It’s funny how inspiration strikes.

I mentioned in my last post how last Saturday I’d spent the day at Hope and Elvis, learning to make little shoes with artist Serena Partridge.

Well, when I was there I purchased a little something from Louise’s “Shop of Temptations”, a small but enchanting emporium from which I have been tempted beyond all resistance before.

This is what I bought…They don’t look much really, do they? Little circles of fabric, long ago gathered up, stitched and pressed by some unknown hand.

Yoyos, they are called, and they are usually used to make quilts, or table covers, or the like.

Their size, colours and patterns spoke to me…What they whispered in my ear was (ssshh, say it quietly) “mouse berets”.

I’ve had a few mice on the go since before I went on holiday. Not finished, just blind and blank, awaiting their personalities.

Suddenly, it was clear that what at least one of them was waiting for was a beret.And once the beret was in place, it was clear that the mouse sporting it held artistic aspirations.

Because that beret has a certain look about it.

A look that demands an artist’s smock to go with it…A rummage in the fabric stash turned up a nice tray cloth in just the right sort of weighty linen, with the added bonus of drawn thread work around the edges and a lovely bit of hand embroidery on the back.

I don’t even have to feel guilty about cutting it up, blessed as it was with marks and stains from use that had no doubt hastened it’s journey to the charity shop where I had found it.And of course, there had to be a paintbrush, didn’t there?Since this little mouse is quite delicate, she is going to be presented in a glass dome.

Just so she won’t lose her paintbrush, or misplace her beret. She will, however, still be able to pop out for a quick portrait session, whenever her muse strikes. ♥