Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! I hope you have a wonderful Holiday and a Healthy and Happy New Year. Above is the Christmas card I sent to all my family and close friends, it's a needle felt Mama mouse hoisting her child to put the star on top of the tree. I hope to make more of these after the holidays.

Our Christmas Tree

Our beautiful Christmas Tree with the woven star and all my beautiful handmade ornaments.

Christmas Windows in NYC

I love New York City at Christmas time; the lights that light the streets, the fairs that pop up all over, the Rockefeller Center tree, and the windows along Fifth Avenue. I can remember coming to NYC at Christmas, when I was a little girl, seeing the windows with my aunts and it is still one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time. My favorites are always the Bergdorf windows, so creative and so fun, This year was no exception, the Men's windows were all Fantastic Mr. Fox sets and figures. I must admit I wasn't looking forward to seeing The Fantastic Mr. Fox, however after seeing all the wonderful detail and design in the sets and adorable characters I am quite anxious to see it. How cute is the motorcycle one? I am a total sucker for animals in gentlemanly apparel.

The other Bergdorf had my absolute favorite window this year (above). All the paper sculptures, so creative, so amazing. I went twice to see it and each time I found more and more with every glance.

Weekend

This weekend was a great weekend! I went to two craft fairs, had homemade ginger ale, went fabric shopping and made some Christmas stockings with my Lovely!Though it was a terribly rainy day, the turn out at the Martha Stewart craft fair was very impressive. I saw a lot of beautiful crafts and met some sweet people. I also bought the most wonderful basket-weave star which I intend to use as my tree topper (photo to follow soon).




After the Martha Stewart fair we went to the Handmade Cavalcade which also had wonderful crafts and jewelry.

The turn out was also impressive.



It began to snow, so we headed to Noho Star for some lunch and freshly made ginger ale. Then a quick stop at one of the best fabric stores downtown, Purl Soho where I picked up the felt for the Christmas stocking that my boyfriend and I made, below.
My stocking is the one with the little snowy village, and the snowman caterpillar is my boyfriend's. The eyelet trim, used for the roofs is what encouraged me to do the village in the first place. I began to play with trim and thought it looked a lot like a Victorian house's roof trim, thus my snow village was born.

12 Ornaments of Christmas

I have decided to make a post on 12 ornaments I have been making for my Christmas tree. The ornaments are a mixture of needle felt, sculpey, a couple of glass ornaments and some more simply glued felt pieces. A post of my ornaments on my Christmas tree will be up soon.

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know I did. It is always a busy time for me because it is when I begin my holiday ornaments and designs (to follow in next post) and it is my beloved's birthday. Every year I make a cake design of something he is loving that year last year it was Wall-E

and this year, my little nerd was loving Star Trek! This has been a long and deeply seeded obsession (we have driven to Canada twice to meet Patrick Stewart) and one I have grown to share. This year with the new movie being a wonderful surprise and all his gift being Star Trek related, I decided the cake should be as well.

It is Saturn with stars coming out and the original enterprise on top. I had several crises, including one where all the frozen veg in my my moms frig fell on the swirled chocolate rings cracking them, but in the end I was just happy it taste delicious. The recipe is a basic chocolate buttermilk cake and a basic vanilla buttermilk cake recipe with alternating raspberry jam, crushed hazelnuts with sugar layers and chocolate hazelnut whip cream layers. SO GOOD! It is my new standby!

THANKSGIVING WREATH

Thanksgiving is here, and here is a little craft that will welcome guests at your door. This wreath is a simple, affordable yet beautiful way to greet your guests. I love ginkgo leaves especially in the fall so I decide to make this wreath with a golden yellow felt and a lemon yellow felt.

All you need is:

-An 8 in embroidery hoop. (I separated the inner wooden hoop and save it for another project)
-Felt in the color palette of your choice (above Lemon Yellow and Golden Yellow)
- A Hot Glue Gun
-A sewing machine

-First cut the felt into rough ginkgo leaf shapes that are around the same size. I cut the tops of the leaves individually so they have a more natural ginkgo feel. I used 20 but it all depends on spacing, the closer together the more you will need.

-Then I lined the leaves up along the 8 in wooden embroidery hoop that was my base and decide layout and spacing, I alternated one lemon yellow, and then one golden.

- Once you have the layout you can sew them all together on the sewing machine. In the past for a green leaf design I just sewed a straight line down the middle of the leaves to form a garland. A small strip of tape along the back can hold them all together while you sew.
The ginkgoes are a little more complicated because I wanted to make them look more like real ginkgoes, so I used my sewing machine to sew small chains of leaves with the veining in the leaves of each gingko.
-Then once you have all your chains sewn together, hot glue them all around the top of the embroidery hoop. To make it a little more harvest festive, I added the a small bunch of baby indian corn in the center as I hung it on my door with yellow embroidery string.

FELT CREATIVE

I stumbled upon needle felting about a year or so ago and decided it was a technique I just had to learn. I love learning new techniques and playing with new materials. Needle felting is a technique where you shape wool roving by stabbing it repeatedly with a barbed needle. The direction as well as the amount of stabbing dictates shape. I first started with a kit, "a sealed Ziploc of a everything" I would need to make a Boston Terrier. The results where good however I wanted to investigate more. I receive a great Japanese book from my thoughtful boyfriend (Animal Mascots Made of Wool) and picked up another great book (Sweet Needle Felts by Jenn Docherty) and then I was off. I gathered from these books certain techniques and began to create my own style. It is a wonderful technique, although quite painful when that barbed needle misses the soft felt and plants itself deep in your skin. Since that first Boston my technique and style has developed and become my very own. So I decided to open an Etsy shop, below are just some of my creations.A day or two after my first post I was thrilled to receive an order for a hedgehog family of three, a birthday present for the buyer's mother. So I came up the birthday card and packaging you see below.Each felted hedgehog set comes with a family album, that includes a photo of the hedgehog couple, followed by the hedgehog baby and then a family portrait. It came out quite cute and I was quite proud. I hope they loved it, but I guess I ll never know seeing as they left no feedback:( but honestly who couldn't love that adorable family unit above! Feel free to stop by the shop ifeltcreative.etsy.com and check back soon for some holiday felties as well as postcards, and mobiles. I also encourage everyone to out and get some needles, wool roving and stuffing or just go to the library/ local bookstore and start to read about and learn a new technique. You never know where it will take you.

HALLOWEEN DREAM

This Halloween my boyfriend had a request,

"Could you make me a big awkward costume? Something round and cumbersome?"

I recalled a certain commercial where people are dressed as planets that my boyfriend giggles at every time, so I thought how about a planet!? He loved the idea and we went off to shop. As we were looking around I saw a pack of dinosaurs that had caught my boyfriend's eye and thought WHAT ABOUT A 'PREHISTORIC EARTH' WITH DINOSAURS AND A METEOR CRASHING INTO THE SIDE!!! He loved it and before we even knew what the earth would be made off we where purchasing dinos.
The pics below are what came out of that idea. The structure ended up being three hula hoops duct taped together. On top of the hoops is a blue plastic tablecloth, the continents are green foam sheets from the kids craft aisle and the clouds are that spiderweb stuff you can get as decoration around this time of year. It came out cute if I do say so myself, the pictures don't even do it justice and we ended up laughing for hours!

AUTUMN IN PA

Fall is my favorite time of year. The air is crisp, the colors are vibrant and then my favorite holiday,Halloween is in the midst of it all. For me there is nothing more relaxing than starring at a beautiful, colorful trees , sipping a caramel macchiato (my fall beverage of choice, next to Solebury Orchards apple cider) all bundled up in a hoodie. Ah, the hoodie I could wax on about my hoodie but surely you know how good planting your cold hands in the front pockets all bundled up feels. I dream of fall picnics under shady colorful trees, with plaid blanks and thermos filled with soup. My parents live out in Bucks county PA where they have the most beautiful fall as the images above show. They also have a wonderful Halloween event called Pumpkinfest. Pumpkinfest is the perfect way to enjoy the season, caramel apples, cider, and a carved pumpkin contest in the glorious setting of Font Hill. Font Hill was the home of the American archaeologist and tile maker, Henry Mercer. The home is made of concrete that is poured in place and the inside is filled with tiles that Mercer collected in his travels and tiles he made at the tile works that is on the property and which you can tour.
The tile works is where the Pumpkinfest takes place and seeing the orange glow coming from under each archway lighting up the many tiled chimneys is a spectacularly magical sight!

DRESS UP

Ever since I was a little girl I haven't been above dressing up my pets. My first cat and best friend Fluffy, who I had since I was three, used to suffer through his moments of "dress up" with dignity, and ever the gentleman, would merely refuse to move. He forgave me of course, seeing as we spent 18 glorious years together as partners in crime and eventually I realized I was pursuing the wrong animal for my styling needs. With age comes great knowledge, and with Halloween a great excuse to dress up dogs! My parents adopted Hugs and Kisses from the Humane Society on Valentines Day and luckily THEY LOVE TO DRESS UP! No joke, they have rain slickers and will sit for hours trying on clothes, surely they love the "so pretty, so handsome" fawning, but it works for both of us! So this Halloween we entered a Howl-o-ween ( How many of those happen around the country every year?!) and we took best in group;) as the King and Queen of Hearts, and if it wasn't for a doberman in police uniform and aviators pulling a pup in prisoner outfit in a cell behind him (we couldn't have seen that coming...well played!) we would have won best in show! Either way I was quite pleased, now if only I could trick or treat them around?!?
The entire costume was no-sew, seeing as my sewing machine was in a different state!

Apple Picking and Baking

New Hope, Pennsylvania is a cute artsy little town right along the Delaware river and just a little further in is a wonderful orchard called Solebury Orchards. I have been apple picking there for the past few years and I love it it there! They have the most delicious cider and cider donuts (sinful) and of course the apple picking it self.

This year I went with my cousin and her adorable little son, who is so smart that while we were on a hayride in the pumpkin patch he, who just turn one year old this summer, made it known he was ready for "apple picking?" RIDICULOUSLY CUTE! After apple picking I hauled my stash of apples and pumpkins back to NYC and began baking! I got the idea in my head that hand pies would be the best and since I tend towards the visual I decide to make them in the shape of apples!


I must say in my mind they where a lot simpler but it turns out it is hard to find the rolls of dough in my super markets and its not easy to roll out that pie shell (mini meltdown happened here!), so I ended up using empanada dough. It actually worked pretty well and I think if I had fried 'em it would of been very much like a fast food apple pie (I didn't fry them though, no need to do that to my poor heart!). Either way they came out adorable! Next time dough from scratch though! I promise MARTHA!
FYI: filling is just 8 apples, 1/2cup sugar, a little lemon zest and a tablespoon fresh cinnamon in a skillet with a tab of butter, till tender.

BAD BLOGGER BAD

This past month I've been a bad blogger and not posted, and for that I am sorry. I did have good reason though, research! I've been loving the season and doing autumn up right, everything from apple picking to leaf strollin', to pumpkins and Halloween and now I have it all to share with you. This weeks' post will be about all my autumn exploits in the beautiful county of BUCKS in Pa, namely Doylestown, they do the season up right! First post will be apple picking baking, then some of early Halloween fun and then some beautiful fall foliage photos. So sit back and enjoy some fall fun!

TELEVISION YOU LET ME DOWN

Fall TV is starting up again and I am reminded of a great travesty that happened last year, my favorite show in the entire history of shows got cancelled, Pushing Daises! What a show, the writing was hilarious, the acting was phenomenal, the sets the costumes, everything AMAZING. Just watching it made you want to start creating and often I did. I made pies of all sorts every Wednesday and crafted while watching with friends. I am hoping to make a few of the characters in doll form soon. I am so disappointed all over again! Only the good get cancelled and this show was great! I recommend it to all who love Amelie's stylized Technicolor, whimsy and fast paced sarcastic humor! ABC how could you, ill never love again!

Kristin Chenoweth (Olive Snook) won the Emmy for supporting actress!


Yellows, greens and golds. Bzzz the episode photos at the top won a costume Emmy Reds, Black and Gold hints of Green. The Episode Dim sum lose sum, the photo bottom right and top left won art direction and make up. I love the rich Browns and Orange in the a pie makers apt. and the awesome paisley wallpaper.

A Crafters Money is Never Safe!

I made a journey last week to two of the coolest stores in NYC! Toho Shoji between 36th and 37th on 6th ave and M and J trimmings between 37th and 38th on 6th ave (they have websites for those not in NYC). I love going to these stores even though I usually leave there with a lot less money then when I went in. They are any creative girls' heaven. Shoji has tons of beads, baubles, charms and chains for all your jewelry making needs and M and J has everything you could ever want to deck out and trim any....well anything. I picked up goods in both stores and went home, to craft away. Sometimes just holding and playing around with materials can give you ideas, just like going to a farmers market and seeing what's fresh at the moment. I decided to make several headbands and a few charms. Below are a couple of photos of the headbands I made. I hope it inspires you to play around with your own materials and inevitably buy new ones, either way, have fun crafting!

I swore I would never blog! I thought who really cares enough to write and or read these things
(I have my cynical moments)! It has to be for people who are way too happy to share their business, with too much time on their hands. Then I started to read some myself and ever so slowly I grew fond of them. I realized everyone could use an outlet of expression and some validation too. So now here I am blogging..... I still dislike the word though! So here we are, my first post a shot in the dark, here's hopin' it hits the spot!
BUT I WILL NEVER TWEET!!;)