and the freebie winner is...

Thanks to the help of a random number generator:

The winner is comment number 3 - Creme Brule! Congrats to you :o) Please email me at:
monda (at) homecall (dot) co (dot) uk with your address details.

Sorry to those who didn't win but take comfort in the fact that there will be more freebies on the horizon (probably in the new year).

I also wanted to mention that if you are in/near London this weekend you might want to pop over to the Cockpit Arts Studios in Deptford. They are having an open studio weekend where you can buy lovely hand crafted products and meet with the talented people behind them.
Sadly I don't think I'm going to be able to fit a visit in myself this weekend but wanted to spread the word nonetheless.

habitat toys

I went to habitat on Sunday, because I love all the christmas decorations they do - well I love most the stuff in there if I'm honest.
The kids toys this time of year are always good and I was snapping away on my mobile at these (a selection of my faves - apologies for the poor quality pics). Robots and monsters are definitely the way forward
Also we bought a couple of bargain toys (for ourselves!). I bought this red bird for just £2 and Mr Monda bought this knitted Walrus for just £3
I think it's great that at the grand age of 31 we are both happy to spend our hard earned wages on stuffed toys.

This evening is last chance saloon for my purple freebie, so pop down and leave me a comment if you'd like to get your mits on some monda christmas decorations.

Getting all Christmassy

I'm getting all christmassy.
Today I'm making some christmas cards and I've replaced my blog header with this:
new christmas one:previous non festive version:

Don't forget about my purple freebie below or find it here

Christmas Freebie

It's been a while since I had a freebie and as Christmas is almost upon us, I felt a christmas freebie was in order, so here it is:
3 Christmas Decorations in purple colours, 12 pink and purple buttons and most importantly (but not made by me) some Dove regenerating hand cream - because this time of year my hands really suffer in the cold weather, and everyone knows crafters need nice soft hands.

If you'd like to win this little lot, then please just leave me a comment in this post and it could be yours (as long as you post a comment before midnight on Wednesday 28th November - GMT).

Monda
x

tickets, cars and freebies

I must start by apologising for the lack of photographs on this post.

Today was a bad day.
It started well - I managed to get tickets for the Foo Fighters. The tickets sold out in about 15 mins so I was quite lucky really.
My luck didn't last however because on my way home from Ikea this afternoon some guy smashed into the back of my car. Thankfully me and Mr Monda are OK (although my neck is a little stiff right now) but I can't say the same for my car.

My car was only 6 months old when I bought it (it's just a year old now) but I don't know what the prognosis will be on it because the back bumper is squashed in on one side and the boot doesn't close properly.
My initial reaction to this was just to be really angry as a couple of years ago the same thing happened to me - once again someone drove into the back of me and last time my car got written off.
The guy who hit me was not from the UK, and didn't speak good English. He kept saying. 'is ok, I have insurance' but he didn't really want to give us any details, and said he didn't have an address!
Mr Monda was very calm throughout the whole thing and was trying his hardest to get the details from the guy and his passengers, whilst I was yelling 'it's not OK, you've just driven into the back of me'.
The guy then proceeded to to try and bash my bumper back into place with his fist, at which point I got really mad, and just told him to get off my car and leave it alone.
If my insurance company can't trace the guy to make a claim, then I will loose 2 years from my no claims bonus, my insurance will go up, and I have to pay £150 excess on my policy too - perfect timing with Christmas coming up.

Anyway on to much more pleasant things. Tomorrow I will announce a freebie, so be sure to pop by and take a look if you fancy getting your hands on some monda goodies.

custom made stamps

a while ago I was told by someone that they had seen someone peeling my sticker (with my name and details) off the back of the card they had purchased from me as if to make out they had made it themselves. Well in some ways this is flattering but of course I was also a little bit annoyed by this - so my solution to this little problem arrived today:You can get your own custom made stamp from here

I've popped my christmas decorations into my etsy shop this evening. I'm going to have to make some more though because I like them so much. Black and purple are big this christmas so maybe I'll try a few in these colours as well as the traditional red and blues.
I received 2 lots of felt today so I have plenty of supplies to be going on with.

and only one more day of working from home and then I can make a start on my Christmas cards on Friday. I really hope I can get some made because I've just read about some tickets for the Foo Fighters going on sale on Friday morning and I need (yes I need) to buy these, and also the idea of a trip to Ikea has been thrown into the mix which means a drive into Wembley for me which could end up taking up a huge chunk of the day.

Wednesday...Heroes is on tonight...Yay!

dec the halls with monda's felt things, tra la la la la la la la la

Did you just sing this to see if there was enough 'la's'? I did :o)
I've been busying myself these last 2 evenings making some christmas decorations for my etsy shop.
I'll pop them on tomorrow (getting way too late to do it today) but you can have a little look at them now. I'm pretty pleased with them so I will be making a few more for my own tree tooand I managed to use some of the buttons I bought last week. I must have secretly known these decorations were on the horizon.

a big christmas shopping day

I did a huge Christmas shopping trip today. I would probably say at least 50% of the Christmas presents are bought now. I'm trying to do it a bit earlier this year because it always seems like a frantic last minute rush to the shops and it all becomes a lot less enjoyable. That said, the shop I went to today was jam packed with people evidently doing the same as me.

My grand plans to make cards today were clearly just a dream (because I spent too long at the shops). At least my christmas decorations are a WIP and I did order a custom made stamp for my cards (you might get to see it later in the week when it arrives), and I have bought some more felt to make a few more decs before the week is out.

I have a hospital appointment tomorrow (nothing to worry about really - a minor surgical procedure so I'm told) so I'll be at home this week - 3 days will be working from home and I have a day off on Friday so I can really make a start on those Christmas cards.

it's starting to feel a bit like christmas

I have had fleeting thoughts about what colour my christmas tree would be this year, and buying a new extendable dining table, so christmas is definitely on my mind.

I haven't really done very much today which is maybe a good thing because when i did try to do something my creative juices just weren't flowing and I didn't like anything that I was making. I felt like I just wasted away hours and all I ended up with were cut up bits of fabric and thread everywhere.
Towards the end of the day, these 2 little christmas tree decorations were made and I'm actually quite happy with them so I will be making a few more tomorrow.

I plan also to make a start on those christmas card designs which have been in my head for the last few weeks. It is starting to feel a bit like Christmas.

It will be a busy day tomorrow. Also on the agenda is christmas shopping. I'm only going to one shop but I know I will get quite a few things whilst I'm there so hopefully it will be a good trip.

On Friday Mr Monda bought me a really pretty bunch of flowers so i took a pic of them whilst they are at their loveliest. I just love the thistles
My email seems to have been down all day today and I can't access the website of my service provider (not a good sign). If anyone has emailed me but I haven't responded I'm not being rude - honest! I do have access to other internet sites however so at least I can go off and read some crafty blogs until it's time for bed.

help, I've got a problem!

I am addicted to buttons. I buy far more than I have plans for and I can't seem to stop. Here are some that arrived today (mmm lovely buttons)When I asked Mr Monda if he thought I had a problem and that I was addicted, he said, 'well at least it's not crack!' LOL, and I suppose in the grand scheme of things this is just a small non life threatening obsession of mine.
I expect you'll see these on some monster/card/brooch sometime in the not too distant future.

I started work at 7am this morning, which meant I could finish at around 3.30pm. I had grand plans for monster making this evening but all of a sudden this head splitting headache came out of nowhere and knocked me out so I had to go to bed at 6.30 for a couple of hours. I feel much better now, but sadly no monsters were made this evening. I did pop the Christmas monsters into the etsy shop though.

Also, I'm pleased to report that I'm over my disappointment of the NEC craft shows. When I read this post again tonight I think I sounded like an angry old lady. LOL.

a mixed up kind of day

Today I got up way to early for a Sunday morning (6.30am) so I could leave my house at 7.30 for the 2 hour drive to the Birmingham NEC for the crafts for Christmas and Hobbycrafts shows, and all I can say about it is this - DISAPPOINTING!
It definitely wasn't worth getting up early, a 2 hour each way drive and an £8 admission ticket :o( If you don't want to hear my angry rant about this then please don't read any further!

Firstly there was way too many people, so getting to see what was on offer was difficult at times - it's like when you go to the January sales, loads of crazy women grabbing and grappling for a bargain and frankly I just don't have the energy for it.

Secondly, there was just so much rubbish there - the kind of stuff that makes my teeth itch when people call it craft (now I don't want to risk offending anyone here, but pre-made card toppers and hideous hideous gold peel off sticker words just don't cut it as far as I'm concerned). I think you can only really call something craft when you have actually spent time and love creating it.

Thirdly, I know cross stitch pillows of highland terriers are really exciting for some people but they're just not me and there was a lot of this kind of thing.

It wasn't a total loss, I did manage to purchase a few nice papers 60 silver envelopes (for my Christmas cards) some pretty (and nice quality) ribbons from Craft Fairy and some buttons from the Button Company.

The moral of this story is, never go to a craft show at the NEC again. The end.

this is what happens when monsters go bad

You can't turn your back for a minute around here without something going on...

'What's this?' yelled the christmas monsters when they saw a package wrapped in Christmas paperIt must be for us they thought, so they set to opening the package straight away. They got themselves into their best tug of war position and pulled and pulled until they finally managed to get the mysterious thing out of the paper Tug of war can be really hard when you have no hands so the monsters were especially pleased with themselves for this.

Whilst Monsdeer and Abomster discussed that what they thought might be in the package, Pudster guessed that it was most likely a monster sleeping bag, so he tried it out for sizeMonsdeer and Abomster feeling a pang of jealousy at this ingenious discovery by Pudster said that his idea was stupid, and that he was testing it out wrongly. They infact thought that it was a bed for all 3 of them, so they all got into the top and tried it out
With all the fuss of the big monster bed they had almost missed the small blue gift poking out of the pocket. Monsdeer fleetingly wondered why the bed even had a pocket but the rustling of the blue paper made him forget this thought just as quickly as it had arrived.

The monster trio ripped at the paper and found the most wonderful jewels and the jewels smelled sooo good that they just couldn't help themselves and dived right inThey gorged themselves on the jewels until there was nothing left but the ripped up paper They were all feeling pretty happy with themselves until...

Oh no! The jewels must have been poisoned because their tummies were hurting. They rushed off the the bathroom and, well, we'll leave that to your imagination but it wasn't a pretty sight, and even monda the brave felt like she needed to vomThe monster trio felt pretty sorry for themselves so went off to bed. Not in their new bed though, because frankly they were scared that the jewels might make a reappearance, if you know what I meanThe thing that the monsters didn't know was that the jewels hadn't been poisoned after all, and they weren't in fact jewels after all! They were roses chocolates and the thing that made them so poorly was the wrappers - everyone knows you're not supposed to eat those.

So what is the moral of this story?
Never eat the wrappers?
Monsters with no arms can't possibly have a tug of war?
Don't open a parcel that clearly doesn't belong to you?
Monsters can't read labels?

We'll if you don't know the moral of the story then you need to go away and have a long hard think about it... tsk some people.

No monsters were seriously harmed in the making of this story.
Thanks to monkee maker for supplying the props, oh and also for the lovely monster sleeping bag.

Monda
x

enough about me, look at this!

Whilst I'm busying away on monsters (with not that much to show) I thought I'd show you a couple of bits that I have found on etsy recently which I absolutely love (I love lots of things on etsy so could post stacks of pics but these are my latest faves...)

These cute tape purses by Lindsey Porter Perfect for storing cash, make up, mobile phone, ipods etc.

and how about these great little robots by obvious front Perfect for computer geeks!

christmas monsters

my third Christmas themed monster is here - he's a Christmas pudding monster called Pudster! Mr monda thinks he looks like an armed robber as the cream sort of looks like a mask or balaclava. I now have 3 seasonal monsters ready for the shop. There are a couple more that I have sketched out that I'll make before I put them on etsy. Hopefully I'll get time to make them this week after workI spent most of the day today making a stack of cards to replenish my card box at work.
I made 18 which doesn't really seem that many for 6 hours work, but I guess if you work on the basis of 2 per hour it means that I make about £6 per hour. I did also watch a bit of star wars are cook the evening meal in this time so it's not that bad actually. Here are a few of the toppers I have made today
Today I also booked tickets to the crafts for Christmas and hobbycraft shows at the NEC in Birmingham next weekend - 2 shows, one with Christmas gifts, and one full of supplies. I think I'll probably spend a small fortune in the supplies show.

It's November already!

Well I know I'm stating the obvious here but I can't believe it's November already.
I'm just about to make a massive to do list, which includes making Christmas cards, Christmas monsters, and a selection of things to sell at work. My cards always sell well at work because my office is not in the vicinity of any shops, so I thought I'd give the other bits and bobs a go too, as my pink raffle monster seemed to go down really well.
The only problem with selling things at work is that it then becomes difficult to keep any of myself for myself. As it goes I quite like it that none of my colleagues know too much about my alternative blog/monster making life, and sometimes it's nice just to have something for you (and of course everyone who pops by to read this). Does this make sense or is it just a Friday ramble?

Here are a couple of pics of cards I made yesterday, using a bit of the wrapping paper that I bought from John Lewis last weekand also a picture of my babies - mellie and stevie. They actually like each other now (after just an initial week of hissing and spitting at each other). When I took this they both opened their eyes just a little bit and looked at me as if to say 'go away and stop papping us'
It's a small thing but its playing in my mind. Yesterday my dad went into hospital for a knee operation (on both knees). He was supposed to come out today but when he got up on his crutches to leave today he fainted flat out on the floor, so he has to stay in hospital for another day at least. Poor pops, I hope he'll be OK. PMD here's some big love going out to you.