Water swap sneak peek

This is my 2nd felted ball. I tried things a little differently this time. I first wet felted the ball, then needle felted the detail, then wet felted it again. One of the problems is that the roving doesn't really wet felt well. I think with the next one I will do a little needle felting to get a good shape and then wet felt.

Anyway the theme of the swap is water. These balls will be nice and squishy and would be great for playing in the pool. I now have about 10 days to whip out 4 more.

Also I have signed up for my first art fair! I'm joining a bunch of friends and taking out a table at the Ferndale DIY fair. I'm really excited but need to get busy making gnomes. I'm thinking I might make some simpler gnomes to go with my more elaborate gnomes. We'll see what I can get done in the short amount of time that I have.

Playing with letters

Today we played with beanbag letters. I made these for K for Christmas but haven't taken them out to play with since. K has been interested in letters lately so I figured it was time to get them out. As we pulled out each letter K asked if he could wear them so that's just what he did.

Playfood swap

I went to our local playfood swap this week. I traded the sushi I had made and here are the goodies we received. From the left we have blueberry pancakes with scrambled eggs and sausage, grapes, a carrot and potato and parsnip, a banana (that can be peeled!), and a bag of pasta (that can come out of the bag). What great stuff! I was so impressed by everyone's work.

Our next swap coming up is everything herbal. I'm the host this time and can't wait to see what everyone has made. I've also signed up for the next swap on bitofgoodness. The theme is "travel toys." Hopefully I'll have some pictures of my crafts up soon.

The Huntress

I finished my first female gnome. Ok well I've made other females in the past, but this was my first female gnome with hair. I wanted to make a companion to my Robin Hood gnome that actually wanted to get in on the action. Now that I've figured out how to add hair to the gnomes I think I'm going to make a bunch of strong female characters. K was excited about this one and I could hardly take her photo as K kept grabbing her and making her dance around the table. :)

Another Knitted Chickeno

After knitting K's first chicken I just felt like you can't just have one chicken. Right? I dug through my yarn and found this great brown. This time I also use more of the wool felt. I really love this yarn. :) I think he might need a rooster now.

Knitted Snail

I've recieved my final Spring swap item from my local group (one mom couldn't make it and had to bring her swap items over later). I love this knitted snail! He is sitting on our nature table right now, but I think I'll eventually add him to K's basket of animals to play with. This reminds me. I should take a new nature table photo. It has changed a lot since my last one.

Knitted Chicken

The other night while watching a little tv with Casey I knitted up this chicken. I just gave it to K and he is wondering around the house saying, "bocka bocka bocka." Silly boy.

Robin Hood Gnome

The other night I was inspired to make a fantasy gnome. He was really fun to make. I really want to make him a little companion gnome that has long hair. Its been a long time since I made a fantasy gnome for my etsy shop and now I keep thinking of all the possibilities. :)

Felted Ball

I've been racking my brain on what to make for my cousin's baby shower. I decided to try my hand at a needle felted ball. The inside has an easter egg with a bell in it so it rattles. I'm pretty happy about how it turned out. I got the idea for a felted ball from Living Craft Magazine. My husband just bought me all the back issues for my birthday and I am loving them! Its actually pretty overwhelming because I want to make everything.

Anyway I loved making this ball so much I'm thinking I need to make K one and then perhaps make a couple for Etsy. We'll see.

Outdoor Silk Play

The Weather has been so nice. We are so happy to be able to get outside and play again. Now that K received new silks in his basket we have enough to tie them across the yard. K had a great time running in and out of them. We also spent some time building roofs and houses out of them. I wish I would have taken a picture of that as K was so cute sitting in his house saying, "house! house!" I'm thinking we might need to make a park play date with friends and tie our silks around trees. :)

A Homemade Easter

Here are a few pictures from easter morning. I loved using K's new silks as the basket stuffing. I think I'll keep that up every year. It was fun to fill his basket with lots of homemade goodies. As you can see from the pictures the little blue bag made by a swapper was his favorite. In another picture he is playing with a tiny bunny I felted.

New Silks

These pictures do not do these silks justice. A few moms from my natural parenting group and I put together a big play silk order. We spent one evening dying them ourselves. Its a lot of work but totally worth it. I had done this on a much larger scale about 6 months ago and it took us 9 hours! There were around 15 moms and over 150 silks to dye. This time though with 4 ladies, 4 dye colors, and only around 30 silks we were done in just a couple of hours. I really wanted brown, green and white (not dyed), for our nature table. Then of course I could not resist that royal blue and the yellow.

I'm using these to line K's easter basket, so I'm sure after sunday I'll have some great photos of him playing in the silks.

Easter Swap items

I am so excited about the wonderful swap items I receieved for the Easter swap. The first is a "make your own bunny kit." I haven't opened it yet to get started, but hopefully I will soon. At the top is the best smelling home made soap. Next to that are beeswax crayons made from herbs! I really want to try and make some of these. Then a little blue knitted bag (K is going to love this!) And finally a little felt spring scene. All the parts store in that little pouch to the side. I can't wait to see K play with this.

The root children.

I have finished two of the root children. I have a few more in various stages of finished. Each of them has a removable coat so they can turn from a root child to a flower. They have been pretty fun to make and this is my first time working with all natural wool felt. I'm not sure that I can ever go back. :)

The Root Children are on their way.

This is my spring gnome and my root child prototype on our nature table. I'm making root children for an upcoming swap and I swear I've made 20 prototypes. Each one has a removable coat and is wearing a plain brown outfit underneath. I'm not thrilled about the way the stitching turned out and Casey thinks he looks like a man instead of a child. So... I think I've finally figure it out. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have my first finished root child. Oh and I've received my easter basket swap stuff. I'll post that tomorrow.

Needle Felted Bird

Ok I'm getting a little better at this. K loved the outcome of this bird. I made her just in time to sit on our wet felted eggs on the nature table. K keeps walking over to the nature table and going, "tweet tweet tweet." Its funny how much joy he gets out of that table for only being 1.5.

I think I'm going to try some farm animals next as I just found a wonderful wooden barn at a mom to mom sale. K has been having fun with it but it really needs a pig, cow, horse, and sheep.

I also have a crazy idea that some day in the future I want to make him a farm playscape to go with the barn. Something that combines knitting, crocheting, sewing, and felting. I'll get to it eventually. :)

Crayons

My mother brought over a huge bucket of crayons from my childhood. K and I sorted and peeled all the crayons to make new crayons. I found a great animal mold and used two ice cube trays for the hearts and stars. I love how they turned out, although I had no idea how much work they were and how hard the clean up was. We had crayon everywhere. :) I think I'm going to give the ducks away in my upcoming easter swap.

Play Kitchen Swap Received

Our play Kitchen swap items arrived in the mail and we couldn't be more pleased. If you look to earlier posts you can see that I sent out crocheted cherries and child sized aprons. Here is what we received:

1st photo: apron, napkins, carved spoon, crocheted nesting bowls.

2nd photo: felted fudge bar, crocheted strawberry, teabags.

3rd photo: oven mitt, apron, hand dyed crocheted potholder.

K has not seen any of it yet as he is going to receive these for his birthday with a handmade kitchen (as long as I convince his dad that he is making one).

1st needle felting attempt

Ok not so great. I used a book as a guide (which I've forgotten what it is as I returned it to the library) and wasn't very pleased with the result. The book combined sewing and needle felting to put the animal together. Since I've made this I've already produced better results. More to follow. Anyway K won't know the difference and I can pop this in his spring basket.

A gift for little friends

Two of K's little friends are having birthday's next week. They are sisters (although not twins) so I made them matching gnomes with matching bags to put them in. I have no idea how I ended up making them Christmas colors. Hopefully they won't notice. :)