can you tell what it is yet ... ?

part 1 of 2
(in honour of my lovely friend heather here is a two-part teaser)

piece one of four

piece two of four

me neither - hee hee!

answers on the back of a postcard please :)

fatcat felt is proud to present ...

my new ad!

i've been playing around with my newly acquired photoshop skills again.  i was quite pleased with the business cards i made recently, so i developed that design to create this ...

as i'm not going to be taking part in any markets until later in the year i thought it might be worthwhile to try some advertising to let folk know that i'm here and have lots of lovely felt goodies available.

have you tried advertising before?  if so, i'd welcome any advice on what worked for you and any tips on good places to advertise :)

i should be ...

... felting
... completing my tax return
... ironing
... going into town to get some shopping
... doing much needed housework

but instead i've whiled away a happy hour (or two, well perhaps three) catching up with some of the lovely blogs i like to follow, updating my website, practising with photoshop and generally procrastinating.

better go and do some work so i look busy when m gets up!

rspb big garden birdwatch this weekend!

you can register here
and download your recording sheet here

i took part for the first time last year and would definitely recommend it - if nothing else, look upon it as a guilt free way to spend an hour with a cuppa, watching the birds in your garden (don't forget to count them too!) and the results you collect will help the rspb protect our garden birds in years to come.

beware though - if the birds in your garden know what you're up to, they seem to disappear for the hour you are recording!  no, seriously.  i had read about this before, but i can assure you that the garden is usually hopping and flapping and cheeping and chirping like crazy, but for the hour i was recording last year it was almost eerily quiet :)

i really encourage you to take an hour out of your day to take part, you won't regret it.

queen of hearts

to celebrate valentine's day, this wonderful array of felt hearts are now available from fatcat felt's folksy shop

folksy shop now updated

thankfully i've had just enough daylight to get photos of some of my recent work :)

there is now a small selection of goodies available to purchase from fatcat felt's folksy shop, with hopefully much more to follow soon.

here's a wee preview ...

necklaces

bracelets

brooches

pebble gift set

pebble brooches

feltmaking kits

horst workshop in ireland

my lovely wee pitch at the campsite

i can't quite believe it was seven months ago that i went to ireland for the workshop with horst, it really has been such a quick year.

so, in the spirit of 'better late than never', here are a few pics from my trip.

it really was the most amazing weekend - it was the furthest i've ever travelled on my own, the first time i've been overseas on my own and the first time (and thankfully not the last) that i've been camping on my own.

busy, busy

i did get off to a bit of a shaky start though, as the ferry was late leaving and once we had boarded, the tannoy announcement to apologise for the delay also mentioned that the journey would take longer than expected as one of the engines wasn't working quite right.

the two hour delay and the five hour drive meant that i didn't arrive at the campsite until 4.30 in the morning, in the middle of a thunder storm! as i didn't really feel like pitching my tent i tried to sleep in the car, without much success.

however, i'm really happy to say that the weekend started looking up after that! the sun came out, i got a lovely spot in the campsite, i met wonderful people and learned so much from horst. in fact, by the time i got back to the tent at night i was so excited and my head was so full of ideas it was hard to get to sleep.

it was also a great opportunity to see some of horst's garments up close - unfortunately my photos don't do them justice. i really fell in love with the gold coat with the green dreads and it felt amazing when i tried it on.

unfortunately, i didn't get too many piccies as i was either too busy chatting or too busy working to catch up after chatting too much!

laying out the top part of my coat

laying out the skirt of my coat and attaching it to the top

attaching the 'leaflets' around the skirt

so many colours to choose from!

busy at the dyeing station

where we were 'assisted' by a friendly local dog

exhaust dyeing the finished garments

a small selection of finished pieces

and here is the end result ...

i cannot tell you how much it meant to me to be able to take part in this workshop. it was great to finally meet nicola who worked so hard to arrange everything, it was amazing to get to work with horst (you know how they say you should never meet your heroes? well, in this case that saying was entirely incorrect! horst is a fabulously talented, inspiring and giving person), and it was an honour to get to meet and work with gina, lorraine, kirsten, girda, natasha, sigrid, nessa, michelle, cristina and tricia. with big thanks to cristina and niall for the fab food that kept us all going through the weekend.

you can find much better pics here ...

from kirsten
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elisefilt/sets/72157627045592490/

and from nicola
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28367475@N02/sets/72157627013061886/

bear attack!!!

dangerous man-eating bear spotted in glasgow museum - you have been warned!

quite exciting (but a little bit scary too) news ...

... i submitted my first proposal for my first outdoor installation to the snowdrops by starlight festival - and it got accepted! 

now i just hope that i can turn the images that i have daydreamed about into lovely felted reality.

more info on the festival here:
snowdrops by starlight
snowdrops by starlight blog

thank you

to everyone who commented on my previous post and sent good wishes for my mum :) 

it seems to have done the trick as mum is now out of hospital after a really nasty bout of pneumonia. 

we're hoping mum will be able to travel back to london in the next couple of days so i'll be heading down on the sleeper armed with lots of recipes for warming, healing soups and yummy baking.

thanks also to all of the lovely nursing staff and doctors who took really good care of mum while she was in hospital in stockholm, mum can't speak highly enough of the good care that she received, and i don't just mean the medical attention, the nurses all took time to pop in to spend a little time with mum (she was in isolation and feeling quite scared and lonely) and all patiently spoke in english to my mum and around my mum.  it really helped to make a difference and is much appreciated.