Monthly Make - January

It is well known that cats have staff... but some cats also have meeces!

Since the festive break I have been a bit low with a bug and needed a gentle kick start back in to the world of addiction known as crafting, so I decided rather than one big project I'd do a handful of little mini fun things, one of which was to make some catnip mice...

So, after a rummage in my stash I found some patterned felt and the off cuts from a pair of trackies that were shortened from annoyingly-slightly-too-short, to wearable long-shorts and with a quick snip and a spurt of sewing I soon had a little nest of rodents ready for their new homes

The catnip came from my local pet food store Aaron's Pets  and was rather generous so I was able to make a couple for a very good friend and cat lover, my Number One Son's puss and I still have enough to make some for my local Holly Hedge Animal Sanctuary charity shop

I heart making catnip mice...

Sew I've begun...

Empty body

The catnip

Stuffing

My cunning plan to give the tail a bit more strength against a catnipped up cat

Finished off with a Sharpie face

I think Aaron's Pets will be seeing more of me as since this photo was posted on Facebook another lovely friend has commented her cats are jealous, and as I can't resist the chance to make a cat happy it looks like I'll be making more meeces very soon!

Catnip mice fulfilling their destiny

This has been my January monthly make with Annie The Felt Fairy; I will be attempting slightly more ambitious projects for the rest of the year... maybe!

Easy Peasy Chicken Stew

I've been laid up in bed for the last couple of weeks feeling pathetically sorry for myself with a chest infection and needed to eat some comfort food

Luckily I had picked up some fresh chicken breasts just before I conked out and thanks to my beloved slow cooker I managed to rustle up a tasty meal with them and some tins lurking in my cupboard...

In the morning I chucked in...

2 chicken breasts (roughly chopped in to chunks)

1 can cannelloni beans

1 can chicken & mushroom soup (Morrison's cheapie!)

slightly less than 1/2 pint stock (made from a veggie Oxo cube & boiling water) 

teaspoon Provençal herbs

When I woke up in the afternoon to go to the doctor I added a tin of peas and slung in some herby dumplings

So when I got back home I had a lovely filling supper and there was enough for reheating the next day... being poorly is never quite as bad with a good bowl of chicken stew and dumplings

Kokeshi Cutey

As part of my Advent Swap with Guernsey Girl I made her a little pin cushion, this is the only item that I remembered to take a photo of so I thought I'd share it with you all as I thought it turned out pretty cute

Sarah had mentioned that she likes Kokeshi dolls, so I googled for some inspiration, grabbed some felt and a bead from my stash and voila!

I really enjoyed making it and think I might be making more pin cushions as it was such fun!

Cheers m'dear!

Another little trifle I knocked up for Christmas, keeping to my handmade pledge, was lining a basket for my sister

I found some delicious fabric on eBay a while ago and after I got my mitts on a basket I came up with a lined bread basket for my sister's French house. 

With the leftover scraps I also made a scrunchie and appliquéd a couple of food-umbrellas, of course I forgot to take photos of those, but at least I know that my sister will be beautifully co-ordinated at meal times in France!

Twin Pencil Cases

I took the handmade pledge last year (another year gone already?) to hand make as much I could for Christmas

My sister has twin 7 year old boys and this year I made up a box of goodies for them with assorted odds and ends I picked up during the year and also I made them each a pencil case... lined and with a zip... go me!

If you look closely you can see I kind of cheated on the zip front, but hey the boys seemed to enjoy them!

I'm Miss July!

 

I've joined the Monthly Make hosted by Annie at the Felt Fairy and pledged to make at least one hand made item each month for the whole year

Not only have I joined up but I got chosen to be Miss July! I feel I ought to be shimmying about in attractive lingerie or a swimsuit, but luckily for all of you it means I get to be joint administrator for July and I get to blog about not only my make but also for everyone else who posts on the flickr group for the month. It's an honour for me to be chosen and I'm getting very excited!

It's great way to get motivated, why not join us? It's really easy.. just pop over to Annie's Monthly Make page to sign up and join the flickr group... hope to see you there