Monday 30 November 2009

Paper Bunnies

As I was wrapping up some parcels, I noticed quite a few little bunnies had  appeared...



They was the little Bunnikins gift tags which like to travel the world with the shop bunnies as a tiny Thank you to all the people who come to visiting us. We do love visitors over there, everyone gets a thank you, a bow and a bunny note...

...oh I spy more new bunnies on notepaper too!



These are just for my little scribbles, though I'm thinking of a second print run for the little shop.
I'd forgotten all about them! I was only going to share the tags and these...



I got new Moo!
I love Moo. I am still smitten with mini cards, I don't think I'll ever want a normal sized business card while this little guys are around (especially with their cute boxes)... and I'm falling quickly for their sticker books too! Tiny glossy stickers for everything! I'm just itching for an excuse to buy more :)

If you have been wanting to give them a go, I have a two codes for 15% off your first order I can pass on, just let me know if you want one. You can make anything with them - mini cards, stickers, notecards and Christmas cards too.

I have lots to do tonight, though I struggle to remember what. I think one of the things I've been meaning to do is write a to do list, so I'll probably do that first. Oh, to be an organised person...

Happy Mondays!
xo

Friday 27 November 2009

Antsy




As a kid, I wanted many weird and wonderful pets.
An ant farm was always high on my list.




I loved the patterns the tunnels made between the glass and to see all the tiny ants busying themselves.



I never had my own ant farm. The idea of an escape meant I wasn't allowed one and I get all tickled by the thought of ants in a picnic so it was probably for the best. Luckily I don't have to worry about that with these little flossy ones.

xo

Thursday 26 November 2009

Happy Holidays!



Looking around old blogland, I noticed today is Thanksgiving for a lot of you.
We don't celebrate it over in the little old UK but I have always thought it sounds like a wonderful holiday idea and as I have much to be thankful for, I thought I would share a little bit of holiday cheer and love.



I'm so thankful that everyone I care about is safe and loved.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day
xo

Friday 20 November 2009

Spooky Mail

Any minute now I'm running off up North for a weekend away, but first I had to share some snail mail...



This little bundle of spooky goodness came from Jess of Rainbow Sweet Stitch. Jess was the winner of my trick or treat goodie parcel and in return she sent me Halloween goodies too :)

What with all the Christmas crazy going on around here, I didn't have a chance to make anything with the cool fabric patches... a spooky cat, bat and my favourite pumpkin but they are safely stowed to make into a cute decoration next year.  You can see the awesome things Jess made with the patches on her blog and in her fantastic etsy shop.



My favourite thing of all was this super cute card with a candy corn who tastes like death! I Love him!!
We don't have candy corn over in the UK but I am so tempted to try some now. I guess they taste more like gummy sweets than death though, right?

Best dash, I'm being told to get in the car...

Thank you so much Jess!
and I hope everyone has lovely weekends
xo

Oh and I love to know where the card came from... I think Santa needs to bring me some :)

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Winter Puds


Tonight I had a desperate longing for a warm winter pudding.

As I was up to my elbows in butter and sugar whipping up a super quick cherry crumble, I remember I had another Pudding I was needing to share (not that I wanted to share my crumble... hee hee)




This little flatie fellow is the warmest of all the winter pud. Rich, fruit stuffed, brandy soaked Christmas Pudding... yummm my favourite! My family will tell you that not a year has gone by where I haven't had seconds of Xmas pud, thirds some years... and if I must be completely honest, I even buy one straight after Christmas to go in the cupboard and be eaten on a cold March evening.



And keeping with my personal tradition of seconds, I just had to have another year of these cuties. These Flatie and pins are bringing their Xmas cheer to the little shops, and are keeping last year's fat little softie Puddings company although teasing them a little about being 'leftovers' :)

Now who wants some figgy pudding?
xo

Sunday 15 November 2009

Sunday Snippets



Lazy snippets of a lazy day...



...sat curled under the blanket as I sew it. Fifty nine squares strangely stitched together, just over half way there...

...and look at the left hand side - sun for my Sunday! Thank you so much to everyone for the photo tips and for the comfort of knowing I'm not the only one beaten by a grey day :)

As I have gone onto bright things that make you smile... I was planning to put more granny squares together tonight but I spotted Hannah's journal and I am now itching to do something cheerful to mine. I have a page to share from a few weeks back but I can't remember for the life of me where its hung. Here's a sneak peek:



And absolutely unrelated in every way except for it being something that made me super happy. I found my new favourite place yesterday...



so lovely it feels like I dreamt it all now...

Happy Sundays
xo

Friday 13 November 2009

Snowmen in my Sketchbook



Quite literally there are tiny Sweet Snowmen hiding in there...



Bunny fancied a change from her Snowbunnies and thought she'd make her first Snowman. I think she did quite well!

And over the page...



... a much larger friend for her!

I have very miserable wintery weather here. No snow, but lots of rain, blustery winds and the greyest of grey light making photo taking a nightmare! The poor Sweet Snowmen are exhausted from no less than 6 days of photo shoots (as am I). We tried many backgrounds... white, green, spotted, trees, Russian, craft brown and scribbles, and finally we have a selection of pics for the little shops.
Phew!

Now I know you are a clever bunch with some very pretty pictures... any tips for someone suffering with miserable light?
xo

Thursday 12 November 2009

Stitchy Snail Mail

Now I have started the christmas posts, I can share Christmas stamps...
 Hoorah!



Snowflakes, a Nutcracker and my favourite... Santa baubles!!
How wonderful are they? I hope I spy some real ones as I do my shopping!



The Santa stamps brought snail mail and stitches! The wonderful Mollie of Wild Olive was so generous and sent some of her cute characters as little fabric patches. The pink fellow is Stitchy Floss from the Make. Do. Create Crafty Characters embroidery set. She is definitely one for the inspiration board!



The cutest paper plane, Popular Paper Air Mail. This was a free pattern for the Wild Olive Mailing A-list. You can sign up in the left hand side bar of her blog and you really should,  Mollie is so good to us followers!!

And there was a peek of him above, but I quickly set to work...

 

On-the-go Coffee from the Take Me Out embroidery set as a cute painting.
I have a little get-you-in-the-xmas-spirit coffee gift to send to the boy and I knew this would make the perfect gift tag. With the sewing machine, I stitched the painting to a craft paper gift tag then hand stitched the words "Drink and be Merry!" and a little border before adding a bow. I think he is going to love it more than the gift!

Mollie has loads of ideas of things to do with embroidery. In fact she has a series of posts called "Things to do with Embroidery" which would make great handmade presents this Christmas. All the embroidery patterns and many more can be found in her Wild Olive Etsy shop as well as lovely paper printables and until the 15th of November all the sales will go towards making World Vision Caregivers Kits so now is the time to visit...

Thank you so much Mollie!
xo

Wednesday 11 November 2009

The Elves are back...

Winter woolies and bobble hats at the ready!
It's cold outside and I can't denied it any longer...



I have little tree standing in the corner,
green and red,
inspired by elf hats,
a jingle bell on a curly top
and a present underneath...

It isn't just a tree, it's a Christmas tree...

but I don't feel the eek that it's come too soon,
it just makes me smile...



As much as I tried to think of something new, my sketchbook filled with curly topped Elf trees.
I loved last year's so much I couldn't help it. They stayed long after Christmas, but there is something cuter about these that makes me think a new desktop forest will appear.

Plumper and brighter and somehow cheerier...
what do you think?

xo

Monday 9 November 2009

Home for life

I believe gingerbread is not just for Christmas and so this is still not one of those posts. In a couple of days my posts will be seasonal though... you have been warned so bring along a mug of mulled wine and a bobble hat to help with all that!



This Gingerbread Home was stitched up as a custom order. I made my first gingerbread house last year and I always meant to make more of them, so this was fun! My favourite part is the candy roof, so many pretty stitches and felt candies up there...



I'd love to make more of these...

But while I wait for requests, I have some ready made Gingerbread Homes waiting in the little shops.



Flatie Baubles with red and green candies for hanging around your home
*whispers* or on the tree



And super cute mini Gingerbread Homes to pin to yourself!
I can't wait to wear mine!

xo

Saturday 7 November 2009

It's beginning to look a lot like...

...nope! I'm not going to say it just yet,
but I have been busy in that way...



I've had the print gocco out and made a new set of Gingerbread Sweethearts.
This year's are a shimmering golden gingerbread and I hand tied and stitched real bows on each mistletoe sprig... I am quite smitten with my Sweethearts!



I also had a prolonged label making marathon, in which I learnt a valuable lesson. If you work on nine photoshop files at the same time, you should probably save them at least once because the computer will crash and you will lose four hours work... silly Jenny! But straight back to it I went and it was worth it. Cute labels and tags for all!
Hoorah!



The Snowbunnies also had a second print and new labels but this time as cute wintery note sets.
All the cards are in the little shops, as well as some other seasonal pieces.

Its definitely beginning to look a lot like a certain holiday over there...
xo

Tuesday 3 November 2009

A Written Education



Hurrah! More lovely stamps!

This wonderful snail mail came from lovely Hannah of Span's Stitches. As well as a lovely note and some cute stickers, she popped in a handful of great British stamps. Quite literally British greats...



From top to bottom:
Samuel Johnson - writer of The Dictionary of the English Language
Sir Martin Ryle - Radio Astronomer who help with the Big Bang Theory
and


I forgot that about the fancy edition stamps so I got a couple myself to send out to other Journal Wreckers...



My postie also had the Eminent Britons and picked out Mary Wollstonecraft, an early feminist and the mother of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.

While completely geeking out researching my stamps I found this page where you can see all the fancy editions from the past few years and something that made me so giddy...
How to make your own stamps with your own photos!!
How fantastic is that!!

Thank you Hannah!
xo