Black Phillip from The Witch ....

It's not easy both sewing of photographing black objects! But I was asked to make a black version of my goat doll, and then I tired to make him look natural by taking him into the tree house!

Actially Black Phillip shows off our tree house quite nicely while himself still playing hard to get with my camera's exposure settings ...

His eyes, being hand tinted rimmed buttons, change in different lights which I think is nicely spooky! Eventually I got a good picture of him indoors against the white walls!

Bees at large!

Remember my bees? Now it's time for their first outing and you can see them here from tomrrow ...

I had a look at all the art being set up today and it all looks really good. If you come to the opening tomrrow you can meet lots of the artists too and me as Queen Cat helping to open the exhibition at 11am. Drinks and nibbles and a voucher below if you bring it with you :-)

And here are the sock bees that turned out so well! Everyone wants to stroke them! Naughty!

Charity brooch making ...

I am currently raising money for The Weymouth Carnival Charities, supporting Julia's House. That's the reason behind these colourful button-and-felt flowers ....

I was delighted when my children asked if they could help too, and we had a few family sessions around the dining table!

Sewing on a button is also a most useful life skill. Why Matty's school cardi had long been missing a button...

I wanted to make something that people could have, and keep if they wanted to. I'm not too ambitious and couldn't think of a sponsored activity either! Also we get asked to support so many things these days that I wanted to give a small gift in return. Mary is 7 and did very well making a pile of neat flowers ...

I used three hand drawn templates to create the felt petals, and we all dug through the four-hole-buttons leaving out the brown and grey ones to keep our designs bright!

We made 98 fun brooches, and Mummy glued all the backs on to them and pinned them to a pillow case! 

I will let you know how sales go, and also the reason why I'm lending my support in a different way this year. Would you like one?

A fun repair!

Of course little slips happen to us all, especial busy crafters! And today I was cutting some thick card with such gusto that I took a slice at my table cloth too!

But I have the best girly-pink duct-tape ever, so I snipped put a little pink shape to stick across the hole!

Then I used some other pieces to repair the cuts that Mary added to the edge of the table cloth one fine day!

done-up dolls house - time to play!

The dolls house that came from a friends loft was cleaned and white-washed, then collaged creatively with all kinds of embossed and coloured papers ... then sealed with my favourite ronseal water based varnish....

Some of the colours are really strong, but these look great with the plain wooden things that I managed to pick up locally for Christmas!

My girls had fun choosing how to set up the house, and I think they did a great job ...

So does this lucky resident! I love making my home nice too, do you?

Crafting-life!

Sometimes, your crafting inspires others, and they join you in your creative space ... here is Mike getting rather sticky with some PVA and some really nice papers ...

While working on my dolls-house, I pulled out a selection that might improve Mike's magnolia Lampshade and it certainly got his creative juices flowing ...

I've crafted with Vicki before, and i enjoyed watching her work with these beautiful fabrics as I added eyes to cats and stuffed them ...

This is going to be a really beautiful cushion soon!

Have you picked up some crafts for those dark winter nights?

Monkey Business!

We got this lovely book, with monkeys to make and a funny rhyme to read, and I saved it for an after-dinner chill activity ...

There are bits and bobs to make three monkeys, with the book, and some things for them too ...

The instructions were easy to follow and our new friends began to take on their cheeky characters!

Bending the shaped pipe-cleaners creates the knees, elbows and little hands and feet!

Daisy chose this amazing orange monkey, and only needed a little bit of help ...

This is the best bit because we are nearly ready to play!

With pop out ties, the monkeys can dress up as in the fun rhyme too!

Or fly around with super-hero capes on!

Make some yourself, find out more here!

Stormy!

Such a wild night, I put on the diving belt to go and let the chickens out this morning, makes sure the shed door was hooked, and laughed to see the Wendy-house in the flower beds again!



So we kept the lamps on a bit longer this morning ... in the kitchen I have my sea glass collection and with my Nan's things I have some lovely shells ...




I made most of two cute grey creatures, and also made up one of Mary's craft kit necklaces with her!



It is a challenge to complete things sometimes, as with three young people around there is always someone wanting something ...



Often, there's a quick fix, and then its dinner time!


Of course I will finish the grey creatures today and share them with you tomorrow!

Mary walks around with some of her favourite things ...

...and asks me what i am doing up so high - do you know?

Russian Doll making - WIP II

Sometimes, I like to work very small! and in our set of Russian dolls, I got the four smallest ones to paint!



My girls worked on the three biggest of course, and i had to do a face for Mary!



And here are all seven of the girls, with fabric collage, acrylic paint and some fine glitter. My nect job is to get out the Ronseal, and protect them all!

Round up ...

I am going to make more bunting, but first, Mary had a go at decorating my pattern!



But what's this in the corner? Mary said she forgot to put her name, so I wrote on the board M-A-R-Y and I think she did very well, for a three year old!



This woollen tank-top feels lovely - it will soon be a fun crop of hamsters, though!



The face of barn owl number 5 appears!



and here is a little treat I got for myself, well for the family room...



On a sad note, skinny-chicken decided to leave us, and we all felt a bit sad. My older girls Drew her picture and gave them to me. This is Matty's...



and Daisy started her drawing with skinny-chicken's bright yellow legs - she was the only one of our girls with yellow legs!


Have you been busy? I feel as though we have!

Painting wooden boxes ...

sometimes we like t o complete a craft kit, especially presents we are given!



all three children have created something special, and they are very proud of the boxes ... (mary kept going the longest and used up all her paint!)



concentration-face! both Matty and Daisy painted the sides of the boxes white...



and kept the colours very fresh!



finally they applied all the glitter glue that comes with the kit, and i added two thin layers of RONSEAL...


in order, the work of Matty, Daisy and Mary ...