PIG!!!!!!!

When Cleggy was headteacher (at the school the boys go to!) he had a pig, goat and some chickens to enhance learning (/for his own amusement). Ever since he left, about 3 years ago, he has been desperate for a pig of his own...it was only a matter of time!

So, this week our own chickens and ducks were joined by Minnie the micro pig. 

Except she appears to be living in the KITCHEN!? Apparently this is short term...we'll see!

She's very cute and getting more mischievous by the day. If she could just learn where to wee me and her would get along just fine! Cleggy adores her, and as far as mid life crisis go I'm thinking it could be worse?

Meanwhile, we have all been making and doing some Christmas crafts...which invariably involves the boys starting with gusto...then sloping off to watch The Simpsons.

Inspired by Heidi on Pinterest I made this peg nativity for The Granny

Also inspired by this picture on Pinterest (Pinterest,how I love thee!) we made these baubles for the lounge, which this year is all white:

They were bit messy, but fairly easy to make

Inspired by this picture I made some new simple blocks 

for the fireplace

The rest of the house is red!

 

 

The stairs have been enhanced by an early gift from Cleggy...a little Northfield Primitive mouse(thank you Sarah...he's adorable)I plan on doing some major perusing of blogs over the next week or so...but just in case life takes over I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a very chipper Christmas and a fun packed 2012...fee x

(off to slurp some more mulled wine and pretend to be interested in Cleggy, who is reading me random pig facts!)

Ho Ho Hold on a minute...

There is a serious lack of Elves in the chipper nelly workshop!

(oh for some Elves....)

It's been a busy old time - here's a brief rundown of the last couple of weeks...the nice bits anyway!

Firstly, you remember the lady from Ladybird who ordered the single '!' block (see here)? 

Well, she got back in touch to say that the people at Ladybird liked said blocks and would I like to begin discussions to acquire a licence to sell them legitimately!!

I'm sure it will be way too expensive but it's exciting none the less...

I have been in the workshop day and night of late - my biggest seller this year has been three little blocks that spell 'joy'. I now loathe them, and the irony is not lost on me!

To keep my spirits high I've eaten my body weight in mince pies and bought some new music for the ipod (not sure Kate Bush's '50 words for snow' was a good choice for spirits...!) and am only a few days away from starting on the snowballs immediately after the final school run of the day!

Cleggy and the boys made lots of produce for Christmas hampers earlier in the year - so we have been wrapping and making up baskets for the rellies we don't see at Christmas.

This year there is Windfall Chutney, Chilli Jam and Elderberry Balsamic Vinegar - yum!

I've caught up with some lovely friends, where I ate my body weight in dough balls!

 

...and won a fab giveaway  Not only an amazing bag, but some homemade soap and vintage buttons, all beautifully wrapped, of course...

(thank you again Helena - your gift, and your blog Blondie Blu are both wonderful!).

Of course, there have been plenty of festive shenanigans around these parts. For the last few years we have swapped a regular advent calendar for our rusty buckets. Each bucket contains a challenge, a quiz or a treasure hunt, sometimes leading to a treat, sometimes a trip, sometimes an activity.

This year, just before advent began, the boys chose to play a trick on Cleggy, and thought it would be funny to make him (inadvertently) eat 'stop and grow'. It was funny (come on Cleggy...you did laugh, eventually) but it has backfired so this year we have the 

 

Rusty Buckets of Revenge

Now, if you are at all squeamish it might be wise to stop reading now. The first act of revenge was in the style of a bush tucker trial. 
The boys had a series of things to eat, including dried meal worms and actual crickets. All bought from the local pet shop. Cleggy assures me that he checked it was ok to eat them, and if you think otherwise, PLEASE don't tell me..It's too late!

 Being boys, they all ate every bit! Alfie even picked a cricket leg out of his teeth later on while watching TV. Lovely.

 Today was a face full of swamp. Cleggy enjoyed himself far too much making a vat of gloop - which seemingly included leaves, mud, coffee granules, pasta, yogurt and flour. He added some bicarbonate of soda just before serving for extra fizz. 

The boys had to dunk for pegs which had clues on - all sounded like fun until I pointed out that the amount of red food colouring would leave their little faces looking like they had a nasty disease! (it didn't stop them - but we did have to have a cloth handy. Kenzie still has a red nose - how appropriate!)

Hours of fun...and no one is enjoying it more than Cleggy!

I'm pleased to report that Ned is doing fine in the workshop fridge - I've opened the door each day for oxygen and weighed his box, to make sure he isn't losing too much weight. So far so good.

Finally, we also have some new additions at the very bottom of the garden!

Our friends Alison and Richard wanted to re home their last two chickens - so they moved in with the posh Orpington Ladies this afternoon. 

 Obviously, there's a new pecking order to be established...and when Cleggy went down to close the coop door tonight it became clear that someone is definitely bottom of the rung:

Don't worry Alison - Cleggy managed to get her into the coop!

More chicken antics to keep us all entertained.

My shop closes tomorrow (hooray!!) so once all the orders and commissions are safely posted I'm looking forward to a bit more time with friends - both real life and blogging.

Until then...fee x

All about Family....

What a busy old week...and a lovely weekend full of family, friends and food. Yesterday we had a visit from my little sister Nelly and G Kisby with gorgeous Mabel. 

I can't believe I didn't take any new pictures....especially since G Kisby is sporting a ridiculous moustachio for Movember. I HATE it (and am secretly glad Cleggy didn't know about it!) but it's for a great cause. 
 

I know lots of you will know someone 

 with a budding moustache but if 

you don't, and want to support the fight against mens cancer here's the link to

 G Kisbys very own Mospace 

Every little helps.

Loved seeing you three x

And in the spirit of home and family, here are some 

new chipper nelly offerings (all available here):

These blocks are double sided - so they have a Christmas Home option on one side, then you can turn them upside down and back to front for a non Christmas version! Cool huh?

  

A set of 6 blocks spelling 'family'

And my favourite product of the season - some mixed sized blocks spelling 'family' which can also include an 'established' date and personal family name. They are made with my absolute favourite Tim Holtz paper - which took me 6 weeks to be able to cut up. Better late than never!

 

I also finished a couple of commissions:

This large wooden box for special memories was made for Sarah, to give to her sister-in-law. It has been one of my favourite pieces - but one I took hardly any photos of it.

I hope she liked it as much as we did Sarah!

The next blocks are for Renee who has the most adorable blog full of vintage eye candy...

pop over here if not already familiar!

The next set are for Santa to leave for three little girls who write him an annual letter - you can't see very well on the photo, but they are glittery too for extra girly sweetness:

And my little purchase this week? Well, since I didn't win one of Joole's little peckers in her giveaway I popped over to her   Etsy shop and bought me one! Actually, the little peckers were long gone - but I got my hands on Belle Bullfinch instead...what a treat!

...and here she is in her new home (our hall!)

 Thanks Jooles - she's adorable, and SO beautifully wrapped.

That's it...Cleggy has gone down south somewhere in preparation for work tomorrow - so I'm off to hunt down some chocolate to accompany my sunday night blues.
fee x

The winner is.....

THANK YOU...

so much to everyone who entered my 100 followers celebration giveaway - and hello to some new followers who found me as a result....I'm hoping to pop over and visit some new distractions soon.

I wrote out a list of entries and used a random number generator...but couldn't get it in my post so have copied and pasted! How base!
True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 10 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Which means the winner is Jane, who lives in Tasmania and also has a wonderful thought inspiring blog called Planet Baby

 

Jane...I'll be in touch and look forward to personalising your blocks over the next few days!

Now, what else has been going on? Well, Elvis has officially left the building! Kenzie's hamster Elvis died yesterday. Kenzie wasn't particularly concerned at the news - but then we have done the circle of life in a big way this year (already losing 2 hens to a fox, one hen to natural causes, one hen drowned, 2 ducks escaped through the hole left by the fox, and one other hamster!).

Since we gave GB's hamster BJ (yes, really) a mini gathering of thoughts in the back garden it seemed only right to do the same for Elvis. The ceremony will be tonight after school. It may be just me and Cleggy!

Ned the tortoise got put in the workshop fridge for the winter at the weekend. 

It always feels wrong to do it but after a successful hibernation last year we feel a little more confident this time round.

 Granny really doesn't like the fact he goes in the cold and asks me lots of questions (to boost my confidence about the whole thing!) like 'are you sure it's ok to go from the warmth of the house to the fridge without cooling him down?' Granny, he'll be fine!!! (fingers crossed)

 Speaking of The Granny...she is getting ready for her big trip to Israel next week. She and I went on a big shop for appropriate clothes a couple of weeks ago (I bet Gok hasn't had the remit 'capsule wardrobe for The Holy Land'!) so she's all ready.  

Well, I thought she was! She popped in last night to show me the wares she'd bought yesterday, from, of all places, Joules! I have to admit, I was a little green at the gorgeousness of them (and look forward to borrowing them on her return!)

I got a wonderful package in the post this week from a lovely customer Sarah (will show and tell her latest commission next post) who somehow knows me extremely well! It contained 2 fab old ladybird books ripe for chopping, a gorgeous collection of buttons (from her own collection- we all know how hard it is to share!!) and a bar of Green and Blacks Maya Gold. As good as any package gets - THANK YOU Sarah!It made my day, and the chocolate made my lunch!

One of the books was about puppies and kittens - which I MUST have had as a child as these 2 pictures in particular were very familiar:

 

My Chipper Nelly shop is nicely busy in the run up to Christmas. I had a great week last week so treated myself to a new glasses case (I know, last of the big spenders!)

It's from a fellow seller on NOTHS called Samantha who has a shop Pants and paper - her things are lovely - do take a look (here)

And finally here are the latest Chipper Nelly offerings:

A new block with bells on:

   It's made with Martha Stewart papers which I haven't used before but am liking. Quite Scandinavian

 A new size of Girl and Boy Blocks - available with any letter or number stamped:

 And a single Bird Block:

 Before I go and start the week, has anyone else felt their eyes well up just a little at the current John Lewis advert? The one with the boy counting down the days? And not because they've used one of my favourite Smiths tracks (that's OK with me BTW, I know there are some up in arms about the whole thing....aligning the genius of Morrisey/Marr with middle class shopping etc! I happen to think John Lewis is genius too, so find the combination perfect!)
Anyway, off to contact the winner!
Happy week to one and all, fee x