I am Hip - It's Official!

(pic originally uploaded by tenfingerworkshop.etsy.com)

Ok, I'm not hip at all, but the lovely tenfingerworkshop has made a set of dolls depicting moi and the other Monkeys and called the set 'Hip Family'. I chuckled to myself, does she not realise I am a complete nerd? ANYWAY - how cool are they? And I think I look gorgeous (if I do say so myself). Everyone needs a set of their own family dolls - you could use them as place settings at Christmas (or Easter if you all get together like our lot does). I'm thinking I need to get the extended family now....there's no end to this y'know!
Go and take a look in her etsy shop, go on, RIGHT NOW!!!! :)

Shop Update

The etsy shop is updated with the new dolls and I'm having a little sale - lavender mice are reduced and there's a half price dino and emu merrylegs there too. Whoo! Go on, go shopping!

It's totally windy here today, there's a full blown (hee hee - geddit?) gale going on. The cats are going mental in the house (they don't like the wind), and I nearly got a twig in my eye when I went out to the bin. It's a dangerous life I lead.

It's the weekend - hooray!!! Although, I don't really know why that's any different to any other day for me, as I don't have a proper job...and I still get up at the crack of dawn thanks to Leo. Still, it's the weekend, so I'll whoop again - whoo!

Astro-Naughtys

Here they are - the naughty astro boys, ready for an adventure in Space (or in the back garden with a rocket made out of a cardboard box, and saucepans on their heads). Mum says as long as they don't try to climb on the roof again they can have a picnic in the rocket. They do try to behave, but boys will be boys and trouble usually follows them wherever they go.

They (and all of their friends) will be in the shop by tea time tomorrow (that's friday the 25th of January if you can't remember what day it is, I only know that because I looked on the front of the paper and it told me).
Has another week gone by already? Blimey....

The Big Reveal

I've nearly finished making up the new designs...I have 2 spacemen to finish off (a ginger one and a dark haired one), and then I'm done (and can get them all into the shop this week sometime). But I wanted to share them with you whilst the light was ok (not brilliant, but better than it has been for ages - roll on spring and I can get back outside to take pics)

Here's the whole gang

Georgina and her brother George (ginger dolls - hoorah!)

Harry and Freddy (their parents were hoping for boys)

And Zibbly and Zabbly, some alien friends for the spacemen


There's another brunette, and a rabbit in the main pic too, but I haven't taken individual pics of those yet (yes Laurie, there was a duck on the fabric - it's on the rabbit's dress!)

They are a bit different to the dolls I did before, because I wasn't that keen on them (they looked fine until you got up close!) The legs are floppier on these ones (which is nicer when they are being dragged about by toddlers - as I have road tested them with Leo), and there's a bit more atention to detail. I'm happy, the kids are happy, are you happy?

I'm going to have a big shop update later this week, in time for the weekend. I want to clear it out a bit and tidy it up and then I've decided on a monthly review and update. Hopefully it'll make me a bit more organised and stop things getting listed in dribs and drabs.

Secret Things

I've been busy this week working on some new things...but I'm not ready to show you yet, they need tweaking and finishing and I want to make sure I'm 100% happy before I share them with you lot. But to tease you a little bit, and to keep you in suspense, here are some 'can you guess what it is yet' pictures.....





This one's for Fran, my valentine's swap partner - your thingamejib is finished (which you know, coz I told you) and here's a preview....hee hee hee, I love surprises!



I went to see High School Musical on Ice today with Grace, my friend and her daughter. It was good, the skaters were doing lots of spinning round and jumping (thought Troy - the star boy did fall over a few times) we had rinkside seats (which made it even better, but also meant you had to smile at them and interact a bit too much for my liking). Grace bought one of those awful light up plastic wand things for £12!!!! I was horrified, I could have whipped her up a lovely one with a wooden spoon, a bit of felt and some sequins (not the same, apparently) and then she spent ages moaning that I wouldn't buy her a £7 light up cup of red ice, to which I told her she was ungrateful and some poor children don't get to go to see High School Musical on Ice, or if they do have to sit right at the back in those seats where you can't see anything and have to climb a million stairs to get to your seat. She shut up then (after a bit of under breath muttering), and I realised I have turned into my mother....oh dear.

Meridian's Pug

Laurie wants to see a picture of the finished Pug, which has now been sent (and arrived safely) at Meridian's and is to be sent all the way over the seas to her Mom's house in the US (Idaho to be precise, I think), as it's her birthday coming up and she has a whole collection of real woofing and barking Pug dogs.
I'm hoping Meridian's mom likes it, he is much easier to look after than a real life woofing and barking dog, and is cheaper and less noisy too (which has to be a bonus!)

So, Laurie - here are the (as usual, dark and rubbish) pics....



Mr Pug on his blanket, with his bone (it's a long way to the US without food)


Mr Pug's curly whirly tail

Now, in return for the Pug, Meridian made me a surprise braclet...I couldn't decide on which one I liked best of all of them on her blog (and now in her shop too, looky here), so I asked her to send me one she thought I'd like and she did exactly that - it's gorgeous.

(pic originally uploaded by MeridianAriel.blogspot.com)

You can't see the richness of the colours in the picture, but in the light it is a lovely deep red, and is really beautiful. I'm over the moon! She also knitted a little pouch for the bracelet to go in, which has been snaffled by Grace (and I can't find it - she seems to have hidden it in her room somewhere) so I can't take a picture of it at the minute. I intend to snaffle it back and hide it from her...it is mine after all!!!

Thank you Meridian, you are lovely (and she has lovely hair, go and look at her blog just to marvel at her lovely hair, I often do...I'm hoping she'll give me some one day and I can make a little wig for myself)

I had a very productive day today, but you can't see pics because it's too dark. I'll do it on Friday (because tomorrow Leo has a date with his girlfriend in a ball pool).
Have a good evening and a super duper thursday!

WIP

I'm making a Pug for Meridian Ariel's mum (Or is it Mom as she's American?)
He's almost finished, but I'm sort of stuck on the eyes. I think I like the black boot beads best but I suppose I need Meridian to tell me what she thinks. What d'you reckon, then girly?
He also has a couple of other bits to him that you can't see yet (because he's not finished - it wouldn't be right, would it???? Let the lad get his eyes on first!)
The picture has strobed a bit (and I know, I'm crap at photography) but his body is linen, and his face patch and ears are cord. His tail (you can't see it yet) and his legs are felt. I hope you (and your Mom) like him, Meridian.



And to prove I have been busy with bits and bobs and not just skiving....I made some owl pins/brooches/whatever you blooming well call them for my shop.


Thank you for all the luverly luverly comments about my spacemen - I will make some up for ye olde etsy shoppe (but if anyone fancies one before I eventually get round to it - they are 12 quid and you can email me) Thank you - I'm all blushfull and coy now :)

Links still aren't working AT ALL :( I give up (and I'm still shaking my fist at you, Blogger - GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!)

Better Late Than Never

I never quite got round to showing you some of the things I'd made for christmas presents...and Christmas is definitely well and truly over now, the decorations packed away until next year, so I'm a bit late but like they say, better late than never. I'm going to show you anyway (whether you want to look or not!)




I made 2 spaceman dolls, one was for the little boy of someone I have got a possible wholesale order from. He owns a shop in my local town, and him and his wife are lovely, so I made their little one, Jonah, a doll. The other one is Leo's, and he got a cushion to match too.

And then I made 2 dolls for my friend, Hannah's, daughters - one of whom said RUBBISH when she opened the parcel (Thanks a lot, Elizabeth!). She is only 2, and I don't think she really knows what rubbish is, and her mum likes it so that's the main thing.

I won't bore you with more of my Christmas creations, I'll move on to the here and now and this weeks bits and bobs.

Sarah at paper-and-string made a frog last week, and suggested it would make a great doorstop. My friend Anna wanted a doorstop for her son's room, and as she is always bringing armfuls of toys and clothes round to ours for Leo I thought I'd make her one as a thank you present. So I pinched Sarah's idea (thank you honey pie!) and made Guy a bright red cord frog, with blue and red starry belly. He's filled with rice, weighs a bloody ton and is doing the job rather magnificently (and has survived being thrown over their galleried landing and onto the wooden floor in the hall many times - so my machining skills must be improving! I liked Guy's frog so much I thought I'd cut into the super precious 1950s unfinished quilt top (that I bought from ebay for an absolute steal, is made from the old owners old 1950s dresses, and was made by her mum, who has recently, and very sadly, passed away) and make one for Grace too. I keep saying I'll use the quilt top for a quilt (it makes sense) but it is too girly for Leo's room, the wrong colours for Grace's and too small for mine so I have resigned myself to using it for smaller, but very special projects (saving enough of it for a lap quilt though, I need to quilt a bit of it at least).

Her beautiful blue eyes are beads that another Sara (the KittyEden one) sent me (blimey - is the land of blog full of Sarahs?), so thank you to you too (all of the bits you sent me are going to very good use by the way...I would have taken a picture had Grace not stolen the package in the first place and pilfered the bits she wanted...leaving me these blue beads and some pretty fabric squares!)


PS, for some reason I can't get links to work today, so I'll try again later Blogger - Grrrrr!!!

Starting as I mean to go on....

I need to be more organised in general, disorganisation is one of my best traits. (anyway, I think so). But wednesdays this year will be my busy days of crafting, and I will usually ban the computer for the day (it starts next week - today was a trial run!) therefore, today I made a pink bunny (almost finished - she just needs a fabric yo-yo sewing on to her bottom right hand side), and I appliqued a cushion cover for Leo - with a RAAWR on it (as RAAWRS are his fave thing in the world). It's also almost finished, I need to sew on his name across the top, and finish off the yo-yo flowers (a few leaves maybe and one is missing a stalk). Leo is happy, and so that means I am too :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

I haven't been that busy over Christmas, other than the usual family things, but I did manage to make a couple of new horses out of corduroy, which are in the shop now, as well as a few sets of lavender mice. I need to get organised as I have well and truly neglected my etsy shop for far too long, and now Christmas is out of the way I can get back to the real world and back to normal - phew!!!!!


So, any New Year's resolutions? I thought about it....then thought, nah - I won't keep them so why bother! Every year I try to be better at time management, tidiness, general housewifery - you know the sort of things but each time it goes horribly wrong and I carry on being a terrible house wife most of the time, hoovering like a mad woman when I know someone is coming round, the ironing pile usually gets so bad Warren ends up taking it to his mum's (she has a lady that does everything), and I get moaned at for not going to the supermarket to get basic provisions.
I think since I got older the hours in the day have actually got shorter, and a day like tomorrow (when Leo is at Nursery and I should be able to get millions of things done) will end with me shouting and swearing at 3pm because I am running late to pick the kids up, there's not a bean to eat and I haven't even managed to sew a seam. A lot of the problem, methinks, is the evil computer, which lures me in and I end up a day later halfway down my blogline. SOOOOOOO, the only way I can change things is to give this up, and I am not doing that - so I'm sorry Warren and kids, you'll have to put up with a useless wife and mother and bugger all for dinner.

What did you all do for New Year's eve? I made the 2 new Merrylegs (see above) and did nothing else at all - it was bliss! I'm not a fan of going out on New Year's Eve, I can't be jolly whilst a stranger tries to kiss me, and as neither Warren nor me drink (well, me not much, him not at all) it can get rather painful watching others slip into drunken oblivion and it always costs sooooo much to go out.

I hope you all had fun, and that you woke up fresh headed this morning (there's nothing worse than a banging head, and that sicky feeling!)