Taken while on a mini-tour with Herman Dune in the UK. On the deck of the awesome venue, Thekla in Bristol.
–c.
Here are the final pieces of felt from my felting session fully dried! Aren’t they beautiful? There are three pieces each measuring roughly 3’X4′ but they still need to be trimmed.
The trimmings from around the edges can still be used for other projects that I have yet to plan. I think I’m going to try my hand at needle felting. (Andrew’s mom make beautiful needle felted objects including pillows, scarves, and Christmas ornaments.)
The faint diamond shaped pattern in the felt is from the felting machine and over time it disappears. I also forgot to mention in my previous post, these are made up of a combination of 80% alpaca and 20% merino wool.
-c.
Here is the second crocheting project for baby that I mentioned a couple posts ago. A turtle mama with some surprises!
There is an opening in the back end of the large turtle, out of which comes all the rest of the pieces. All in all the whole project is eight pieces including, the mama turtle, two babies, four eggs and one cracked egg. I was so ready for it to be done and those babies were hard to make! Small things are always harder to make. I’m surprised I’m not cross-eyed by now.
It’s from the same craft book as the Peas in a Pod (Ana Paula Rimoli’s Amiguri Two!). I’ve already been asked about the eyes and their baby-safeness. They are safety eyes and though I’ve tried my hardest to get them out (never with any success) I would recommend supervising baby when playing with any dolls with hard plastic eyes.
–c.
Medina County is known for being “home of the Buzzards” (more specifically Hinckley Township) and it’s not uncommon to see them flying around these parts. They are quite unsightly and frighteningly large.
Last week when I pulled into our driveway after work I saw about 6 of these ginormous scavengers sitting on the fence beyond the creek that runs behind our house. Some were on the fence, some in the bare trees nearby. It was freaky! Within the next couple of days, the number of buzzards seemed to multiply exponentially and it started to scare me. Andrew said we had better check what they were picking at because where there are buzzards there are usually dead things.
Andrew figured it was a dead animal of some sort, which I wasn’t too keen on seeing. He said we should check to be sure it wasn’t a dead body! And I said that I definitely didn’t want to see that! In the end, it was a dead deer that was still relatively fresh but picked clean. Andrew described the ribs as looking like a crown roast. Lovely. Just another one of those things that comes with the territory.
–c.
One of the last things left in the garden were the carrots. We got off to sort of a late start on these and they take a really long time to mature so we figured we’d keep them in the ground as long as possible.
We pulled up our first round of plantings a couple weeks ago and Andrew pulled up the rest earlier this week. We both agree that we LOVE root vegetables. Not only were we pretty successful growing them, but they are just so ding-dang fun to harvest! There are few things as rewarding as digging potatoes out of the ground and pulling up a bright orange carrot. I kept imaging how much fun the little one will have with this task.
Some of the carrots came out a little funky. I think this is because carrot seeds are microscopic and trying to plant just one is practically impossible. We thinned them down after they started to grow, but since their stems grow in bunches it’s hard to tell how well you’re thinning them out. Some of the carrots were wrapped around each other and look like emaciated aliens.
And one particular favorite looks like The Radish Spirit from Spirited Away!
–c.
One of the last things left in the garden were the carrots. We got off to sort of a late start on these and they take a really long time to mature so we figured we’d keep them in the ground as long as possible.
We pulled up our first round of plantings a couple weeks ago and Andrew pulled up the rest earlier this week. We both agree that we LOVE root vegetables. Not only were we pretty successful growing them, but they are just so ding-dang fun to harvest! There are few things as rewarding as digging potatoes out of the ground and pulling up a bright orange carrot. I kept imaging how much fun the little one will have with this task.
Some of the carrots came out a little funky. I think this is because carrot seeds are microscopic and trying to plant just one is practically impossible. We thinned them down after they started to grow, but since their stems grow in bunches it’s hard to tell how well you’re thinning them out. Some of the carrots were wrapped around each other and look like emaciated aliens.
And one particular favorite looks like The Radish Spirit from Spirited Away!
–c.
The other day I had the wonderful experience of making wool felt! As most of you know, Andrew’s parents own alpacas and have been shearing them and, more recently, having their wool processed. Andrew’s mom has been felting for a little while now and last Christmas she got me a gift certificate for felting classes at a local fiber studio.
We went to Places in Time Farm & Fiber Arts (which is also founder and home of the Ohio Natural Fiber Network) for my first felting session. So so much fun! I love the place, it’s so relaxing and there are so many beautiful things to look at and the owner, Karen, is a lovely person.
Andrew and I are working on another baby related project that involves felt and it is an amazing feeling to actually have felt that was raised, sheared, processed, and then felted all locally. Here are pictures of the process:
I still need to take pictures of the fully dried pieces, but will post those soon.
–c.
While in Wales recording with Herman Dune at Bryn Derwen Studios, we went for a walk up the hill and found this lovely creature.
–c.
I’m so sad that I missed out on this Tiny Showcase print by Rachell Sumpter!
[Image via Tiny Showcase]
I had my reminder all set and everything and still forgot about it. Ah well, next time. I was lucky to have gotten one of her $20 “Cave Dweller” prints over at 20X200 awhile back. Her work is unbelievable.
[Image via 20X200]
I highly recommend checking out her website.
–c.
[Photos by Estelle Hanania]
My dear friend Marion designed the shoes for the Dévastée Spring/Summer 2010 collection. I am in love with them all! Not only is she a beautiful person but she is an amazingly talented fashion designer and makes incredible illustrations too! If only I could find a pair of her shoes stateside… le sigh.
–c.