i love it, i love it, i love it... The Other Me....

 It was the 'Hallowe'en Half Term' Craft Cafe on Thursday.

This marks the start of our 6th year! How time flies... and what a gorgeous sight to meet the children who have grown so much over  the years.

 Some of 'my girls' are too grown up now and this sort of environment is too tame for them. One of these girls came along to help me with the pom-pom spider table this time *waves at Jo* and that is such a warming thing. Community, Craft, Childhood,Friendship...

 And, with the passing of time, older children make way for new little hands and faces. I love meeting the parents and carers who all 'amaze' at how much effort their children put in to their works. I enjoy the barrage of questions about how and why!? we put on these workshops.

The continual comments to me "you should be a teacher, Kirsty - you should you know"

 There is another 'me'... inside me (if you know what i mean) and she is fat with happiness and home baking. She has 4 children of her own and a few fostered children. We sit round the farmhouse table 'Home Educating' and make models from Junk and obsess over making bird feeding fat balls.

For many years i thought that is who i would be.

 So, selfishly, The Craft Cafe is my way of slipping into that 'Other Me' skin and playing at that life for a while.

I LOVED it when 4 year old Meg was shouting Kirsty... kirsty... K I R S T EEEY at the other end of the room because she wanted help making a bead necklace and did i have "any more Sea Beads"? Who knows what she meant by Sea Beads? 5 months previous that child wouldn't join it without sitting on her Mothers lap and now she is hollering for help from 10 meters away.

 And generally, i am a person who hates chaos. I am not good with noise. I find children very hard work and i like to craft alone in silence.

So why, oh why, do i find myself stood in the centre of this mess - telling children how great their painty created mess is, positively welling up with pride for them and 'loving' my own centralness to all this madness?

It is the Other Me.

I like her. I would want to be her friend if i met her outside the village shop. I would want to sit in her messy kitchen drinking tea and having a gentle gossip. And weirdly, i would love to go home to my own neat little house afterward and enjoy calm and silence.

Maybe, this is the secret to our long enjoyed success of the Craft Cafe?

Many parents are putting on this Other Me overcoat? We are all enjoying the feeling of facilitating 2 hours of creativity and fun - where we all live in messy kitchens and let our children be crazed with creatvity?

Just thinking out loud..... x

The Little Experience - Owl Review...

We had a 'House Day' today - staying in the Casa, mooching, cooking, cleaning (crafting!) and LittleFish wanted to sew her Owl Kit that was a birthday gift... It is by "The Little Experience"

Naturally we scrapped the instructions and use the sewing machine - you could easily sew by hand but my little one is just not that patient.

The OWLS are fabulous darling!

The printed pieces are just darling and we enjoyed it.

My criticism of the kits would be:

Nowhere near enough stuffing (good job i have a bit in the studio....)

Naturally - i would have added buttons to embellish. The kit could do with a few nice embellishments to add onto the Owls afterward.

These were our babies stuck outside in the ivy (photo: courtesy of the 6yr old) but this wasn't enough for my girl. We have since had to make nests, a perch, some leaves.... to make them feel at home...
AAaaahh crafty bliss :)

Owls on Branchs and polka dot felt leaves!

Twiiiitttt Twwwwhhhoooo....

Batteries not included....

There is only ONE PLACE TO BE - this Thursday (18th FEB) in 'Half Term'.... We're doing R O B O T S at the Craft Cafe - Boddington Village Hall
Craft tables open at 10am and close at 12pm.
Cafe open to members of the general public PLUS my amazing PaperFish Craft Stall with many handmade goodies and Craft Supplies xxx see you there!

Welcome to the Secret Forest...

I get itchy fingers...
Once i have spent a few days making NeedleBooks, i get the urge to make PinPots. And then i am "oh, so Over PinPots" and i want to move on to a new project.... it all goes in cycles.

Then i had a new delivery of Yummy DEER fabric and it had to be made into bunting immediately or else i would burst. WORLD STOP: i must sew bunting! Cute x100!?
I made 2 different colourways. A sort of Baby coloured 'Secret Forest' line of bunting, followed by a bright / more 'foresty' colourway. I don't know which i like better?

And, as i am like a human Crafting Machine, i had to make a few more whilst i was in the mood.

This line of bright orange and red Cath Kidston (below) *was* made for the shop.... but as i passed through my kitchen (which is a huge detour from the Studio) i found myself hanging it in my own kitchen :)

Yippee, lush! I am calling it "Juicy Lucy"

The Bakery Bunting has been made since last Summer! and sat waiting to be photographed till now. I do usually save bunting till the Spring - but feeling the cold weather in the UK and the chill of Post-Christmas Blues, i needed a colour injection.

Lastly, a re-working of a design that sold well last year - "Cool Britannia" OR "London Baby!"

Like i have said before, there is nothing for sale in my shops that One really "needs...." it is more about colour, fun, frivolity... i make no apologies x

FuzzyFish - Felt Fantasia...

Shop talk...
There is an *all new* felt package available in the FuzzyFish store on etsy (and in PaperFish on Folksy) ... actually, there are 2 new pack sizes to play with.
The POND PACK: 33 sheets of felt in A4 size - plenty to play with and great for children and for craft groups ~ £12.00
The FISHFOOD PACK: 33 sheets in A6 size (6x4)- a cute set of felt that replaces the Swatch Book and a cheaper size, great as a scrap pack or for small projects ~ £3.50
That is exciting news.... BUT you should have seen the boxes that arrived....
The supplier *accidentally* sent me 10x the amount i ordered - TEN TIMES OVER! There was felt everywhere.... it was a mad mad moment of felti-ness... i had to get it all out to show you (my 5 year old taking the photos)

It looked so pretty :)

BUT then imagine... they also charged me TEN TIMES OVER the amount i ordered... one week before Christmas. If the penny hasn't dropped yet reader - i don't have that amount of money in my account! I was BROKE :( and too late before Christmas to do a thing about it.

Looking back at the whole thing now, it seems funny. I laugh at the KirstyFish i remember, sitting in the bath, crying, .... the 'bad men' took all my money.... phoning my dad in outrage to tell him what had happend, in true "professional business woman" type style....

But at the time, it was a horrible a headache.

The moral of the story: Kirsty must not try to cram many things in at once and should have waited till after Christmas so she didn't mess up the whole thing.

Still.... nice new felt packs are at least here.

What fun! x

"O how i long to keep the world from narrowing in on me, and to look at things bigly and kindly"

Stop Press: i am not perfect. i have failings and sometimes, i too, get tired. If you are a Mother then you know that photo above. You know that feeling of wanting to "stop the world". It can narrow around you.

Things can seem kindlier after a glass of wine but there is no truth in the bottom of that bottle.

How to view the world "bigly" without becoming overwhelmed??

Stop Press: i am not perfect, and i don't apologise.

p.s. i adore that title quote from William Morris x

Button BUGZ!

Let's hear it.... Ladies and Gentlemen... put your hands together for..... the Button Bugz!
IF you are coming to the OCTOBER half term CRAFT CAFE in Upper Boddington - then these might be on the Craft Menu. Mwah ha ha ha - (said in a sort of 'Hallowe'en' voice)
They are creepy, crawly, buttony and sprawly.

My LittleFish and i gave the recipe a trial and error run. They came out even better than i had imagined and they leave plenty of room for a childs own artistic interpretation! (we like them to take an idea and rrrrruuunnnn with it)

This is one side of those MINI selection cereal boxes - to give you an idea of the size of body you need. Don't make it much bigger or the legs might not hold up the body. Before you start, punch a few holes down each side. I made FOUR holes on each side of the body.

I told LittleFish to keep the holes FREE of stuffs when decorating. Obviously she didn't, so i had to rummage through the body's fluffs n' stuffs to find them again.

As demonstrated by my angel (below) stick lots of great stuff on the body, including many goggly eyes. Use whatever you have? pompoms, ribbon, tissue paper, eyes, pens.... always use good strong sticky glue.

I use this glue>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> for everything. Tis fantastic! water it down a bit and use it as a varnish too.

Cut 4 PIPE CLEANERS into 8 legs.... (who smokes a pipe nowadays?) and that is: EACH pipe cleaner in HALF for those who struggle with the maths :)

Thread a button on to the end of each bendy fluffy stick. They want to try and be the same length as each other - but the world won't stop turning if they differ in length muchly.

And... thread the un-buttony end through those holes i warned you about at the beginning.

They might not stand very well till the whole body is DRY - warn your child about this when they start to cry as the bug won't stand on it's own. This will get better - later.

COOLIO! me luffs the bugz. I'll let you have this idea and use it too if you like! i love crafting with kids. I could suggest you buy your buttons through me, but if this is not your first visit to the blog, you know that by now xxxx happy bugging people x

That's a good idea....
I'm not sure what they're actually doing. Something with paint / water / washing-up liquid. Blowing the bubbles and putting paper over the top to form bubbly pictures.
I think there is ONE rule only to this - BLOW do not suck!
(i love LittleFish's sideways glance here, checking out what daddy is doing)


yippee for bubble pictures!

not recommended for very small children - for obvious soap filled mouth reasons....

Party 'Going Home' bags...

I don't know what happens in other countries...? but in the UK it is traditional to be sent home from a Childs Birthday Party with a 'Going Home Bag'...
Inside is often a slice of the Birthday Cake (wrapped accordingly) and a few gifts to play with on the E-high trip home. A regular, local customer asked me if i could make her some fabric 'Party Bags' for her daughters birthday and i said 'yes' - inwardly panicking!! WHAT OUT OF? Do i have time....??

Yum Yum - i had to share the finished result with you all. WHAT do you make Party Bags out of when your home is FULL of felt? sat next to a bolt of beautiful Matroyshka fabric...

So i made her 10 different coloured bags with different coloured handles and dolls on the front. They are actually much BRIGHTER than these photos suggest but hey! guess what? it rained again today...

And i knew that you'd all appreciate their colour, sense of fun, frivolity - i had to take a million photos of them in different layouts.

Now i want to make loads of them, and for boys too and sell them in the shop... "Kirsty - you do not have any spare minute left in your days..." - "But they're soooo pretty"

Awwww, makes me think i might make a few for a certain little Nephews Birthday though....

"Mama, where are stories made?"

A journey to Borders Bookshop and Starbucks Cafe...

The day started with a small girl and her chocolate fluffy bunny.

"We want some new stories to read Mama" (for 'Mama' is what she calls me)

"My dear" replied I "a splendid idea! For I too am of the opinion that, a few new stories would enliven our bedtime hour no end"

Of course, stories are not exclusive to 'bedtime' in our house, but it was the bedtime story that we particulary wanted to enhance... It was a Sunny day from morning onward and it promised good omens for the hours ahead.

Together we decided on a combination of pinks, purples and spots for our bookworm expedition.

"hoorah!" we both exclaimed and off we went to Milton Keynes.


Being Mama's special girl, it was declared immediately that "Mama! we must go to the cafe first and you must need a coffee?"

"That's right" exclaimed I "Mummy would indeed appreciate a Cappucino! and you?" I asked "will you be having a Babycino?"

"Ooooh yes" the girl said, most sincerely.



"Ow! That first bit was a bit hot Mama!" shrieked the little girl.

"Stir the froth around you Tinker" said I "and allow it to cool to temperate drinking conditions"

So, she did.

I drank Cappucino.

She drank Babycino.

We read books, laughed at the illustrations, collected ideas and spent money.

We talked about Dragons and girls with long stockings. We talked about Whizzpoppers and pirates and bird droppings.

It was glorious fun and we smiled and giggled all the way to the till and home again.

We love the bookshop x

Of course, my memory of our day might be slightly enhanced but never 'embellished'.

Never under-estimate the power of a good story when attempting to turn a very 'ordinary' day into a day of wonderment and mysteriousness.

To produce a good story from thin air, is a Mamas most secret and useful of all her secret talents x