Above: wet felted soap, not quite dry! :)

This is an easy project for beginner wool felters. It works up quickly and the results are lovely. I admit this project is more of my guilty pleasure – the girls aren’t so interested with felting soap as they are for other objects like balls or play food. :)

I acquired some beautiful bars of handmade goat’s milk soap at the New Hampshire Wool Show, and couldn’t wait to felt them. All you need is a little wool roving, some warm water & bubble wrap.



Pull the wool roving apart & cover the soap as even as you can. Once it is completely covered, I find applying some warm water (as hot as you can get it from the tap) with a spray bottle works well. I don’t bother making the water soapy since the bar being felted produces enough suds to felt the wool. Then rub the bubble wrap gently all over the soap until the wool sticks together forming a felted layer. Rinse gently and squeeze the excess water out, and leave to dry. The soap in the top picture is still wet, it looks less mottled when dry.

Felted soap feels lovely on the hands, and also acts as a gentle exfoliant. The beauty is that with use the wool continues to felt so it continues to look better and better every time you wash your hands. :) A wonderful treat for your family or a great handmade gift that takes no time at all to make.

The girls received some plastic play food for a Christmas present, and we were inspired to felt them! Wool felt is a far more pleasurable tactile material than plastic, and we were thankful for this gift as it gave us a great base for the felted final product.

We started this project in the winter, but between travelling and my tiredness from the first trimester, we set it aside until recently.



above: felted orange, strawberry, lime, lemon & donut (behind).

We started by covering the plastic food with a bit of duct tape. The tape added some roughness to the surface in order for the wool roving to stick. Then we began winding the roving around the food, adding warm water & soap. We found that bubble wrap was the best tool to rub the wool back & forth causing the friction needed to make felt.

When completed, I rinsed the felted food in hot water and squeezed out the excess water gently. Then I stuck them in the dryer on low spin, adding a blanket so that they didn’t bounce around too much.

Unfortunately I do not have step by step pictures of the process, but it is fairly easy to do. Simply play around to get the feel for wet felting the wool. You really can’t go wrong. And small children (mine are 2 and 3) love to help & watch the project develop…as well as playing with the final product!



“Take a picture of me, Mom!” :)

I admit, we don’t pay much attention to our wedding anniversary. Usually what happens, is that just before the date, we remember that it is coming up and plan a last minute weekend get away…and don’t expect it to be all champagne & romance. We parent in an attachment style so our young children come with us (and we wouldn’t have it any other way!!!). ;)

And so this year was no exception. We came to realize that our wedding anniversary is just 10 days away…and it is year five. We almost forgot about the box!

If you attended our wedding reception, you will recall the box. We asked our guests to put predictions about us in five years. Well, this is the year we will open it. I wonder who will be accurate? I wonder who will be bang on? I wonder who will be totally out in left field (although I’m sure we will wish it was true!!)?

We’ll probably be away for the actual anniversary, but as soon as we have a free moment we’ll open it together for a good laugh…and I’ll blog an update in the near future. :)

This weekend we traveled to New Hampshire to attend the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival, organized by the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Growers Association.





It was a wonderful weekend, driving through rural New Hampshire while everything is turning green & new with spring bloom. The sky was dark with the threat of rain but Saturday the rain held off all day, and it was the perfect temperature to wander the fair grounds, checking out vendors, sheep & alpacas. The vendors were friendly and helpful, and besides my large haul of wool for felting, I also obtained a drop spindle and compact carders. Walking through the 4-H barn we were amused by the deafening sound of bleating sheep – their voices all slightly different. It was also sweet to see the children take care of their sheep, some with small beds within the stalls so they could constantly tend to the baby lambs. We day dreamed of someday owning a hobby farm & having sheep of our own…but we just don’t have the knowledge for such a venture at this time. :)




Our favorite alpaca – we loved his round head and how his shaggy wool covered his eyes…







We, like most of the attendees, blissfully carried large bags of wool to our vehicle. :)

Wow so…they weren’t kidding when “they” said you can expect to get bigger with subsequent pregnancies…I thought I was big with Ava, and I blamed that on all the brownies I ate after my mother passed away! I think it is not helping my perception the fact that I am carrying this baby high while I carried my other two low…therefore it’s official. My muscles are officially stretched out. Yep. All the more real estate in there for the bub I guess.

I realize after I took this pic the other day that I was wearing black so you don’t get the full extent of its perfect roundness. I call this my cutest baby belly to date – how it protrudes outward and not downward. I snapped this quick pic in the dirty mirror…the one the kids have put a thousand finger prints on…I know I should clean it but I have gotten to the – why bother stage since the finger prints will be back in 5 minutes. Sorry I digress. Here’s the bad pic to show you what I mean:



The biggest significance is that I am finding my pants are staying up with just a belt without the need of belly ups…at least for now. It is certainly nice to know that I am not showing crack every time I bend over! Yes. Best preggy belly to date I must say.

I am surprised to say that Sponge Bob has not returned. When I was pregnant with Sophie and then Ava, my stomach was comically square when I was in sitting position. We would joke that I was giving birth to Sponge Bob. Now it tends to stay round and protrude outward at a point.

All this kind of appeared like, “Kablam!” overnight…I still shock myself when I walk past a mirror. Still, it seems to be evening out now…and not growing at the same rapid pace. So will I be as big a house when it is all said & done? Time will tell…



This is how big I got with Sophie -right before I gave birth! Ouch! No pointy belly until 8 months in those days. I guess my muscles were still fighting to stay intact. Photo circa September, 2007. I know…forever ago… ;)

(click for full size)



May It Be – Enya

I made this before I gave birth to Ava…I was really connected spiritually to the birth process this time, & had an amazing homebirth!! Hopefully I can pull it off again…