Elsie's Birthday!

Elise's birthday was on April 1st and we had a party for her. Person was nicer than usual so we are proposing that in future every day is someone's birthday. There is no reason why all days shouldn't be as fun as a birthday.

We never get to hold the scissors! Not fair!

Person put Sophia in charge of making party hats. This meant she got to use the scissors. Person says this is because Sophia is bigger than us and that she has never tried to cut off someone's ear. This is very unfair as we were only trying to do a magic trick.

These turned out very nicely! Sophia is smart.

Thankfully, Sophia listened to all of our directions and put lots of ribbon and pink on the hats and they look very festive. Person's advice about being careful with the scissors and not getting marker on us was not helpful.

I'm a very nice friend to Elsie.

I gave Elsie a whole package of carrots for her birthday which I think was very nice of me. It was a good resent because Elsie loves carrots and I don't so I will not be sad if she doesn't want to share. This was very smart of me. Also I love Elsie a lot since she is my best friend.

Strawberry cake!

Person baked us a special strawberry cake with whipped cream. Elsie even got a candle and we sang the birthday song very loudly. 

We're ready for a big piece of cake now!

 Elsie had a very nice birthday! I am excited for my birthday next but I don't know when it is so I think tomorrow will do nicely. What do you think?

Eclipse

Recently, Person told us that the total clips is coming to Oregon near where we live and that people are very excited. We know what total means and we know what clips are because we are very smart. What we don't understand is why everyone is excited about clips. Other than that clips are often found on chip bags, we don't find them very exciting but people are really strange. 

OK, this is really boring!

To get ready for the total clips, we gathered all of the clips we could find and put them in a pile to wait for something exciting to happen. This was not exciting at all and the clips just sat there doing nothing... We asked Person about this and she explained that she had said eclipse and not clips. An eclipse is very different from clips and involves the sun and moon. 

Passing this useful information on to Zoe.

Person let us watch a video about the eclipse and we learned that we need special eye protection to watch it. We decided to get right to work making some because the eclipse is coming soon. 

This should be everything we need.

We are going to make a pinhole viewer for me. Elsie already has glasses which we think we can cleverly adapt for her to use.

Trace carefully Elsie.

We've got the paper attached.

Now to poke it with a pin since it's a pinhole viewer.

The pinhole we made seemed way too small, so we made some executive decisions and decided to poke it with a pencil to make the hole bigger. We are super good at science.

I'm an excellent supervisor.

We can both see each other so that is good.

Now we just need to adapt Elsie's glasses. Person says it will get dark during the total eclipse so we think we need to make Elsie's glasses dark. 

This black paper should make the glasses dark.

Neither of us can see anything, so we must have done it right.

If the eclipse is coming for us, you can tell it that we are ready. It still seems like a boring Person type thing but we will see. There has not been any mention of snacks. What do you think about the eclipse?

Our Very Own Poem

Recently we have become concerned about poetry since Person told us that no one has written any poems about us. This made us quite sad. We explained this to Person every five minutes. We have now bothered person a sufficient amount and she has written a poem all about us! We hope you enjoy our poem!

  The Town of Elsie

There once was a bunny named Elsie

Who lived at the top of a tree

Which was quite unusual to see

Now this bunny was lonely

Because she didn't have any friends

She couldn't hop for being so sad

Until one grand day she met

A zebra all striped black and white

Who was also in need of a friend

So they went and they made

Themselves a home in a tent

And raided the village for food

They ate all the carrots

Raspberries and lettuce

And nibbled up all of the seeds

There's no doubt about it

The village was ransacked

The people were all in uproar

Then the pair they were sorry

That the people were hungry

So they offered to help with repair

They helped with replanting

With tending and weeding

And they didn't nibble any more seeds

So the villagers were happy

And bunny and zebra moved in with a Person

Who had plenty of carrots to spare

And we really do think

Although we are not quite certain

That this is how the town of Elsie got its name

We Are Very Helpful!

Person ordered a stool for her studio online and we were very excited when a big box arrived. At first we thought it was for us and were a little disappointed to find out that it was a boring something for Person. However, after we opened the box, and saw that the stool was in lots of pieces, we were very interested. We have never seen a stool like this before. Person said that it had to be assembled which I thought was when a marching band came to a school for an Assembly but it turns out assembled means we get to use tools which is very exciting. 

Elsie has gotten too excited and fallen over!

Obviously, Person will need a lot of help from us on this project. The first step on any project like this is to look at the instructions. Since we can't read, we had to go by the pictures.

This seems fairly complicated. Good thing we are here to help!

It turned out that Elsie had the instructions upside down so it was very confusing and slow going at first but we got the hang of it.

Elsie is working very hard.

Just like Person, we are smarter than we look!

We were a bit disappointed to learn that we won't get to use any power tools on this project. We like the big green drill. It makes a fun noise and a big mess!

I sure hope we have all the pieces and it is not like that puzzle we tried!

OK Elsie, I think this goes here.

Person kept telling us that we were getting in the way but I am pretty sure that is just her way of saying thank you. Person can be quite strange sometimes. 

This is looking great. We should probably be getting paid.

We worked very hard and now Person's stool is all done! She let us sit on it which was very exciting because it is much taller than a normal chair so we feel important. We are always important but Persons don't always realize it.

Where is our treat for all that hard work?

Now we just need to get Person to put the new stool to good use in the studio making something nice for us. We really need some new clothes for future adventures.

Julie and Elsie's Christmas Gift Guide!

Christmas is coming soon so we have been working hard on our annual gift guide. This is part of our job as studio assistants at Studio Lumio. Make sure to share this list with your Person so they know what to get you!

1) New friends from Knitneys, Bitzas and Purple Lilac Amigurumi

Christmas is an excellent time to ask your Person for a new stuffed animal to come live with you! It’s good to have lots of fluffies at your house. It makes planning anipal friendly adventures easier and for convincing humans of things. Elsie was responsible for this portion of the gift list. She did a much better job this year and included an elephant along with the rabbits. Nice work Elsie!

You can purchase this sweet elephant from Knitneys on Etsy!

You can purchase these adorable bunnies from Bitzas on Etsy!

You can purchase this bunny from Purple Lilac Amigurumi on Etsy!

2) Otter Books!

Our friend Otter has another new book! Her books are our very favorite and we have gotten Person to buy us all four. If you are in the sad situation, like we are, that you already have all Otter's books, don't worry because a new one is coming out next year! This will be good for those of you who need something to cheer you up durring the sad post holiday time.

You can buy all of Otter's books on Amazon

Oh no, we forgot we don't know how to read! Where is Person?

3) Flowers from Studio Lumio

Person makes beautiful origami flowers and we help her. Elsie is very proud because sometimes Person lets her hold the flowers. You can custom order these and Elsie and I will make something just for you!

You can purchase these flowers in Person's shop!

These are Elsie's favorite!

4) Tiny Purses from Etilinki and Petites by Yurika

We think every anipal needs a bag to keep their toys and treats in when they go on adventures. Sometimes Persons don't bring everything we need so it is good to have your own bag.

You can purchase these adorable bags from Etilinki on Etsy

You can purchase this bag from Petites by Yurika on Etsy

5) Paper doll ornaments from our shop Studio Lumio

We helped Person make lots of origami paper doll ornaments for Christmas trees. Each one is different so you don't have to worry about getting your friends mixed up (Person says these are not toys but we are going to play with them anyway).

You can find these and lots of other ones too in our shop

6) Tiny hats from Vandicrafts

It's getting cold outside so anipals need stylish ways to keep warm. We recommend these tiny hats that double as Christmas tree ornaments. If you need a bigger one, I bet you can get one made in your specific size. 

You can purchase this from Vandicrafts on Etsy

7) Treats from In the Mix Sweets!

It wouldn't be Christmas without tasty treats. These decorated Oreos are very beautiful and just the right size for Anipals. Make sure your Person gets plenty so you don't have to share! This is very important!

You can purchase these from In The Mix Sweets on Etsy

8) Gifts for Persons from Studio Lumio, Pretty Kiku, and Olechka Design

Perhaps your Person has been very good this year (our Person has been moderately good), you may want to reward them with a present. Here are some we suggest.

We helped Person make these and you can purchase them in our shop. Elsie says they should be pink but I like green.

You can purchase these beautiful earrings from Pretty Kiku on Etsy. We like the one with the fishes best.

 This is a rainbow zebra! I want rainbow stripes too! You can purchase this print from Olechka Design on Etsy 

Person made this paper doll and then trapped it in a frame! At least she won't have to take a bath in there.

If you have questions about any of these gifts or need other ideas, please let me know. I like detective work and am very good at it (I ask Person to look things up for me on the internet). You could ask Elsie too but she’s kind of unreliable right now because she’s so excited about Christmas! We hope you are excited about Christmas too!

We go to Germany*

*Person says it was not really Germany but she is probably wrong

Last month Person took us to a Bavarian theme village. We were extra excited because we had not been on a trip in a very long time. 

Welcome to Leavenworth!

The town was very cute and they must have been expecting us because they had put up a big welcome sign at the entrance of town just for us!

Maybe we can live here?

After walking around the village, Elsie was tired and needed a nap and I wanted a snack so we went to our rental for some nice chocolate.

Do we really have to share? This isn't nearly enough!!

The next morning we went on a long hike where we saw lots of beautiful fall leaves. Elsie tried to eat one because it was orange and she thought it was pumpkin pie.

I wonder where this trail goes. Maybe we will see a bunny!

According to Person, October is not a good time for a swim!

Elsie thinks she saw a Totoro in the forest!

The next morning we went for a drive and saw some beautiful mountains. Person made a lot of noise singing a song from The Sound of Music which I think scared all the animals away because we didn't see any other zebras or bunnies. There weren't even any bears!

Do you think anyone will mind if we pick some flowers?

We then drove to a nearby lake. Again, as it turns out, October is not a good time for swimming which is really quite sad! These lakes and rivers need to be heated.

We'd like to go boating please!

After a not so good lunch (Person forgot the carrots and Elsie cried) we did a little more hiking at the same place we went the day before.

These fall colors are so pretty!

Do you think we can climb to that snowy bit and build a snow rabbit?

On our last day we begged Person to take us to the nutcracker museum. She finally said that we could stop there on our way home but when we got there, it was closed! We were super disappointed and made Person promise to take us there some other time!

I'm surprised they didn't know we were coming!

To cheer us up, we went on another walk around the village while eating chocolate and looking at fall decorations in the shop windows.

I think I see a mini pumpkin!

We had a very fun time in Germany and hope to go again soon. Person needs to take us to the Christmas festival in the winter and let us go on a carriage ride!

Where do you think we should talk Person into taking us next?