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Happy Mother’s Day!

A little salt dough figurine has been hanging in our kitchen for as long as I can remember, so when her head broke off, I wanted to find a way to fix her. Unfortunately, the dough was just too old, and she was beyond repair, so I decided to use my skills as a needle felter to recreate her in felt!

It’s pretty amazing that these fluffy balls of wool can be stabbed into the shape of virtually anything!

felt-balls

Here we go! I created the head, arms, body, dress, apron and hat. (The original figurine is in a baggie to keep all the broken pieces together)

felt-doll-1

I started to attach all the pieces and used light yellow yarn for her hair.

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(a bit blurry, but progress!) Hands, sleeves, hair and shoes are done!

felt-doll-4

Adding more detail…

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Face, freckles and glasses!

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The final product! I’m so excited to show my Mom on Mother’s Day!

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felt-doll-compare

felt-doll-compare2

First trip to Algonquin for 2014!

Our first trip up this year, and wow, did we see a LOT of wildlife! It was a rainy, gross day; perfect for a drive through Algonquin Park. A couple of detours due to flooded roads, but we finally got up there!

We saw:
6 moose (1 calf, 5 bull)
20+ deer
3 beavers
1 muskrat
12+ wild turkeys
several assorted hawks/ospreys/birds

haliburton-deer1

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Is it just me, or does he look unimpressed?haliburton-moose1

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Cheeeeeeese!haliburton-moose3b

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FITC Toronto 2014

FITC 2014: BALANCE

Balance is one of the most important aspects of our lives, and one that I believe keeps me sane.

As a professional that works in design and technology, I tend to have most of my hobbies as “tangible” crafts to balance out the time spent in front of my computer. Sewing, knitting, baking, and most recently, needle felting. (Needle felting uses wool roving and barbed needles to tangle the wool fibres to create shapes). Balance is also important within each aspect of the balanced parts of our lives too – it all trickles down. Within work for example, it can be hard to balance each project with the design, timelines, budget and the list goes on.

The bonus of projects like this one, for the FITC women’s initiative, is that I get full control over where things go! No balance required! I can go from this:

fitc2014-1

to this:

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and enjoy making things as crazy as I like! … but these are few and far between.

Balance within work can be particularly difficult when you’re in the design and technology industry. Finding the balance between keeping up with design trends, technology that advances seemingly daily, and the day-to-day tasks of managing clients can be tough.

Going to FITC 2014 is so helpful in finding those balances. The variety of presentations available is what makes FITC so ideal. Web dev, creative code, business, and inspirational presentations – it’s the chance to go to learn more about each of those important aspects to keep them balanced and decide which aspects of each are worth pursuing, like new code trends.

I’m hoping that on March 5th, I’ll get an email that means I’ll get to go meet up with a bunch of other cool people that are doing their best to find balance too 🙂

Thanks!

ninja kitten

Halle has a great time playing, and has recently discovered “ninja cat” on the stairs. For those that are unfamiliar, it’s when you peek around the corner, and the cat is in the distance – completely motionless, yet each time you peek around the wall the cat is closer, but still frozen – or in this case, further up the steps (see here for an example on youtube).

She only remembers to flatten her ears every so often, and seems to forget although her head is mostly hidden the rest of her is totally visible, but it’s really hilarious to play!

hallie the kitten | www.kbarlowdesign.com/blog

hallie the kitten | www.kbarlowdesign.com/blog

hallie the kitten | www.kbarlowdesign.com/blog

hallie the kitten | www.kbarlowdesign.com/blog

hallie the kitten | www.kbarlowdesign.com/blog

hallie the kitten | www.kbarlowdesign.com/blog

hallie the kitten | www.kbarlowdesign.com/blog

halle the kitten | www.kbarlowdesign.com/blog

halle the kitten | www.kbarlowdesign.com/blog

halle the kitten | www.kbarlowdesign.com/blog