I very rarely get time to do the things I love to do. Needle felting is one of my all time favorite crafts. I love to watch fluffy, fine, or course, sheep's wool become fantastical creatures, earthy puppets, or humble abodes for forest folk. I know women who are making a good living off of their craft. Myself, I don't have time to perfect my art. For example, I once made a tree stump with a fairy family for a friend's child. I ran out of wool when trying to thicken the stump so it wasn't half as sturdy as I had imagined it when I began. If I had time I wouldn't make those kinds of mistakes. I would know around how much wool I would need when I began. It's very frustrating to really love needle felting and never be able to do it. I rarely keep the things I make as my inspiration usually stems from the thought of the person I'm creating for. Even more interestingly, the work takes its own form as you create. Pictures never do needle felting any justice. The colors look washed out and I find that it often looks simple and cartoonish.

This mushroom house is something I made a couple years back as a Christmas gift for two awesome little boys!

Here is the family of gnomes I made to reside here:

They aren't needle felted. They have wire frames with embroidery floss wrapped bodies. I hand paint their faces with non-toxic paint and then a layer of varnish to preserve them. I love these fairies created from Sally Mavor's Wee Felt Folk. Here is a photo of another family I've made to illustrate that they all turn out different.

    Nova has been so inspired by the Spiderwick Chronicles that he is, once again, tirelessly drawing at his art studio. Some may also refer to this as our kitchen table. Most of the drawings I've shown so far are things that he made over two years ago. I'd love to dig up some of his older illustrations and stories and let you read the things he made up as a tot. I have never seen a child so inspired. He used to feverishly pace back and forth skipping and jumping as he dictated the content of each page for his books. What always amazed me was his creation of the drawings before the story. He'd hand over a full 10 pages of drawings and begin, immediately,  erupting with verse for each picture. He never stopped to look at what he had drawn he'd just dictate and then say "Ok, flip the page, this part goes with the next picture." These stories could take anywhere from an hour to several sittings to complete. I have kept all of them in a box to show him when he is older. They weren't always incredible stories, but I was amazed at the way they took form and the expressiveness on his characters faces. I will be sharing some of these in the future.

   For now, I'd like you all to meet Queen Best...

I found this in a journal that Nova kept when he was five. Throughout his journal he sketched cute little pictures of himself in different situations. It seems to me that this fisherman is missing a hand and has fashioned a fishing pole from a hockey stick. I love the way the fish's tail spells Nova, but I don't believe it was intentionally spelled backwards. The drawing became more endearing when I flipped a few pages to days later and found the following drawing...

It seems that the missing hand has regenerated and the happy, young fisherman has himself a new pet!

These pictures reminded me of my good ol' days touring around soaking up all the fantastic live music of bands I don't even have time to listen to anymore. Ahhhh, the days...