Pippa the Mouse

Well hello there, been away all week to the beautiful but very wet Highlands of Scotland and so have neglected to put up any posts or even to do any work, it has been great but I am now getting the guilt and HAVE TO do something tomorrow. All is not lost though, finished off a sweet little mouse I started over a week ago yesterday and think she is pretty cute. Will probably have to change the face a little and work on the pattern to get it perfected but as far as first attempts go i am fairly pleased.

I have also manged to dig up half of the back garden, get blisters all over my hands, have great fun playing with my 2 year old niece Isla (who by the way is just the cutest most entertaining niece in the world ever - along with Rachel, she's amazing too of course!), polished off a box of chocolates, remembered to put the clocks forward one hour, cleaned the kitchen and am now watching Harry Potter on the TV.  Today's other triumph has been to put Pippa the Mouse onto my Etsy shop, thought it would be quite complicated but hopefully I have manged it. I get the feeling the whole Etsy thing will be another learning curve but that can only be a good thing, I will get the hang of it all soon I hope.

PS speaking of Harry Potter guess where Danny took me last week.... the Harry Potter Bridge or the Glenfinnan Viaduct as it is known to muggles! And yes, it was pouring down with rain, and yes, we got soaked, and no, the Hogwarts Express did not speed by us along the top but it was worth it just to be able to send a photo by text to best bud Katie King who loves the Potter as much as I do, sad I know but who cares, bring on the new film!

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Vintage Patterns

When I was growing up I always remember my mum being busy and creative in the dining room; cutting out patterns, using the sewing machine, drawing and painting, sometimes knitting, helping me and my sister Linda out with our brownie badges and making us the best halloween costumes in the world ever! She recently brought me her old sewing machine to have a go on and I love it - varying shades of 1970's pea green and avocado and weighs an absolute ton. My mum has continued to keep me inspired and on her most recent visit to Dundee from Aberdeen gave me a couple of old doll clothes and Looney Tunes patterns, as you can see they are fantastic.

This one is from 1974 and the one below is from 1977 - both older than me, well just.

Sorry the photographs are not too clear but the packaging is pretty faded. I can't say I have actually had a go and tried to make one yet but I am sure it will happen at some point in the future and the dolls clothes patterns are going to come in handy as I try to improve making clothes for my animal creations. Meanwhile I am still working my way through and trying to add to her amazing collection of buttons, as a young girl I could spend hours just looking at them in their chocolate tins at the back of cupboard.

They even smell vintage!

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Love-Love-Love!

i want these Charley Harper plates SO SO much, just had to share!

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Battle of the Birds

It's not been the best couple of days really, i can't say the creative juices have been flowing. I have spent most of my couple of days off lazing on the sofa and feeling guilty for not actually doing anything, of course this is entirely my own fault for having a few too many on Saturday night but it's been a while since I last went out so I shouldn't worry too much.

All is not lost though, I have actually managed to wake up a bit today and create some new birdies, one of which will be picked up this afternoon by a good friend Catherine and taken to it's new home in Broughty Ferry as a present for a baby girl. I have made a couple for her to choose from, I think the pink one will win!

These are the two birds in question, I will let you know which one has been selected and rehoused when Catherine decides, I'm hoping to get my Etsy shop up and running this week at some point so the other one will be available on there i hope.

And here are a couple more pics of the birds individually, let me know what you think of them.

I really enjoy making the matching cards for each bird/animal i have created so far. I think it is quite a nice touch especially since everyone I have made something so far has commissioned it as a gift for a friend or relative. I would like to make a large piece of artwork or picture with lots of these all together and have it framed for the house - still so many empty walls to fill!

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Happy Birthday Joycey!

Have a great birthday Joycey, hope you have a good one and your mini Joyce Cat reaches you in one piece, love you baby. xx

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Cats in Skirts

Well here goes, my first real post, left to my own devices I am trying to see if I can actually figure out my camera, photoshop and website manager whilst trying to write something remotely interesting. This whole adventure is really going to be a steep learning curve for me - and by that I mean mastering the sewing and the website too!

I have a full time job so finding time to try out new techniques on the sewing machine is quite difficult, at the moment I seem to be concentrating all my efforts into one big old Monday craft extravaganza, getting up at 8am and leaving my room around 8pm, sometimes later on - I only emerge at feeding and watering time, Danny is the absolute best at getting the cups of tea in though. So for my first real post I feel I should show you yesterdays creation, as promised to Katie at my work here is Holly the cat...

Hope you like her Katie.

There are a few more cats in the making all at various stages of completion and scattered all over my house - legs in the living room, tails in the kitchen waiting to be filled with lentils, yes lentils and some ears scattered all over my studio, hopefully they will come together this week at some point...will post the images as I finish them.

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