Happy New Year!

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I Make Dolls - Buy a Kid a Doll for Christmas

Mrs Fox's has allowed us the freedom to start making things again.  It's silly really, I shouldn't have needed to start a small business to have this freedom, but somehow I did.  And it has taken two years for me to start making these dolls, because I was not sure what they would look like.   I'm still not sure, but the above picture is of my first 4; "The Party Gang".

I've always made things, I loved art at school, I just wanted to make things all the time.  I watch my daughter's absorbed, intent, crafting of hedgehog houses and wooden peg dolls (this week) with complete understanding. And when I was little I loved making things for my dolls. Playing with them was all about creating their world: Their clothes, gardens, suitcases, cars, animals, furniture, tents, houses, horses, boats, gypsy caravans, farm, horse drawn carriages, boyfriends... to name but a few of the remembered projects, the list is endless.  I made their world, and that is only part of what is wonderful about dolls.

My mother in law always tells me proudly that she was not a 'girly girl' and never played with dolls.  I always reply that, I am not, and was not, a girly girl but that I loved dolls and played with them a lot. And my son likes to play with dolls too.  My children have beautiful dolls, often ones that I, or someone else, have hand-made. There is a story to every one they have and they are special.

I am still working through what it is that I think is so special about dolls.  I know many people will not agree with me.  That they are often seen as a bit boring, babyish and the culprits of gender stereotyping.  They are not of course, it's people who gender stereotype.  Even Barbie, who I despise, in the hands of a little girl can do all sorts of amazing things.  My daughter's Barbie has been known to fight in intergalactic battles and clearly has super powers of some kind.  (And also pink fairy wings!)

I make dolls - buy a kid a doll for Christmas - one made by hand.  It doesn't have to be one of mine, there are some far more beautiful dolls out there.  But, I think they are misunderstood and I think they can be the agents of enormous creativity.  I make dolls with love and to be loved.  I really do.  For me, they are the repository of memories and emotions and they can be the agents of change and creativity.  They can be comfort and they can help work out problems.  Dolls are wonderful, wonderful toys.

I'm crafting 4 dolls at the moment for a little girl and her cousins:

Dog steals leg...

And from this point on it is mostly hand stitching... so I had better get back to it.

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A Creative Weekend

Monday, and I've;

taken the little foxes to school;

walked the dogs;

baked some bread;

packed some foxes;

have a new host of felted animals on Folksy,

feeling pretty good.  What did you do today?

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Today - I am mostly, all over the place...

I am working on some lovely projects at the moment, but I feel, all over the place:

Mrs Fox's new handmade dolls, The Party Gang - need to go up on our  Folksy store asap

New bread maker to get used to.

Just joined Twitter and am all of a flutter

User testing biscuit recipes for the November Christmas Crafty Box

And a wonderful, colourful party for a little girl who loves books

Oh, and I have to paint 4 paper lanterns peach and 24 toilet rolls red, I had an idea you see...

And then, there are the Christmas Crafty boxes of course:

Post by Mrs Fox's.

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All Nearly Done - Competitions, Parties, Boxes and a Studio

Since Valentines day it has been a rather crazy busy week or so. I have not updated our blog as I have simply fallen into bed exhausted every night with nothing to say and fingers too tired to type.  There is still time to get involved with the 'imapiece' Craftivist Jigsaw Project and sign the Save the Children epetition.  I know that we have not published the winner of the vintage Ladybird book - Learning to Sew yet, so, here it is:

What have we been doing?

Well, it's been half term and here at Mrs Fox's February is party month.  We have parties this month including three of our own little foxes and Mr Neil Fox.  Mr Fox is 40 and obviously found turning 40 more traumatic than a celebration.  I must admit I was surprised.  I thought it was only women who greeted the passing of such a milestone with such undisguised dread.  When I said I really needed to update our blog he gave me full permission to use his trauma as an excuse for my neglect.

On the other paw it is always a joy to work on a party for the little foxes.  We always get to be so much more inventive with our own parties as, to be honest, we can talk our own little foxes into things we wouldn't try out on a client.  As I knew we would be particularly busy this February I had warned my little ones that it was going to be small parties this year and they could have a little garden party in the summer with their friends to make up for it.  Little Una Fox will turn 7 next Wednesday and we have worked on a Peacock Party to celebrate.  What is a Peacock Party I hear you cry.  Well here is the moodboard and which includes Una's picture that inspired the whole thing, further details and some great 'how to'-guides will follow shortly.

Mrs Fox's first Crafty Box is due to be sent out soon and the finishing touches are just being added to  a great new project from Mrs Fox's.  We will be sending out a Mrs Fox's Crafty Boxes every month filled with themed children's craft projects and a variety of ideas and suggestions around that month's theme to fuel your child's imagination and aid you in developing their interest and enthusiasm for making things.  If you are interested in subscribing to Mrs Fox's Crafty Boxes further details are here please email us if you are interested.

And finally Mrs Fox is, almost, nearly ensconced in her new studio.  There is much still to do and the smell of paint and floor sealant is almost overpowering.  But it makes me so happy to sit in here and type this blog post.

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Mrs Fox's Crafty Boxes - Q & A's...

Mrs Fox’s Crafty Boxes questions and answers. 
Starting this Easter we will be creating craft kits for children delivered to your door on a monthly basis.    

How much is a monthly subscription?                                 

Each month works out at a cost of £10.50 per box plus P&P. 

(P&P £4.95)

Do we have to subscribe on a yearly basis?

As a new venture, we will be asking for payment for each forthcoming 3 months.  We will require 1 months written notice (an email to info@mrsfoxs.com will do) if you do not wish to renew your subscription.  

These boxes sound interesting but I have 2 children… I can’t buy them each a box, how can this work for me?

Our boxes will always contain plenty enough for you to be able to make at least 3 of the main craft.  On top of this, we will also include at least 3 additional craft ideas so there will be plenty to get on with.  In fact, if you have a friend back after school, you will have enough to keep them all busy.

I can buy craft packs from my local supermarket, why are yours different or better?

The creations that will emerge from our box will not be like anything you can buy in the supermarket or even major craft shops.  We take pride in coming up with something a little different.  We also, where possible, use natural or recyclable materials.  We will even have you recycling items from your own home.  We aim to have you and your child creating items that you will not want to throw away.  We will only use plastic or foam if there is no alternative.  The designs are our own and much of our kit is hand crafted or cut by us.

My children are aged 4, 6 and 10, will they all get something to do from this box?

We spend a lot of time trying to design our products with variations for age.  We offer more difficult, alternative methods so that the interest of older children is held and their own inspired imaginations are encouraged.  We like to think that children up to 12 years old might enjoy customising our crafts and stamping their own identity on them.

I have a boy and a girl, on your site you point us to a sleeping princess kit, how are they both going to enjoy this?

• As much as possible, we make our boxes non-gender specific.  As parents of both boys and girls, we are aware that sometimes gender is a very grey area and at other times, the divide is glaringly obvious.  We use this experience in our designs.  If one of our crafts errs towards the feminine, we will offset this or spin it so that a boy will be interested.  For example, our Easter craft box will offer the chance to make tulips or daffs for mum or grandma.  Both my sons love to give me flowers (usually picked from some-one’s garden) and pictures as much as my daughter does and they all love making anything out of cardboard.
• We will ask upon subscription, the sex of your child/children in order that we can make adjustments should any craft be, to our mind, too gender specific.

If you have any more questions about our boxes, please leave them in the comments box below and we will do our best to answer them as soon as possible.

If you’re one of our 50% off-ers….

If you are lucky enough to be a winner of our fantastic Mrs Fox’s discount, we ask for a little something from you in return.

We would appreciate it if you would take the time to send us pictures of some of the things you make from our boxes, maybe even piccies of you and your children (or just their hands) making them.  We would also be grateful for comments and feedback (good or bad) so that we can constantly revise our plans for future boxes.

We’re not asking that you do this every time you receive your box but we hope to build a little place where people can share their crafting experiences and offer hints and tips to each other.

Thank you!

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What did you make?

I'm going to use Nina Fox's Tuesday blog to make a leap.  The bear in the Ladybird book is clearly good company for humans and safe to be around - and fittingly, so was the polar bear that my foxy family built this weekend.
We started off with a snowman outside the house, a snowman of which we were very proud.  Definitely our best yet and with proper arms, no less.

The next day, we set off for the park with no real plan other than to get the wee foxes out to expend some energy.

???!

But Daddy Fox had his own energy to spend and when we got to the park, he started off rolling snow in his normal fashion and then, for reasons known only to himself, didn't make a ball for the bones of a snowman but started off into the park rolling his snow into a rather large wheel...?

As I watched and laughed at the building of his bizarre sculpture, the oldest 2 wee foxes had shot off making their own 'boulders'...

Sadly, Daddy's 'wheel' collapsed under it's own weight but determined to make something to be proud of, he reconstructed it into a comfy chair...

We decided that whoever came to sit in the chair should have someone to talk to and so I set about making a smaller boulder.  With great strain and difficulty, we stacked the 2 larger boulders up, then I popped my smaller, much lighter large ball on top.  Pretty quickly, we had fashioned our unfeasibly large snowballs into a new friend, Mr Polar the Bear.
I'm not a fan of snow and cold weather but this year has been our most fun snowy year yet.

If you too had lots of fun building in the snow, please comment on this post and add a link to your pictures.  We'd love to see them.

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At the beginning of a new year

Here at Mrs Fox's HQ (with clean ovens!), we've been looking back on 2012 and thinking about what we did right and what we could do better.  And we have big new crafty plans for 2013?!  January is that kind of reflective time of the year isn't it?

I was looking back at our very first blog post.  I remember writing it bubbling with ideas and good intentions.  With two small children (And Jackie has three!) there is just never quite the time to do it all.   But through 2012 our fledgling business has become more defined and with loads of hard work we've managed to build a website and have really rediscovered the joy of making things.

There's loads still to do on our website; we need to update the information about Mrs Fox's parties, Party Bags and our Party Boxes; which are a great way to save you time and stress on your children's birthday parties.  Take a look.  Everything you need to create a themed children's party, with a crafty nostalgic twist can be delivered straight to your door by Mrs Fox's.  There'll be plenty more blog posts on party ideas and FREE downloads to help you throw great parties for your little uns.

Christmas this year we sold lots of our handmade gifts through Folksy.com.  I can't recommend Folksy enough as a place to find brilliant, original, hand-made in the UK items for you, your children and your home.

We have gone through some of our craft ideas and prototypes from last year and have just added them to our Folksy store.  Pictured above are our lavender ladies to help your little-uns sleep, a pocket sized hand embroidered mermaid, little foxes that we have turned into craft kits, a sleeping princess in a bag that we developed for our Princess and the Pea Party, and craft kits for children.  We are still developing most of these ideas and later in the year we'll be adding even more party-wares, craft kits and gifts to Mrs Fox's Handmade.  So the items in the store at the moment really are one (or two, or three) -offs!  No more once they've gone.

We also have loads of new crafts projects you can do with your children to keep them busy and happy and have finally found a little more time to dedicate to Mrs Fox's Crafty Boxes.  We've been bubbling away at these since Mrs Fox's was conceived and are finally preparing to try out our ideas with you.  We will be revealing more over the next couple of weeks.

Last but by no means least, we have a relatively new relationship guest blogging on our crafts for the marvellous Baba Blog.

The Baba Blog was founded by Leonora Bamford to provide mothers and mothers to be with free expert advice from the UK’s top experts. The Baba Blog also has a host of wonderful guest bloggers who share tips and information on everything from fun family recipes, days out, and craft ideas to new products and experiences.

There is so much to look forward to in 2013.

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