A Mouse in the House....WHAT???

Here's a tidbit that very few may know about me especially after looking at this blog. I love primative stuff: old vintagey things, rusty jingle bells, torn fabric, well loved items, antique patinaed stuff, kind of darker muted colors, chippy painted things, old galvanized buckets, coffee stained things, old/new cross stitched samplers, vintage silverware, wool, civil war fabrics, etc. This blog is the cutesy, very lively colored side of my craftyness. I also absolutely love: bright colors (pinks, greens, blues, yellows, reds, etc), cute faces on inanimate objects (like my sewing pins), fun crochet amigurumis, sweet little pincushions (with faces of course), clothespin dolls, etc. I just love all that stuff! :))  I am thinking about starting another blog with my primitive stuff that I make and like. I think since this one is very lively the other one will be more muted and focus on the old stuff that I have grown to love. My home is decorated in more of the primitive style. I have old treadle sewing machines, antique pie safes, antique furniture, and even an antique hoosier (which I loooovvveee!). You can see some of this in the Christmas posts that I did back in December. I have incorporated the lively, colorful style too. Well, enough about that. I will keep you updated so you can follow me on both blogs.

Here's a little mouse that I recently made. I love mice, or actually the handmade kind. I did have a pet white mouse when I was little. He would ride on my shoulder while I rode my bicycle around the yard and down the street. But it is so funny now, I actually scream and jump on something when I see a one now. Go figure. Once when our hampster (now deceased) got out, I didn't know it and saw him run across the living room floor, I screamed and jumped on the couch. I thought it was a mouse in the house.
Anyway here is the little thing. He is still in the works, i don't much care for the cartoonish look of him. Maybe it is the wool felt that I am using. I love mohair fabric, but don't want to use it until I have perfected the pattern. I haven't put his eyes on yet. I am going to put him on some type of pincushion. He is what I call a pincushion topper. Wouldn't he look cute with little cheese sewing pins?

Above: I always start out with a sketch. This time it was on a scrap of paper and I had to cut it out and put it in my notebook-it would get lost if I didn't. I started out googling pictures of mice and sketched some out, this was my favrorite sketch, so I used him for the pattern.

Above: This is the sketch of him ontop of a pincushion. He is sitting on a little tuffet of some sort. Maybe a squarish tuffet? We will just have to wait and see.

Above: Here he is with a little scarf. Put that on because he looked so plain. I accidently made the holes for his ears in the wrong place, so they don't look like the sketch. The ear placement can change the whole feeling of the little guy. In the sketch, he looked so meek, in the above photo he looks quit alert.

Above: Closer view. His little hands should have been either a lighter brown or a pinkish color. The white is too bright. I might coffee stain them. He does need his little eyes, what you see is knotted thread.

Above: In the photos of live mice, they all had lighter bellies. I painted his on. I think it would look better if I needle felted the belly on, but I have never done this. Needle felting is very cool, but I just don't have the time to learn something new. I do have the needles (special barbed kind) but no wool roving.

This little mouse would fit better on the prim blog that I want to start. So I have made up my mind, I am going to start another blog: Prims 'n Pins--just as soon as I can figure out how to start a blog--again.

Have a great day and make something crafty,

Holly