ONE PERSON'S TRASH ANOTHER'S TREASURE

So you remember that a few weeks ago I went to the big jumble sale down in Cluses a town about 30 mins away. Well I went back last weekend with a good friend of mine who also has a craft obsession. It was the last weekend and normally there is a bell an hour before close signaling HALF PRICE TIME! whooo whooooo but to our horror we found out that instead of closing at 1pm "comme d' habitude" it closed at 6:30pm Imagin the distress!

We weren't going to hang around looking at was for the most part over priced tat so we headed straight for the good stuff. Oh the joy to find out that the wool stand was already at half price. My buddy Lisa I could see it in her eyes just wanted to jump onto the wool stand and start swimming in it.

Anyway to cut a long story short Lisa got a bin liner full of wool for 15 euros BARGAIN and this is what I came away with for 10,50.

Trawling jumble sales and charity shops as well as being fun can also be very useful, what one person thinks is rubbish another thinks is gold.

Chamonix in the morning

Hi everyone, I just thought that I would show you a little bit of Chamonix this morning. This is where I live most of the time, though at the moment I share my time between France and Cornwall in the west of England.

Winter has really arrived, it's - something outside and there is snow on the mountains. There's nothing better than being tucked up inside where it's nice and warm, wool or beads or what ever crafty medium you choose spread all around like a little creative nest.

I am going to get up and get crafty this morning and I think handles for my latest felt bags and a nuno felt scarf just because it's soooo cold outside.

Felt it here, felt it there, I'm gonna felt it everywhere

Hello again, very soon I might bring you a beginners guide to nuno felting and cobweb felting. These are two of my newest experiments and for a fist timer I don't think they came out too bad. In fact I love the cobweb felt scarf. Aint she pretty?



And here is my nuno felt scarf. This one took a little more time to grow on me, I think I've figured out the nuno felt technique now, now Im just waiting for a spare 5 minutes to make another one.

first felt sale!!!

Yeah I sold my first piece of felt! They are really cute so I totally understand why they were the first to go. Hand wet felted using 100% merino wool in grey and blue for a bouncy baby boy.

How to make felt beads tutorial

Now don't get me wrong, I am no felt pro...not yet anyway. I first got into making felt because I was looking for how to make felt beads on the internet.

I did find out how to make felt beads in the end using the tried old method of rolling a sausage of fleece till it begins to stiffen then to cut it up into even size portions and roll them into beads that way.

But I have developed a new technique which i find less finicky and I can make beads whilst sitting in front of the telly. So I can watch the X Factor guilt free! Excellent!

Step one:

If you have any old projects that you don't like any more, some felt that came out too thick or too fuzzy and all those little scaps of half felt left over from cutting out shapes for other projects, don't throw them away! Cut them into tiny pieces like below.


When i'm working in front of the TV I like to have a bar of veggie soap in a bowl with a dash of water and a paint brush handy to wet and add the essential soap to my bead



Take a small amount of the cut up fluff and place it in the palm of your hand.



Wet your brush and rub it over the bar of soap like you would a shaving brush, then dampen the fluff on both sides.



Then genlty and slowly begin to roll the bead between your hands to form a ball. Do not apply too much pressure or speed at this time, the bead will need a little time to start to bond together properly.



Continue to roll, in no time the bead will start to feel a little more solid, now start to layer some fine bits of fleece over the bead in your chosen colour.



Do bare in mind that what ever colour your bits of fluff are will effect the final colour of your bead, depending on how many layers of fleece you lay over the top.



Continue to layer your fine fleece over the bead and roll it in, applying more pressure and speed. If you apply too much pressure and speed too soon this makes the bead separate into sections. If this happens don't worry you just layer the fleece over the splits and roll gently.



When the bead has been well covered and feels firm it's time to rinse your bead. Rinse under warm water, squeeze the bead between your palms and repeat until no more soap is squeezed out. Roll to give the shape back to your bead then set aside to dry.

The great thing about this way of making beads is that you have no waste!

I hope this was helpful please let me know if it was.

Jumble Fumble

It's my birthday next tuesday.. .getting older by the second. My husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday, it was too late to ask for "World of Wool" gift vouchers because he would never get it together. SO i managed to wangle an early sunday morning trip to the annual scout sale in Cluses.

I am sooooo excited the scout sale is apparently massive Im thinking The Weekend Market in Bangkok but smaller. Arranged into different halls, furniture,clothing,linen,toys etc they have that much stuff it is on every sunday in october and after 12 years of living in Chamonix I have never been.

So I'm going to be getting an early night on saturday night, i'll need all my energy for a good old rummage. Ill post some pics if I find anything good.

What a good wife am I? I don't expect diamonds, I don't ask for champagne, a sunday morning a a massive jumble sale is all I ask for. Give me the nobel wife prize right now!

settling in nicely

So this is one of my real fully fledged proper proper felted bags. I love this bag the short handles are so cute. I am really progressing in leaps and bounds now. It's been great living in a big warm flat with lots of space to lay out the newly felted felt creations. When I wake up in the morning my felt from the night before is DRY!

But alas we will be off back to Cornwall in two weeks where the dampness never goes away and we have 10 m2 to live in.

Ho hum mustn't grumble Id better get as much felting as I can before we drive back to blighty.