Nothing screams the 70′s to me like Fuzzy Felts – I love those things and used to play with them all the time. My favourite set was the hospital one – I can still picture the ambulance, hospital bed and vases of little fuzzy felty flowers. As I’m going through a bit of a 70′s phase right now, with the dresses I’m wearing and my love of fondue, I thought I’d stick to the theme for my first craft fair. As well as the Christmas spiders (which probably aren’t particularly 70′s-ish, I also made stacks of coconut ice (which went down a treat) and lots of felt brooches. I made ice-cream cones, cupcakes, flowers and cherries. Here’s a sample of them (sorry the photos are so bad – I took them with my phone in really bad light).
I was really pleased with them and they are so fun to do. It’s lovely being able to make something from start to finish in an hour, instead of working on it for days or weeks (or even months), as I normally do with my beadwork. I’ve already had requests for more cupcake ones, as I only had one of them and it went very quickly (thanks, Eve 
:D)
If you remember the Christmas Spiders, I posted a few weeks ago, you may like to take a look at the little German folk tale that goes along with them.
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The Legend of the Christmas Spider
On Christmas Eve, a long time ago, a gentle mother was busily cleaning the house for the most wonderful day of the year… Christmas Day, the day on which the little Christ child came to bless the house. Not a speck of dust was left. Even the spiders had been banished from their cosy corner on the ceiling. They had fled to the farthest corner of the attic.
The Christmas tree was beautifully decorated. The poor spiders were frantic, for they could not see the tree, nor be present for the little Christ child’s visit. Then the oldest and wisest spider suggested that perhaps they could wait until everyone went to bed and then get a closer look.
When the house was dark and silent, the spiders crept out of their hiding place. When they neared the Christmas tree, they were delighted with the beauty of it. The spiders crept all over the tree, up and down, over the branches and twigs and saw every one of the pretty things.
The spiders loved the Christmas tree. All night long they danced in the branches, leaving them covered with spider webs. In the morning, when the little Christ child came to bless the house, he was dismayed! He loved the little spiders for they were God’s creatures, but he knew the mother, who had worked so hard to make everything perfect, would not be pleased when she saw what the spiders had done.
With love in his heart and a smile on his lips, the little Christ child reached out and gently touched the spider webs. The spider webs started to sparkle and shine! They had all turned into sparkling, shimmering silver and gold.
According to legend, ever since this happened, people have hung tinsel on their Christmas trees. It has also become a custom to include a spider among the decorations on the Christmas tree.
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I’ll be back tomorrow with some of my favourite things this Christmas and a photo of my first ever artificial tree.
Lisa xoxo
