Hutch

Do you sometimes fall asleep with an idea in your subconscious and then wake up with the thing fully-formed in your mind? 

A few nights ago, I did. I didn't actually dream about what the thing looked like, which is a shame, because that would have been actually interesting (compared to my usual dreams of regressing to Secondary School days and failing my Chinese exams). I just woke up the next morning obsessed with making a rabbit hutch. Why? Why? Why? 

I actually went as far with the idea as to make a sample baby bunny out out of some old bedlinen. I was halfway through stuffing it when I came to my senses. It was one of those "What the.......?" moments. I mean, there I was, on a perfectly beautiful summer (OK, spring) morning and I was sitting at my mess of a sewing table, indoors, poking polyfill into this shapeless sack. Not even because I wanted to do it, mind you - only because of a dream! Tossed it aside in disgust and went out to play in the sunshine.

Today, though, I thought I'd make the hutch. It was still in my head, and the kids have been playing pets all week, dragging random beanie baby kittens and leopards around the house by strings tied around their necks. So I lugged a cardboard box onto the deck and cut into it. About an hour and a half later, we had a hutch.

I cut out the two sides and stuck vinyl pieces (cut up one of those clear zippered things that bedlinen comes in) on the inside. 

Also made these legs from the inner tube of wrapping paper and some cardboard circles.

Jenna and Kate circled around me, markers in hand, waiting for me to give them free rein with the decorating.

They colored all afternoon

and Kate set about cutting up cardboard scraps into food.

For rabbits?

Snort! As if.

For polar bears, of course!

Everyone knows polar bears live in hutches (although we did try to introduce a small bunny into his living quarters to see if they would coexist). 

Awwwwwwwww. 

So that was our craft today. 

A few extra notes on this hutch, if you want to make one for your own resident polar bears.

I made a lift-open roof so the girls could play from a different angle. It fastens with velcro.

There is a front door

that opens out, drawbridge-style. I made a detachable ramp (i.e. found a random piece of cardboard and plonked it on the open door to weigh it down). If I'd actually thought about it, I'd have made the door itself taller, so that it became a ramp unto itself. That's what comes out of not paying attention to dreams.