CHRISTMAS IS COMIN, IT IS YOU KNOW!!!

Hello there! Atlast, I have managed to find the time to blog. The christmas illustrations are posted to wish you all the best wishes and seasons greetings, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Year. I am looking forward to 2008, this year has been a stinker for me, but hey! my cup runneth over today! I am a happy girl, I realise how lucky I really am....It has been very busy here in the Hutchinson household, three christmas markets, two christmas plays , a teenage birthday party and a partridge in a pear tree, lol. Once I get George's birthday under my belt everything seems so much more relaxed. I think it's the stress of trying to make his birthday special and seperate from all the christmas activities.

I've put in some pics of the decs, like so many of you, we do love decorating the house for christmas, it's lovely rediscovering things we have forgotten about at the bottom of the box. I shall post some pics of the children's christmas tree and some other things in my next post. I always manage to leave something up each year, like the little berry garland around the mirror, I think it's a shame to take everything down, Andy is always there as a sobering influence though, boo!

We went to see George in his school play last Friday. He played King Herod, he cut a fine figure in his costume. As you can see from the pics, they really go to town on it, lovely it was too. George was great, we were very proud of him.
Poppy's play was called, 'It's A Baby!' and she was one of a troop of lovely angels,very cute and very funny. I shall post a photo I have ordered from the school, it's funny and ripe for a caption so I may well take the opportunity to do my first giveaway/compertition based on this, so keep checking over the christmas period. It's time to step back on to the merry go round, myself and George have been roped in to putting the party food out for Poppy's class. The teacher said there was a chance we would meet Father Christmas! I thought it was an opportunity I couldn't miss, I'll try and slip him my wish list when Mrs. Hawkins isn't looking, well! it's worth a try, don't you think? Have a great weeek y'all, Annie xx

THAT'S SNOW BUSINESS! (SOORRY)

Well hello there!!! this is a very short but I hope sweet post. I am becoming totally aware that I am not fulfilling my blogging duties at the moment. My window of opportunity to blog seems to have deteriorated to the size of a pin head, but am determined , as for my tummy, to pull it all in for christmas. I have some pics of the christmas decs and some other bits and bobs to share with you, but for now I will leave you with our lovely snow globes and music boxes , I love these, and we try to get a new one each year, the Harry Potter castle one was this years addition, the Hogwarts train goes round when the tune plays, ace.........
I would like to ask you one question if I may? are you a cup half full or a cup half empty sort of person? Mine is definately teeterin on the half empty side at the moment. Any funny Christmas stories? would be gratefully recieved.
Hope everyone is well and happy, Best Wishes to you all, Annie xxxxxxxxxxx

TO THE LADIES, SOME CATS AND A VERY PATIENT MAN

I want to tell you about my last few days, funny old days they have been. Firstly I have to thank a very special lady, Gena , who has a fabulous vintage web site called ' these foolish things' if you haven't visited Gena yet you really must go see. Gena's blog is the one that started me off , I'd never heard of blogging before then, but I sure do now!! This kind and generous lady offered to put my dolls on her website, and there they are. A helping hand of friendship, it restores my faith in human nature when sometimes it has been challenged by things I have seen and heard. So, if I was a clever blogger I would make an award for our blogging friend Gena, and it would read, " MOST GENEROUS HEART AWARD", can anyone help me do this? or point me in the right direction? Gena, if you are reading this, you never know, another generous heart might just come to my aid and you might get your award lol!! I love this blogging lark don't you?.....

PANSY POTTER

ROSEY PINK

I have posted the pics that went missing off my last blog and also two more girls, these ones are a bit flighty and have already flown the nest- yipee! children, we will eat this christmas! joking.

It's been a stressfull week for a number of friends this week. It's hard being a grown up isn't it? Our friend Betty has a new ethical jewellery business where she employs underpriveliged people in Rodrigues and India to make jewellery from coconut and found objects. It's a struggle and Betty is hoping to launch ' BEAU COCO' at' The Clothes Show' next week. Betty, and all the makers have worked soooo hard to get things ready and Betty has invested everything in this. It looks like the Indian couriers may have let her down,900 pieces are missing. I am a believer in positive thought, so am willing these parcels all the way from Dheli to Betty's front door.

If any of you are going to ' The Clothes Show' go say HI! to Betty at ' BEAU COCO' and send her my love.
Finally, a great big THANK YOU to my man Andy. For the lovely red roses and giant chocolate coin - my favourite! it cheered me up no end. Also for all your support through my hours of doll making and getting stuck in and stuffing the legs, you are one of a kind XX

NOT QUITE CHRISTMAS, BUT HEY, I'M GETTIN IN THE MOOD

Hi there, managed to find a window of opportunity to do a quick blog. Is it me, or is everyone finding time just seems to evaporate? Anyway, the weekend was cold and we enjoyed some family time, mainly infront of the fire but hey, thats good enough for me!!

I spent some time sorting Poppy's room out, no mean feat I can tell you. on doing so I came across the dragonfly lights I'd temporarily put up there a year ago eeek! and thought they would look nice on the mirror in the front room, this being too early ( or so I've been told ) for the

Christmas lights, I thought they would temporarily feed my need, crafty heh?

Poppy insited on having her photo taken like my dolls on the little yellow chair. This is for Michele at cowboys and custard, I thought you would appreciate her cowboy skirt, it's a favourite.
I thought I would post some pics of the 'Rufus' cats I've been working on. Again, I use vintage materials and paint and stitch the faces.

This is Rufus Rhinehorn, the inspiration for the cloth cats. He is Abyssinian, and has the classic looks of one, that being the long years and long wirery body. He is the happiest cat I have ever met and feels the love wherever he goes. He is truly one of a kind. Mama loves him.

Time to go now and collect Poppy, hope everyone is having a great day. Thank you all so much for the lovely comments about my dolls. I shall pay you all a visit as soon as time allows.

P.S. my pics are all over the place, some have vanished all together??! so apologies if it posts a complete mess.

MEET MY GIRLS

VIOLET BROWN

MADAM BUTTERFLY

LADY DRUSILLA BIRD

FORGET-ME-NOT-MARY

BETTY BUTTONS

BETTY BUTTONS BEFORE HAIR

ANNIE BIRD

Hi everyone, or anyone who may be stopping by. I must say, I don't seem to be having many visitors of late, probably due to my lack of posting due to these maidens. I have been all out producing these one off hand made dolls, I really enjoy making them but find it hard work juggling this with being Mammy and tending to daily chores, how to get the balance? as much as I try I am failing miserably in my quest as super woman, How about you? any tips would be gratefully received,lol. I really miss the blogging too, so hopefully in the next few weeks I can join everyone else in the excitement of festive shinanagins ( don't know if it is spelt right, but hey, it looks a good word ).

I took my dolls on their first adventure today. I took them to ' The Brewery Arts Centre' in Cirencester to see if they could spend some time in the shop there. It went ok, but the commission is scary, it works on a 40:60 basis,oh poo!! It's hard being a maker. It's a possibility next year, but she did like them, which was great for my self esteem I can tell you. I find that I busy away at making something and kinda lose sight as to wheather the things are working or not. Lets face facts here, I'm a maker not a business woman. I also took them to a fantastic little shop called 'Just Maud', if your ever in Cirencester you really must go see. Annie the owner is lovely and sells all sorts of wonderful clothes , jewellery, altered art etc. etc., she is incredibly lovely because she is taking two of my dolls on sale or return to display in her Christmas window!! I'm chuffed, but again the mark-up is too much. I will be amazed if I sell, but two of the girls get to spend a bit of time in that wonderful shop. Annie gave me a few contacts to follow up in London, which was great, but I don't think I'll manage it before Christmas alas.
On the home front, everything is well. The children are slowly but surely getting excited about christmas, like so many of you out there, we love it and feel it is a really special time. It's not the present giving, it's decorating the house and making the special food that smells so beautifully christmas. Saying that, Andy made the christmas cake last Thursday evening, I came in from being at my knitting circle expecting the house to smell Christmasie, it didn't. Andy had forgotten to put the mixed spice in! I tell you, mixed spice is obviously for me the smell of christmas. We have a cunning plan, we will dissolve the said mixed spice in warm brandy and then drizzle it over the cake. Do you think it will work? I'll let you know.

Have a fantastic week, and to all you makers out there, be productive and don't panic. xxxxx

AUTUMN SKULDUGGARY PART 2

Hi everyone!As you can see from this post I am seriously behind with my posts. I just wanted to show some pics from a Halloween party we went to on the 31st October. George as a dashing wizard

Ooops! this shouldn't be in this post but non the less it does look a bit creepy....

The little ones had a great time.......

And so did we........ Wish I hadn't eaten sooo many squirting skulls, felt a bit rough next day. Thats beautiful Betty on the right, the hostess. Thanks Betts x

AUTUMN SKULDUGGARY PART 1

Autumn is such a beautiful time of year isn't it? Half term arrived along with our children's eagerness to be entertained. They had spent a glorious weekend with their grandparents and Tuesday morning breakfast was spent defending myself from questions like " what are we doing today?" and " we are not staying home all day are we?". I have to confess to getting a little bit hot under the collar, and we all exited to our own little rooms to lick our wounds.

This is when I realised that there was NO WAY we were going to spend such a fabulous day wallowing in our self pity, so I decided we should take a rucksack with some food and head off on a grand adventure, when put to the children in such a way how could they refuse?

So off we went, much happier and relieved to be on our merry way, full of expectation of what we might encounter in the woods on our way down the Slad valley.

I felt top of the blinkin world, walking with my two through those woods. It was cool and smelt wonderful and the sun shone further down the valley so it was quite dark, but somehow it was comforting. We all found our sticks and searched as we walked for any hidden treasures.

The two pics at the top are the view over the Slad valley from the wood. The one with the cow was taken while we sat and ate our sandwiches and bananas, what a view....

We met only one old man on our journey but we made two new special friends, two Gloucestershire old spot piglets who live in a lovely little bit of the wood, they followed us as far as they could. Poppy was overjoyed and helped them dig in the undergrowth with her trusty stick.

We walked for nearly three hours! I was very impressed that Poppy did it, towards the end I did have to promise hot chocolate, jam tarts and snow white ( and that was just for me, lol ).

It was a lovely adventure and needless to say there was peace at last in the Hutchinson camp.ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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MISS HAVERSHAM'S AND THE ANNIVERSARY.

Hi there everyone, how are you all today? fine and dandy I hope. I am all alone here this morning so I thought I would take the time to share a bit of my world with you.

I thought I would share some images of what used to be our dining room, it is now a kind of entrance hall ( we enter the house straight into this room ) come chill out room.This room has it's work cut out for it, for this is where myself and Andy sleep also. This is truly lovely at christmas time, with all the decorations, it's like being in santa's grotto!

One of my favourite films of all time is 'Great Expectations'. My favourite scene is the one where we meet the tragic Miss. Haversham in her tomb like room where time has stood still after being left at the alter by her bloke. I've always loved that room and would love one just like it, my mother would probably say that I was well on my way to achieving this , as you can see from the fireplace, I seem to live with small towers of books, sketchbooks , letters etc. where I can get to them as easily as possible. I think it must drive Andy mad, but he lives with it all the same, bless him.

The things I cherish the most, besides my family ofcourse, are the old painted photographs of my great grandparents that watch over us from above the piano. Their lovely arn't they? Yet again, my wonderful great aunts dragged them out from under the stairs at 'Maes yr Ronen', the old family home, and entrusted them to me. I was in my twenties at the time, and I had never set eyes on them before this day, I fell in love with them and there is not a day goes by that I don't look at them . The piano also came from them, infact, there is alot of 'Maes yr Ronen' here in Stroud. We are also in the process of changing our house name to this, in memory of Auntie Bett, who sadly left us in July. All the old photos are from them, and I couldn't be without them, not for anything.

So, as you can see, our house is not exactly " Kath Kidston", nor would I ever want it to be.

On a final note, unlike Miss. Haversham, I did marry my love, and on Saturday we celebrated our 17th wedding Anniversary!!!!! We have been together for 21 years and it don't seem a day too long.

Our wedding day was a lovely autumn event with just fifty guests and Andy's dad, who is a vicar married us in his lovely little church. My sister made us a fabulous antique looking three tier wedding cake, and all the gorgeous food was made by my mother-in -law. the reception was in the vicarage, it was truly lovely.

I wore a 1944 ration book wedding dress which I bought for the pricely sum of £16 from an antique dealer in Bath. Sadly, last year, we had a pipe burst and all the water was caught in the box carrying my dress and flowers (which were dried). the dress could not be rescued, it was covered in rust marks, and so, I sadly threw it away. I salvaged the headress, but it's a bit green . Still, I have the photos and the memories. Did you get married? what did you wear?xx