watching and waiting

Ever feel like your being watched?

The countdown to Yankee Peddler Continues.  Finally finished the design of the price tags.  The less yellow really makes it pop :)  I shall have to get on the other computer and post a copy of it.  I will definately redesign my card to reflect this change and then incorporate it onto my etsy page.

The "breaktime" from wet felting right now is playing with the kids and getting together my birthday swap partner's gift.  Just can't wait to get that to her:)

playing hookie

yes that's right..although i should be felting in all my spare time, or at least while the little one is napping, I instead spent it playing with needle felting...and here is the result:

the elusive felted bee

 Having done a few of them, I am thinking that if I wet felted a few ovals it may indeed speed the process.  But then again, after a night of complaints at work, sticking a needle into some wool just might be a nice relaxing thing to do.

OK, enough play time, off to the real job and then back home to get some felting done for YPF...although, I do believe these bees might just need a little bee skep for themselves.  And please, no one show the little amigurami thief, I believe he might just go after these as well..

ACK

Once again, too much time has passed since I have been on here to post.  I have bitten off so much, I wonder how to stay sane and then I am reminded that 1 week till Crooked River Fiber Fling and I only have a few more things to accomplich before Yankee Peddler Festival is here.

Yes, that is right, I was juried into YPF about 4 months ago.  Since I was awarded with a booth this spring and summer has been a mad dash to get as much created, sewn, and finished before the festival begins in september.  My biggest fear is that I will not have enough items (best version of my current fear) or that I will completely flop and will be left with all the stuff in boxes. 

I will begin posting more photo's of the stuff made.  Thanks to my mom, the booth space is paid, the purses are being finished with flair, and little things like a makers mark and tying on the flowers to pins are being accomplished.  I would love to know if there are any artists in this festival that do all of it themselves cause I am surely not one of those artists.

SnB B-day swap

I love partaking in the stitching group swaps.  Not only do I get to spend time with adults who can think for themselves (try spending 8 hours in a retail environment..i love my job..i really do) but  I love making something for someone else and seeing what these creatively inspirational woman in the group have made for each other.

The best part of this swap - I was honored to make something for a new mommy, well almost new mommy...her second kid really, but its still thrilling!  I thought about making a layette set for her, buuuttt...how many pregnant mommies actually get something for themselves, something that has nothing to do with their newborn or other children?  I know I am wearing shoes to work that have holes in the bottom and a pant or two with holes in the pockets.  So if I cant even get myself out to the store to get pants with no pocket holes I'm guessing my swap buddy would not have the time or energy to get herself something nice.  But I could be wrong. 

So I made her this felted purse:

I am so excited as to how the felting turned out.  And I hope Jen has a wonderful time using it and the little purse that came with it:

And as I sit here procrastinating from doing house chores or studying or anything mildly productive I am sipping away at the fancy hot coco I got from Sam.  Can't wait to use the gloves she knitted me and the little ear warmer thingie..not to mention I am trying to decide what to make with that lovely yarn I got as well...mmm...

Start em Young I say!

Last month I went on a spinning spree, from spinning up some frizzy stuff for Craft Akron, to teaching a friend how to use my extra wheel and drum carder so she too can be addicted to the spinning craze.  This brought about my son's endeavor to learn how to operate the wheel -

Who can ignore this cuteness?

I also blame this on the Moswolt spinning wheel I bought on ebay and is now sitting in my garage being stained. I'll post photos once the wheel has been dressed and is ready to see the world.  However, my mother has added to this addiction by buying me another moswolt wheel ( i admit to prompting this early x-mass/b-day gift)...

I just have to find the time to spin now :)

kids away I must play

Sooo, with the kid off at 'school';  aka - daycare or as I like to call it, Mommy Sanity; and since my parasite within me has demanded another day of rest I pulled out some stuff to make cool stitch markers.  And I needed some photo's to send off for prospective classes I want to teach.

Stitch markers made with the hippie beads

 

 Had to pull out the animal beads, might remake some of these with fancier beads tho... And these have hooks so you can 'count' the number of decreases by attaching one marker to each row you decrease on.

Much fancier markers.  Somewhere in that garage are the few beads like these so I could make more. Alas the container with those beads are NOT where I left them, I blame gremlins.

And my ABC set.  My poor sister has been waiting years fro me to do a sweater for her with lots of different stitches that I will need these to keep me sane!

Is it me or are these photo's a bit off?  Somehow I think my camera has been played with by the kid or shall we say 'batman'...I may have to re-post these pic's after some adjustment to the camera settings and a small discussion on mommies toy versus kid toy.

Pin cushion sawppiness

I had an extremely hard time giving up this pin cushion.  In fact, I had to leave it at Craft Akron so I would not conviently forget it at home.

I made the pattern with muslim, put that together and stuffed it.  Then took 2 days to create the felted cover with merino wool from http://www.etsy.com/shop/GreenwoodFiberworks.  I handstitched it all together and then had fun making the bugs that crawl about on the pin cushion. 

I believe this was about 6 inches in diameter.  Not that I meant to make it so large but it just grew!

A dragonfly.  Soo cute, I need to add these to the flower barrettes I make, but I am not sure how they will hold up.

Top of the dragonfly.

Side view of the butterfly.

 Top view of the butterfly.