Today's make...

I got completely carried away making this little lady this afternoon...I spent hours sewing and modelling clay etc but she is all made up now and is such a help...gathering up all the little nests and eggs strewn about my craft room and getting them ready for me to sew! Such a clever little mouse!

Ermentrude helping out

 and here is some random clay objects I've been making...including cheese, beaks and eggs!

Air drying clay

Ermentrude in the making

I'll post a pic of the finished piece..mounted on her mouse trap with cheese as soon as it's all painted up! I was planning on making her to sell at my upcoming stall on Sunday...but I've grown quite attached to her already..so might have to try and make another one too!

Take Care...and keep crafting

Love Dotty 

xxx 

and the WINNER is.....

I put all your names in a hat and my trusty assistant Little Miss M picked out a winner.....

wow................how long can I drag it out....how many full stops can I use...........????!!!

The winner is Marina from the Handmade by Marina blog. Well done indeed, a little dotty heart will be winging it's merry way to you over in Greece! It seems my hearts like to fly to far away lands, the last giveaway was won by MJ from the  Wander Wonder Discover blog over in America.

I'm planning another giveaway for one of my rather handsome googley eyed Owl door hangers once I get them in the etsy shop. I just need to work on making a little batch of them and getting a bit organised then I'll let ya'll know!

 I've also been making some foxy little fella's too

and rockets...

and planning out my new addition to the door hangin crew...the badger!!

but alas..really, this week I have been mostly cleaning and clearing out my craft room big pile of mess room.

It had got pretty bad in there but it's looking a whole lot better already, I just need to get rid of a lot of "stuff" I seem to have accumulated vast amounts of crud, broken things, things I'm supposed to be ebaying etc etc..

I'll post a pic as soon as I find my camera!

Take care folks, 

love Dotty xx

In the midst of crafting chaos!

I've got my first craft stall next Friday, it's a lovely little one held at a lady's house and it sounds like it going to be super Christmassy  with an open fire, lots of Christmas lights and mulled wine!

I am, as usual, in a crazy last minutre crafting frenzy as the dealine approaches...here are some pics of the piles of semi made craft stuff lying around the house!!

There are plenty of nests, eggs, butterfly and dragonfly bodies mid production. I really need to get a move on! Unfortunately both kids were off ill today so the crafting has slowed up somewhat!

I still have about 50 pairs of ears to thread onto elastic. They have taken me a lot longer than I'd planned for...but we live and learn.

Finally, I've just (in a very sketchy fashion) painted a hatstand red. I'll be using it to display my tails...well thats the theory, I'm not too sure how it will all look yet!

Well gotta run now and resume mama duties...and try to sneak a little crafting in too!

Take Care

Love Dotty

xxx

and for no other reason than it made me laugh...here is a picture of my ma's daft cat Stumpy asleep! He must have over heated next to the Aga and attempted to move...but then just gave up!

 p.s aaagggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh James is destroying my craft room as I write this!! messy messy mess mess!!

Craft Room Chaos, Cards....and Birdhouses

I have been eagerly and anxiously awaiting delivery of my printed greetings cards and business cards...and at last they have arrived!

I'm really pleased with how they turned out, the Owl cards in particular came out really well. Its hard to tell the difference between them and the original. 

 

and a congratulations card.

I had intended to get many more printed but it took me a crazy amount of time/faffing to work out how to reduce the file size and a bit of photo shop trickery to cover up blemishes from where they had scanned badly. I will definately be getting more done though! 

I've been making a batch of these cheery birdhouse hairclip holders this morning. They are also really handy for clipping freezer bag clips on too!

and here's a peek at the craft room chaos that has been building over the last week. I'm constantly dragging pieces of felt and cotton around the house and a certain little kitten, known as Stumpy, has been adding to it by playfully ripping open the bags of fabric scraps and leaving them strewn about too..oh joy!

These will all be up in the etsy shop...at some point...ahem (I'll get there eventually!)

Hope you're having a fab Friday

Love Dotty

xxx

oh...and I must give my little brother a mention. He is doing a sponsered Skydive today to raise money for two amazing charities. Go Stuey!!!!

I'm linking up today with Lakota from the faith, hope and charity shopping blog for Tah Dah Tuesday! You can link up too or jus have a mooch around at the other link up participants!

Like Peas in a Pod

I made this little pea pod clip holder for a friend. She wanted one to put in her kitchen to hold the bag clips on. I need to make some more of the  birdhouse haircip holders too..I've added it to the infinite to do list.....

 The original birhouse design is shown below.

 I've also been out gathering apples for the coming chutney making bonanza!

and (yet another!!) shot of the beautiful Cow Parsely Seed Pods.

Also, please take a look over at the beautiful photographic work of Dawn over at At Home With Red blog. I love her still life work..I especially love the cherries pic! She is hosting a giveaway to celebrate the opening of her online shop over at etsy. Although greedily I would very much like to win a print...I thought I'd share the loveliness with you all too! 

and a final random note..I am selling my sewing cabinet, it is very much like a Horn Sewing Cabinet and has a air lift for raising the machine and a good sized work top. I just thought I'd mention it in case sany of you local craftsters were interested. It's £50..a bargain indeed! 

I'm joining up again with Fiona's Grenday link up over at Raindrops and Daisys. Must go and check out this weeks offerings!

 au revoir  

(I'm learning French...very slowly!!)

Dotty 

xxx

New craft room space!!

At last!!! I can actually get in the room and get sewing without having to faff about for hours first. It's all coming together now. I've got a desk and some rather gorgeous drawers which are now filled to the brim with fabric...lovely lovely fabric!!!

 Notice how I've carefully not shown the left side of the room...ahem...its still a work in progress!

 and the beautiful drawers...

and I have christened my new space by making some super last minute pressies for my mama's birthday.

A new bright little fella to keep the blackbird company. I love these little birds and I'm starting to get the hang of making them, although its still pretty time consuming and fiddley, they are well worth the effort. They are from the book The Artful Bird by Abby Glassenberg who writes the inspiring blog While She Naps.

I also made a few new cards using my new shape cutter tool toy by Fiskars and a butterflies stencil template.

  and I gave me ma a bunch of flowers picked from the garden and hedgerows around the house.

 Well folks, good day to you and hoping you have a fabulous and foxy week! xx

confessions

Confession no. 1...I live in mess
I borrowed a book from a friend the other day called Organized Simplicity which has spurred me into a clearing out frenzy. I have been avoiding dealing with my ever growing stash of stuff for a long time but suddenly its time to get rid! It must be a Spring thing. The down side is that as I delve into the crud and try to sort I'm feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff I've accumulated over the years. Kids stuff, craft stuff, kitchen stuff...agggghhhh stuff. Anyway, todays mission was the "craft" room whih has become a catch -all for stuff that doesn't have a home in our home.

To cut a long story short, this is what I would like.....

 

This is what I have....

Bit of a way to go yet (an understatement indeed!) Unfortunately, you cannot put anything against the outside walls or it goes damp and we also have to squash in our wardrobes and drawers as our bedroom is only just big enough for a bed and nothing much else.My friend summed it up perfectly for me really when she said that she can't even begin to start simplifying because the reality is so far from the ideal catalouge style image you have in your head of how you want things.  Like I've said before, it really feels overwhelming, which seems quite ridiculous and such a spoilt western world problem but a feeling nonetheless! 


Confessions no.2... I spend way too much of the precious little of the child-free time I have staring googley eyed at the computer. Looking for inspiration, looking at other peoples lives, procrastinating and faffing about (like I'm doing now...)

duuuuuh

I know I'm incedibly lucky to have a home and food and time to create but I feel ashamed at the amount of "stuff" that I'm consuming.  I will pay greater respect and attention to where products come from, how they are made and who they are made by. I have been doing this for a while but this past week has bought everything into focus. We need more room to breathe, play and create in and less stuff!

This years mantra   "Simplify, simplify, and simplify"

 and some inspiring quotes I'm loving at the moment...

... "Whatever we treasure for ourselves seperates us from others; our possesions are our limitations" Rabindranath Tagore

... "Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful"
William Morris

and I love this one ..."It is through creating not possessing that life is revealed"  Vida D. Scudder

Peace x

(there are so many more confessions but I'll save the interesting ones for later ;) ha! )