Happy Halloween! come and join the party!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! hope you are all having a fun day. We will be having a bit of fun tonight making a pumpkin pie (steak pie but looks like a pumpkin!) for tea and of course some real pumpkins and we have to watch Hocus Pocus my most favourite Halloween film ever!

The villagers have been getting ready all week for their Halloween Party!

Before all the fun can commence though there was a small matter of the official opening of the Village Hall. Malcolm was on hand with the scissors joined by his wife Marjory.

Lots of the villagers turned out for the ceremony. Even Ernie the tramp came along but he had too much cider, fell asleep on the bench and missed the whole thing! Now everyone can enjoy the hall for lots of different events throughout the year!

Now the party really can get started! Vince the vampire arrived just in time to join in the festivities

Although he wasn't thrilled to see his new coffin being used for display with a strange looking skeleton in it!

The party is in full swing everyone is having a great time!

Timmy is playing some Monster Mash and Timewarp to get everyone in the mood!

Halloween treats to eat!!!

 Everyone has dressed up and they are all having a great time.

Debbie and Dave are wearing the lovely jumpers made by my good friend Deb.

A pic without the flash shows the disco fairy lights and the lit up pumpkin!

Hope you all had fun at my Halloween Party! Hope you have a great day whatever you are up to!!! xx

Some new purchases

I had a very productive visit to the DH shop last week and got lots of projects to keep me busy over the winter. I got a roll of thin hobby cork that was £1.50 and will be great for making mats and a village noticeboard so that was a great find. I got loads of little bits not overly exciting to show you but I did get a few nice things! My favourite thing is a gorgeous bench which was my WOW item. I always try and get one thing thats a usually a bit more expensive but its something that I really couldn't make myself so it worth the little extra. I have looked at it a few times so my lovely OH treated me to it. It was just under £14 so not extortionately priced for something so nice and its so sweet the cast iron ends are just lovely.

She also had 10% off the Cornish style china so I stocked up as she won't be getting anymore and I do love it so that will prob fill the shelves in the village hall kitchen.

I have also had a few nice things from Ebay lately a lovely cream aga that has been really well customised. They had aged it and added the metal hob covers and tea towel rail. It will be perfect in my Christmas shop in the nice big fireplace. Decided to go with the aga rather than a fire as it will be much more fun to decorate.

It also came with the farmhouse table and I bought some cute Christmas cupcakes and some very realistic sandwiches which will also go in the village hall kitchen so my WI ladies will be very busy making grub for the Halloween party being held tomorrow!

I am always on the lookout for new villagers from the lady who had made most of my dolls. Today I spotted a vampire and thought he just didn't look scary he had such a sweet and friendly face! I got a great coffin in the dolls house shop last week which I am sure he will be very pleased with! The lovely Bernadette very kindly posted him straight off today and my fingers are crossed he arrives in time for the party tomorrow!!

Wool mark 2 and a nice Sylvanian surprise!

Feels like ages since I last posted as its been a busy couple of weeks at home! Its been the school holidays here for the past 2 weeks which means Bethany has been off college and Lindsay off work so we have been making the most of the caravan as we will be shutting it down for the winter very soon. I will really miss spending our weekends by the seaside but now the nights are getting colder and darker its time to swap the beach for a cosy log fire at home! We spent a good part of the holidays there but had to come back for a couple of days in between as my little dog had to have an op to remove some teeth. The vet had said it may be a tumor which was so upsetting but after the op he said he was very happy with how it went as was quite sure it was not a tumor so lots of happy tears that time. Shes back to her normal self now my poor little gummy Bean!

I also managed to gets lots of Christmas shopping done as I have to be organised as the weather can close in here quite badly from November onwards so its not easy to get out to the bigger towns to go shopping so I always get the bulk of my pressies well in advance! As well as Christmas shopping I had a productive visit to the dolls house shop and got lots of goodies more news on those in the next few days! I wont be up there again til we open the van again in the spring so I had to stock up on projects for the winter months!

I didn't waste the evening sitting in the van and took my little stash of wool sent by my good friend Deb with me so I could have another go at making some balls of wool. Once I started I kept going til it had all gone lol it was quite relaxing actually. I realised this time to make them the same size I needed the wool to be the same length so I cut all my bits before I started which made life a lot easier. Bethany printed me off some labels which I had taken with me so I could finish them off. Really pleased with how they turned out!

Last week Bethanys dad was up for a visit and bought a load of her old toys with him as we are doing a bootsale. I knew she had a few Sylvanian bits as I had a few of them already here that I kept from when she was small but had forgotten she had even more. Last night we were in the shed sorting it out and I came across a big box full of Sylvanian! She was laughing at me as I was so excited to find them and they will def be kept with the rest of her collection for one day when she has children of her own! In the meantime my Niece Lydia will be thrilled when she sees it all next time she comes up and will have great fun with them I am sure.

There was a cute little house called Orchard Cottage complete with furniture and accessories.....

A bakery complete with accessories.......

Lots of nursery and baby items........

A wedding day set.....

And a camping set. What a great unexpected find they were!

Knitting Pretty wool shop!

Today I decided it was about time I sorted out my little wool shop! My good friend Deb has knitted me lots of little things for my shop and they were sitting in my draw and not on display where they should be! So I decided to pull my finger out and get on with it!!

Of course the sign once again is made by Bethany what would I do without her talents!!!  I think it needs another one under the window though now I can see the gap!

I have looked at it a few times but couldn't quite get the layout right. I had too many unit in there and by taking one out completely it worked much better!

On the mannequin is a nice winter woolly set although not sure it may need something a little longer and will look out for a pine mannequin as I don't like the white one it doesn't match lol! 

I love the little boat jumper its so beautifully made and the little doll on the shelf is so sweet. All these were made by Deb I am so lucky having such a talented friend!

The large bookcase is perfect for the balls of wool, sadly not made by me I cheated and bought some on Ebay, but I will make some more to fill up the gaps on the shelf.

I printed a few posters out from Google images and a colour chart to make it a little easier for the customers. 

 I stained the shop counter and added the little crochet balls and cross stitch kit to the top shelf.

On the bottom shelf is a selection of pattern books I made including of course fisherman knits! 

Of course Halloween is nearly upon us so a scary pumpkin jumper makes up the window display again by Deb lol she has another one on Ebay at the mo if you would like one the same!

I seemed to put loads of things in but in the photos it still seems a bit bare!! I think more wool and a few more bits and bobs will fill it up a bit more but at least the hard but funnest (if thats a word!) bit is done! I hope you like it :-)

Chistmas Cottage shop and Santas Workshop

As you know I already had a cottage set up as a Christmas shop and Santas workshop but it was sadly the wrong shape and size and I couldn't fit it into the village after I moved it all downstairs. So I decided to ask the lovely JULIE to make me a smaller one that could fit on the shelf alongside the other little shops. I wanted it a little bigger than the other as I have so much Christmas stuff but also cos I have a lovely Santas workbench I really wanted to fit in. We also came up with the idea of a fireplace to decorate which is a great idea and it just makes it that little different to my others. I had said about painting black but she came up with the idea of green and have to say it was def a good call its such a Christmassy colour!

So here are the pictures hot off the press and I absolutely love it!! It already looks like Christmas and is just perfect in every way. Its just how I imagined a Christmas shop should be!!

I can't wait to get started on it!! I imagine it with fairy lights and tree and a lovely glowing fire its going to look just amazing. And look out for The sleigh and reindeer on the roof! Hence the need for a fireplace as Santa needs to be able to get up o the roof!!

Magic potions and balls of wool!

I have always wanted a pot of magic potion but never worked out how to do it. I know it can be done with scenic water but I saw Joann Swansons great witchy vignette on her blog today and decided to have a go the way she suggested! Its not bad lol Luckily Bethany had some nail varnish the perfect colour green and I had some green glitter to add some magic sparkle. I also added a little fire underneath with some driftwood twigs, a red sequin cut to a flame shame and a dash of red glitter.

I really need to leave it to dry for ages as theres a lot of nail varnish in the pot! But patience of a flea as ever I just couldn't wait to see it in place in the witches cottage!! It looks great fun and pleased I decided to have a go now! :-)

I needed some balls of wool for my little wool shop and found an online Tutorial that showed you how to make them! It was easier than I thought, just needed a straw and a large needle so decided to have a go as my good friend Deb had sent me all her odd bits of wool she couldn't use. They are a little bit small I really need some Mcdonalds straws which a bit bigger than normal ones and the labels could be a bit fancier next time but for a first attempt they aren't bad, but not really good enough to display lol so have just made these ones into an odds and ends box.