Hang on! Not finished with that yet!

My name is Emma and I am a hoarder.

I have a terrible habit of hanging on to this and that, for another day. I call it practical and sentiment, others may call it loopy, clutter and just too much.

And I get it. There is a side to me that craves order and simplicity.

My daughter (Little Miss T) is starting to show the same... I want to say traits but to me, that sounds harsh... habits. She stuffs all kinds of things into a handbag, then weeks later gets upset because she can't find something. Sounds familiar to me. 

About 2-3 years ago, I started taking photographs of sentimental things and throwing them out afterwards. I don't even remember looking at the photos after, I just feel better after taking them. A bit of closure before moving on. 

Last month, I taught my little girl this handy trick. Here is the photo we took together. Her favourite trainers (her Welsh daddy calls them 'daps'). Hello Kitty trainers. She wanted to keep them but couldn't use them anymore. They were kindly given to her last year by our lovely landlady. T had smaller feet then but kept trying them on for size. She was thrilled when they could finally be worn, just in time to start her first year of school ♥

We might not look at these photos again but who knows. They went into Nanny's bin so easily after we had a photoshoot and tried on her new Peppa Pig replacement trainers though. We're so alike at times, it's uncanny...

It FELT great!

So I finally managed to pour my felting equipment on our large kitchen table. Been waiting to do this for a couple of weeks, ever since my lovely post arrived from Jayne.

Baby happy, daughter at the ready with her helping hands, clean and dry... so we started the process and here are photos as promised :)

We followed Jayne's instructions (see her Facebook page called Flowerfelt by Jayne). She's in Co. Kerry, Ireland, makes some beautiful flowers, corsages, broaches etc.

I read the instructions out loud and we both figured out how to do the layering together. Something my 4 year old Teagan enjoyed, once she understood the layers needed to overlap so that the fibres would merge later on. She helped with the olive oil soap, lathered it up with a scrunched up plastic bag. Thoroughly enjoyed the satisfying creation of bubbles. She didn't like waiting around while I made sure everything was correct but that's to be expected... she's 4 :D

Anyway, I did the process of dipping the final product in hot water, then warm, then cold water to shock it. So cool. Teagan happily stirred it with a wooden spoon while little brother watched on.

The felt is almost dry (left it dry naturally, it's taken the full day and a half because it's January... the heating isn't always on and well... it's cold weather and I didn't want it to shrink too much so have been patient for a change) so watch this space...

Now to decide what to make. A flower (for my hair) I reckon... what do you think?

♥