Christmas is Upon Us!

Dear Friends,

Well December has rushed on by and tomorrow is Christmas Day - can hardly believe it.

I have been busy renovating sections of the studio. New draws from IKEA I am in LOVE with - I got a glazier to cut me come glass to create a fresh finish to them - making them super easy to keep clean as well.

Fiddling around with what will go in them has taken up a lot of play time in the studio!

Tall CD cabinets cast off from my sister now hold all my paints organised into colour - BLISS! This has freed the table up considerably.

I really need to do other things to the studio but with the joy of Christmas approaching cooking and decorations have taken priority. SO mess galore in the kitchen has resulted in way too many yummy things.

Testing different lollies to set into shortbread was my technical research to our Christmas fare. Boiled lollies simply don't work - but jubes do! These little star ones held onto their shape and went shiny! Perfect!
AND YES they tasted quite lovely.

We ALWAYS have these balls that are crushed biscuits, sweet and condensed milk (mmm....) and dark cocoa. Covered in coconut. So easy to eat - sadly!

OH yes here are the lollies before and after for the shortbread jewels.

I decided to put my tree up on the ceiling in the studio - it used to be in a corner and tended to fall over.
Up on the ceiling it can hold many decorations! FAB!

Along the work tables are the avenue of Santas! Can a girl have too many Santas?

In our lounge room we have candles on every night in the Christmas period.  It is a special time and I am always glad we make the effort to add all the little touches that live in a cupboard for the rest of the year.

The tree is 8 ft tall and the angel just gets in before scraping the tips of her wings on the ceiling!

Well off to the land of nod until the day begins

Much love to everyone who has written in and followed my blog - I so love hearing from you all
Have a splendid holiday season however you celebrate it

Elizabeth
XXX

And the winner is.................................

Dear Friends
Well thankyou for such a lovely response to my Blog Give Away of one of my Felted Birds!

The winner is    GILLIAN CHAPMAN  from the Isle of Wight. Congratulations!

I will be posting your parcel on Monday morning and feel certain it will arrive before Christmas. I hope you have fun displaying him/her somewhere!

I am sorry I can't send one to everyone, they take me such a long time to make from dyeing the fleece, to making the felt through to embroidering the details. There are more available over at Etsy if you are still keen to own one.

So every best wish and happy creating in the run up to Christmas and Holiday Season!
Good grief 2013 is almost here!

Love
Elizabeth
XX

3 Days to go!

Hi Friends,
Thankyou so much for your wonderful response to the give away! I forgot to mention that if you would prefer a more subdued little bird in quieter tones then no problem.
Like any artist I always assume that everyone likes my colours best, brights, but this doesn't suit us all. If you would prefer a felted friend that is brown/blue/silver colours then that can certainly be arranged! Remember just leave a comment or "follow" my blog and you will be entered into the draw.

Everything is bright and warm here and our first bowl of cherries have been harvested! They have come from a very young tree, earlier than expected and this little dessert bowl was the ENTIRE crop. Henry thinks they are superb - not too certain what they are - but sensational fun to grab the stalk in your teeth and fling it across the table!  Is this young fluff monster entertaining or what? 

The obvious question I guess is, "Should Henry be on the table?"   Mmm...............Oh well...........

Good Luck in the draw!

Love 

Elizabeth

XX

Give Away!

Hi everyone!

Well I thought it was time to announce a fabulous give away!

Simply leave a comment or "follow" my blog and I will choose a name at random from a hat on the 1st of December.  Your new little felt bird will be winging its' way to you just in time to hang on your tree or anywhere you like. Your little bird is created from handmade felt from my hand dyed wools and then embroidered.

There are a couple of other items in there too but that would be telling.The festive season is supposed to be about surprises anyway!

Good Luck on the 1st of December!

Love

Elizabeth

XX

Goldilocks

'and then Goldilocks tried the Queen sized bed with the lovely warm quilt and crept in. Pretty soon he

fell fast asleep and his poor family couldn't find him for ages and ages and were getting quite worried.'

We had a really noisy storm this morning and Henry disappeared. He tried to stick it out and kept running from window to window - upstairs downstairs and all over. After a while we couldn't find him - sure enough
the most reassuring place for us all was his chosen spot as well - IN BED!

Happy snoozing!

Elizabeth
XX

Spring is truly here!

Hello Everyone!
Well Spring is truly here and our wet wet wet winter is really paying off now. All the roses are just so joyous and I am guessing that extra deep soak has given them a real boost.
The kitties are loving rolling outside again after clinging to heating vents and fighting over the favourite chair.\
As you may know Nelly has not accepted Henry although a bare toleration is in progress and she has stopped hissing at every doorway - just in case he might be in that particular room. (You will be able to see them both if you click on the pic)

Here you can see them very close together outside and Nell just couldn't be bothered rising to chase him away.  A rare day. We are having a small summerhouse built in the backyard - a nice place to dream really.

These little daisies were about the size of my thumb nail  - thankyou macro lense! They were in the down the street and just so gorgeous. I think that more than any other flower, daisies signal that heat is on the way.
I am going to try and paint them this week.

For the first time in years the foxgloves are marching around the garden all by themselves. As we have such a deciduous garden, they get a good start before everything is in full leaf. I just love them!

After a sudden shower last week followed by wretched wind, the roses here just littered the driveway in the loveliest way!

Spring can be so unpredictable but whilst the lovely days are lingering we are all taking advantage of them.

Hoping you all get some outside time this week
Love
Elizabeth
XX

School creations!

Dear Friends,

Well at last I have finished my school work for the year! Such a busy term but had a wonderful time throughout! Here below are some studies done by Grade 2 students at MLC - just love what they have achieved.

I got them to design a house based on some research - giving though to location, colour and shape.

After attaching them to heavy card the they drew in the surroundings to set the scene and add a story to the felt home they had created. We had everything from castles to tee pees!

Here below is the latest installation at St Catherine's in Toorak. This has been created by children from Prep to Year 6 and we even had some weeny folk in from the preschool. The theme is Underwater Circus.
The children had a lot of fun imagining all the different creatures and what they would do  - a challenge but I really love the end result. Three members of my family are holding it up so that I could get at least a couple of shots. Imagine lots of yelling and "For goodness sake HURRY UP!"  You get the idea.

Felt lends itself so beautifully to works such as these. The ability to be able to create any shape and mould distinct forms. It is hard to see in these shots but the bottom has many coral and rock forms that are very dimensional.  I will get a better shot when it gets installed.

I am looking forward to getting on with some smaller projects this week! My arms have quite had enough of rolling bit felts!

Hoping everyone is having a wonderful week
Love
Elizabeth
XX