Felt flowers + real ones too

First up: confessions. I didn't get anything crafty done on Sunday (for shame!) as I was far too busy stuffing myself with cake (yum yum). On Saturday though I finished my first attempt at some honeysuckle (day 267) ...... it needs a lot of work before I'll actually be happy with it, but it's not a bad start. I just need to redo the pattern, choose different colours, adjust the scale (do the whole thing over basically, haha). It at least looks like honeysuckle, which is something!

Then yesterday (Monday, day 268) after going "eeeee!" a lot about my poppy, er, popping up atop the Etsy front page I watched several episodes of Australia's Next Top Model and cut out lots of bits of felt freehand, experimenting with layered flowers. Unfortunately my camera had a hissy fit taking pictures of this, but hopefully you'll get the idea even from this shockingly bad photo:
I'm aiming for a soft, layered flower bursting with petals - large roses or peonies - and I think it's getting there (in pink that one would make a cracking peony I reckon). It's interesting working in more of a 3D way instead of my usual flat applique. Lots of the gardens round me are starting to come into their summer bloom and it's very inspiring! Even my own little potted patch of green is starting to look rather nice... my first dahlia bloomed this week...... as did my very own lupin (how could I resist growing a lupin??) ...
My little "garden" is still looking a bit bedraggled after an aphid infestation last month (pesky aphids) and all the high winds and heavy rain we've been having lately havn't done it much good either... but it's not looking too bad now the flowers are coming out...