Hi..my name is Gail and I love to write, paint and make things...especially my little handstitched mice!

Monday 31 December 2012

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that we all have a bright, happy and blessed 2013, full of 'things that have never been', as one quote has it.

The mice are starting to sell well, so I am currently working on a catalogue, which should be available (in either print or online format) in a few weeks time, either for individuals who wish to purchase them, or stores who are interested in carrying my line.  (Just one point I need to make - although I am currently based in South Africa, I am happy to send my mice anywhere in the world - they are definitely not the stay-at-home types!

Just another little picture - this time of a trio of happy mice - an angel mouse, Camomile with her teapot, and a little African mouse called Lerato - her name means love in the local Setswana language.  Her dress is made of a traditional style African fabric - this one is blue and white, but it is also available in shades of brown, red, orange, green and purple!  We are a colorful lot down here!


















So, there we have three little ladies, wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2013.

Smiles

Gail

Friday 30 November 2012

A big change!

Hello again - after another long silence.  This is a big change, in that I have renamed this blog 'Rosebud Lane' - I feel this is a better description for the things I want to showcase on my blog, especially my little mice!
As I have mentioned before, although I continue to do stitchery designs, and hope I always will! - I am also busy with writing, illustrations and the aforementioned mice, and I want to give these things more prominence in the blog going forward.  Hence the name change - which also ties in with my email address for ease of contact.
Hope to hear feedback from some of you going forward - and I will have a new blog title picture (and other pictures of what I have been up to!) to show you very soon.
Happy end of the month - and I hope you are all looking forward to a bright and blessed festive season.
Smiles
Gail

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Still here!

   Greetings to all.  I cannot believe it is more than two months since my last post on this blog - my only excuse being that things have been just a little hectic!  There were some family issues to deal with, in that my mom had a car accident - fortunately it could have been a lot worse, but she still had to cope with some physical and emotional trauma as a result.
   I have also been very busy doing the copy and recipes for my baking book, which is (hopefully) going to be published in September next year.  This is so exciting, as it is something I have dreamed of doing for years and years.  And, hopefully, it will lead on to even better things!
   I did make a decision not to continue with my teatime blog (mentioned in my last post).  I felt it lacked focus, and I also want to work on a more general blog going forward, still with a cottage theme, but covering different things like food, crafts and simple country traditions. 
   This will probably have to wait a little while, as I have also been invited to take part in a very popular Christmas craft market in early December;  I think this is a wonderful opportunity to showcase my mice and some of the other things I make, but obviously it's also going to be a lot of work getting enough stock together.  Between this, and my book and designing, I certainly can't complain about being bored!
   Another little Christmas mousie for you today - a snowmouse, this time, frosty white but cosy in his scarf and hat.



  I also have a couple of Christmas cross stitch designs in UK magazines at the moment - an advent calendar in the current issue of World of Cross Stitching, and a snow globe design in Cross Stitch Gold.  I'm pleased with the way they turned out, and hope people enjoy stitching them!
   Time to get back to the mice and book - hopefully my next post will happen really soon.  And I hope, too, that all of you are enjoying the last few months of 2012, wherever you may be.

Smiles

Gail

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Something new. . .

  Hello to all.  Once again time seems to be slipping away from me, as I have not done a post for almost two weeks!  There are a couple of things I want to share, though.  First, I have started another blog - it's called www.teatimeatthecottage.blogspot.com, and I created it to share my love of baking, tea time and simple country pleasures.  I hope to include lots of my favorite recipes and other good things on this blog as time goes on, and would certainly love your input, and recipes, too!
   I've also made a few decisions as regards my needlework designs.  I have been doing designs for magazines in both the US and UK for around twenty years now (oops!), but am finding this aspect of my work more difficult as time goes on.  There are fewer needlework magazines being published now, to begin with; styles and ideas have also changed, which is inevitable in many ways, but this is making it much harder to get designs sold!
   So, while I will obviously honor my existing design commitments with magazines, I will probably do less of them in the future, and focus on other creative aspects of my life - my writing and art, certainly, and the Mice of Rosebud Lane, which have taken off really well.  I will continue to do needlework designs, though, and hopefully sell some of these through this blog;  I'd also really love to do a cottage-style needlework book (including cross stitch, freehand embroidery and simple patchwork) one day - if I can find a publisher!
  It's about finding balance - and following one's heart - what life is all about, really. 
   Hope you are all having a great week thus far - and following your own hearts!
Smiles
Gail

Monday 23 July 2012

Time Goes By. . .

   Hello everyone!  Perhaps you are like me - wondering where the year is going to, so fast?  I find it hard to believe we are almost at the end of July!  I had good intentions of doing a post every week - at least - but now I see more than ten days have gone by.  Time is so precious, and yet it slips away so quickly.
   A friend of mine reminded me, the other day, that it won't be long before we see the first Christmas decorations and gifts appearing in the shops - they seem to arrive earlier all the time,which is a pity, in some ways.
   I am busy stitching, and designing - as always, and making some progress on my first design for the French publishers.  It's a detailed piece on natural linen, and I hope will look really good when it is done.  Also working on more designs to put on my blog.
   The little picture is of a collectible Christmas mouse, which I recently completed - she is called, naturally, Merry, the Christmouse, and she carries her own little handstitched felt stocking.  I think she will make a cute companion to any Christmas celebration!
   I've had a good response to my mice - and am waiting to hear back about a larger order from a company.  Of course, if that happens I will probably have to get someone to help me stitch them, as they are quite detailed and time consuming.
   Hope you all have a wonderful week, and enjoy every precious moment!
Smiles,
Gail
 

Thursday 12 July 2012

A Little Angel for you!

  Hello everyone - I intended to do a post at the weekend, but time seemed to get away from me again!  Lots to do right now, which is, of course, a good thing.  I am, as I mentioned before, working on two stitched projects for French needlework magazines, and also want to get started on a new design of my own!  It's already charted, and I have all the supplies, so I just need to get to it.
   I have had a really good week, with a few special blessings - one of them being that a publisher has come back to me about a cookbook proposal I sent them a little while ago - and they are interested in publishing it!  This is a long-cherished dream of mine, and althought nothing is definite yet this is particularly wonderful news.  More about this in due course.
   In the meantime, I thought I would put up a picture of another one of my little mice - this one is a little angel with tiny felt wings, and I made her for my mom for Mother's Day this year.  I think we all have angels around us - and they bring all sorts of untold blessings into our lives, every day!


   Anyway, I hope you are all having a happy and blessed week, and enjoying whatever gifts life brings to you today!
   Smiles
   Gail

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Sweetheart Cottage

   Hello to all.  And I hope those of you who live in the US are having a very happy and peaceful 4th of July celebration!
  I have finally finished stitching the Sweetheart Cottage piece I mentioned in a previous posting.  I hoped it would be done last week, but life just has a way of getting away from us sometimes!  It's a fun and pretty piece, not too large, 91 stitches wide by 112 stitches high, with just a few specialty stitches.  And I love the misty blue Belfast linen I used;  it seems to set off the colors really well.  Those of you who are familiar with my designs will know birds, cottages and roses are among my favorite subjects, so this design ticks all the boxes!
   Here is a photograph of the finished stitching - again, apologies for the less than brilliant photography - still something I need to work on.
   This design chart can be ordered from me, either as a pdf file which I will send to you directly, or as a chartpack which can be mailed anywhere in the world.  If you are interested, please send me an email at rosebudlane@gmail.com, and I will let you have pricing and other details.
   More stitching to do now, including the designs for the French publisher - and I am still working on my handwritten and illustrated 'cottage cookbook'- more about that at a later date.  This last week was not the easiest one for me - stress and worry about things happening in my life - but I was reminded, yet again, how important (and healing!) creativity is.  Whatever might be happening, if I sit down with my stitchng, or my paints, or even just make a batch of pancakes - I feel better and more connected, both to myself, and to life.
   I hope, whoever and wherever you are, that you are enjoying peace and joy this week.
Smiles
Gail

Thursday 21 June 2012

La Vie en Rose!

  Hello to all.  Just a bit of good news that I wanted to share about my stitching designs - I am so happy that a major French publishing company, Editions de Saxe, which produces a number of beautiful creative publications, is interested in buying two of my designs!  They will, hopefully, appear in early 2013 - one for Valentine's Day, and the other a spring project.  So, I will have plenty to do in the next month or so, as I will also be stitching and finishing the pieces (which I quite like to do anyway, since that way I can see if colors etc are not working too well.)
  I only discovered French needlework magazines towards the end of last year, by chance really online, and I fell in love with them.  The designs all seem have a kind of typical French elegance and charm, even the simple ones.  They often also feature just a single color, or sometimes several shade variants of one color, and it is amazing just how effective this can be.  I also like the fact that most of the designs tend to be stitched on linen (often quite high-count, too) - in gorgous subtle shades of ivory, taupe, grey or natural.  Aida fabric does not seem to be all that popular - nor are lots of fractional stitches and backstitch.  This suits me - I find doing lots of backstitch totally boring, although I know it does have its place!
  If you would like to check out some of these magazines for yourself, here are a couple of websites.  A really good one, in English and several other languages, is the Italian needlework site, http://www.casacenina.com/. There's a lovely French magazine called Creation Point de Croix, which also has an English site, at http://www.creationpointdecroix.com/ .  Editions de Saxe, which I mentioned above, site is http://www.edisaxe.com/. This site is in French, but if you have some basic knowledge of French, or a French/English dictionary, you should be able to navigate around the site without too much trouble.
  Just a picture to finish off with - this is one of my little artworks, which I did a while ago;  it features two of my favorite subjects - cottages and teatime!  I am planning on adapting this into a cross stitch design - hopefully once I have completed these magazine projects, and also the Sweetheart Cottage design I am currently stitching.
  Hope you are all having a great week - and please let me know what you think of

Saturday 16 June 2012

The Mice of Rosebud Lane

  Hello!  Hope you are all having a good weekend.  In this post I want to tell you about something else I create, apart from my needlework designs and artworks.

  Many years ago I was given a little gray felt mouse as a gift;  she was tiny, no more than 2 inches high, and had a little felt jacket, lace collar and skirt made of tartan ribbons.  She stood on my dressing table for a long time, but eventually got lost during a house move.  Some time back I decided to try and make my own version of this little mouse - only a bit bigger!  After a couple of rather odd attempts, I got my first prototype pattern right, and started creating a whole village of different little mice. 

 I made a few as gifts, initially, and then people started ordering them for special people or occasions.  So, here are the first two I ever designed.  Camomile is one of my favorite mice, with her little teapot and hand knitted shawl;  I just had to take a photo of her with one of my lovely Royal Albert teacups!
  Another mouse I made for a friend, who is absolutely mad about knitting, is called Miss Purl;  she has a little knitted cardigan, and carries her needles and yarn with her wherever she goes.
 
These mouse stand around 13 cm (5 inches) high, and are completely hand stitched and crafted.  They are made from high quality felt, cotton quilting fabrics and natural yarns.  Should you be interested in ordering one, please send me a email at rosebudlane@gmail.com, and I will send you all the details, pricing and so on.  (Prices include airmail postage anywhere in the world).  I can also meet specific requests, as regards colors of dresses and so on.

 Some people have asked whether I supply patterns and/or kits of these mice - at the moment I have no plans to do so, but I am working on a book idea featuring all these mice and their accessories - so we'll have to wait and see about that!

 Anyway, back to the needles - I am working on a new cross stitch design called Sweetheart Cottage, that I hope to showcase on this blog very soon.  In the meantime, I hope you are all having a joy-filled weekend, wherever you are!
Smiles
Gail

Friday 15 June 2012

Welcome to my new blog!

My name is Gail Bussi - those of you who are needleworkers may know me as a needlework designer, whose work has appeared in lots of different magazines and other publications.  Now I have decided to take a bold leap and start my own blog! - to share some of my designs and other things I create.

Apart from cross stitch and other forms of embroidery I also love - just for starters - art and design, writing, cooking and baking, teatime, and everyday simple joys like my little dog, Rosie. 

Some of my many dreams include:  writing cookbooks, getting my little artworks published as cards, fabric designs or in calendars, and - one day - opening my own little cottage teashop, with a section dedicated to selling stitched items and patterns, too.

Here is a picture of one of my latest cross stitch designs - this one will probably appear in a magazine in due course.  I decided to finish it slightly different to the usual framed piece;  it's a little bit lopsided, but I am pleased with the overall look on the fabric background, and hopefully I will get better with this finishing as time goes on! And my photography skills also need some work, I know.

I would love for you to leave a comment on this blog - it would be much appreciated.  If you prefer to contact me directly, please feel free to email me at:  rosebudlane@gmail.com.

Smiles

Gail