Unleashing my inner Laura Ingalls Wilder

Some of you know that I was a die-hard Little House on the Prairie follower in elementary and middle school. When I was 7 or 8 years old, I distinctly remember asking Santa for the opportunity to take a road trip to visit Laura's grave. Now that is pretty weird. In an attempt to appease me and offer a more constructive gift, my mom gave me the LHOTP cookbook instead. I have many fond memories praying that it might actually snow in Portland so that I could make the pulled molasses toffee that had to be chilled in fresh snow. I think it happened twice. The pancakes were also quite good.

My mom has been cleaning out her attic and came across several very old stuffed animals made by my great-grandmother for my mother when she was a child. We were discussing the conundrum of what to actually do with a hairless teddy bear (all the fur rubbed clean to reveal a cracked and brittle grey hide absent any eyes, ears etc.) and a loved-to-extinction doll. While they seem somewhat ridiculous to save or pass on to a grandchild, throwing them out with your coffee grinds seems sacrilegious. After eliminating burying them in the garden as a tad bit bizarre, I think we settled on laying them to rest in a cardboard box and then nestling them into the trash. Not entirely environmentally friendly, but sometimes exceptions are necessary.

I digress. So, when I came across a pattern for a little muslin bunny it made me immediately think of these animals that my mother had. And then I thought, "this is exactly the type of toy that Laura and Mary would have played with - the materials lovingly recycled by Ma". And so I bought some muslin (I didn't have any hanging around from stuffing a mattress with hay) and gave it a shot. Then I selected a range of tiny scraps from my crafting frenzy to sew quite a smart little outfit for bunny. The photo is crummy but you'll get the idea.