On the Moor

So we were sitting around one Sunday evening and got to thinking “hey, I wonder if we can make a tiny mouse with joints like the bears?” (what else would we be thinking about on a Sunday evening? lol)

We did some planning, and some more thinking and a bit more planning, some trials, and little Joshua Robert was born-

Joshua Robert now lives here on the Moor. (Named by our 3 year old daughter-she comes up the the cutest names!) As soon as I made him I loved him so much! He fit right into the palm of my hand. We were so happy with Joshua Robert that we made a few more! Oh, and I made Joshua Robert my new personal assistant.

All calls will be directed to him.

Meet Maxwell, Fiona! Max and Fi found homes yesterday, as the first of our brand new line of 4 inch, 5 way jointed velveteen mousies.

Fiona Meadowmouse

Maxwell Mousington

I’m serious, these little mice are so nice to hold in hand. I’m so happy with the design. The velveteen makes them so soft,(and a bit furry feeling) and the bit of weight their joints give them feels very much like the weight of a real  mouse.

Our mice are normally 8 inches tall, but these new sweethearts are just a bit over 4 inches.

We’ve been working hard on a set of joints small enough to make our small animals poseable like our larger animals are. We finally came up with a nice, reliable design.

We will be adding these little mice into our regular inventory, and custom orders are always welcome. Visit the Moor often, have your proverbial net handy and catch one for yourself! Be quick though, little mice skitter away  fast!

Here’s how my sewing basket looks on a given day. It pretty much follows me around the house wherever I go. My husband bought the beautiful basket while we were on vacation last year. It’s sturdy and beautiful.

 I keep it covered with a small quilt I made about 12 years ago. That little quilt  is full of memories. I was just learning to sew, and decided I wanted to give quilting a try. I gathered up fabrics from different parts of my life to give the quilt meaning. My oldest two children were so small, so I only worked on it a bit each day. It has imperfections, but overall I was very happy with how it turned out for a first try. It hung on our wall for a while in different rooms, then found a resting place on my sewing basket as you see here. I love that it has found a function and I can enjoy it every day.

Here’s a peek at the everyday craziness inside the basket. Each morning I fill it with whatever I’ll need to work on as well as any tools. As you can see today, there is a little bag full of stuffing with some knitting needles I use for stuffing implements. A smaller bag-lined basket catches threads for me (many, many threads!). 

There are glass jars full of  joint parts, and glass eyes. A beautiful piece of cotton crochet lace peeks just over the rim, just because. I just love this length of cotton crochet-my good friend gave it to me last week. It’s a beautiful antique white color, with such a pleasing vintage look. I can’t bear to use it yet. I need to enjoy it a bit more. Sometimes there’s such beauty in the little things.

 Here is the thread wheel. It’s a favorite tool because it solved a rather irritating problem. I was forever losing my spools in the bottom of the basket. If I had too many down there, the threads would tangle together, which was very frustrating. I stumbled upon  this charming wooden disk at the Thrift store one day with little pegs on it. We added some more nails and now my spools are much happier and much more accessible.

I have a hedgehog pin cushion nosing about among my bits and pieces currently. He’s made of wool and bamboo, and stuffed with wool. I have a few pin cushions that I dearly love, and most of them live near my sewing machine. This little darling is a current resident of the sewing basket, and is just the right size to nestle among the day’s to-do’s and offer me a pin whenever I need one.

Last but not least by far is a beautifully crafted sheepie tape measure a good friend gave me, made by Lantern Moon. I took this picture one evening as it sat on my bedside table. This is often where sheepie sits in the evening while I work. Then she too tucks nicely into my basket. I use her so often. I also have to hide her from my little children because they can’t resist pulling on her tail to see the tape, and press her tummy to see it retract quickly back.

And there’s my needle safe (from yesterday’s blog).  It keeps every needle nicely protected and accessible.

Those are the beautiful things that make my crafting even more fun and enjoyable. I really loved sharing them with you this week.

I finished a custom order milk chocolate boucle bear today with vanilla velvet paws. She turned out so nicely! “Willow” is 14 inches tall, a fill-up-your-arms size, and perfectly huggable.

I’m getting ready to finish her twin sister today or tomorrow, and then they’ll have matching dresses.

Willow has that irresistible forever-friend look already. I hope our customer loves her as much as I do.

Rabbity guest blogging again! How are you?

I’m sure you’re wondering what we’re up to today. Well, I’ll show you!

We are busy creating a set of mouse and bear siblings for a family. Two bears and two mice are halfway done, so I can’t show you any pics yet, but here are some charming color swatches:

The center is the color of the girl white mice we are working on today. The colors on the outside are some of the accents for ears,paws,clothes.

These boucle’s are the beginings of beautiful bears. The milk chocolate boucle on the right has been cut into two girl bears this week, and one is ready to joint! We can’t wait to show you some more pics-hopefully at the end of the week!

In the meantime, I’m just going to sit right here and watch. It’s important to have a good supervisor you know

One of our customers “Debbie” has a beautiful squirrel pet named Abby. She asked if we could create a grey squirrel to comemmorate the special friend she’s come to love very much.

This is our loving interpretation of dear Abby!

Abby Oakleaf is made of a sweet and soft slate grey cotton velveteen. She’s accented with pretty country plaid cotton. Her eyes are shining black glass beads and her sweet nose and smile are hand embroidered.

Abby has a beautiful real mink fur tail that we wired so it can be gently repositioned.

Abby has internal button joints, so her arms and legs are repositionable.  Her stuffing is weighted a bit to make her feel slightly heavy and “real” feeling when held.

Abby is so adorable, she’s sure to have a happy life in her new home.

Alyssa and Albert just crept onto the Moor this afternoon. Come meet them at our Etsy Store!

He’s a sweet custom order monkey we just finished today

I really love his sweet monkey fur~its a huggably soft chocolate brown cashmere/wool blend.

We gave him some sweet little jean overalls~

Arnold loves to monkey around. He’s headed to his new home tomorrow!

We’ve been so busy here on the Moor, but we love busy! I’m a new bunny here on the Moor named “Rabbity”. Since I’m pretty new I get to play and have fun pretty much all the time.  Since my schedule is pretty free at the moment, they asked me to do a guest posting today.

I’ll tell you a bit about myself. I was  adopted by a little girl who lives here. I heard she had something wonderful called a birthday, and I was her gift! Now she and I go everywhere.

I’m a very happy Rabbity.

I like to sit with the family at dinnertime and talk to my little friend from the safety and comfort of the island in the kitchen

I’m made of wool with cotton patchwork in my ears and on my paws. I also have a bit of oatmeal felted wool on my muzzle. Other Rabbity’s like me might be made of other materials but I just know they’ll be cute like me. I’m wobble jointed and my knees and elbows have a bit of a bend in them. That makes it easy for me to sit and pose in some pretty cute ways. Ok, enough of the boring stuff.

I make myself available for any and all computer related questions anybear might have. I feel I’m rather versed on the subject of comptuers after having a long sit on the big bed for quite a few evenings as I was being completed. I listened very carefully…..

You might want to have a Rabbity around your house. We Rabbities are very helpful. I’m not sure what this brush is for, but Dad said he’d be right back to show me how to use it….

The other night I  got to help make a tasty snack of raised orange glazed donuts (I was excited when I saw they were orange thinking they were carrot flavored, but they weren’t. Hey. Nothing’s perfect right? And they were still tasty.)

Well, I better get going. I have some errands to run (If I can get this thing to start…hey, where are the pedals?)

Look for more Rabbity’s like me to hop onto the Moor soon!

Desmond and Alena Meadowmouse have two precious velvet mouse children named Eefa and Connelly.  They heard about the wonderful homes Beag and the Brogan Mouse Boys found. It wasn’t long before we heard another knock at our door, and met another wonderfully soft patchwork mouse family!

Desmond

Alena

Connelly

and

Eefa

Are made of soft cotton velvet in a lovely medium grey. They have patchwork ears, and adorable reversible pointed meadow caps.

Each mouse is button jointed with natural hardwood buttons. We weight each mouse too, so they feel delightfully “real” in your hand.

They make wonderfully charming gifts, and even better friends for you! We just love these little mouse friends, and hope you do too. Come on over to our Etsy Store, and meet them.

We acquired some beautiful and soft grey cotton velveteen and just had to use it to make some friends over the weekend. I coudn’t decide which to do- bunny or mouse, so I did both! I really love how it feels, as well as the ease with which it sews!

Meet our new friends-up for adoption over at our Etsy Store:

This is Ashley Flowerseed! She’s a 6 1/2 inch tall wood button jointed mousie wearing her favorite white woodland cap. She has pretty pink and grey cotton patchwork in her ears and on her paws.

****************UPDATE: Ashley found a good home! Thank you so much!!*********************

And this is Parsley Bunting! He’s also 6 1/2 inches tall, and he’s wearing his country blue cotton overalls. He also has cotton patchwork accenting his long bunny ears, and his sweet bunny paws, in a pretty sage green, cream and grey cotton plaid.

Come meet our sweet new friends today!