twinkle twinkle button bat

I'm alive still but things are so busy here with a week till we fly to Seattle and I have had parcels to wrap, crafts to make, all manner of birthday prep for H, the collecting of gift items for my parents, and for the two parcels I will send to Selena and Jaci when I get to Idaho (much cheaper than posting from here), we have all had colds and Matt is still busy with weddings and all manner of studio based jobs. Its enough to make your head spin, I'm not used to running around like a headless chicken every single day... well maybe not that bad but it does seem like were are ridiculously busy the last month or so.

I can't wait to get to Idaho and not do much other than drink lots of coffee, play with the pack of pugs, eat my dads wonderful cooking and shuffle round the holy trinity of Target, Barns & Nobles and Old Navy ... with a few other shops in there too... honestly I'm not a shopaholic... I normally despise shopping except for book and craft shops but I love shopping in the states and looking at all the things you cant get here... and hauling back as much as our suitcases will hold.

Today I parceled off three packages one to a friend who forgot things at mine, one packages of Halloween swap goodies, and an order for Lillian the doll (with a few goodies pack inside as the buyer is a lovely twitter friend.) I baked cheddar muffins...and cheddar and marmite ones too.. and I have just coffee stained a stack of note cards to make more story notes and the pictured little button bat. I'm so pleased with how the button bat turned out that this one is the 3rd I have made since yesterday

Right its getting late and the jacket/baked potatoes must be done by now...I'm starving.

Blackbird

I had this idea for a collage with a blackbird, paper, buttons, fabric, a bit of embroidery but my embroidery skills are lacking, I'm in fact quite terrible at any hand sewing. Perhaps that's why I like making the primitive style dolls, they don't need a lot of hand stitching and what they do need doesn't have to be neat and tidy. I may try again another day but for now this collage shall be tucked away in my file of things I hate now but might not hate later on.

and while we are on the theme of blackbirds I adore this clip of Dave Grohl singing blackbird:

One Red Tear

Today I have been messing about with different vintage book paper, scraps of fabric,lace, pen, pencil, and a small bit of embroidery too. It went a bit funny along the top and I'm not sure I like it but it is something creative right? I may leave it alone for a day or two and then look at it again and see how I feel, I do like the different textures of fabric and paper, so it definitely merits another go at mixed media some time soon, and its been ages since I did any book page paintings.

There is still time to sign up for the Attack of the 50's B-Movie Swap so please sign up, you know you want to!

Paper Heart Tree

sewn paper heart tree

Remember the paper hearts I was busy sewing a few posts back? well here they are as part of the studio's window display. These photos are from the side view as I couldn't get a decent shot from the outside due to the reflections on the glass. The twig tree lights up and I bought it for the studio Christmas display three years ago and I still love it and keep thinking about taking it home.

paper confetti

I'll try to badger M into taking a proper photo of the display when he gets back from his trip to Austria to shoot a wedding in the snow. Why oh why am I not going? Because H has school and we are already taking him out for 6 days of term time in the spring to fly to Seattle and drive to my parents in Idaho from there. All I have to say is he better bring me some sort of souvenir back. But at least it give me the chance to have the girls around for crafty chatter, coffee, and cake.

If you look at the top left corner of the first photo you will see a dapper little chap with a raggedy cat, that little boy is H when he was only little. Cute wasn't he?

--------------------------------------

etsy crafteroo treasury

oh and I forgot to tell you that my Ophelia bracelet made it into the crafteroo etsy treasury the other week. Its still available in my etsy shop if you want to take a look.

off to pack M's suitcase.

Owlish Love...

owlish love postcard

Don't worry its not for the Owl Swap, just and experiment with mixed media.. and because I have Owl's on the brain well here he is. I think he look really cute, except for some rather wonky stitching. I bought a packet of 20 deckle edge recycled rag cotton postcards about six months ago and it has languished in a craft box ever since. That is until a few days ago when I was messing around with sewing paper hearts and thought I would try to make an owl too.

The owl is made from a vintage book page from Alice through the Looking Glass, if you look closely you can see "Alice" and "Queen" in the writing, his feet and outline are ink pen, and the heart is a scrap of raspberry gingham from my scrap box. I have 19 postcards left so I may have another go later and see what I can come up with. If I'm very brave I might even put one up in my somewhat abandoned, slightly dilapidated (I love that word) etsy shop.. *attempts to brush cobwebs away and hide small dead bodies under carpet*.... if anyone is intrested..

Paper Hearts

this is what I'm working on today. I'm making some sewn paper hearts for the window display at the studio. Hopefully they will be hung on a white twig/tree that was the Christmas tree a few years ago. I have painted one of the paper hearts red and I'm waiting for it to dry while I type this up fishing for comments and opinions.

The colour is a bit off as the light is abysmal, foggy and grey, but I think they look quite pretty, I don't know what M will make of them. I'm leaving the Owl swap until this afternoon as a few emails keep landing in my in box. I hope everyone is as excited about the swap as I am.