It's quite a while since I was in blog land, been so busy juggling.... bears, afternoon job, jobs on the house, catching up a bit now though and will blog a bit more now hopefully.
Leeds bear fair wasn't brilliant for me in the way of bear sales, only 3 bears found new homes but some managed to find homes after the fair so it wasn't too bad overall and I did enjoy the day meeting and chatting to people, stocking up on supplies for new bears, it's a lovely friendly fair and very interesting as it is half dolls too, so something for everyone. I did have a very nice surprise last week, I was delighted to notice the bears and I had an article (portrait) in the Teddy Bear News which is a German on line magazine ... click here to seeValewood Bears Portrait All but one of the bears on there have new homes now but it is nice to see them all again.
Anyway here are a couple of the bears that didn't find homes at Leeds, Laurence is 12 inches and is a lovely shade of creamy curly mohair, sporting a pure wool ribbed waistcoat in chocolate brown and Amber who is 9 inches and made from a lovely rich tan coloured mohair, I thought I would give her a little wool knitted dress in cream lace, which just seemed to suit her well. I have bobbed them onto the website for now whilst they find their new mums or dads.
At last some new bears finished!! I have been a bit busy with orders in the last month but have now managed to get these 4 bears onto the website. Lorna the little girl in the brown top has just been adopted. Spice is the one in the cream top and is 9 inches high, then the two pandas are Willow and Yan, they are both 12 inches high, there are more pictures on the website of them.
My first fair of the Autumn is coming up on the 10th October so I am busy making new faces to take there. Also busy knitting some new bear wear that will be for sale there as my stocks are low. I find knitting very theraputic and love to knit for an hour or so just before bedtime, its surprising I can get quite a lot done in that time, poor hubby has to listen to the click click of the needles and it usually puts him to sleep in the chair which is a shame as I can knit and talk and watch television at the same time, wouldn't be surprised if he pretends to be asleep to save his voice! Well, back to the bears for now.
I don't know where the time goes, we are almost into the Autumn already, I had my fingerless gloves on at work yesterday, doesn't seem to be any heating on there, it is a huge old building and we only moved there at the beginning of summer as we had outgrown the old place and with it being summer I didn't realise how cold it is is going to be in there Autumn/Winter. Hope they warm it up for us soon.
I have been so busy in the last couple of months, had a lot of bear orders to complete so haven't had a website up-date for a long time but at last I have some to put on by the weekend or early next week, just have to put accessories on them and photograph them.
Also, the website has been down, it has taken me a long time to get to the bottom of it, but it seems my host have had problems with customers who use front page extensions (which I do) as they have moved to new platforms (don't know what they mean) so now it is back BUT because I was out of action twice, Google search engine have got rid of my website and as most people use Google they can't find me so I had to get to the bottom of that too and it seems I now have to apply to Google to be reinstated and put some new tags on my site (getting into deep water now, for me anyway!!) So hope to be back on the search engine soon.
I do have this little bear called Sky to show, he was completed as a summer challenge on a forum, he is miniature at 3.5 inches. I am giving him away in a prize draw to one of my mailing list customers, will be drawing a name on the 1st October.
We just got back from a really nice break in Corton which is 3 miles from Lowestoft, 5 miles from Great Yarmouth. We stayed at the Warner's Leisure Hotel where my daughter, Charlotte works as a dancer/singer so we got to see some of the lovely shows that they entertain us with each evening. I was a very proud Mum!!
We arrived a day late though because when we set off in the car, we only travelled a few miles and the car started to make a strange knocking noise! We made a detour to the nearest quick fit who jacked the car up and told us it was a front wheel bearing that had gone and they couldn't fix it. We had to find a garage that could do it quickly so went back home and rang around until we found one that said yes he could do it immediately. Alan took the car and they said it would be an hour. However, when he returned to the garage, they explained to him that they hadn't got the part in and sent somebody out to get one. They couldn't get it until mid-week. So we had to leave the car in the garage and quickly hire a car for the next morning. I did look at trains but there were rail strikes around Norwich and we would have had to break the journey overnight so it would have taken longer.
Anyway we finally arrived a day late and enjoyed the rest of the holiday. The weather was fantastic, we didn't go sight seeing even though we planned to, we didn't realise just how exhausted we were and as the weather was so hot we just crashed out through the day in the gardens where they have nice areas for sitting out at the hotel. I did take my bear making to do whilst sitting but there was a wasp infestation in that area and so I had to keep watching for them with a piece of stiff card in my hand to waft them away so I needed my hands for that! Also there was a ladybird infestation and we were covered in them on our clothes. So no work was done that week. In the evenings we were not so lazy, there was quite a lot of dancing to the live band which we loved, the band was fantastic and played quite a variety of ballroom, latin, sequence, rock and roll, in fact something for everyone, we loved it and inbetween the dancing we watched the shows each night.
We are feeling nice and refreshed now, but will have to go back again soon as I did want to go into Norwich this time to have a look around and a few more little places around we missed. On my return I finished the little bear that I planned to sew on holiday and here she is, Grace is just 3.5 inches high, made from some of the lovely miniature bear fabric I had delivered a few weeks ago. She is listed with Ebay until Sunday, I really enjoyed making her.
A Break in the Yorkshire Dales! Last week we had a much needed break from work and after doing a few jobs in the kitchen, which we have been renovating since March, we decided to down tools and have a few days in the Yorkshire Dales. I can highly recommend it for a relaxing holiday and a nice change from the seaside. We went quite high up, there was miles and miles of unspoilt countryside, a lot of the time we were the only ones on the road for miles, quite unusual in this day and age, perhaps it had something to do with us going mid-week.
We stayed at Hawes whch is our favorite place in Wensleydale, famous for the creamery where they make cheese, you can watch it being made and try out the different flavors before you buy. We stayed at Herriot's Hotel which was conveniently right on the High Street and used this as a base to see some lovely villages such as the market town of Leyburn, Pately Bridge, Kirky Lonsdale, Kendal, Ingleton and Settle.
As you can see from the picture with Alan on the walls are limestone everywhere (drystone), waterfalls, fields and hillside, very pretty, there are quite a few soap operas and films made in this area such as Emmerdale, James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small", Robin Hood and Calendar Girls. If you are feeling energetic there are some brilliant walks, caving also can be done as there are plenty in this area. We didn't join in with anything like this as we wanted a complete rest for a few days. We came home feeling so much better, Alan is back to the kitchen with a little bit more enthusiasm and I managed to get this little bunny Molly onto Ebay this week and cut a couple more bears out.
It has been a lovely warm and sunny week, and has been a nice change to sit and sew in the garden, not much wind blowing either which can be annoying when trying to hang on to tiny pieces of miniature bear parts.
I am delighted to have just finished this little Panda, I have been on with him for a while now in between some commissions. His name is Kenji and he is just 3.5 inches high. He is one of my older designs, which I thought would look lovely in this gorgeous smokey gold and cream Sassy miniature fur. I managed to find some silk thread to match for his nose embroidery. Then had a lovely time knitting his little jacket in 1ply wool on tiny needles, I am pleased with how he turned out. I have listed him on Ebay until Sunday 12th July. I am hoping to have a few more miniatures soon as I received a lovely order of miniature bear fabrics last week and this week I have holiday from my afternoon office job so am hoping to fit in a little bit more bear time, although Alan my hubby is also off work and hankering after a few excursions so I will have to take some bear pieces along with me to sew.
A Passion For Elephants I can't stop making these little vintage style elephants and just thought I would bob them on to say hello. It is a new design for me and I am loving making them. The grey one, Eleena, blue one Ola and gold one is Effie and have all found forever homes. Kiki is the pink one and is on Ebay at the moment to look for her special Mum or Dad.
I have such a soft spot for real elephants too, I watch every nature programme on TV about them, they seem such gentle giants and are so sensitive, and they way they all rally round to look after the babies, it's just amazing to watch them.
Hope you enjoy the picturs of my little ones. I am having a change now though and am creating couple of pandas which are around 12 inches - quite large for me as I seem to make more of the smaller bears.
I did a two day craft show at the weekend, the weather was fabulous for both days, warm , sunny and cloud free. It was quite a large event with stands of every craft I can think of and was the second time I have exhibited there with the bears.
The venue is a big old house which is now a museum called Shibden Hall and has belonged to the Lister family for generations. Craft weekends are held there twice each year and the stands are all set out in the different rooms, downstairs, upstairs and outside in the courtyard, stables and barns etc. This time I was at the very top of the house in one of the bedrooms. Everything was still in place, the big old bed, wardrobe, dressing table and everything people would have used in the 1800s there. My table was set out just in front of the bed.
The house is known to be haunted and although we didn't actually see anything, a few funny things happened during the course of the weekend.
On arriving in the bedroom just before setting out my stand, I stood in a spot to look around and suddenly felt dizzy and as if I was on a ship which was moving - almost sea sick and mentioned it to my Mum and Husband who were a little concerned. I moved away and sat down for a bit, then felt better so set up my stand. During the day another stall holder came to see me, we were having a nice little chat, when she suddenly had to hold on to a banister saying she felt dizzy and sick and felt like she was on a ship. My Mum and I looked at each other in amazement as the lady was stood in the very same spot that I was in earlier when the same thing happened to me and she had said the same thing that I had. Then, a little later, a gentlman with his wife was about to come into the room and stopped in his tracks, said to his wife "sorry I can't go in there, there is a presence in the room" and he would meet her downstairs!! One or two other things similar happend and also I had a little grey bear that I kept having to look for, either he had fallen on the floor, fallen off his stand, I was constantly looking for him and putting him back in his place, sometimes he was in the most peculiar places and I just thought visitors were picking him up and putting him elsewhere.
Later in the day, a lady came into the room, told us she was a medium and that there were two children spirits in the room and they were loving a particular bear and she pointed to the little grey bear and said "have you noticed this one moving at all"? Also she said that the mother who was called Victoria was there, that she loved us being there and the bears but she was pacing around as there was a chair from the corner gone from where she sat (Mum had actually pulled that chair away to sit on) and if we felt any floor movement, draughts or cold spots it was her pacing. She went on her way then ane later a man and his wife came. As the wife was looking at the bears, he was having a look around the bedroom and Mum said there had been a few little happenings today, seems a little bit spooky in here. He said "yes I understand what you are saying, I am a practising medium and there are 2 children coming through here". I looked up and said " is the mother with them" he said "no I cannot feel the mother but definitely 2 children coming through". That was two people saying the same thing (seemed like it was Mediums' day out!! He he he). Aparently, the house always attracts a lot of visitors who are keen on the history of the house as well as looking at the craft stalls. It kept us amused I must say, it was a very interesting weekend.
Hope you enjoy the picturs of the house and grounds. If you are ever in Yorkshire it is well worth a visit.
Thank you to Ruth of Flutter-by Bears for passing this makes my heart smile award to me, it is very kind. I will make time this week to pass it on to 10 more people who's blogs make my heart smile.
I have been married to Alan, an Engineer for 31 years and have a daughter who is 29 and is a dancer/singer. I am addicted to designing and making bears, bunnies and clothes for bears. When I'm not making bears I am learning to decorate celebration cakes from my Mum who at 74 is still working with cakes. she is my inspiration who encourages me with every cake I make which helps me to get better and better at this craft.
In my spare time I like to dance when I can.
