Bumper Stickers, Labels, Backyard Art, Oh My!

There’s so many more important things to update you on. Like the animals you don’t know about yet and the updates on ones I haven’t talked about in months. The structures we’ve built and those we’re behind on. Animal movement (we were playing musical coops for a while there). The good (and bad) ways of the world. Yummy recipes for all sorts of foods. Our fodder system.

Instead, I want to talk to you about my “art.”

When I was a kid, I was pretty good at drawing. For an eight-year-old, I mean. Not top of the class, but above average. I loved drawing and doodling and sketching. I have fond memories of being a little girl and sitting with my grandmother in her upstairs bedroom. I’d have crayons or colored pencils or, on good days, she’d share her watercolors. I’d sketch whatever she was sketching.

Somewhere along the way I lost interest in art and instead became interested in poetry (the gateway art to fiction writing). I lost any shred of talent I had, never learned how to judge distance or create depth. Basically, I’m stuck with the art skills of a ten-year-old.

However, over this past week, that didn’t stop me. Not only did we design a bumper sticker (as seen in our new page header or here), but I decided I wanted to paint the back of our rabbit hutch system.

I do promise a post on the building of the rabbit hutch system itself, the pitfalls and high points, but that’s not the point of this post. In designing the rabbit hutch system, we decided one of the best things to do would be to hang plywood on the back. We did this for a few reasons:

• The rabbit hutch system backs up to the fence for the dog’s yard. This offers protection from prying predator eyes.
• The system is under the shade of a tree and so should offer some relief from the summer heat, but in winter that area is barren and cold. In order to offer our furry friends more protection, they’re sheltered from wind on three sides, still with room for air to flow inside and between the cages.
• Once we got to building the thing, the plywood on the back proved to be a good addition because it added some much-needed rigidity. More on why that was lacking on my next rabbit hutch system post.

You know what else this meant? It meant I had a blank stretch of plywood to stare at every morning in the backyard. Not that it’s a problem, but I wanted something more. Being that I love to pretend I can draw, I sketched out a plan–and I painted.

And, tell you the truth, childish or not–I’m happy with it!

Also, if you’re curious, here are some other designs we did for bumper stickers, egg carton labels, and the original design for the plywood back.