Botanical Beauties.

My one-off felt creation shown by my pretty model.

As you can see I have been busy felting lately.This time an OOAK hat. (One Of A Kind : took me ages to figure out what those letters stood for...)
I was commissioned to make a mushroom shaped hat for a 9 year old expert on fungi. He requested a brown and yellow button shape, and even though I had never made one, I was sure I knew how.

Top of the Mushroom Hat

And I am quite happy with how it turned out, and judging by their enthusiastic response, so were the boy and his Mum.
I left a small ridge on the edge (usually on a 3-d shape like this, I work the ridge so it disappears.) to make it more of a division between top and underside. The only stitching is is on the underside to sculpt the gills, and give it more upward rigidness.

The sculpted underside.

I also added a loose padding inside, soft cotton with sewn in wool sliver.
The measurements for his head circumference had already been provided. It had to fit of course, and not sink over his eyes...

Super shrinking rate!

This time I worked the felt even harder than with the hobbit hole. You can see the bubble-wrap resist, which was the size I started off with! Usually I felt until the object has shrunk by a third of it's original size, or even less if I want it to remain supersoft and flexible.
But this time it shrunk to one third of it's original shape. This also means that the different coloured layers of wool used, will "travel" and subtly blend to make the final colours.
I definitely had quite sore arms the next day...

 Weird Impulse buy:

Alfred Meakin dinner set "Oaklands"

So there I was in 1 of the opshops on my "Thrift Queen List" and my eye fell on this dusty bunch of plates and cups. I really liked the stylized acorns, beech nuts and leaves pattern. I figured it was late 1950's or mid 60's.
I turned it over and to my surprise it said Alfred Meakin, England, glow-white "Oaklands".    I often pick up porcelain because of it's cheerful colours or patterns, and I often see Meakin, but usually much older looking, pre-war. Not that I can find any information on this particular pattern, but I just like it.
I also noticed the price on a wee little sticker: $5 (NZ)
Well, I took it home, didn't I....
 My love liked it too, and it will make a nice change at dinner time after 27 years of the same plates. Not that I will chuck out the other set mind you.
 It is Crown Lynn, "Wild Wheat", bought new from the D.I.C. store. I can still see us walking through town with the boxes of our dinner-set, ready to go flatting together. I felt so proud and excited!
 And there is nothing more Kiwiana than Crown Lynn crockery.


How does our garden grow:

Pointsettia.

It is winter time, so our Christmas star is in full bloom. But no X-mas in sight for our pointsettia...
 We get the forced potted plants with that season in the supermarkets.

Poinsettias get bigger than you think...

It is a small bushy tree in our garden here. Last year a big branch snapped off in stormy weather.
Are you Northern Europeans surprised with the size your little potted plants can grow to?

Creamy delicious magnolia.

The tuis love our neighbours' magnolia tree, they dip their beaks into the back of the flowers and have a little sip.

Next to the magnolia is a native "cabbage tree".

We have a lovely view of this winter flowering tree from our living room.
 It is nice to be on canopy-level!