Spring Cheer!

My kitchen table is looking rather Fun, Fresh, Bright & Spring like this morning after a bit of impulse buying this weekend. Believe it or not I don't really like shopping and like it even less at the weekend when its busy, but needs must when your daughter comes home on Friday with a hole in her school shoe!

So off we popped to Worceseter yesterday, I'd rather have been at home enjoying the sunshine so I only parked for an hour.  But didn't we do well, as well as the school shoes I managed to grab a few bits for me!  On on route from car park to shoe shop and back again I couldn't resist......some new (rather funky) pumps for me for when the time comes to ditch the boots, a Cheery Cherry Blossom Mothers Day Card for my mum and the brightest yellow flowers I have ever seen!

Love the feeling that Spring is in the air, enjoy the sunshine x

 

Doodle Time!

As a Member of The Kuretake Design Team I have been called on to get doodling with their pens!  They are hosting a new challenge over on the Kuretake Blog this month and the theme is 'Doodle Mania'.

To get the challenge under way the Design Team have been doodling mad in every way they know using a variety of their pens.

I decided to keep mine simple.....

5 pens, 5 colours, 5 minutes

I had great fun filling the page!

The whole thing was created using their Painty Pens.

Do pop over to the Kuretake Blog over the next few days where you can see more of the design teams work and find out more......

Dotty Followers

(All Available on Joy)

I've had a little influx of new 'Followers' just lately and I wanted to just take a minute to say.....


 Hi, Welcome & Thanks for Staying x


I'm sure some of you out there have a vision that I dress head to toe in Polka dots, I have to say I've thought about it.....but other than a few Dotty Scarves and a Polka Dot Sun Dress thats it.


I often think of you all too.... I doubt very much there's 180 Spotty Dressed Followers out there but I can dream! 

....and the Award Goes To....

This week I have kindly been awarded the Liebster Blog Award from Dinki Dots. I have to say I was a little surprised as my blog was very neglected last year. There's no excuse I just lost my way a little and never seemed to find the time to write a decent post. I wasn't sure how many of you out there I was actually reaching these days. So thank you Dinki for having faith in my blog, I'm now doing quite well with regular posts & I receiving this has given me even more reason to keep it up!

So onto the award.....

The Liebster Award is awarded to a 200 or less followers blog in the hope that it will bring new visitors and followers to their blog. If you are happy to accept the award the steps are:

Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.

Post the award button on your blog.

Pass the award on to 5 bloggers who inspire you.

Leave a comment on those blogs to let them know.

Like I say having been a bad blogger last year and being out of touch with some of you thinking of 5 has been a hard one. My first thoughts were my good old faithfuls that I have followed for sometime on here & on face book. I love their products, am inspired by their success and have even made the odd purchase or two! I straight away thought Sara At Kitty Eden, Becky at Dots & Spots, Kirsty at Sixty One A and The fish (not) at Crafty Fish, but these are all huge success's with huge quantity's of followers so are unable to receive the award.

So I have thought and I have come up with 3 that make me smile. They are right up my

street....fun, bright, fresh, colourful & a little quirky twist!

MOO BAA CLUCK

A fellow Mum and Fellow Painter of Wood and A Very Talented Illustrator

http://moobaacluck.blogspot.com/

THREE POTATO FOUR

An Art Teacher With an Amazing Imagination & Hair Probably Full Of Glitter!

http://sandy-chibichan.blogspot.com/

ARTWORK BY ANGIE

An Old Friend From Art College Days Who's Business Is Currently Taking Off Big Time!

http://artworkbyangie.blogspot.com/

Gabs, Sandy & Angie I do hope you accept the award, you all more than deserve it x

A Valentines Gift From Heaven!

When I came down stairs on Valentines Day to find my hubby had left a little pile of pressies on the kitchen table I have to say I was surprised & flattered (a card would be pushing it some years!)

But when I got down to the opening that emotion turned to shock and elation, just look at this book......Orla Kiely, Pattern....... I say a book, its more than a book, its like a huge encyclopedia of beautifulness on every level.

The cover is a tactile texture, the pages are thick, smooth & glossy and the content, well I'll still be oohhing over the content in 10 years or so.

Stunning photography....

Perfect layout.....

and pure pattern every step of the way....

So I had a challenge on my hands having received a gift like that......I had planned on cooking a nice meal after the kids had gone to bed but I figured I'd best go the extra mile and add some little extra touches as my way of saying thank you.

Having consulted my 8 year old daughter we embarked on our mission (which she thought was great!). First she made a menu, then picked snowdrops from the garden, then helped me with the table.

(all this was hidden from view when he returned from work)

Then whilst he was in the shower she picked his clothes (with a little help from me swaying her off the idea of a tie!) and laid the menu & clothes out on the bed. I in the maentime created the table and began on the food.

The menu was...

Pate with Cheese Boule Toast

Cannelloni with Tomato & Mozzarella Salad

Chocolate Cheese Cake, Strawberries & Cream & A HEART SPARKLER!!

The whole thing went down very well and making that extra special effort even after 22 years together was well worth it xxx

Spotty Birthday

My Daughter turns 8 this week and today was her little party. She was very specific with what she wanted and it was all very sophisticated & grown up. A friend of mine has a Pampering business & came round to pamper her & 4 friends. It was all very nice, so pink, so girly & so glittery. At times I was a little sad as I feel the days of a class full running round like nutters, doing pass the parcel & insisting on themed paper plates may be behind us.

She wanted the cakes to be pink, blue, spotty, girly & have hearts galore!

We had great fun making made lolly butterfly's for the party bags, an idea I got from Pinterest

She wanted 8 cup cakes rather than a big cake (that one will be on her actual birthday) so her friends could each take one home.

The pampering went down very well & she has gone to bed very glittery, very curly & very happy!

Bring On The Kids (part 1)

For those oldies who follow my blog you'll be familiar with the projects I get asked to do at my children's school. Call it a good thing (because I love it) or a bad thing (because I give my time for free) I guess the requests will keep coming when I am mum with a creative business! The school is very small, we only have 65 ish pupils at the moment, so I love to help where I can. The best thing about getting to do what I do is their smiley faces and their enthusiasm. As we only have 3 classes it's also possible that every child can get involved and I don't think I've ever had a moaning one!

My first project back in 2009 was murals for the toilets

http://www.muddypuddlecrafts.blogspot.com/2009/10/master-pieces-are-finished.html

Then we painted the hall wall. The theme was the schools architecture and the memories of the pupils that were leaving for high school in 2010

http://www.muddypuddlecrafts.blogspot.com/2010/05/crafty-sunday_21.html

Then last year I painted a bench for a local competition

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.199849020051087.43672.115187628517227&type=3

This year its 6 OWL MURALS for the new changing rooms!

I am doing them over 6 afternoons (2 with each class) and ultimately 6 boards will be produced, 3 for each changing rooms. First to finish have been the big ones. The top class has 24 puplis mixed across years 4,5 & 6. Look what they produced, I'm very proud.....

On 2 3'x3' mdf boards I drew a rough outline of a Snowy Owl, a Barn Owl and a Tawny Owl. Other than helping them to mix colours I really did leave them to it!

The less artistic ones researched facts and wrote them on the boards, which look really good

Tomorrow & Tuesday I've got 20 year 2's & 3's, wish me luck!

One Week at A Time!

Having flown round like a headless chicken during November & December I decided to start the year in a little more organised & structured way. With orders, Christmas shopping, school plays, concerts, hubby's 40th birthday & loosing our poorly dog Libby there were times before Christmas when I didn't know which way to turn.

I decided that had to change (at least for a while) in 2012. One really important aspect of Muddy Puddle is that it fits in around my children & family life. Knowing that half term & my daughters 8th birthday will be here before I even get used to writing 2012 I made a plan......

Week I - 9th - design, suss & make Valentines stock

Week 2 - 16th - design, suss & make a start on Mothers Day stock

Week 3 - 23rd - TAX RETURN from start to finish, with no excuses (boo) THEN start work on Owl Murals that I am doing during 6 afternoons over the next 3 weeks at my kids school

Well I've impressed myself (so far so good)...............taaaaa daaaaa!!!!

3 new designs added this year

3 card designs made, put in the shop & listed on the website!

Mothers Day Design 1

Mothers Day Design 2

Mothers Day Design 3

So onto this week....boring paperwork looms, booooooo, wish me luck :(