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!