The Crafty Red Rabbit

When our company's general counsel announced he was retiring, I knew I wanted to make something special to mark the occasion. After all, he had spent the past 20 plus years leading not only our company, but specifically our department... helping us to make well informed decisions that kept us compliant with state and federal laws, but also treated our customers with compassion and integrity. Before coming to our company, he had served in the Navy as a JAG officer. And also served many years in the Air Force Reserve. Having come from a military family and met RJ when he was still in the Army National Guard, I had a great respect for Gary's military service and the affect it had on his personality and work. We nick-named him "The General", even though he was technically "only" a Colonel. I knew, like the previous project I had done when he made that promotion to colonel, that I wanted to do something that called back to his military background, so...

For Halloween (yeah, I'm a bit behind in my posts), my team at work agreed to decorate in a Harry Potter theme (we're all super geeky about Harry Potter). I decided to turn my cubicle into the Hufflepuff Common Room (the House yours truly was sorted into). Besides the usual House-centric banners; yellow and black damask "wallpaper" made from scrapbook paper; and the framed picture of House founder Helga Hufflepuff, I figured that the common room would be full of cheery plants. After all, the House sponsor was Herbology Professor, Pamona Sprout. Besides mini pots of plants that look like gilly weed, a womping willow, and some devil's snare, I decided I needed a mandrake plant. I got some Crayola air-dry clay, a mini terracotta pot, and got to work sculpting an angry, baby-faced knot of roots and vines.  Mistakes were made... air dry clay isn't quite like the clay I used in grade school that would stick together if you added water. Adding water cause...