Tis the season

I gave in and the Christmas tree went up on Sunday. I've seen the school concerts, the kids have had their school party (and met Santa), I'm almost done with the shopping and only one more day of doing the school run! I do feel very Christmassy (although I haven't written any cards yet). Can't wait for the more relaxed mornings, I have two, very tired, small children and we're all struggling to drag ourselves out of bed in a morning. My youngest keeps asking if Santa has been. He has not learned the concept of time yet and has no idea how long a week is, every morning I can see the disappointment on his face but can't wait to see his expression on Christmas morning, last year he was probably a little bit to young for it all.


As always I left it too late to make things for the shop, most bits and bobs I've made have gone into the Folksy shop as it's UK only (for the time being whilst it's in Beta) and there's still time to post things out. I listed these two felt covered sketch books last night and have a big batch of brooches waiting to go in (just need a bit of sunshine so I can photograph them). Next year it'll be different, I'm going to start the preparation for the festive season in January, surely then I can be more organised!

Harold and Felix

The snow was great, we got to go sledging and the kids (and I) loved it. Now it's just very,very cold and I don't do cold very well, so I'm sporting a lot of layers at the moment. Is everyone nearly ready for Christmas? I've just about finished the gift shopping, but that's it! We still don't have any decorations up yet, I like to leave it as late as possible so it's all still new and special when Christmas arrives. One year I left it until Christmas Eve....we got a really good bargain on the tree, but it was a little lopsided and it's top had been snapped off! My husband thinks I'm being miserable but for me it's all about keeping Christmas special. I reckon the 18th might be a good day for decorating, one week before Christmas and just before the kids break up from school, however the Children and hubby might over rule me.

Here's a few pictures of my latest creations....



Harold (and his pet spider) and Felix. When I was making Felix I had an idea in my head of a really cute cat bag, bless him, he didn't really turn out cute, at one point he nearly became a dog, think I need to go back to the drawing board!! Harold is over in my Etsy shop, whilst Felix is hanging out in the Folksy shop.

It's snowing!!

I feel like a kid again, we woke up to about 2 inches of snow, and it's still snowing :), walking to school was strange as it was like a ghost town, it suddenly occurred to me that I should have listened to the local radio to see if the school was actually open! Thankfully it was, but the head teacher said we could pick the children up early if we liked so I'm going to collect E at 12 when I pick J up, and have an afternoon of sledging!!! I'm starting to feel all Christmassy, I might have to go and listen to a bit of Nat King Cole.

If you go down to the woods today....

Watch out for monsters!! Here are my latest creations, Agatha (a witch with a heart of gold and a desperately bad hair do), and George (not sure what he is but he lives in the deep dark woods and doesn't say a lot).


Thank you for all the well wishes, I recovered and managed to make 16 of the new brooches for the knitting and stitching show, which appeared to be a bit of a hit as they'd all gone by the time I did my stint on the IFA stand on Sunday. I'm teaching a scarf making workshop tomorrow, then I've a full day of felting on Sunday (City and Guilds Course). Then just a few more orders to finish and that's it! No more work until after Christmas. I'm hoping to use the time to develop a few ideas I have bobbing around my head (as well as some Christmas shopping). I'll also be getting the blog and the website a bit more up to date, I want to show you some of the work I've been doing on my course - I have been learning new techniques. There's a new programme of workshops to go up on the website as well.

But right now I'm off to make myself a big cup of tea, it's soooo cold here today, and I'm doing my best not to whimp out and stick the heating on straight away, what with the 30% increase in fuel prices!!

Feeling Grim

I think I have sinusitis, which is really inconvenient as I have orders to full fill and Christmas fairs to get ready for and I feel like crap!

Here's a new design, I learnt the technique on my City and Guilds Felting course and after playing around a little, I came up with this design. I'm really pleased with them, it's soooo nice to make something new. I'd like to have a go at making some hair bobbles using the same technique, so I best go and dose up on Sudafed, only two hours to the school pick up!

Remember, remember

The Fifth of November.... OK so I'm a little late with this post, but we recently got a new camera, more of an everyday camera rather than the big beast which I use to take photos of my work. This new camera has a firework setting so I thought I'd test it out. Most of them are rubbish as you have to anticipate the explosion in order to capture it, but I got a few good ones, however I did spend most of the display looking at the camera and not the fireworks so I don't think I'll bother again. I've come to the same conclusion about the kids school plays, you spend so long trying to get a decent picture of your child being cute up on stage that you actually miss the performance. Now I just sit and enjoy, and do (not so) discreet waves!

Ute left a comment asking if the Norwegian was too scratchy. It is a little more scratchy than the merino, but not too much. I wouldn't wear it against my skin in something like a scarf, but it's great for the soaps as it makes a fantastic scrub.

Stones

Well half term has been and gone way too fast, we spent most of the week in Killarney in Ireland visiting family. It's such a beautiful place, even when it's raining all the time! Mike and I got to climb a very small mountain on the first day (without kids), the views were amazing, but it was a bit nippy on the top!!


The only bad thing about the holiday was that I missed an opportunity to be in The Guardian!! I have listed my workshops on the School of Everything, it's a UK website that is free to use and is a bit like a workshop and classes directory. The Guardian were doing a feature on it and as I'd recently had a student attend one of my workshops by finding me through the site they wanted to feature me, but this all came to ahead whilst I was in Ireland which was no good as they wanted to photograph me, as you can imagine I was gutted. Hey ho, I'm sure they'll be other opportunities.


Now the kids are back to school it's time to start felting again. I've made these felted pebble soaps using Norwegian wool (I find the Norwegian doesn't pill as much as the merino and it creates a really nice scrub). I managed to get my hands on some wooden soap dishes wholesale so I'm selling them as a set. I've listed one on etsy, one on Folksy and one on MyEhive.

Flowers

Here's another batch of flowers, I'd got a bit bored with the flowers so I made these a little different by incorporating some leather scraps I bought at the recent Fashion and Embroidery Show at Harrogate. These are destined for a variety places, some will be on the International Felt Makers stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show, some will be for sale at the Festive Fizz at my kids school, one is in my Esty shop, another in my Folksy shop and the last one is in my new shop at MyEhive. MyEhive is a new selling site based in the UK, it only opened at the beginning of October, and if you're quick to sign up and get to be one of the first 100 you'll get free membership for life. It works abit like Big Cartel, were you pay a monthly subscription rather than listing and commission fees. Etsy has been quite quiet recently so I thought it was worth trying out some new places.

Pretty Pink Flowers

The other day I found a gorgeous silk scarf in our local charity shop, I bought it, rushed home and nuno felted it straight away. It came out even better than I'd hoped, although the photographs don't do it justice. Have I mentioned before that cerise pink is one of my favourite colours? I was tempted to keep it for myself, but I really have too many scarves (I have a tendency to keep ones I've made), so I've put it in the etsy shop. I'm hoping to get into town this week and tour the charity shops to see if I can get my hands on any more scarves.




I taught a felt a bag workshop at the weekend, and gave the students the option to make a monster bag if they wanted to, here's one made by Melody, isn't he fantastic, I love the stunned look on his face.

Awards and Tags

A while ago I received this award:

From Sara's Texture Crafts


and this one from The Funky Felter

Thank you very much, I am honored to receive these from such talented Textile artists.

I've also been tagged twice this week by Ingermaaike of Daily Felt and Helen + ilana = Hi of Deeply Felt Studios.

Many of my favourite blogs have already been tagged or have received the awards and as time management is not my strong point at the moment (right now I should really be cleaning the kitchen), I'm not going to tag or pass the awards on, instead I'm going to leave you with a few blogs I've recently discovered.

laurenalane
artmind
clasheen
lizzyhouse

and because I always like to include a photograph here's one of a huge pile of felted soap pebbles...


Have a good weekend everyone (I'm felting for two full days as I'm on a city and Guilds Course - lucky me!!!).

A quick break from the manic felting!

Here are some of the reasons why I have been absent recently.....

A forest of Christmas trees

Nuno Scarves


Hair bobbles in bags

I have been working on a wholesale order, still more to do, but the first parcel has gone off. Right now I'm off to make more flower brooches. I'll be back soon, my list of things I'd like to blog about is steadily growing, so maybe when all my orders and etsy requests are finished I might try to blog everyday so I can catch up.

Howies Competition

A while ago I joined Folksy.com, I guess you could call it the UK equivalent of Etsy. It's still in Beta at the moment (is that how you phrase it?), but it's a really neat site. I love Etsy, but am always willing to give new things ago. I tried dawanda a while back and even though I've had a few sales, I just can't seem to get to grips with the lay out, and never use it anymore. So I saw Folksy on another blog and thought I'd give it a try, I joined and listed one bag, then I forgot all about it, until very recently. When I rediscovered it I spent a bit more time looking around and have really come to like it, it's so nice that it's a UK site and there are a lot of familiar names on there. What I need to do now is make some things to go in the shop, something I'm struggling with at the moment (through lack of time - not ideas), I'm not even doing very well at stocking the Etsy shop, and I feel the Christmas shopping season is nearly upon us!!! Anyway, Folksy had a competition in conjunction with Howies, the brief was "Life is complicated. Sport is simple." It just ended at 9.00 am today, and I managed to get my entry finished yesterday, just in the nick of time! Here it is....

It's all about me time, getting out of the house and having a break from the baby!

Little Yellow Stars

I just had a little look through the etsy treasury lists, something I haven't done for a while as scrolling through the list titles looking for little yellow stars (which lets you know if any of your items are featured in the list) can become a little obsessive! So I had a nice surprise when it turns out I'm in four, three of those treasuries has the same item, this bag here....


It's funny because it is my most viewed item, it's regularly in treasuries, 52 people currently heart it and I've even reduced the bag to a bargain $45, and still it gathers dust on the shop shelf!!

A new term

My baby just started school only a week after his 4th birthday (I'm pretty confident he'll be the youngest in his year), bless, he looked so cute in his uniform! He's really enjoying it, and talks a lot about all the things he's done, thankfully he's just part time until Christmas, and has his big sister to look out for him. Fortunately for me I have my crafts, so I'm not suffering home alone in the very quiet house, I now have 5 mornings a week to felt, yay!!


So this week I have been working on a few monster bags and pincushions that I've promised customers. Today I popped downstairs to make a cup of tea, and when I went back into the studio here's what I saw, they look a bit scary all lined up don't they. Do you recognise the yellow one? Herbert had a sex change!!

Did you also notice the word studio? Over the summer we rearranged the bedrooms so the kids are sharing and I've got the smallest room as a studio ( a temporary arrangement until we think about extending or converting the garage). It still needs a bit of organising with shelves and better storage but I'm settling in nicely, and the downstairs looks a lot better (I was starting to take over the house). Hopefully now I have all this time to be creative I'll be able to blog a bit more often. I seem to have got out of the habit, although I have quite a few things I'd like to share with you.

Make Do and Mend

That was the title of the contemporary recycled arts and crafts exhibition at the Chapel Allerton Festival. So I had a stall selling brooches and cuffs made from felted jumpers. I used the jumpers as a base to needle felt onto (at the festival quilts I bought one these, and one of these which I can't recommend enough, well worth the expense). Here are some of the pieces....



I did quite well and met some lovely people, so nice to meet customers face to face for a change.

I also treated myself to this gorgeous bag from deco-blue designs, for those of you who are local check her stall out at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show this year, she has some lovely products.


Now the craft show is out of the way and my eldest is back at school, soon to be followed by my youngest (big first day at school on Monday!), I am getting back into the felting groove. I have really missed creating over the summer. I'm working on a collection of new monster bags, here's one which is a custom order.


Got to fly, my youngest is insisting I play playmobil airports, roll on Monday!

I'm still here!

Just not had much time to blog (or craft) with it being the school holidays. The little crafting time I do have is spent preparing for the Chapel Allerton Arts Festival, the theme is recycled crafts, so I'm using up my stash of felted jumpers (sweaters). I'll post some pictures soon. In the meantime, here's a little squirrel - I've been experimenting with needle felting and ended up with this little chap, not sure what to do with him though, at the moment he just sits and watches over me in my studio.


On Friday I went to the Festival of Quilts at the N.E.C. It was my first time, the quilts were fantastic, I took a lot of photographs, but as I don't know who made the quilts I'm a bit reluctant about posting them on here. There was also a lot of stalls!! I had no intention of buying any fabric, as I have quite a collection at home, but I'm afraid I couldn't resist :)

Herbert

When I made my own monster bag I'd blended enough yellow wool to make two, so here's Herbert. I'd planned on giving her frizzy hair, adorned with ribbons. However, once her face was constructed I discovered that she was in fact a he, and Herbert (as he's now been named) did not want to wear ribbons or have frizzy hair! He's gone into the shop this afternoon, along with a batch of nest rings. I'm loving the bird's nests and moments ago had a flash of inspiration for some nest coasters.....watch this space!

The Ball

The Ball was fantastic!! It was held in a marquee in the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral (7 hour coach journey!), and amazingly for the UK the sun was shining, so we had Champagne out on the lawn to start off with, then a lovely meal and more Champagne, and then a lot of dancing. I didn't take my camera to the ball, as it's a bit on the bulky side, so here are some pictures of us at the hotel. I was really worried that the dress was a little on the short side, but it was a bargain £19.99 from TK Maxx and it was made of silk chiffon! I'm not normally drawn to yellow, but just fell in love with this dress as soon as I saw it, don't suppose I'll ever wear it again :(



The morning after we were up early and went to walk around the Cathedral before catching the coach home. It really is a beautiful place.

Monster Bags

Here are my most recent little monsters:

Rupert - SOLD

Elsie - in the shop


and Darcy!

I've made Darcy for myself. I'm going to a ball at the weekend and I've made her to match my outfit, I'll take a picture of the whole outfit later. I was going to make a felt dress for the ball (one which I'd started on the Charlotte Buch course), but I decided it might be a bit to warm, besides it needs lining and there has been too much going on here with school about to finish (plus we're having a new bathroon fitted at long last). So I made this bag instead, and a flower brooch to match Darcy's.

Here are some rings I have been working on too, I can't seem to stop making nests!! They're in the shop now.