Bunnies and hens spells.... Easter :)

My little Easter bunny says...Happy Easter to you all!

 Have had a brilliant week at school this week.  On Monday Maitresse (Teacher-Miss) and the children built a hen house. It came as a kit with excellent instructions....phew!
We live in a rural area so chickens are very common, most grand-parents have them.  Non the less our children (a class of 24, 5 to 7 year olds) were really excited about having chickens...(Actually, Maitresse wanted chickens more than anyone).  On Wednesday, my day off. No school on Wednesday for Primary school children. I went and got two laying hens....we want eggs.

 Ta da.......to fat hens...perfect Easter present for the class. Les cocottes are now waiting for the children to give them names.  We are all becoming Chicken experts...soon there will be nothing we don't know about chooks... :)

My Fun and Nonsense for this week....pop  over to Sunday Sketches and enjoy all the wonderful artwork.. xx

Bumble Pink arrived yesterday. . .

It's a beautiful crisp Spring morning here... My bumble girls are buzzing about and Bumble Pink popped out of her cocoon yesterday and dried her beautiful gold shimmery wings in the sun.  She has now joined the other girls and is busy buzzing about waking up all the Spring flowers and helping the little birds with getting their nests ready....  I love Spring :D

Just a little Fun and Nonsense...

Please leave a comment, the Bumble girls and I would love to hear from you.....

Bumble girls, owl and Spring. . .

Wednesday saw the first day of Spring...yippee!!!  The calendar may say that Spring has sprung but in my corner of the world it has been a little slow in coming out of hibernation.

Happily today, some bumble girls popped in to see me, to tell me that Spring was finally rubbing the sleepy winter dust from it's eyes and would be down for breakfast very soon. Spring has decided to have a bit of a lie in...

In the meantime my bumble girls are buzzing about telling the flowers and birds and me that we need to start getting ready for Springs coming out parade :D

Owlette plopped down from her perch to see what all the buzzing was about. . .

A little Fun and Nonsense goes along way. . .

Sharing with Sunday Sketches

Teacup Mermaids. . .

My week started quite quietly.  Princess asked me to build her a dolls house. No problem, one dolls house coming up. 

We decided she needed  a few flowers under the window sill and mismatching curtains.  She had been reading one of my house decorating magazines and fell in love with the idea of shabby chic. I didn't like to tell her it was a fancy name for "we can't quite afford a matching set" so "we'll mix and match what we can beg or borrow or steal from Mum's house".  Princess wanted a pink Aga in her dolls house. So I drew her a pink Aga.  There is something magical about Aga's, especially pink ones she said.  

I agree!

No sooner was the last lick of pink paint on the Aga when  Toot a red nosed dog and his friend Lily-Bo moved in.  They like pink Aga's too. 

Two more for tea I said...

Over a lovely cup of tea, the conversation turned to Lily-Bo's bunny ears. Fluffy Muffin, my office fairy thought it would be a great idea if we all dress up as bunnies for Easter and have an Easter Parade.

Umm.....I was contemplating what I would look like, dressed as the Easter Bunny and was about to take another sip of tea, when I noticed my tea started to bubble in the cup...that's very odd.  We all started to peer at my teacup when  POP...up jumped a mermaid.

 Right out of my teacup....mermaids like to listen in on teacup chatter and this mermaid was all excited about dressing up as a bunny for Easter.  She had her bunny ears on and everything.... in the time it takes to have a sip of tea......

 I had mermaids popping out of teacups and teapots and milk jugs....all wanting to be in the Easter Parade!

My advice to you all, is, be very careful about what you say around teacups....you never know if there is a teacup mermaid living in your cup....or teapot...or milk jug.... I'm keeping a tight lid on the sugar bowl!!!

Just a little of my Fun and Nonsense to brighten up your week....xxx

Paper boats and lacey sails. . .

Thank you everyone for your well wishes.  My man-flu has gone, and left me very tired which is driving me mad.  I have so many things I want to do but have an overwhelming urge to lie down and sleep.  My brain is foggy and I can't concentrate on anything for very long...

My day has consisted of getting up late, watching The Waltons...ahh, I want to live on Waltons mountain and drive around in an old jallopy.  (I do drive around in an old jallopy but it's not as romantic as Pa Waltons truck).  After the Waltons I made Damper bread and had some for lunch...yummy.  I also made some Coffee Cremes for Mr Hollywood.  Did the washing and managed to finish my paper mache Princess.  I didn't know she was a Princess until she insisted I make her a crown.

She then sat down on the shelf above my desk and started to play with my paper boats with lacey sails.

The girls were delighted to have a Princess come to play and Alfie the pink elephant and Deirdre the giraffe wanted to know if the Princess knew where Timbucktoo was...

Anyway I've left them on the shelf happily playing while I go and lie down on the sofa.

I haven't got anything finished to show for Sunday Sketches, so I'm sharing what I done Wednesday... :)

Hope you are having Fun and Nonsense where you are....xxx

Baking. . .

I have spent most of the week in bed with flu. I had no ordinary flu I had "Man-Flu" (the nasty, all consuming, moaning, shaking uncontrollably, sweaty, smelly, splitting headache, crawling (yes there was crawling and dribbling) dying very loudly Man-Flu.  I'm sure at one point I did die but no-one was around to see it, so I undied.  Mr Hollywood thought it would be nice to share his man-flu with me. I love, that, man but sometimes I just want to whack him, if I had had the energy to open my eyes and move my arm I would have.  He of course soldiered on to work infecting everyone in his path who hadn't already been infected.  Got to love the generosity of the man....NOT!

I, me, myself, took my man-flu to bed and stayed there. I emerged yesterday like a crumpled butterfly, mangy moth more like and ventured to the sofa and stayed there.

Baker girl is the only thing I've manged to paint this week...hopefully she can magic some food into our empty fridge or it's bread and water till I go shopping on Monday...if I'm well enough of course...

Will be joining Sunday Sketches from the the comfort of my sofa....xx

Walking the dog. . .

Woof, woof, haahaahaa haa, please can I come with you?  I promise to be good. 

• I won't pull on the lead
• I won't sniff every gate post
• or tree
• I won't bark at the cat at No 34
• I won't walk in mud and get my paws dirty
• I won't jump up at Mrs Biggins, even if I know she's got treats in her pocket
• I won't roll in that lovely perfum that Mr Fox leaves for me, the one you don't like
• I won't swim in the pond and chase the ducks
• I won't sniff other dogs bottoms or growl at them if they get to close to you

I'll be on my bestest behaviour......doggy promise...

and a promise is a promise.... :)

Just a little Fun and Nonsense for Sunday Sketches... xx

Sailing across the sea to see a friend. .

Hello Ducky,  I heard you were feeling a little down so I thought I'd pop round to cheer you  up...

I put my best sailor outfit on and my little sailor hat, the one with the red pompom. Hoisted up my dainty lacey sail and headed out across the sea to see you.  It would be so much easier if we lived in the same country...

Before I left I packed a couple of teacups and a large cupcake(I'm sure there's enough for two).

I hadn't gone very far, when, there, swimming about in the sea was a pink sparkly elephant...poor thing was lost and a bit scared. Naturally.

I told him to hop in...not easy when your an elephant.  Anyway, blow me down if this silly fish didn't jump in too.  Looks like fish for supper.  Yummy!

Cut a long story short, Alfie (that's his name, the elephant, not the fish) was on a banana boat headed for Timbucktoo to join the circus, when a gale force storm whipped up.  A big wave crashed into the boat and Alfie got swept away. Fortunately he was wearing a life jacket so he just bobbed along for a few days... I told him I had no idea where Timbucktoo was, so until we find out, he better stay with you.

Well don't just stand there gorping...put the kettle on, I'm parched...

Hope you like my Fun and Nonsense for this week... am sailing off to Sunday Sketches, see you there. . .

101 painted faces. . .

I have three projects sitting on my desk.  Homework, paid work and these three girls.

 Obviously I should be doing my homework and the paid work first but these girls have been calling to me to paint their faces.  I've been staring at their blank bodies for days...um what to do, how to paint them. etc etc etc...They could wait no longer.  Since this morning they have had about 101 different faces painted on them and then painted out again. This is the latest version.

Now it's cup of tea, pecan and white chocolate muffin (me made) time...

Then paid work and homework...the girls will have to live with these faces for awhile...

A couple of you have asked how I made them.  

Here's How

Grab your supplies and prepare to get messy.... yippee!!!

• cooking foil - it's quite easy to mould, especially for small fingers
• cocktail sticks/bbq sticks (depending on size of doll)
• sticky tape - I use masking tape/decorators tape
• pva glue (thick white glue - water it down) or collage sticking glue or gesso. I used gloss medium - because that's what I have in the cupboard.

• very loosely scrunch up a sheet of foil (about A4 size) Don't scrunch too tight or you will have problems in sticking the sticks in.
• you will need to make a head, body and limbs. This is where the sticks come in. For long legs, use a bbq stick for the whole leg it makes them more solid. For short legs a cocktail stick will do, just for attaching legs to body. (For my girls above, I used a separate piece of foil to mould onto the end of my stick for the boot. 

• attach the limbs to the body
• tape the limbs securely in place. I like to tape the whole body but it's not necessary
• rip up some newspaper or tissue paper. I used some pages from an out of date telephone directory
• slap the glue on the doll (in small areas) and then start sticking bits of ripped paper to the doll and cover with more glue
• once the whole doll is covered in paper leave to dry (usually overnight - I pop mine near the radiator)
• you can cover the doll with several layers it you want to

• when the doll is dry, I like to give it a coat of primer - gesso (covers up the newsprint if you don't want it showing) and it makes the paint stick better
• you are then ready to paint your doll and make her come alive.
• You will find that your dolls love to have their picture taken....so snap away

Hope this is helpful.  Please please please send me photos of your dolls. If you have any questions just shout...

Share the Fun and Nonsense that you get up too...

Brown Paper Boat. . .

 Rain rain go away, if you don't I'll sail away. . .

The owl and Miss Cat went to sea in a beautiful brown paper boat. . .

Hello everyone. . . . . .I spent yesterday, far away on a beautiful sunny island.  Just me and Owl, we had to get home for tea as we had forgotten to pack the tent.

Who knew clouds could hold so much water.  It  has rained and rained and rained for days. Well I decided I had enough so I built a brown paper boat. Packed a picnic and sailed away with owl to find where the sun was hiding.  We found Sun on this beautiful island. He said he was having a little holiday, he was tired of getting up early every morning and whizzing round the world every 24 hours. I told him he needed to come back with us because the clouds where making a terrible mess everywhere.

Owl and I managed to persuade  him to come home. I promised to make him a nice cup tea and some fairy cakes with lots of sprinkles on... Sun likes fairy cakes...yellow ones, of course.

Sun is happily playing in my garden as we speak, so I've put my washing out.

Just a little Fun and Nonsense from my journal ramblings...

am sailing off to Sunday Sketches