Happy Christmas!

The fuzzies and I send you our LOVE!

This is a little gift we made together for our dear friend ....

Rag Rug ....

Amazing how much fun you can have with a bag of old t-shirts and leggings!

Of course, it helps that me and my daughters have worn out some very colourful clothes, and that our friends have given us some great items too ...

The backing only cost me £3 but the finished rug will be a real labour of love!

Edward Tulane for Christmas!

Edward Tulane needs a pocket for his pocket watch!

I always feel better when each one as at least something to wear! Sometimes I do his eyes last of all when he is fully dressed!

Then he has a good long look at me before I kiss him and send him on his way!

A fun repair!

Of course little slips happen to us all, especial busy crafters! And today I was cutting some thick card with such gusto that I took a slice at my table cloth too!

But I have the best girly-pink duct-tape ever, so I snipped put a little pink shape to stick across the hole!

Then I used some other pieces to repair the cuts that Mary added to the edge of the table cloth one fine day!

Festive Mittens!

Got to grips with a nice soft, old red jumper...

And made three pairs of cheerful, winter mittens-on-elastic for my girls!

Dog portrait anyone?

Look at this handsome chap! 

This year I am doing lots of pet portraits again, as we near Christmas. I always start by mapping in with black or dark brown ...

Then the fun part, layering on colours! 

Then suddenly, he will tell me he is finished! I hope it helps you to see the photograph I was working from, too xxx

A Better Distraction ...

One of the better kinds of distractions arrived at our house at the end of October ....

Meet Topsy, a splodgy little kitten with a curious nature! She play hard and sleeps hard too ... 

So nice to have a little companion on a school morning, or a cold winters evening ...

And she is growing like a weed! May prove useful to promote my work. On the other hand, might just eat it!

Drawing time!

Here is a dog called Max. He has quite a lot of Alsatian in his barky self...

5 year old Mary sat next to me and had a go with pencils and felt-pens. 

And seven year old Matty also enjoyed colour mixing in making Max's portrait!

And so did I! Lots of progress pics for this guy on my Facebook page ...

Home work!

A dear friend painted the wood work in my lounge (except for the door) with a fresh lick of white paint, something i had never found the time to get round to! And that gave me the impetus to do a pit of patchwork and collage-ing , covering the walls beside the fireplace with a fun selection of wallpapers torn from sample books ...

I have covered the door in pages from two old bibles! And i bought this sweet wooden sign on ebay!

I am going to be papering the floor too, so watch out for that, and have begun to make a rag run from t-shirts, some of which have great memories!

This fun bunting was a gift, and it looks just perfect in my room. I usually make two-sided bunting myself, but again, have been very busy ... It has been battered by the wind hung on Bedouin tents on Weymouth beach, and has frayed beautifully in places! 

Its been a long time since i painted these walls white, over two years, but i will soon have one complete room to enjoy!

And here are two really awesome wedding favours, that look perfect on my sconces! along with some beeswax candles from Europe.

Here is my favourite corner, coming together! That's a bird who has been set free!

Horsing around...

Here is Lily, horses are more challenging to draw as they are usually wearing head gear!

But I think I did ok with this commission. Contact me for information about pet portraits ....

Fancy a Nibble? or Nibbler ...

Have you ever played Cannibal Cookout? I have it on my phone ... If you have, you will recognize this tasty Character!

I had fun creating this nibbler, but his trousers were a challenge indeed!

soon you can have the opportunity to take him home - ill let you know more about that when i can ;-) ! Meanwhile you had better find something else to eat, or play the game and cook all your Favorite Facebook friends!

School fish - didn't they do well?

I worked with reception and year two children, so that I could help out in all of my girls classes! 

Mary had a lot of fun looking for purple flowers for her fish. Some of the reception children finished inside the hour we had together, and very quickly chose a favourite colour ...

I love the eye on this fish!

Daisy worked with blocks of strong colour. Some children really didn't want to be restricted to one colour. 

These are going to look great swimming all over the carnival float! 

School of fish!

Today I am going into school to help Mary's class make some fish for Weymouth carnival this year!

I love collage, so we will be working with magazines and glue. 

I am going to be 'the rainbow fish' and give each child a glittery shimmery scale, fin or eye! I will make sure I share some of the results!

Jingling Johnnys are ready to make a joyful noise!

Here are those fun handmade instruments, a really amazing collaboration and ready to play. These will be at Weymouth carnival this year. Are you coming?

New Raggy Rat Website ...

I am pleased to announce a lovely new Raggy Rat Website, linking together my up to date activities with an archive of all the old raggy rat favourites ... It even feeds from this lovely blog!

It has been carefully created for me by Differo Web Design and you can find them FACEBOOK too!

Sketch book time!

Sometimes I have to stop and draw something in order to know how it will come together. As if my hand movements on the paper help me to see?

So these are sketches of the rat fursuit head I am working on, with a different shaped nose than the last time. Although the drawing below does admittedly look like a pair of pants! Oops!

This top view sketch shows what I'm aiming for, so I plan to cover thin sheet foam in fleece and add shading. This may match the rat's ears! 

Sometimes, I find out how much fun happens ...

"Since I got the rat bag I wear it every day and EVERYONE talks about it! I have had young men, old men, smart women, scruffy women, old and young, children, parents, hipsters, grannies, hip hop people, goths, punks, business men, bouncers at clubs, all come up and ask about it, pat it, beg me to tell them where I got it, I have never in my life been so famous through an item!

"I've given them your website but honestly you should go global!! Seems no one can get enough of the Ratbag! Thought you'd like to hear that!

"Lara x"

Plush Team Holiday nightmare Challenge!

This little Kitty went on holiday to Weymouth! Great! That's where I live!

But it wasn't a good start. She was very travel sick on the way over in the car. Well, luckily, outside of the car! She had to stop several times!

If you get car-sick you will know that you need some time to recover after. Kitten is enjoying the south coast sunshine - quite rare these days! We are not having a summer this year ...

Our little friend decided on a boat trip. Bad idea. She got very seasick.

The sea-life tower boasts awesome views both in land and out to sea. But kitty felt quite dizzy at such a great height and was glad to be back on the ground! Please don't make me do that again!

Now of course a roller coaster might not be good for our kitty, but a ride on a sweet carousel should be OK, right? Sadly kitty only felt another shade of green, and turned a whiter shade of pale again! OOPS!

So kitty recovered by strolling along the sea front until her legs had forgiven her and she felt much better. She became excited to find a lovely booth selling seaside treats and jumped up and down, demanding far too much candy-floss from the stall holder. Unfortunately, you can guess the rest!

I hand made kitty for a plushteam plush challenge, and you can find her in the plush team Etsy shop, just click HERE!