Dear Reader,

So much has changed in the last 100 years; the invention of the car, electricity, the telephone, computers and the great world wide web.  All of a sudden our pace of life has changed.   No longer are we working together to grow our food, to preserve it and eat together around a big table.    Gone are the days where women sit by the fire knitting, doing needle point, hemming clothes while chatting with family and friends from the community. 

Call me old fashion but my dream is to bring some of that spirit back to our homes and community.   I propose to do this through felting.  Felting is the process of sculpting wool with a barbed needle or hot water, friction and soap.  It is easy, beautiful and fun.  Wool roving is very healing to work with and grounding.

I myself discovered the art of needle felting in the winter of 2007 when Zoe my eldest was 6 and Owen my youngest was 3.  I ran a daycare (still do) and was obsessed with the pictures of felted people, animals, and  felted mats in Waldorf books but didn’t know where to learn.  Eventually life presented me with the opportunity to take a workshop and I have been hooked ever since.   Since then I have been giving  workshops from my home and selling my wares at local artisan shows.

 Before I had children I never considered myself creative.  I always admired others who could draw, paint, play an instrument and believed that those artistic qualities lived in others but not myself.  Then I had children and started to make things with them and realized that I had been lying to myself.   I realized that I am creative and believe that we all are and to top it all off that it makes us happy. 

So here I am making things felt, giving workshops,  and loving it!  I enjoy the satisfaction and the smile on peoples faces when they leave a workshop feeling happy and satisfied.  I love the proclamations of “This is fun!” - “The wool just sticks together like magic”.  For these reasons I have founded a business called My Green ToyBOX.  My mission is to spread the joy of felting by giving workshops and selling felting kits that will encourage families and friends to gather in their homes and make things together. 

IF there is one thing that I have learned is that we are happy when we make things and even happier when we make things together.

Go out there be creative, I dare you!
Annie Bananie