I've overlooked my birthday :o(

Ooooops! how did this happen? it's been a whole year and 3 days since I started blogging! and I did nothing to mark the occasion, nada, zilch! :o( I always thought I was a bad blogger and this has proved my point entirely.... I really should hang my head in shame LOL
so..... I need to make amends, and have decided that I should have a give-away to mark the 100 followers event instead :o) maybe presumptious...I may never get any more followers than I have now!!! this may be tomorrow, or next week or next month, realistically I expect it will take much, much longer!!! I'm hoping it takes at least until after the weekend as I havnt actually decided WHAT it is Im going to give away, so will need a couple of days to plan something. So watch this space...... well not this exact space but one on this page coming soon!! it will look like this :o)


A year ago today was quite an eventful day as it was the day my eldest baby moved into his first home of his own. A lot has happened since then and last weekend all his possessions moved back........ into my garage! but no, he isnt moving back home, (yet) in a few days time he is setting off with his best friend for a backpacking trip around Europe!!! We wont see him for about 4 months but have planned to meet up in SW France when we (the rest of the family) go on holiday in August, fingers crossed our plans work out! He has a couple more days at home so I shall have to make a big celebratory cake to stuff him full of calories to sustain him on his travels..... well..... its a good enough excuse for a cake isnt it?
This is why I need a few days to get an idea together as same son's old sleeping quarters are now my crafting room & guest room! as soon as he is off I shall get creating for a give-away gift, until then I am going to be being all mumsy and making sure he has enough clean socks and toothpaste!

Bargains & painted metal minis

Anyone who reads Kat the Hat's blog recently would have seen a cute little unpainted mini articulated metal crocodile on there, well... I was lucky enough to find a few bits like that myself a while ago too and my lovely son painted them up for me using his Warhammer paints (citadel paints) so as I promised Kat I'd show mine, here's what they could look like when painted up.
First he put a base coat of 'chaos black' on all over, then added a a light coat of 'catachan green' and then added highlights using 'camo green' and dry brushed 'snot green' (dontya just love that name!?) for final highlights. For his muddy feet & tail he used 'graveyard earth' with a highlight of 'kommando khaki', his eye was a tiny dab of 'sunburst yellow'. He has some fantastic Warhammer gaming pieces that he decorated that are 1:38 - 1:42 scale! I cant do smaller than 1:12 or my eyeballs would explode even with my magnifier methinks..... ahhh the joys of youth!

Here's a few other bits I need to get painted up too, and the cost of these unpainted pieces?.... I managed to get them all for just 50p each!!!

I found a few more bargains today when I visited a local dollshouse fair, I needed to get some wooden flooring as I have all but given up with the madness of trying to assemble a diagonal parquet floor in the skool of majick so am conceding to plain old floorboards just so that I can get the floors finished and get motivated to do some more work on it again.
Some of the things I bought today were sea shells - just a penny each, goldfish - 25p each, & I was pleased to find lots of terracotta pots that each were less than my target 50p bargain budget LOL but I did push the boat out a bit and spent £1.35 on a xmas teatowel for my Santa house! the reason for my stingey-ness? hubbs decided to accompany me for the first time ever so I was trying not to overspend as it doesnt help any woman anywhere if the fellas find out how much we COULD spend! eh?

I shall have a play with some scenic water during the week as soon as I find the goldfish bowl I bought a few years ago and stashed away somewhere.... poor goldfish!

Edit : forgot to say ... son is planning on finishing the other croc off as a psychadelic purple lizard! so watch this space in the next day or so! all he wants in return is some spangly blue pants for his bunny-ted 'Frumpy' that he is taking on his European travels next week .... life is never dull here!!! LOL

spring sprung a pondering moment

Ooops .... I seem to keep forgetting / neglecting my blog, but with the arrival of spring, I have been trying to do 'outside' stuff while the sun lasts (& my health allows) but I WILL find some time soon to get mini-ing again as I am having serious withdrawal sypmtoms! Hubbs finally got another job, but has to work away from home for a few nights each week, which means I will have more time free in the evening so will more than likely get into my mini-ing again once I stop missing him .... apologies for the slush LOL

Over the last few days in Blogland I have seen some beautiful flowers that spring has sprung in other peeps gardens all around the world, and I've seen some lovely things emerge in my own garden too. Last year these majickly appeared, and I thought they were very pretty, totally in the wrong place.... but very pretty !

anyway, the patch seems to have doubled this year and so Im planning on moving them elsewhere in the garden when the flowers have died off, but my question is .... what are they? at first I thought they were snowdrops but they seem bigger/different bell shape to the typical snowdrop & flower much later than the ones in my back garden do as these only appeared last week.... anyone out there know exactly what these subtle little beauties are? or when's the best time to move them? All advice greatfully appreciated.
I also had to grab a pic of my acer in flower as it had such a lovely colour and is one of my favourite things in the garden at the moment.


and finally there is at least one 'mini' pic in this post! my mini daffs decided to wait until all the other spring bulbs had gone before making their appearance this year but they are so dainty, they were worth waiting for :o)


its good to take time out and 'stop to smell the flowers'..... just as long as you dont accidentally inhale a bumble bee !!!

I forgot....

I did say I was going to forward my award to 5 more blogs 'in the morning' I just forgot to mention which morning!!! Ooops ...

I have no idea exactly what the award is for, but here goes .... in no particular order, the awards go to....

Kat of Kat the Hat Lady - who isn't very well at the moment but is still putting smiles on other peoples faces with her new creations

The Moon Museum - (El Museo de la Luna) I recently discovered this blog and it has beautiful artwork and a lovely quote from Bernard Shaw "you use a glass mirror to see your face, but you use works of art to see your soul"

Liberty Biberty - another recently discovered blog who has the most gorgeous shabby chic things that could make even the most hardened of Halloween addicts go all pink and fluffy!! LOL

Carolee over at King of Mice studios cos I just love her work, and would one day love to own some of her work but alas I am too poor...and her stuff sells so quickly too!

and to Debie of Piskies & Poppets cos if my translating is any good, she is a top-rate artisan & good friend so the description fits her perfect! :o) lufs ya kins x

I dont like picking out just a few peeps for awards, so if anyone wants to receive & pass this award on, please also accept it as a gift from me!!! ooh I do love to break the rules LOL

I am so easily distracted....

I have been absent (again) from blogland for a bit as Ive been quite preoccupied with my new chickens this week and weve had lots of glorious sunshine that has made me want to head in the direction of the garden and not the workroom! My new chooks were kept well away from my other girls when we brought them home, as you never know what germs they may be harboring, and Im glad I did as there was much sneezing and snuffling going on so Im glad I contained it. I spent the week chook-chatting and had to give the speckledy one antibiotics which I dont like to have to give, but it really was a necessity with her as she got quite poorly, but she's much better now so the new girls finally got partially introduced to the rest of the gang today when we moved them into a new enclosure we made within the one they will eventually live in. They are now just a few days away from all being one big happy family :o)

thats the view from the inside of my conservatory, where I sit with my morning cuppa and watch my girls for a while

A big bonus for today was that 3 of the 4 started laying too !!!! much clucking and sqwarking was heard and each time I went out to see what it was all about I was pleasantly rewarded with a nice big egg! its just 'special speckles' that has to start laying , I think she must be waiting till shes all better maybe? this was my collection today

the second one in, is a large sized shop bought egg just for size comparison, but the rest are all todays home grown beauties, tiny bantie ones to extra large maran eggs but they are all welcomed and will make some crackingly yummy cakes tomorrow :o)

I also received a lovely award from Debbie over at Tiny Treasures since I last posted :o)

apparently I make her laugh...... and am "wonderfully creative when Im not playing with my chooks".... hmmmm, maybe this explains why I have no miniatures to show you this week and have just spent the last few minutes rambling about my chooks, I think the bantie eggs are the only miniatures I've dealt with all week LOL
Thankyou Debbie x
anyway I have to forward this to 5 other blogs but my eyes are drooping and I now need my beddybyes as pumpkin hour is fast approaching .... so promise I shall do it in the morning x

Happy Easter

actually my butt doesnt hurt! nothing does :o) I am all done with the up & down ladders stuff, decorating is all done, and am now feeling good for a change! but I am such a bad blogger! how did the last 2 weeks just pass me by??? Ive been decorating I know, but I didnt think it had taken me THAT long! LOL anyway I'm here now and shall probably bore you senseless with my goings on but ... here goes!

I've done no mini-ing Im afraid ....... everyone in the miniature world now runs away ---------> still here? ....... thank you!


A Happy Easter, Spring Equinox or just plain old chocolate day, is wished to you all. We have had family staying for the last few days and it has been lots of fun, tomorrow I expect will be spent slumming it in our jimjams and consuming much chocolate! (it was noted by more than one member of my family that my egg tree looked a bit naff this year so your only getting a small glimpse of it ! LOL) we have in fact had a fair bit of chocolate already as my daughter made crispy chocolate nests the other day and they sort of disappeared ever so quickly!!!
In the true tradition of all things spring like, I gave in once again to the 'need' for more chickens! and so headed off to the local poultry auction to see what lil cluckers were fated to come home with me, even though I hadnt intended to buy 4 chooks, it somehow sorta just happened and that bidding paddle in my hand had a life of its own!! the resulting purchases were this mottley bunch,

they seemed to settle into my garden quite well, although the speckledy one seems to have the dreaded post auction snuffly cold so Im glad they are segregated from the rest of my girls until I know they are well enough to all mingle together. No doubt I shall be up early tomorrow to make sure they are all OK after their first night in a strange place and they shall just gimme that look .... that 'wheres the grub' look?!