Getting life back to normal...

We have finally got all the boxes unpacked, built some new wardrobes and put things back to normal. Our new carpet feels wonderful on our bare feet! I have 2 more rooms photos to show you but for now here are pics of our bedroom and hall now that all the work is finished. Scroll down to previous posts to see what it looked like before.

I have had my eye on one of Pamela's beautiful stained glass buntings for ages, and now we have a room deserving of it. The garland is my new favorite thing in our room.
Our stairs look SOOOO much better with carpet on,
I'm so pleased with the finish.

More photos of our spare room and study to come!

More redecoration photos

Over the last coupe of weeks we have been working so hard redecorating our home. It is still not complete, but we are very close to being done now. I thought I would share some more photos with you...

The dark skirting looks a bit weird right now, but it will work with our red carpet when it is down.

we have finished plastering, painting and putting the skirting in all 3 rooms on the middle floor. We replaced the horrible stone windowsills with real wooden ones, they look so pretty! We also repainted all the windowframes and woodwork in the hall, a huge job, but it looks so much cleaner now.

Today the carpet arrives, it will take them 2 days to fit it all on 2 staircases, a hall and 2 main bedrooms. I know it is going to feel like a new house when they are done! I also can't wait to unpack all of our stuff, we are fed up with living in a loft room with no wardrobes!

Redecoration Photos

I promised you photos and here they are. We have started work on 2 rooms at once, the master bedroom and a small box room that we use for all our computers (when you are married to a computer geek you need a whole room for them)

Here is our bedroom before we started work on it. We had very dark red walls on all 4 sides, blond parquet flooring and an imposing wardrobe... egh! I love the red on the walls, but there was too much of it.




So we stripped off the remaining wallpaper, pulled up the parquet flooring and carpet that was underneath it. We primed the walls and then plastered the lot. Plastering is so messy but the result looks great. We also boxed in the pipes for the radiator. In Holland they just leave the pipes showing in this kind of house, but being British I can't stand them so they had to be hidden away.


We painted 3 of the walls in a beautiful cream and one wall is back to being red again. I love a little drama in the bedroom ;) It will look less overpowering when it is broken up with furniture and things on the wall.

I hope you enjoyed a the little tour around our home, more photos for you soon.

Hand picked favorites - Home

They say home is where the heart is, and I absolutely love all 6 of these items on the theme of house, home and garden. Perhaps it is particularly good choice of theme because we have been renovating our home a lot recently.
I hope you enjoy my choices this Tuesday.

Laundry Day
by atwhim

Birdhouse
by DoorCountyWoodworks

Tasket Set - Our House
by JennMaruskaDesign

Penguin Love. magic terrarium no. 04
by lapomme

Baba Yaga's Chicken Leg House
by MelissaSue

Chasm 1
by MKBartstudio

Refurbishing my studio - Part 3

My studio is finally finished! I can't believe how much I have missed having my own creative space to work in. It is 10 times better than it was before. I have added loads of extra storage space - who would have thought the materials for making tiny little mice would take up so much room?! The walls are plastered - no more bumpy peeling wallpaper, yay! I have a nice new wooden floor. Now I can get on with crafting more mice than ever before. I hope you enjoy this tour around my shiny new studio.

Lots of new shelves and cabinets. Can you spot ArtMind's babushka dolls on my shelves? I think I need to buy some more soon. I love wind chimes and dreamcatchers hanging from my window. I wish I had more room for plants too.


My little photo corner with my light boxes. Soon I am going to write a tutorial on how to make a light box and use photo editing software to get your photos looking bright and beautiful.

My ribbon board is full! I think I am going to need to make another one soon. I have a little tool box full of beads and flowers, it is hanging on the wall under my pin board. I put my writing board on the wall and forgot to wipe off the old writing. It looks very odd with the writing on sideways! My new favourite addition to my work table is a pair of magnetic strips of metal on the wall. I can stick all my scissors too it and keep them out of my way.

Thanks for stopping by!

Refurbishing my studio - Part 2

The plastering is done, the flooring has been pulled up and the studio is already painted! Dave the builder does not hang around! He'll be back on Monday or Tuesday to put down the new flooring (you can see it leaning up against the wall in the last photo) and skirting boards. He is also going to be plastering our hallway, which is why you can see the orange primer on the walls through my studio doorway. Tomorrow I am going to paint my radiator and put up some new cabinets for my studio. I love home decorating! More photos coming soon.

Refurbishing my studio - Part 1

Yesterday we started work on refurbishing my studio. I am so excited about having a nice clean, fresh and tidy space to work in. I took a "before" shot for you, but my camera ate it (it must have been hungry) so you will have to imagine from the photo above what my studio used to look like: Peeling wallpaper with a horrific bumpy pattern, badly DIY'ed laminate flooring and old tired shelves that I had put up myself.

Yesterday our builder Dave came to start work stripping the wallpaper, clearing the room and priming the walls for plastering. He makes it look so easy!

Today he is plastering and the room will start to take shape.

The orange paint is the primer for the walls, it helps the plaster stick to it properly.

In this part of Holland they build so fast that everything is made from huge walls of solid concrete, with all the wires and pipes visible. Most Dutch people don't seem to mind seeing the wires, but because I am British they drive me crazy. I will be so happy when they are hidden away behind plaster.

I'll be back with more photos soon!

Featured

What a nice surprise to have been on the front page last night! Thank you to Sinta for featuring me and to Karmacrochet for emailing me a screenshot.
It is a great way to start my day.

Treasure #1

My treasury made it onto the Etsy front page. So happy for all the wonderful sellers that got featured!

Creative Overload

A few years ago I had creative block. On the rare occasion I had an idea I was too scared to make it happen. Then something changed, I can't quite put my finger on what did it but I started making my mice, and a stream of new ideas hit me constantly. I have a list so long of characters I want to make, but I also want to learn how to make other things too, and I have a house to keep clean and friends to stay in contact with.

Now I find myself with a whole new problem, quite the opposite from creative block, this is Creative Overload. I don't have enough hours in the day just for The House of Mouse business and home life, but I don't want to reject the new creative needs and ideas in my mind either.

How do you find the balance and time for everything you want to make and do, whilst still maintaining a business that is going well?

I suspect time management is important, but would love to hear any other tips you might have.