Where have you gone, dear mice?

Hello Everyone!

Oh dear, since Nat has been having one crazy mad year, the dear mice and bunnies of Nat's Nest have been having a very long break. They will be back, I promise, but for now they are having a bit of a hibernate.

I'm still being a little creative bunny though, so it seems a shame not to update this blog with some of my other work. A while ago Nat's Nest made embroidery's and prints, and luckily I've found an absolutely fabulous local print company, so some of my prints will hopefully be online soon.

My latest work is a painting called 'The Fairy Ball' and I promise to publish my sketches soon! Here is my inspiration ...

Aren't they beautiful Autumn pictures? Watch this space...

I've also discovered a beautiful writer called Kahlil Gibran, who wrote some very inspirational words back in the 1920's. I've always loved poetry and language, and I've always wanted to produce images linked to words... perhaps that will be my next project! This is taken from a writing entitled 'Joy and Sorrow'

''Some of you say ''Joy is greater than sorrow''
and others say ''Nay, sorrow is the greater''
But I say unto you, they are inseparable
Together they come,
and when one sits alone with you at your board,
Remember the other is asleep on your bed''

This year I have had a fair amount of sorrow, I am in hope for the joy.

We Love...Tempest Apparel!

Hello Everyone! I'd love to introduce my new favourite fashion label today to you all ...

''T E M P E S T      A P P A R E L ''

Maybe you know and maybe you don't - previously I studied a fashion design degree in Winchester, and while I was there I lived with Daisy, who is just this amazingly talented, creative girly. She has set up her own design label 'Tempest Apparel' which features her absolutely fab print designs - they are both vintagy but modern looking and oh so, so unique and individual.

In her own words.......

''The signature of the company is to liven up the plain white tee; like a blank canvas cries out to be painted, a white tee craves to be embellished, decorated and printed on''

My favs are the 'Bowie-Tee' (Here in the nest we are secret David Bowie fans - and we like vinyl, not CDs, teehee)

And this lovely 'Alice in Wonderland' Tee

Gorgeous, aren't they? And by buying from Tempest Apparel not only will you have a very unique T-Shirt, but you are supporting British and Handmade! Yay! (Whats not to like about that?)

For you Londonites you can catch Daisy on Sundays at the Sunday Upmarket (The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane)...or if you live out in the country, like me, you can pop over to her website to browse.

I recommend you pop over to Daisy's website anyway actually - she has the most fantastic, inspiring blog full of wonderful images and she really deserves some more followers .

Heehee...heres something Daisy might not thank me for, here we both are grooving at the Lattitude Festival but we do both have Tempest Apparel T-shirts on so I think its justified! Just look at that blue sky - where has summer gone hey?

Ooo, and I've been working on some more embroideries (its lions and foxes at the moment!) ...stay tuned for a peek next time :)

Bunnify Your Life!

Hi Folks! Have you seen this new website yet?

A little while ago I was approached by Anna from Widget & Friends. Being a bunny lover, she had this fab idea to help real - life rabbits, by raising money for the The Rabbit Welfare Association.

To do this she decided to make a completely non - profit website promoting fantastic bunnified handmade things. All the sellers featured on the website make a donation to the Rabbit Welfare Fund rather than pay a membership fee.

Of course I had to support such a wonderful idea!

Go check out all the fab bunny things featured on

THE     HANDMADE     BUNNY!

Over there you can find my curious carrots....

Anna's gorgeous sock bunnies ... ( I have two now - have to restrain myself from buying more!)

Bunny artwork ...

This is by Mimilove on Folksy

And lots of general animal loveliness...

This is by Sarah Birt Jewellry on Etsy (Yes I still have a thing for foxes too!)

So get yourself over there now! And follow the Bunny Blog!

Well done to Anna - she has already raised £277.00 for the RWF, yay!

Love, Love, Love!

This weekend I went to my cousins wedding. It was absolutely fantastic - my cousin and his wife have known each other since childhood! I created some wedding mice for them - the groom is a bit of a surfer dude so the little groom mouse has a little Hawaiian print waistcoat.

I thought you might also like to see the cake - it was made by the bride's aunt so it was a complete surprise to both of them - look at the little icing hearts all over it! Such a shame to cut it up really!

Anyway this got me thinking about the nature of love. I know everyone talks about love as something that you find - but I guess its the other way round - when your ready and open to it, love finds you. And we need love in our lives - as much as its good to be alone, its the best to know that you are loved and there are people that you can turn to when the going gets tough.

As I like giving you things to watch too, here are two of my favourite love songs. The videos are very amazing too - so sweet and inspiring. This one I love for all the little glances the people involved give eachother -




And this one would not let me embed it but go and watch it on youtube if you fancy - you need to watch until the ending!




I think love is like that - like a release, if you hold yourself back, you can't fall in love - you can't hear the music or see the colour. Love never dies - even if that person we love is no longer around, we still keep on loving them - its such a strong emotion. The world would lack colour without love.

'Supose I keep on singing love songs - Just to break my own fall'

'Dance Like Nobody's Watching'

I absolutely love this quote from Mark Twain - the full quote goes like this:

“Sing like no one's listening,
love like you've never been hurt,
dance like nobody's watching,
and live like its heaven on earth.”

I guess it inspires me to take each day one step at a time without worrying about the past or future. It reminds me that each day is precious, limited and unique, that I need to make the most of each moment. Something, that when I feel all stressed about bills or work - is easy to forget.

My fabulous friend Daisy sent me this little video -
Its a film called

'How to be Alone'

by video and filmaker, Andrea Dorfman, and poet/singer/songwriter, Tanya Davis.
The poem has the line 'Dance like nobody is watching' too.
I found this so inspirational - because often I find myself alone - and wonder if it's a bad thing. We all need time alone, I think. We need to figure out who we are and be happy with our own company. The video also has some pretty little illustrations of birds, I had to share it with you all.






Other people can put it better than I can - Brett Dennen sings...

''I wish to sing as if no ones listening
I wish to dance as if no one is watching
And i, give thanks for my dreams
You can rob me of my sight
And you can poison my blood stream
But as long as I can dream then life is worth living ''

Sometimes I feel like giving up - and sometimes I feel lost, but this reminds me to always have hope.

Illustration : 'Lost in the Forest'

Festival Fun & Folics!

A week ago I left the Bunnies and Mice in charge of Nat's Nest - knowing that generally they are a very responsible bunch - and went off to Latitude Festival .

Its a music festival a little like Glastonbury - only a bit posher - and is near my original hometown in Sunny Suffolk. Along with all the fun and folics and blurry photos of Florence and the Machine, I actually managed to take some rather arty pictures too, which I thought would be good to share.

Sign Post Tree

Fashion by Central Saint Martins Graduates - this was actually really amazing - on a runway over the river!

Peace Tree

Brolly Tree

A rather spooky lamp in the middle of the woods....feeling a bit like Alice down the rabbit hole...

An NSDF production of Wind in the Willows - Toad at the top, he was fantastic.

The moon - reminds me of the Mighty Boosh!

And men with guitars -these were rather a lot of these!

Hmm...I did find some little festival mice at Latitude too - the rest of the nest are rather wary of their bohemian ways, but I'm sure they will fit right in.

Hope you enjoyed them!

After retuning from the festival, I was exhausted, but finally have recoved now after almost a week and am feeling ready for some creativity again :)

Wedding Bells Ring!

Today the Mice and Bunnies have been all excited, as the first ever Wedding took place in Carrotby ! The pirate mice supplied all the food (cheese and carrot cake mostly!) and were very nearly late as their boat hit a small whirlpool and almost capsized - but Captain Jack being the experienced pirate he is managed to navigate through it and thankfully they still arrived on time (the cheese being just the tiniest bit soggy). Here are the blushing Bride and Groom, available now in my Folksy Store...

And the rabbits of course decided they would like some Bunny - themed stationary for their wedding, and stealing the laptop, went undercover to browse through Folksy. They loved this fabulous card by Under the Stairs Studios...

And also found these rather wonderful Fortune Cookie Wedding Favours by 2 Green Monkeys

Isn't that a lovely idea?


Little bridesmaids and pageboy bunnies will be hopping their way into the nest shortly. And the mice want to get in on the wedding action too...


Nat's Nest blog will be moving shortly...please watch this space!