I have only done a little needle felting, myself, but I really want to know more about it!

My needle felting friend, Michelle, recommends two books to get started on felting cute little animals for all the kids and adults who love warm fuzzies (that’s everyone, right?) on your holiday gift list. They make great stocking stuffers and gift toppers and are, by all accounts, surprisingly addictive to make!

Little Felted Animals by Marie-Noele Hovrath gives you simple step-by-step instructions to create 16 adorable felted pets.

At less than $10, it’s a bargain to get for your own crafting library or to supplement a crafty friend’s knowledge base. How cute is that little cat on the cover? Me-ow!,

If that isn’t enough, Wool Pets by Larie Sharp is chock full of even more quick, fun and easy animals to add to your felt menagerie.

Just imagine a festive flotilla of jaunty wool penguins on your holiday table! They can be yours by just following the simple and straightforward instructions in this beautifully illustrated book!

I know I’m going to grab these books today and settle in for some cozy evenings of punching together some lovely wool into a passel of adorable companions for me and all my friends! Maybe I can even talk Michelle into a felting date with me!

As with all crafting, needle felting animals is even more fun when it’s shared!

Happy Felting!

1 sick child, 2 brand new jobs, 3 weeks of blog silence…..

Hmm…not the Holiday list I was hoping to make this year!

But my baby is on the mend (and, NO, Thank God, it was NOT H1N1!!!), I’m getting a better handle on juggling my new job responsibilities with the rest of my life tasks and my energy is freeing up to felt and blog!

Meanwhile, I had a happy little windfall!

Lovely Linda at my favorite daily felting blog, Craft Gossip, sponsored a contest offering a really sweet and beautifully packaged Soap Felting Kit from Leah at Spiderfelt, and (drumroll, please!) I won!

I have to say that I LOVE winning things, especialy fabulous, useful things, like this little kit!

Lemon Verbena Soap Felting Kit by Spiderfelt

I can’t wait to actually use it! I think I might offer it as a fun Thanksgiving project with my tweenage neice and nephew for an after-all-the-turkey-what-do-we-do-now distraction. Or save it to do with some other fun kid friend. I think even my son would enjoy the playing in the water part, so a good time can be had by all!

Actually, just so you know, this cute little kit wasn’t even my favorite thing in Leah’s Spiderfelt Etsy shop. Go check out her sumptuous nuno-felting for some sensory candy.

This is the kind of felting I aspire to make!

Well, back to Holiday prep!

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

I know I have a lot to be thankful for this year, not the least of which is this new blog! So, see you again soon!

How did Halloween get here already?

I know it’s a cliche to talk about time flying, but seriously, wasn’t it just Summer a minute ago? I’m not sure I’m completely ready for Fall and all that it brings, mostly because…

The time has come (and is quickly passing) to get started on Holiday crafting for friends and family!

I have a million ideas for great felting projects ranging from Nuno felted scarves to wet felted slippers to Shibori hats to recycled sweater coffee cup holders with needle felted designs to felted jewelry and on and on and on.

My head is spinning (in a GOOD way!) with all of these fun projects plans, but the question that swings over my head like the sword of Damocles is,

“Will I ever get all of my gifts made in time?!”

I have been known to knit things for people right in front of them on Christmas morning and size hats on their heads while saying, “O.k., keep your eyes closed for just a few more minutes!” My family humors me…what else can they do?

My current creative frenzy is fueled by browsing the plethora of felting books that is available now.

One Major Fave!!!

Have you noticed how many really nice felting books there are out there? It’s really astonishing (again, in a GOOD way!), but almost too bountiful! So many great projects, how does one ever choose? Or find the time to actually do them?

I am determined, though, not to let this creative energy go to waste!

By rough count, I have about 15 gifts to make for various loved ones, including toddlers and teenagers. If I choose one or two projects from every cool felting book I find, I could have something that is 100% hand made with love for everyone on my list by Christmas Day… in theory!

Want to come along for the ride?

I’ll share my favorite books and projects with you, as I make them, and you can check them out for yourselves. Meanwhile, you can use the comments section of this blog to let me know what books and projects you love for gift making and giving!

If nothing else, you can laugh at with me on Christmas morning as I post about how I’ve been up all night, way past Santa time, fulling the last little bootie and hanging a million wet, but precious, gifts out to dry with explicit directions to my indulgent family to please look the other way until I get a ribbon on these things!

C’mon! It’ll be fun!

My blog is off to a slow start.

Web design is not my metier, I think, at least not yet. I love to make things, it’s true, but I find it foreign to craft something from numbers and code when I am used to the texture of soft and malleable materials taking shape under my touch. I certainly have renewed respect for those for whom cybertecture  is easy! Some web savvy mamas are helping me and I can’t be thankful enough for them! Shout out to Kelly McCausey and Alice Seba for putting up with my endless questions and giving me information that would have taken me years of trial and error to acquire otherwise!

So, bear with me, because I’m on my way to building an awesome resource for all you crafty folks out there!

While I’m ramping up, the time I have between mom duties and honing my mad new blogging skills has become more precious, but I’m trying to use it wisely! I made a little art felt piece to reflect the present condition of L.A., my home town (worst wildfires EVER, which is really saying something!), and I’m still working on a needle felting project using recycled sweaters for my Mom’s increasingly belated birthday present! My shibori hat project is waiting breathlessly in the wings, as well!

What are you working on?

I want to hear about your projects, current as well as pending. What are the challenges you face in finding time to work on them? Any other Work At Home Moms out there? Solidarity, sistas! I know from my own experience the difficult balancing act you perform each day while still staying true to your creative muse!

I’m off to find my fabulous things to share with you, so toodle-oo for now!

Follow me on Twitter as @melissastander or friend me on FaceBook and let’s connect! I look forward to hearing all about how you felt!

Hi! My name is Melissa, and I’m a fiber addict!

This is not a bad thing, I have decided. There are worse addictions, for sure, several of which I have experienced first hand. This addiction is not self destructive; on the contrary! It is self-creative! Until, of course, I spend the rent money on that fabulous chunky alpaca that knits up so beautifully, or blow my wad on some sumptuous roving in all the fall colors! Then, I suppose, an intervention would be in order…But, mostly, I use my passion only for GOOD!

Now, I want to confess my addiction publicly in order to elicit the camaraderie of others who share my utter and unabashed love of all things fiber! Yarn, wool roving and batting, cloth of all kinds-I could happily roll in it all for hours exploring the rich and varied textures, inhaling the exotic and welcoming aromas, imagining the infinite possibilities of all the things I could make!

I know there are more of you out there who share my passion and who indulge it without constraint!
I wish to meet you here, invite you to share your fixation of the moment, connect with others who love to felt, knit, crochet, weave, sew, repurpose and generally make something from something else for the sheer joy of it!

Please join me and let’s build a community of creatives who are not afraid of our passions, but who embrace them as necessary to our optimal experience as human beings!

Dramatic?

O.k., maybe a little. But, all hyperbole aside, I really am so excited to share why I feel so darn GOOD when I make some felt or knit something or repurpose an old sweater, and I’m sick of keeping it all to myself!
Truth be told, I want to hear what others have to say about their feelings in regard to what they make and their process in making it. People who are excited about what they do, excite me!

I am also hungry to share ideas and resources.

To that end, I will be putting together some fun tutorials, a list of products and companies that I love, reviews of books that turn on my creative juices and interviews with artists who ROCK!

I invite you to share what you love, too, and I offer you this forum to do so.

Please feel free to leave a comment,  share a story or an idea, make a suggestion or recommendation, ask a question or just hang out and feel the love!

Mi Blog es su Blog!

Fiber Addicts Unite! Let’s get creative!