I have two bear shows on my schedule this year.  The first is the Rose City Porcelain Doll and Bear show on the 21/22 June in Palmerston North and the second the  Midwinter Doll Teddy & Craft Festival 12th/13th July in Auckland.

As I have just four little bears ready for my sales table so far, I had better get my skates on.  As usual, I am brimming with ideas and wondering how I’ll get them all done.  Work sure does get in the way of my bear time!!

Yikes, I forgot!!  Three shows on the horizon - the third is the online show for the newly organized Teddy Bears and Critters Australasia in September.  More details on that and the site soon!

My sister has started a zazzle store under the Tuibird name and some of the products feature her Honeythorpe Bears artwork.  There are cards, stamps, stickers and buttons galore.  You can even buy (US) postage stamps with Honeythorpe Bears on.  Shame that I can’t use them!!   

I love the pretty pink cupcakes that she drew too - my fave item is the cupcake invitation card.  What a perfect excuse to throw a party!

I have always been in awe of my sister’s artistic skills - my drawing skills will forever be stuck in the stick figure phase…but I guess I can sew I better teddy bear than her!  I think I’ll be buying a few of these zazzle items for gifts 

Mollie Rose and Marco are now avaialable for adoption.  Yikes, I’ve tried for two days to get decent photos of this pair, but to no avail.   Mollie Rose is created from intercal mohair in a spiky crew pile.  I like this mohair a lot - just as well really, as I have a few different shades of it!  The pink is such a pretty shade.  Actually, probably the nicest pink mohair I’ve seen.  All too often, I find the pink mohairs to be quite ‘cold’ in coloring. It’s been nice to work in mohair again.  Much as I love sassy’s and vintage long pile, I do so like the varied textures of mohair. 

Both Mollie Rose and Barley were such a joy to put together.  Everything went so smoothly with both of them which is quite funny really as both had been sitting unfinished for quite some time.  I guess it’s a good lesson for me to learn, as I’m not so good at completing projects where I’m trying a new idea.  There’s quite a few ‘half-done’ bears in my work basket - I think I may have to complete a few more of them.  I have an order piece which I must do next. 

I have a special affection for wee Marco.  When I cut him out, I was iintending to create a dainty wee girly bear for Lisa’s Easter Softie Parade.  I intended to make a tiny bonnet in spring yellows and creams but bears have their own ideas of what they want to be.  As I stuffed and sculpted Marco, this sturdy wee man emerged.  I like the way he peeps out from behind his little fringe.  He wears a star shaped bead made of paua shell - though it shows up more green in the photos, the variagations of colour tone nicely with Marco’s fur.  I’m going to try to get better photos of him tonight - the ones I currently have are not doing him justice at all.  i think my laptop shows pictures lighter than they really are - I noticed just how bad they are when I got to work this morning.

I have always been a words person.  I guess it goes hand in hand with a love of reading doesn’t it?  When we would go away to the bach on holiday, I’d obsessively read through all the old Readers Digests trying to “boost my word power”.  When I was learning French at school (five years of it!) I always had the biggest vocabulary of the class, it’s just a shame that I could never get a handle on the grammar so I was never very good at it!

I came across the Free Rice site today…and it really appeals to the geeky Readers Digest reading kid in me.  For every word in their vocabulary test you get right, they will donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food programme.  20 grains doesn’t sound like much but you can rack up a few thousand grains of rice in just a couple of minutes a day.  Today I learnt that cordiform means heart-shaped.  Go have fun!