Felted Cats

I love crafting and I love cats, so when I saw an advert on FB for learning a new craft and raising funds for Cats Protection League, I knew I had to sign up.

A box with everything we needed to make needle-felted cat baubles arrived in the post and a live FB tutorial was held by Steffi @TheMakerss.co.uk.

Felted cats box

Needle felting is literally stabbing wool over and over with a barbed needle so it pulls the wool into itself, mats and becomes firm.  Have you ever made the mistake of washing a pure wool jumper in hot water and it comes out matted and stiff?  No?  Just me then ;)

Felted cats progress

Once the basic cat shapes were formed and the eyes were stuck on we started felting the top coat in our chosen colours.   Chilli and Bean are both tortoiseshell so I’d selected their colours when ordering the kits.

Bean & laptopBean overseeing our work!

Felted cat and Chilli

Although not looking overly impressed, I think Chilli could see the work that had gone into her bauble!

Chilli & Bean on Tree

The tutorial was easy to follow and we did it in two parts because other Christmas preparations got in the way.  Making the baubles was good fun and they looked amazing on our tree too.

Cats & Bean

The brilliant thing about this was that 2,840 people took part in Craft for Cats and over *£28,400 was raised for Cats Protection!

*Every £10 could buy bedding to help keep an unwanted cat warm and cosy this winter, or the total amount could feed all the cats at 10 small CP adoption centres for an entire year!!

EDIT:  EVERY SINGLE bauble posted on the FB Craft for Cats page has looked incredible.  Every bauble is filled with love and blood (needle stabs!) and the photos and the stories of the cats have made me laugh and cry.  It’s been really quite emotional.

Stay Wild

Earlier this year I saw a post on Instagram of a very different kind of airbnb @stay.wild.uk

Parked at the back of a field in Kent was a converted, vintage American bus.  Off grid; no TV, no wi-fi.   Just glamping. Perfect.   All we needed to do was pick a date and book.

Bus Field 2

We arrived early and had lunch in town before following directions to the bus.

Bus Sandwich.jpg. Sorry, had to be done!

Bus Front

The exterior of the bus was completely original and still had the concertina door and driver’s seat in tact.

Bus Interior

It had such a well designed interior with a small kitchen, breakfast table, double bed, log-fire and shower/toilet.  Outside had a bbq too, but we ate out (which wasn’t easy as most restaurants in town were closed on Mondays!)

Bus Table

Bus Books

There was an amazing selection of books and games available.

Bus Geese

Bus goose

It was a lovely relaxing couple of days and we would certainly visit again.

Cat Door Number Plaque

This door number plaque was a special gift for a cat-loving-family.

Cat Doornumber design

I knew I wanted to incorporate some cats into my design so I ordered some ceramic cats from @annecardwellmosaicart and played around with their positions to make the most of the limited space on the plate.

Cat Door Number progress

It was nerve-racking cutting the beautiful ceramics but once I was happy with their positioning I began sticking them down and filling in the gaps with mosaic flowers.  Next came my favourite black grout to make the colours pop!

Cat Door Number grout

Cat Door Number cats2

Got the seal of approval from Chilli and Bean :)

Cat Door number me

Cat Door Number 1

Fun with a ball of wool and cardboard box

I told you Chilli and Bean would feature in more of my posts!

Some time ago a friend sent me a link to an online article where a cat owner had photographed her cat poking its head through a hole in a box, to which she’d attached wool ‘hair’ on the outside, with hilarious effect!  Stay with me, it will all make sense in a minute …..

CatSalonFlowers

cat

Helping!

Arm

Green Curls

catred

Frida BeanFrida Bean!

Chilli & Bean

At the end of October 2020 we adopted two tortoiseshell cats and every day since has been fun and games. We wanted to rename them so we got to know their personalities over the first week and tried out several names before we chose Chilli and Bean (although they’re sisters they are quite different and yet the same). Their new names suit them perfectly … Chilli is quite a spicy cat and is very adventurous and Bean is, well … a bean, very laid-back and gentle!

Chilli&BeanChilli                                                                            Bean

BeanMosaicBall

They both love the garden and, much to our horror, Chilli climbed our tall willow tree within minutes of her first trip out. Luckily she found her way back down with great agility.

BeanBalancing

569b494a-2ced-430b-a7b0-3396f5067402

Christmas was fun, they found every light and bauble worth a play!

Chilli ChristmasIMG_5247 2

Catcake

And, of course, they’ve been the inspiration for birthday cakes and there’s no doubt they’ll be appearing in more of my posts in the future!

Goodbye 2020

Finding a number 17 for my Countdown to Christmas was easy, I just used my own door number but to make life a bit more exciting, I decided to hold a ‘Giveaway’ and offer a custom made mosaic plaque to the winner.

Giveaway 1After five days all the entrants names were placed in a box, I picked out a name and announced the Winner, promising to make the chosen number in the new year.

Here’s a round-up of my 2020 work and the ‘Giveaway’ plaque will be shared soon :) 2020 Makes2021 hasn’t begun as we would’ve all wanted with another lockdown and more restrictions, but we have to find joy where we can and meanwhile try to stay well physically and mentally.  Wishing you all well and hopefully things will get better soon.

Countdown to Christmas

Since the first lockdown in March I’ve taken to walking to the local shops and ticking both the ‘shopping for essentials’ and ‘daily exercise’ boxes in one go.  I’ve continued to do so throughout the year (only going to the supermarket when necessary).  When I got the idea to do an Instagram COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS project, it was easy to combine that too.   I just walked and walked and always had my phone or camera with me.

For those of you who don’t have Instagram, here’s my countdown …..

28 SignBlack Friday, 28 days ’til Christmas.

25 edited 2I LOVE this 25 sign!   I just had to go back with a Santa hat to use as a prop!24 - 1918 - 1312 - 76 - 1Before I knew it, it was Christmas Day!

Christmas display (1)

I hope that however you spent your Christmas, you and your loved ones remained healthy and well.

I really enjoyed having a purpose to getting out every day, in all kinds of weather.  Now when I go out I’m looking for the first signs of Spring :)