as much as I can I like to buy handmade or local ... but you know some bargains are just too good to say no to ...
this fun iPhone case cost me £1.70 on eBay with free p&p! I love it ... I may see what other ones I can get as at that price I could have one to match what ever mood I am in!
I of course had to change my lock-screen photo to 'little owl' to match ;) and I will have to crochet another case for it as it is now too big for the one I used before and I don't want the screen to get scratched in my bag.

I have managed to let 4 cups of tea go cold today!! ... I get too engrossed in what ever I am doing ... wish me luck with this one! have a lovely evening everyone x

so I am on a bit of a roll stocking up my little shop ... this time I want to show you my blue flower range
... I have been making these badges, magnets and compact mirrors for years. I painted these flowers back in 2002 and they were made into cards straight away. I have re-done the cards thought, as a pack of 8 notelets ... 2 of each design.


They are available in my little shop ... along with some of my other goodies x

do you remember the EWE greetings cards I made last year? ...... well I have re-vamped them ... given them a new look ... what do you think?



I am so pleased with them ... especially the Christmas one ... they are £2.00 from my shop.

baaa ;)

last week end I dug out my paints and had a play ... and a little spider popped up in all my paintings ... Sidney the Spider ...




Its been ages since I did some watercolour ... I have decided to keep my sketchbook out and see if any other little animals come and visit me :D

I am really pleased with how they have turned out, and so have made them into a few goodies in my shop.
First I made them into greetings cards ...
my favourite is the Christmas one ...
... and here is what I made on Sunday ... greetings cards, magnets, badges and compact mirrors ...


... isn't he sweet! I have so many more ideas for him!

I made this little owl this evening ...
I made it up as I went along, and after I had finished (or thought I had) I had to add a little tail at the back so she could stand up with out toppling over ...
she measures 8cm tall and I am really pleased with how she has turned out :D

Remember the little girl owl bell I got the other week?

well her little friend arrived last Wednesday .... and he is PERFECT ... he is 'my' little owl' ... look ...


he is just like my picture ...

He has flown all the way from the US ... so I gave him a wash and put some lavender inside him to make him smelling nice and he is now sitting next to his little friend on my dresser.

... I found him on Etsy and he was only a few quid.


Please pop over to MissieLizzie's blog to see more great bargains and links to other MagpieMonday's.

You know my little owl ... this little owl ...


... well I have been looking for him everywhere ... and then I found him ... happy day! but he is currently not in this country and to save his little wings I asked how much it would cost for him to catch a lift on a plane ... the seller took and while to answer so I am still waiting for him ... but while looking for him, I found a little friend for him ... a little girl friend ...

... isn't she sweet ... she is in perfect condition with no chips or cracks and is actually a little bell!
she was only a couple of quid and I love her!! I can't wait for my other little owl now ... they will enjoy sitting together and making friends!

Please pop over to MissieLizzie's blog to see more great bargains and links to other MagpieMonday's.

I have had a lovely weekend with my sis-in-law, brother, gorgeous niece and crazy-pup who all came to stay for a few days :) It has been really lovely and I was very sorry to see them go yesterday.

I feel so inspired with lots of lovely ideas and projects for Maria's Little Owl ... I can't wait to get started ... I must make a note of them all while I remember them all! (sorry, can't share any yet)
I really must make myself a time table ... my time seems to get frittered away, and weeks are flying by ... I don't seem to be able to get on top of anything and there are so many things I want to do.
Do you like what I made yesterday? The little flower I made for Bex just before they left to go home, and the little owl is just for me :)
I also wanted to remind you that I have a GIVEAWAY on at the moment ...
I hope you will enter :)
Have a good week x

I have had a few facebook pages ... for my business, for my craft blog and for other things ... sadly facebook won't let you change the name of your page ... well you can if you have less that 200 likes, but not the URL, just the name of your page, but I have tried this before and although it says it's do-able ... it doesn't work.

... so I have had to make a new one and here it is ~ my new page ...

... I hope you will pop by and chat ... I want it to be a lovely social space where we can share and talk about things we love ... crafts, fashion, shopping, bargains and general prettiness!

In my massive internet re-arrange, (I seem to pick the stupidest time to act on an idea ... like when I can't sleep in the middle of the night) ... well as you know, or may not know, I am combining my craft blog to this blog, so Maria's Craft Corner will (eventually) be no more ...

Maria's Craft Corner was not only the name for my crafty blog, but also my online shops and my twitter. I actually have a couple of twitter accounts. One was for my business when I was self employed and one more personal ... (I want to keep them both). My personal one is @mariainthewood and the name ties in with my blog. I follow lots of family on it and like having a smaller account so their tweets don't get lost the the tweet stream. My other twitter, which I have had for years, for my business, I have made lots of lovely friends on. It has had a few name changes in its time ... and now its time for another one ...
So if you now see me in your stream and wonder who I am ... @mariaslittleowl ... its me!!!

I was going to just call my shops 'MARIA in the WOOD' too, but I am so loving maria's little owl, that if you pop round to my Folksy, eBay or Etsy (which is empty at the moment) you will find a little owl there now :)

........ but I do need your help ... you may have seen that my little owl is already used on my website and in a few other graphics I have made for this blog ... I like that ... I like that my little owl ties in with my overall look and I want my shop banners to fit in too ... so here are a few I have made and I just wondered which you preferred (if any!)

please note that they are actually bigger than this blog is letting me show them - if you click on them, you can see them enlarged.





oooh, the lines in the newspaper background is really showing up with them being smaller ... not sure I like that!

anyway, what do you think?
any you like?

I also have a little suppy shop called ButterflyBuys on Folksy and I have re-done its banner too ...

... so you can see the theme I have going on.

Would love to know what you think :)

7.5.12:
... a bit more playing and just want to add ...