A special young friend is celebrating a birthday soon and so when we went to visit yesterday we took along a handmade gift. I Love having a young girl with an appreciation for crafts in my life, my boys have always
enjoyed my handmade things but there is something very fun about crafting for a girl too (I've had
fun,
fun,
fun in years past making her gifts). This girl has a connection to owls and so, when I
saw this post, I couldn't resist making a woolly owl for her. I still have my
sweater scraps from my patchwork blanket so I chose a gray one and got started.
I dug out our needle-felting supplies which haven't been used since we moved and needle felted the eyes and beak.
I stuffed it with some batting. The feet were cut from another felted sweater bit.
And then I used some buffalo wool (also in thrifted stash) to crochet a nest. The entire time E eyed it covetously and so I think I know what to make him for his Solstice gift. He does have a fondness for felted animals and I thought it was so cute that I might just have to make myself one too.
November has passed by so quickly that I could hardly believe it was already time to get the boxes of decorations out last night so we could find the advent calender. We put up the calender and then got out one of my favourite childhood decoration - this angel chime candle. We sat together and watched as the candles burned down and we talked about what we look forward to in December. This was always the first decoration I would set up when I was little, that way I could listen to it chiming as we set about putting out the rest of the decorations and there really is just something magical about candlelight, isn't there.
This afternoon E and I made some paper snowflakes (
as we do each year) to decorate the windows then E lit the advent candle because the first day of the month always takes a bit longer to burn down than the other days (there are markings on the candle and we burn one section each day). And, as I took this photo I gave thanks again for the grace that brought us to this place...right here...right now.
Here's to a magical month.
9 comments:
Do you have a secret for making such incredible snowflakes? They look different than the ones I usually see.
Your gift was magical.
Blessings this December...
The angel chimes! Wow! I used to have one like that once, when we were first married, but I think it broke. Now I miss it.
Love the wee owl. You really have the knack making felted creations, Heather.
Angel chimes.... never heard of them. Now how is it that I never spotted these on any of my visits? Hmmm... must've been spending too much time talking, drinking tea and admiring the gingerbread houses you and your boys make.
Love the little owl. Is it hard to do? I have access to some Alpaca untreated wool and wonder if maybe I could use that for felting. You are talking to someone here that knows nothing about that kind of stuff. Any info would be appreciated.
I forgot. Would you sell a bar or two of the Lavender soap? I will pay shipping and whatever.
Hi Linda Sue,
The owl isn't difficult to do. The body was made from a cut piece of shrunken sweater so it is just like sewing fabric. The only needle-felted part is the eyes and beak. When I first wanted to learn how more about felting I got some great books from our library - there are loads of them now. One that I recall was called Little Felted Animals and it has details on needle felting. Betz White has a book called Warm Fuzzies which has all kinds of info. on working with and making things from felted sweaters. Hope that helps.
And thanks so kindly for your interest in the soap, so far it is all for gifts. I did notice a couple people in the comments have gorgeous soap for sale on their blogs.
Thanks Daisy, I don't think I have any special way of doing it. Perhaps I cut into the centre (when it is folded) a little further than some people? Really, we just like to play around with them and experiment to see how they will turn out when we unfold them. ;-)
Thanks Heather. Will check it out. Got to go and see the lady that has the Alpacas to see how much the raw wool will cost and maybe get a couple of skeins too! Later
I love your wee owl! He makes me think of my mom who collected owls until her flock got to be a bit too big! Now we have to try to fight the urge to buy her owl-y things! But he would be hard to resist!
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