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!

felt united exhibition is now online

i received an email from elis vermeulen & cynthia reynolds to let us know that the gallery is now up and running for the first international day of felt which was held in october. if you have a spare half hour, check it out! it's well worth it. i think this has to be the largest collection of felt i have seen and it's great to see such a wide variety of pieces made by felters around the world.

thanks must go to elis and cynthia for all of their hard work in pulling this together. roll on next year and the second international day of felt!

After 8 months of hard (and we mean hard!) work ... including computer malfunctions, a ton of phone calls, some great talks and the occasional visit. After taking some days off, a lot of sunny and rainy days ... After 1000's of emails (and no, that is not an exaggeration!), press releases and people working on lifelong global friendships ... not to mention a lot of laughter - laughing until you cry kind of laughter! ... After a spectacular 1st FeltUnited Day which was celebrated all over the world and ... After saying ‘Thank you’ to all for participating in this art project and to the visitors who will enjoy it...
(building up to the point here.. are you starting to hear the drums??)

We are proud to announce that ... The Feltunited exhibit is online!!

Instructions for viewing the exhibit:

Make yourself a nice drink - make sure you have no distractions - put on your favorite music ... we deliberately did not include music in the slideshow, such that you could choose your own;)
get into a comfy chair and go to FeltUnited.com there is a link at the top of the page called '2009 exhibit'

You can view the exhibit in a variety of ways:
at the bottom of the page, you can select grid, mosaic, carousel or slideshow you decide. It may take a while to load, please be patient, there are well over 400 images.

Our best regards,
Elis Vermeulen & Cynthia Reynolds

a week in london

i don't know where the past few months have disappeared and was ashamed to realise i hadn't been down to see my family in london since january! so i headed off on the train to stay with my mum and catch up with everyone last week.

we had a great week and the highlight was visiting the london wetland centre which was displaying the love london recycled sculpture show
it was lovely to get away from the traffic and the noise, the crowds of people and the hustle and bustle and get into some peaceful surroundings. it really is an amazing place, especially when you consider its location. it's very well thought out and has lots of great things to keep kids occupied while also teaching them about the environment.

we had a lovely time wandering around, in and out of the hides, enjoying a lovely lunch, chatting to the guides but i think the best part for both of us was the indian runner ducks, you could go into a wee enclosure and buy seed to feed them - so of course, we did! much to the amusement of folk passing by.

can you believe ...

our garden is still in flower and it's nearly november! even our nasturtiums are still blooming.

another great (and busy) weekend planned

so, we're off to an opening at the national galleries - oooh! we've been invited to 'words on canvas' which is an exhibition and publication showcasing works by the creative writing group 'words on canvas' and is written interpretations of artworks in the national galleries collection. m has been very successful in previous years with his entries to the 'inspired? get writing!' competition which invites folk to enter a piece of poetry or prose in response to an artwork held within the national collection. it's great and i can't wait to see which pieces folk have chosen.

then it's off to the annual batworkers conference for the first time. i'm really looking forward to this, there's some interesting speakers planned and i'm taking part in the tree survey workshop which will help us identify roost sites next year for when we carry out more surveys.

and to finish off, on monday evening i have my next stall which is the fossoway shopping night in crook of devon - look forward to seeing you there :)

in between all of this i need to find time for housework, gardening, christmas planning ....

ilkley felt trail for international day of felt

here as promised are pics of the work i had on show as part of the ilkley felt trail.

brooches, key-rings, necklaces, ear-rings, bag charms...



i really loved making the falling leaf mobile and wall hanging. i loved mixing the colours to get just the right feel of autumn leaves. by the time i finished i must have felted, cut and washed about 100 leaves. this was the first time i had attempted anything like this, and while there are things i would do differently next time, i'm pretty pleased with the end results! although, it was really difficult to get a decent image.

st andrew's stall

where has the time gone, i can't believe it's been a month since my last stall!

i really enjoyed the craft fair at st andrew's - it was very well organised, and also very well advertised, the organisers had signage in the street and even someone walking about town with an advertising board! plus, being my first indoor craft fair it was a luxury to be warm and dry and not have to worry about my stock flying off the stall in the wind.

one of the things i really enjoy about craft fairs is that it's great to meet so many lovely folk and i get to talk loads about felt! it was also lovely to meet aileen after being in touch online.

my next stall is on monday so better go and finish off some christmas decorations.

patterns in my coffee cup

my first ever interview

speaking of lovely folksy folk, here's another one ... the lovely alison has given me the honour of her being her featured seller on her wonderful amidesigns blog.

quite excited about my first online interview!

noodlebubble's christmas ornament swop

one of the things i love about folksy is that you get to meet so many great folk online, like the lovely noodlebubble who has arranged a christmas ornament swap. i've been working on my christmas deccies for a little while now, while singing carols (much to m's bemusement!). i LOVE christmas and can't wait to see what everyone has made to swap.

you can find out more here

and see our progress on this flickr page

what a weekend!

last friday saw me heading down to ilkley to meet angela who had worked so hard and brought so many feltmakers together to participate in the ilkley felt trail. this was arranged as part of the united nations international day of felt and saw about fifteen shops around ilkley display felt we had made to the colour theme of yellow through red. it was such a great project to be involved with and when i ever get some more spare time, i'll post pics of the items i made. it was lovely to get to meet angela, her hubby and some of their many cats and i was made to feel so welcome. in fact it was hard to drag myself away from all of the felt chat but i needed to get back in time to see m before he headed out to work.

not long after we surfaced on the saturday, we got a call from one of m's friends to say that a few folk had gathered at the bothy and would we like to join them for some stargazing. although i was a little apprehensive at the thought of staying in something no more than a hut with no facilities or utilities in the middle of nowhere i was intrigued by the stargazing, especially as one of the chaps is an astrophysicist and had an astronimical telescope!

well, i was pleasantly surprised - the bothy had running (cold) water, a gas stove, gas lamps, two rooms, a sleeping platform, a chemical toilet and even more importantly ... a wood burning stove! with one comfy chair which i promptly claimed, as i was the only girlie i thought it only right the chaps allow me this luxury. it was so lovely!!!


it was walk in of a few kilometres but we were lucky to have dry, mild weather. the landscape was glorious in all of it's autumn finery and we heard grouse and deer on the way in. i even got a chance to have my first river crossing, which is quite tricky when you're both carrying rucksacks nearly as tall and as heavy as yourself but we made it safely across with nothing more than soggy socks.

we saw the summer triangle, the banding on jupiter, along with some of her moons, a shooting star, even a passing satellite but the thing that most blew me away was seeing the andromeda galaxy. s was having a little trouble getting a good view in the scope as we were starting to get a little cloud in the way so i joked he could just line it up on some cloud, tell me i was seeing a galaxy and i would be none the wiser!

it was amazing to be in such a great place, there was no light pollution, no man made noise, no other buildings to be seen, just the hills, and the chorus of the deer.

autumn colours

so, last weekend saw us head to peebles for m to meet up with some fellow cyclists he met online. apparently five hours of cycling in the wind and rain is appealing to some folk! not so for me though. in between the showers and gales on the saturday i managed a wee wander around peebles town, met some lovely folk and spent half the day chatting in the amazing galleries and craft shops there. the rest of the afternoon i spent curled up in our van reading and eating chocolate!!! very lazy i know, but it felt like ages since i just sat and did nothing, and very enjoyable it was too.

sunday saw us return to better weather so i headed off to dawyck botanic gardens. we've been meaning to go along since we moved back to the mainland but somehow never managed it. i felt a bit odd being on my own at first, as everyone seemed to be with their families but i soon forgot my awkwardness as my obsession with photography took over! i was also lucky enough to time my visit with a textiles exhibition showing work from maggie warren and cherrie noble which was an unexpected treat.

here's just a few of the couple of hundred pics i took! i did have a wee smile to myself though, everything i looked at - all the textures, colours, shapes - i interpreted into textiles, looks like i'm going to busy turning all of this inspiration into new work :)

happy autumn ...