Hare Brained Idea...

So my MIL, Pola - aka WebmavenNJ and I have talked for a while about having angora rabbits, and spinning their wool to make yarn. Years ago I had an angora rabbit, Commander Bun Buns, but we never spun her wool, the cafe took up a majority of our time then, whereas now, I have a lot more time to focus on art and craft, even if it's an ADD version of it sometimes, with my son Neil getting my attention hehe.
So, these bunnies happen to be hard to come by, but we did end up finding bunnies! We picked them up yesterday. Pola is keeping 2 of them, and I'm keeping one. They are three brothers, born July 8, 2008.
So - meet the bunnies. They are a musical bunch of English Angora's. First, introducing the bunny that will be staying with me:
Meet: Hendrix
Born: July 8, 2008
Buck (male)
Chocolate Tort in color
likes: This boy is a mushy little love - he loves being groomed, snuggled, and exploring on and off the leash. Loves leafy greens, oddly not into carrots - yet. He likes exploring and playing, but is also happy to sit quietly and just be pet. He engages Neil a lot when Neil looks into the cage, hopping up on the edge to see him closer, etc. He was also first to snuggle on the frozen bottle that I put in their cage when we came in from outside, he really enjoyed that!




Meet: Cash (as in Johnny)
Born: July 8, 2008
Buck (boy)
Lilac Tort in color
Likes: This is the big boy of the group. His face is in the food dish quite often, and you can tell he's got more meat on his bones than the other two. He is also the most curious, and a great escaper. He manages to compress his body, to fit through small spaces in order to see what's on the other side of barriers I set up in failed attempts to contain all three at once. Cash will be living with Pola in a few days when his cage is ready.


Meet: Elvis
born July 8, 2008
Buck (boy)
R.E.W - Ruby Eyed White
Likes: What doesn't this little cutie like? He is so docile and happy. He will lay on his back on my legs and let me groom his belly and feet! When I took them outside, he would just plop down and eat whatever grass was in front of him. He clearly enjoys green food, as upon close inspection you can see some of his lip fur is green from eatting spinach, romain, grass, etc. He is quick to clean himself up though! He also enjoys siting on the perch in the cage and looking down at his brothers. We're calling it his throne - he *is* The King afterall. He will also be living with Pola.

These little guys are sure to keep us busy. Don't mind the green in their ears, if you can see it (I think only the pic of Elvis is viewable) the green will fade - they were tattooed with their pedigree #'s in their ears before coming home to us, so the green will ware off shortly.

So, our plan is to harvest their wool as we groom them - it's not harmful at all to harvest their wool. It's actually harmful not to harvest it, as they will ingest it and get woodblock which could kill them. Their wool just brushes out, and we're saving it. Once the wool is harvested it will be cleaned, carded, and made into roving which can then be dyed and spun. Angora wool is the warmest wool available - warmer than even sheep and alpaca! It's a lot softer and less itchy than sheep and alpaca is too, which makes it very luxurious.

I'll be bringing Hendrix with me to the Kirby's Mill Flea Market on September 13 in Medford, NJ if you want to see him in person. I will be at the Beach Plum Festival on Sept 7th too - in Island Beach State Park, but it's a bit of a long drive for Hendrix, so he's staying home.

I have more fantastic news, but I'm going to save it for tomorrow :)

Abbie

Instant Karma

So, most of you know that I used to own a restaurant called the Jersey Devil Cafe, in Medford, NJ. It was an adorable place, fantastic food, great atmosphere, phenomenal coffee & espresso, and good people.

My business partner and I had a falling out in February of 2004, and that was the last time I was in that cafe. It was a hard road to travel after leaving the cafe, because it had been my life for so long. Nearly 2 years to the day after my business partner threw me out - I brought my son home from the hospital. I was always a believer that things happen for a reason, and when I brought my son home, I was happy to understand the reason why the whole ordeal with being thrown out of the cafe happened. I could not have been a complete, dedicated mother that I am today - and run the cafe. It was one or the other.

I am also a believer in Karma. What goes around really does come around - and usually 10 fold. I put my life into that cafe, and every touch of it. I hand painted every table, my artwork was on the walls. We came up with an entire menu from scratch, secret recipes, specialties, the whole 9 yards, same as the drink menu. When I say I put my whole heart into it, I really did. We would work most days from open to close, as early as 6 to as late as midnight some days. There were days that we were understaffed, and I would be busing, waitress, and cooking at the same time, but ya know - we managed and the town loved us for it.

In Feb of 2004, my business partner locked me out. Lots of dirty, underhanded happenings went on from there. It's not my place to take revenge, or even judge. A time comes in everyone's life when you have to meet your maker and explain yourself, and I am sure that's not an experience she's prepared to have. Until then, there's Karma. What goes around comes around - you get back what you put out. You've all heard the old sayings - and they're true.

A few days ago my old cafe caught fire, it apparently burned up the wall and onto the second floor where my old business partner still has her offices. Her office took the worst damage from what I hear. The reality of the situation is, that if I had still had my cafe there this would not have happened. I was so paranoid about fire, especially after having experienced one myself in High School - I was meticulous about keeping my machines perfect, not overloading any plugs, etc. You could say I am OCD about fire safety, and rightly so.


Now, I still live walking distance from this building. My husband is a firefighter, and when I heard the pager go off for a building (fire) at Main & Union Streets, my heart sank. Despite the buildings current inhabitants - I loved that building. That building had a spirit (more than one, literally and figuratively) it had history in those walls, including my own history but it dated back so much further than that. The building was majestic and a beautiful focal point in town. It's historic, over 200 years old, the building will be missed by many. As sad as it was to loose Margie, my dear old neighbor last year - and Frank Salicondro, the music man of Medford, who passed away also - I'm glad they weren't here to see it go, it would have broken their hearts.

Frank had saved the Stagecoach building years ago, when it had been abandoned and someone wanted to buy it and put a Dairy Queen in there. He fell in love with the historical aspect of the building and he saved it, opened his own restaurant/diner for a while, had his music enterprises on the second floor - concerts on the 2nd story porch, it was just beautiful. So for that I am so sad that the building burned. On the other hand, with someone like my ex business partner, what I see is Karma. What goes around comes around, it always seems to find a way, almost like it's fate or destiny.

But ya know, all the crap she put me through - and I was 19, 20, 21 and 22 years old when all this was going on? Young? Yes, absolutely. Too trusting? Probably. Naive or Weak? - no way. In the end, all that bs happened for a reason, and now I know just how capable and strong I am. No more monsters under my bed :P

Voluntary Insomnia?

I swear I am nocturnal. I just do not want to go to bed. I stay up working on the computer in the uninterrupted quiet that I am not allowed during the day when Neil is awake.

I am, of course, researching angora rabbits. I really want to get one, my MIL is getting two soon. She's taking Commander Bun Buns (RIP) old rabbit hutch and fixing it up so she can use it. I'll be keeping my bunny inside, with an occasional front porch appearances, if its nice out heh.

It's now 12:30, I started this entry like 30 minutes ago, got interrupted ( see, that's what I get for basking in the quietness) by an email, and completely forgot til now.

I think I'm going to call it a night, go up to bed and watch tonight's episode of Swingtown, I just love that show. I love the teacher character, he's so cute.

I made nothing artsy today. Boo on me. I did a lot of work on websites though, and stuff for the Handmade Faire if that counts as artsy?

Tomorrow Neil is spending the night at my MIL's house, and we're going to go into Philly and checkout Dark Knight on the IMAX w/ two friends of ours.

Bunny

I want a bunny. And I can't have one, that makes me sad.

Sean says "not now, in a little while"

which is the same man translation used when you say
"Can you take the garbage out?"
and he says
"Sure - in a minute"

when that "minute" is actually an indefinite amount of time, possibly never?

yeah, that's what "a little while" means in this case.


BOO! Remind me to use that term when he wants Mercenaries 2 for the XBox in a few days.

I am a basketcase

See, you may not know this if you've never talked to me at length or met me in person - but here is proof positive that I'm a certified basketcase:

my mother in law, webmavennj.etsy.com made this basket. I forget the name she had for it, but it's pretty special.

Today Holly from leafpile.org (still pending site) came over and we crafted a bit. She had these funky wood hearts that she'd found at a garage sale. They're slices of a tree that are already naturally shaped like hearts. Pretty cool. Here's what I did with mine, a little beading, etc.


Neil's napping right now, he doesn't have a fever or anything but I think he's feeling a little under the weather. It's not like him to sleep this long, and go into bed so early. At least I got to watch the latest episode of Weeds.

Blog CPR

So, although I spend a lot of time online, working, keeping in touch with family and friends, researching and learning, finding inspiration - I am so bad at keeping up with my blog that it's not even funny. I resigned myself a while back to ignore this blog and focus on the blog - http://www.Blog.originalabbie.com that I run off my website, and have had for ohhh....how long, 3 years? Though, I've had originalabbie.com for about 6 or 7 years now, in some form, sometimes I go back to the wayback machine and look at my old site, wow, if I must say so myself I've come a long way in a lot of things web related haha.
Well, I think I'll give this blog a try for a while, I think I'll have a better will power to continue to update this blog since it's web based and I can update it from any internet connection. My iPhone can update, etc, so, I'll have more opportunities to keep it up to date.

So, here it goes.

The Red Haired Step Child...

This blog gets sorely ignored, it's true.

If you want to see what's actually going on in my life - check out my site:

My Online store:
www.OriginalAbbie.com

My Blog that I don't ignore:
blog.OriginalAbbie.com

My Etsy Shop:
AbbieRoad.Etsy.com

You can also find me:
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www.flickr.com

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