No, no, no!

No, no, no, I thought we were meant to get rain in April, not now, April showers bring forth May flowers and all that guff! For the last couple of days the weather has been ‘greasy’, not too wet and definitely not at all dry! My range decided to throw a hissy fit and has been spluttering and guttering for the last few weeks (needs a service but nothing drastic!) so I rang my friend the boiler man this morning and he will be here on Friday morning to give it a dose of TLC.

Otherwise ….. STILL working backwards date wise trying to sort out my workshops in US prior to organising the San Fransisco leg, back sore from leaning over computer, not able to photograph new scarves until rain stops = very frustrated, made a nice nuno scarf this morning, uploaded pictures of a bag to Flickr, trying to organise flights and connections to Denmark, big golf competition tomorrow and all the associated work …… goodbye ’till Friday!

Felting, golf, puncture, food …..

This afternoon I had my second session with members of the Borris Active Retirement Group, we were examining all the different things that you can make with felt cords and balls.  Everyone made a layered cord using three different colours of merino and then we had fun slicing through the felt to make gorgeous beads perfect for necklaces, bracelets, earrings, keyrings or whatever else takes your fancy!

Alpaca and merino necklace

Here is an image of one of my earliest necklaces made using this method, the dark chocolate fibre is alpaca and the rest is merino.  Only one of the ladies decided to leave the cord uncut, she is planning on converting the flat felt she made last week into a funky little purse and the cord is going to become a strong handle.

On Saturday I arrived back in the golf club car park from supporting some mixed matches only to find that my front wheel had a puncture. This was really annoying as I was dressed in my ‘official’ clothes and had no old trousers or anything to throw on in order to change the tyre. I can’t say that any of the men (or women!) rushed in to help so thankfully one of my friends gave me a lift home after the meal and I was able to return yesterday with Alan and get the thing sorted. This is the first time that my pick up truck has had a puncture since I bought it about 3 years ago so hopefully I will get another few years before I have to go through the trauma again. I have never had any difficulty changing tyres on any other jeep or car that I have owned but for some reason the spare is amazingly difficult to get out from under the base of this truck, at least having done it once next time should be easier!

I love the sound of this asparagus and goats cheese tart over at Maya Made, guess what I’ll be buying tomorrow???

Worst golf hole ever and one space left for workshop on Wednesday!

Yesterday I had the worst score EVER at a golf hole, playing off my winter handicap of 13 I had a score of 18 on the tenth hole, a par four!!!  Can anyone beat that??????  I used up my total handicap on one hole (with another shot over!) so as you can imagine I was not very pleased.  In actual fact I don’t normally play like that (otherwise why would my handicap be what it is) but our new head green keeper had just done some work in the bunkers and for once I got totally bogged down in the sand with no chance of playing out sideways!

Today my new felting tables arrived and I am thrilled.  I ordered 3 long folding tables which will allow me plenty of space to work on some huge felt sculptures and large pieces of nuno felt clothing.  I have one space left for a full day nuno felting workshop next Wednesday (E75 for the day) so if anyone would like to come along please email me asap. 

Nuno mosaic skirt and nuno felt scarf

Talk, swap package and some golf photos from last Sunday!

Wednesday’s talk and demo to the Borris Active Retirement group went very well and now the ladies are interested in participating in some felting workshops so all in all a good day was had by everyone! 

My swap package for Krystofer - note the hand made gift tag!

 

Before I left the house to go to the talk venue I packaged up and posted my latest swap package to Krystofer in San Fransisco.  This was a great Ravelry swap to participate in, check out one of the scarves I felted for this in a recent post at Clasheen.  I also made gift tags from some of the stamped paper I had left over from last weeks fabric journal workshop, upcycling and recycling is one of my favourite pastimes.

Another favourite activity of mine is golf, as if you haven’t already realised.  My good friend Remmy took some excellent photos of all the action last Sunday so here are a couple for you to peruse as men’s Captain Pierce Brennan and yours truly prepare to beat the life out of a couple of little white balls!   

Captain Pierce Brennan with me just before we teed off

Head down and watch that ball!