Mine is going absolutly brilliantly.

Besides needlefelting like a crazy person to get ready for the craftacular in Madison on the 24th and 25th, I got a brilliant commission job this week. The rather fabulous raisinlike asked me to recreate in wool her Little Nick. Raisinlike whose real name is Sharona makes absolutely wonderful puppets and flutterbutt mobiles that I love and I am so incredibly flattered that she trusted me with this projected….
How cool is he?

I couldn’t wait to get started on him so of course I thought I’d share my progress with you……..

So don’t be distressed as he has no legs yet……but they are coming along nicely. The “real” Nick wears little teddy bear slippers that will be fun when they are completed.

In other news Santa didn’t win the softies central holiday competition, but he was incredibly honoured to have been nominated and he would like to thank all those that voted for him.

I thought I’d share a work in progress with you today……..

Meet Celeste

If she looks a little grumpy that’s because she always is a little grumpy…you see Celeste is a house elf and boy does she hate her job.  I’m not sure why she hates it so much…I mean it’s not as if she takes care of any of the cleaning or organising or well, anything useful in the home.  Her favourite thing to do is to hide all the pens and pencils so that when you have that random thought or insightful flash you can never find one….it’s certainly won’t be found by the pad at the phone she is a professional afterall.

The real reason for Celeste’s grumpiness is that she longs to be the Christmas fairy on the top of the tree at Rockerfeller center but this can never happen……you see Celeste is part water sprite and part Cornish pixie not exactly the required pedigree of the Christmas fairy ….but she excitedly fills in the application form every year,  you know when the rejection letter arrived by all the cut strings on your teabags……..ah well maybe next year.

I still have to finish a lot of detail on Celeste’s wings, face and feet……..but I’d just thought I’d share what I’ve been up to.

Please if you haven’t done so already vote for Santa at softies central.  He’s muttering about needing lots of coal this year for all the naughty voters.

Aaaaargh I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it…………..I’m one of the five finalists in the Softies Central Holiday Softy Awards…..

Eeeeek I can’t breathe it’s such an honour to be nominated  as there were so many cool entrants  but my santa made the cut…..yaaaaay

But here is where I beg for your help……….please can you vote for me?  pretty please with sugar on top……or chocolate if that helps.   My Santa is in the deck the halls category which is about the 5th category in the questionaire and you will get to see some amazing softies……..so please,  can you?  Here’s the link  just click on the voting site link when you get there.

Or maybe just plain crazy…….who can tell.   I made another Santa and I even put bells on him so he jingles when he moves.  I know, I know I said I was done with Christmas stuff but apparently I can’t help myself.   I think this is going to be longest run up to Christmas ever for me,  I even have Christmas pies warming up in the oven right now,   and that is so dangerous for me because if I start with all the Christmas food and treats in November then I will be as big as a house by January.

Anyway here’s Santa

I love little Stanley.   He really does look like quite the cheeky young thing.  I’m still crafting away for the craftacular on the 24 and 25th of November,  but Stanley was my little break in making Christmassy things……..hey I had to I was starting to go bonkers.

Well I have been known to be a procrastinator…….but sometimes it’s not entirely my fault. Sometimes I’m afraid to start something I can’t finish, sometimes I’m intimidated by the fact I’ve had gorgeous wool roving custom blended for the project (thanks Jen from Hanks in the Hood……again) and so therefore just stare at it afraid of making a start and depleting it with no gain. Well anyway I guess I should just start at the start of this story…..a few months ago the lovely Roberta asked me to make a custom stabby for her, she wanted her golden retriever immortalised in wool. And here he is…

I include the pics I used to create the doggie, I wanted to try and capture his pose and eyes as much as possible and I’m very pleased with how he turned out…..I hope Roberta is too.

I won’t be making any more Christmas ornaments………seems odd to say that in October,  but it is nice to think I’ve made a good stash of them that should tide me over for the craftacular.

I’ve made another Santa but instead of being a hanging ornament like the last one he’s more of a table top guy.

I wanted him to have the appearance of giving a hearty belly laugh…….I quite like him….although I suppose I’m rather biased.

It snuck up on me quite unexpectedly……..there I was making little snowmen and santas, when an overwhelming urge to make Snoopy overcame me. Why does that make me mad? Well it doesn’t, except that instead of the little Snoopy I had in mind he grew and grew into this guy. He is huge. I think I may have been rebelling against making the little guys for so long. But anyway I guess it means I have to order more wool as he really decimated my white wool supply.

OOOOooooh order more wool….I think I may have had ulterior motives the whole time. Yummy, yummy new wool.

In other news the lovely Ekra recently had a blog contest to win a goodie for posting on her blog…..and I won!!!!! yaaaaaaay.

              
I love my goodies, and the card is well cool she is so creative, I would never think of using a map as a card I guess that’s why she is a crafting superstar. Anyway thanks again Emily. It got me thinking blog contests are cool……..so stay tuned while I consider this possibility……..ooooh aren’t I a tease?

I am so excited, my santa ornament is featured on softies central. I love this website so much, they always feature really cool handmade toys………and now they’ve featured my ornament. Yaaaaaay what a lovely way to start the day.