Where to spot a bunny that dreams

As we are stepping into December, here are some great news from us few bunnies that dream a lot!

You can find Bunnies Can Dream at our new home, Urban Alchemist Design Collective in Park Slope, 343 Fifth Street, and Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn! 

Spot not only lovely pieces from my line, but also a collection of lovely pieces that will make great gifts this season. Take a look at my earlier post about them here. 

I will be there most Weds so come say hi! 

Also, I'll be at this great holiday market hosted by PS10.

The South Slope Holiday Craft Fair is at it's 3rd year. Enjoy a gallery of artists, artisans and craftspeople, many from Brooklyn and all purveyors of original and high-quality goods. They have assembled a diverse product line for your shopping pleasure, including jewelry, apparel, ceramics and more. 

Saturday, December 15, 2012 from 11am-5pm

P.S. 10, 511 7th Avenue, Brooklyn 11215

Another great place to shop for this holiday is the Brooklyn Craft Central Holiday Market.

I'll be at this market on Dec 15, 2012 11am - 5pm.

But the event is actually a 4-day one, each weekend features different groups of artists and local crafters. Also listed as one of the holiday shopping destination by Time Out New York, this once a year shopping event is one not to miss!

Come say hi! There will be exclusive pieces created for this holiday season, new collection premier and free gift wrapping! I want to see you all :D

Macrame Fall Collection Sneak Peak!

Last Sat and Sun, I was invited to Urban Alchemist Design Collective in Park Slope Brooklyn for a trunk show. I brought the entire line of Harlequin&Lionhead and a few collections from Bunnies Can Dream. It was a delightful boutique and I just love the neighborhood. I did a little post here.

I took the opportunity and played with my macrame collection a bit on Bunnies Can Dream to incorporate all the great colors that would go well with the fall palette, and included more metal components to the design.  Here is a sneak peak - they are not available online yet and currently only available at my trunk shows in New York. If you are interested at them, email me and I can always make one for you ;)

Discover the hidden gem of Park Slope - Urban Alchemist

Imagine a mini Anthropologie in your neighborhood. Well, the Park Slope folks can. Urban Alchemist Design Collective was nice to enough to host a trunk show for me last weekend and I spend 2 days drooling over all the creative and beautiful pieces in the shop.

Located on the quiet street of 5th and 5th Avenue, this Brooklyn boutique houses independent artist works from all over the country, one-of-a-kind mixed media jewelry, t-shirts, home decors and high quality vintage finds and vinyl records.

I'm going to show you a few lovely finds here.

First off, enter the colorful world of Betsy Olmsted. The Lancaster Pennsylvania designer draws in gouache, water color, pen, pencils and spray paint to create original artworks that are used for her collection of towels and blankets.

Next, the super-cute A-line upcycled sweater dress for toddlers by Banbutsu, a British Columbian brand! All their products uses recycled or organic materials. This bright red pinafore top is made of wool and some angora so really soft. But to avoid the protest of Charcoal and Roxy, I did not buy this for my little baby niece. But she'll look so cute  in it!

Roots In Rust

Alison Corrie's Stuffed Animal Collection

Another great find is Roots In Rust by the New York artist, specializes in ‘planters’ and terrariums using air plants and unusual, mostly reclaimed metal, wood and glass objects. It is rustic but modern, definitely one-of-a-kind. The air plants require low maintenance and makes a great gift this fall!
I just love the whimsical animal print on these high quality cushions by Alison Corrie. The only 2 left in the store is the cool alligator and wacky dodo. If they have this rabbit it would be sitting with me, Charcoal and Roxy right now. Alison's artwork is indeed amazing. Check out her collaboration works too!

Urban Alchemist opens Tues-Suns (closes on Mons) from noon-8pm (to 6pm on Suns) and on most days, you will find Tara or Eric from Fencing and Archery Printing Co. there.

If you are hungry from shopping, hop over to my fav. restaurant Juventino for a lovely meal. You can order gluten free yummies and check with the very friendly staffs there if you also want to skip dairy in some dishes due to allergies / dietary requirement.

Next post will be a complete view of my fall macrame collection, including bib necklaces and earrings, launched at my trunk show this past weekend. You can get them in my next trunk show at the Two Fair Ladies 1st annual holiday market. More details to come so stay tuned!

Meet me this weekend in Park Slope!

Yes, it is on! First off, Park Slope Brooklyn!

Date: November 10-11, 2012

Time: noon-8pm

Location: 

Urban Alchemist Design Collective

343 Fifth Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215

Tel: 718.499.0758

Urban Alchemist Design Collective offers an eclectic mix of work by independent designers. It has soon became a Park Slope neighborhood fav boutique since its opening in 2008. Look for the Fall Macrame Hoop collection designed exclusively for Urban Alchemist! Also available is collections from Harlequin&Lionhead, including great statement pieces not available on my Etsy shop. Limited quantity only so come early or they are out.

Another November event I will be in is The 1st Annual Beat-the-Crowds Handmade Holiday Happening presented by Two Fair Ladies. More info to come next week! Check back ;)

Poisonous Food Journal turned Healthy! #1

Because hubby has been tested to have high blood pressure, and both our families has a higher risk of heart disease, we have decided to get back on the health wagon when it comes to dinner. I cheated all the time during the day on my own with chocolate, eggs and cheese, but he does not have to know.

Anyways, I want to share with you one of my BEST experiments on my lab rat husband. Yes, he is a brave man eating food cooked by the girl who penned the Poisonous Food Journal. Look I'm very nice to not try the coffee maker cooking recipes on him. Let's just say the blood pressure report actually saved him.

This one took nasty extra lean ground turkey breast, small sweet peppers, kale, and black beans into town!

Turkey stuffed peppers

Ingredients:
Extra lean round turkey breast - 90-100g
Small sweet peppers - a dozen or more (you can also replace with bell peppers)
Soy sauce (low sodium) - 1.5 tea spoon
Soy sauce (dark - get that from Chinese grocery stores) - 1 tea spoon
Onion powder - 1 table spoon
Galanga ginger powder - 1/2 table spoon
Ground black pepper - as much as you like
Sesame oil - 1 tea spoon
Olive oil - 1.5 table spoons
Egg white - 1

Instruction:
Marinate ground turkey with onion powder, ground pepper, ginger powder and sesame oil the night before. Mix in egg white before stuffing.
Cut sweet pepper in halves, and stuff the turkey meat in with either a fork of a spoon. Add olive oil in a flat non-stick pan and wait for it to get pretty hot. Put the stuffed peppers in meat side down and let it sizzle for 1-2 minutes with lid on with high fire. Turn peppers and lower heat and let it sit for another 2 minutes. Check to see if pepper are burnt and shift it a little and let it sit for another minute and serve!

Nutrients approx.:
Extra lean turkey breast ground = 120 Cals. (Sat.Fat 0.5g, Cholesterol 41mg, Sodium 58mg)
Soy sauce = Sodium 600mg (that's more than 25% of daily, so be fugal with it!)
All oil added = Fat 30g (stinker, that's almost 60% of daily! See how it all adds up!)


Kale
1/3 of a bag of kale, chopped into 1 inch sections
Wait for water to boil, then put stems in first, and then leaves. Keep it in water still under heat for no more than 2 minutes, take out of hot water, and rinse under cold water. Tastes real good with some sesame oil (1/2 tbsp), Worcestershire Sauce (1 tbsp, Sodium 65mg) and a bit of sugar.


Black Bean Rice

Ingredients:
Black bean from can - 1/2 (Make sure to look for the ones that have the lowest sodium level! I was unpleasantly surprised by the nutrient labels on some of these well known cans!)
Rice - slightly less than 1 cup

Instruction:

Cook rice in rice cooker with half cup of water. Wait until water is boiling, then stir in black bean and some of it's water from the can into the rice cooker. Then wait for it to cook and viola! Delicious!

Who are the bunnies behind Bunnies Can Dream?

As a tribute to Toffee, who passed away 3 years ago, I am doing a rabbit highlight here on Bunnies Can Dream's blog!

Yes, Toffee will always be my special boy. 

He and Charcoal were the original inspiration for the name of the line, Bunnies Can Dream. They are also the two bunnies in the logo my husband and I created together.

Toffee was born as a harlequin (because of the mixed colors in his body) and a dutch (according to my vet) in 2001. He and Charcoal moved with me from HK to NY. It was a terrible trip for them but they took it like solders. Toffee developed head tilt syndrome back in 2008. The little trooper, being always positive and kind, and could eat like a pig, bounced back with a tilted head the same year, and continued to eat like a champ until his last day on earth. His kidneys were attacked and crystalized, a painful illness that he managed to hide and continued to live with happily until both of them gave up on my high spirited boy on Sept 6, 2009. He has since then lived between Rabbit Heaven and on earth in our hearts and possibly sometimes late at night in our house. Recently, I suspect he is either reincarnated into Roxy or my new baby niece. Both are equally happy, energetic and hungry like Toffee.

Charcoal is such a strange creature.

Charcoal was born a lionhead angora mix a few months later than Toffee but he looks much smaller and acts younger somehow. Charcoal has a princely air about him. More like a cat than a rabbit, he is the fuzziest rabbit ever.  Grooming for his appearance was his most favorite thing to do in the world until Roxy came along. Charcoal is also a very emotionally sensitive creature, although he may not be very sensitive about YOUR emotion. He went into a period of intestinal statsis problem when he was living with us alone after Toffee died. When he was turning 11 last year, we got so worried about his health that we finally decided to get him a friend. It was very hard for me to accept a 3rd rabbit and I think it probably wasn't very fair to Roxy when she first joined us. But the addition of this new young playgirl to Charcoal's rabbit mansion seems to have given him a new found joy in life.

Roxy Rock Rock, my girlie girl

Roxy is my first shelter rabbit. We didn't know how old she is but the vet said she was probably 1 or less when we picked her up Sept 2011. I looked it up and she is a british butterfly dwarf. She has almost symmetrical pattern on her body and her face. We thought she looks like a cow, but she is a bit sazzy so we thought we will have to name her something with an attitude. We called her Roxy, short for rorschach. And then it evolved from a simple Roxy to "Roxy Rock Rock" which is what I usually call her around the house, when she is not a girlie girl. This kid has a strange crush for Charcoal when they first met at the shelter. She was obviously keen on playing with Charcoal, who was only keen on having sex with her (oh well can you blame the poor 11 year old virgin?) She kept pushing him off but kept going back to him. We thought, here is a rabbit who knows what she wants and can keep her man in check. That's my kinda girl. And in the 12 months she was with us, she literally took over the place, turned it into a dirty quarter and put on one full pound (that is like 1/3 of her original weight, say equivalent to 30+ pounds?) Talking about white trash...oh well. We only love her more.

So here you go. The inspiration as well behind these animal necklaces I recently made. Both silhouettes for Toffee and Roxy found a nice home last week. And I have decided to keep the Charcoal silhouette to myself. I am looking forward to some toasty down time this X'mas with Charcoal and Roxy. And if you see a cloud in the sky that looks like Toffee, say hi and eat a carrot!

Meet me in Brooklyn this Sat!

Dekalb Market I am back!

I will be at this great gem of Brooklyn on Sat. Come say hi!


Date: August 25, 2012
Time: 11am - 6pm

Where:

138 Willoughby Street (@Flatbush Ave)

Brooklyn, NY 11201

How to get there:
B, Q, R to Dekalb Ave
A, C, F & R to Jay St. Metrotech

A little adventure into an out of city handmade market

I made a new friend on Sunday at the organic farm, Garden of Eve, in Long Island!

This creature is the funnies thing ever - a rooster (or hen) and a rabbit combo it seems to be. There are 3 of them (see below) and they are so super fluffy if it is not because of the beak I would really touch it. 

They were really noisy too roosting all day long. But it was more hilarious to me than annoying. Despite the super fatigue I was experiencing, from only having 2 hours of sleep.

It was all for the fundraising event for the Forgotten Friends of Long Island. Me and Jessica, who owns Hans-My-Hedgehog Illustration and was also the driver for the trip (because I failed my to-do list for the year and didn't get a driver's license yet), started off 5:15am to pick up our rental car. Drove all the way from Queens to Long Island to be at this lovely little farm where the event was hosted. 

Not only do they have a chicken coop, lots of beautiful herbs and vegetable for sale, a lovely barn turned cafe with great quiche, they have a small lavender patch made into a labyrinth for children to play in! And on the day of, they have a little birthday party and a pony was brought in to let kids have a taste of riding.

We were there to work so I didn't get to enjoy much of the farm but people were just all very nice. I had my tent up, and from time to time when the sun was gentle we would just sit in front of the booth at the wooden table and chairs provided for patrons to sun bath a little. I had my lovely organic meal of the day and helped out the animal organization a little with my sales. It was a great day for Bunnies Can Dream and Harlequin&Lionhead!

BTW, my mascot porcelain rabbit has retired. I have this constant fear I would break it one day so I got this carved wood rabbit in Hong Kong instead. It has a black friend who crouches. I'll show you next time :) 

Meet me in August at these locations

August brings some really exciting events. First off is a very meaningful one for animals in need of adoption and the kind people who take care of them in the interim. 

Event: Fundraiser for Forgotten Friends of Long Island

Date: August 18, 2012 (rain date: Aug 19)
Time: 10am - 5pm
Location: Organic Farm - Garden of Eve
4558 Sound Ave, Riverhead, New York 11901
(At the intersection of Sound Ave and Rt 83/Northville Tpk)

Forgotten Friends of Long Island was established in the spring of 2008 as a rescue organization that would help the neediest animals in our municipal shelters. Their mission statement was to reflect the belief that all lives should never be forgotten. The folks at the organization decided to rescue the animal that was continuously overlooked by others or the one in need of medical care. They constantly host adoption events. Check out their website here.

Garden of Eve kindly offers their space for this coming fundraiser. For more info regarding the organic produce, click here.

For this special event, proceeds of all vendors' sales will help support the organization and their efforts. Bunnies Can Dream and Harlequin&Lionhead will be donating 20% of all sales. I will also have (very) limited quantity of these lovely animal silhouette pendants available at my booth.

These little pendants are all about 3/4 of an inch tall or less, made in brass with satin polish, hung on a delicate plated ball chain of 16 inches long. Do you see your favorite animals here?