The kindness of others

As everyone knows I have a very "cute/whimsical" side to my creativity. Yes I am a very much inky mixed media girl but I also love fairies, the man in the moon, Father Christmas and the Clangers (remember them?) There is one lovely artist called Tracy Easson who has just captured for me the very essence of my whimsical side. I had the delight to attend one of Tracy's workshops last year (remember those times!) and in the flesh she is just awesome; sweet, kind, generous and an all round good human being. Her range of stamps which drew me in are those featuring her cute mice family, who talk to her. Yes I perfectly understand that. 

I recently entered a giveaway she had on Facebook in connection with her Etsy shop and was thrilled when I found out that I had won one of her delightful mouse prints.

It arrived today and oh my....just look at the packaging inside.

I carefully opened it up and this just made me cry, with joy. My very own mouse print.

How perfect are these words?

Look at her pocket full of love and her feet where magical hearts appear with every step. So very special.

I miss my own little granddaughter Daisy (and Jack her little brother) so much, I will frame this and keep it in Daisy's room here until she returns to stay here after all this mess of a pandemic is over.

I have shared a few of my cards and bookmarks on my blog before, one of my favourite stamp sets Tracy sells is the moon one. This was my Hb's Easter card

and below is a bookmark I made for my son.

So today I will share a new one, a bookmark I made and sent to my best friend. She loved it too.

Here's a close up of the sweet mouse boat

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Through the craft room door 1/2 anything goes

Not just cards 2/3 anything goes

Cute card Tuesdays 1/3 critters

Fab n funkie 1/3 anything but a card

In these troubled  times there are so many kind souls out there.

Tracy is one of them. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

I am back tomorrow evening at 8pm as I am delighted to have a little giveaway here...it involves a little something I was inspired to make for my own sweet Daisy.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Being thankful, Mindful Moments 3

Another week has flown by and I am back with my third Mindful Moments post.  If you did not see my first and wonder what these are do check out my first post here.  Thank you to everyone who has been reading them. I can see from my stats that these are getting at least twice the usual traffic of my other posts, which has really inspired me to keep trying to get them written weekly if I can. I really hope you are finding them a moment to make you smile and stay mindful during these very turbulent times.

I know I said in my very first post that I will keep these posts positive but to those of you who are not aware I have to be truthful that there has been one very sad event in our family this week. I feel I have to share it with you. After seeming to improve in the last week, Bear, our son's gorgeous dog who was convalescing with us, had to be put to sleep on Tuesday. Unknown to anyone it turned out that there was a malignancy behind his leg issues. To say we are all devastated is an understatement but I am determined here today be be thankful for the life of this amazing dog who brought us so much joy.

I would like to share a couple of photos of this boy who lived life to the fullest.

Bear was born on 28th February 2012.
He came to live with my son as a very small pup with floppy ears...

and grew

and grew

into the most kindest, gentle giant you could ever meet.

Bear brought us all so much joy and we are so thankful that he came into my son's and our lives. Run free in the sunshine lovely boy.

Bear would never ever want us feeling sad, this dog was so upbeat and lived life to the fullest so I am going to continue my Mindful Moments post with  photos of things I have been so thankful for this week...

The daffodils in my garden pots are looking glorious

 and the hydrangea my son planted for me a few weeks ago is growing new leaves and shoots.

I celebrated my birthday on Wednesday and even though it was just with my husband and Billy our cat they still made it a lovely day for me. In the morning I had clear blues skies and sunshine to sit outside and drink my cappuccino in my "new" garden.

I had cards from all my family and friends and even a parcel which contained a gorgeous new pig, hand made my dear friend Vivienne.  Meet Penelope....

isn't she just gorgeous in her blue dress!

My husband baked me a lemon sponge birthday cake and I manged to speak to all my nearest and dearest that day.

 I'm sure you don't need to guess the wish I made.

 It was delicious and because there was only the 2 of us we had lots of cake to enjoy over 2 days.

We used our walk of the day to visit and feed my dino ducks and some lovely swans and fowl were there too.

In the evening we even opened the bottle of Prosecco we had saved for my little family party which would have been on Sunday.

We toasted the good health of our absent family and we know that this time next year for my "big" birthday" these times will have passed and we can celebrate BIG time!

My creative share has to be something which features a sweet critter . It is another of my bookmarks using Tracey Easson's gorgeous mice stamps which I have made for my family. I used a spay ink background with a little silver too. I added glossy accents to the moon.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Through the dark room door 3/3 anything goes
Love to craft 2/3 anything goes
Mix it up 3/3 anything goes
Try it on Tuesday 3/3 beauty of nature
Happy little stampers watercolour anything goes
Cute card Thursday 1/3 anything goes
Love to craft 1/3 anything goes

So there has been a lot I have been thankful for this week.

I searched for an apt quote for today's post and
I think this is a good one,

Dogs die but dogs live too, right up to the day they die they live.
They live brave beautiful lives.
They protect their families and love us and make our lives a little brighter......
and they don't waste time being afraid of tomorrow.

Dan Gemenheit

I know that if Bear could speak that is exactly what he would have said. I will try not to be too sad and be so thankful that he came, he stayed for 8 wonderful years and he left very large paw prints of love on all our hearts.

Please keep safe, keep mindful, keep washing those hands and try to look around at everything you can still be thankful for.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

With love, Jane x