Teddy Bear Tuesday (on a Wednesday)

Oooops! Well, that's me all over isn't it?  Always late.

Today I wanted to tell you about Sew Special Bears. The lady that makes these is one of the reasons I decided to make teds myself. I have always loved bears and last year my interest was very much renewed. One reason was that cursed shopping channel showing me Charlie Bears (I will tell you about those another day). The other was Jackie at Sew Special Bears.  These are not mass produced bears, but very individual and often one off  creations of gorgeousness.  I do not own a Sew Special Bear yet, but one day I shall treat myself.  Seeing what Jackie had created gave my the inspiration to try myself. I have included a few pictures of my faves and wanted to also tell you she has a prize draw running on her website with fabulous prizes up for grabs. Click the highlighted link above and it will take you to her home page where you can find details of the draw and all her lovely bears.

Beary Gift

I have been hanging on to show you this, for obvious reasons.  My good friend had her birthday today. She has long admired my bears and gave me some lovely red silk which she loved but found hard to work with.  So the logical thing was to make her a bear of her own and use her beautiful silk.  I love her and even my husband said he rather liked her too. What do you think? Sadly, it was a bit dark the day I took her mug shots and they dont do her justice really.

New Bears in time for Christmas

The giveway is now closed folks. I shall be collating the entries and making the draw later on today.
I have completed 2 new gorgeous bears for the shop. Click on the pictures to take you to the listings. Dont forget, I can set up interest free layaway listings for you if it makes it easier. Just ask, even  a 3 way split will be done by Christmas and as long as we time it right, with you for Christmas too.

Kiki, a ginger and white Panda

Victoria is a 18 inch beauty

If You Go Down to the Woods Today

Anyone for a picnic?

Well, if you know me its not really a big surprise and there's no woods.  Sorry, but needed a catchy title.  I have made a couple more bears last week and this week.  I had a delivery of some lovely super luxury faux fur and am like a pig in the proverbial mud.

This weeks lovelies are
Firstly, little `Lawrence` is a wonderful bluey dark grey and he stands at around 15 inches.

Click to go to Lawrences' listing

Next one is `Clover`. I adore Clover, she is so so soft and irresistible in cream and alsatian effect faux furs.  These furs are softer than my cat!!! and she is really soft.  Clover is 18 inches tall.

Click to go to Clovers' listing

I obviously am really hoping that these little dears find new homes but secretly not losing too much sleep over it when I see them as a group, I am not desperate for them to leave. Hubby is hoping you snap them up as he "does not want the house full of bears!"  Silly soul doesn't realise that, like most bear artists, I will just buy my favourites from other artists collections.

Happy Christmas in July!!!!

That still sounds funny doesn't it?  Well like many others `we are doing it!`  I shall be celebrating a bit by watching some of the QVC things whilst I do the rotten ironing......and ..... by offering FREE UK SHIPPING until the end of July on all items in my etsy shop.  Just type the coupon code XMASINJULY10 at the checkout, and I believe it will sort it all out.

I will be adding these new bears today also. Depends if I get up before you guys read  this or not.  As its the first day of my hollibobs its unlikely! Both bears are sporting some new merchandising material which i want to do a full post on later this week.

The first is `Clarence`.  He is in the same blonde toffee coloured plush as Daisy but a distinctly different look to his little face.  He is a bit Christmassy with his gingerbread man pads.  Like Daisy, fully jointed and all hand sewn.  He has safety eyes instead of the sew in eyes that Daisy had.  I haven't decided which I prefer yet.

The next one is `Juliet`.  She was a real labour of love.  I had a lovely faux fur gilet that I quite honestly never wore more than once or twice.  I kept looking at the gorgeous fur on the inside and wondering.  Well, the conclusion is that it made a beautiful bear but oh boy was it tough to sew!  My fingers really hurt and I broke no less than three sewing needles!  Safe to say,  it will be a while before I even consider the bit that is left!  Look closely at her inner arms.  The gilet had some paisley embroidery at the bottom and there just wasn`t enough plain to do the whole job, so I used the embroidered bit and I think it looks like she has nice feminine tattoos.

Happy Christmas !!!!!!

Are You an Arctophile?

Well it has to said I definitely am!  I have always had a penchant for teddy bears.  There have been periods of my life where they have been squirrelled away as they `weren`t what grown ups did`, normally because we were moving.  Its never really gone away and recently has really come back with avengeance.  Mostly instigated by Charlie Bears on QVC (yes, guilty admission, I do enjoy a  bit of QVC).  They are just lovely and quite affordable, but, produced in some numbers, and I do indeed own bears in the name of myself and my husband. Old romantic I am, I couldn't have one without the other.  I am, however, one of those people that likes to have one of a kind things, as nice as the others are.  There are some wonderful independent bear artists out there that have truly inspired me, but I just cant afford their lovely bears at the moment.  Its really not a case of justification, they are worth every penny.  Some of my favourites are Jackie Slade at Sew Special Bears and the gorgeous diddy creations of DiddyBears.  I will do a feature on some etsy bear makers I have found at a later date.  Well, fraying purse strings and a need to add to my hug, made me think.  So I did some research, bought some plush and some joints and `had a go`.  Its not perfect, but I know for next time.  I am really quite proud that I have made the first ever Cutey Critters jointed bear.

She is a 17" fully jointed pale toffee plush bear.  I wanted to call her Fleur because of the floral fabric I used for the pads, but Mr. Cutey Critters, declared he did not like it (so sorry if you are called Fleur - I do like it), so Daisy was thus christened.  I am really quite chuffed and cant wait to make another. 

Toni Teddy

Toni teddy is finally done. I started her before many of the projects I have featured recently but somehow she kept getting put aside because of custom orders and easter stuff. She is now finished and looking a real cutie pie. I am not putting her in the shop yet because I want to open a new etsy shop for my toys and maybe blankets and such, keeping the bags quite seperate. Obviously I need to build a bit of an inventory before doing so. If, however, anyone is really in love with her I will make the exception.

Where have I been, you may ask. Well the truth is, nowhere. I have tried to blog a couple of times but Mr.Blogger has been up to naughty tricks and all I got was error messages and unable to post a thing. Well now its seems he has been told off and sorted out so here goes.

You remember `Tess`, my first experimental Teddy? Well let me introduce you to `Tilly` her sister. She has a few tweaks on her older sibling and I am more pleased with the result. The question is, do I accept that everyone is different, even teds, or do I perform atheistic surgery (ie, off with her head and re-knit it). I think I will put it down to the former and not put her through that. She is not exactly ugly.







A quick reminder of Tess