Don’t worry. Be crafty.

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Hello my lovelies, I am back. My computer situation has not been sorted, but I am making do with it for now. Looking to upgrade later on this year so I can deal for now.  Now on to today’s crafty post.

Have you ever had it when you are overwhelmed with the supplies you own, the ways you could go with a project, or the many ideas floating around in your head?  Or perhaps you are sabotaging yourself with the ever popular “its no good” or “I don’t know what to make”. Well, don’t feel alone, many an artist have gone through these exact same feelings. I myself have suffered with these feelings and thought perhaps I was a weird one.  That is until I found this interesting article about this exact same topic.

Alison Lee of Craftcast broke down typical worries of artists and explained why you shouldn’t take things so seriously and to enjoy and have fun with your art.  I know, easier said than done, but the tips Alison listed really clearify things and make sense out of the garbled mess that can be the artistic mind.  Head on over to Craftcast and read Alison’s article “5 Things The Artisit In You Can Stop Worrying About Right Now!” and finally release those fears, push past your barriers, and get crafty!  I’ll do the same. 

And on that note, I will talk to you lovelies later. Be good until then.  Bye for now.

Looking around at her big stash of stuff,
Michelle

Secret Lives By Terry Border

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A creative guy by the name of Terry Border took a concept, what would happen if regular everyday things took on a life of their, and decided to make that happen through art. In his gallery, pictures like the one above takes regular items like a raisin and puts them into a "real life" situation.  Poor elderly "grape" up there surrounded by the youngsters.  Even me at my age, and I'm not that old people, I can relate to that feeling.  LOL!  The gallery is full of other fun and cute pictures.  One of my favorite is a nibbled and kissed on chocolate bar locking himself into a room trying to save his life.  You have to see it to get it, but trust me, its awesome.  In searching for more from Terry, I found a picture not in his gallery on the page from article that I just had to share with you.

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Too cute and funny right?  Of course now this makes me crave a powdered doughnut, and I'm trying to change my lifestyle and diet. *sigh* Someone out there have one for me, ok.  Thanks.  :-)  Oh and in doing a little search I found where you can see more of his art from this set of objects he calls "Bent Objects", I was in luck and found his blog where he shares them.  Awesome.  There's also a main website, but it doesn't look like its recently been updated.  I'd stick with the blog and his Twitter to keep up with him.

But I just had to share his neat work with you all today.  I love how creative he is and I can't wait to go through his blog and see all that he's done.  Yes, I'm excited. :-)  And on that note I will say good bye to you lovely people.  I shall be back soon with another fun crafty find from the net.  Until then, be good and I will talk to you soon.  Bye for now.

Craving fried and powdery baked goods,
Michelle

Sewing Pattern Reading

With the world of technology, there’s practically nothing you can’t learn about or learn more about on the internet.  This is a great thing for me because I am a very visual learner.  With the help of Youtube and other various websites and blogs I am able to learn a lot about the crafts I am interested.  I learned how to crochet solely by watching great Youtube tutorials on the craft.  So in thinking about how helpful Youtube is to a crafter, I thought I would start sharing some of my favorite videos with you on crafts I do and even some I don’t.  I hope you will find something of interest to you through these videos.

I am trying to relearn how to sew.  It might not be the best thing to be learning on a such a small scale, doll clothing for those who don’t know, but I’m a glutton for a good challenge.  So back in high school when I was taught about sewing, I was never taught how to properly read a pattern.  Oh sure I knew what “cut 2” meant, but there are other parts of the pattern that I didn’t know or understand about until a video I saw yesterday about it.  Curious what I mean?  Have a look at this neat and informative video below.

Short and sweet and too the point.  There were some tips in there I hadn’t hear of before, which will be great knowing now when I try to sew for myself in the new year.  This is just another great example on how Youtube, among many other places, can be super helpful to you in a craft you already love or a craft you are just dying to learn.

Now, if you aren’t a fan of Youtube, especially after their “improvements”, you can still find some great videos out there.  You’ll have to use Google or whatever search engine you prefer.  Go to the search line and type one of two things.  For this example I will use sewing, but of course you will use whatever you are looking for.  In the search line you can type “how to put in a dart”, I find it’s best to put all lower case because upper case can sometimes have them looking only for links with upper case while lower case tends to look through them all.  After you type that and it loads the page, you simply click on your video link at the top of the page and various videos will pop up.  You will of course have Youtube videos show up in the mix, but you will have other options as well.

Now another way you can try searching is typing in the search bar “how to put in a dart+video” or “ “how to put in a dart+video” “.  Now the first option will tell the site you are searching for a video, but it will kind of search for all the words individually.  You will more than likely get videos of how to put in darts in clothing, but don’t be surprised if you get videos on how to put in a dartboard or how to play darts or some other crazy stuff.  Now with the second option that has quotation marks around the phrase, this is telling the site you want to search for the phrase exactly how it is.  Now this will return fewer search results but it will get you closer to your goal of what you are looking for.  These tips will work for any kind of search not just for crafting videos.  But yeah, this search should get your exposed to the various websites and blogs out there that also host crafting videos.

Another suggestion I have is if you know a craft really well and feel you can teach really well you should make a video.  I guarantee people will watch your videos.  There are people looking videos and they need you to make them.  If/when I get to the point I feel I know a craft well enough I will make a video for sure.   Now don’t worry, I’m not asking you to give away your trade secrets, just some hints and tips that are general knowledge or things you don’t use now in your work but used to use with success.  Also, if you watch one of these amazing videos, be sure to pay it forward by “liking” the video and leaving a quick comment to thank the artist/crafter for their tutorial and sharing it with the world.  If we want more videos in the future we have to let those who make them know we appreciate the time and energy it took them to make it for us and we’d be super happy if they decided to grace us with another.  No, don’t kiss up to them,that’s just fake and people can tell fake, just know a little kindness goes a long way.

And well, that’s it for this post.  I just really wanted to share this video with you all and let you know to expect others with you on various crafts.  If there is a craft you are interested in and can’t find information on, let me know and I will see if I can hunt down something for you.  And that’s it ladies gents.  I’m off.  Have an awesome day and be good until next we meet.  Take care.  Bye for now. 

Happily crafting away,
Michelle

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine Blätter?

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So I’m sure most of us learned as a child to sing a favorite Christmas carol, O Christmas Tree, I’ve heard it in both English and German many of times.  But it seems the years since that song was written that Christmas trees have been changing and getting quite, dare I say it, crafty.  As evident from the picture above of a crafty Christmas tree made out of Mountain Dew cans and topped with a Mountain Dew bottle, Christmas tress are a’changin’.  After seeing this picture I was curious what other crafty Christmas trees were out there so I googled Creative Christmas trees, and boy did I find some unique and creative ones.  And of course I had to come share my findings with you.    Have a look at these cool trees.  Click the “source” links under the pictures to go to the website these trees are hanging out on.

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Plywood tree.  I saw a miniature version of this tree as well.  Pretty cool, and you can actually hang ornaments on them or just leave them as is.

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Christmas ornaments hung on wall in the shape of a Christmas tree.  Love this idea.  Also made me think you could something like this with varying sizes of picture frames.

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This is more for outdoor decorating.  A Christmas tree made out of lighted balls.  Some of the trees made around the world will impress you.

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Get your kids in on the creative fun by having them make a tree and decorations out of Lego.

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A ladder dressed up as a Christmas tree.  Love the idea and even the look of it.  It just seems to fit for some weird reason.

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This is so cool.  It looks like an actual snow covered tree in a house.  Made easily with rolled cotton and snow glitter.

I do hope you’ve checked out the websites these pictures came from because these pictures are only scratching the surface of the cool stuff out there.  I hope, perhaps, that you have gotten some ideas on how to think outside of the…errr…um…tree box, and came up with some ideas on how to make your Christmas a little bit more unique this year.  I’m collecting these ideas to try out when I finally get a place of my own. 

And now that the Christmas season is in full swing, I’m hunting the web for unique and interesting items in the handmade community.  I will be sharing my cool finds with you in the coming days and weeks.  Hopefully you’ll find that thing you’ve always wanted from my searches and reveals.  Fingers crossed tight that you will.    For now I am off.  I’m wayyyy behind on Nanowrimo and I think I want to try typing some tonight.  *Looks at clock.*  Or maybe I’ll get some sleep instead and start catching up tomorrow.    Talk to you lovelies soon.  Be good and crafty until then.  Bye for now.

Yawning from looking at the little yawn emoticon,
Michelle

Something Like Summer

So while I should have been busy crafting today, I realized a book my sister loaned to me 2 weeks ago on my Nook was about to expire, so I had to finish it tonight. I just finished it and I must say I was impressed.  The book is called Something Like Summer, and it was a rather interesting read.

It’s a romance novel about two teenage boys, Ben and Tim, who meet one summer due to Ben’s crush on the mysterious new guy in town Tim.  Something happen that lead to Ben and Tim being together.  They had a hot and steamy love affair, but some issues caused them to have to split up.  What follows is 10 years of life, love, and chance meetings.  Some really sad things happen along the way that leads to a bittersweet ending.  I wouldn’t say this book was destined to be one of the great classics of our time, but it was a rather good read.

Some parts I felt were rushed in the story, but it flow non-stop so that was good.  The author, Jay Bell who is a gay man himself, told the story in such a way that you didn’t view the story as “a love story between two guys” but more as “a love story between two people”.  I will warn you now, some of the sex scenes are written in a slightly graphic way, but nothing to raunchy…nothing worse than what you’d find in your male/female romance novels.

But I think anyone could relate to this story.  Young love, first love, and even a love triangle, which is what our main characters find themselves in after a while.  So if you are into romance novels, pick this story up.  I really think you will like it.

Sadly though, in reading the book it has gotten to late to craft, so I guess I will watch some things online and call it a day and make better use of my time tomorrow.  Not that today was a total loss.  I got to spend time with a friend and finish a good book.  Win/win?  I’d say so.    Talk to you all later.  Be good until then.  Bye for now.

Dreaming about what tomorrow will bring,
Michelle

My Two Loves Together At Last

So I haven’t been really crafty as of late.  My worries over my health and the health of others really has been keeping me from being creative as of late.  One of the crafts I’ve really been missing is crochet.  Since finally learning it, I’ve just fallen in love with the calming rhythmic pattern of yarn over pull through the loop, but I just can’t find the time, energy, or creativity to sit down and do some.  Nothing created a strong enough need in me until I found my way onto a crafty young lady’s video on Youtube.  What did she create?  A character from one of my FAVORITE video games, Animal Crossing.  Along with that she made the character some clothing that reflects the clothing in the game.  So cute.  No really, it is.  Have a look.

Isn’t it, dare I say it, kawaii?!?  I know, I’m a goober.  LOL!  But seriously, it’s such a cute idea and I can’t believe I didn’t think of trying something like that myself.  But the good thing is she has resparked my need and want to crochet again.  I have these gloves I want to make out of this beaded pink yarn I’ve had for a while now.  I think now is the time to try them out.  Wish me luck. I’ll update you on how things are going. 

And once again I am off.  I need to get dressed now to go out…on no sleep.  Ugh!    Oh well, I guess I can sleep when I’m dead…hopefully years and years and YEARS from now.  Ok, be good ladies and gents.  And I’ll talk to you all again soon.  Bye for now.

Wishing she could slip under her covers,
Michelle

Maillardville Manor And Bathroom Transformations

So my friend has this problem.  She has to many bathrooms.  I know, anarchy right?  To many bathrooms.  She literally has two bathrooms in her master bedroom.  She has another in the house for her girls and guests to use, so she really doesn’t need another bathroom.  But one thing she could use is a craft room.  She uses a corner in her bedroom to craft in, but that bathroom is just calling out to her, and no not in a pee-pee dance sort of way.  She has visions of taking a sledgehammer to her garden tub and taking out the toilet and making the 7x7 room, with an additional walk-in closet, into her dream craft room.  But there is one tiny catch.  She want’s to leave it so if she decides to move she can quickly whip it back into a bathroom for those couples that demand their own bathrooms.  Totally makes sense, right?  Right. 

So, are you guys following me so far?  Or are you having some trouble envisioning this awesome bathroom space?  Troubled?  Never fear, I’ve come prepared thanks to my friend’s super drawing skills. 

Ok, so the black line at the bottom is the door into the bathroom.  On the right is the sink and counter area.  Go around the corner and you have a walk-in closet that my friend says you can easily have four people sitting down in there.  Awesome storage options!!!  Then in the upper right corner is the garden tub I can only imagine is itself awesome. Then to the left of that is the toilet.  I think  she said in between the toilet and tub is a window, there are some mirrors in the bathroom that look like windows.  I must go over there and see this room…but can I do it without being roped into manual labor, that is the question.    But my friend and I were looking around trying to find pictures of before and after bathroom transformations.  I couldn’t find any, but she found this crafty gal who managed to do so and it turned out…well…awesome.  LOL!  Sorry. 

Anyway, so this gal who writes the blog Maillardville Manor explains how in her last house her and her husband took a bathroom they barely used and changed it into an office/craft area.  It was small but it was functional.  Have a look.

They went from this:

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To this:

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I know, impossible to believe this was a bathroom in a former life.  And see what I mean, it’s small, but functional.  And my friend has more room than this to play with so she could have a pretty nice craft room.  You need to go check out the post on Maillardville Manor about this amazing transformation.  But do you want to hear the extra cool part about this transformation?  They wanted to leave the bathroom so if they move, which they did, they could whip it back into a bathroom, which they did.  They hid the pipes in the cabinetry by cutting holes for it and plugging them so it was a easy switcharoo.

So in the end they ended up with this:

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I promise you that’s the same room.  You can see it in this post on Maillardville Manor.  Who am I kidding, it’s still hard for me to believe it’s the same room.

But I love how even though she had so little room she still had everything in it’s place.  Her yarn, her scissors, her ribbons, and her office stuff.  So it just shows you that your only limitation is your mind.  I’m in such awe what this couple was able to accomplish and it just drives me to think outside of the box and really try to see my true vision in things.  Sometimes I think I have crafter’s block, but it really just is all a mind thing. If you think you have crafter’s block then you will because you think you do.  But if you just relax, take some deep breaths if needed, and let the creativity flow through you.  Sure you may not recreate a room, but I guarantee that whatever you do create will be, dare I say it, awesome. 

I’ll talk to you lovelies later.  Stay crafty.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Lazily day-dreaming about craft rooms and crafty things,
Michelle

Hey Guys Guess What?

No, seriously.  I started the day, no the weekend off on a good foot.  I have been trying to clear out my email so I will know when I get comments on my blog as well as knowing when people email me.  I currently have over 2000 emails lurking in my inbox and delete box that has to be cleared before the space is considered mine again.  So I figured a goal for the weekend, besides getting my crafty area clear was to empty the email box.  Crafty area got cleaned, yay!  Email box, still sadly packed full of so much stuff!!!  And there is stuff I want to read and the rest is annoying notices about things I no longer care about or don’t want to know.  Ugh!  So I am rooting through all that, and I planned to get it done in an hour or two.  Umm yeah, about that.

Seriously.  On Saturday cleaning took a while, then I started on the email…and then I got bored so I hit some chatrooms that bored me some more so I just read some Tumblr blogs to find out what happened to a beloved blog that was closed down and that lead me to some interesting places.  Yeah, that email inbox didn’t have a chance.  But I decided to do it tomorrow (today).  Yeah that’s until I learned while cleaning and watching tv that QVC was going to have 24 hours of Christmas stuff all day Sunday. What?  I LOVE Christmas, and we don’t do a lot of decorating here, and I just love seeing the stuff that’s out there.  I so plan to decorate for holidays and seasons when I get my own place.  And Christmas I am going all out.  LOL!  I’m more for the interior decorations than exterior because I’ll see it more than the stuff outside, and yes I am selfish it’s all for me.

But I figured I could listen to QVC while cleaning my email.  Worked for a while until I suddenly remembered things I wanted to look up, so of course I did.  Then I had to join a new forum dealing around some personal stuff going on in my life to see how other people deal with it, and well of course I had to post, and then I had to read a few posts, and then I hit email for a few more minutes, but then my sister wanted to purchase a doll so of course I had to enable her to do that with a picture search, then the Extreme Home Makeover came on that was based in my city, so I had to watch that, then more QVC, then…well I think you get the idea.  So umm, yeah email cleaning was a bust.  I have so many emails I need to answer and get to but they are hidden in notices and emails about something on sale I don’t really want or need.  LOL!  Tomorrow I will do it.  I will only have my email open, put on some tunes, and take those emails out one page at a time.  By tomorrow night I hope to have all those emails taken care, emails needing responses answered, and a clean email box.  Yeahhhh!!!  No distractions.  I can do it…right?  Right!  Then I will hit my next to do that I’ve still not gotten to…you guys know what it is.  *sigh*  I’m such a bad blog owner as of late.  Sorry guys.  But yeah, tomorrow is another day.    I’ll update you tomorrow on my success of owning the email inbox, I’ll update you on my Bitty Bitsu that has finally told me her name, and I’ll let you know what doll my sister is getting.    Ok, talk to you lovelies later.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Giving the Internet the Evil-Eye,
Michelle

Happy Autumnal Equinox!!!

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So that’s a wrap on summer 2011.  And I couldn’t be happier!!!  Sure we’ll still have some summer layover weather but other than that it is cool temps for the rest of the year!!!  *does the happy dance*  So I want to wish you all a Happy Autumnal Equinox and Happy First Day of Autumn!  I hope you did something awesome today and managed to stay cool seeing that the date is the only thing that makes me think of Autumn today, well that and the rain.

So what are you all doing today?  Me?  Well I don’t plan on doing much, but I do plan to finally clean up my craft area and finish work on Estelle/Estella…working name for my Bitty Bitsu…a doll for those of you non-doll fans.  I wanted to give her hair time to set, I am trying something unique with her since she doesn’t have a wig and came to me bald.  I think the layers are done.  Now it’s time to do her face-up, which I am nervous about.  Granted I won’t have to do the dreaded eyes, I hate doing eyes, because she has acrylic eyes, but still I want to give her a soft childlike glow and feel so I am worried I will make her to adult looking.  Fingers crossed I’ll get it right.  Then I am going to work on some outfits for her and my Monster High Frankie Stein, if they work up right I will be reproducing some for sale.  So fingers crossed tight for that too. 

And that’s about it for this post.  I am off to have some crafty fun!    Hope your day is awesome times infinity and beyond.  Talk to you lovelies next time.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Lazily day-dreaming of fall colors on trees and crisp fall air,
Michelle

My New Favorite Crafty Read!

Hey guys and dolls!  So I was surfing the web through some mommy blogs, don’t ask why, and it lead me to one crafty mommy blog that has just blown my mind.  Mini Eco is a super cute blog with tons of creative and crafty tutorials for moms/dads and kids to do together.  Check out some of the projects I’m just itching to try.

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Take a look at her woven paper art.  I don’t know what I like more about this, the 8-bit look of the art, the rainbow colors, or the fact that it’s woven.  You know what, screw it, I pick all of the above.  It’s just awesome all around.

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This next one is so cool. A woven paper topper.  Now first of all I love the newspaper wrapping paper, proving it does not have to be store bought to look good and presentable.  But then you add this rainbow weaving on it and it takes on a whole new look and personality.  Love it.

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And a last one are these color pencil beads.  I especially love what she did here with the points and the bead combo.  Love the bright color too.  There is a tutorial  on a blog I found Mino Eco through called Design Mom.  She shows in detail how to get these point beads and also how to get smaller beads by shaving off some of the end of the pencil. I am so going to try these and soon.

Honestly there is nothing on the site I don’t just find fascinating.  And before you begin to wonder, no I don’t know who runs the site, but I wish I did.  I would love to pick her brain on where she comes up with her awesome ideas.  Her blog is just so amazing there isn’t a post that I don’t want to read.  Speaking of reading, I’m off to read some more of her blog.  I hope you will read her blog too and ooh and aah over the many cool things she shares.  Talk to you lovelies later.

Rainbow paper and color pencil beads,
Michelle

What have I been up to, part 2.

So this is an update I did on the bear cross stitch just basically showing that I finished the bear and he looks kind of wonky right now.  I hope that he looks a little better once I get the outlines in.  When I finish I will have a good picture of the final product for you. Right now I am just kind of documenting.  Here’s the video update.

So I will update again soon on how he’s coming along.  I made a few changes and now I get to start on the moon.  Scary. 

Loves ya,
Mouse

What have I been up to???

Hey everyone.  Well, I’m sure you thought I’ve all but abandoned my poor pad here.  But worry not, I’m back.  I’ve been dealing with some health issues, still am actually, so I haven’t been crafting too much.  But I did manage to break open a cross stitch kit and start working on it.  This kit is rather interesting, to say the least.  I took a small video about it.  Check it out below.

More to come on this interesting kit.   Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Matting my matte spray.

So I think I may have found a solution to my matte spray glossiness.  Still in the middle of my face-up, but once I am done I will see how my idea works and if it does work I’ll let you in on my secret.  It would be nice if I did solve this issue.  Fingers crossed tight.    Talk to you all later today and I hope to have pictures for you. 

Loves ya,
Mouse

Matte spray is not created equal.

So I am working on a face-up of a doll started back in during Dizzy’s Place days.  It’s a My Scene Chelsea and well, it’s going ok-ish except for one problem, the matte spray I am using is more satin than matte.    If you are going to sell a matte spray then make sure it’s matte.

The spray I am using is the Krylon Matte Finish spray.  It dries quickly, outside you don’t smell the odor when you spray, and it has it’s own built in way of keeping the nozzle clean.  You can start working on it again after about 10 minutes of drying and depending on if you followed the directions there is minimal to zero tackiness.  It’s awesome except for the fact that it makes it look like the doll is sweating like crazy.    I am hoping that maybe it just needs to dry fully over night, but something tells me that isn’t the case.  I settled on that one because everything else was glossy at the store I was buying it from.  I might have to try Hobby Lobby for another spray.  I was looking for the ones suggested in the Monster High tutorial I showed you guys a few posts back.  I didn’t want to get MSC since I’d have to wait on shipping and I wanted to try some stuff now.    Oh well, I will see how it looks in the morning and decide what to do then.  The layers are helping with the face up, but she looks like summer is here and thriving and I don’t like that.  I’ll update you on her look tomorrow.

Also I am working on rerooting a Liv doll wig.  I cut out the hair, which had to be the easiest hair to remove.  Since it’s done with the loop rooting method, all you have to do is loosen up and pull out a root or two from the part or thatch and then cut the hair short as possible the you can pull out each row easily from the inside of the wig to remove the little bits.  I flipped the cap inside out and just scratched the little hairs off with my nail.  Was done in no time.  So now I have a cap ready to go.  I also decided to prep my hair by cutting it into the length I wanted.  I’ve had this pink Volks hair I won off of Ebay for years now and decided it was time to use it.  It was so hard to make that first cut but once I did the rest went smoothly and now I have 4 bunches of hair ready to be rooted.  Can’t wait to get started on that tomorrow too.  It feels nice to be crafting with dolls again.  I missed it.  I’ll have pictures tomorrow for you to see of my current status.  Until then be good.   Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse