what a friend !

Some people might say that :

Blog-land isn't the real world .....

and that you should stick to friends nearer to "home"

I don't agree with that.

Of course I love my "real life" friends around the corner.

But a lot of times, people I encounter in Blog-land,

become friends,

just as good as the "real life" ones !

It's not the first time that such a Blog friendship/admiration

results in something special

like this swap.

(and it will probably not be the last either)

This time I had a swap with Jana

She makes such wonderful felted flower mandalas

and I love the way she writes

about all the things that move her

in her work and daily life.

Yesterday her package to me arrived

and I was very still after I opened it.

The most beautiful rainbow coloured flower mandala was in it.

And yet there was more

There was a lovely card, packets with seeds, 

a smoke bundle of fragrant herbs,and some homemade fudge.

THANK YOU SÓ MUCH, JANA

you made me very happy and privileged person !!!

Because little grandson was there when the package arrived

he loved to take part in the unpacking

and admiring the wonderful soft flower !

His dear knitted bear got a warm blanket

This was my part of the swap

The felted "Earth" necklace went to Jana

(well, I was in the mood for mandalas, when I sent my package to her)

What a wonderful (far away)  friends I have

!!!!!

yes .... still here ...

I know :

it has been very quiet here.

Not a lot of things happening

except for a bit of knitting

(on two projects that should have been finished loooong ago ... )

some reading

and drawing some new mandalas.

the November mandala of our group

and one of the tiniest birds here : the goldcrest

For my Pink Ribbon challenge of last month

we managed to make a donation of

€ 200, -

(we topped it off till this nice round figure)

I sold 14 of my original drawings

(and hope that all the new owners are as happy as I am)

There was only one nasty problem

and something that has never ever happened to me before :

one envelope I send to Germany,

has gone missing 

!!!!!

We waited a long time if it would still arrive

but sadly it didn't !

Though only "the mail" was to blame

I had to find a solution

(and we did .... ha : on the telephone)

I hope this time everything will be allright !

*

From one of the felters of  the felting-exchange

I got a lovely new red piece

Thanks Margriet

I love the delicate stitching on it !

what about selling ... ?

Aaaaah ...

this is a difficult story ...

Just a few days ago I decided 

NOT to participate 

in this year's Christmas market in our village.

It was a tough decision because I enjoyed 

it very much, these last two years.

It was fun : 

thinking about what to make

meeting all those people

and talk about making one's art

and selling it.

But all this has a down side too.

 I LOVE to make the different things for the market :

it may be felt, quiltlets, drawings, paintings,

(I like a lot of different techniques)

but

I HATE making my art

as if I'm working on a production line in a factory !

That really is no fun for me !

But at the same time this is the whole problem 

when participating to markets !!!

When people come to you and tell how lovely an item is ...

if ... it was just :

blue instead of green ...

purple instead of red ...

a bit bigger ...

a bit smaller ...

a bit different shape ...

(and so on)

So :

no more market for me this year !

Will I stop making art ?

Another NO

I can't stop being creative !

And I hardly ever think about selling when I'm busy.

But if there ever is something you really would like to "have"

......

just send me an email 

and we probably can work out something together !
I'm willing to take commisssions too

;-)

*

These two little friends were just adorable

(though big brown brother doesn't seam so pleased to share his throne)

*

These are some really old drawings I found

(while cleaning through clutter of old times)

I made them for our classroom door

when I was working with pre-schoolers :

our koala class bear was the main character

each time we started a new theme to work on

"autumn"

           "measuring"              and            "floating and sinking"

      

"the doctor"

and :  "friends" !

These were good memories when I found them again today  ;-)

I'll bring them to my friend and old colleague Ada

so she can use them again for the children

(they are about 50 x 65 cm each)

a bit of felting (14 - 11 - 14)

It's been a while since I did some felting for myself.

Now a lovely fine piece of woolen fabric

(which I bought especially for felting)

was lying around, waiting to be used.

The "problem" with nuno felting is 

that the wool fibres must be able to migrate through the fabric.

Sometimes it is easy and the fabric sticks to the wool in no time

sometimes it just takes

a LOT of time.

I wanted to test this fabric before

making something big.

Two very thin layers of wool,

and after rolling a bit I started to stitch circles for the wooden beads,

a kind of "shibori" you could say.

It's important to know how much "disappears" ... and the piece after felting.

Drying, but I still have to get the beads out !
(but I know already that the blue will not be very strong on the inside)

After that I did a second try with a gauzy printed cotton

(With this one I took the beads out immediately)

Well, not entirely satisfied,

but learned some things again 

...

a (late) exchange

It's been over a week now since I finished

my Pink Ribbon mandala month.

It may sound silly 

but it was a big challenge,

drawing that mandala every day.

And though I really enjoyed every minute of it

it took the wind right out of me

after the month was over ...

I felt a bit like a collapsed soufflé.

There was no energy left for quite some days,

though I'm very happy to tell that

dear husband sold three more mandalas

in his Italian class 

;-)

Don't forget :

there are still a few mandalas that are not sold ...

so go over and check out

if there is something nice for you !

(I'll make my donation to Pink Ribbon at the end of the month)

Though there was a little felt to be made 

for the felting-exchange

I could not get started till yesterday

...

but, it's finished now and goes to Jolan tomorrow !

The theme was 

"spring fever" 

and I planned to make something with daffodils (long ago)

spring fever

*

And this was the other was the other bit of simple work

that I fancied this last week

(mmmmmm : over 400 stitches now, and counting ...)

Have a good week

and don't forget to check the mandalas

for more donation to Pink Ribbon