Hello, mouselets! This is Amanda, from First Milk. I have been doing much thinking about mouses this week, since lovely Mouse asked me to care for her sweet blog in her stead. But I know very little about mouses, you see, other than about their having nice whiskers, and their being noisy when you are trying to sleep.*

But here is what I know about mouse houses: Mouses like soft things, and shiny things, and shredded things. The mouses that visited my teensy house two years ago crafted their little nest mostly from Ricola wrappers and my fanciest wrapping paper. When I finally found it, after the mice had, um, gone visiting elsewhere,** I was startled by its lovely. Were there feathers, foil? There were. Was there ribbon? Indeed.

So, for naughty mouses and tiny people and grown ones who love what's wee, a Hunca Munca house or two:

For tree house mouses:


For mid-century, pre-fab fond mouses:


For very grand great-aunt mouses:


*Perhaps they would not be so noisy if they had a house to call their very own.
**I think they may have gone to France.

And for mice traveling north or south or east or west (and certainly all the way to South Africa), this offering, from the tail end of E.B. White's bold, soft, Stuart Little:

"Following a broken telephone line north, I have come upon some wonderful places," continued the repairman. "Swamps where cedars grow and turtles wait on logs but not for anything in particular; fields bordered by crooked fences broken by years of standing still; orchards so old they have forgotten where the farmhouse is. In the north I have eaten my lunch in pastures rank with ferns and junipers, all under fair skies with a wind blowing. My business has taken me into spruce woods on winter nights where the snow lay deep and soft, a perfect place for a carnival of rabbits. I have sat at peace on the freight platforms of railroad junctions in the north, in the warm hours and with the warm smells. I know fresh lakes in the north, undisturbed except by fish and hawk and, of course, by the Telephone Company, which has to follow its nose. I know all these places well. They are a long way from here--don't forget that. And a person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast."
"That's perfectly true," said Stuart. "Well, I guess I'd better be going. Thank you for your friendly remarks."
"Not at all," said the repairman. "I hope you find that bird."
Stuart rose from the ditch, climbed into his car, and started up the road that led toward the north. The sun was just coming up over the hills on his right. As he peered ahead into the great land that stretched before him, the way seemed long. But the sky was bright, and he somehow felt he was headed in the right direction.

Well, nice mice, I am off to South Africa this very afternoon! I'll be gone until April 24, and posting will probably be very light until then. But please stick around, because I have goodies for you:

1. Lovely Amanda from First Milk, my fairy blogmother, will be doing guest posts on Good Mouse, Bad Mouse the next three Wednesdays (starting tomorrow). Her posts will be about HEADS (houses, noggins, places to hang your hat) and TAILS (mouse tales). I know this will be a fun treat, so please come over and have a look!

2. There are rumblings...rumors...whispers...there will be a giveaway (my first) at the beginning of May...wooooo...

(Photo from Flickr)

Mouse is probably the only one who will find this funny, but I'm sharing anyway. Have you noticed that sometimes the garbled verification words you have to enter in order to comment on a blog are, well, actual words? Or should be actual words? I once had to write "colon" in order to comment.

So I started keeping a list of funny words and almost-words:

Seckslas (love you big, March 29, 2009)
Undays (a desert fete, March 31, 2009)
Hombes (a practical wedding, March 31, 2009)
Oship (tell you today, April 2, 2009) -- Oh, ship!
Color (SeeSaw designs, April 3, 2009)
Oakseads (a desert fete, April 3, 2009)
Mocker (a desert fete, April 2, 2009)
Quids (a practical wedding, April 7, 2009)

Have you run across any funny ones?

SQUEAK! Have you seen these? They are crayon rings, so you can be all decked out with colorful baubles and then take them off and color with them! Where were these when Mouse had to spend hours and hours in seminar, listening to people be snarky at books? I could have really doodled.

Coolest thing ever. Designed by Timothy Liles and spotted over at lovely SeeSaw Designs.

I would just like to state for the record that had Mouse known how easy it is to make cobbler, she would never have bothered with complicated desserts that turn her fingers purple. I sing praises of cobbler! Easy, quick, delicious. Here's all you have to do for Mouse's cousin's cobbler:

• Melt one stick butter* in oven-safe bowl or dish at 350°, until it starts to sizzle.

• In one bowl, combine 2 cups fruit* and ½ to 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet the fruit is)

• In another bowl, sift together 1 cup sugar and 1 to 1½ cups self-rising flour (or regular flour and 1½ tsp baking powder). Add one cup milk, stir to wet but lumpy.

• Dump batter into hot butter. Add fruit and sugar mixture to center, distributing fruit throughout without letting it touch bottom of dish. Put in oven and bake 20-40 minutes, depending on how wet the fruit is. It's done when it's a golden brown on top and set in the middle, and smells like cobbler.

* You have to use either real butter or lard to make a cobbler rise--can't sub margarine. You can use skim milk. Has to do with evaporating fat, or something, says Mouse's cuz.

** Works best with slightly goopy fruit, so if you have dry fruit like strawberries, add a little sugar and let them sit overnight and get goopy. Mouse's cousin uses fruit she grew on in her yard, but what am I, superwoman? Grocery store fruit is fine, canned fruit is fine.