Stonham Barns Owl Sanctuary and Outdoor Plaques

It's been a week of painting Fairy Doors, Wooden Houses and Key Hook Plaques but I'm afraid I can't show them yet. Soooo I thought I'd share my day out with you instead.

Today, even though it's a wet and windy Sunday, hubby dragged me away from my painting table AKA the kitchen table, to treat me to a day out. We went to Stonham Barns, I'd never been before and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's an Owl Sanctuary but has lots of other birds of prey to see...

This was the weirdest looking Snowy Owl I've ever seen, It's winter plumage makes it look like it has a big fat pair of legs....

Snowy Owl

I took so many photographs I really didn't know what ones to show you, I managed to whittle it down to these.

Please don't ask me what they all are, I really should of taken notes, or better still, taken a photo of the information card that was with each of the birds.

As well as the Birds they have these cheeky chappies, I could of stayed watching them for hours....... 

Meerkat Kastle at Stonham Barns

 

....you can see them on Youtube here...  YouTube - Meerkats at Stonham Barns

The sanctuary has a wide variety of birds, there are Falcons, Eagles and Red Kites to name but a few.  

Some of these magnificent birds are here because they were injured, usually by other birds or animals but can you believe that one of these birds had been shot, it was brought to the sanctuary after being found by a dog walker.

As well as the animals and birds there is a restaurant and a selection of gift shops so if you're out and about in the Suffolk area I think it's worth going, although I think I'll wait till the warmer weather for my next visit.  

You can find out more about it here....

Stonham Barns Suffolk Owl Sanctuary

To redress the balance, as this is a Crafty Blog, here are a couple of plaques that are in my Folksy Shop at the moment,

 Did you see what I did there?..... As they are outdoor plaques I thought they would fit in with the theme of this post.........

            ........and there's a feather in the photo too.

















I'm going to pop this post over to the Handmade Monday Link Up @ Lucy Blossom Crafts


Jan x

Sweet Dreams & Moonbeams in a Fairy Dust Bottle

A few weeks ago I acquired some cute little bottles with cork stoppers, my plan was to decorate them for Halloween, you know the type of things, Dragons Blood, Witches Brew etc, well I think I'm living in some sort of time distortion field because before I could turn around and say BOO, Halloween was over and Christmas is on it's way. So, as the empty bottles were still sitting on the shelf I decided to Glitterfy them (apparently Glitterfy is not a word, but don't you think it should be)?

Tadaaaa... here they are..

Bottles of Magical Glitter Dust

 

Can you see the little bells? I thought they were so sweet and they have an antiqued look to match the labels.

They look lovely hanging from my twiggy tree and would look equally good on the Christmas Tree if you have one.

Fairy Dust on a Twiggy Tree

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Sweet Dreams & Moonbeams

They were such fun to make, from choosing the colours and matching up the ribbon to making and aging the labels, I think I'll be offering these to be personalised, it's only a tiny label but I'm sure I can fit a name on, for example.... Molly's Fairy Dust  or Tom's Elf Dust, as long as it fits.

I hope you've all had a good week, I'm popping over to Lucy Blossom Crafts for a catch up, I'm linking this post to her weekly Crafty Link Up 

Jan x

A Cheeky Monkey Plaque or should that be a Plaque for a Cheeky Monkey?

Helloooo everyone, what a busy ol' week it's been and not all crafting, I've had visitors which was lovely (and hectic), I've been visiting which was even lovelier (as I did all the eating and non of the cooking) Mmmm yuymmy
At the moment I'm working on a couple of commissions that I can't show yet (as it's 'that' time of year).
But I can show you a finished plaque that's on it's way to Australia...

Cheeky Monkey Plaque

This Door Sign is for a returning customer, you can see his sisters Butterfly Plaque here

This week I've spent most evenings reading the link up blogs over at Lucy Blossom Crafts and even though I haven't managed to leave comments I have admired the stitchery at Caroleecrafts 
the lovely watercolours by Clare Willcocks
the sweet Tweeters at The Red Haired Amazonan 
and the pretty gift tags from Freespirit Designs
as well as all the other wonderful bloggers and crafters that take part in the weekly linky party.

I was going to add this post for the link up at Lucy Blossoms link up but it looks like she may be having a few problems this week so I'll get onto my bloggers list and pop over to a few.

I'm adding this post to Paint Party Friday.blogspot whom I found via Clare Willcocks' blog :) 

Jan x

Angels & Elves, Peg Dolls & Christmas

Have any of you ever taken part in or organized a Market Night on Facebook? I took part in one last week and it was great fun, it was held by the lovely Zoe over at Scented Sweetpeas. She worked hard to get everything organized, there were lots of other great artists and crafters taking part so it was lovely and varied.

I added some of my Peg Doll Angels to the event....

A Trio of Angels

as well as 3 little Peg Doll Elves....

A Trio of Elves

a Christmas Bird House.....

A Christmas House

and one of my Christmas Fairy Doors.

Pretty Pink Christmas Fairy Door

Phew, it was very busy evening and my organizational skills were stretched to the limit, I really should of had a notebook with each item listed so I could keep notes of who ordered what. I did manage to get it all together in the end and managed to match up names, orders and emails.
I made sales, got some new orders and had some new visitors over to my Facebook Page so all in all it was a very successful event and one you should try if you get the chance.

That's all from me for now

 Jan x

I'm linking this post over at Lucy Blossom Crafts Blog