winter's tales

same old, same old

I've been busy busy busy

and now, suddenly I see it's December! and still I have a basket full of un-made-up hares

tut tut

I have been away 

but i did manage to bring some snow back with me

got some beautiful xmas cards for my family, and treated myself to another beautiful drinking vessel

(that gorgeous glass jar from Italy is now having a rest!) and the winter horses are bringing me tea every few hours

and like those horses above, I am out doing what I love in all weathers - training

and - I was Happy!

I love my training so very much!

free weights ~ running

and I am so happy following my heart, doing what I love every day

every day my life is filled with Joy and Love

(such a beautiful poster! it's in Starbucks at Edinburgh airport)

I always do things that make me happy

and I have an exciting film to go see soon, with a real honey in it! Chris Hemsworth *sigh*

The Huntsman Winter's War 

looks like a good tale ?

the other week I went to a night-show light-show with my papa and his bestie, at the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh

to see more of my favourite flowers

um, the fir trees were doing well

it was so freezing cold! there was snow in the air, but unlike tonight it didn't fall

thank goodness! though, me being me and a typical Scot, I had forgotten my gloves and hat and was dressed for a late summer's day

in between shivering I took some snaps

some displays were small and beautiful

this was a water fountain with fire flames at the same time

papa and I were wondering about the mechanics of it all, and the fuels involved, no oily residues were visible on the tiny loch so it must've been a fast evaporating flammable liquid...

(I would've liked a bigger fire to warm me up!)

and some of the light displays were very grand

a little while later I saw another light show

I visited the kelpies at night - em, well it was about 4pm, and you can just see the snow covered mountains in the background as the dusk set in

it's the first time I've seen these horses lit up, and they were very impressive

here they are dancing

oh okay, it was freezing cold - so it may have been my hands shaking instead!

and like all things illuminated, they changed colour as their mood dictated

erm, what's with the eery green eye? looks like it's rising from the sea

a little while before all that light show stuff, I was touching down down South

yeah - this is the plane's wheel on the landing strip

pretty neat pic eh

I am sure I had my phone set on the right settings to be able to take that pic safely (for the pilot and touch-down), but it's still a conundrum to me and every day I learn more about this mysterious little piece of communication equipment

it was at least 10degrees warmer than in Scotland! 14degree days - T shirt weather!

I've been getting some nice pics with my wee smart phone

and took this sunrise one last week as I was driving my papa to the airport

(he was off to colder fields! (Norway to be precise))

so it was good to see the Scottish morning giving some visual warmth at least

anyway, back to those beautiful eyes!

...if they have this attached to them - then definitely, for sure, absolutely, without a smidgen of a doubt - 

...and if one of these wee babies comes my way,

then - oh my god!!

it will be xmas every single day!!

on December 24th it will be exactly 2years since my little soulmate Wesley left for the stars

- last night I dreamt about him -

and every day with a heart filled with love I think about him, and yes - he fills me with Joy and Love and Happiness

anyway, back to reality! I have hares ready to journey across the big pond, and more heading to snow laden pastures!

plus a basket full of leverets that need stuffing and homes to go

(maybe, just maybe, they will make it in time for xmas? but I'm not holding my breath!)

happy xmas!

and a late Happy Thanksgiving to all my wonderful American friends! 

Thank You so very much! 

I appreciate you with all my heart 

lots of love xxxxx

dreaming - with my head in the clouds

nearly all of my thought-time is spent with my head in the clouds

~it's where I'm happiest~ dreaming

and where miracles occur

it's where future dreams are born

and past memories are relived (happy ones ofcourse :)

and now that I've settled into Army life and being a soldier again 

~yes, living my dream!~

I can start to focus on making my hares and squirrels again

just made a tiny guardian angel hare  for a customer (to order) and did the regulatory photo shoot with the hare in situ - 'up in the clouds'

it doesn't really matter where you are on earth - cause whenever you dream your head should always be up in the clouds

I decided to join real life last month and got myself my first ever smart phone

and...

the inevitable deluge of selfies

for some strange and rather flattering reason I take a better smart-phone pic than with a normal 35mm

not sure how that transpired

but anyway, the results have been staying longer on my facebook page than any other pics ever have

rather looks like I am on cloud 9 ?

summer is here in Scotland and it is beautiful!

August is usually always the month for hot sunny days

the sun is at it's zenith, the clouds are soft, fluffy and fast moving

Edinburgh is such a beautiful and vibrant city!

August is the month of the Edinburgh Festival and all over the city there are visual surprises

this is Charlotte Square where the annual Book Festival is held

I took this the other night as I turned up rather late with my mama to go and peruse the kiddies books!

yeah, I totally love the fun of children's books!

um, the ones with the big pictures in them ofcourse 

but that section was closed (it was just on 9pm and I'd jsut come from my gym) so I had to browse thru the new release section instead - which is always a pleasure as I just love looking at beautiful book covers. Yes - I judge all books by their covers! I am that shallow

so I was very happy!

and very happy to see the purple horse, pink sunset and green trees

and just a couple weeks before as I was driving up Queen Street who should I pass but Zebra22!

standing guard at his doorway

letting in no-one unless they brought carrots and oatcubes

so ofcourse I had to pull in and take a pic! it's not every day you see a real life-sized zebra in the city now is it?

then again - it is Edinburgh after all!

things are going great in the visual department because that same week, on a sunny day, my number1 dream car - a '78 Trans Am drove past me on the coast road!!

yeah, I was in way past the clouds this time - I was up in heaven!!

the last time that gorgeous beast drove by me was over a year ago, on that very same road, on a sunny day!

I've loved these pontiac firebirds for years and one day I will be cruising about in my own one ~for sure!!

and with a Steve McQueen in the passengers seat! ;)

or actually make that a Josh Hartnett!

he's my dream of choice :)

- black hawk down style!

aaah! such a handsome boy! *sigh*

here's a nice tune, and some Black Hawk Down

(it was Black Hawk Down - but then that clip was deleted from youtube) (so now it's some US rangers)

I've got a nice selection of war movies, and I reckon it's time to watch this one again, it's been a while

and um, I've got a few Josh Hartnett movies too *double sigh*

anyway, talking about beautiful breath-taking cars, I've had a few drive-bys from maseratis! 

yeah, it's on my wish list too! (if you read my blog you already know this! haha)

one drove by me today infact! and in my favourite colour - black

it's always such a delight to see a beautiful car

and dreaming of my own one, and two, and three...

and earlier, when I mentioned jsut coming from the gym - well, another dream had come true - I got a 105kg deadlift!

it's been well over a year since I've done reps on deads over 90kg and yesterday I did a warm up set on 60kg for 6reps, then 80kg for 6 reps and I thought I'd try 90kg since 80kg felt fine.

So I managed to do 3 easy ones on 90kg! 

so then I put on 100kg and thought, why the hell not? it's been such a long time since I'd lifted it, and incredibly I got 2 easy reps! unreal!!

so I asked my mate to watch me, as I knew my form was not the best, my tush was a bit high so I tucked it down a tad, and I got another 2 easy reps!

goodness me! 

so I put on 110kg and managed to get the bar off the ground about 1inch, ha ha ha

and then after a rest I decided to put it down to 105kg and I got a nice one!

I was well chuffed!!

life sure gives you surprises!

delightful ones ofcourse :)

in the meantime I spend most of my time dreaming!

just being happy

doing stuff I love every day

and just dreaming

every day I dream of my darling, my heart of hearts - Wesley!

every day I think about that beautiful tiny little boy and my heart swells with love

every day I close my eyes and hold him close to me and relive our times together

oh how much do I love him still? to the ends of the Universe and back

he may have left earth but he's not left my heart

it's been nearly 2 years now since that wee mite left for the stars and became an angel

and still, every day, he is the only one I think about

some time, one day, in the future, I will bring another little rescue bun into my life and into my heart

some day

but in the meantime I'm just gonna keep on dreaming on...

(director/actor/dreamboat - Ben Affleck - this one's a dream too eh!)

...with my head in the clouds

and my heart full of love 

xxxx

a heads up

yesterday when I was driving thru town with my mama after having a tasty bite to eat at Topkapis (our fav place for chips, garlic pizza bread and Turkish Lemonade in Edinburgh) we saw a wonderful sight!

the Kelpie maquettes are in Shandwick Place!  oh wow!!!

I immediately parked my car and kindly asked my mama to take some snaps with her phone, which she very obligingly did!
I still don't have an iPhone (yet!), but hopefully I will get my act in gear and get one!

Here is one of the kelpies wearing a church crown :) Nice how it turned out I reckon. You can just see Edinburgh castle in the background.

This is them both together. They are only a few metres high. Impressive!

Just over a year ago I saw an article about the huge ones which live in Falkirk and made it my intention to go visit them. Which I did earlier this year with my papa.

Beautiful art makes my heart beat faster! And in every city I have visited and lived in I have my favourite buildings or statues.

They are truly out of this world - well, nearly! considering that they reach the clouds!

Here's the real ones! Huge eh?

And the first time I saw those wee maquettes was a fair few years ago at Edinburgh airport. I was driving in to pick up my papa, and oh my god! there at the main entrance was these two incredibly beautiful horses! I nearly didn't make it round the round-a-bout, my eyes were transfixed on them, such is their beauty.

So I was delighted for sure yesterday when I saw them again, back in Edinburgh! They had been having a sojourn in Chicago I do believe?

I am sure it won't take long for the horses to be graced by the usual traffic cone, or two. There's nearly a full moon tonight and the town is packed!

Besides, Glasgow set the standard for horses wearing cones and the Duke of Wellington and Copenhagen (which he rode at Waterloo) are always adorned! Bless them :)

It's always a pleasure to drive in to Edinburgh airport because I get to see my favourite fighter plane - the Spitfire!

This is the Spitfire Memorial of the RAF 603 Squadron and during the war was a RAF base. 

Isn't it just incredible that men, brave men, flew these beautiful machines in WWII. 

That pic above is copyright Simon Johnstone and there is a nice write up about the plane too.

And interesting to know that this Spitfire is being cared by Merlin ERD whose Managing Director also flies them, and the Chief Operating Officer of Edinburgh Airport was a member of the Paras!

Nothing better than putting your heart into what you do and where you work!

and here's a heads up - some of these wee hares, up there on cloud 9 at the moment, will be going down into my etsy shop sometime 

sometimes things take a while for me to get round to them

but there's no rush

I just take every day as it comes and appreciate all I have. I'm happy to have my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds :)

So happy to know these horses are here! Will be nice if they come to live permanently in Edinburgh. Here's that beautiful one again, this time with a nice looking warrior-style nose-guard! ha ha

thank you xxx

sea stars

I've been super busy with my life that my shop had taken a back seat and it'd been a while since a hare or two had been born

and a story or two had been written

last xmas Papa Hare StarEinviger came into the world.

He was made for a warrior woman who lives on distant shores (my hares live all over the world! lucky them)

and as a nice touch in his photo shoot I laid my tiny Conan the Barbarian sword next to him

since he is for a warrior, and has warrior blood in him

though the sword never went with him, what with it being part of my collection of all things beautiful and exciting!

don't you know? i LOVE Conan!!!?! and that sword is exquisite plus+

*sigh*

er, what's that? you don't have a tiny Conan sword in your collection? goodness!

anyway, after StarEinviger left these shores I got an order for a sea-faring hare

preferably with a sea-themed coat

and so...

the trade winds blew in Mama Hare LoveJersey

and yes, this pretty hare also has the pleasure of living on distant shores!

though she travelled there by wings, not fins

thanks to the excellent services of Royal Mail

she went to her home sans story, one not needed

but StarEinviger has his -

Papa Hare StarEinviger

When StarEinviger was just a small baby he would go off for long treks by himself. The very first time he did this he got lost, and it wasn’t until hours later that he finally found his way back home, albeit rather disheveled, awfully hungry and very tired. 
To the relief of mama. 
Though there was a rather heated scene a few minutes after she had given him a big hug and checked him all over for alrightness Yeah that usual scene mamas usually make when they want to let their naïve offspring know about the dangers of wandering off by themselves for nearly the whole day and all the unfortunate and terrible things that could happen to them. Anyway, he shed a couple of tears and mama wiped them away then grasped him to her fluffy chest and hugged him again, saying it was all okay, and that she was just afraid, but everything is better now.

The second time StarEinviger wandered off on another long trek and got lost again and came back way, way later than the first time, mama was not so pleased to see him. Well she was, but you know how it is, first time relieved, second time angryish. She had been wringing her paws and tutting and peering into the night’s inky darkness looking for him. Instead of a big hug this time he got a not so cordial reception.

Not that he wasn’t too bothered though. He was still young and still learning about the complexities of body language so he merely shrugged his shoulders and scampered straight off to bed, ears pinned flat against his back as mama gave him a small barrage of helpful advice. But he did get a loving kiss on his forehead.

And the third time he wandered off and happened to come back the next morning, completely exhausted, soaked thru and starving, mama merely shook her head, tutted and tutted because she could now see a pattern to his behaviour, and gave him a small kiss on top. Not a single word was uttered, for she knew that they were all in vain.

StarEinviger soon became way better at navigating the countryside and mama got to see more of him in the evenings as he found his way home sooner. Plus he would bring back berries that he came across, and interesting looking plants and herbs for mama to try out and add to the dinner menu. And every now and again he would bring back some unusual surprises like beetles and slugs and small dead insects to adorn the dinner plates. He thought mama could give them a try out because on his treks he had spied on foxes eating the beetles and hedgehogs dining on the stranger textured slugs and blackbirds carefully selecting the insect bodies, so could mama do something nice with them for dinner perhaps? Um, it was just a thought. He cleaned out his knapsack and got it all ready for his next excursion and meanwhile mama prepared dinner. 
The smell from the kitchen was rather divine and yes, infact dead insect bodies crisp up well in the oven and go deliciously with freshly picked wild mountainside herbs. Mmmmm.

StarEinviger was excited to tell mama about his excursion over dinner and soon a lovely cheery pattern was established. He would go off for a few hours or even most of the day and explore some far off part of the countryside, collect interesting things for dinner that evening, have a few exciting experiences, come home happy then tell mama all about it over their tasty-new-things dinner-time. 
Mama was also pleased too and she thoroughly enjoyed his stories, though at times she had a few sharp intakes of breath and her heart stopped a couple times and then there was the occasional falling off her chair in shock and the falling off the chair in laughter, and every single time he told her about his adventures mama always, always, always pretended that he was talking about another baby hare. 
Because there is only so much shocking and scary and hair-raising stuff that a true loving mother can take before she freaks out completely and sees herself sitting at the dinner table completely alone, by herself, with plates covered in meadow herbs only.

StarEinviger is looking forward to resting comfortably on your armchair by the French windows with a view to your garden. Make sure and leave them open a bit thanks as ofcourse, he will be out every day off on his adventures. 
Not that your company is boring or anything it’s just that it’s in his nature. He is completely at one when he’s outside, under the big open sky and the eagles and hawks and um, okay, sorry he didn’t mean to mention the top predators that he encounters. 
But yes, he just loves trekking over the soft heathers and the time-worn grey moss covered granite by the wolves favourite rocks and the bear’s dens, oh eh, sorry again, he didn’t mean to mention them either, just that he sees a lot of them but he’s a really fast runner and an even better hider, so they never do get to him or manage to find him when he’s utterly exhausted and gasping for breath wedged in between 2 huge boulders on the vidder.

Anyway, you are more than welcome to come along with him, you know, accompany him, maybe even help collect some of that interesting stuff for our dinners. Besides he knows that you are a warrior woman and am really a very competent shield bearer by nature, so in any cases of imminent danger he will just scamper between your legs and you can take care of him and fend off the bears and eagles and wolves and extra big foxes and… Oh, that’s all in your past, and you’re trying to get back to nature now? 
C’mon he doesn’t believe that for a second! Once a warrior woman – always a warrior woman so you just go grab that big round thingy over there, that’ll do well as an improvised shield and he will grab the knapsack and, em on second thoughts, grab that sword too off the wall from your um, sword display, you know just in case. 
What, decoration only, yeah he’s heard that one before, ofcourse it’s not! It was obviously made by a company that only hires shield bearers. You know just cause he’s a hare doesn’t mean that he hasn’t got any knowledge or experience – you would be surprised you know, yes, very, very surprised. C’mon now, grab your weapons, let’s go…


...and now to rustle up some more hares 
much love
and thank you ♥
xxxxx

Happy ....just because it's..? Ho Ho No!

#soHappy

happy?

sure you are!

and how can I not be happy when I have this torn off piece of last year's xmas card stuck on my wall, reminding me to be happy every day?

and when I can stop by my fav facebook page every day for a few laugh-out-louds with my newest happyness-inducer - Grumpy Cat!

omg! surely you have heard of Grumpy Cat eh?? 

No?

er, you actually mean Yes don't you?

Grumpy is that breath of fresh air that just makes your day go smoother!

I always make sure to look at things every day that make me smile, like my hare and that old calendar bun above 

- and things that make me laugh! 

laugh out loud!

every year for the past god-knows-how-many years I have bought myself some xmas hare ornaments

but this year was the first time I haven't

time sorta ran away

I did get some nice cones on some ribbons, a sort of door decoration thingy that is hanging on my wall!

and I did get some shiny pretty baubles that are like metallic cones, love them! 

so I suppose they will suffice

there's no snow here yet

it's actually rather mild this week

so indeed I will be dashing thru the 'no' hahaha

let's have some Happy xmas cheer Army style...

yeah, I've already posted this clip on my blog a while ago but I love it so much!

always makes me smile

always makes me happy

and em, isn't that first guy totally totally gorgeous! 

what a smooth smooth moover he is!!!

hahaha!

okay back on track

too much xmas cheer??

just listen to Grumpy eh :)

well, no matter how far I try to plan things ahead

I never seem to quite make it

I suppose that is the er, rebel? in me?

the non-conformist?

the i-do-things-my-own-way ?

(could just be that I am totally dis-un-organised? but I don't wanna own up to that title!)

and a few hares that were meant to go into my shop never quite made it

-they are residing beside me as I write this post-

hmmm, maybe I need a consoling hug?

er on seconds thoughts, perhaps not!

anyway these wee chaps will make their way there some time

Grumpy loves them!

(he's just got a really dry sense of humour?)

(sometimes I take things too literal?)

so pretty eh

perhaps I could keep some of my own ornament hares for my special hare xmas decorations then??

now, that's an idea! hmmm

omg! too funny eh!?

all these pics are off Grumpy Cat's facebook page

and since Grumpy's favourite word is No, I am sure he doesn't mind appearing on my blog?

eh Grumpy?

'No!' 

hahaha! course not :)

okay, Grumpy is taking a rest

the happiness factor in my home is too high for him to be hanging around here too long

he might actually start being a nice kitty

got a couple little lace pattern hares too

for those who like their xmases the colour purple...

purdy eh?

and just gonna rub it in one more time

~Happy~   ......just because it's...?!

'spoilsport!'

ha ha ha

okey dokey, time's up!

hope you've been good this year an have yourself a merry little.......

xxxxx