... been on the farm...

Good evening! We are winding down to the end of term here at home - the wee folks are moments away from the summer school break and I can't wait - I get to ditch the alarm clock for two months...bliss. 

This year I promised little dude that he could have a party for some of his school buddies - his birthday occurs during a significant holiday and so he has never really had a party that he could invite school chums to. Been feeling a little bad about this as he has attended loads of parties over the years... sooooo, we had 'half year' birthday party for him and a few of his buddies over the weekend at a local farm - my dude is nuts about sheep... he got to feed the lambs - never seen a kid so happy.

I made the carrot topped muffins and the sheep crispie buns, but I had to get the big guns in for the cake - in the shape of my pal 'S' who has a cake making business - isn't that cake just the best ever! - check out the cracked eggs - Shaun is baking a cake...on top of a cake...giggle, this just tickles me all over.

Anyhow, this is why I have no crafty stuff to show you - normal papery stuff will resume tomorrow.....

...Vintiquing

Below, or somewhere very like it, is where I hope to be on Sunday. It'll be Mother's Day here in UK and I'm going to try and exercise my privilege and get out and do a little vintiquing. For once I actually have a reason to go shopping, I'm having a Vintage Tea party soon for a special little lady and I'm looking for props, mismatched vintage tea cups, that sort of thing. I managed to get this lovely trio above for just a few bob, but I'm going to have to pick up a few more if I want to really carry the theme off.

In reality I'll be hitting the charity shops, it's all very well having aspirations towards a Champagne lifestyle but when you are on a lemonade budget, you kinda have to cut your cloth accordingly... there will be lots of homemade party props... if I can remember to photograph them, I'll pop them up here -

 So, what are your plans for the weekend? Whatever you are doing, hope it's fabby.

...you know you're getting on a bit when....

Folks are selling stuff on ebay that you had as a kid.... like this rocker, I had a rocker exactly like this one, scary eyes and all (I was a decade or two after the 50's but still....) ths guy is selling it on ebay like it was a vintage 'find' lol! cool.

And these:

there was a whole set of these in the garage, my dad used to keep nails and screws in them, he was the eternal footerer and one of my sunniest memories is standing at the wide open door of the garage, sun shining behind me, while I 'helped' dad by sorting nails, Charlie Pride was singing about crystal chandeliers in the background, precious.

This.

I absolutely loved this. i had the version with the dog. Loved it. No clue what happened to it, could be in a roofspace somewhere yet...

what about you, seen anything on ebay lately that brings it all back?

...catching up

Ladies, I always seem to be saying this don't I?

Truth is, it has been a very busy time for me personally this past 6 months or so. For anyone who doesn't know, my wee mum has been extremely unwell. My mum is a very private person and would bring forth a pink canary if I were to go into all the details here on my blog, but she has coped with over 30 years of serious and debilitating conditions. There was a hospital stay in October and she was admitted again just under a month ago and things are quite serious for her at present. Like anyone else in this situation, and I'm sure we are legion, I want to be there for her as much as I can, and so that means not being in other places.

I had hoped to make a big noise about our upcoming 3rd anniversary in May, but somehow, that doesn't feel right, and so we will be hosting a 'belated birthday bash' at a later date.

Right now, we'll be moving forward in a small way, with a little release in May. The mechanics of the store are moving as normal, due to the invaluable help that I have from my family and my assistant. Shipping is grand, and emails are being answered, although it may take a day or two longer than usual.

My drawing time has been limited, but I have been filling endless notebooks with ideas while I wait at hospital, and I look forward to getting these all into polymer at some later date. I just wanted to let folks know where things are at the moment. Thanks for listening.

...thank you

I just wanted to pop on here and say a big thank you to everyone who has sent prayers, hugs and good vibes for my mum who has been in hospital. Mum still remains in hospital, but I believe her condition has been stabilised and she may return home this week.

I have been pretty much absent from the old blog/forum etc during this time and it feels like forever since I was out here in blog land!

We've kept the backend running, and orders have gone out pretty much as normal but I'm hoping I can get back into web related things this week, especially since we have a blog waltz coming up and Easter is literally moments away.

If you are still looking around for last moment Easter things to make, we have a selection of freebie templates here in the freebie section at the store, there are the 3 baskets shown below among others, and you might get something there to solve a last minute gifting idea! I am not even going to attempt to make anything Easter-y, lol, but you might still have time!

 Chat soon,

...are you on our Nice List?

...we're a little bit Moxie Fab today! If you have joined us from Cath Edvalson's MoxieFabWorld blog today - Welcome! It's lovely to have you visit! We are delighted to be mentioned in the Moxie Fab Stamp of Approval feature!

Join our Nice List

I have a couple of ideas for tiny treats to show you later on today, you can see a little taster above, but first I want to invite you to play along with our Christmas comment competition.

Last year we did this for the first time and it was wonderful - It's easy, no making required. Here's how it works:

Leave a comment on this post telling me who is top of your 'Nice List' this year - it could be anyone, a teacher, a co-worker, the guy who delivers your milk. I want to hear who is top of your 'Nice List' and why - I'll start you off.

Top of my list this year are my next door neighbours. In particular Mr G. Aside from being the nicest folks on the planet, Mr G has just finished completely revamping my prized possession - my solid oak Welsh Dresser. This Dresser has been a favourite of mine, I bought it around 9 years ago for around £100 at auction, I love it.

Here's what it looked like before, I did love the antique wood finish, but it was a little overpowering in our small house and I really felt it was time for a change:

Here's what it looks like now:

I love it!! I am so chuffed!! Mr G sanded it, painted it, sanded it some more, painted it and painted it again and fixed up the handles and made it pretty, It looks great in real life, so fresh and clean!! He really took time over it and the finish is superb. Thank you Mr G.

So Mr G. is now top of my nice list :) Who is top of yours?

Leave your comment at the end of this post.

The Prizes

You have until Tuesday the 20th December to leave your comment and then I will pick a random winner - The winner will win two prizes - one for themselves, which will be 4 large sets of stamps of their choice!!! and one for the person in their comment who is top of their nice list!! we may have to get creative if your Nice list buddy is not crafty, but if they are, they too will win 4 large sets!!!

So, let's hear about your Nice List nominees!!!

Celebrating Claire!

ED - Ladies!!! Thank you all so much!!! I am THE worlds worst person at remembering birthdays, and so it makes it even more special that you all remembered mine!!!! Thank you so much!! And my eyes just about popped out of my head when I saw who the special guest is!!! lol, how on earth...???

Hello everyone! We've heard through the mouse-vine that today is someone very special's birthday. Yep, it's THE Head Mousetress herself, our Claire! We can't possibly let the day go by without a celebration, so please join us as members of the Waltzingmouse Stamps and Mischief Makers design teams, plus a very special guest, send our good wishes to Claire.

To make things easier, we're blog hopping waltzing, so each blog will link to the next. However, just in case there's a break along the way, the links are provided below.

Enjoy! And Claire, just know this... we LOVE YOU!!! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!

Lisa
Sandie
Mona
Lynn
Carly
Bonnie
Lenet
Laurie
Belinda
Jennifer
Julia
Edna
Clare
Joan
Sarah
Alice
Julee
Anya

...Soo?

ED again - and yes ladies I do love that warm glow....and I'm not ready to lose it, I use natural light as much as possible but some days here are very gray, esp in winter so we'll not be seeing the end of the brown paper just yet, I did try other things a week or two ago, but I love the brown paper background, no matter how unprofessional my DH thinks it is!! LOL!!! - And thank you all for the suggestions, I'll be working my way through what can and can't be done over the next couple of days!!! Cheers ladies!

ED - Oh yes, deets of the lightbox will be all over this blog...soon as I actually unpack it and use it...LOL, ta for asking Debby!

We're redesigning the blog as you can see, I wanted a nice clean streamlined feel... I'm hoping that we'll have larger photos of stuff that I make in future and so I wanted the design to sort of recede into the background so's the pictures would take centre stage...LOL..I also invested in a light box...so I hope to get that rigged up soon!!! Maybe get that set up at the weekend!!

I think we're getting there but I just thought I'd ask if there was anything folks specifically wanted to see on the blog.

We have a new search feature and the translation widget is still with us. We re-organised a lot of stuff into tabs at the top as you can see, but if there was something specific that a lot of folks felt was missing, now would be the time to try to add it in!! So, if you have a suggestion we'd love to hear it...my web dude is standing by... LOL,

cheers ladies and gents...(yep we have some guy visitors too, they're pretty shy, but I know they're out there!)

...Congratulations Laurie G

Went to the random integer generator and it threw up number 6. The 6th comment was from Laurie G who said:

"My favorite Christmas tradition is going to church on Christmas Eve and celebrating the reason for Christmas which is Christ's birth..."

couldn't have put it better myself Laurie - please PM me your address on the PTI forum or drop me an email and I'll pop the book in the post - you might just get it before the holidays!!!

Thanks to all who played along - I was really interested to hear the various traditions as I'm hoping to start a few with my own young family this year. Tonight we brought down the tree - we used to always get a real one, and my father always came along to help choose - since he passed on I haven't really had much heart to go out looking for a real one so we purchased a huge fat artificial tree which works out quite well because we can put it up early. The downside is it takes up nearly half the living room - small children have become lost behind it lol.

Thank you all for visiting - it really does mean something to me to think that folks on the other side of the world are even a little curious about what I'm making!! Thank you all.