Ribbon delights

When you are lucky enough to snag a gorgeous old chocolate box for a song, the only thing to do is to fill it with lovely things. Shall we put a sparkling cobweb collection of organza ribbons in the top tray?

And underneath, more sumptuous satin ribbons - all perfect for little circus ruffs for small circus toys.

Because you can never have enough beautiful ribbons. Or vintage chocolate boxes.

See you ducky!

January seems to have been sucked into a black hole - as I write, I am finally organised for my first (two day) needle felting workshop in Bath and will be away for three days; I'm feeling homesick already. As the trip must be done by bus and train, I am packing two rucksacks full of supplies and hoping it won't be too heavy. My nine pupils will spend the first day making this little duck, designed especially for the session, and I am expecting them to bring some prep work for their own designs, which I'll be helping them with - should they need help - on the second day. It will be a learning curve for all of us, and hopefully jolly good fun. See you on the other side, duckies!

Three for tea

Last week, two lovely visitors, Jane and Katie, popped over the county border from Winchcombe for tea, cake and chat. Partly business, mostly pleasure, it was my first time of actually meeting Katie Morgan, apart from chatting on Twitter and reading her blog. (Whoever said that the internet is killing social life? I have no time for such ill conceived nonsense). Katie is as fascinating as her blog suggests, I could have spent all day listening to her. She had brought along a beautifully restored antique clock dial - restored by herself, as that is what she does, alongside many other things. At the moment she is restoring a 1938 fairground Waltzer (a phenomenal job) - Katie's website is crammed with the gorgeous work she has done and is now working on. Well worth looking at if you are interested in painted Romany wagons, fairground and narrowboat art.

Copious tea and very chocolatey chocolate cake (not made by me) kept us going for several hours as we discussed the Winchcombe Wool Festival which Jane - of the Winds of Change Gallery - is heroically organising. It will be held in April and last for three weeks, celebrating the long history of this historic wool town and the modern legacy of British wool. I will be doing a needle felt workshop towards the end, (date and price to be confirmed). So if you are in the Cheltenham area, watch this space; it will be limited to about six places. I'll be announcing the final arrangements here and on my Facebook page.

As it's been a while since I bought my two Matt Grimmitt mugs which are in the top picture, I treated myself to one of his lovely slipware bowls. It's a pourer, so is perfect for beating eggs. Matt often has work for sale on a certain well known auction site, and the best way to find out when he is selling is to follow his Facebook page here.

I like to think that perhaps, 150 years ago, similar country pottery was once used in this little cottage.

Studio changeover

In a moment of brief madness, I looked at this corner last night and decided to Do Something About It. It looks fine at a glance, but there is a problem; where I used to have easy access to some of my favourite source and reference books, my way is now blocked by a tower of two printers, with two large vintage chocolate boxes on top.

I have crammed this room with almost as much stuff as it will take, without the central beam underneath the floor collapsing. That beam has held this little place together for over two hundred years, but I don't think it's ever had a load as big as this. However, there was all this wall space behind me, taken up by a large notice board which I barely use -

About an hour later, it got to that stage where you wonder why on earth you ever started and sob quietly in a corner hoping it will go away.

But we got there, eventually and I squeezed a little more book space up that wall - room for my lovely new Christmas books, as well as my old darlings, now easily to hand.

(I am sure there are people like me who click on photos to have a closer look at titles)

And I even had enough space over to hang one of my own artworks up - now that IS a novelty!

Double cupcakes

My last order before that thing called Christmas was for a set of the cupcakes which appear in 'Mrs Mouse's Cupcakes' - and are of course, my blog header. The new set is of course, a little different to the original, because it is almost impossible to re-sculpt a design 100% perfectly.

Cupcakes mark one

Cupcakes mark two

They all have my logo ribbons underneath.

And signed tags.

Although my order list for larger toys is going to keep me busy until April/May (depending on anything else which may happen inbetween), I am trying to make smaller, 'budget treasures' -such as Santa - on the side. To save costs, these will be offered on my Facebook page first (or you can contact me directly if you hate Facebook) and will be around £65/70 ($100/110 US) plus postage. It's going to be first come, first served, and I hope to have four little things nearer the end of the month. I'm also storing needle felt archive pictures there, and work in progress, so if you want more needle felt bumph or the chance to get a little toy, please *like* my Facebook page.

Gretel Parker

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Out, about & inside

I love this time of year - everything goes back to normal and my world can putter on, but with a whole shiny new year to get things done in. We don't really go in for Christmas - Andy has to work (even on Boxing Day this year) and I prefer to work - but we took a couple of days off at New Year and drove out and about in the comfort of The Wheels. Had a quiet lunch at the Farmer's Arms, a great family pub in Guiting Power.

It is a rare thing in the upmarket Cotswolds - a normal, nice pub with a comfy atmosphere. No posh gastro-anything, no minor celeb chef serving pickled pheasant with pineapple. We like it. And it serves great local Donnington beer - for me the passenger that is, the driver had a nice ginger beer. (A tip for tourists in the Cotswolds looking for a traditional pub - find a Donnington Brewery one, all the ones we have been to are excellent)

It's all a bit dull, blustery and rainy here at the moment, so I have been driven around and parked about, so that I could do some (very) rubbishy landscape sketching. Snowshill is a favourite area for big fields and lowering skies.

Despite the gloom, the landscape is still stunning, especially over the Wiltshire Pewsey Downs. Sweeping and mystically atmospheric in all weathers, even on a murky day.

My favourite clump of trees; I can see it from all angles on our summer circular walk.

Spot the Wiltshire White Horse winter sleeping on the hillside.

Silbury Hill manages to camouflage itself very snugly into the surrounding countryside. To get an idea of how big this amazing prehistoric man-made mound is, the tiny little light to the middle left is a car headlight, on the road which runs past it.

As is tradition, I had a big studio tidy, ready for the new year. I have another full order sheet and am ploughing my way through a big list which includes some very remorseful and late emails to friends around the world and explaining why I didn't do a Christmas card this year. I don't deserve you, I really don't.

Updating my website is proving to be several days worth of work in itself; I'd rather be needle felting, but I can't punt for new illustration work without a decent website. Oh dear me, it is a very dull job indeed. By the way, a little tip; if you are like me and have several piles of *stuff* taking up floor space, simply amalgamate them into taller piles! I am quietly proud of this flash of genius.

What isn't dull at all is organising my first needle felting workshop which is happening later this month - two days of private tuition down in Bath with nine people. I have never been to Bath before, so it will be a very big adventure.

Santa

Santa - 'Santa Claus' - an alternative name for 'Father Christmas'

Santa - A girl's name of Spanish origin, meaning 'holy'.

Santa - a small needle felted dog, just four inches tall. Santa and I would like to wish you all a peaceful Christmas, however you celebrate it and thank you for your company; my world would be a much poorer one without my blog friends, silent or otherwise. Santa says - 'rrruff!!'

A Cotswold Gallery

We have acquired the winter use of a vehicle and it has transformed our lives; the aim is that Andy won't risk life and limb on the motorbike when it is icy and snowy, on his long commute to work. But it also means that we can get out a little more in the bad weather, when it's just too darned cold and wet to go on the bike. Previously I have rarely ventured out much at this time of year, rural public transport being too costly and there are limits to how far I can get on my bicycle.

I've never lived with a car of any kind before, apart from a few years with my foster parents. However my cantankerous foster father made a particular point of not giving me lifts anywhere, even on dark evenings, which can be hazardous for a teenage girl. It didn't kill me, but it made me even more aware, if I needed it, of how little he cared for me. So this is an unimaginable luxury and I am enjoying every single minute of it, while it's here. I can actually sit back in the warm and look at our gorgeous Cotswolds, in their winter splendour, in comfort, while sucking a sherbert lemon. Which you can't do on the back of a bike.

We were headed over to Winchcombe, as I wanted to visit a couple of Twitter-friends. We arrived just as a rainbow was disappearing into this historic town, which nestles snugly in the landscape, surrounded by wooded hills and on the doorstep of the stately Sudeley Castle.

Firstly I visited Bob and Carol at Sprogs, which is the best toy shop in the Cotswolds. No tatty plastic to be found here, just well chosen, beautiful toys and gifts for every age. I stayed chatting for them for ages (poor Andy!) and managed to do a little business there as well, so a return trip in January is arranged. My next visit was to see Jane and her newly re-furbished Winds of Change Gallery, who is featured in the current BBC Homes and Antiques magazine. I've met Jane before, last summer, but haven't seen the gallery since the change over.

It is gorgeous. Jane has exquisite taste and has created a stylish, clean but comfortable setting for the lovely arts and crafts collection, much of it local.

Although it is a modest size, there is a feeling of lightness and space.

This wonderful rocking horse (with a real horsehair mane) was painted by local folk artist Katie B. Morgan and carved by her father. Katie is a traditional fairground and gypsy wagon painter, amongst other things and her website is well worth a look if you love this kind of work, as is her interesting blog.

Andy was very taken with this hand crafted ladder back chair -

And I am saving my pennies for a Woolsoft 100% British wool cushion - maybe for our next house, if we ever get there.

Jane provided coffee with mince pies and we stayed for some time, discussing this and that, making a date for another meeting soon, when I hope to meet Katie B. Morgan too. Jane welcomes browsers and visitors, so if you are local to the Cheltenham area or nearby, (or even just passing through) do stop and say hello. Winchcombe is a vibrant town, with two great butchers and a nice variety of shops and pubs, with some stunning local walks and the famous Belas Knap Long Barrow just up the road.

The short afternoon was darkening and we began our journey home, back through the quaint High Street of Winchcombe town.

Catching the last fragment of winter sunshine which brings out the soft richness of the neutrals in the landscape and bare trees.

Later in the week I also made time to cut a new block of my 'Little Hare' design. as the old one was a bit battered. I seem to have re-learned my rusty printing skills, as to my amazement, I printed off 30 or so near perfect prints first time round and knowing how popular the first one was, I've put some of them *here* in my Etsy shop again, at the same 'under a fiver' price.