Wild 'N Wooly

I have really been enjoying needle felting. A lot. I love the fact that I can have multiple projects done in an evening. I love the fact I can do tiny little things. I love, I love, I love!

So here is what I intend to do with my new craft. I want to work on it to the point that between this, and my other arty things, I can have my own art business. I want to be able to sell these things. But more importantly than that, I want other people to be able to enjoy them too.

Patch is sad because the birdy got dibs on the cherry.

Cheer up Patch! You can call dibs on the frosting!

Little Mice

Santa Claus didn't bring me everything I wanted for Christmas. Some of what was not in my stocking was my very first needle felting supplies. So, I went and played Santa for myself.

Today I picked myself up some felting needles, wool roving, wool felting yarn, and some little black beads. And after arriving at home, relaxing for a few, and half an hour of only poking myself in the finger hard enough once to make myself bleed, we have this little guy.

His name is Patch.

I can has some cheez?

I need to sort out the whiskers thing. That would be so cute.

"I iz so small, it makes me cute!"

I should get the felting foam block, because that will make flatter things like ears a lot easier to make.

On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas...

My true love gave to me...

Twelve drummers drumming,

Eleven pipers piping,

Ten lords a leaping,

Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a milking,

Seven swans a swimming,

Six geese a laying,

FIIIIIIVE GOOOOLDEN RRRIIIIIINGS!!!!!!!!!

Four calling birds,

Three french hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a Partridge In A Pear Tree!

On The Eleventh Day Of Christmas...

My true love gave to me...

Eleven pipers piping!

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So Twelfth Night is coming up, and I thought it would be fun to give it a nod. I like finding reasons to celebrate for any day. I figured I would make a King Cake.

Now, King Cakes are common down south towards New Orleans. They seem to usually be some sort of yeast sweet bread (think similar to a cinnamon roll wreath) with an almond type filling decorated with icing in purple, green and yellow. While the coloring is a Louisiana thing, the type of cake is also found in some of the European traditions.

Braided sweet roll type cake decorated with icing and colored sugar.

Other European traditions have cakes made puff pastry and an almond filling of some sort. Almond seems to be the big thing. Some cakes end up more like a spice cake or a light fruit cake.

The one common thing for all the cakes is to insert a coin, a bean, a pea, porcelain or plastic figurines, or a little plastic baby. Depending on what you get, and what country you are in, it can mean different things. You can be King and queen of the party, responsible for bringing next years cake, lucky for the coming year, obligated (privileged) to throw a party, wealthy in the coming year, or the drudge who has to clean things up (usually the bean accompanied by another trinket that makes its finder the King for the day).

This is one of the puff pastry kinds filled with an almond cream, common in France.

A more rustic, raised, sweet bread fruit cake blend. Likely to be something common in medieval times.

A fruit cake type of King Cake. Very colorful and usually much lighter than a regular fruit cake.

First decision I need to make is what sort if King Cake I want and what/if I want to put in as trinkets. I am heavily leaning towards a cinnamon roll type of cake, since I can get those in cans from the grocery store, ready to bake. I'd be more adventurous if I had counter space.

Next is what day to have it on. Twelfth night is celebrated on either January 5th, or the 6th. There is no universal agreement as to what to do. Maybe I will just celebrate with it for Epiphany, since there is a feast on that day too. That makes it for the 6th.

Decisions decisions.

On The Tenth Day Of Christmas...

My true love gave to me...

Ten lords a leaping!

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So here it is, well after Christmas, and I am still working on a Christmas gift. Blah. It's my brothers scarf. At least I am about a third of the way done now. I just made it different than I normally do, so it's taking me longer than I am used to.

I wish this would go faster. It's nice and soft though.