I really have got out of the blogging habit!! For the new year I'm going to try and post everyday, lets see how long that lasts. We've been winding down for Christmas here, but I have been doing a little crafting. These are a new product I'm developing...

more later.

And here are some new brooches and a bag charm that will be making their way to the Etsy shop in the new year, the shelves are a little bare at the moment.

I just noticed as I logged on that this will be post number 102, hadn't realised I'd reached 100! This is just a quick one to let you know I have just created an Etsy treasury of felted things. I clicked on the treasury just as it went below 222, how lucky is that! So here it is, please have a look before it runs out, there are some fantastic creations.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=18354

What another busy week I've had. Hence the lack of posts I'm afraid, well something had to give and it seems to have been blogging and housework :) Some of my merino wool made front page on Etsy again and there was a flurry of sales, I'm now past the 200 marker, yay! For ages I didn't think I would ever get going with Etsy, I was just selling the odd thing here and there, but for the run up to the Christmas period I've tried to list items more regularly, and at different times to see which parts of the day are busiest. If I have a few things to list I will spread it out over a day, to get the maximum number of unique visitors to the shop, and it seems to have worked as I'm gaining hearts all the time.

I've also been working on some custom orders, I have made two bags for one of the Mum's at school, which resulted from the shopping night I did a few weeks back. I was really pleased with the way they had turned out, but unfortunately, in my haste to get them delivered (I can really drag my heels with commissions as I become very critical of my own work), I forgot to photograph them. The customer said she would snap some shots for me and e-mail them over, so I'll post them later. I was also commissioned to make these two scarves, which I just popped in the post today. I really love the design of the loopy scarf and can't wait to make some more.


I also ran the last workshop of the year on Saturday, which I'll write about in the next post.

Just a quick post this morning, I'm supposed to be working on a commission. Here are some of the photo's from the felt jewellery workshop. It went well and the students made some lovely felted flowers. It's the first jewellery one I have run, and I think I might change it slightly, the cuffs weren't popular, (I guess they're a love or loath thing).

Oh, and here are some coasters I made myself yesterday, what do you think? I'll try and post again tomorrow with my hoard from the knitting and stitching show. Oh and Danca has tagged me (thank you), so I'll try and get that done this week as well.

Hello, I am still here!! It's such a long time since I last posted, and I have so much to share, but I think I'll do it gradually over the next few days. Last week was the felted jewellery workshop so I have some photographs of the students work to show you. Then I've been very busy making lots of felted things for the festive fizz shopping night at my daughter's school. It was a good night but like raspberry, I found the bags didn't do so well but the felted flower brooches went like hotcakes! And then of course, this weekend I have been at the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate. I was there on Saturday shopping and then I was back today helping on the International Feltmakers Association stand. Needless to say I made quite a few purchases which I'll post up later. Now I'm full of ideas and can't wait to get felting once the kids have gone to bed. Here are some pictures of scarves I made for the shopping night, I didn't sell any, so they're going in the Etsy shop. (The pictures aren't great, as we haven't been having a great deal of good weather here recently and the light has been appalling).

Busy, busy, busy!

This will be another short post as I am about to embark on my second night of felt scarf making. I have managed to get a stall at a festive fizz shopping night at my daugther's school, it's on the 22nd, so not much time left!! Here's a picture of some WIP.



I have also made a set of jewellery to use in my workshop next week. The photos aren't very good as I was rushing!


The nightmare about being so busy is I have well over 100 unread posts in google reader!

The plus point is the brooch sold really quickly :) unfortunately it is no longer on the front page :(

Oh my, just came down form putting the kids to bed and saw my latest flower brooch on the front page of Etsy, very excited!! Also, the funky felter has written an excellent article about felting for the storque on etsy, you have to go read it, there are some very talented felters out there on Etsy.


I've been a bit slack at posting at the moment. Since my wool tops made front page I've been selling a lot through Etsy and seem to be spending a lot of time packing wool to post out across the globe :)


I have an interview tomorrow morning, to teach a felt making night class at Ripon College, so I've got to go and update my CV, which I don't seem to have touched since 2003!!

A few weeks ago I had some more wool delivered and decided to mix the colours up a bit, I always like a change every now and then. Here are the new colour combinations.

Rainbow

Ocean

English Rose


Thistle


Sunset


Trees

I also bought a pop up light tent from ebay, to try and photograph the colours more accurately. Seems to work. I'm just waiting for my husband to load them up onto the website. In the meantime I listed them on ebay and etsy. I was surprised that after being listed for just a day on etsy they seemed to be selling well, (my etsy sales are normally a slow trickle). I was also a bit flummoxed as to why my hearts had dramatically increased over night. The mystery was solved when I realised I'd been included on a treasury that had made it to the front page! Unfortunately I was tucked up in bed when this happened so I missed my debut, but it was still exciting.

There's a new craft blog I'm reading called driftwood, written by a student from one of my workshops. She's only just begun blogging recently but it's full of crafting endeavors of her and her children. Well worth a visit.

I'm back! We had a great week, Ireland is such a beautiful place, we were staying in Killarney in Kerry, where the mountainous landscape is breath taking. This is the gap of Dunloe.



Just before we went I managed 45 minutes at the bead fair in Harrogate, my husband was waiting outside with the kids in the car, all packed and ready to go. I bought lots and lots of beautiful glass beads, and have already begun using them. Here are my latest necklaces to go into the Etsy shop.



I would have made more but I was out last night, I went to see Rufus Wainwright with a friend. Bit strange going to a seated gig, but it was very good, not so keen on the Judy Garland stuff, but the songs from his latest album were great.

I should be packing at this moment, we're off to Ireland to stay with family for the half term. I just wanted to show you a bag I made as a birthday present for my daughter's best friend. You'll see from the photographs that I've made two bags from one piece of felt so I can make my daughter one as well. I haven't finished the second one yet, but I think I'll make it slightly different.

Over the years I have been collecting 100% wool jumpers from local jumble sales, I used to make them into bags, but became a little fed up as the style and shape of the jumper would dictate the design of the bag, and I like to start with the design of the bag first. I think that made sense? Any how, I stopped making bags but still have lots of jumpers, so every now and then I try to utilise them. Most efforts have been unsuccessful, and abandoned, but over the last few days I have created this.


My inspiration was from a book (sorry, can't remember what it was called) I flicked through at one of the shows. It suggested sewing strips of felted jumpers onto yarn and then knitting with it. I've gone a bit off knitting at the mo, so I just sewed some strips together in layers to build up a lovely textured choker. The beads were an after thought, to hide the stitching. I guess it's a cross between a scarf and choker. An item of jewellery that can also keep you snug in winter. I'm keeping this one for myself, because apart from loving it, it is slightly flawed (because I was making it up as I went along). However, I have ideas for improving the design, so I may get to use some of those old jumpers after all, and create a little more storage space for my ever growing craft supplies.

How frustrating, blogger's not uploading photographs again! I'll have to save and post later. Best get some stuff listed on Etsy before I pick up the kids.

At last, blogger is working. I've managed to add three new pieces to etsy, which I'll blog later, and I reckon I've just got time for an uninterrupted cup of tea before the school run.

Here are the bags and flowers made by the students on the workshop. That is if blogger is working yet, it wouldn't let me upload photos earlier, so here goes.


Yay, it worked! Aren't they fantastic, they made straps as well, but were attaching these at home as all the bags were a bit wet, as you might imagine.

Yay, I have been featured on two blogs this week!! One of my little owl purses (which has now sold) was featured on Mixed Plate, a fantastic blog that showcases original craft and design pieces. I was also on Lily and Tulip, a lovely blog that shares a wide range of craft and design shops, many of them Etsy. A great starting point if you are looking for original Christmas gifts!

Now I must apologize for the lack of posts around here. In my defence, I have been a busy bee. Last week I went to the Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch show at Harrogate's North Yorkshire Showground. I've been going for years, but thought it was a little disappointing this time, there didn't seem to be as much work on display as normal, but I did stock up on a lot of jewellery equipment and findings , so I can make new things for my Etsy shop. I also purchased some beautiful pure wool fabric, that is going to make fantastic handbags (I just know it!). The frustrating thing is I've had all these exciting buys for a week now, but haven't had the time to get stuck in and use them, torture!!

Last weekend, my husband and I did a joint project! I'd had a note the week before from pre-school, stating that J was going to be a tractor in the Harvest festival, and could I provide the costume! I think we rose to the challenge, he looked very cute!


It's party season around here at the moment, so I made another little bag and pencil case. I seem to have started something now!



I have also ordered a load more wool this week, I'm putting together some new colour combinations for my 100g packs of wool. Just waiting for the light tent I bought on ebay to arrive so I can get decent photographs of them, then they'll be listed in the shop on the website. It is so difficult to accurately capture the colour of wool fibres!!

We went to see a gig as well The Hoosiers, at Leeds Uni, I was a student there about 10 years ago - that makes me sound so old :( , so it was quite strange going back, the union building where the gig was has completely changed, it's much more up market now. The gig was a little disappointing really, but the support band Grace were good.

My busy week ended yesterday with my Felt a Bag workshop. It went really well and I've taken photographs of all the bags. I'll post them later when I've uploaded them. I have nothing penciled in for next week, so hopefully I can begin crafting again.