Etsy shop sale

I decided to have a sale in my etsy shop...after all, all the big stores are having sales!!! The coupon code is POSTCHRISTMAS2013

Christmas was good... of course we all ate too much!!   Hope your Christmas ( or Holiday) was good too!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.... or Happy Holidays!!    I finished the pj's and everything else. It's a good thing because the roads are getting icy and the salt truck has already done our circle!!  Guess I'll make some more cookies....

working while watching

The Bright Star online Bear Blitz show is running today and tomorrow....and I am supposed to keep an eye on  my web page for sales.  So I am ... and working on Christmas things for my grandchildren! Today I finished three sets of pj's plus bags ( after all one does need something to take one's pj's in to sleepovers!)
Sewing them was fun... trying out new trim stitches.  I have two more sets plus a nightgown to make.

Abby and her carrot candy canes is still looking for a new home. Yes, I said carrot candy canes.... Abby, like my granddaughter Lili, doesn't like anything mint !

Hunter the cat

I really had fun making this little anime style cat .... and he is already on his way to a new home in Texas!

This has been a fun season... I love making accessories for my bears and bear friends!   There's one more online show coming up this Sunday and Monday... the Bright Star Promotions  Bear Blitz .
I hope you'll take a look!  There is a great selection of bear artists and their bears if the preview page is anything to go by!!

After the show it will time to work on some family gifts. The grandchildren have asked for Christmas pj's. My daughter saw an idea she wants to try.... a Christmas Eve gift box. It will contain new Christmas pj's, some snacks, maybe a small gift.  All things to make the evening  good. She and her husband and the kids go out and  go and look at  Christmas lights. After that they watch a movie and will open the boxes. Sounds like a fun evening!!
They will all come to our house  for brunch and the family gift exchange....

Little Tommy...

Little Tommy is up on BearPile  ....his curly kid mohair is oh so soft !!  He is a handful... 7 inches tall.

Tommy is ready for today's weather. Earlier this morning we had our first dusting of snow and the temperature dropped ( or should I say plunged down down down) to a 5 with wind chill factor!!  I had an errand to run so I was doubly glad to be wearing my new fingerless gloves ... a fantastic purchase from Target $1.00 !!

My "page" for the online "Bear Blitz" show later this month is almost ready.  Quite a few bears are on it already . I still have to set up the PayPal buttons though.

Little Tommy is off to Texas where it is cold... but not as cold at Kansas City!

Hard at work for the holidays

Charles is hard at work creating goodies for the holidays....
He and all the other Glass Dragon Bears and Friends want to wish all a Happy Thanksgiving !


We are due to gather at my son's house... but he called saying the furnace isn't working right! It has been a problem since he bought the house 18 months ago... so keep your fingers crossed that all will be fixed. Luckily we can have it all here ( if I put my bear stuff away!)

The repairman came and fixed things... same guy as last time!! LOL ... but we all had a great warm Thanksgiving with way too much food !  We will have a second get together here tomorrow including those who couldn't be with us yesterday !

Last minute bear buying show!!

Bright Star Promotions is having a "last minute bear buying "online show December 15th  and 16th.

I will post a link when the preview is open..... it should be fun!!!

Pip has found his Christmas tree

Pip is a little 4.5 inch  mohair bear with a red knit wool hat and scarf... his tree just fits on his "wood" sled with metal runners.... I posted him in my BearPile shop.

Spent quite a bit of time packing my bears, mice, ornaments etc. that were sold in Christmas Treasures show... then dropping them off at the Post Office. Usually I put the boxes out in my mailbox after labeling with USPS click-and-ship ... but there were too many!!  And two that went outside the US ( they HAVE to be logged in at the PO) -  one to Switzerland and one to Australia!!

show is coming to an end ... and dying class

The Teddies Worldwide Christmas Treasures show is in its final hours...if you haven't looked, look!  Thank you to all who have looked and especially to those who bought!!

Yesterday afternoon I took a class with a quilter friend... we dyed fabrics for quilts. I took along a piece of teddy bear mohair to experiment with as well. We mixed dyes ,combined them for our own colors and then dyed. Here is my "stuff"

The orange fabric had been black pattern on white, the yellow was my off-white dense mohair, the raspberry was white Kona cotton fabric, the teal was  white with a woven pattern, the denim was a white pattern printed on white. I liked the wrong side better but a little of the right patterned side can be seen on the left side. The teacher explained ice dying and I will give that a try with mohair soon.
By the way... all the fabrics minus as much dye as I could pour off went into the washer TOGETHER with some stuff the teacher provided. The colors didn't run together and the washer didn't get discolored either! Whoo hoo!

The show is on...

Here's the link to Bettina's page   

Quite a few will be heading out to new home on Monday.  I have a class tomorrow so a trip to the Post Office will have to wait until then...

These three are hoping to find new homes too!!

Counting down

The Teddies Worldwide Christmas Treasures show open this afternoon at 4pm Eastern and goes till Sunday  11/17 at 4pm Eastern !!  So I am counting down the hours !!  I have all my bears and friends and gifts posted and the PayPal buttons set up.  I know how much I dreaded doing the PayPal buttons for the first couple of online shows... but now it is "easy peasy"!
Here is the link to the whole show

Teddies Worldwide Christmas Treasures   ... click on the enter button and you will be taken to all the preview bears and a chance to vote for your favorite.

After the show opens I will try and add a link to my own show page... so check back after 4pm Eastern.

Bettina's page

Holidays/winter/Christmas on my mind

Bears and bear friends for the Worldwide Teddies online show have been on my minds "forever". I have enough for the show but just can't "not think" seasonal bears... so here is Penelope ( named after my newest great-niece. The original Penelope is much prettier than the bear, but I think the Penelope-Bear is pretty cute too!)
Penelope-Bear will be  posted on BearPile and etsy.com shortly....

Teddies Worldwide preview is open

Here is Carrie!  She's my preview bear!  To get to the Christmas Treasures online show ( Teddies Worldwide)... here is the link.  The  preview is open for voting and the show itself opens on November 15th. I hope you'll come and take a look!

Now that Halloween has passed... I've been thinking about holiday bears.  Here is Loren, a little 5.5 inch bear, who's found a candy tin bucket with CANDY. I have been playing with Sculpey ( polymer resin) so Loren may have more candy shortly. He's posted on both BearPile and etsy.

We ( the DH and I) are off to our son's for another family food experiment night.  I'm making a turkey spinach and feta dish in phyllo pastry.  Lili is making birthday cupcakes for her uncle. Her Dad is making chocolate covered bacon. Her Mother is making beef enchilada dip. Our son/her Uncle hasn't told us what his final choice is... so it will be a surprise!! Wish my other daughter and her husband could come... but they have other commitments.. sigh.

Here's the final look... the makeup had to be changed. Her skin around her eyes reacted violently   when  her Mother did the trial run!  Its cold and wet so a sweater had to go on top....
Tomorrow night she has her first middle school mixer complete with dj and a costume contest... so on goes the makeup and costume!!

I have a table top of new bears, ornaments and bear friends that I cannot show anybody... yet. "All will be revealed" at the Christmas Treasures online bear and gift show on November 15th. I'll be posting the link then!!

Aside from that...I've been working on the skirt for Lili's Halloween costume.  Part of her "Day of the Dead" outfit which will go with face painting I showed in my last posting.

So I feel a little schizophrenic ..Halloween on one side and Christmas on the other!!

Which do you prefer??

My daughter sent pictures of her trial makeup runs on Lili ( my grand daughter). Which do you prefer?

Guess I should get going on my part of the costume, right!?

Last Halloween creation???

I think... note I said THINK... Fraidy will be my last Halloween creation for 2013.  He's a 5.5 inch mohair black cat with etched black glass eyes with white wool underlinings. I have clear green glass cats' eyes but they disappear even more than black ones... so I chose the black etched glass eyes with white underlinings in the hope that they would be a little more visible. Fraidy is 5.5 inches tall and has a wired tail!!

He also has real horsetail whiskers.  I've posted him in my etsy shop...

Soup Day!!

Today is Soup Day! What is soup day ?... well my son decided to invite his siblings ( and his parents) over to his house each bringing a soup to serve. He's making a version of French onion soup and a split pea. One sister is bringing beef stew. The other is bringing a potato bacon ( her husband's favorite) and I made what my Mother-in-law called zucchini soup which is a vegetable soup using Italian sausage. Guess we'll all eat well.
My grand daughter told me I couldn't eat her Dad's potato soup...she knows ,thanks to little pitchers having big ears ,that I am on a low salt regime! Told her I could and would TASTE it!!
Thanks to a trip to the local apple orchard I have loads of apples... should I make a pie to take along? When I was making some applesauce I discovered the black Arkansas apple doesn't go readily to mush when cooking... It is not as tart as a Granny Smith but should be a good pie apple!  I have been thinking about making the pie in a 13 x 9 pan with crust only on the top...

It WAS a fun get together! Tried all the soups and made the "apple pie". A two crust recipe for pie crust just fit the 13 x 9 pan. Next time though... MORE apples!! But everyone enjoyed it!!

update!!!

The Kansas City Jubilee was fun... saw artists and collectors that I haven't seen since the last Jubilee! That's always fun!!  There was a competition.... and my little Marco won a second place ribbon!!

On Monday I received an email from one of my collectors and Marco is now heading off to Vienna, Austria!!

Tonight my Pumpkin face with bat made it into an etsy treasury ...

And I won two blog giveaways... me ,who never wins! I  will be watching the mail for them!!

Bill Boyd Memorial Kansas City Jubilee

Things are just about packed up for the Jubilee which runs from tonight through Saturday. I am looking forward to seeing the other bear artists and the collectors... and those from Good Bears of the World! GBW sponsors the show and the funds raised ( auction, entrance fees, table fees etc) go to support its bear giftings!!

Sunday.... early Sunday we head out to Omaha for a small doll and bear show. Due to a mix up the show was moved from last Sunday to this one.  This means we will be super tired Sunday night!

If anyone is nearby.. to either show... I'd love to see you!

Kansas City Bill Boyd Memorial Jubilee is coming up!!

I will be attending ( and selling) at the Kansas City Bill Boyd Memorial Jubilee next weekend!! The Teddy Bear convention is being held at the KCI Expo Center... a wonderful facility. Thursday night will be the Good Bears of the World  Annual Meeting. Friday will hopefully have classes and/or talks followed by early admission to the sales room for convention go-ers. Then the banquet and hand out of the convention souvenir bears! Saturday will have open paid admission to the sales room!

So...o a busy time! To top it all of, the Omaha,NE Doll and Bear show was unexpectedly moved to Sunday the 29th! So we'll be heading out for there in the wee hours of the morning!!

If you want or need any info on these two shows, contact me and I'll be happy to help!!

Halloween here we come !

Now that the Bright Star online show is over ( and all the bears and friends mailed off) I can have fun with Halloween....

 Here is Little Frankie with his pumpkin and small spider friend.....  Little Frankie is 4.5 inches tall!

If you're not an orange person , like Little Witch Elvira .... how about pink? Even a pink pumpkin!!

Bright Star Promtions online show

Well... Bright Star Promotions' first online show has closed. The whole procedure was interesting... from  setting up a webpage to show my bears and friends, to PayPal buttons, to watching  for sales,  to the final pack up, label and put out in the mailbox!! I was delighted with my sales... thanks to all out there who looked and especially to those who bought!!
I am doing the Christmas "Teddies Worldwide" online show in November....so off to work I go!

Bright Star's Online show starts tomorrow

This show starts tomorrow at 11am Eastern Time.... do use this link to go to the homepage where you will be able to link to all the bear artists' pages!!! I have 6 new bears and friends listed on my page.

Cate is my preview bear...  Hope you will take the time to visit the show!!   Thanks!!

Halloween is coming...

I saw tutorial for a cat by Sue Daniels... and just had to make one for Halloween. And being Halloween, of course it had to be black. The cat keeps an eye on a mohair pumpkin pincushion....

 

The cat was made from vintage black rayon plush!

They have all been packed up and taken to the Post Office for a long journey to the UK... Lancashire to be exact!!!

Fall is on its way...

Freddie is sure that cooler times are coming so he has prepared himself with a hot water bottle and a quilt! Surely they will keep him toasty warm!

I made the little quilt for Freddie... but found the vintage doll hot water bottle in a little antique store in Crossville, TN where we escaped from a torrential downpour!! It was raining too hard to see the road!!
(Freddie is off  to Texas!!)

The next post will be my 500th ! Wow!!  I shall have to do something to celebrate!!

Bright Star's online show coming up

Bright Star Promotions is coming up SOON!  Here is the link...  hope you'll come and take a look.

Cate is my preview bear... when the show opens, you can click on her picture to get to my bears which are all new!

Back to school

My daughter asked me to to go along with her and the kids on a school supply buying expedition.... we were armed with two long and different lists. Dominic heads to second grade today and Lili heads to 6th ( middle school). I must admit I was a little shocked at the final total... about $200. I remember when schools provided everything.  Lili's list even included a multifunction calculator and USB  thingy! Both also had to have backpacks to lug everything in!! Dominic was delighted with the earphones that came with his... just right for computer lab time!!
After that my little Marco just had to have a backpack so he could head back to school!!!

After posting this I had fun turning Marco's picture into a fridge magnet !

Lake of the Ozarks weekend...

Our family rented a lakehouse on the Lake of the Ozarks ( Missouri) this past weekend. We all had a great time, leaving just as  lots of nasty rain moved in. There was even flooding not too far away!
 Everyone  took loads and loads of pictures... almost 200 of them. I didn't take all of them so some were a surprise! I think this is one of my favorites. Our rental had a dock with a slide on it. My grandson Dominic is truly a try anything 7 year old... but this time he was a little leery. When he finally did try it, he loved it and slid down time after time.  The Lake of the Ozarks is a man-made lake at the junction of three rivers. It gets deep very quickly and lots of boat traffic means waves ... that's why everyone wears life jackets!!

Here's my grand daughter Lili  out in the kayak

  !!

Templeton and his cheese, a pumpkin face pincushion...and a Comfort bear

I really had funny figuring out how to make Templeton's block of Swiss cheese pincushion!!! I ended up deciding to cut circles for the holes and sewing a darker Ultrasuede to cover them up! 

And another pumpkin face pincushion with a beaded spider!!




 This is the little bear I made for a contest in Australia. All the bears, including this one, will be donated to breast cancer survivors. My grand daughter insisted that I embroider the breast cancer logo on the foot!

Bright Star Promotions' first online show

Bright Star Promotions will be hosting its first online show on September 6th....and I will be one of its "stars"! 

I have been making bears for the shows and readying  a new web page for the event!  These new bears will be a secret until the 6th.  I will post a link then! Hope you will take a lok!!

Lili's room

We finished the new  lighter and bluer than teal ( but you get the idea) walls in Lili's room. What a difference!!!  No more bubble gum pink the littler Lili chose and helped paint about 8 years ago!
 The carpet measuring guys come today... and carpeting will arrive  to be installed in about 2 to 3 weeks. Lili is super excited... it was fun to watch her a Home Depot... looking at the samples! She had definite ideas on what she liked but was flexible with Grandpa's cost reservations. They came to a mutual agreement and we sat Lili down at the carpeting desk with the saleswomen for all the paperwork. Grandpa calls this a life lesson. Lili learned that a cheap ( about $2.00 a square foot) becomes quite a big number when multiplied into her room's square footage!!
So now she waits.... and the whole house waits while her furniture etc. is all over the house!!

Lili... summer 2013

There are times when I find it hard to think that Lili, our grand daughter, is 11. Hard until she stands next to me... she's  over 5 feet and can't wait till she taller than I am! yesterday she went with Bob and me to the Great Plains SPCA where we have been volunteering to help with the animals.... here she is walking Elvira, a "vintage" Pomeranian ! Lili and I walked three small dogs while Bob walked 2 big ones. Then it was off to the cats where we spent time socializing (playing) in the colony cages and replacing litter trays!

Later we started a redo of  Lili's bedroom.  She is tired of the bubble gum pink she chose as a toddler! Plus there was a big sized hole a neighbor boy's head  had made... accident!  Here she is lugging out a strip of the carpeting we removed....

Her next job was to remove stay strips, pull tacks and  pull out staples!!

Bob patched the hole with Lili's help... and we will wash walls today!  Too many kid feet and hands have left their mark!!

Teddies Worldwide Christmas show

I've been accepted into the Worldwide Teddies  November Christmas show!!! So I am stockpiling Holiday ideas.... and shortly will be keeping some of my new bears and friends  a secret until the show.

My  pincushions ( with friend) were received very well... here are  last two!  A pear and an apple, both with spiders! I am planning on some new pumpkin ones!

Happy 4th of July

I hope you all enjoy your Fourth of July ... Independence Day... holiday !!!

Show is over

The Teddies Worldwide show is over... and only three didn't find new homes!!  So I am really really happy. I have applied for the Christmas show in November and am keeping my fingers crossed  that I am accepted.

Today my husband and I went to the Great Plains SPCA in Independence, MO for the dog volunteer training session. Lots of stuff to remember and lots of procedures to follow. Our  group  and the leader  took  two dogs out so we could see how it's done then Bob and I took Zoe out... a very loving but super rambunctious young dog.... she constantly managed to get herself entangled in the leash and when it was time to put her back in the kennel she didn't want to stay. Not even a treat enticed her away from the door. Luckily Bob managed to squeak by her.  Lucky Zoe has already found her new family and will be leaving the SPCA after she is neutered.  The family is getting a great dog ( and with  some training she will be a super one!)
Tomorrow we go for cat training. We will leave here a little early so we can do some dog potty breaks before the cat training starts!!

Teddies Worldwide show starts today ... 4pm Eastern

At 4 pm today Eastern time the Teddies Worldwide online show begins!!  Here is the  link.

I made a multipicture jpeg of all my bears and will post it later today!!  Hope you'll visit my bears and bear friends ... and the rest of the show!

what we did when it was 96 degrees out

I think we chose one of 2013's hottest days to help our son assemble and put up his new Pergola from Lowe's. His deck gets sun all day and the floor can get to be too hot to walk on. This should help!  After I took the picture we moved the deck furniture back outside ( it had been in the dining room) and we collapsed....

Today he's seven!

I stole this from my daughter's facebook page!! Dominic, his sister Lili and his parents were at the KC Zoo!! Today he's seven... a long lanky toothless unique about to be second grader!! Grandpa's boy!!
I changed her picture for one I photoshopped!

Pumpkin pincushion with friend

 Thought  I might have  a little fun with something different. The pumpkin was made from vintage rayon plush ( very low pile!) with embroidered features, German glass eyes with felt underlinings and a curlicue wire. It is stuffed with polyester fiberfill and is glue to a wood turned base.
The friend is a spider... made from glass beads and brass colored wire. Some of the legs are sewn to the pumpkin so it won't slide off... but enough are free and pose able


 .

I have posted it on both BearPile ( as an accessory) and etsy !