Coasters, blue and green Crafting Day 44 and 45

Before

After

Coasters, blue and green Crafting Day 45, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

I'm afraid the light wasn't good and the colors on these photos are not very true, but you will get the idea of what I have been working on and hopefully I can post better photos later. These coasters started out about 7" and felted to about 4". I haven't crocheted much or recently, but these were done in double crochet. The felting took probably a good 15 minutes and I discovered that I could remove them from the washer when they were only partially felted and trim them to a more round shape (I know, they still aren't very round) and then finish felting so the edges look more finished. They will be a gift and Jerry says if the recipients don't like them as coasters, they make great indoor Frisbees! We've been tossing them around a bit to test this out.
Next is a larger version that can be used as a hot pad and which will complete the "set".

It's a struggle being back to full time and trying to keep up my crafting, blogging, Flickr, Etsy, etc. However, I've made 7 sales this week on Etsy which has caused me to be busy with packing and shipping right when I should be getting some Christmas gifts completed, the house decorated, etc. There are SIMPLY not enough hours in the day!

At work, I've planned a "white elephant" gift exchange for our staff meeting this week which sent me to the Internet to research the origins of the term. I'll try to share that in a later blog this week, because it is very interesting indeed especially given my affection for Green Valley's White Elephant.