The extended holiday

Friends for Felix is taking a long extended holiday (alright I am kidding myself, the doors are closing) and we are very sad about it all! While I would love to be sewing our feltie friends for others, returning back to work in 2011 means that I will not be able to do both. I am blessed that my little man gets to spend time with his Nan or his Dad while I work which makes things a lot easier for me. What it does mean is that the time we have together as a little family of three is rare as usually one is at work or we are doing all those fun things like cleaning the house and keeping our lives in order. My goal for 2011 is to be able to spend some family time together enjoying our little boy, so sadly Friends for Felix will be slowing right down. The craftbox will not be shut forever, I will still be creating for my family, friends and finishing off some long term requests from some loyal customers. I won't be closing our facebook page or blog, but the focus will change to documenting the crafting adventures of one mum and one little boy (I have a first birthday to go crazy on!!! I can't wait!)

It has taken me a little while to return to needle and thread in the New Year as I have been enjoying family time (indoors with all this rain!) but this week has seen the beginnings of some new feltie friends. This cheeky little monkey is festively plump, maybe had one too many slices of Grandma's Christmas cake! He is being made to hang in the car for a little bubba (that is still baking). I am yet to decide on how I will do his tail and whether his twin sister will be identical or not..tough decisions! I love making custom orders and one off pieces, I get really excited when creating for others!

Sweet Dreams.

Mel.

Gift giveaway Friends for Felix style

If you follow us on Facebook you might have seen that we were going to head down to our local shopping centre and give some of our feltie friends to strangers to celebrate Christmas (and reaching 200 friends on Facebook). My little man and I took our feltie friends with us to the shops twice this week and just couldn't give them away - it just didn't feel right. So yesterday, we packed up Miss Morris, Ginny the Giraffe, Budda Boy, Odelle Octopus, two Sweet Little Cherubs & Winne the Whale and headed down the the hospital where our little man was born. 

We decided to donate our feltie friends to the Special Care Nursery for Christmas gifts for those beautiful little bubs in hospital this Christmas. We were very blessed that our little man was born healthy and strong and was able to leave hospital after 2 days but there are many little ones that need that extra help. It must be such a stressful time for parents so we are hoping that our little feltie toys may put a smile on someone's face this Christmas.

Well this is our last post before Christmas and probably the year. I am off to enjoy the holidays with my family. Merry Christmas.


Sweet Dreams. 



 

Counting down to Christmas

  5 sleeps until Christmas for us! Christmas this year starts when our little man's GM & GD arrive from Melbourne. We are so excited to be seeing them again. So to us, this is when the Christmas celebrations begin. We have now finished decorating our house. I thought that I would share some pictures - a warning though, my photos are not great. My christmas wish is for a new camera and some photography lessons! I need help in that department!

Upon opening our front door, we have a cute Merry Christmas banner that is free to print from a fantastic blog, At Second Street. You can head over and see it for yourself here At Second Street.  I love it! Mine didn't print out as red as I thought it would but still looks fantastic.

 

We always have a real Christmas tree, and this year our tree is a baby so we were not able to put too many decorations on it. Our felt decorations that we made for this Christmas  (www.facebook.com/forfelix) were perfect as they were not too heavy for the branches. We has a very beautiful angel for the top from my mum but it was too heavy, so late last night I whipped up this little boy angel for the tree.

 

 

The rest of our decorations adorned some branches that I painted white. I think they look nice and wondering what I will do with the branches once Christmas is done.

Our little man and I are baking Christmas cakes today and then hoping to head to the shops to give some of our Friends for Felix felties to strangers to spread some Christmas cheer! Hope you all have a happy and wonderful Christmas.

Sweet Dreams and Merry Christmas.

The Market wrap up

I have been meaning to blog about our experience hosting our first market stall but have had a big week and to finish the week my brother-in-law to be had a motorbike accident so it has been one of those weeks. He is ok but will have a long recovery ahead of him. We are very blessed as things could have been a lot worse.

Last Sunday's market seems so long ago! When I started selling my feltie friends, I had made myself the goal to have a market stall. I put it off for such a long time, and since I had a good amount of stock I felt as though I didn't have an excuse anymore! All I wanted to do was go and sell one item which happened while I was still setting up (what a great start to the day!). I am really pleased I made it to the markets. I was able to meet some of our friends who follow us on Facebook which was really lovely! I wish I could have sold more but after lunch it got quiet very quickly. I was hoping for the perfect summer's day but it was very overcast so not as many people out at Burleigh beach as I had hoped.

I was very lucky to have a great sales assistant in Oliver, charming all the ladies browsing the markets, I mean really how could you not reist his smile!

Some of the yummy feltie treats we had on offer!

 

I gained a number of custom orders from the market that I am busy sewing to be ready in time for Christmas. Lots of pregnant mummas wanting custom mobiles for their bubbas! How very exciting! So am busy designing unique mobiles to suit either a girl or a boy. I can't wait to share the sweet bunny mobile I am about to make (it is still in design mode at the moment).

 

Looking forward to next week being full of Christmas cheer as we finish some orders and wrap our Christmas presents, decorate our house Christmas stylie, find recipes for baking some Christmas treats and have a positive happy week!

 

Sweet Dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

Slipping Away

It seems that I have lost a week in November. If anyone finds it do they think they can return it to me? I organised to have our first market stall at the end of November. No worries I thought, that is ages away, it gives me plently of time to finish working on some new designs and time to create a couple more of our current range so I have a nice amount of stock. I realised yesterday that the markets are in two weeks and I have a lot to do like put tags and prices on our current Friends for Felix stock and decide how I am going to decorate our stall as well as sew more stock. Time at the moment seems to be slipping away.  I have been trying to sit down and have a day of sewing for about 2 weeks and have not had a chance to with the rest of our busy life taking over. For my own sanity I need to give myself this time to focus on Friends for Felix and to enjoy a day with a needle and thread.So if anyone finds any lost time please send it my way, I could really put it to good use!



Sweet Dreams.

Planes and more

It seems that plane mobiles are the flavour of the week! I have sold the 'Up and Away' mobile from the current range and I am working on a custom order of another plane mobile. Thought I would give you a sneak peak as I am very excited about this one, am about to put it all together but will leave that for another day. I'm having an evening off from sewing. 

 

hmm the next part is the trickiest, getting it to hang right!

I had a lovely day last week at Burleigh. It was one of those perfect Gold Coast days, and I felt blessed to be able to spend the morning at Burleigh in the sun with my bubba. I was able to finish a couple of orders that are now ready for the post. It was lovely to stop, relax and play. I, by chance had lunch with my sis and her friend and a browse through some cute shops in James st, just the perfect day.

 

Burleigh Arts and Craft Markets watch out....Friends for Felix will be showcasing our felt friends and mobiles at the November 28 Market. I am really looking forward to getting out there but a little nervous at the same time....hope someone will buy something! Ek! 

 

These sweet little cherubs are sewn and waiting for new homes!

Putting myself to bed early tonight, hope the little man has a good night.

Sweet Dreams.

 

Christmas has started!

Today Christmas preparations at the Friends for Felix household are truely underway. Today is the launch of our christmas decorations on Facebook and I have finally made a christmas gift list! While cleaning up the garden on the weekend I found an old palm tree seed pod which I thought would make a wonderful christmas decoration. I have used it to display our christmas decoration range here at Friends for Felix. I am considering spray painting it white and using it in our house this Christmas. We always have a real Christmas tree in a pot but our last one died (ops forgot to water it!!) and it will look very special decorated with our handmade items.

 A more modern take on Christmas

Traditional red, green and white

I have continued to experiment with the sewing machine and have created a very cute angel garland. This was inspired by one that I found in a Woman's Weekly Christmas cookbook which had some yummy christmas treats that I will be making this December. I decided to create mine out of felt and christmas cardstock - two of my favourite things!

I am pretty happy how they have all turned out. The cardstock has little santas on the other side so but the red is my favourite. 


Last year when pregnant I had so many people tell me how it would be the last of the handmade gifts I would create as this Christmas I would be busy with my bubba. While I am super busy, creating handmade gifts is something that is really important to me. I have been doing it for as long as I can remember. I know that gifts are extra special if someone has taken the time to create it themselves. It is something that I want our son to continue on as well as he gets older so I am leading by example. This year I am going to create handmade christmas cards, yummy baked christmas gifts and the added special pieces that I create through Friends for Felix.


Well I am off to start on our Christmas orders followed closely by cutting out cardstock for some Christmas cards!

Orders and pricing of our Christmas range can be obtained through our facebook page www.facebook.com/forfelix or my emailing us at friendsforfelix@gmail.com.

Sweet Dreams.