Buttons, Hearts & Pink Cake!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!

Yesterday was my birthday, the last one before the big 40 next year which is very scary!

It began with a girly meal out the night before, I spent the day just chilling out & painting in my studio, followed by tea & birthday cake with the kids after school then a nice evening in with the hubby & a few wines!

I dont want to boast but just had to share my wonderful pressies with you. It doesn't take much to get to know me and work out what I like, in fact you only need to read the side bar of this blog to see things I am passionate about. I think every single pressie had ME written all over it and for that & am truly grateful and a still a little excitable today!

BUTTONS!

HEARTS!

CATH K!

EMMA B!

COLOUR & PATTERN!

CERAMICS!

MUSICAL THEATRE TICKETS!

PINK CAKE!

In the Spotlight - Muddy Puddle Crafts

Evening guys, the lovely Tracey over at Blueberry Barn has featured me on her blog!

Please go and check it out? dont stop at reading about me, its a lovley blog with loads of links, have fun x

In the Spotlight - Muddy Puddle Crafts

Juggling!

I am all in a bit of a mess at the moment, maybe its the sun? maybe its April? I dont really know but life is a bit too manic. I'm not even that busy in Muddy Puddle land so I dont know what I'm on about, I only have a few orders here & there coming through. We have put our house on the market and are having a lot of interest, I think I am sub conciously focusing on that too much and have put life somewhat on hold. With viewers coming its a constant battle to tidy & shove things in cupboards & not start doing anything major just in case?

Thats it!

I dont seem to properly start or finish anything...I start it, put it away somewhere then I dont finish, in fact some days I have so much to do but dont want to get stuck in too much I dont even know what to do first. I tried yesterday to do so much but feel nothing actually got achieved. This is the job list I made myself last night to spur me on, its not all I have to do today...add to it the Pta cake sale, the washing, the ironing, the phoncalls etc, my ceramics class & you may be just about there. The kids break up tomorrow so thats even more jobs out the window as I enjoy the holidays with them. Grrrrr, thats it moan over, roll on May so I can put

this month behind me.

I took part in a 'Heart' swap back along with fellow bloggers and was paired with the lovely Beki. My gorgeous parcel of all things hearty arrived over a week ago, all wrapped in pink paper. I ripped it open, ooohhhed & aaahhhed and quickly stuffed it back in the envelope. You've guessed it, we had a viewer, so it was shoved in the under stairs cupboard. And there it stayed, how bad is that? so today its come back out, been photographed & oohhed & ahhed at and I have taken some time to give it all homes.

The sewn house hanging is perfect! I recently gave my loo/utility a makeover with this heart I won in a previous giveaway as the inspiration. I teamed it up with my house plaque I made at ceramics class, hey presto a spring fresh look was born. Well now it has been joined by Beki's masterpiece, perfect co ordination or what!

The gingham heart now lives in my conservatory where it matched with the sofa cushion! This was another gift from a fellow blogger, again perfect match! I am beginning to think you lot know me too well!

Anyway I'm off, things to do, another task crossed off my list! no doubt it will be May till I blog again, so toooodles x

Are Flowers & Chocolate Really Enough?

With Mothering Sunday a week away and Easter Sunday just 3 weeks later I've been a busy bee lately running up some pretty hand painted goodies.

What do you normally give on Mothers Day?

Flowers? Lunch at the Pub? Smellies?

A plant and smellies are what I remember from my childhood. Dad would take my brother and I to town for a potted chrysanth from the fruit & veg shop and some talc & bubble bath from M&S! He normally gave mum the plant & my brother & I fought over the smellies!

Times seem to have changed, even Tesco had half an isle of what I can only call 'Tat' I noticed today. Basically anything mass produced that they could stick mum on was displayed along side the cards. Its a shame really because to me Mothers Day is time to give a well thought out little something that comes from the heart. The card you made at school with normally a daffodil on meant so much!

Then there's Easter, what does it mean to you?

Religion? Chocolate? Family Time? 2 Days off?

As a fairly non religious family it wasn't about going to Church for us. However looking back we did things quite traditionally. Fish was always for tea on Good Friday, we baked Easter Biscuits with Mum and she always made a Simnel Cake (which the kids refused to eat).

We also had a big family lunch not far off the scale of Christmas dinner with turkey and all the trimmings & a special Chocolate themed desert.

I of course remember the eggs, but when I was little they were huge and I didn't get that many. Maybe 4, from M&D, grandparents and Auntie's.

How times change, it seems all its about now is eggs and how many you get

3 for 2 here, 3 for £5 there and only £1 everywhere.

Whats that all about? yes of course I buy them for my kids but only 1 £1 one and some mini ones to have a hunt.

What do you do to celebrate it? We also do an Easter Tree, buy the kids a decoration, make nest cakes, do some kind of craft activity and have some good old family fun.

xxx

and the WINNER is.........

Here's how it panned out...............

• 2 entered via FB as blogger wouldn't let them leave a comment (Caroline & SJ Cupcakes)
• 44 comments were left on here, but 1 was duplicated so 43 on here
• Thats 45 in total
• I called upon my Muddy Puddle Mini's to choose the winner
• Muddy Puddle Mini Daughter, 'pick a number between 0-4'........ she chose 3
• Muddy Puddle Mini Son, 'pick a number between 0-9'................he chose 1
• Winning comment is no. 31
• The Crafty Trundler YOU ARE MY WINNER
• I do believe thats YOU Sharon!!!!! please get in touch x

A huge thanks to all who entered and to all 1575 facebook fans and 150 blog followers who have decided to follow my progress. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it.......your support, comments, advice & always being there gives me a real buzz & keeps me motivated.

Thank you Jo xxx

Finishing Touches!

We are in the process of putting our house on the market and I am having a ball! I know it wont last for long as soon the stress of viewings & fees & finance will set in but until then I'm having fun. I've put my Kirsty & Phil hat on & mixed in a bit of 'Changing Rooms' and am busy pottering from room to room adding little somethings to catch the eye of a buyer We are nearly there with the boring bits like filling in holes, tidying, de cluttering & re painting & now its finishing touches time. I am loving it, think I could actually do this as a job, maybe I should call up Lawrence and re invent Changing Rooms as Muddy Puddle Makeovers?

The downstairs loo now has a 'garden' theme going on......pretty bunting, a new room spray & tissue box, a new soap dispenser and a heart (courtesy of Oh Sew Lovelys Giveaway). The bathroom gets a Cath bar of soap that I had for Christmas & cant bear to open!

The hall now has a dinky oak table I found in a local junk shop and the plaque I made at ceramics class looks fab by the back door. I have made a feature of one of my hand bags rather than chucking it in the corner of my bedroom and the lounge gets a rug to cover the tired carpet (courtesy of John Lewis vouchers we had as a Christmas gift)

The driveway now has 3 little pots hanging on the garage to greet you, as does the front door. The conservatory has been treated to not only a new plant but a free pot too and the kitchen window sill now has a jasmine hoop which is just showing signs of flowering!

Hope it all helps, just need the fresh flowers on viewing days and hey presto, buyers I'm ready for you!

The Story of my Profile Pic & Giveaway!!

Its been a while since my last post but just when I have 2 things to share with you I discover the timing of this post is mighty strange.....I have achieved 2 things today, 1500+ fans on my facebook page and the comeback of my 'Dotty Chunky Hearts'! I find it a bit weird that just as I share & celebrate a whopping amount of fans I also & write about a bunch of hearts that have played such an important role in growth of the business. And there's more.....this is my 100th post, now thats freaky!

Way back when when I first started Muddy Puddle I came across 11 small & 3 large papier mache hearts stuffed in the back of a box in a craft shop. Having only painted flat things I had to have them! The 3 large ones were painted up straight away and given to 2 friends and my daughter. The other 11 just got painted as and when depending on what colour paint pot I had open. Their colours weren't exactly planned they just happened. Each little one then traveled around with me from crafts fair to craft fair, they brightened up my stall no matter how I displayed them. They hung on branches at Easter time, the red one hung with the Christmas decs, the pastel ones sat with my pink & blue baby products & gradually they sold. I never intended to repeat them but as they summed up all things colourful & dotty I decided to use them as my online identity picture. Frequent comments came along straight away with oohh's and ahh's asking how to buy one. But with no supply of blank ones I turned the custom away.

Then last summer while on holiday in France I came across almost the exact same scenario. In a craft shop at the back of a shelf were 10 random hearts! They were the sameish size but wooden rather than papier mache. I of course bought them and turned them into these above. This picture has now become me! I have opted against using my logo to identify myself as these have served me so well!

So back in France last month I headed straight to the craft shop. They had them in but again had very low stocks. I bought a dozen which today became these 12 above! 7 of them were pre ordered and posted out today so that just leaves these.....

So with a giveaway to sort and a product to keep alive I call on your help. Each time I paint them I try to come up with a few new colour combos, the 5 above are all new.

139 blog followers + 1506 FB fans = 1645 of you.

So my giveaway prize to one of you is £16.45 worth of free Muddy Puddle products!!!

To enter please leave a comment telling me the colour combo you would like to see in the next batch of hearts!

Good luck, the winner will be chosen at random in 1 week x