It’s Monday (again) and there’s not much to talk about as everyone is busy preparing for and/or celebrating the holidays. Why are they ALL at the same time of year? Anyway, my new toy arrived over the weekend and all of you needle felters out there need to know how great it is. 
Last week I ordered one of these pretty little wood needle holders from GOTWOOL ($13.50). Sure, you could get the plastic single needle tool from Clover but wouldn’t you rather have a pretty, handmade walnut one? Honestly, not only is it more attractive, this one is much more comfortable to use, too. I didn’t even realize how badly I needed one until I used it. It felt more natural than struggling to keep a grip on a bare needle. Also, it’s a little less expensive than the plastic ones. What more could you want? If you needle felt regularly, you need one of these.
Oh, wouldn’t it make a lovely gift for the felter in your life? Yes. Yes it would!
(I do recommend the Clover Needle Felting Mat instead of foam for several reasons but bigger and cheaper would be better. If anyone has a suitable alternative, please let us know.)
I found Ginny’s shop because she put my apple in that beautiful treasury. It just so happens that not only is she nice and a member of Etsy Project Embrace, she is also very talented!
I’m a little envious because she has a skill I lack… wet felting. For some reason, when those fibers get wet, they become very rebellious but Ginny has managed to keep them under control. She mixes her wet felted shapes with needle felting and other techniques to create these one-of-a-kind wearable works of art.
To see more of Ginny’s work, visit her shop.
The extremely popular snail pins are back in a new colorway: Wild Berry. My original snail pins, in peach and taupe, didn’t last long and ended up with their picture in a national magazine. As with the first generation, there will only be 25 Wild Berry snails made.
In other news, I managed to escape unharmed from last night’s soldering experiment. If you know me, you’ll understand why this is so shocking. Lets just say the “potential for personal injury” gene is strong in my family. What was I soldering? Buttons. Yes, buttons. How? Wrap them in copper foil like pieces of stained glass and carefully apply the solder to the tiny things. J & J (my husband and daughter) expressed concern that the buttons might melt but I had thought of that – they were natural shell buttons. There was one discovery made. Apparently, heat can destroy the dyes used to tint the buttons. Dang… Only had one in blue! At least I got my soldered button pendant. Will post a photo when it’s all cleaned up.
Life has finally settled to the point that I am able to do the shop owner thang again. Between getting married in June, adding my sweetheart to our little household, dealing with his immigration paperwork (gotta love government entities), having a teenager/new driver in the house, losing my little Neon to an unfortunate 
incident – electrical fire, etc., etc… It’s been a wild ride to say the least.
I’ve just made a Facebook fan page and am cleaning up the clutter on the ol’ blog here, restocking the store and making some new items which will be posted soon. No classes, though. It’s a bit too much for now.
There are a lot of exciting goodies from other sellers that I’m dying to show you and do the gift guides again. Fun, fun!
Back to the grindstone. ; )
