MouseGarden

I use handmade gift tags for all sorts of things, and I ran out of my raccoon themed ones so I thought I'd make some more.  This is Rocco Raccoon by Stampendous, and he's skating.  (I think they probably could in real life if anyone made boots to fit!)

I really do hand paint them, so you can see that the top row are not finished.  Generally I don't do anything in large quantities, but I might do a page of something like raccoons while I'm in the mood.  They're stamped in versafine ink because the detail is great and you can wash right over the lines without it moving anywhere.

I like this stamp a lot because it is simple but very graphic.  It's an older rubber cling stamp.  The colour scheme is quite traditional.  In the past I've tried orange and blue, which is good but maybe not very Christmas like.

As well as scarves I also make gift tags.

This one features my favourite stamp by Memory Box of Fred P. Bear.  Underneath is a quote from a stamp from Rivercity Rubberworks Stamps, now sadly closed.

It sums up my mixed feelings about fruitcake.

I like this polar bear, wearing a scarf and looking fairly happy.  He's a very clear graphic stamp.  I lean towards wooden block stamps more strongly than the cling type.

I tried a project yesterday which was a failure.  Yesterday's project was going to be an infinity scarf, but the knitting rolled more than expected.  But now I know what doesn't work in that yarn.  Sometimes there is no other way to find out than to knit it and see.

Today I bought some nice wine red chunky yarn.  I wasn't supposed to be buying any more, but it is a gorgeous shade of red.  I haven't actually finished my other red scarf I'm knitting yet.  Like books, I don't always knit just one thing at once.

Where I live it is snowing a lot.  A LOT.  I am lucky it didn't all land for Halloween.  In the past there have been Halloween nights with snow and extremely cold temperatures, which really cuts out the fun.  This year Halloween night had rain, which I don't remember ever having happened before.  Very atmospheric though.

I recently posted my biggest scarves on Etsy.  I hope to eventually sell on my blog as well.

Big scarves are satisfying but very time consuming.  I like the way they are soft and squishy acrylic that drapes really well.  I like plain bold colours best.  Some of them have tassels.  This red one doesn't, it seemed to look fine without.


Oh, that reminds me. Following on from the last post, I did eventually catch the other goldfish, by finding it lounging near the top before the weather went cold.  It was quite cross about it, but then it got to rejoin all its friends indoors.  The pond isn't deep enough for fish to overwinter in it.

Hello there!

MouseGarden is about small handmade things.  There isn't a factory doing my bidding, or print runs of thousands.  I was reading a book about embroidery and someone said the reason for not making things in large quantities was to focus on making a few beautiful things that made life better.

I have always meant to have a shop blog, and this is it.  I would like to share new things I am making, stuff I am learning, and cool stuff along the way.

I do some custom scarves at Christmas, so if you have something in mind you should ask now rather than later, since they really do have to be made by me!  I'm making a scarf right now.  There are also a lot of ready to ship scarves if you want to take a look.

Meanwhile today is sunny and cold, and I have been asked to catch someone else's goldfish which is still outside living in a pond.  There.  You thought this was going to be boring.

I have already caught one today so I have one left to catch.  Today's interesting fact is that goldfish in the wild are naturally dark green, which makes them virtually invisible while lurking in the water.  The fish I need to catch is green because he/she is second generation, born to adult fish that were orange.  It might turn orange later but not necessarily.

Here is a scarf I just completed.