Thanks, Mr. Bendy!

Today I'm working on felted ornaments.  Here are a couple, in various states of doneness.  I owe a special "thank you" to Mr. Bendy for helping me pose them. I would have asked Mr. Gadget, but he probably would have suggested using a wrench or a clamp. And then he would have mentioned, in a persuasive-sounding voice, that I should list my completed ornaments on some sort of spread sheet....

Here is another one--still a little ways from finished.

The fun part is when I dress them up with a little bling.  Which makes me think that maybe I should put some clothes on Mr. Bendy.

I just finished reading A Man Called Ove. It's a fun book about a man who has curmudgeon qualities, and who reminds me just a little of Mr. Gadget.  Ove has long-held routines and staunch principles. His car is always spotless. He gets angry when people in his neighborhood association don't follow the rules.  

I'm lucky that Mr. Gadget doesn't get annoyed when I tease him on the blog.  I've been doing it for almost eleven years. He's very confident and comfortable in his own skin.  He has no desire to change. I like that about him.  He takes good care of me too.  He opens jar lids, reaches stuff on high shelves, and deletes all the old messages from the answering machine....

Metamorphosis

The big orange something has morphed into another Santa.  He isn't finished obviously. He's faceless and has that painful needle stuck in his chest. So, you're probably wondering why he isn't orange, right?

None of my Santas are red through and through.  Sometimes I start with fiber I have on hand that isn't Grade A.  Sometimes it even has bits of the barnyard in it. It's less expensive than the nicer quality colored fiber, so I use it to bulk him up.  Then I do the final layer with Grade A.

I may have mentioned that I taught myself to needle felt.  And I've probably learned the most from my mistakes, and from trial and error.

I had lunch the other day with a friend and former neighbor.  She was wearing a beautiful cardigan sweater she had just finished knitting.  She has made amazing progress with her knitting in a short period of time.  New knitters today have a real advantage with the large number of teaching videos online. The same can be said for needle-felters. When I learned to knit I had to ask my mom for help, and she was just slightly more advanced than me.  The only other option was to return to the yarn store and ask the owner for help.

On another subject, the old hotel show was this past weekend and I did very well.  All of my needle-felted items sold.  I'm a happy crafty lady. That just means I made enough money to buy more fiber.

A big orange something

This thing somehow sprouted on my work table yesterday.  I do have a plan for it, but you'd never know it at this point.  You'll just have to follow along as it begins to blossom.

So yesterday I got a call from a lady who had been at the old hotel craft show and had purchased two of my witches.....the felted one with bunny slippers, and the really ugly one holding the cat.  She loved the whimsicalness she said. And that made me happy because, you know me, I just love me some whimsy.

Would I, she wanted to know, be interested in putting some things in a holiday show she was organizing?

And since I've just been talking about slowing down my often-frenzied-crafting schedule, I asked her for more details.  My work would be displayed in a gallery-type setting for six weeks during Nov. and Dec. and my presence would not be required.  I could display as much or as little as I wanted with a reasonable commission for things that sold.

"What about picking up my unsold items?" I asked her.  "I'll be out of town and not available to do that in a timely manner."

"Not a problem," she said. "I'll take them home, put them around my house, and keep them safe."

I told her I'd think about it and get back to her.  So much for slowing down.

Fearsome foursome

I just finished these frightful gals.  They're sitting on our mantel amongst the family photos.  They're small--only 6 inches or so. The only challenging part was making the bottoms flat enough so they would stand nicely. They look like they're up to no good, don't they?

So, the other day I decided to clean Mr. Gadget's bathroom--the one in the basement next to his man cave.  I don't do it very often.  I keep forgetting it's there.....

I took my cleaning supplies downstairs and got to work while he was away at the gym.  After I was done I had a silly idea.  I decided to fold the end of the toilet paper into a nice, sharp point--just like the room stewards do on a cruise ship.  For those of you who don't cruise, this is the universal, across-all-cruise-lines, finishing touch of all room stewards.

Now fast forward to later that afternoon.

Mr. Gadget:  Were you by chance in my bathroom today?

Me:  Yes I was.

Mr. G:  Did you do something to the toilet paper?

Me:  Indeed I did.

Mr. G:  (smiling) Oh, ok.

Me:  Did you notice that your bathroom was nice and clean?

Mr. G:  Um, well.  Um, I might have.  I did notice the toilet paper.

Me:  So maybe next time I'm considering doing some fun bathroom cleaning for you I'll just sew instead. And I'll just pop in there now and then and fold the toilet paper.

Alleys and cats

There's just something about alleys.

They almost demand to be photographed.

Maybe it's the cobblestones.

Or the mystery of where they might lead.

It could be the warm colors and shadows.

Or the interesting shops along the way.

The ones with pink buildings are the most alluring.

With a couple of bicycles they're really hard to resist.

And what's an alley without a cat?

This one went off to the craft show today.

I'm hoping he gets adopted next weekend.

He has a pleasing temperament

and a small appetite.