Needle Felted Tree

Happy Wednesday, gentle readers! 

I am in love with tiny landscapes lately, and decided to try creating my own using needle felting supplies. I'm aiming to make some terrariums one day, but since I had a few of these small terra cotta planters left over from another project, this seemed like a good alternative.

 

There's something very calming about looking at tiny landscapes, for me -- terrariums, bonsai, and so on -- whether they're real, or crafted.  It's a joy, I think, to bring a tiny piece of nature into our lives and homes, and really make it a personal experience!

No Mail Day Tutorial: Little Egg Doll

Little Egg Doll 

(an easy needle felting tutorial)

Welcome to my first needle felting tutorial! This little doll is inspired by both Russian matryoshka nesting dolls, and also by Japanese daruma. Make a cute orange friend, or experiment and have fun creating your own design with different colors and shapes!

Tools
Felting needles or a felting tool
Foam block or mat

Materials
Polyester fiberfill, about a handful
Wool roving in dark orange, light orange, light pink, and black, less than 1/4 oz. each

I usually get my wool roving from HiFiber Kits!

Birds and birds and birds!

Welcome back to blogging, Another No Mail Day!

My main craft these days has been needle felting, and Spring has been pretty inspiring! I've tried out several styles of bird, and experimented with wire legs; they've turned out pretty well, for a first try and wire work. Once I get more into the blogging habit, I hope to create a few tutorials on making some simple felted friends for everyone to try out -- I hope to make this website a good place for people to find answers to their common questions about the craft in a fun, simple, creative way!

Anyway, on to the birds!

Meet my newest needle felted friend and first attempted Cephalopod! This nervous little octopus decided he's going to go to school and become an art teacher, and who am I to stand in his way? Good luck, octo-friend!

Wheels and Plastic

Another belated illustrated outfit post! I've pretty much worn the texture off of those cords but they're so comfy and great for shopping or relaxing days. On 2/3 I went out and ended up buying a bigger cage and wheel for the hedgie. Ira wasn't thrilled at first, but since the first night he's become a wheel-running maniac! I'll go to bed to the sound of him running, and then wake up in the middle of the night and hear him still running like mad. Is there something inside little critters that helps them know how to use a wheel? Will he eventually become the buffest hedgehog ever known?

I've been thinking more about putting some items up in my neglected etsy shop, and experimenting with shrink plastic again with varying amounts of success. The results are so wildly different each time that it drives the perfectionist in me crazy trying to keep the shapes consistent. On the other hand, it's always fun to anticipate what's going to come out of the oven next ^^



Just a few cute ideas for now! Next up, a hamster for iamchubbybunny!

Here's a video of one of my Capybara-san toys -- the larger ones are still in storage, so for the time being it's just me, this little guy, and his pint-size brother. I wonder if these little guys are still popular in Japan these days?




The Kapibara-san/カピバラさん/Capybara-san flickr group has a lot of great pictures of these cute little toys!

Here are a few thrifting finds from the Care and Share today -- no good clothes, but a couple of neat miscellanies. The yellow and white fabric is for one of Johnny's projects, but I'm hoping I get to use some of it too to make something cute. The pin looked kind of interesting mysterious, I'm wondering if it is a logo pin for something? Probably just my imagination :)






I've had four people look at the yellow fabric but no one can figure out what the pattern on it actually is -- if anyone has any ideas, please let me know! Current suggestions include chickens, candies, and baby rattles.

More pet nonsense

This video pretty much sums up the relationship between my cat and my dog -- Otto (the cat) is usually pretty aloof but sometimes can be alarmingly affectionate, and then Max (the dog) likes to play/fight, but usually just ends up doing something strange or cute when Otto doesn't want to participate. But that's OK! He's a corgi, and according to my sources (chiefly, Youtube and Google image search) being strange and cute is what they do best.

Sneaky sneaky

The Ott is a pretty sneaky cat.

Here's a challenge for you -- see if you can spot him in this picture!

1...

2...

3...

Go!



Did you find him?

Blue

Here's the semi-daily (weekly... occasionally monthly!) ANMD hedgie photo post! These kind of reflect my recent mood as well, but maybe that's just because work made me feel sick today. Grump grump grump, but with a twinge of frightened optimism?

Corgi Love!

The great cross country move is now over, so hopefully with less stress going on there will be more time to update this blog and all of my internet stuff and generally keep in touch more than I have been able to do for the past while. Everything has been pretty successful and it's pretty nice to be at home for now, warm and well-fed.



There's a lot of snow, but it's dealt with in a reasonable manner. Our corgi has been having a blast exhausting himself by running around in snow as high as he is. He's so tired by the end of the day that his usual midnight bedtime is now not early enough, and he looks at us contemptuously when we're not in bed by 10 PM.