it'll be here before you know it

i'm not usually one to prepare too much ahead of time for christmas, but thanks to the naturey christmas crafting event at the library, a neighbor who has gone into the christmas tree business and an upcoming christmas market here in town, i'm much more on top of things this year. and you know something? it's rather fun. this was my first attempt at a sweet little stacked felt christmas tree. i'll be making some more, for sure. tho' i've got to find some felt in more christmasy colors. this was just the felt i had on hand.

happy monday one and all!

fanciferocity

fanciferocity - i learned that word from the j. peterman catalog today. (it would be my dream job to write for them.) i figured it was appropriate, as i've gone a little nuts with the fanciferous little round baby acorns. it's just that every time i go out to feed the horses, i see more of the little caps on the ground and i can't stop picking them up. it's funny, as i already told you, i started thinking i'd just make red and white, since i want to use them on our christmas tree, but very soon, i picked up orange and green and blue (of course) and before long, i was making a whole rainbow. i just couldn't help myself. molly suggested making a garland and i just may have to do that, if their little sticks will hold up to it. otherwise, i'm going to incorporate them in my packaging for the upcoming christmas market we're having at our local kulturhus (community center). hopefully they'll make my bottles of cordials and jars of jam look totally irresistible.

i have so much going on and so many thoughts and ideas and possibilities swirling in my head at the moment, that it strangely doesn't want to come out into the blogger compose window. that doesn't happen to me very often, but apparently now is one of those times. i will undoubtedly be back soon with some self-therapy. but until then, i hope you're all having as glorious and warm an autumn as we are.

lessons in felting or it's good to have a stash

after patoot's arrival on friday, sabin and i were both fascinated by the whole notion of felting. several years ago, i made a felted scarf and since then, i've bought rovings here and there when i've seen them on sale. as you might have guessed, i also bought several books about felting. but i never really used them much, nor did i really have a plan for all that wool. but now, when we were inspired, it seems we had all of the supplies we needed at hand. (life lesson: it's good to have a stash.)

so we got out the stash and began. i set out to make a cat, but about the time i put little dots of pink in its ears, it began to look more like a frog. so felting lesson #1: you may not be making what you thought you were making.

felting lesson #2: it hurts really badly when you poke yourself with that needle. felting lesson #2a: you will do this rather more often than you'd like.

felting lesson #3: you may think you're making arms, but they may turn out to be feet. (refer to lesson #1.)

felting lesson #4: it is possible to poke the felting needle all the way through your finger - in one side and out the other. felting lesson #5: that hurts like crazy.

this is frode frø - a little green frog. he likes macs too. and i'm amazed how a bit of fluffy wool can become a little character. felting lesson #6: the felting books do not adequately convey the magic of the alchemy that happens between needles and wool. i wish some of those fabulous felters out there that i know would write a really good book about this amazing craft. this is a hint to you and you.

now you see it

saturday was snowy and icy and it was steadily snowing in the evening as we drove home from sabin's best friend's birthday party. then, it warmed up overnight and the snow is nearly gone now 24 hours later. what a difference a day makes!

* * *

and the creativity continued this weekend:

18.  felted soap. yes, you read that correctly. i felted a bar of soap for the upstairs bathroom with beautiful rovings bought last year in this etsy shop:

19.  and i also felted some stones that we collected on our winter beach trips during my sister's recent visit (more about that tomorrow):

i love how they look and even more how they feel, tho' husband and our best friends teased me mercilessly, especially when i took 78 pictures of them in different locations with different cameras and different lenses. there's just something special about the heaviness of the stone under all that wooly brightness.

i also made some fabulous bread, but didn't get to photograph it because it was devoured immediately. bread recipe over at just know where you are.

* * *

and on saturday, a whole lot of TtV photos:

hope you spent your weekend on something worthwhile.