The End of another year!

So here I sit, eating chocolates & feeling about 40 stone! I can't believe another whole year has gone by! I managed somehow to set up Itsy Britsy, goodness knows how, I was so ill, before that & following that, my children were ill-Christmas came & went without hitches thankfully!

Here is some pictures from the exhibition which is still on display in Braintree Library Dome Gallery!

The Sixties teenagers bedroom was great fun, being from Liverpool, sixties music has always been prominent in my life! I loved making the little HMV record player & all the 45"vinyl singles & the LP'S The posters on the wall of course are the Beatles & a little piece of my own family history!

The Knights table was great fun to do, it would have been better if I hadn't been recovering from being so ill, the mosaic was very theraputic work & of course Camelot wouldn't be complete without the dragon & merlins work table!


The Tudor banquet was fun too, I learned more about the Tudors during this project than I ever did at school, couldn't find much about their cheese though!!

The traditional sweet stall, my family enjoyed my research for this, the live studying part that is!


Happy New Year everyone !!

Fit for a king

Tomorrow I start working on my Tudor banquet, (hmmmm I wonder where I,m going to get a pigs head from) I can't wait, I really want to start now, not a good idea though or I will never get to bed!
I,ve been sitting planning what I'm going to make for weeks, I can't find what sort of cheese they had in Tudor times though-I can see pictures of banquets with cheese on plates, but nowhere that tells me what I can model my work on!

Tudor times is my favourite time in history, not that I would have liked to have lived through it mind you, he was far too free & easy with his axe! During the summer holidays, we took our children to the Tower of London & I was amazed that we could stand in the very spot where Ann Boleyn was executed, all that history preserved like it wasn't so long ago !

So this is a very exciting project for me, must get some sleep so I can make an early start :)

Showtime !

Once again it's been a busy weekend, on saturday I attended a Macmillan coffee morning at layer marney tower. What a beautiful place, I drove through the gates to be greeted by wandering sheep.
Once inside though, there were no sheep, thankfully, we were in the great hall which had a huge great fireplace which made me feel all christmassy!
I really enjoyed my day, I enjoy talking to people about their dolls houses & helping them choose what to fill them with, I find it so fascinating, the lady who is working on her Tudor house, the other her student residence.
What I would like to see is a gallery of dolls houses, in fact why don't you share some links to your pictures? Post your link in comments!

Tea for two ♥

Well here I am, still at it-I really need to go & hoover but I just wanted to share my latest busy table with you, a traditional English tea, the latest addition to my Itsy Britsy exhibition!

I have been making this over the summer & I have enjoyed every minute...mmmm, now I'm hungry, I'll have to settle for a biscuit though, been to busy to bake any scones!

Work In progress....

September, always feels more like the new year to me than January, school starts, the weather starts to turn & we start getting out the jumpers & boots & packing away flip flops & chucking out bottles of suncream which we optimistically bought at the start of the school summer hols!
We had a fun packed summer holiday, beach trips forest trips & days at home, lots of buying uniform, especially for my eldest who started at secondary school this September!

I have booked more craft fairs as I have missed them, it's really hard to find affordable ones that happen at a convenient time, I also have my exhibition coming up at Braintree library in November so at the moment I have lots of half finished miniature projects & am waiting for some good weather to take some photos!

I did manage to make some Beatles LP's for my sixties teenage bedroom for the Itsy Britsy exhibition though!

Summer holidays at last ☼

I know, I know, I've been too busy to blog-the school fete just about took over my life, I have been in mini-making withdrawal!
Now the holidays are here we have arranged a few days out, but on those "chill out days" I have to start preparing for my exhibition, it's not until November but, you know that as soon as the summer holidays are over, Christmas just happens, so I want to get it all sorted out before September, because then school starts again & so does all the work for the fundraising!

Soooo-the title of the exhibition is Itsy Britsy & it is all work based on our good old British traditions & work has started on the garden fete already!

I will keep you posted as my work continues (I promise) :)

Todays happy thought; Look before you leap. But if you are going to leap, don't look too long!

Fruity freebies!

I've been rather industrious for the last few weeks, as well as organising my daughters 5th birthday party, stripping down the miniature shop for my tea room & organising the school fête I have had the mini making bug!

I had bought some juice drinks for my little girls birthday party & noticed that the tops were just the right size for miniature fruit bowls, so I packed them up out of my little stock of little fruit & don't they look cute? I also made a fruit bowl similar to some I saw while on holiday on Portugal last year.
Anyway, to celebrate my fruity frenzy, I have decided to give one of my bottle top bowls of fruit away with any orders from my Etsy shop over $15 until I run out of them!

Actually, the birthday party inspired me a lot, I made lots of cupcakes instead of a birthday cake & like many artists, I am extremely untidy in whatever I am creating be it clay or cooking, so there was clouds of icing sugar & splashes of buttercream everywhere.....so of course I am making a busy baking table of cupcake decorating, pictures when I'm finished, here's a tray of cupcakes to start with.....












And if those greedy little people in the dolls house are still hungry, there's always a bag of crisps!









Todays happy thought: If you change the way you see a problem, the problem you see will change!

De-stress day

So I was looking round the town on wednesday morning & I noticed all the fabric flowery hair accessories & also, necklaces, bags etc with varying sizes of flowers...mmmm quite expensive I thought too!....Then I remembered how I have stacks of fabric in the loft, a tin of interesting buttons that was recently donated to me & two beautiful daughters who I can make some of these decorations for, at a cost of nothing!

So that's how I spent my day, happily sewing up lots of coolurful flowers, adding hairclips, safety pins etc ....mmm what a lovely day!

Spring hols are here!

....and am I ready for a holiday! I just feel like I need a few days where I can close the doors & stay in, I don't even care what the weather is doing, at this moment I feel like I have hit the wall & I can't go any further until I de-stress a bit first!......I went for a swim at an unearthly hour this morning, as thats the only way I could fit it in & I do feel a bit better already!

So, here's the plan....there will be no plans! tomorrow I might have a bit of a crafty day (I mean doing crafts, not being sly), I made some little dressing table bottles recently & I love them so much I'm itching to make more!....I could sort out the shed a bit, the house is reasonably tidy & it is clean so I'm just going to chill & let the children play on the wii & in the garden....oh & a little chocolate never hurts either (for both me & the children) ♥

Todays happy thought: You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough.

Things I hate about swimming & the giveaway winner!!

First things first, I've been having a bit of bother getting this posted this week, so finally.......

The winner is ......... Peach Blossom hill

Thanks for all your entries!

Right, swimming, ...I love swimming, since all three of my children are now full time at school, I've been able to go swimming once or twice a week, depending on whether I am on the forest trip with reception or not.

I started off giving myself an hour, swimming at least 60 lengths in that time, I now swim 64 lengths (a mile) in about 45 mins, I am trying to better that every week!

Why then must people insist, when a pool is busy, on doing backstroke, head down, "everyone can just move out of my way" front crawl, or worse, side by side, chat while we swim kind of swimming aaaaaaaaaaaaagh, how inconsiderate can you get?-if the pools empty, fine, thrash about, swim diagonally or dawdle all you like, but if it says swim clockwise, please do so!

There, rant over, I can enjoy the rest of my weekend!!!

New neighbours!

We have new neighbours, well kind of, my daughters dolls house has had people finally move in!
Their home is nowhere near finished, but it is habitable, with all the necessary facilities & a few home comforts .......as you can see, Dad has settled down with a cuppa, while he chats on the phone, I wonder who he is talking to?
The daughter is chilling out in her room, reading witha healthy snack by her side....naughty naughty though, no plate tut tut.....!
Mum is somewhere around, cleaning probably, we can meet her another time!

Don't forget now, I'm hosting a giveaway............

All you have to do is visit my Etsy shop & tell me what your favourite item is in there, then tell me what your ideal Mothers day gift would be, it can be as extravagant & selfish as you like or as plain & simple ☼
So, visit, fave item, fantasy present-that's it, you have got until noon on Saturday 6th March, then the winner will be put into a hat & randomly drawn out by my children ♥

Todays happy thought; It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice!

Brand new giveaway!

Yes it's very nearly Mothers day again & I've decided to hold another giveaway as I haven't done one for ages!
The winner will recieve a miniature Mothers day gift wrapped basket, a cute little addition to your dolls house, or for Mums who love little things ♥

All you have to do is visit my Etsy shop & tell me what your favourite item is in there, then tell me what your ideal Mothers day gift would be, it can be as extravagant & selfish as you like or as plain & simple ☼

So, visit, fave item, fantasy present-that's it, you have got until noon on Saturday 6th March, then the winner will be put into a hat & randomly drawn out by my children ♥

Good luck, can't wait to hear them !!!

Todays happy thought ; A mother holds her childrens hands for a short while, but she holds their hearts forever!

squish!

I am blogging as I squish clay, I love squishing clay it's so relaxing, at the moment I am squishing a rather lovely green to make seedlings with, as I have run out of my miniature seedling trays! It's nearly spring & I suppose our little people in the dollshouse are growing their greens, they will be wanting all manner of greenhouse goodies too I expect, plants, pots, seeds, growbags (need to make more of those too).....

I have been rather busy with the clay recently, I made some juicy little satsumas, which I love so much, they are popular too, which means I get to make some more ♥

back in a moment..................................................................

.........there, children in bed, little green seedlings cooking , cup of tea & a ferrrero rocher (which I got for my birthday yesterday)...musn't forget about the seedlings cooking though :)

I think that I must have a spring clean in Happy shed tomorrow as It's been getting cluttered over the winter months, it's only because I tend to chuck things in to "put away later" as it's too cold to hang around in, it's not too bad though, I did spend an hour a few weeks ago, tidying up a little, in between snow showers that is...which I am fed up with now by the way! I know we here in England get laughable amounts compared to my fellow crafters in the US, but our authorities just don't prepare for it, so things grind to a halt.....schools close (don't mind that really) deliveries stop (health & safety) roads & pavements become treacherous ( no money for grit !!! really) & any plans you might have for going anywhere, well, don't even think about it!

anyway, back to the shed, (moan over) I want to get it so I can work in it once spring is here, now that all my children are at school all day, I can get some serious squishing time ☺

Todays happy thought: A smile is a curve that sets things straight ☺

A lovely bunch of coconuts.....!

Monday again, cold it is too, my feet are seriously below the temparature of what I would call reasonable for feet!

Enough of that, if I get on, I might forget about my feet!

I have been fairly busy last week, I have turned my creative juices all tropical making coconuts whole ones for the coconut shy, and halves for, ...well I don't know actually, I bought one, to copy & now I don't know what to do with it. We use coconut for plenty of recipes, but we tend to buy the milk in a tin & the white part in a packet. I suppose it's partly because it's a pain to open & partly because when you do, you lose half the milk & it's hard to separate the "flesh" from the shell.

suggestions would be welcome!

I'm pleased with them though, they did take me ages, good job I don't suffer from lack of patience!

The coconuts will be part of my exhibition at the end of the year, it is called "Itsy Britsy" & is a celebration of Great British traditions, a summer fete is one of my favourites & I intend to have a 12th scale fete complete with coconut shy.

I will write more about my exhibition at a later date......now brrrrr more socks!

Todays Happy thought....One kind word can warm three winter months.

my little online dollshouse!

The reason i haven't done much over the last few weeks is because i have discovered a fab game on the internet via facebook called yoville!
Now I don't usually go for these sort of things, I ignored my friends constant requests to join for ages as I've usually got better things to do, but as it feeds my interest in all things mini & indulges my need to shop, (without costing me a penny) I became hooked!
The game is, you are given an apartment, you then work & play to earn coins, enabling you to furnish your apartment, buy clothes accesories etc, you visit your friends in their apartments too it is so much fun!

Obviously that's not all I've been doing, I do have my children of course, and the school Friends association, would you believe I have started the ball rolling already for the school fete......I have ordered lots of clay today as I have lots to make, now that all of my children are full time at school I will be able to dedicate a couple of whole days to creating in Happy shed.....or the dining table until the weather warms up!

Now valentines day, best get cracking!

New years resolutions!

Right this year I really really mean it......

1 Eat less ......yes I must, most important this one, this year I have had less will power after Christmas & still keep "finishing off" the last few dregs of goodies, I don't even enjoy them now it's not Christmas anymore, cos it just feels wrong!....and if I carry on at this rate I will be at least 25 stone by next Christmas!!


2 Drink more......water that is, I forget me & make sure the children have enough, when really I should have a glass at the same time!....going to get one now in fact!


....aaaah thats better, now where were we....oh yes number

3 spend less.....yes well, nuff said!


4 Sell more....I need to spend more time promoting my miniatures on Etsy & finding more outlets to sell.


5 Listen more.....to music, I really got out of the habit while the children were all small as we listened mainly to childrens stuff, wearing headphones were out of the question at any time in case I didn't hear them calling me, so now they are all at school, I can turn it up! (so long as I can still hear the phone in case school calls...hmmm)


6 Move more .....I will swim more, walk more & mmm might even get wii fit!

Best get on then....have lots to do!

Cold, cold cold...!

Ok I'll be honest, I really don't like January, I think it's depressing, there's nothing good happens in January! I like snow....at Christmas, where it belongs....the best thing about snow now is that schools closed & I get to keep my children here with me, in the warm.

Usually, at this time of year, I get some cleaning done, sort of "spring" cleaning of both house & shed & look forward to spring time.I usually get my creating mojo back...& make plans for my crafting year.....This year I plan to concentrate my efforts online, Etsy in particular, and create a new website that gathers all my web prescences together in one place, I have Etsy, facebook, twitter, deviantart, blogspot...I think thats it, no doubt there will be more to follow!
Towards the end of the year I have an exhibition at my local library, it will be called Itsy Britsy & it is a celebration of all of our British traditions & customs, work is already well underway but your ideas & suggestions will be welome.

best get on with promoting my miniature february goodies then, it's pancake day first, followed by valentines day, so get over to my Etsy shopand take a look!

Now, new years resolutions..........Hmm!