Hello everyone out there in Blogland.
A Belated Happy Easter, it was a good one which makes a change and sunny! Oh so sunny in a land that sunshine had forgot! So that made the Nottingham Bear Fair just fantastic! We were meant to be doing a stall on it, but obviously after an op, it's not going to happen, so we went to visit instead because it's important to support you local bear fairs. Anyway it was a great day, there were plenty of people there that I knew to natter to, Sue of Fenbeary Folk, she'd got some lovely dumpy little pink bears on her stall, wearing the cutest cardigans, and as usual I talked her poor ears off! Nice to see her though, and nice to see her new designs! Jean and Pete of Jennibears, I couldn't resist her blue bear with the big thumbs, he's sitting now on my sideboard with Peardroplet, brandishing those thumbs at me.
We have a thumbsucker in our midst folks, oh yes! She's thirteen and hasn't broken the habbit yet! Doesn't matter what you tell her the dogs rolled in as that thumb goes to her mouth, she still sucks it. Doesn't matter what germs you inform her lurk beneath those finger nails, she's still there...protesting that the germs make the thumb taste better! We tell her it'll make her thumbs smaller, she reckons it reduces her chance of getting paddle thumb (enlarged thumbs) through her excessive texting habbit. She's got an answer for everything so it's probably a good job that her thumb is in her mush for most of the day...it keeps her out of trouble. Anyway, the thumbsuckie bear was bought in her honour...I mean a bear with thumbs, how can you resist?
Haven Bears had some great little teds with sleepy eyes and I wanted Walnut, but I had spent my money for bear rations away, otherwise that would have been thumbsuckie bear, podgy pink bear, AND Walnut in the first half of the fair!
Wandering up the way to the Pavillion at Patchings Art Centre, sort of promised no more of anything and fell foul of some gorgeous mohair! Oooooo it's to die for and I've nearly finished the bear Sue, so I'll show you what I've been up to! It was similar mohair to one that she made...that I wanted....
Want, want, want...note the mantra so far and think how annoying it is when you tell kids, want, want, want doesn't get! I hate it and I'm 36, no wonder they throw tantrums!
Up in the Pavillion there was Barbara Ann and she had some fabric that was to die for! Oooo all rainbow colours ready for more hippy bears and funky bunnys. Sew What and Stuff it, purveyors of all things purple and fluffy, I had a LONG worship at that stall too. Baggaley Bears were tucked in a tiny corner so I went and pounced poor Vicki because I'd spoken to her a couple of times on a forum...see what wierdo's you attract now? Her bears are just stunning, so tiny and with so much detail and she had the most adorable little lavender panda there, I could have eaten it! Fortunately there was carrot cake and so I didn't have to offend anyone...but that bear was divine! Vicki was busy sewing away and thankfully quite used to strange women who are talking one minute and then taken away by the moving pictures the next! (One of those digital photo frame jobbies...great idea!)
Anyway, here's what I was up to before Patchings.
Ruby Tuesday and The Stones!
My Aunt and Uncle have had a lousy time of things of late. I mean really lousy! It was their Ruby Wedding Anniversary, and so I made them Ruby. The stones were rose quartz, said to aid healing it is a gentle loving stone to aid recovery. Amethyst was sent for spiritual connections and these were refered to all week as "The Stones". Which is how come the bear got called Ruby Tuesday! I couldn't resist, and knowing my Uncle is a music buff, it had to be done. At this point I'd like to add that Ruby Tuesday is an awesome song, it's one of my favourites and given the choice between the Beatles and The Stones....there is no choice. I have every respect for John Lennon, but his mates....nah. Mick on the other hand...aww come on who isn't fascinated by a bloke who dances like a chicken?
Anyway, the bear had a teeny belly button, a sprinkling of glitter and a satchel to carry the Stones about in...and if you were wondering the stones weren't designated names, so it remains unknown as to whether or not the rose quartz is Kieth or Mick!
MING
I finished this chappie before I went into hospital. I had bought some years ago gorgeous chinese silk with gold dragons all over it in the hopes that someday I'd wear it as a dress. Nope, it made it's incarnation as a headboard in one of my make-over sessions! I had saved enough to make a bag...so I thought. No! It turned into bear paws, you can't see them here but they are divine saphire blue with gold dragons on them. I even made sure that the dragons on the left and right all were positioned so they looked as though they moved in that direction. (sad I know!) His eyes are hand painted with glitter and are two shades of blue and gold and quite stunning...and no, you can't see them either! But he is a lovely soft faux fur in french navy and soft white chinchilla, so he feels scrummy! He's soft and squishy too being filled with elastomer pellets and currently living on the sideboard because I can't bring myself to put him in his bear fair box. I can't wait until I can start to make bears this size again, I've made loads of little bears and bunnies and am ready to do something larger, stuffing it though is the problem, I don't have the shove behind me.
Anyway, for those wondering and at this point miraculously still awake (well done!) he's called Ming, not because I made him and thought Ewwww Minging! But because he has a tiny pointed beard and reminded me of Flash Gordon's arch nemisis Ming the Merciless. (OMG yes I was a fan!) Now many may think why name a cute fluffy ted after someone who was anything other than cute and fluffy. Well rumour has it...and I'll lean in here to whisper...at heart Ming was a big softy and besides being into fair ground rides, candy floss and collecting victorian valentine cards, he was nothing but the perfect gent to Dale Arden . So what if he destroyed galaxies, he had good reason. So what if Flash got in his way a couple of times and told everyone that Ming was a bully. He was a victim of bad publicity is what I say. I mean come on...look at that pootum, I'm sure his mummy loved him. (You'll note he is pushy too and has dominated the very top of the blog...just incase you were wondering!)
Incidentally, was it just me that got a huge kick out of a bloke called Buster Crab for all of the wrong reasons or did anyone else out there snigger too? I mean what a great name that was!
