We are back...

Hello all, Sorry we have not been around for so long - a lot has been going on! My mum had to have 3 operations to remove kidney stones so that was a lot of trips to the hospital and a heap of worry as she has so many other health issues - happy to report that although in some pain she is recovering well =)

Secondly we had our 7th wedding anniversary and mum being the star she is treated us to a holiday in kos for 2 weeks! We had a holiday of a life time as we met so many new wonderful friends. I will post pictures and tell you all about it in my next post but...why the cat picture?

Well, Kos has hundreds of stray cats and dogs all over the island and we met a wonderful lady called sue who is trying her best with a small team of friends to really make a difference to the lives of these animals. We met because we saw a cat who had a lot of eye problems and we wanted to help him - our rep was useless and basically told us to turn a blind eye pardon the pun, and that she was a dog person anyway! Well having two cats at home we couldn't bear to see it suffer so we fed it when we could and set out to look for some help - we found sue! Who gave us some eye drops for the cat ;o)

Sue is originally from Ireland in fact she was born not far from where my family live over there so I knew a friend when I found one lol but she has lived in kos for 9 years. Sue sits out EVERY night on the small strip which has bars and restaurants in Tingaki Kos you can't miss her - she has a table with information in lots of languages telling people about the problems, pictures of dogs and cats that need help and she usually has one or more dogs or cats with her to try to find a loving Forever Home for them( I must point out that the people taking the animals are vetted and not just anyone can walk away with a cat or dog) - luckily lots of German and Dutch people can re-home these animals easily, once they have been vaccinated and given a passport the animals are good to go!

It was so wonderful to see people wanting to help and we even met a lady who had re-homed a dog the year before and she proudly pulled out his picture from her purse to show us how happy he was and how happy he had made her. We also a met a lovely German couple who were rescuing four dogs who had been running around in a pack near where they were staying, they felt they had to take them all to keep them together.

Sue currently has 14 cats and at the time we were there she had four dogs (2 were pups) although one has now been given a new home. Her life revolves around her job, meetings with officials, looking after her own brood and sitting out all night - she does not spend any time for sue!!!

Sue invited us to her house and asked if we could help with the IT side of things and we felt it was the least we could do...so I spent a day making her a website please take a look and help if you can http://animalrescuekos.com

she had a great idea to raise money for a very much needed sanctuary on the island so the animals waiting for a home have a safe place to go - a facebook appeal to get 1 million people give just 1 euro each. Please get your family and friends to take part =)

I have just spent the day putting all the information for the cats on the website and some images are upsetting - the person in question who has the 60 cats (if you do take a look) has a restaurant and him and his wife can't bear the thought of putting the cats down so they now have 60 - sue has a friend who is going to get them sterilised to help the situation - but they really need a loving home!

ARK (the name of the charity) has a programme of sterilisation which obviously is going to help stop so many new strays taking to the streets but heartbreakingly at the moment due to lack of a sanctuary the cats/dogs have to be put back on the streets after they have had the operation as there is just no where to keep them while they wait for a home.

The charity aims to build a rescue centre with a visitors centre and education facility but they need funding and land. They have been in talks with the local government but these things involve a lot of red tape and take time.

So on that note...we came home and rescued two more cats who needed some tlc so we now have 4 fur babies - (ours were rescued from here not kos as the uk has 6 month quarantine) they had been needing a home for 2 months so we felt we had to help if sue could do it so could we! We are going to constantly do all we can to help sue and the animals of kos...

We will be launching some cat, mice and maybe dog dolls very soon to help raise money for this very worthwhile cause ;o) so watch this space!

new lisitng on ebay

As we have no fairs until the end of July we decided we should make our long list of outstanding commissions and list some dolls on ebay!

Meet Hattie the candy witch who is available for sale on the following link

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190409646931

We will be adding more dolls tonight and tomorrow so watch this space. We never normally have time to list on ebay as we are always working towards a fair or making commissions, so we are going to make the most of our free time!

Scottish miniatura

We are back from Scottish Miniatura! We had a very successful show although we did have some free time to natter to Bev on the DAME stand and Helena (Solway Miniatures) who was next to us ;o) The picture above is of a 1:24 Dobby and Harry Potter which we made for a customer to collect at the show - Harry's hair was not as fly away in real life lol and the customer loved them - think they were one of the most difficult sculpts Aidy has done and he huffed and puffed his way through them ;o) but now he is thinking of trying 1:48 sculpts!!!!

Scottish miniatura is a great event if you can make it, the venue is nice and it is always well attended. There is also a nice mix of stands and lots to buy.They also run workshops which are around an hour long and so you can go away with something you have made at the show.

Well, now we can relax until the end of July so we are planning to get all our backlog of commissions done and get the back yard sorted out so we can let our two cats go out and play! We also have a new sofa on the way so the living room could do with some decorating - we are thinking purple lol.

Goodbye Dubai hello Spain lol

Well, we had the same email the other exhibitors received yesterday telling us Dubai Doll Art Exhibition has been cancelled due to lack of funds! On the negative side we will miss Dubai and a great opportunity and obviously this is a huge disapointment.

However it is also a relief as we don't have to kill ourselves making 50 pieces of work in the 2 weeks we have left and we were still lucky enough to have been short listed to one of only 4 miniature artists, and maybe there is always next year? All the great ideas/dolls can be used for Miniatura, Arnhem and Madrid at the end of the year so nothing is lost ;o)

So what will we do with ourselves now the panic is over? We now have time to go on holiday so we are taking mum to Spain next week to stay with her sister, I won't miss my mums operation on the 6th July (she is having a kidney stone removed) and Aidy and I are going on holiday for two weeks as yet destination unknown - first time we have had a holiday just the two of us for 6 years!!!! So in the end things happen for a reason and that reason will be time spent with family and loved ones ;o)

Now to get ready for Scottish miniatura - only two days!!!

Cotswold Miniatures Weekend

We have been asked to take part in this fantastic event along with some very talented miniaturists! This is a great opportunity for you to come along and learn a variety of new skills not to mention having a weekend away in a beautiful part of England ;o)

'Many of you will have attended small courses, workshops or club events whilst some of you may have been to larger events such as the BMW’s or the EMMA Gatherings. Others will have been confined to working alone or with the aid of the Internet and going to occasional fairs. Our weekend aims to offer a rewarding experience for miniaturists, the chance to take workshops with well known tutors and at the same time socialise with like minded people for a whole weekend. You register to attend the event and choose your workshops. This includes a small fee to cover the facilities and refreshments during the day. Any workshop fees are payable direct to your chosen Tutor. You will need to arrange your own accommodation if needed'

Please take a look at the website for more details ;o)http://www.cotswoldminiaturesweekend.co.uk/

Back from York Dollhouse fair

We love York dollhouse fair as we have such lovely customers and friends we can have a good natter with! It is always a successful event for us, but we thought at the start of the day it was going to be a quiet show - thankfully we were wrong and we did better than usual but we have noticed that some fairs are quieter than usual.

We were okay in the end because we sold some dolls and took some commissions and it seems we need to go into animals lol I have always liked making animals dressed as people but I am admittedly not as good at making them as I would like to be (although mine have always sold) but now I can get Aidy to give them a try ;o) as they are orders! So on the to do list is Toad and Badger, the march hare from Alice in wonderland and Peter Rabbit plus a family of humans in 1:24 scale.

The picture is of The Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter which I made for Miniatura a year or so ago. They are mouse sized as the story features two mice sneaking into a dolls house and being very annoyed that the food which looks so delicious is in fact made of clay!

The winner is...

Sorry this is late, I was away at my mums and didn't have the time to post! Well, the names were put in a 'hat' (A cup really lol) and the winner is Ascension, Congratulations!!!! Please email me with you address and she can be on her way to her new home. lilielves@aol.com


Thank you to all who took part - we would love to offer runner up prizes but at this moment in time we are frantically getting ready for York (which is tomorrow), Scottish Miniatura and Dubai but if you can wait until we get back for us to make you each a little something, then email us with your address and we will send you each a little gift when we get back from Dubai which will be mid July.

Thanks again!