I made my own gift box..hehe

I hope that you read about how to make your own box in my last post. I also hope that they were easy to follow directions so that you could make some of your own. I enjoyed making the "How to" post so much for everyone that I made some more boxes...ten to be exact....LOL!!!  These were made for a purpose. Do you remember the flower garden I have been cultivating here of late? You know the one....don't you? The one that took up a weekend plus. Need a reminder? Just Click Here.   I made the boxes to hold these precious flowers plus I made three more flowers to add to the bunch.

I do hope that the little girls that receive them Christmas morning will love them just as much as I loved growing making them. I just love the fact that so many people are coming together to make Christmas a special time for the families that need the extra help. I'm very excited to be one that is able to use my whimsical talents to help out. Paying it forward is a motto that all of us should take to heart. I know that I certainly do. Let's take a walk and see the newest flowers clipped from the garden.

I love using fabric and ribbon. This little beauty of a rose was made from a wired satin ribbon and has cotton fabric leaves. Not only do I love using fabric and ribbon but I really love buttons. The prettier the better!!! On this one I was able to use two buttons. The white one looked like the center of a flower. How perfect...ri iight??  I just couldn't resist using this little butterfly button to go along with it. It's attached to a large clip barrette.

Here is another rose from the same bush. No thorns either...that makes it nice. We don't want any ouchies from our sweet little ladies.....now do we? I used one of my flower buttons for the center of this one and instead of a hair clip...I attached it to an elastic headband. Can't you just see a sweet baby girl wearing this?
Sit and imagine....now let's all say...........Awwwwww!!!

This little beauty is from the whimsical side of the garden. I had these fantastic, colorful fabric scraps that a friend gave to me in a big bag of.......scraps!! HAHA  They were just the perfect size to make these with. So important tip here.....never throw out those scraps you might think are to small to be keeping. I just adore all the colors in this one too. What do you think of when you see the colors? I think of ice cream..... Neapolitan ice cream and a scoop or two of sherbet thrown in with perhaps some peppermint. YUM!! I suddenly am in the mood for ice cream. ^_^   Hmmmmm...wonder why? Instead of raiding my button stash for these...I raided my vintage bead stash. Tiny, pretty pink pearls. The leaves surrounding the flowers are made from a ribbon. This one has a hair clip attached to it.

Now I have ten beautiful flowers in all to give away but I just couldn't hand them over to Ms Sue and say "Here ya go". I wanted them to be extra special so that's why I made the boxes. The box liked we talked about at the beginning of this post....the box that this post is suppose to be about. Sorry...I just had to wonder in the garden BUT at least I took you with me and you got to smell see the pretty flowers. For the boxes, I used white card stock......because I know that the box probably won't survive the opening process. I mean if they were big boxes...then they would be "priceless" but these are small boxes. I hope they do survive though because they are really cute and could actually be another gift in itself. For the top of the box, I found this cute vintage page from a children's book with rabbits....I love rabbits....don't you? Rabbits looking out the window at Santa and his reindeer flying over the snowy sky. I printed it off in black and white and then water colored it in to give it that vintage look for real. I applied a tiny bit of sparkle flakes to the rabbit tail....some red glitter by some of the holly leaves and even a teeny tiny piece of red glitter on the nose of the first reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh. RUDOLPH!!! Well....either Rudolph or the reindeer had one heck of a party the night before....but....that's....another......whole post entirely!!

Until next time.............HUGS, Regi

I hear that song again...."I ain't got no body"

I love bunnies and rabbits and all things that hop along....yeah...even those lil frogs. HEY..I'm the mom of a very much so little boy!!!  Thank goodness he hasn't come in with one in his pocket yet but then that would be a completely different story than the one I'm telling...well for today that is. ^_^

I had a friend request that I do one of my dust bunnies but to only do the head and to make it so it could be worn on a chain. I love making my dust bunnies so I just couldn't resist making one that was just a head. I think he turned out rather cute and will probably be making a few more to put in my shoppe. Let me know what you think....

Of course, being the whimsical artist that I am, I just had to make it a bit bigger than most necklace pieces. I think anyone wanting to wear a whimsy should have it big enough to be seen and receive that "Ohhh..it's so cute" reaction. Just sayin!!!!! His ears can be gently bent into several different positions so that makes it even more fun...well..to me it does...but then I'm a complete whimsy myself.

Time to HOP along and work on some more bunnies. Ohhhh I made a funny....hop....bunnies...get it....Yeah, yeah...I am easily entertained. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.....until next time,

Hugs...Regi

Remembering Ms. Bea

Anyone that comes to visit here at the old Southern Ooaks knows that I have temporarily closed my Etsy shoppe. My away notice is that were are doing some landscaping....get it...Southern Ooaks...makes you think of trees....landscaping.....HAHA...ok, well let's just move on then. ^_^  I actually have it closed because of the Trim-A-Tree Christmas event being held here in Foley until the 22nd of this month. It seems though that even with my shoppe being closed that I am getting quite a few "window" shoppers and that is a gooood thing. I love everyone that comes to shop or even just to browse. In the conversations that I have been sent, it seems that there is a big interest in my Dust Bunnies and Rabbits. Thankfully a few orders have already been placed for after the first of the year....YEAH!!! In conversing with one of my sweet shoppers, I told her about my garden bunnies. It was a series I was going to start for my Mom. She loved rabbits...although, I think over the years they had all multiplied to a bit more than she had planned. The last Christmas we were all together (2006) she asked if I would make her a rabbit. I had made her a witchie poo for Halloween to sit on a table where she could see it and I think that started something...which I so didn't mind. She was my Mom after all. She said that she wanted it dressed and to look as if she had been in a vegetable garden. As with the Santa I did for my Daddy, my Mom only got to see the sculpted head of her rabbit and some of the vintage fabrics I had picked out to make her clothes with. I put the piece on hold after their health went down so quickly and then to lose them both in early 2007 was just more than I could handle and working on "her" rabbit was just to hard for me. After some time went by I decided that I wanted to finish the piece and actually start a garden series of rabbits. So began the completion of MS. BEA (named after my Mom...her middle name which seemed to just fit this piece so well)

Ms. Bea is one of my larger ooaks. She stands at a hair over 16 1/2 inches tall. She has a strong wire armature that is covered in a stuffed soft body. Her head, hands and feet were all hand sculpted out of clay...baked and then painted using acrylic paints.

All the fabrics used in this piece were vintage. Discovered in an old trunk at an estate sale...what a find!! The lace was some of my grandmothers along with the old quilt piece I used for her apron.

Ms. Bea even has pantaloons. We don't want her bending over to pull the carrots up out of the ground and a big wind come swooshing past...now DO WE?

Apparently, Ms. Bea had a beauty of a crop that year. Scrumptious carrots...lovely heads of lettuce...radishes and even some asparagus. She even found a few speckled eggs to add to her bounty. All of these are some of my hand sculpted veggies placed in a real basket.

I had a design to make a Mr. Walter (my Daddy's middle name) to go with Ms. Bea in the garden. I haven't sculpted him as of yet but I do believe after the Holidays that I'm going to. I'm going to redesign a smaller version of the "Garden Series" and even add a few more cute wabbits to offer for the Bunny/Rabbit collectors that may just happen to wander past my shoppe.

Here's to remembering Ms. Bea....may there be a garden of plenty and all the rabbits you can hug.

Until next time.......HUGS, Regi