Sunday, May 8, 2016

Happy Mother's Day


Welcome

I hope you are having a wonderful Mother's Day.  I hope you can spend the day with people you love.  We have several things in the works for Etsy.

If the girls if your life like Yo-kai Watch as much as mine they will love this Yo-kai bow.


 For the Walking Dead fan in your life we'll have this boutique bow.
This felted purse with microfiber handles is one of my favorite upcoming wares.
Feeling blue? Then this necklace is for you.

These long dangly earrings will add a little sparkle to your outfit.

This blue and white necklace will be the finishing touch to your day.


On the Drawing Board


This warm summer necklace will be joining our ranks in the near future. 



We'll also be having more pop culture bows like Shopkins, Super Mario, and Pokémon coming soon.

Closing

Thanks for visiting.  Remember to check out bluerabbitcottage at Etsy for our new items and check us out on Twitter @rabbitcottage. Happy Mother's Day!

Saturday, April 30, 2016

April 30 Fundraiser

Today only April 30, 2016 we will be donating 20% of any and all sales to the Kyler brain cancer fund.  Kyler Bradley was a 10 year old boy who lost his battle to DIPG, the same cancer Lauren Hill battled.  His family was left with huge medical bills after his hospital stay.  We will be donating the money through his gofundme account. 
To read more about this check out this link.



Welcome

I hope we find you happy and healthy.  There is so much illness going around it's just kind of wild. I'm glad you've come to visit us we have several new things to show you today.

New on Etsy

Red and White Dangle Earrings- $10

Red and White Dangle Earrings

Orange Fox Bow- $5.99

Orange Fox Hair Bow

Colorful Butterflies and Chevrons Bow- $5.99
Colorful Butterflies and Chevrons Hair Bow

Girls and Boys Bunny Hats- $10.00 Different Colors Available.


Swarovski Rainbow Dangle Earrings- $20.00
Swarovski Rainbow Dangle Earrings

Magic Blanket

Have you ever heard of Magic Yarn?  It is a fun and useful way to use up the scraps you inevitably gather from all of your projects.  You just tie your scraps together and wind them into one colorful crazy ball of yarn.  I had a pile of small balls of yarn and decided to make a Magic Blanket with them for our couch.  I didn't wind them all together because they were already in neat balls, but you get the idea.  The blanket is about baby blanket size right now, I hope to have it couch size sometime.  Here is a picture to show you the effect of the random color changes. Its so unique, I just love it.

On the Bookshelf


Veiled Revenge By Ellen Byerrum. Lacey Smithsonian is the bridesmaid for her best friend's upcoming wedding.  Disaster strikes at the bachelorette party when someone crashes the party and is found dead the next day.  Everyone is blaming a cursed Russian shawl, but can a shawl really be to blame for murder?  Lacey has to find out or the wedding will be called off.  
While this book was really fun and had strong characters I need to note that it is not the first book in the series and it is not once of those series that can be read out of order without giving things away.  I didn't have access to the first few books in the Crimes of Fashion series and now I don't feel like it would be worth going back to read them because this book gave a lot away.  I would recommend you find them though, just make sure you start at the beginning.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Dinner's On Us

This week I tried two new recipes.  We enjoyed them so I thought you might also. I made a chicken cordon bleu casserole and peas with parmesan cream.   I had 2 turkey cutlets I had bought and decided to use that in place of the chicken and had some ham I diced and used in place of the deli ham. The only other change I made was I used regular mustard in place of the Dijon because I thought I already had Dijon but ended up I was wrong.  I think I used a little under half of what it called for since I used the regular yellow mustard.  Never be afraid to make some changes to recipes. I am always tweaking them.  The pea recipe I made exactly as stated.  Three of us ate them and it was 2 yesses and 1 no.  The funny thing is the person who doesn't like peas is one of the yesses. Ok, enough of the small talk, here are the recipes. Feel free to share your thoughts.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
Yield: 8-10 servings

4 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 cups shredded swiss cheese, divided
2 cups shredded provolone cheese, divided
1/2 lb thinly sliced deli ham, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup butter, divided
4 tblsp all-purpose flour
3 1/2 cups half and half
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. smoked paprika
2 cups panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a 13x9 pan with cooking spray. Place chicken in an even layer in pan.  Sprinkle with 1 cup swiss, 1 cup provolone, and ham.  Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, melt 1/4 cup butter over medium heat.  Add flour and cook, whisking constantly, until smooth.  Add half and half whisking to combine.  Add mustard, remaining 1 cup swiss, remaining 1 cup provolone, salt, pepper, and paprika.  Cook, whisking constantly until cheese melts. Pour mixture over ham.
In a small microwave safe bowl, microwave remaining 1/2 cup butter on high 30 seconds or until melted.  Add bread crumbs, stirring to combine. Sprinkle evenly over casserole.
Bake until browned and bubbly.

Peas with Parmesan Cream

4 cups fresh peas(from about 4 lbs peas in the pod) or 4 cups frozen (from two 10oz packages)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 small fresh rosemary sprig
2 tblsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper

In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the peas for about 4 minutes, or until just tender.  Drain well.
Meanwhile, in a medium-heavy saucepan, combine the cream and rosemary and cook, stirring, over medium heat until the cream begins to bubble slightly, about 2 minutes. 
Whisk in the butter until melted, then whisk in the cheese. 
Season to taste with pepper; discard the rosemary sprig.
Fold the peas into the sauce; serve.

Makes 8 servings.


New at the Cottage

As promised we have the owl necklace on Etsy.- $30
Owl Necklace

Coming Soon

Check back soon for some new additions. Here's a sneak peek of some jewelry we'll be offering soon.




On the Drawing Board

Since you've been watching the patchwork purse since it was just three balls of wool. I thought I'd share it sewn and ready to be felted. 


















On the Bookshelf

Dead Men Don't Crochet by Betty Hechtman.  Molly Pink finds herself in a mystery.  A mean spirited man is found dead in his office and one of her friends is the prime suspect.  While juggling her job as events coordinator at a bookstore and her work for a charity crochet group making shawls for a women's shelter Molly has to investigate the murder.  Could it be the brother who moved on too fast, the mysterious bald man that only Molly remembers seeing, or could her friend really have committed such a crime?  With a fun cast of character this is a quick read.  It also includes a pattern and recipe for a dessert to round out your meal.  I would recommend this book to cozy readers.


We hope you have enjoyed your visit to the Blue Rabbit Cottage.  Check out our Etsy page for a short video we made and any new offerings we have.  Stop back soon for another visit! Have a great weekend.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Bows are Blooming

Welcome

We're glad you stopped by to visit us at the Blue Rabbit Cottage.  We've been working on some new jewelry and bows for you.  We also have a short video blurb that will be going up on the new Etsy.  What have you been getting into this April?

New At the Cottage

Bows are up.
Always Owl Bow- 8.99

Always Owl Hair Bow


Funshine hair bow


Something's Fishy Hair Bow

Sherbet Surprise- $7.00

Sherbet Suprise

Check back soon for some jewelry like this gorgeous owl necklace


On the Bookshelf

Miss Peregrine's Home for the Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.  I had heard that this book was going to be a movie and that peaked my interest.  I found a copy and gave it a quick flip through, hm lots of creepy pictures, sounds neat.  If I had to summarize the book in one word it would be creepy.  It wasn't like a horror book type creepy, it is a young adult novel after all. 

A young boy finds out that the stories his grandpa used to tell him about monsters and powered children are not just stories.  After some tragedy he sets out to find the home on a small island across the world.  That is when the adventure really begins. 

My only complaint about this book was that I did not know it was part of a series.  This book is just the call to adventure and nothing truly gets resolved, that doesn't sit well with me because I haven't gotten a hold of the other two books yet. 

Coming Soon

Some jewelry still on the drawing board.



















On the needles right now is a purse.















What do you think? I love the colors.

We hope you come back and visit again soon!  We have enjoyed your visit.




Friday, March 25, 2016

Happy Easter

Welcome

Welcome back to our cozy corner of the world.  Sorry for the confusion last week.  I run two blogs, Blue Rabbit Cottage and Blue Rabbit Academy and I crossed a wire last week and gave you all a peek into our homeschool life.  If you like to read more about our school feel free to join us over at the Blue Rabbit Academy: www.bluerabbitacademy.blogspot.com, and if you really just come for the crafts I apologize.


Reminder

For the month of March you can receive 10% off your Etsy order by entering the code EASTER16 at checkout.  Let your friends know.


New

Blue Rabbit is now on twitter. Follow us for news, specials and well tweets in general.  @rabbitcottage

Crafting

Besides a special order I've not been doing too much crafting.  As you saw last week we've been spending a lot of time outside soaking up the sun.

This blanket is a special order for a special mother for mother's day this year.  I think she'll love it.  It reminds me of spring.  It made me think of these flowers from the back yard.
Mom has this lovely owl necklace about to go onto Etsy.  Check our shop soon for updates!

We also will have bunny hats in more colors! If there are any other color types you'd like to see comment below and let me know.



Outside

 Since I've not been spending as much time crafting lately I thought I'd share a few pictures of what I have been up to.
We got a new hen named Nutmeg, we had to trade the white rooster for her because we can't keep a rooster in city limits. That's Ginger in the front and Nutmeg in the back.

We've also been watching the strawberry plant bloom and the pea plats shoot up.




Once some of the newness wears off spring I'll get back to my regularly scheduled crafting.


On the Bookshelf

 Paper, Scissors, Death by Joanna Campbell Slan was on my bookshelf this week.  This was a really fun murder mystery.  I hate to use those words in the same sentence, but for readers of cozy mysteries you understand what I mean. 
This is the first book in Ms. Slan's Kiki Lowenstein Scap-n-Craft Mystery Series.  Kiki's husband turns up dead and Kiki's life is turned upside down. She finds a job selling scrapbooking supplies and teaching classes while trying to solve her husband's murder and keep her little family together. 
This was a very promising first book and I'm looking forward to reading some more in this series.  There are scrapbooking tips at the end of some chapters for you to try out as well.





Happy Easter


 Thank you for stopping in and visiting us this week.  We hope you've enjoyed our chat.  Have a Happy Easter and enjoy your family.  Come back and see us again soon!

Friday, March 18, 2016

Fresh Air and Sunshine

Since the weather has been so lovely lately we've been doing school and spending most of our days outside.  We've had bugs go to school with us and chickens steal our breakfast and scope out our lunches.  We've climbed trees, dug in the dirt and swung on the swings.  It has been a really nice time.  

Ro-bear of all people decided to catch worms, slugs and the little black and red bugs.  The kid who hates to have her hands dirty.  I was very surprised.  She's hold them and watch them then go wash her hands and come back out to play.

Boo likes to follow the chickens around the yard.  She's pretty good about getting them back into the yard when they wander off as well.

One morning Ro-bear had a waffle on the picnic table and the chickens stole it.  They loved it so much they now go check out the table every time we're outside to see what we might have left in reach for them.  That day it was pizza. Amazingly, they did not make a move for the pizza.

 Here's are both chickens on the bench.


 Here's the slug that Ro-bear had working on a worksheet with her a different morning.


 Wednesday was up in the high 80s, and the girls decided to take the garden watering can to splash each other after school and gymnastics.  When they were tired of splashing around L-bug and Boo started to swing on the swing set.  Ro-bear went inside and put on clean pjs and brought out her blanket and pillow and laid in the grass. 
Tonight while L-bug and I were watching tv, I look over and she was winding my grey yarn into a ball for me. What a sweet child.  Of course, I found out she was winding it up so she could steal it and make a scarf, but still a sweet child.

If you haven't tried schooling outside I would highly recommend it.  We fit nature study in with the rest of our book work.  Everything from identifying the bird in the tree beside us, to the hawks eyeballing our chickens, to watching the pea shoots sprout is fit in seamlessly with physics and English.

Another added benefit of so many hours outside is the that the girls are sleeping through the night again.  We'd gone through a phase where Boo was waking up at 11-12 crying and then Ro-bear would get up at 5-6 and want to sleep with us.  It is a very draining cycle.  It is nice to know that fresh air and sunshine can help reset their little bodies and help everyone get some much needed sleep.


Let me know what your favorite outdoor activities are on a nice sunny day.  Its been nice having you visit.  I hope you stop by again soon. 


Monday, March 14, 2016

Fishy Friday

Welcome


Thanks for stopping by to visit.  Don't forget to use the code EASTER16 for 10% off your order!  I hope your weather has been lovely and everyone is healthy and happy where you are. 


New At Cottage

We have a couple of new things up at the cottage. 


Here is a newborn baby fox hat and diaper cover set- $35.00
Fox Newborn Photoprop Set


Washcloth and bath salt set- $10.00


Wash Cloth and Bath Salts




In our Kitchen

Since it is Lent for those of you who observe Lent, we decided to have a Friday night dinner recipe.


Spicy Fish Tacos


You will need,
1 small package Cole Slaw Mix
1 cup Mayonnaise
1 packet Taco Seasoning
Fish of choice (I recommend a packaged breaded fish)
Tortilla shells
Hot Sauce (optional)


Preheat oven to package indicated on box, or if cooking your own fish preheat oven or pan to prepare fish. 
While oven is preheating take a medium size bowl and add the cole slaw mix, mayo, and taco seasoning.  Mix well and set in fridge to cool.  The mix will become saucier as it sets.


Cook fish for time indicated on box.


Put a piece of fish and a liberal scoop of slaw on a tortilla shell and top with hot sauce for a spicier taco. 
Enjoy.














Thanks for stopping by our cottage for a visit.  We're glad to spend some time with you.  Let us know what you want to see on the blog coming up in the comments below. Have a lovely week and we hope to see you again soon.