Tackle that .... erm, new stash?

First of all, a very Happy New Year to all of you!

I know I have been around even more rarely than usual in the last few weeks, but we had a little crisis here at home and I spent what I had hoped to be a relaxing vacation with some holidays in between on and off at the vet's instead and running after Ponder with different kinds of food. Now it seems he's finally on the mend *knocking on wood because we have to see how he'll be doing without any meds now* and I have a little time for myself before I have to go back to work next week.

In fact I wouldn't have had much to show you, anyway, except a few beaded bottles. I guess my muse didn't like that vet thing much because she was out of the door like a lightning. She has not been ready yet to play with wire.
So it was a good thing that my wish of a needle felting starter kit was fulfilled for Christmas.
I have been wanting to try that for decades, I think, but with everything else going on I thought I didn't really need something new, not to mention that I didn't expect to be any good at it.

Now, however, I felt that it didn't really matter if I were good at it or not, and it's not as if the tools take up that much space. It's a large brown box with a small plastic box in it that holds all the tools, and 40 baggies with colorful roving - I didn't count them, but that was what the description said - and a foam mat.
It didn't take me long to try it out, and of course I started with making a (flat) cat using a cookie cutter for the general shape. That cat did take me long. I don't have the right feeling for the felt yet and when the perfect moment for stopping is. I kept poking and poking and poking ....

When making the second animal, a fat little rat that came out a tad more feisty looking than I had planned, I started poking myself again and again. I think it has to do with getting or let's say trying to get faster, without much success yet, but at least I didn't lose that much blood or turn Ratty into a vampire rat ;-)

This is the last one I have made so far. Don't ask, I just grabbed a color and went from there, but doesn't the gnome look rather comfy snoozing like this?

There are a lot of colors that I normally wouldn't use, so I have to think of something I can do with them. That's also why the cat is orange, I figured it was a good color for a first attempt that would probably go very wrong.
Everything I won't be able to use in the end will be felted into a ball for Gundel, she doesn't mind colorful!