absent without leave .....

..... it's been ages since I last blogged. Do I have an excuse? Most certainly ..... I've been sidetracked by Otis who is, quite simply, the most huggable, loveable time waster that I've ever met. I've been spending my afternoons curled up on the sofa with him, watching TV while he sleeps next to me ......

However, I've managed to get back into the creative swing of things and have been spending more time in my craft room (of course, now with a delightful furry puppy helper!). This week I was asked to make bunting to decorate the front of a craft stall:


I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed making bunting ..... but now that I've remembered, I shall be making a lot more. I'm planning on making some for some special birthdays that are coming up in the next month or so .....

I've also redescovered a love of notebooks ..... for as long as I can remember I've loved pencils, pens, notebooks ..... pretty much any kind of stationery. I think it's "girl thing" ..... and so, with girls in mind, I've made some pretty little notebooks which are on sale in my MISI shop:


I'm hoping to spend a majority of my Bank Holiday up here, catching up on crafting and blog reading. What more could I ask for?

And they call it .....

..... puppy love.

So, I've not blogged for, well, forever .... first of all, there were a million Christmas fairs and sales to get ready for and I was soooooo busy. Everyone at work decided they wanted personalised Christmas cards which were great to make, but there were so many of them!! Then there was the pre-Christmas fall down the stairs (on an icy day just to make sure that we got to wait for HOURS in casualty along with all the broken arms from icy falls). Then there was Christmas .... and you know how busy that is!

And, along the way, I got sidetracked by the latest addition to our family:


Otis, our lovely, lovely Havanese puppy. He is the dearest thing I have ever seen - like a real dog, only smaller :-)


Now, I have to tear myself away from him and get back into the swing of things. I'm back at work (just - I still can't walk very well) and back in my craft room which needs a great big clear out.

lollipop, lollipop ....

..... oh, lolly, lollipop! I've seen some decorated lollipops recently and thought I would like to give them a go - so here is a little something I've come up with ..... these are for a High School Musical themed party. Take one lollipop (well, 25 in this case):


Add a card base:

Decorate the top:

Et voila!:

An army of yummy decorated lollipops! Neat eh?

you spin me right round .....

..... baby, right round

I've been going round in crafty circles this week ..... making the following things:

Circular felt needlebooks - yes, the nights start to get dark and I turn to felt and blanket stitch for comfort.


Decorated teeny, tiny paint cans - featuring the wonderful Lime Ricky papers from Basic Grey.

Circular card toppers - made using Inkscape (thank you Inkscape for the wonderful "text on path" command!)


I've started working on my Christmas things - decorated menu holders, decorated lollipops, pegs and a whole other photo session full of things! Can't wait to share them!

I've been .....

.... busy, busy, busy!

I've been exceptionally busy papercrafting recently .... and that is never a bad thing! I've had lots of custom orders and have had great fun working on them. Here's a sneaky peak at a few of them ....

A paper bag book to celebrate a day out at a farm:


Some cute "band aid" tins with little note books inside - these were to record all those very important first day at school details:


Some cute little tag albums:


Some jewellery and matching gift boxes:


Not too shabby, even if I say so myself!

The postman has (literally) just delivered some rather cute charm sets that I got off ebay from a seller called A Charm For All. I can't begin to tell you how lovely these are and how very long it took me to pick from the fabulous collection that she has! And, best of all, it only too around a week for delivery from the USA. I can't wait to start using them - I've got plans for a lovely fat Halloween bag book using the vintage Halloween charms and, of course, I need to use those before I can move on to the lovely silver Christmas charms!!

three of my favourite things .....

..... buttons, beach huts and badges.

I found a wonderful shop called Just Delights on a recent visit to Cornwall, it made my heart ache with all the wonderful, wonderful things on sale - I have the perfect spot in my home for each and every item that this shop sells. The website doesn't yet reflect what they have on sale, but I'm visiting it every day to double check and when it's up to date then I shall be buying like there is no tomorrow! I especially fell in love with their ceramic buttons, I didn't have as much time to choose as I really needed but I managed to select these little beauties:


I don't know what I shall use them on just yet but I'm sure there will be that special something that calls out for one of them, in the meantime I shall just keep looking at them :-)

We spent last week in Preston, near Torquay and it really is one of my favourite places to stay. I love seaside towns .... sitting by the harbour eating fish and chips, crabbing, crazy golf .... what more could you ask for? My dream is to have my very own beach hut for those lovely beachy days ... one like this would do:

I've been making some more bits and pieces to sell in my MISI shop, I'm still very taken with sewing on felt - I think this is because it is such a change from my usual papercrafting .... I made one of these to match a bright pink top of mine and once I'd started sewing them I just couldn't stop!!


I've had a bit of a destash and have listed some crafty bits and pieces for sale .... I need to make space before my craft room explodes!! :-)

monkeying around .....

..... in Monkey World

Ever the optimists, we had a family day out in Monkey World in the hope we could rehome the boys (after all, Monkey World is famous for rescuing primates). It didn't happen, but we did have a great day out. We took hundreds of pictures and it was hard trying to pick some to share - but here are a few of my favourites:

And the cheekiest monkey of all .... Jack Devin:

I've been distracted by all things domestic recently, but I have managed to fit in a small amount of crafting, mostly notebooks which are on sale in my MISI shop:

I need to knuckle down to some serious crafting .... so many things to make .... so little time! :-)