Spring is here, Spring is here!

I planted some seeds that I found in a long neglected package. I really didn't know what they were but I thought I would give them a chance to see life and grow.

I watered them and took care of them. Most of the seeds turned out to be spindly things that immediately went out into the compost to live out their lives. But one seed was special. I watered it daily, talked to it and generally took great care of it.

It grew and grew and finally a bud began to form. Each day I waited with baited breath wondering just what this little treasure would grow into. Finally one morning I came down and what should I see but this beautiful red bloom smiling back at me!

He spoke with such ease and elegance and thanked me for taking such good care of him. He reminded me we all need to take care of one another. If we do then beautiful things will come from it. Well said Red Bloom, well said.

To see more about him click HERE!

Fall is Coming...

 A little birdy whispered in my ear today that seasons are changing and fall is quickly on it's way.

 

"Wooo says fall is coming" said this not so wise owl who sits on a stack of pumpkins.

 

 "I said Fall is coming and it's time to turn my tail on summer and get ready for winter" said the little sparrow.

"Hmmmph!  Well I never!" exclaimed an outraged owl.

See what I have to put up with around here!

Sunny Bunny Needle Felted One-of-a-kind Soft Sculpture

 

 If you know anything about me, you would know I love pink, animals and anything cute!  What do you think?  Covers all those bases? 

  

This is Sunny Bunny, named after my brother's favourite stuffed toy rabbit he had as a kid.  Just look at those little pink pads on her feet!

 

And she loves to curl up in your hand and snuggle!  As always, she and a whole bunch of other little creatures can be found here!

Needle Felted Toad

I've been having a blast working on some new felted creatures for McBride House.  This is just a little sneak preview of Toad.

I asked him what he wanted to be named and he said "You can call me Toad.... just plain Toad."  It suits.

Needle Felted Owl and Santa Bear Claws

This is Hootavius A. Owl who is looking for a new home. He comes with this dapper outfit complete with a pocket watch and everything!
And this is Santa Bear Claws. He really likes to be called Claws for short and he's on the prowl for good little boys and girls!

Dickens's Needle Felted Animals

I've just finished listing my newest series of needle felted animals. I think they look like little characters out of Dickens's world!
This is Rocky Raccoon and for Christmas he wants fish, garbage can, black eye shadow and he does not want any books on Davy Crockett (he doesn't like horror stories.)
This is Mr Piggy Pig and all he wants for Christmas is Slop. Shouldn't be too hard to accommodate him on that one!
Loulou Lapin would like to have extra long earmuffs, carrots, a tail fluffer but most of all she does not want sweaters! She says that she is already angora, so she certainly does not need a sweater!
Merp the Frog would love to have some flies.... he says he likes them fresh, but he will take them extra crispy too.
Finally, Finnian Fox. Finnian just really wants to find a new home with some other foxy ladies in it. He's quite a ladies man and I'm afraid he might get quite lonely here without any other foxes.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Nice Surprise!

I discovered a great blog, For the Love of Cute the other day that devotes it's site "to handmade cuteness". Every day Anna "posts a new selection of cute handmade items found from all over the web".

And this morning I woke up to an Etsy convo from Anna saying that she included my Shu Shu Panda in with some other great panda bears on her blog!

What a wonderful surprise! Then I discovered that Anna is in fact the creator of House of Mouse on Etsy! If you haven't seen her little mice you have to check them out! Fantastic!

Rain, Rain, Rain and More Rain

It's been raining again all weekend! Now I like the rain, but it rained all of June and now July is not looking much better! Sigh... at least I'm getting lots of work done inside and on my new McBride House site. Look on the bright side Bella, look on the bright side.


I added Mr Mouse and his Flower Pot House to McBride House yesterday. As you can see Mr Mouse is peaking out his Flower Pot House to see if the coast is clear before he heads out for some food for his little flower pot family!


I also added my little Gnome Home which is a set of three red and white mushrooms. They are going to be featured in a great blog on Friday! I'll let you know how it goes!


This morning a added a set of three evergreen Christmas trees. The yarn I used as garland is an old yarn that was donated to me by that wonderful Auntie. The label says 70% wool and 30% goathair, made in Sweden. Isn't that cute? I don't know why, but I laugh every time I look at the label!

The trees also come decorated with little bits of red, yellow and maroon roving. I haven't listed the decorated trees yet, but they are coming!

Side Tracked!

I've been working diligently on my new store McBride House but I got a little distracted! We have two new additions to our home!

We were suppose to only get one kitten to keep Frosty company, but when we got to the place with the kittens I couldn't leave the poor little guy on the right there. He is definitely the runt of the litter and has an eye infection, but I fell in love with him right away.


And this little girl was suppose to be a boy! Again, we fell in love with her and couldn't leave her there! For the first time in all the years that I've picked out kittens I felt as if these two picked us. It was like they were waiting for us to come and take them home!


On the store front, I decided I needed new pictures. The previous ones were just too dark. This is the first of my "wheeled" animals I made and what started me down the path to making more wheeled animals.


You gotta have a bear on wheels! This bear took me weeks to finish! I just couldn't seem to get his body shape right. However, I'm very pleased with the way he turned out. He's what I call a great "chunk" of a bear.


This lion will be a hard one to let go, but as Maggie asked in my last postings comments "Have you bonded long enough with them to let them go??!!". Almost! Give me a few more days and I think I can let them go! Of course if nobody buys them it won't be a problem! I'm hoping to open the new store sometime this week...hopefully?

Should I, or Shouldn't I?

I've been thinking long and hard whether or not to open a new Etsy store to sell some of my felted creations. Should I integrate them in to my already existing store that has lots and lots of feedback? Or should I open a new store so that my patterns won't get overlooked by people tired of searching through too many pages? I've signed up on Etsy with a new shop name, McBride House, but I have yet to list any of my new creatures. I am aiming for an opening date of mid July... if I decide to open it!


These are some of the creatures I've been talking about. A menagerie of wheeled animals! If you don't already know, needle felting is a process that involves poking and prodding different colours of wool with a very (and I mean very) sharp needle until you reach the perfect shape.

These are my mushrooms... a blend of beige's, moss greens, and deep orange and reds. It's hard to tell in this picture, but they are just about life size.

This elephant took a lot of time to make. I couldn't find the right colour roving for him, so I meticulously separated Briggs and Little 100% yarn to get just the right look for him. I'm really pleased with the way he turned out! I LOVE elephants!

This set will be a hard one to sell. The reindeer was my first attempt at a realistic animal and the catalyst to keep me going on some of my other animals. I'm also very pleased with the Father Christmas, instead of the more usual Santa Claus. Stay tuned! I'll be adding more pictures as the opening date approaches...if I decide on my new store! LOL!