Welcome to The Mouse House

I mentioned in my last post that I had booked onto a the lovely mouse making course, which takes place next week at my local craft shop but, being an impatient sort of person, I decided I would have a go at making one before the course so I could see how complicated they were and how they compare to the ones I learn how to make next week. My first attempt was made using felt from my stash and a very cute pattern from the lovely Bustle and Sew website. It's one of the most amazing sites I have found, full of gorgeous patterns and inspiration and I absolutely love getting my newsletter. You can find a link to the pin cushion mouse pdf here. 

I loved my first little mouse and I was inspired to make some more although, for my second one, I gave it a little bit of a tweak. I altered the pattern and made the nose a bit more pointy and instead of using felt, I made it from an old grey woolly jumper that I boil washed and tumble dried to turn it in to beautiful grey felt. I gave Mrs Mouse a cute little apron and I gave Mr Mouse a spiffing blue felt tie. I have to say I really do love making them, it makes a lovely change to hand sew things rather than being stuck in front of the sewing machine all the time. I have a feeling I am going to be making them quite a lot in the near future. I was running around all the charity shops like a mad thing yesterday trying to find grey woollen jumpers that I can shrink :-) ..... nothing new there actually, I'm a master at shrinking jumpers whether they need to be shrunk or not, it's why I buy all my clothes several sizes too big, because no matter what I do, I seem to shrink everything :-) I also nipped into the craft shop to have a sneak peek at the lovely mouse display that's advertising the course ..... I'm so looking forward to it. 

I've been making a few new things for my market stall. I made some more little wooden boats because, amazingly, I sold almost all the ones I made last time so I made 4 more and have cut out several more ready to paint at the weekend.

My jig-sawing is getting better and anyway, the boats are supposed to be rustic. I like the fact that they aren't all the same size and shape and the fabric bunting and sails are fraying a little at the edges.

I also made some cute little lavender dogs. It's nice to make different things, it gets quite tedious making the same thing over and over again.

The weather is now turning chilly here in Cornwall, it was 6 degrees this morning when I went off to the shops and when I got back, I lit a fire. I love my open fire, I love the way it makes the whole room feel cosy and now, I am going to sit and have a lovely cup of tea and get ready to watch The Great British Bake Off in about an hour. Bliss 

A Walk in Looe

Well. I know it's been a week(ish) since my last post but the gloom set in again and I felt like hibernating in front of the fire, which is basically what I did. Today, however, I decided that I needed to get out of the house and go and do something. After feeding and watering the llamas, giving the cats their breakfast and taking the dogs out for a run in the field, I set off for Looe. The weather is  chilly and grey and not very pleasant and I really didn't want to leave the house but I wrapped myself up and forced myself to get in the car and drive. The sight  of the sea always cheers me up and the smell of the salty sea air makes me feel invigorated, even though today, the weather mostly looked like this ......

Since I started to blog, I always carry a camera with me in my handbag, in case I see something interesting and today I took some lovely pictures of the little lanes in Looe, the beautiful boats moored along the quayside and I managed to get a picture of a buzzard, although it's a bit blurry. Occasionally, the sun kept peeping out between the clouds and I managed to snap some pictures that look a little less gloomy. 

I love boats, I would love to live on one.

I adore these multi coloured flower pots on the steps outside the Pasty Shop.

And this cute little restaurant on the quay with the gorgeous red geraniums. 

And finally I managed to pull over into a layby on the way home and hang out of the window to snap this picture of a buzzard sitting on a telegraph pole.