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Hello - Hello? I'm back... Is there anybody there?

Well what can I say in my defence? It has been more than a year since I last Blogged and I’M SORRY I just disappeared from the ether without a word... but my goodness what a year it has been!

The main news is that the Moonshine Tribe has upped sticks and moved house – and the reason for my dismal blogging failure was that the whole selling, buying moving thing was so hideously stressful that I got lost for a while and just didn’t feel that I had anything happy/positive to say.
All that (thankfully) is behind us now and I can (almost) smile about some of the more ridiculous aspects of it all; but suffice to say that Mrs Lipstick and Mr and Mrs Down Right Rude had better NEVER cross my path again!!!

Anyway - to catch up...we have moved out of Stafford and now live in the country, in a lovely village (runner up in the Staffordshire Best Kept Village competition and locally “famous for Christmas lights”).

Our new home is lovely; we’ve been here nine months and have pretty much settled in. Everywhere is still painted builder’s magnolia but as yet I have no mad urge to find the rollers, dust sheets and check out the colour charts. Even so here feels more like home after nine months than the old house did after seven years. I’m so happy here and although Moonshines Major and Minor are away from their mates they are still at the same school and Ma Moonshine’s Taxi Service can make the journey back to the old stamping ground in 15 minutes with a following wind.

So what else is news? In brief Mr Moonshine is an even more Very Important Person, Moonshine Major has started his GCSEs (aargh!) is four inches taller than me (!!) and has developed the art of the lie in to Turner Prize winning proportions (1:45pm is his record and he only woke up then because I prodded him to make sure he was still breathing). Moonshine Minor has started High School, has settled in well and is growing up WAY to fast.

And me? Same old same old, loving our new home and getting round to picking up my life again after everything going on hold during The Move.

So – I’m back, and although I’m not promising to blog every day, I will keep in touch...

A BIT OF A CHEAT

Another week over, my goodness isn't 2010 flying by! Another craft class come and gone. Progress on the calendar continues and I did actually complete a whole page in one class this week (that's a first) - shame I need to do three a week now to finish on time.

You'll notice that I've gone a bit out of sequence here and lacking inspiration for April, May, June ... (you get the message!) I jumped to October - well easy isn't it - Hallow e'en - colours already prescribed, theme all ready and waiting and I just happened to have some decoupage stickers in my stash. So as I said a bit of a cheat really but still, it's one page closer to the finished article!

Here it is...




And in detail

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

In the mean time Crafty Club has been continuing, now on Friday afternoons and in a new location (thank heavens!) the old place was dark, cold and miserable, but burst pipes over the holidays have made the rooms unusable and we are now permanently installed in a Community Centre with light, warmth and A CAR PARK!!!!! (no more driving round and round trying to find that last elusive on street parking place and praying that the Parking Nazis don't put in an appearance!)

Our teacher had promised a term of learning stamping techniques which I was really looking forward to, but along with the change of venue we are now funded by a different department who will only fund "tangible projects" so this term's "project" is a calendar.

I'm afraid I've been a bit low on inspiration this term and with only four weeks left I've only managed to complete pages for January, February and March. I had planned on using a different technique on each page but now I'm not so sure.

Anyway here are my efforts so far...




A close up of the embellishment...



As you can see I've used a paper patchwork effect for January, choosing co-ordinating papers from the Dovecraft Christmas Blues collection. I had some 2x12 papers sitting in my stash and inspired by the dark snowy days we had this January thought that the cold dark colours matched the miserable weather perfectly. A few snowflake brads and a touch of pink to lighten the mood - perfect! Although the fringing took FOREVER I really like the effect, especially when put together with the doodled "stitches".




Sorry, predictable heart motifs for February. and a touch of very simple teabag folding (I told you I was lacking in inspiration!) The teabag papers were some I've had in my stash forever and want to get rid of (shiny paper - nasty) and really don't go with the lovely background paper, but I was so low on inspiration and general enthusiasm for the project that I didn't really care. (I know - SHAME ON ME!)






March - A REVELATION. I REALLY REALLY REALLY enjoyed this one. I've always looked at quilling and thought Nah - can't be bothered, too fiddly - now I'm HOOKED - and yes it is too fiddly (for me - not brilliant at doing things requiring great dexterity. (I can do it, but it takes me ages and is a struggle - AND I find I'm pulling RIDICULOUS faces too (OK at home V. EMBARRASSING at Crafty Club!!!)) The observant amongst you will have spotted that the flowers on my border are yellow roses - not botanically accurate for March but I wanted something small and compact and I'm really pleased with the end result, simple, clean and with a promise of spring.

I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do for the remaining nine months and I'm pretty sure that quilling will make at least one more appearance, but you can bet they wont all get done in the next four weeks. I'll keep you updated!

WHERE SHALL I START?

Since I last blogged (and believe me I hadn't intended it to take so long to blog again!) SO many things have happened. But more of that another time. I'll carry on with my story...

I left you with things having snowballed vis-a-vis the owls / craft thingy (sorry, that has turned out to be no joke given the dreadful winter we're having!)

Well, at the beginning of October I had the mad idea of getting together enough stock to run a craft stall at the annual Christmas Craft & Gift Fair at Moonshine Major's school. (Scheduled for 29th November) Could I do it? Should I do it? Mr Moonshine was prepared to back the initial outlay on felt and materials, I had loads of crafty bits just sitting there in my craft room ... why not give it a go... and so Maisie Moonshine's Handmade Crafts Emporium was born, over tea, toast and tayberry jam one Sunday breakfast time.

There followed of course a frantic scramble to get together enough stock, felt owls, cupcakes, Christmas decorations, bookmarks, phone charms, place setting holders, photo clips, calendars and decorated sweetie jars to put on a decent show.

Of course nothing ever runs smoothly and for a week or so in the middle of November the whole fair was in doubt as there were not enough stall holders to make it worth while. I couldn't believe it! All that effort for nothing! Hang on, what on earth was I going to do with 16 owls, cupcakes, calendars etc, etc? Well everybody's Christmas presents would be sorted!

PING! lightbulb moment - I could sell them on the internet, either on my own site or through Folksy - or both...

A little bit of surfing the web and doing some research opened a whole new can of worms, the biggest of which was that as soon as you start to sell anything you have made on the net you are "Trading" and so have to register as Self Employed - with all the stress and hassle that involves.

Thankfully, having rung around anyone I could think of who might be interested in running a stall at the fair the news came through that the fair was back on. PHEWWW!

By working all hours and pretty much giving up on doing any Christmas shopping I was ready in time.

And here is a photo of my stall.




I had a great afternoon. Mum came over to help me out and give me some moral support! (Thanks Mum!). The afternoon passed quickly, although there didn't seem to be many people shopping. I've got to say that The BGF was one of my best customers and some of my other girl friends rallied round to show their support. I did actually have a very successful afternoon, even picking up some orders along the way.

So Maisie Moonshine's Handmade Crafts Emporium is definitely in business, you can visit my shop by clicking here , and soon by clicking on my shop button on the sidebar.

A SHAMEFUL CONFESSION

Hello Dear Friends and hearty felicitations for a merry and bright Christmas.

And lo! I have return'd unto the land of Blog, fervently hoping that my trusty friends and followers have not deserted me, though I have let them down in a most unseemly fashion.

The truth of the matter is that I have been SOOOOOOOO busy that I haven't had time to do any blogging and EVEN WORSE - can you believe I haven't scrapped A SINGLE PHOTOGRAPH in the whole of 2009! - I've taken hundreds, I've got loads of fabulous stash just waiting to be used, but I haven't had a minute to scrap anything.

Set aside all the usual domestic drudgery and the added delights of being THE CHRISTMAS FAIRY, I set myself up for failure on the scrapping front with the mad idea of going into business for myself. What? Where did that spring from?

Well, are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

It all started with a quick romp round our local Accessorize with the BGF. We love their Christmas decorations (although none of them ever go with my silver-white-gold-crystal-the-more-bling-the-merrier theme). I happened to see a little hot pink owl with blingy eyes and felt flower embellishments on its tummy, well I'm sure you know that owls are all the rage at the moment, and I'm afraid that I am an advertising exec's dream customer and I was rather taken with said owl. I looked at the price £3.50 - not bad for Accessorize I thought. I was this close to making a purchase when I noticed that all the felt embellishments had been GLUED on. YEUK!

I'm sure you know that if you glue fabric, and felt in particular, it goes stiff and the glue leaves a dark coloured mark, well this is what had happened to my no longer so gorgeous owl. Pah I thought, I'm not buying that.

But the old mental wheels were whirling, cogs grinding, cobwebs twisting into disgusting grey candy floss - sorry getting carried away with my analogy... where was I... Oh yes owls - I could make one of those myself I thought, and it will be much nicer because it will all be hand sewn.

So, a quick trip to Hobbycraft (Opening soon in Stafford - Oh joy!) a few pieces of felt and a couple of hours or so later I had created my first felt owl and here it is.





As with all these things, it looks better in the flesh than in the photo - but you get the idea. That is one cute owl. So cute, I thought to myself that I bet if I made more I could sell them...

...and the idea kind of snowballed...

LATEST MINI-BOOK CREATION

I know it looks as though I've been a crappy scrapper lately but there are some good reasons - which I'll save for another post.

Just to prove that I have had my paper and glue out here is the mini-book I created for my Big Sis' birthday back in October. I couldn't blog this any sooner as I had to wait for her to actually see it in the flesh and it has been waiting at Mum's (a halfway house for gifts not to be entrusted to Postman Pat) for a while.

You will know from my previous posts that so far I've done mini-books for The BGF and Mum so it was only natural that I should do one for my Big Sis. I toyed with themes, stitching (she's an avid (actually that word doesn't accurately describe it) cross stitcher (see her cross stitching blog here - just remember the back arrow to come back), birthdays, getting old (she is my Big Sister - I'll always be younger than her!!!) and finally decided on the pleasure and pain of sisterhood. A long trawl through the various quotation websites and I had ten quotes to put together in a book.

Mum had given me a stack of gorgeous My Mind's Eye "Bohemia" papers as a prezzie and I knew I wanted to use the pink and brown colourway to create a sophisticated look. What I discovered to my chagrin was that some 12x12 papers are not all that easy to use in a smaller format and it was far more difficult to put these pages together than the pages for The BGF's book which used 6x6 Smirk papers which are scaled to suit.

Anyway after many false starts and a serious case of misplaced mojo the book eventually came together and here it is...

Oh fiddle, the photo's I need are not on this machine hang on a minute....

... Sorry about that - here we go...


Remember you can click on the photos to enlarge them, just use the back arrow to come back to the blog.







The cover was painted with Acrylic, specially mixed to match the papers and then sponged with white and burnt umber to create the marbled effect. I haven't told the Mini Moonshines that I used their bath sponges - they washed out OK - they need never know!!!





The calendar stamp is by Imaginisce and is heat embossed to help it stand out against the mixed background.





The swirl is cut from Core'dinations cardstock using my trusty Craft-Robo.





The dark rose cardstock is again Core'dinations, embossed with the Cuttlebug Perfect Paisley embossing folder and then sanded back to reveal the core.





Do you remember me waxing lyrical about my Inkadinkado Bijoux Oiseaux stamps? Well here they are, stamped with pale rose pigment ink, heat embossed with Heat It Up Cranberry embossing powder and embellished with PaperMania Iridescent stones and a Hobbycraft feather. I'm really pleased with the result!











I may have mentioned that I'm not a big fan of peel-offs but these butterflies were perfect for this page. The stamps are from a gorgeous set I got in the sale at Waterstones, of all places, for a fabulous £3.00 instead of £18.00!!!





This is everyone's favourite quote and it was always going to be the last one in the book!


My sister loved her book and I know it wont be my last one - but I think I'll keep the next one for myself!