to make. Put a pear half on a piece of lettuce. Add a cottage cheese tail, raisin eyes, almond slice ears, and a red hot nose. The cottage cheese and pear are a perfect compliment and one bite sends me instantly back to my childhood.

So. A little weekend sewing coming up. I hope you have some fun plans too — and if not, make some Rice Krispy Treats and turn it into a fun weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Do You Feel Lucky?

47 Comments / January 9, 2009 February 18, 2011 / Bunnies

Well, do you? I’m sorry, but I’ve had Clint Eastwood’s voice ringing in my head all day. Time for the bunny giveaway! As I mentioned on my last post, I was so excited by your blog and bunny love (you guys are THE BEST readers and blog friends anywhere!) that I decided to give away two bunny pincushions.

The bunnies gathered around the giveaway bowl, as they were most anxious to see where they will be living.

And then the trouble started. Mr. Stick Me! Bunny just couldn’t stand himself and he started jumping around until it totally got out-of-hand.

He landed upside down in the contestant bowl.

So, I did what any responsible bunny maker would do…I tied him up with leftover quilt binding. (What? Don’t tell me you’ve never wanted to tie some rowdy child up with quilt binding. You know you have!)

There. That’s better. It kept him quiet too. Now for Mr. Cupcake Bunny.

Can you see it? I know it’s hard…I printed in in little print so I didn’t kill too many trees. (Yeah, yeah, I know I could have just done a random number generator, but I’m an old fashioned gal.) Anyway….it’s Cassie! You Go Girl!!! (Hahaha, love saying that!) I was so excited — Cassie has a great blog and she’s HYSTERICAL. As is evidenced by her comment (click to enlarge.) Cassie, it’s ok to stick pins in Mr. Cupcake Bunny. He likes it.

Now for Mr. Stick Me! Bunny. (He REALLY likes pins. And quilt binding.)

It’s Ms. Rohanknitter! How exciting! I’ve known Ms. Rohanknitter almost since the beginning of my blog life. I’m her #2 goat fan. The only reason I’m not #1 is because some goat fan hog beat me to it! I just know Mr. Stick Me! Bunny is going to be very happy on the farm.

And, because I was having so much fun and couldn’t stop myself, I decided to throw in one of those Vera Bradley passport holders that I got at the big Vera Bradley sale last spring. So, I drew another name.

It’s the Queen. Vallen. Yipee! Vallen is one of the most generous bloggers I know. I love her blog and all of her projects and escapades.

So, Congratulations Ladies (and we’ll be in touch)! I’m so sorry that I couldn’t give every one of you a bunny. Thank You, Thank You, all of you for playing. You’re all so wonderful and inspiring to me. There will be more bunnies and if we do this for enough years, you’ll all soon have one — or you’ll all be sick of them LOL!

Have a great weekend and stay warm (or cool for those of you having summer!)

XOXO,
Anna

A Busy Blogaversary

112 Comments / December 31, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Bunnies, Chat, Recipes

WooHoo! It’s my Blogaversary! Well, it was actually yesterday….hmm, since it’s past midnight, I guess it was actually two days ago on the 29th. I meant to post yesterday, but there’s been lots of busywork around here. It’s nice to have time off of work to be able to catch up on some of the things that need to be done around the house. We were lucky this morning and managed to check off a big to-do without even trying. Some young men from Colorado knocked on the door and offered to trim our poor broken paper bark birch tree that was damaged in the ice storm last week. Here’s the before and during shots:

I didn’t think that poor tree would look normal again, as two big branches had been snapped off. I think the tree trimmers did a great job. They have a company in Denver but they said, in the wintertime, business dries up in Denver so they spend the season chasing ice storms. We’d been talking about having that tree trimmed for the last year or two, so we felt like we got a two-for-one job.

After the tree-trimming, I spent the afternoon with TheManoftheHouse helping him to clean his office at work. It was FIL-thy! I think his paper hoarding could rival the fabric hoarding in my sewing room. All the dust gave me a headache, but I’m glad that nasty job is over too.

When we returned from work, we tried a new recipe that TheManoftheHouse picked up a few weeks ago from a sample table at Sam’s Club. Cranberry Turkey Crescent Pinwheels.

They’re a great way to use up Thanksgiving/Christmas leftovers and we really liked them. Just take a can of Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Rolls, unroll the dough, and separate into rectangles (two triangles together). Press the seam together to make a uniform rectangle. You’ll have four rectangles. Spread about 2 tbsp. of cream cheese on each rectangle. Cover cream cheese with some thinly sliced turkey and then spread some cranberry sauce on top of the turkey. (The original recipe called for dried cranberries, so if you don’t have leftover fresh cranberry sauce, you could use those.) Roll up the rectangle from a short side and press the seam to seal. Cut each roll into 5 or 6 slices and place cut side down on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until light golden brown. Serve Warm. TheManoftheHouse gets tired of all of our usual leftover suspects, but he really enjoyed these!

Now for the blogaversary. Can you believe it’s been TWO years??? I can hardly believe it! This last year has been really amazing for me blog-wise, and it goes without saying that the absolute highlight was making the trip to Scotland and cat-sitting for Isabelle. Meeting the fabulous Life family was so exciting and it would never have happened without our blogs. Like I mentioned to Isabelle the other day, every time I read her blog it’s like a gift that reminds me of our wonderful trip.

I’ve also had the fun of meeting Cami, Melly, Lucy, Gail, Abi, Sharon and Carol. (And I certainly hope I didn’t forget anyone!) All such clever, creative women. And then there are all of you, my imaginary friends. I’m terribly addicted to all of your blogs and everything that I learn from them. There’s so much inspiration out there it’s just mind-boggling.

Thank you, thank you for all the time you take to visit my little blog and leave me such nice and thoughtful comments. I can’t imagine blogging without the two-way conversation that comments provide. Now, if you’ve been here for at least a year, you know that a blogaversary means a bunny giveaway. If you’re interested in a chance to win Mr. Cupcake Bunny Pincushion, just leave a comment by, oh, let’s say, midnight (ThimbleannaLand time), Wednesday, January 7th and I’ll draw a winner on Thursday, January 8th.

In the meantime, my very best wishes to you for a Very Happy, Safe, and Healthy New Year!!!

XOXO,
Anna

Jumping Bunnies

56 Comments / October 12, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Bunnies

Did you all have a good weekend? It’s been pretty busy around here, but last night TheManoftheHouse, BigDaddy, MeMum and I all went to see The Duchess. I. Loved. It. {Very Big Sigh} If you go, you might want to take a box of kleenex. ;-)

I spent most of the rest of my weekend in the dungeon. While I was sewing, Mama Bunny was busy tending to her new batch of babies. They’ve been pretty quiet and well-behaved up until today when Mama Bunny made the mistake of letting them read a few blogs.

After reading all about the adventures of Lesley’s newest chicken, the bunnies begged and pleaded with Mama Bunny to take them outside. As we don’t have chickens to visit, they decided they wanted to jump in the fall leaves. That would have been ok, except the leaves are still on the trees. So Mama Bunny came up with another plan.

She lined them all up on the hedge and let them practice jumping off the hedge into a makeshift trampoline. It was the best she could do on short notice, and now they’ll be all ready for jumping into the leaf piles.

They jumped and jumped for about an hour. Everyone was laughing and cheering and having a good time. On DickandJane Bunny2’s 6th jump, he landed on his back.

Cupcake Bunny1 wasn’t paying attention and she was so excited for her next turn that she leaped off of the hedge before DickandJane Bunny2 could get off of the trampoline, and she landed on his head.

This resulted in lots of screaming by DickandJane Bunny2 which brough Mama Bunny to the edge of the hedge to yell down at those two bunnies.

By now, all the bunnies were getting tired and Mama Bunny decided they needed to settle down. She made them get down off of the hedge and they all hopped over to the garden, where they listened to CementGirl read them a story.

After the story, it was naptime, so Mama Bunny made them come inside. They were pretty stinky from all that playing around, so Mama Bunny made them hover around the beautiful Strawberries and Cream Cupcake Sachet that just arrived from Alison this week (Thank You Alison!). It’s a fantastic sachet and after a few minutes near it, the bunnies smelled nice and clean.

Mama Bunny tucked them all up under a quilt for their nap. There was a lot of giggling and squirming, but they finally fell asleep.

Just looking at them makes me tired, so I’m off to bed! I hope you all have a Happy Monday!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. Thanks to everyone who let me know that my comments on the last post were closed. Sometimes wordpress resets them for some odd reason. There must be something causing it, but I don’t know what it is. Hopefully they’re all fixed now.