Imagined them all put together to create little night lights for Youth Best of Breed awards. Using battery tea lights instead of lit candles for safety's sake.
Something different than a trophy and usable too!
Piggie pile
One of my favorite things to do is shop for things to make into awards for local shows. I found some wooden bases, votive candle holders and cute bunny figurines at three different stores. Imagined them all put together to create little night lights for Youth Best of Breed awards. Using battery tea lights instead of lit candles for safety's sake. Something different than a trophy and usable too!
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It seems many of us who are into rabbits either started with horses or continue with them. I have many horse books for sale, some like new in gift givng condition for Christmas stockings. I no longer have a horse having had to put him down at 36 years of age. It was a wonderful time with my buckskin Quarter Horse "Dunny Reeves". He rec'd the first International Buckskin Horse Association's ROM issued in the State of Maine in 1980. A ROM stands for Register of Merit, kind of like a Grand Champion certificate. So it was like having the first Grand Champion rabbit in your State. Though I no longer have a horse, I still enjoy reading about them. There are horse fiction books, a few on horse care, non-fiction race horse stories and a few vintage books with beautiful illustrations like the one in the photo here. Email me for a complete list. Like new hardcovers are $5. each down to not so new paperbacks at $.50 each. I can media mail as many as you want for $4.00. Get some stocked away for winter reading before cabin fever kicks in! In the R&D/Youth area at convention were several prototypes for new plastic bottoms/trays for the convention cooping. Kevin Whaley of K&W Cages created a prototype authorized by the ARBA board. Approximately $3,800 has been spent and the board voted to fund up to $5,000. Suggested changes were to add a lip and texturize the bottom. Projected cost of them might be $22-$25 per 1,000. Currently wooden trays are used as cage bottoms. Perhaps the new bottoms will be easier to clean, last longer and store better.
I received my sale items from www.bunnyheaven.com and couldn't be more pleased. I posted about their going out of business by mid-December. (see 11/17 blog) All items are now 50% off. Here is a picture of the denim bag that is a big roomy tote. They use this neat method to create an embossed image on the denim which is then stuffed for a quilted effect. The straps are very sturdy and not thin. Nice to buy quality products made in the USA too. Whenever I've ordered in the past, the items were always nicer than they appear on their website, no disappointments. I think it is time for a second order before they close their doors for good! Check them out for your Christmas list, great items for a rabbit club Christmas swap, novel show awards for next year. Quick turnaround time, got my items in 3 days. They run a sister site that has cat lover items. The ARBA board discussed forming a special committee to look into ARBA ownership of future conventions.
The ARBA Board voted to store the exhibition cages and equipment used for conventions in a 70x80 building in Wisconsin. Host clubs not only rent the cages and equipment, they pay for freighting them to and from their convention location. This is a good step to protect those ARBA assets.
The 2014 ARBA Convention will be held in Fort Worth, Texas. The showroom and hotel headquarters will be in a different area than the previous Ft. Worth Convention, which was Downtown. The hotel this time will be a 5-10 minutes drive from the showroom. Open will be housed in one building, Youth in another building.
I have great memories of the Ft. worth convention. Deb, Lisa and I stayed at a hotel in the Stockyards area right next to the Cowboy Hall of Fame. There were many nice restaurants you could walk to including a great steakhouse. They do an old fashioned cattle drive right down the Main street every day. We'll look into staying there again. I'll never forget one morning as we left the hotel for the showroom. We turned left out of the hotel to drive back to the Main street happily chatting about the showroom day ahead. A police car turned onto the street, slammed to a stop parking diagonally in front of us. A "sheriff" got out of the car and "moseyed" on over to us. We thought, oh-oh what have we done now, they always say don't mess with Texas! The sheriff instructed us that the hotel was on a one way side street and that we were going the wrong way. He'd seen the Iowa license plates, so figured he'd have some fun with us. He told us to turn the van around while he blocked the street. We apologized profusely and his reply was..... "Well, I saw you a-coming and figured I'd head you off at the pass". I arranged the HLRSC banquet that year at the Cowboy Hall of Fame. The museum closed at 6 p.m. so we had the whole place to ourselves and could tour it for free. It made for a more memorable banquet than at just another hotel banquet room. At the ARBA Board meeting, Treasurer Freeman reported of a $13,000. trucking scam. He and Exec. Dir. Stewart have filed the necessary paperwork and are attempting to get monies returned.
The ARBA Standards Committee reported at the PA Convention that no breeds or varieties were in jeopardy of falling off the official breeds list.
There were 14 presentations that passed at convention and can be shown as of Feb. 1, 2014. Besides the breed of Lionheads, several varieties of current breeds passed. They were Chincilla Dutch, Silver Marten Minirex, Tort Minirex, Blue Minirex. A company I've ordered unique Bunny items from sent an email late last night stating that due to the decline in business from the poor economy, they are closing their doors December 16th. Their website has both cat and rabbit lover items and can be found at www.heavensales.com Just click on the appropriate choice, bunnyheaven or catheaven. To get the terrific closeout 55% discount enter F&F in the code box at check out. I've been pleased with everything I've purchases in the past and their shipping rates are reasonable. They are also quick to respond to email inquiries. Sorry to see them close. Their loss is your gain as it is a great time of year to pick up deeply discounted bunny items for Christmas gift giving. The ARBA Library Committee put quite a few old rabbit/cavy items up for silent auction in their booth at the ARBA PA Convention. Most, if not all, items were from Bob Whitman's estate donated to ARBA. There were old prints, photos, books, artwork, figurines and more. Over $3,200. was raised for the Library Fund.
At the ARBA Convention, finally the Lionheads were accepted as a breed. The two colors that may be shown are the Tortoise and the Ruby-eyed Whites effective Feb. 1, 2014. It has been a long journey for this breed. I raised them for a few years purchasing my first ones at the Peoria, IL convention. I did enjoy their personalities and they had fewer kindling problems than Hollands. The babies were very independent abandoning their nestbox and eating hay and grain earlier than the Holland babies. They actually seemed to enjoy their hay even more than their grain. Their range of motion was something to watch. The Holland babies would move from here and there, hopping their way across the cage and around littermates. The Lionhead babies would dart superfast here and there like little tinkerbelle's. So fun to watch.
When I had to start giving up Holland cage space to the Lionheads, it was time to make a decision. The Lionheads could only be shown as an exhibition breed and couldn't compete for Best in Show nor receive Grand Champion legs. There weren't many exhibitors showing them back then so it didn't make much sense to continue raising them, so the decision to go out of them was easy. I simply loved my Holland Lops more. I sold my last and best Lionheads at a Nova Scotia show. They were last judged by Glen Carr who said they were the nicest ones he'd seen so at least I had that accomplishment with them. Thanks to all who attended the Eastern Maine RBA's Newport Maine Show last Saturday. More thanks to those that helped run the show. Secretary Tena did a fantastic job when the entry swelled to more than our three judges should be asked to comfortably judge. She obtained another judge, Lisa DiMambro,who graciously accepted the judging assignment, even with severe knee pain. What a trooper! Thank you also to our other three judges, Paul Jurgelonis, Alan Platt and Piper Smith. Also our writers, too numerous to name, thank you!
WAYYYYY more entries than we expected. People showed up and then some! We had many new exhibitors from Maine and a few folks came down from Quebec and a couple from Nova Scotia that are familiar faces as well. The raffle table - almost every item was brand new. Many items were donated by Donna & Dave Thibault from way up north. We had a brand new 3 hole dark green powder coated carrier donated by Maine Cage Factory, a still in the box blue carrier cart, bunny lamp, bookends, doorstops and more. We also had a 50/50 drawing. The lady that comes in to do the kitchen set out a bunch of baked goods, bags of cookies, banana bread, whoopie pies. Thanks to the raffle ticket sellers Melinda and Erica Leighton. The club always gives a free entry ticket to each exhibitor for a Thanksgiving Basket with food items donated by club members and a gift card donated by the club for Hannaford to buy a turkey. This was won by a Youth exhibitor (and his pleased mom). There was still plenty of room, even many open empty spaces on the paper that was laid out. When was the last time you saw that at a show? No blocked aisles, easy access to the show tables. The judges moved things right along, starting shortly after 9 a.m. and was done by 5 p.m. Tena's son kept the file folders flying, his help greatly appreciated too! It was almost 1100 entries total with about 70 exhibitors. Thanks to those who set up the showroom the day before and those who helped clean it up after the show, notably Norman Corson and crew. Mark your calendar for our Saturday, April 26, 2014 show. Our judges will be Donna Grimm, NY RuthAnn Bell, NJ and Terry Fender, OH. At the PA convention I got to see and had time to talk to Bob Rohrbaugh from PA. Bob, wife and daughter were in Holland Lops years ago. Another case of..." the youth are our future" of the rabbit industry. When Bob's daughter went out of Hollands, Bob and his wife stayed in. That to me is the classic prophecy of the saying you hear over and over when clubs are asking for support of youth members, monetarily or otherwise. Yes, the youth are our future because when they go out of rabbits, there parents stay in! Anyway, Bob is looking to get back into Hollands and decided to see if the breed has changed much and who had what for stock. It'll be nice to see them both back in again.
I missed seeing Heidi and Cheyenne (daughter) Keen who were also looking to get back on the HL bandwagon again. When Cheyenne and her brother Cody showed their Hollands, those were kids that KNEW their rabbits. None of this bait and switch of an adult showing in youth. I bought a cute doe from Cody who could tell me the doe's entire lineage. When she placed at convention, he came running over to tell me how she did. Mom tracked the sales for them but that was about it. The kids were involved and interested. Glad to hear they are coming back too. Don't miss a great Double Open and Double Youth fall show held in Newport, Maine on Saturday, November 9th. Show catalog (in PDF format) is uploaded to the club's website. www.emrba.org At the top of the club homepage click on Shows, then choose Nov. 2013.
Doors open at 7:30 and Show starts at 9 a.m. We are back in our larger building! Plenty of room. Show Secretary - Open & Youth - Tena Ireland, 10 Bean St., Madison, ME 04950 Phone Entries: (207)-696-3783 - Email Entries: [email protected] (Entry Cut-offs: Mail-in entries must be postmarked no later than Monday, November 4th, 2013. Phone and e-mail must be submitted no later than Wednesday, November 6th. (No calls after 9 PM). All e-mail entries will be confirmed.) There are 12 Open Breeds sanctioned and 5 Youth, check the catalog. We have nice awards (rabbit paperweights, votive bunny lamps, rabbit plates, trophies, special ribbons for Youth, etc.).. We welcome contributions to the raffle table too. I will be donating a really nice bunny lap quilt to the raffle to keep you toasty on these cooler November nights. The Writer's Raffle will be a beautiful grooming apron with embroidered (by Jeanette) rabbits on it and a pair of rabbit socks! You'll want this so plan to write. What makes this show extra special? Each exhibitor receives a FREE entry into the Thanksgiving Gift Basket including a gift card for the Turkey. (members and everyone else is welcome to bring a canned good or Thanksgiving themed item for the basket to add to the fun). Today I picked up a Thanksgiving table cloth, Thanksgiving party poppers, cupcake and cookie mixes and a really nice metal non-stick pie pan that's really neat. It has a plastic snap-on cover with carry handle. So come join in the fun and garner some points or ARBA legs at the last Maine rabbit show of the year!!! Here is a photo of the Harrisburg, PA ARBA Convention. This gives you a tiny idea of the size of one of two showrooms. This is just one side, the other half is just as big. The specialty club booths and vendors were in another room. To the right are the long lines of judging tables and breed signs to help you find your breed. It is unbelievable fun! Each year the Holland Lop Rabbit Specialty Club has a trio raffle at Convention. Three breeders each donate to this prized trio of one buck and two does. This year the trio consisted of a Black junior buck from Marie Heath, a Broken Tort junior doe from Val & Pat Cammack and a Broken Tort junior doe from Tracy Lukeman. There were 400 tickets sold at $5.00 each, so it was a great fundraiser for the HLRSC to help pay for next year's awards.
Driving down to Convention, my travel buddy Barry and I pondered buying tickets and pooling our chances. Once there after seeing the rabbits we each purchased 4 tickets and called it good. Barry said he wanted the buck and I could get the two does. After the HL auction was held on Tuesday, they drew the trio and my ticket was drawn. WooHoo, Yeah, Yippee! People congratulated me and said I was lucky to win them. Yes, I was VERY lucky to win them. Most folks haven't been going to Convention as long as I have so they didn't realize a very important part of "the luck". I've been buying trio tickets for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS! I've gotten the does settled in and they are very cute. The Lukeman doe is a lovey-dovey. The Cammack doe placed 20th in the broken junior doe class at Convention. Back home, I had only two broken does, so was delighted there was not only one but two broken does in the trio. Hopefully, more brokens will follow and help fill up those broken classes. The buck is one of the nicest trio bucks I've ever seen donated. He is out of two awesome parents. His dad was 2nd place solid senior buck this year.... one placement above Over the Moon. His mom won her class at the 2011 Indy Convention. He should work well with Barry's color project. Maybe I should start buying Mega-bucks tickets again? Or can I only win Rabbit-bucks? |
AuthorHoping to share the rabbitry happenings & thoughts. Also HINTS that I hope will help you and your rabbits.
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