Hi there...It's Lynn here, posting on Claire's blog because she has her hands full trying to fill all the back orders now that new stock has arrived, and we wouldn't want to interrupt THAT. *giggle*

I wanted to pop in and announce the March Pajama Party Bedtime Sketch Winner since it was promised last week! Better late than never, right?

So without further delay, the winner is..................................

#10 Bridget 

Congratulations Bridget. Please send Claire an e-mail at:  claire@waltzingmousestamps. Once I will get your e-mail, I will return a special code for you to use the next time you check out at Waltzingmouse Stamps.com 

Thanks again for everyone's participation and support of Waltzingmouse Stamps!

...a little help from Annie Sloan

 

I'm dosed to the gills this week, haven't been doing much crafting, thanks to the school germ pool once again, but DH has been a busy bee fixing up the fireplace, I was pretty chuffed with how it turned out and thought you might like a peep (actually I'm pretty sure you are not really that interested, but I could not resist the opportunity to show off a junk shop find...  besides, this may be the one and only time I actually nail it like Martha and manage to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear...). 

The white surround was a real live junk shop find, picked up for next to nothing, it is a wooden reproduction surround and DH painted it with some of that lovely Annie Sloan Chalk paint - it gives a pretty vintage finish. We sourced a cast iron insert to fit and splurged slightly by having it fitted by a professional. Next thing is to pain the wall behind a darker shade to help throw out the fireplace a little more and pop a few rugs in front of the hearth when it dries up to hide that gap...

I'm not much of a decorator but one tip I have picked up is that sometimes you can get away with cheaper materials if you get the thing made/fitted correctly - this holds especially true for curtains. You can use fabric that is cheap by the yard, but if you have them well made with proper linings etc they can look every bit as good as 'posh' curtains.

Below I have a few 'before' shots of the fireplace as it was when we moved in before Christmas. The old 70's style fireplace was looking a little tired. The groovy carpet is actually much easier to live with than you might suppose, it is terrific quality and hoovers up really well - I keep telling myself that, we're going to have to live with it a while longer.

 

Below - the surround was originally a wooden finish - we took off the lantern carving on the centre front as it was what my friend called 'a bit agricultral looking' - sanded it a bit and then painted it white. Here, I'm trying it out on top of the old fireplace to get an idea of what the thing will look like.

Half way through, not pretty...

 What are you up to this weekend?

...Up the airy mountain...

 

Photo credit - last pic courtesy of Wikipedia commons. All other photos - CBrennan.

 

It has become the norm lately that events are upon me before I have even realised that they are coming! St Patrick's Day this year was one such and at a quarter to midnight the night before, a last moment decision was made to climb Slemish mountain next day in honour of St Patrick. 

Slemish is not really a mountain, more of a hill, but we folks in Ireland don't really have things on a grand scale as you do in say, the Alps or the Grand Canyon, so any hole in the hedge here can be a town or even a city. Any bump in the road is able to call itself a hill without giving offence to any neighbouring hillock.

And why would you climb a hill on St Patrick's Day? Well, St Patrick himself is reputed to have spent around 6 years as a slave in Ireland and many of them are supposed to have passed tending livestock for his master on this very hill.

Since I'm sure you have all seen a St Patrick's Day parade in your time, I thought you might like a peep at a place that St Pat himself is very likely to have been. Slemish is very busy on St Patrick's Day but it would be a great place to sit and think some quiet Sunday afternoon!

Heading up, not going to lose that little dude on the hill...

About half way up, stopped to take pics. Nothing at all to do with fitness level.

Getting a little misty up top, rain on the way.

Much easier on the way down, remember that for next time.

Slemish seen from the road.

...hands up! Challenge winners at last!

I popped on here this evening to have a peep at the bedtime story sketch cards and realised that I had completely faffed the challenge winner announcements! It's been a while since we last had a PJ party and yours truly got it into her head that all the winners were to be picked tonight!!! Not so! My sincere apologies to folks who took part in the first three challenges.

Without further ado here are the random winners:

1 To die for - No.4 Nancy Penir

2 St Patrick's Day charm - No. 6 Laurie J

3 What would Mother do? - No. 7 Carola

Ladies if you can pop me an email on claire@waltzingmousestamps I will get your prizes organised right away!

I will be back tomorrow with the sketch challenge winner!

...March Pajama Party

Welcome to the March Pajama Party - Come on in and join us, it's very easy, simply read through the following challenges - see if any of them tickle and start your creations now. Most of the challenges remain open for 24 hours, you might have time to play if you get going right away! Grab the Pajama party badge above, by either right clicking (PC), or dragging it to your desktop (Mac) and add it to your pajama party posts.

You can enter the challenges as many times as you like, all we need is a separate link to each of your creations!

Take time to read each challenge requirement, many of our challenges are open to you whether you have WMS products or not. If you do have WMS, let us see it - for some challenges the random prize will be doubled if you do use your WMS!

As usual there is a Bedtime Story Sketch challenge at the end of the party post -  this sketch challenge will remain open for one week - so come on, get your best flannelette jammies on and get crafting!


Here are the Challenges:

Challenge 1 - To Die For

 We recently got our own custom die program under way and we are keen to see what folks are getting up to so this first challenge is all about WMS Cutting edge dies! Our samples this evening are from Edna and she is using the Gift Card it dies and stamps in this first challenge card.

Entries for this challenge should feature projects that use one or more WMS cutting edge dies. We're really keen to showcase our own dies for this challenge so you will forgive us for limiting entries for this challenge to our own dies.

When to make: Make your project now so that you can be ready to post it to your blog/gallery on the night of the party.

How do I link it up?: On the night of the party, post your project to your blog/gallery and post a direct link to it into the inlinkz tool that will be available on the blog post here on the WMS blog. Grab the Pajama party badge now from the beginning of this post to add to your challenge blog posts when you are ready, this will kelp us to find you in the event of a wobbly link. Links for this challenge will remain open for 24 hours.

What will happen? : After the links close we will choose a random project to win a spot prize of £20GBP ($33USD) store credit!

An InLinkz Link-up

 

Challenge 2 - St Patrick's Day Charm

Make a Vintage style project, something charming, with a nod to St Patrick himself. I'm seeing lace, fabric, stitching, all that old world ditzy detailing that screams vintage. It doesn't have to be a card, I'd be delighted to see altered items, scrapbook pages, whatever you wish to show me! We are opening this challenge to everyone and it is not necessary to use WMS for this challenge, but if your stash is St Patrically challenged, we have some St Pat's day Freebies HERE, HERE and HERE. Edna has used the Freebie Shamrock image to great effect on this gorgeous sample!

When to make: Make your project now so that you can be ready to post it to your blog/gallery on the night of the party.

How do I link it up?: On the night of the party, post your project to your blog/gallery and post a direct link to it into the inlinkz tool that will be available on the blog post here on the WMS blog. Grab the Pajama party badge now from the beginning of this post to add to your challenge blog posts when you are ready, this will kelp us to find you in the event of a wobbly link. Links for this challenge will remain open for 24 hours.
What will happen? : After the links close we will choose a random project to win a spot prize of £10GBP ($16.60USA) store credit! If your card does use WMS product your prize will be doubled to £20GBP.

An InLinkz Link-up

 

Challenge 3 - What would Mother do?

Make a card/project in the style of something that your mother would have made! It doesn't have to be stamped! I can almost hear you shouting at me "My mother doesn't make cards!" well that's just fine, maybe she sews? - add some stitching to your project - Maybe she bakes? - Make a tag for some home made treats - Maybe she likes to read? Make a bookmark - see where I am going with this? Edna's sample is a charming gift box, and she takes her floral inspiration from her mum.

Now it was brought home to me that there just might be a few folks who, for one reason or another, find this challenge a little challenging on the mother front, so for anyone who is in need of inspiration form a mother, I have this picture for you. You might get a little something from it. This is a real duck egg that my mum cleaned out and decorated for me a very long time ago. It was not one of the eggs that she was pleased to call her best work and she will be rolling her eyes at me for putting it up here, but it is still my favourite, even though she made more for me as the years went on. It's a little frosty house scene and I absolutely love it. I might just take my inspration from this picture and I invite you to do the same if you have no other ideas that you prefer to use - I see scope for glitter and lots of it folks! :)

When to make: Make your project now so that you can be ready to post it to your blog/gallery on the night of the party.

How do I link it up?: On the night of the party, post your project to your blog/gallery and post a direct link to it into the inlinkz tool that will be available on the blog post here on the WMS blog. Grab the Pajama party badge now from the beginning of this post to add to your challenge blog posts when you are ready, this will kelp us to find you in the event of a wobbly link. Links for this challenge will remain open for 24 hours.

What will happen? : After the links close we will choose a random project to win a spot prize of £10GBP (approx$16.60USA) store credit! If your card does use WMS product your prize will be doubled to £20GBP.

An InLinkz Link-up

 

Bedtime Story Sketch

 

Three very different samples to kick off our Bedtime story sketch this week - from Julia, Lynn and Edna - let's see what you can do with this one - you have one week!

An InLinkz Link-up

...forgotten desires and how not to get what you want.

 

Image Credit - ebay.

You will have to forgive me a crafty project for today, I am still wrapping up the release! Thank you to all the folks who visited with us during that, I do hope you enjoy your goodies!

I'm just popping on for a chat this morning, while I have my tea break, and to try to elicit your sympathy! Lots of folks will know that we moved house last year and it was long overdue. No.25 was bloated to the extreme with all the accoutrements of 5 people, at least one of whom is an acknowledged hoarder.

No. 27, while it is just a modest mid century abode with just two rooms more than No.25, feels positively palatial. So much so that the budding interior designer within me is positively foaming at the mouth to 'do something' with it. I'm not much of a nester by nature and so house decorating is a pretty new thing to me. All the while I lived at No. 25 the decor ran to cream paint and laminate floor. As for furniture, well the guiding principle was one of 'will it fit?' and since there was really only room for necessities, there was no point in bypassing Ikea. In 20 years I only purchased one item of furniture that could be described as 'characterful'...

Since I have been at No.27 I surprise my self constantly by realising hitherto unknown desires for various items that I could have sworn I couldn't care less about.

Exhibit A. The Persian Rug.

Previously I had no idea that I wanted one, but after just 3 consecutive issues of '25 Beautiful Homes'  I overheard myself telling the 9 year old that I have 'always wanted' a Persian rug. Lies. Had to be. I have never even seen a proper Persian rug 'in the flesh' so to speak.

Oh hang on a moment, I have, haven't I? - Wasn't there a whole department of them upstairs in that fancy interiors shop I once worked in and hadn't I nearly been sacked over a Persian rug because I had showed it to a customer, who had liked it, but who had not bought it, but who had returned to look at it again, only to find that another member of staff had since sold it to another customer? And, hadn't she actually demanded from the manager my dismissal because I should clearly have had telepathic powers and forseen that as she drove home that evening she would decide to herself that 'Yes, the girl in the shop knew a good carpet when she saw one and - Yes those colours and that pattern would be the perfect foil for all that heavy dark oak in her vestibule, for such folks never have halls, no, they have vestibules...

...ah yes it's all coming back to me now... the smell of the wool, the glorious patterns, the soft cozy feeling underfoot...oh yes please, I would like a Persian rug.

So in between drawing stamps and packing envelopes one evening I went shopping. Going shopping to me is opening another window on the browser and googling Persian rugs. How bl@@dy much? Are you bl@@dy mad? What? It's....it's ...USED? That can't be right, let's try again... How innocent was I. I honestly had no clue that there was such a market in Persian rugs. Second hand Persian rugs. "Eeeewwwwww" said the 9 year old, "it's all dirty". Aside from the fact that I am loathe to bring anything into the house that may or may not have camel poop stains on it, I worry about older rugs, Who made them? Was it a properly paid adult...or not? Can't have that, couldn't sleep.

Ok, let's google 'new' and 'machined' rugs and I have to hold up my hand and tell you that over the course of that week I probably spent about a full day googling Persian rugs, and the fruits of my labour are thus: I am a wool snob on a polypropylene budget. I cannot have a Persian rug.

I am reduced to checking in wistfully to Ebay with what must be the most ridiculous search criteria ever: Persian rug, traditional style, wool, UK only, 8ft, 9ft, new, machined, Priced £0.00-£200.00. To date no item has ever fitted that criteria and what is the betting that no item ever will?

February Release Blog Hop Winner Announced!

Hello! The February release was amazing. We thank you for all the lovely comments AND your orders. The Design Team wowed and amazed us with creating incredible samples using the new sets, release on February 28th: Gift Card It, Gift Card It Dies, Gift Card It Envelope Die, Funky Flowers Dies, and Funky Feathers Dies.

Thank you for taking part in the Design Team Release Day Blog Hop and leaving so many encouraging comments on the DT blogs. We all appreciate the time you took to visit and comment.

As promised, we have selected a winner of a special code from Waltzingmouse Stamps for a person whose name was randomly drawn from ALL the comments on ALL of the DT blog posts from the Hop.  Each member of the Design Team selected one comment from their group of comments, and from those, we have selected a lucky winner from the blog of  Renee Lynch!

CONGRATULATIONS GOES TO:  Commentor #10 – Marybeth

To claim your prize, please e-mail me (Lynn) at lynn@waltzingmousestamps.com and kindly note in the subject line of your e-mail  February BLOG HOP WINNER. I will provide you with a special code to claim your prize.

We are most thankful for the time you took to visit the DT blogs during this release.

...busy, busy!

Good evening - I'm busy stuffing envelopes and so I had no crafty time today, all I have for offer this evening is a pic of a pretty mill house we spotted up on the North Coast one day last year. Love the pretty Georgian windows. It's been a while since I put up any pics of Ireland and it has also been a while since we took any little trips in Ireland and now that the days are feeling a bit fresher it's putting me in the mood to 'go for a spin'.

If you are new to us you can scroll down to see the goodies we just released. We were stampeded at the store and have sold out of a few of the items, but everything that can be shipped, has shipped! Shipping notes are still going out and if you don't have a shipping note by tomorrow night it may be that one or more items that you ordered was out of stock at the time and is keeping your order back a little - your shipping note will tell you. if you have any queries, don't hesitate to drop us a line! Chat soon!