A belated Valentine!

Hello to all!  Belated Valentine greetings - hope you all had a lovely day, in every sense of the word.  I continue to be busy with my mice - stitching them, and creating new little characters - one of whom is shown below.  The cookbook is also coming along, slowly but surely - and I already have plans for another one, when this one is done.

People who are into stitching may be interested to know there is an interview with me in the March 2013 issue of Cross Stitch Collection magazine - and apparently my mice also make an appearance in the article, as I have already had quite a few requests for catalogs from people who read the article. So, many thanks to Catherine Hood, the editor of the magazine, for featuring me and my work.
This little mouse is another Scottish one, called Mhairi - she has a little handknitted beret, and carries a silver heart charm.  Next I think I need to make her a little friend called Hamish - he will, of course, need to be in a kilt, so that will take a little bit of planning and design!
Best wishes to all who read this, please feel free to leave me comments - I would love to hear from you.
Smiles
Gail x

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that we all have a bright, happy and blessed 2013, full of 'things that have never been', as one quote has it.

The mice are starting to sell well, so I am currently working on a catalogue, which should be available (in either print or online format) in a few weeks time, either for individuals who wish to purchase them, or stores who are interested in carrying my line.  (Just one point I need to make - although I am currently based in South Africa, I am happy to send my mice anywhere in the world - they are definitely not the stay-at-home types!

Just another little picture - this time of a trio of happy mice - an angel mouse, Camomile with her teapot, and a little African mouse called Lerato - her name means love in the local Setswana language.  Her dress is made of a traditional style African fabric - this one is blue and white, but it is also available in shades of brown, red, orange, green and purple!  We are a colorful lot down here!

So, there we have three little ladies, wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2013.

Smiles

Gail

A big change!

Hello again - after another long silence.  This is a big change, in that I have renamed this blog 'Rosebud Lane' - I feel this is a better description for the things I want to showcase on my blog, especially my little mice!
As I have mentioned before, although I continue to do stitchery designs, and hope I always will! - I am also busy with writing, illustrations and the aforementioned mice, and I want to give these things more prominence in the blog going forward.  Hence the name change - which also ties in with my email address for ease of contact.
Hope to hear feedback from some of you going forward - and I will have a new blog title picture (and other pictures of what I have been up to!) to show you very soon.
Happy end of the month - and I hope you are all looking forward to a bright and blessed festive season.
Smiles
Gail

Still here!

   Greetings to all.  I cannot believe it is more than two months since my last post on this blog - my only excuse being that things have been just a little hectic!  There were some family issues to deal with, in that my mom had a car accident - fortunately it could have been a lot worse, but she still had to cope with some physical and emotional trauma as a result.
   I have also been very busy doing the copy and recipes for my baking book, which is (hopefully) going to be published in September next year.  This is so exciting, as it is something I have dreamed of doing for years and years.  And, hopefully, it will lead on to even better things!
   I did make a decision not to continue with my teatime blog (mentioned in my last post).  I felt it lacked focus, and I also want to work on a more general blog going forward, still with a cottage theme, but covering different things like food, crafts and simple country traditions. 
   This will probably have to wait a little while, as I have also been invited to take part in a very popular Christmas craft market in early December;  I think this is a wonderful opportunity to showcase my mice and some of the other things I make, but obviously it's also going to be a lot of work getting enough stock together.  Between this, and my book and designing, I certainly can't complain about being bored!
   Another little Christmas mousie for you today - a snowmouse, this time, frosty white but cosy in his scarf and hat.

  I also have a couple of Christmas cross stitch designs in UK magazines at the moment - an advent calendar in the current issue of World of Cross Stitching, and a snow globe design in Cross Stitch Gold.  I'm pleased with the way they turned out, and hope people enjoy stitching them!
   Time to get back to the mice and book - hopefully my next post will happen really soon.  And I hope, too, that all of you are enjoying the last few months of 2012, wherever you may be.

Smiles

Gail

Something new. . .

  Hello to all.  Once again time seems to be slipping away from me, as I have not done a post for almost two weeks!  There are a couple of things I want to share, though.  First, I have started another blog - it's called www.teatimeatthecottage.blogspot.com, and I created it to share my love of baking, tea time and simple country pleasures.  I hope to include lots of my favorite recipes and other good things on this blog as time goes on, and would certainly love your input, and recipes, too!
   I've also made a few decisions as regards my needlework designs.  I have been doing designs for magazines in both the US and UK for around twenty years now (oops!), but am finding this aspect of my work more difficult as time goes on.  There are fewer needlework magazines being published now, to begin with; styles and ideas have also changed, which is inevitable in many ways, but this is making it much harder to get designs sold!
   So, while I will obviously honor my existing design commitments with magazines, I will probably do less of them in the future, and focus on other creative aspects of my life - my writing and art, certainly, and the Mice of Rosebud Lane, which have taken off really well.  I will continue to do needlework designs, though, and hopefully sell some of these through this blog;  I'd also really love to do a cottage-style needlework book (including cross stitch, freehand embroidery and simple patchwork) one day - if I can find a publisher!
  It's about finding balance - and following one's heart - what life is all about, really. 
   Hope you are all having a great week thus far - and following your own hearts!
Smiles
Gail

Time Goes By. . .

   Hello everyone!  Perhaps you are like me - wondering where the year is going to, so fast?  I find it hard to believe we are almost at the end of July!  I had good intentions of doing a post every week - at least - but now I see more than ten days have gone by.  Time is so precious, and yet it slips away so quickly.
   A friend of mine reminded me, the other day, that it won't be long before we see the first Christmas decorations and gifts appearing in the shops - they seem to arrive earlier all the time,which is a pity, in some ways.
   I am busy stitching, and designing - as always, and making some progress on my first design for the French publishers.  It's a detailed piece on natural linen, and I hope will look really good when it is done.  Also working on more designs to put on my blog.

   The little picture is of a collectible Christmas mouse, which I recently completed - she is called, naturally, Merry, the Christmouse, and she carries her own little handstitched felt stocking.  I think she will make a cute companion to any Christmas celebration!
   I've had a good response to my mice - and am waiting to hear back about a larger order from a company.  Of course, if that happens I will probably have to get someone to help me stitch them, as they are quite detailed and time consuming.
   Hope you all have a wonderful week, and enjoy every precious moment!
Smiles,
Gail
 

A Little Angel for you!

  Hello everyone - I intended to do a post at the weekend, but time seemed to get away from me again!  Lots to do right now, which is, of course, a good thing.  I am, as I mentioned before, working on two stitched projects for French needlework magazines, and also want to get started on a new design of my own!  It's already charted, and I have all the supplies, so I just need to get to it.
   I have had a really good week, with a few special blessings - one of them being that a publisher has come back to me about a cookbook proposal I sent them a little while ago - and they are interested in publishing it!  This is a long-cherished dream of mine, and althought nothing is definite yet this is particularly wonderful news.  More about this in due course.
   In the meantime, I thought I would put up a picture of another one of my little mice - this one is a little angel with tiny felt wings, and I made her for my mom for Mother's Day this year.  I think we all have angels around us - and they bring all sorts of untold blessings into our lives, every day!

   Anyway, I hope you are all having a happy and blessed week, and enjoying whatever gifts life brings to you today!
   Smiles
   Gail