Sculpting With Felt

needle-felted mushroom

wet felted flower

Knitting FO's!

I made this adorable pink felted bowl (modified from this pattern in Knitty ) for Mel's birthday this summer. Just finally getting around to posting a pic.



I just finished knitting these deliciously soft armwarmers (modified from this pattern in Knitty ) for Jenn's birthday. I'll have to knit myself a pair of these babies now that the weather is turning cold! They were pretty hard to give up actually.



Now onto other WIP's! My goal for Christmas this year is to save some funds, not go nuts, and try to do as many handmade prezzies as I can. Kinda ambitious, seeing as Christmas Shopping is one of my TOP FAVOURITE THINGS TO DO and not many people truly appreciate the time and effort it takes to make stuff. I guess the important thing is that I enjoy myself regardless. I'm getting a jump start and trying to decide what I want to make people. Fuuuun!

Sometimes I think the best part of knitting is trying to figure out what to knit next. I was trolling around one of my LYS this afternoon and happily browsing through all the stock. It's a time warp in there. Three hours can go by before you realize it. A cell phone rang and the woman down the aisle from me answered it. She started to rush down the aisle and as she passed me and a salesgirl, I heard her say to the other person on the phone....

"I'm STUCK IN TRAFFIC!!!"

Mid-Summer Update!

So I've been busy not blogging lately but I do have gobs of stuff to show you.

I had an AMAZING 29th birthday in June. I was totally spoiled by everybody. Dan and I celebrated our birthdays at Green Mango. A total surprise to me that we were having a get together as I tried to book a reservation for six and they told me they were full. Little did I know that R had invited so many people that we practically took over the restaurant!

I got a stockpile of these - as my friends know exactly how to enable my addiction:

My refugee status at Starbucks is nicely intact for the rest of the summer.

I finally got to go see LOTR thanks to the generosity of my l'il sis. Everybody should go see it at least once! I'm a little bummed that there doesn't seem to be a soundtrack for it yet.


AND..... I got a sewing machine! I haven't had time to do much with it except pet it now and again. But i've got big dreams for it, baby!


Plus I'm still collecting on prezzies as Jane's promised to get my toes to Buff Nails. Kinda pathetic that it's August and my toes aren't painted anything remotely resembling bubble-gum pink.

Birthdays aside, I had a blast working on a dinner theatre fundraiser. Little Shop of Horrors is definitely one of my top favourite musicals.

Our "homeless" servers:


and dinner theatre ambiance:


The plant that tried to take over the world! It actually ATE people!


Some of the cast members I tortured with new, IMPROVED, versions of their songs every rehearsal and before every show. Thank goodness they're quick learners.


Shortly after that, we had a booth at the local Strawberry Festival. I stayed up until 4am in my own sweat shoppe to make these bubble babies to use as giveaways to promote the company. I'm really happy with the way they turned out!


More pictures from the day can be seen here.

The Mofo's raced in Halifax at the best regatta we've ever participated in; even though Halifax totally cheated and we ended up coming in 2nd overall. Here we are getting some energy between races. BBQ Pork on a stick. Mmmm.



Heather and Rick had a beautiful June wedding. R and I got lost on the way there but we eventually made it! Glad we did, because it was one of the best weddings we've ever been to. Watching her dance with her new stepson was the cuuutest. Somebody pass me a tissue. Quick!


We've got more pics here.

Since I completely dorked out and told Soph's mom that "felting is my passion" and nobody actually knows what I mean by that, here is one of my latest needlefelted creations:



I also finished knitting this Hello Kitty hat for Abby! I just hope it fits!





And lastly....I got more bangs chopped into my hair which renders me into a state of complete shock everytime I look in the mirror. [insert huge sigh] Not impressed!

It only took 28 years

I did a textile workshop over the weekend. I had a BLAST. I'm so inspired to do all these creative things with fibres and a little soap 'n water. I'm not very GOOD at it but maybe with practice I'll be able to make something I really like! The problem is finding the time. This was the first weekend in a long time where I indulged myself for two whole days in something that was purely for ME. I did feel a teensy bit guilty about taking the time for it because of all the other stuff I have to do but what the hell. This was FUN! and I had so much to learn.

The other woman in the class kept commenting on how great it was that I could do this for fun. She was taking the workshop to try and figure out new ideas for incorporating fibre into her metal work. I kept saying to everybody about how cool this was and how awesome that they could do this ALL. THE. TIME. On Monday morning, they don't have to go to an office job, they get to go to the studio and be creative. I understand the distinction though. To me, this is playing...to them, this is their livelihood. But man, I do admire them.

Having spent an entire weekend with these wonderful artists, I got a crash course into their lives and vice versa. One woman said something that has totally resonated with me since Sunday.

Your parents didn't immigrate all the way to Canada for you to be a starving artist!

Dammit. I knew that meant I was going to work on Monday.