a little visitor.....

 this little blog post is all about a well traveled owl called Clara...
she is the creation of lovely Susi (from my lovely swap post)
and has been sent on her travels around the world,visiting crafty bloggers along the way......

it's a very lovely idea and Susi's little girl gets to find out where she has been and what she has been up to via the blogs Clara visits and her little journal that we fill in before she leaves...

we introduced Clara to all our little creatures...she kept popping up among the little collections we have in our house...

 all the owls were gathered up for a 'family' photo :)

Clara came and sat in my little work shed when I was working...she was very good :)

she enjoyed noodling about among my sewing things....

she met Goosey....

and Mrs Salt and Mr Pepper

 

as she seems to like badges we made her one of our little wooden girl ones :)

and when it all got a bit much for her I found her snoozing on the bed with another owl :)

so now I will write up her journal for her stay at the Teawagon house and then I will find out where to send her next....I wonder where she is going???
lucky old Clara x x x x

last week I was mostly....

... entertaining our #2 who was on school holiday while our #1 was at school... in between nipping off to the newly white shed for a bit of worky type creating...we became a little obsessed with polymer clay...

 

first of all we made little kawaii style fruit faces and animals inspired by this 

then we decided to make some of our own style inspired by little vintage Fisher Price people....oh what fun  I we had...

the trick is getting the right colours and having a few little pots of acrylic paint for features...

as you can see I channelled my inner hairdresser here and created a few 'do's...

 then of course if you just happen to have a little house lying around then you can display them...

 

luckily our #2 is a budding animator and has a fab collection of miniature furniture for props...more fun making little room scenes....

I have to confess by this point our #2 had wandered off to craft some worlds on his favourite xbox game...so I soldiered on alone...making little cushions and blankets and arranging and possibly making a few more people...

 these two drew the short straw with the smallest room but they did bag the telly :)...

 

and then when everyone went out and I should have been doing very important things...I made a little matchbox home for this little couple....I could have gone on and on...it was so addictive and I confess to hogging the oven and filling it with big headed little people when I should have been making tea..

now everyone is back at school and I have no reason to make any more but I think when no one is looking I might just make a couple more :)
details for making these if you fancy having a go..
we used Sculpey polymer clay in primary brights and a couple of neons and we mixed up our own pastel and skin colours...the paint is acrylic applied with a cocktail stick and the varnish is mod podge

x x x x x x x x x

ps sorry for the name on the bottom of the photos..this is due to finding an instagram feed that was full of my blog photos :( not sure how effective that will be but its worth a try x

brighton rocks....

cinema

last week we took a little trip to the seaside...somewhere I had never been before... but had heard very good things about here
it was a last minute thing, we were on a budget and we were taking our boys... so we had to make sure it would work for all 4 of us..(our little dog Arnie was left in the safe hands of my good friend Jane..and although he had a splendid time, he has only just forgiven us)

two nights in Brighton...  an eight hour round trip and a limited budget.... 

royal pavillion

was it worth it??? .....YES! the shops are amazing...independent sellers and vintage emporiums...graphic novel and comic shops and lots of record (vinyl) and books shops...something to keep us all happy :)

brighton pier and our boys

we walked our socks off... had ice creams... rode an open top bus... had picnics... watched the sunset... saw amazing architecture....dodged a massive rainstorm...soaked up the sun...played daft games in the arcades...

toy museum

 went to the Toy museum... sat in the park...had a dodgy breakfast in a Little Chef... walked along the Pier... ate Pizza
and slept like logs :)
x x x x x x x

all change...

my little shed has undergone a bit of a transformation... my much loved vintage wallpapers have been replaced and bright blue cupboards swapped for neutral white.... I papered over the patterns in a moment of madness but I love how it looks now....

the new paper is textured anaglypta which I really love... (thrifted some years ago for 99p...I knew it would come in handy one day)

the freshly painted white cupboard has new sticky back plastic to replace the gingham inside the glass shelf...

the little shelf got a lick of paint and the suitcases were filled and stacked....

 

 ....new curtains too, made from some very fine 1960's dress fabric...I have saved some of this to make myself a dress so I can blend in to the background (sherlock holmes stylie)

having a white background means I have better backdrops for photos and although I loved all those vintage patterns, once the shed started to fill up with fabrics and things I had made it felt very cluttered and a bit claustrophobic... (note to self..hold fire with the crazy patterns when decorating until you have moved all your stuff in)

 I didn't think it was possible to love my little shed any more ... but I do and the best bit is it only took a day...some cheap wallpaper and a couple of tins of paint to transform... I wish it was this quick to do the rest of the house :)

I am hoping to spend a bit of time in there this week and work on some new things...we have one boy back at school and one at home...so I will see how that works out...

at least now I have destashed some fabrics there is room in there for another chair so maybe me and #2 can sit in there and get crafty together...

happy days :)

x x x x