Winter Fun when the Rain Comes Calling

I've been pretty busy the last couple weeks, no time to blog on and on about it I guess. I took my wonderful daughter skiing, the snow was very new and very deep. I had a number of falls and wow was I sore.

It was tons of fun and I hope we can go back soon. My husband does not ski but he does like snow, he has some crazy notion we ought to go snow camping next weekend... omg I think I'll freeze to death...

As of my last post I was making mushrooms and fairies.. they are getting much more elaborate now.

Here is a teaser of what I am now felting up. What you can see here is my second Faerie she is holding a life sized strawberry. She is made with merino, silks, wire, and her beautiful hair is some wonderful handmade yarn from Feline Fibers in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. She is sitting on an oak log, with an acorn cap bowl at her feet. I am working on the mushroom house, I think it might be for a mouse... or maybe a pixie. I know this is not the faerie's home, it is much to small.

This mushroom house is so fun, I have always loved miniatures and this suits my personality so well. I am working on a rock fireplace with a burning log, complete with lighting effects. This is all wool except the inner workings which are secret :)

My next plan is to make a small nest bed with a little quilt, the occupent of this little house and who knows what else.

Im also cooking some yummy potato sausage and kale soup to warm my soul on this rainy and cold night.

Rainy days means mushrooms aplenty

Mushrooms! I'm working and felting all day long. These are the fruits of my efforts.

Last night I put the finishing touches on 16 of these. Im surrounded!

Hot Coffee and a Warm Kitty

Hot coffee and a kitty to warm my lap. What more could I want on a chilly Sunday morning ?

Yesterday was such a great day. I got up very early and had 3 hours of alone time around the house. That was like a gift all by itself. Then I readied myself and went to my local yarn shop for roving. I finally found a nice big piece of wool bat for my Chief Plenty Coups Indian picture. Now I am one step closer to getting the arrowhead project done. I just need a custom frame. Lucky me my husband said he will make my frames all i have to do is buy him a miter box and a saw. No problem, I'll go to the hardware store today :)

On my way to the Yarn shop I called a friend and we decided to go to Downtown Sacramento to IndieSacramento (Sacramento's largest trunk show & craft bazaar). The show was wonderful, the sellers we great, the church it was held in was beautiful. In the garden beds there were beautiful statues of St Francis.

Most all the vendors have Etsy shops so here is a shout out to the ones I purchased from...

My purchases included a fab cat-alope shirt from Wear Yeti for my teen age daughter, which she loved. I bought myself some lovely earrings that look like tiny Italian tiles from Shrunken Cat Heads. They are so beautiful and Cori Cooks was a pleasure to chat with. I hope to meet her again someday. I also purchased a ceramic pot with a wonderful glaze from someone ... but I cannot find her information.

This wonderful abandoned and rotting old house was next to the church... I wish I could just take it over, there is much beauty in this old beast.

But look at the rot, it seeps from all the corners. If it were mine I'd have my studio in the room at the top. Ahhh to dream...

So As we left the craft show, we saw a park so we decided to take a stroll... turns out it was an outdoor museum and it was free day at all the area museums. Heather and I took full advantage.

Turns out we were at Sutter's Fort. There were folks dressed in period outfits, they shot off a cannon.. which was loud and surprising :)

Here is the spinning and weaving room at the fort.

After we did this we walked about twenty blocks had lunch, explored the Capital Mall gardens. We found a tree of giant oranges and partook. It was delicious.

At the end of the day I returned home to my family and we went to see a movie...

Coraline in 3-d . It was fun and cute.

All in all it was a wonderful day :)

Im filled with excitment..

I'm filled with excitement this morning and I don't know why. The moon and stars must be doing it to me. I have nothing going on today that is really that interesting.. but I do like this strange euphoria I'm feeling :)

Last night I worked on the word challenge piece, and Ive decided for certain I much rather do flat felted paintings than 3-d sculptures. I could barely keep my eyes open by 8:30 pm. So I went to bed. The up side is I got plenty of sleep, my family is still in their beds and I have the whole house to myself for a few hours.

I'm working on another thing that has been floating around my head. It is a way for me to combine another of my craft loves with felt. I am making a necklace with a silver center pendant woven through with long cords felted from merino and silk. I have only just begun, I am now at the point where I have to decide if I should add a stone to the piece, or perhaps some sort of bead work or perhaps some silver baubles soldered on here and there. I have a number of sketches and ideas. Of course everything is so easy to make in your imagination. Nothing ever comes out the way I first imagined it... so this is a WIP ( work in progress)

The wonderful thing is silver and felt look great mixed together, so I'm excited to see what will become of this.

I hope everyone who falls through the w.w.web and lands here in my blog has a happy, crafty and creative weekend!

Rainy day

Yeah, as much as I can't stand the rain we really need it. I think we might go on water rationing this summer if the lake level does not get back up to normal ranges.





Yesterday on http://www.feltingforum.com/ one of the members came up with a fun and unique challenge. We get 4 random words and we must felt something using all four words in one piece.

My words:

Raccoon, book, intimidate ( or intimidation) , Navy blue

Ohh fun and interesting. I have got 3 of the four words forming a picture in my head.. but I am intimidated by one and don't quite know what or how I will incorperate it in.

Recieved a wonderful exchange gift from New Zealand yesterday

I recieved my fiber trade from Tess in New Zealand yesterday, wow what fabulous fibers. She even made me a little bear from mohair her own goat makes and merino. It is really cute. You can see the mohair and the goat Lucy-bug up in the corner. I feel quite lucky and I just want to go sift through it until something inspires me .

Well I must go work, my bills won't pay themselves I guess.