anyone for ... bubble wrap?

yes, i know, not quite what you would expect on my folky shop but i thought that other feltmakers might find it useful as a resist or for laying out larger projects onto and also other makers could use it when packaging or storing delicate items. ooooh it's also good stress relief too - never mind popping each bubble by hand, have you ever tried standing on a large strip of bubble wrap? :))))))

i always found it hard to buy bubble wrap in just the right amount, so thought other folk might find it useful to be able to buy as much, or as little, as needed - i can sell in one metre lengths and it is 300mm wide, either email me or visit fatcat's folksy shop

poetry at the...

fancy something a little different for valentine’s day ... ?
then read on!

poetry lovefest at the grv

on 14th february from 7.45pm to 9.45pm at the grv (guthrie street, edinburgh), come and hear 20-30 poets reading a poem written especially for this occasion.

poets were asked to write an original poem, each one based on a different verse from the song of songs, that ancient love poem.

bring your partner if you have one but don't be shy to come alone or with a friend. the poems will all be on the theme of love, but that can include everything from romance, sticking together and first dates to endings, loss, and bitter memories.

excellent writers such as kona macphee, alexander hutchison, kapka kassabova, andrew philip, kevin cadwallender, morgan downie and many, many more will be reading so it looks set to be excellent evening. there will also be a few other surprises and … who knows? you may even find love. what else is poetry for?

tickets, which can be purchased on the night, cost £4, or £3 for concessions.

poetry at the … is run by a small group of people on a non-profit making basis. they aim to hold live poetry events which demonstrate the range and vitality of poetry in the uk today, particularly (but not exclusively) in scotland. it was formed in november 2007 and has since become known as one of the best poetry-related events in the country, featuring some of the uk’s top poets alongside new and emerging writers.

valentine's heart swap

the lovely noodlebubble has been very busy recently organising a fantastic valentine's swap for folksy folk.

you can see a selection of the items folk have made for swapping on flickr

and here's the bag charm i'll be swapping ...

meet a maker monday

being the inquisitive little feltmaker that i am, i thought it might be interesting to hear about other maker's stories. so a little while ago i asked if anyone would be interested in being interviewed for my blog. i was hoping to make it a monthly feature but have been so overwhelmed by responses that it will now be a weekly feature!

so, grab a cuppa, put your feet up and lets meet susan bonnar from dottie designs.

Please introduce yourself … I am Susan Bonnar, I live in Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire beside the sea. My maiden name was Cotton and I spent 20 years in the Royal Navy being called Dot - hence Dottie Designs.

How would you describe your work / style? My work is quite simple, hand decorating photo albums, guest books and keepsake boxes with simple, stylish designs. I have a slight obsession for butterflies!

Who, or what, inspires you?I am inspired by all sorts of things. The album I am working on designing now has a heart of seashells as its main feature and is tied up with raffia. I live by the beach, so my inspiration for this was just a winters walk along the beach with my 3 children.

Do you sell your work? If so, what helped you decide to start selling your work? I do sell my work. Initially I made cards and sold them to family, friends and colleagues. This gave me the confidence to do Craft Fairs and eventually to approach retail shops.

Where can I buy your work? My work can bought primarily on line at my website: dottie designs website
my ebay shop: dottie designs ebay
and my Folksy shop: dottie designs folksy

Do you have a website or blog I can visit? See above! I also have a blog: dottie designs blog that is very new!

How did you learn your particular craft? How long have you been creating? Just picked it up and have been creating for about 5 years.

Is there any other craft skill you would like to learn? I would love to learn to knit as I'm hopeless. I'm really envious of people that can draw too.

Anything exciting planned for 2010 you’d like to share? Nothing as yet!

Have you had any work featured in magazines/books/galleries? Featured in the Navy News! How to survive life on the outside by working for yourself!

Has your work won any prizes/competitions? Not yet!

If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be … Working as an Air Traffic Controller....

I couldn’t do this if it wasn’t for … An understanding husband as my craft has taken over the house!

Any funny stories you’d like to share? I sold a large photo album last week and was very proud of how it looked so took a photo of it. As the cover slants down slightly without photos in, I put in some socks (clean/odd) to hold it up. Photo done, parcel posted, ahhh feeling good. 2 hours later I gasped with horror, I’d posted out the odd socks inside the album…Tweenies, Star Wars etc!! Nightmare!

Describe your perfect day. Happy kids (no fighting) somebody else cleaning my house, doing the ironing, a couple of proper hours to myself (very rare) to work on new ideas.

Describe your proudest moment. When my 2 sons (6 &9) won a trophy for a duet they did at the Portsmouth Music Festival. The looks on their faces as they collected it were unforgettable. They had worked really hard and deserved it. I was also happy that they hadn't fought over who had the most stool to sit on!

What do you do to relax? What's relaxing?

Marmite … love it or hate it? Love love love it!

What animal would you be, and why? An eagle. Power, freedom....

What’s your weakness? Chocolate, red wine, chocolate, red wine, chocolate, red wine....

How do you keep motivated? Try to picture the end result

What do you wish you’d known when you first started out? How thick skinned I would need to be for knock backs!

What advice would you give to someone just starting out? Follow your instinct, stay focussed and keep proper accounts!


What question did you hope to be asked but weren’t? What would I like to be when I grow up?

What would your answer have been? A Zoo Keeper!!!

thanks to susan for a really interesting chat, i would have loved to have seen the face of the person who opened their lovely new photo album to find tweenies socks!

please pop back next monday when we meet amanda robbins from chicita

our first snowdrops

spring is on the way, spring is on the way (although waking up to more snowy scenes yesterday you wouldn't have thought so!).

m finished his set of shifts the other morning so i picked him up at 8am laden with binoculars, bird book and picnic! what a glorious morning we had, we headed onto a little island on the tay (right in the middle of perth) and saw: deer; a seal; goldeneye; heron; goosander (a first for us!); cormorant; goldcrest; blue tit; chaffinch; goldfinch; a massive flock of domestic white geese and a few birds we weren't quite sure about because they wouldn't stay still long enough! and we also saw our first snowdrops of the year :)

then we sat on a fallen tree to enjoy our picnic, aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh what a blissful way to start the day :)

for me ... really? how kind :)

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, i'm so chuffed to receive a sunshine blog award from claire at black cats whiskers (my first ever blog award!), thanks claire for making my day :)

the sunshine award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blog world.

the rules for accepting the sunshine award are:
(and i'm also going to add a rule of my own: please feel free to ignore these rules and just enjoy the award!)

- put the logo on your blog or within your post
- pass the award onto 12 bloggers
- link the nominees within your post
- let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog
- share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award

my 12 nominees (in no particular order) are:

angela barrow
fabulous threads
aileen clarke crafts
the bunny maker
fibrespace
permutations in fibre
noodlebubble
feltbug
filzfrosch
karens felt works
atelier kiki
fibrefrolics

folksy finds ...

valentine's cards!

here's a selection of my favourite cards from folksy. hope you find something you like, happy shopping :)

andy lanham art


momo by moaby


linoking cards



hello sunshine by jo want


iT’s NoT aRt



niftyknits


chickadee cards and jewellery


vintage milly

would you like to feature on my little blog ... ?

i’d like to have a monthly interview with fellow designer/makers on my blog so if you’re interested in being featured, please let me know and i’ll send you some nosey-parker style questions! you'll also be able to send me a selection of photos if you would like your work featured.

you can either leave me a message in the comments section here or email me: fatcatfelt 'at' hotmail 'dot' co 'uk'

don't be shy, it'll be great fun!

displacement activity

as defined by dictionary.com is:

"performance by an animal of an act inappropriate for the stimulus or stimuli that evoked it."

or to put it in human terms:

performance of an act: updating my blog
the evoking stimulus: the looming deadline for completing my tax return
appropriateness: i'll let you be the judge of that, i'm off to panic over my tax return!

you can read a very good post about the above on sanctuary's blog

a return

well, it has been a little slow for life to return to 'normal' around here! we have managed to extend the festivities right up until last weekend.

m had a couple of rare weekends off so we used the chance to visit friends we hadn't caught up with over christmas and new year, to spend some time just vegging out together and pottering around in each other's company and it has been wonderful. i hope everyone had a lovely festive period and weren't too affected by the weather. mum came to us for christmas this year and then we all went to mum's for new year, including my brother and his partner who came over from sweden with the fantastic news that they're going to be parents this year!

we also tried a spot of bird watching recently but the water at the reserve was still frozen, however we did manage to see: heron; gulls; canada goose; lapwing; pair of swans; bullfinch; crow; bedraggled looking buzzard and some freezing looking pochard, teal and wigeon. but not the elusive sea eagles we were hoping for.

i have also managed to tidy up my workroom after buying loads of storage boxes while they were on sale, i can finally see the floor and close the cupboard door! not too sure how long that'll last once i get back to working again though.

i always get a little wistful when the decorations have to be put away for another year, planning our year ahead helped to cheer me up though. it looks like it's going to be a busy one but we're so excited because we have so many new things to be working on. m has his first book coming out soon and we've already proofed the first draft and got it back to the publisher, we're starting up a publishing company (which will publish other poets), i've got a few markets booked already, loads of new designs to be working on, i'll be starting city and guilds next month, and we've got plans for a couple of exhibitions too, so watch this space!

what are your plans for this year? how about new year's resolutions ... do you make them? what are yours for this year?

this week ...

well a couple of nights out and some christmas preparations have kept me busy this week.

wednesday saw us at the national library's poetry pamphlet fair which was a lovely evening of browsing, catching up with friends, listening to music and hearing poets perform pieces from their pamphlets. if you're interested in poetry pamphlets, here's a link you might like the scottish pamphlet poetry website

friday saw us back in edinburgh for a lovely evening at the scottsh arts club, to celebrate the launch of the national galleries "inspired? get writing!" book. everyone we met was very welcoming and we had a really enjoyable evening.

and then on to christmas preparations, i'm having a totally home-made christmas and am having a great time making lots of lovely gifts, i just hope the recipients enjoy the gifts as much as i've enjoyed making them!

and then today, m at work, a chance to monopolise the laptop and get some more updates made to my folksy shop, here's a few pics of my latest updates, would love to know what you think.

necklaces



bracelets






pencil case


keyrings

continuing the theme

of shameless self-promotion, check out my lovely scarves!

listed on folksy tonight, get one quick, they're sure to sell like hot cakes (although scarves are better for wrapping around your neck to keep the chill out!).

fatcat felt's folksy shop

'tis the season ...

to buy a lovely fatcat felt diary from folksy! :)))

listed today, get one here before they all go.

how about a week-to-a-view diary ...






or perhaps a larger, day-to-a-page diary

christmas stock now in my folksy shop

well, better late than never!

in a shameless attempt at self-promotion: check out my christmas stock - it's fantastc (even if i do say so myself!). christmas deccies have been listed in my shop now, with 2010 diaries going up tomorrow.

fatcat felt's folksy shop - tell your friends :)

three weeks of bleurgh :(

well, the past three weeks have passed me by!

flu and a chest infection kept me in bed for a week and then stuck in the house for another two. so, now i'm slightly behind, it was quite bemusing to go out again and see that folk were starting to put up christmas trees and lights, i thought everyone was early this year, until m reminded me that we're nearly into the second week of december.

eeeek, mild panic, i'm slightly behind schedule but so very glad to be back on my feet again!