Hearty Soup Season

Mmm got to share this soup with you :) It is SOOOoooo delicious. Potato & herb soup recipe posted on UK Handmade a couple of days ago. I made this last night with a can of green lentils in it. oooo cant tell you how yummy & warming it was, and so easy to make - uses no fancy ingredients. I baked fresh bread rolls to go with it :)

Didnt get chance to take a photo to post, we all ate it up veeery quickly.

xx

New shoes

Last night I finished sewing the leather soles onto my new slippers (the ones I posted about a couple of weeks ago). Today has been my first day wearing them and OH the COMfort... they are wonderful! Going to felt myself a pair of boots for work at some point this week...all being well.

I also put the finishing touches to 3 new pairs of slippers that I felted about a week ago, Im only posting pics of 2 pairs cos 2 of them are very similar and in the same design as my own pair but thicker.

Pretty in pink

Interestingly the shearer at the event on Saturday was wearing felted moccasins, he said many shearers wear them & how good they are.

I finished off a 2nd Woodland Earthmother Cave...

These were all from my very productive week (week before last) I just didnt get round to finishing off till yesterday.

Today I finished stitching name tabs onto the childrens felt-critters (and eyes on some of them :) tomorow I shall start assembling it, and felting a banner.

xx

Photos

Just a quick post today... Im playing catchups after a busy few days. But I wanted to share a couple of photos & let you know how I got on.

Yesterday was the charity fundraiser at the farm - the sun shone beautifully all day. Clare & I spent a glorious late September afternoon spinning & felting in the farm yard, we met lots of lovely people. Many of the children (and not a few mums) went home with wetfelted Icelandic beads that they had made, threaded onto a ribbon & worn as a bracelet. Unfortunately I didnt take many photos, once I started felting that was it... I didnt get chance. But I DID manage to get one of these lovely Jacobs sheep.

Arent they adorable?!

They got a late haircut, and I came home with a little black lamb fleece (Im obviously too soft cos I feel really guilty about the poor little lambie being cold now, cos Ive got his coat). I think I might spin a bit of it raw this afternoon, not something I tend to do but it is so clean... The mom is a black shetland & the dad is a jacob, so it should be a lovely fleece to work with. I`d of been very tempted to start spinning & felting the wool straight as it came off the sheep, but my dear friend Clare is expecting her 1st baby at the moment, so we kept her well away from them & the fleeces.

There were a nice lot of people there, it was busy - but not too busy; just right. I raised £50 for Help for Heros with my rug raffle, and the lady who won it sounded like she was over the moon when I phoned to let her know :)

The primary school workshop on Thursday went really well. The creatures are dry now & waiting for me to sew the childrens names to them & assemble the mobile. I`ll post more pics when its done, but for now...

There were children who had felted beads with Rachael at the end of last term (she took fibre in for toy day!) and it was lovely to hear them say "oh, this is what Rachael taught us", Rachael didnt stop at making beads she made a coaster actually in school as a present for her little boyfriend :) bless.

Anyway, the suns shining & Ive got masses to do. Think Id best get out of my PJ`s & get on with it... think I`ll start with another cuppa tea :)
xx

Peace Felt gifts

For anybody not involved with PeaceFelt heres a lil` bit about what its all about...

To celebrate the International Day of Peace, 21st September, and nurture new friendships across the globe the folks at Living Felt started the PeaceFelt circle of giving. Everybody who signed up was paired with 2 others; a giving partner from who you receive a gift & a receiving partner for whom you make a gift.

Earlier this week I received a lovely gift from Mary one of my PeaceFelt partners. Over the course of our emails back & forth it turns out that Marys ancestors lived about 7 miles from here in Kidderminster, UK. They emigrated in the late 1800s... hows that for coincidence?! We share a love of history & the connection we feel, through our fibre crafts, with the generations who have gone before us (as well as both loving dogs & being on & by water) :)

Mary made a beautiful necklace for me...

In colours reminiscent of the Atlantic Ocean which lies between our 2 countries. Each bead is beautifully crafted, between each felt bead is a sea glass bead (luuuurve!). Its hand knotted, and there is a sweet little peace charm dangle by the clasp.

Its lovely to of made new felting friends.

And I posted my gift to SAM. Sam is 17 and lives in the USA. I had thought long & hard about the design... and knew early on what I wanted to do. But what was it going to be... a wall hanging? A bag? I finally decided to make a journal cover, as I think this is likely to be most usefel. I felted it over a resist and used inlays to create the picture. Ive not felted a book cover before, so this was a new experience for me & I almost shrunk it too much... I forgot to allow `give` so the book could close! Rather silly of me, Im glad I noticed before it was too late.

On the Tree of Life is a pewter Goddess... The moon and stars which look down on us all, in this the constelation is a triskel - the Celtic symbol for balance & unity (also symbolises trinities; the triple Goddess, cycles of life, land sea and sky), its quite a complicated little symbol - but fits well with how I feel about peace, love, life & this earth. Sam also loves nature so Im hoping that she will like the design & also find a journal useful. I did hold off publishing this post, cos I didnt want to spoil the suprise as Sam opens her gift... It should be nearly there now though :)

Ive really enjoyed being part of the PeaceFelt movement. And looking at the work that so many felters have created to give freely & unconditionally to people they have only just `met` is quite wonderful. Lots of beautiful gifts have been posted on the Facebook Fan page. One thing that has struck me is that so many of us connect the same images to peace... moon, stars, trees, seas - how alike we are.

The primary school workshop yesterday went very well... I was shattered at the end of the day, but it was good fun! And the kids have produced some lovely felt, which is now drying over the hotplate on my stove.

Tomorow Im felting at the farm charity fundraiser. Its supposed to go very cold for tomorow (hope its dry) so we might have cold fingers.

Whatever you have planned, hope you all have a wonderful weekend x

Peace Day 2010

Best wishes to all of my readers on this international Day of Peace.

love to you all

xx

A busy week ahead

This is a busy & exciting week for me!

Thursday I am working in my local primary school on a felting workshop. The teacher was so impressed with Rachaels felted gifts last term that she JUMPED at the offer of a felting workshop. Year 5/6 have an `under the sea` topic this term, so we are going to felt sea creatures, using blue, green & yellow; the FeltUnited 2010 colours. I shall assemble them (at home) into a mobile. Im hoping to exhibit the finished piece at Haden Hill House, the closest of our local museum buildings, on Sat 2nd October... we are just sorting out the logistics of exactly where it can hang; Im really hoping that works out, I think it would be a big boost for the kids to have their work publicly exhibited.

Saturday 25th is the charity day on the farm (details on the right) I am SO looking forward to this. It sounds like a lot of fun & if the sun shines for us it will be wonderful! Anybody in the Midlands area, if you fancy an afternoon out why not drop by? If you do please introduce yourself, be nice to meet you. Im doing a very simple felt workshop there... using some of the farms jacob fleece to felt beeds. Im thinking if folks felt 1, or as many as they want, I can string them onto ribbon & they can wear it home as a bracelet... or whatever. Might take a little colourful Icelandic wool too... just incase. Clare is going to be spinning, so it should be a nice afternoon submerged in wooly farmy wholesome goodness :)

AND I have to ship my Peacefelt to my lovely PeacePartner Sam... I shall post about that next time...

xx

Felting frenzy begins...

Wow what a busy felting week I have had! I have barely touched the computer this past week, apart from to check emails / orders etc. - the bare essentials. Last Friday found me hitting my stride, getting back into the swing of felting. I made myself a pair of slippers (working out my own technique for slipper making, these were my prototype) and a table trivet / mat... not sure what to call it really - any suggestions folks? To sit in the centre of the table & protect it from teapot, serving/casserole dish etc.

Drying in the sun

Both made from my Icelandic batts. The trivet has merino fibres & sari silk fibre decoration. The slippers are finished now & Im very taken with them :) Infact, I am this afternoon finishing off a 2nd and 3rd pair... but these ones are mine all mine...

Anyhoo, must run & get some more work done before the kids finish school.

Morefelt goody pics to follow soon xxx

Etsy Front Page

What a lovely few days I have had! A felting Friday - more on that soon. Then yesterday (saturday) morning I had a message from Claudia at NangijalaJewelry to let me know she had included one of my purses in her treasury - which was full of luuurvly things. Got up this morning and the treasury had made the Etsy front page (my first time there)... which brought in loads of views & hearts AND Id sold a wrap & scarf YAY :) Its in the vault now, I didnt see it live as was sometime in the early hours.

Take a peek

View an Etsy Front Page Treasury List - The Vault on Craft Cult

xxx

Ending the holidays...

On Saturday I felted another rug! This one is about half the size of the one I did a few weeks ago - it still took a whole day, but was a lot easier on my back.

You can see the different character of the fleece... this one had a longer staple length, so the rug pile it longer. I like the way it wafts in a breeze & flops around to lie in different directions... The first rug was a definate learning curve; this time I put the cotton net fabric layer in between the 2nd and 3rd fibre layers, so its completely encorporated into the felt and veeery sturdy. I used Icelandic batts again from Alafoss (which I highly recomend by the way).

Good job I wasnt aching too much because 2 days later I climbed a mountain! Literally! We have been weather watching for some time trying to pick a good say to go climb Mount Snowdon in North Wales, Monday looked good so we were up and on our way at the crack of dawn. Gary had climbed the mountain (and the other 2 highest peakes in the UK) many times throughout his childhood... but the kids and me? No...it was our first time. The weather was absolutely fantastic.. couldnt possibly of been better. We were in T-shirts all the time,and just needed a fleece on the summit. Now we were expecting it to be cold, so went with layers on & carrying coats, wooly hats, gloves etc... sensible, but we could of done without all that and took more water if we had known how hot it would be! I took some photos (no suprises there)...

I thought this was Snowdon... but its Snowdons baby bro Crib Goch - looked lovely with the moon just to the side. Im suprised that I didnt actually take a photo looking up at Snowdon... think it was just too big & imposing, I didnt even think to take one.

We walked past beautiful crystal clear lakes - the dogs swam in them of course.

About 2/3 of the way up, looking back.

Nearly there...

These 2 are looking toward the coast approx 15 miles away from the base of the summit stones... it was sooo clear & very surreal. Especially looking down on birds flying!

Now contrary to the appearance from the photos, this will show you just how busy the mountain was. I took a photo of Gary & the kids on the summit at a QUIET time

1085 meters - we were suprised at how busy it was...

Id have to say it comes second only to chilbirth (for me) in terms of physical effort to get the job done, and how much it blooming well hurt. OMG!!! My legs & hips were SCREAMING! And I think like childbirth I`ll have to wait till Ive forgotten how much it hurt to want to do it again :o)

The rest of the week has been spent swimming & catching up with family... its been nice - and the sun is still shining! Lovely!

Kids go back to school next week, cant believe how quick the 6 week holidays alway go by! Christmas before we know it...

Be well

xx

A Tale of Treasure... Allen style

OK, this post is going to be told by images more than words... the photos speak louder than words anyway :o) A tale of adventure from our holiday in Cornwall, it happened a week or so ago...

.

One lovely sunny day, the Allen family and their 2 dogs went rockpooling; the tide was waaaay out so there were many more rockpools to explore than usual. A very enjoyable morning was spent mooching around, finding little treasures - shells, bits of driftwood, buoys, fishing weights. Moma Allen took lots and lots of photos for inspiration, peering into rock pools trying to capture the colours and textures of rock, sea creatures & sea weed. A large rusting anchor needed several photos to capture its beautiful colours.

.

As they got to the furthest point, they discovered a sheltered place with high rocks around 3 sides... and lying in the middle...

Was a huge, very interesting, and obviously very old piece of driftwood, lying in a murky puddle.

Daddy Allen is a carpenter by trade, and loves wood. This big old piece of oak got his imagination going straight away... where did it come from? How old is it? HOW long has it been in the water to be so shaped by the tides?

How am I going to take this home? He was figuring out just how to get this huge (6 1/2ft) and very heavy soaking wet piece of oak up the cliffs and a mile or more in either direction before we could collect with the car.

Ever resourceful - the dog leads came in useful. The dogs thought he had gone mad & mistaken a log for one of them :o)

Once at the top it took Matthew & me at the front with a dog lead each, and Gary at the back. Rachael was overseeing the operation and carrying dog water bottles etc. What a funny sight we must of been! Luckily about 1/4 of a mile up the coastal path, we took a chance and headed up a tiny walkway toward some beautiful houses - my reasoning being they were sure to have road access. This was very narrow so Gary shouldered the log by himself.. fortunetely it wasnt too far till we reached a rough road. Gary and Matthew jogged back to collect the car.

It had 4 days to dry out sitting raised on slate outside our tent (looked like we had built a bench :o) Before it was time to come home...

Dont worry, it wasnt really as low on the arches as the picture suggests - it was very uneven ground here & the back tyre was at the highest point.

First day back home...

Sculpted by the gentle hand of Mother Nature - 'the Needle'

Gary set our new piece of garden art in place, the bottom 18" are buried.. its very steady. The corner with the picnic bench has been a bit of a dead area until now, characterless & unused. Its going to be our coastal corner now :o) Ive strung the buoys on fishermans rope and hung them on the fence. There is going to be a shingle area around the Needle, with boulders, sea pinks and Livingstone daisies (they`re the closest I know to pink sea daisies). Just hope they can survive there - its quite shaded most of the time being right by the woods.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun... and we do love driftwood - this really was treasure to us (all 4 of us)

xx