A Felting Class with Angela Barrow

I've just come back from a wonderful felting class with my tutor, Angela Barrow.   My Mum and my friend June from across the road also came with me, and there were two other ladies attending as well.  We were making felted fingerless mittens, as I'd asked Angela a while back to run a course doing this.  Everyone produced something fab, and we all had a lovely day (as always, on Angela's courses).  
We started by making little 'scarflettes' as a practice and then moved onto making mittens - these are mine as they were when I left Angela.

Later on at home I needlefelted them with a swirly design and then wet felted them all over again to refine the fit - and this is the final result.  They're ever so warm and cosy!

It was a lovely day out, not least because Angela's studio is full of cats (like mine!) and her home is full of things she has made and collected over the years - so interesting, so inspiring and so original.
My Mum hadn't done any felting previously and both she and my friend June produced something to be proud of. I always look forward to Angela's classes and have signed up for several next year already...can't wait.  Just in case you are interested, here is her website and blog.

http://www.angelabarrow.co.uk/

We met with some very wild weather on the way home, and I was quite concerned that we weren't going to make it over the hills between Yorkshire and Manchester - trucks were stuck on the motorway and it was quite scary, especially as I have a new car which I still feel like I am learning to drive!   Hopefully next time I go over there I'll have 'passed' the new car test.

Sorry for the Long Absence

I'm so sorry for having been absent from my blog for so long - where does time go?  I've had various people who apparently actually read the blog (imagine!) ask me why I'm not blogging - no real answer, perhaps I had bloggers burnout!  I seem to have missed the fabulous Olympics and the Queen's Jubilee, both of which were wonderful.  So I'll try and keep up with it a little better from now on.  Fingers crossed.

Harley and his lama

This is Harley, with his lama teddy - I'd said I wanted an alpaca for my birthday, and this is what I got.  Or rather, what Harley instantly adopted as his own.  Sweet!

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The story of the cat and the mouse at two in the morning..

Clearly, Harley cat is feeling better....because I have just woken up to a nightmare scenario (at least for one of the parties, a mouse) where Harley cat was encouraging his new friend to do acrobatics for his Mummy on her bed.  I woke up thinking...ugh...is Harley feeling better then?  Only to have this confirmed by his having caught me a live present and bringing it to me to play with.   Sadly, by the time I had gained control of the situation, I had a dead mouse and a still very very excited cat.   Dealt with the mouse, spoke to the cat, reminded him I am a vegetarian, changed the bed, hoovered the carpet - lots of groaning from the other occupants of the house, explained the severity of the situation.  Nodded.  Quite normal.  Back to bed.

Mia, Harry and Harley

Well, I've been tending to three poorly pussycats this past week - Mia started with calicivirus, shortly followed by Harley and now by Harry - imagine a bad dose of flu - the worst you've ever had, and you're close to how they've been feeling.   The boys seem to have recovered much faster than Mia who is a little delicate girl who had a terrible hard life before she came to us.   So, its been feline painkillers and warm spots for them to sleep in, and for once they have all enjoyed being wrapped up in old towels and snuggled up all warm - not that I blame them with all this cold weather.




I drove down to Birmingham to see some of my suppliers - I like Birmingham very much anyway, and know it much better than I do Manchester, though the weather was not good and I drove back in a horrible scary fog on the motorway; ever since a petrol tanker drove over the side of my car several years ago I've been a bit of a scary mary with big vehicles next to the drivers side of my car; somehow it just scares me to death, which is a shame becuase other than that I am a brave driver.

I've just taken delivery of some fab new silver components and some gorgeous delicate blue zircon drops in a swiss blue topaz colour which I can't wait to use, and having horrid weather outside makes me want to be cozy and creative inside.   Sooo...off to work and back to nursing the kitty cats, I am sure they will be up and about causing havoc again soon!