Today

Arthur

Arthur is a real little boy bear I think.

He likes climbing trees, looking for bugs and sticky buns.

I've just finished Arthur so I'm in that weird, just finished a bear place.

Where I carry him round in an effort to get to know him and the feel of him.

He's one of my more traditional bears, inspired by the early steiff bears. He's a new pattern I've been working on , and I think I'm beginning to get something I've been wanting.

He'll be popping up in my shop sometime soon.

Hope you're having a great Monday

Lucky doesn't even begin to cover it

Today I am grateful for my life, a life that I have been blessed with.

I am grateful for my safety, for the safety of my family and ones I love, for freedom I have, to have the ability to walk outside without fear. That my dad who is sick at the moment, is in hospital getting the best treatment and care he can get, that i live in a country where this is available to us at the tip of fingers. And while I might worry about him, i know he will be ok.

For the fact that i get up each day, and mere survival isn't the first thing on my mind.

That I can go about my life and daily rituals without a second thought really, it's all taken for granted, it's just the way it is. There is always food on the table, a roof over my head, shelter from rain and storms.

That I won't be persecuted for my opinions and beliefs, that i can speak my mind freely, attend rallies and donate and help others will worrying about the consequences.

And when things seem to hard, challenge or upset me, I know that compared to what many people face my problems and issues are small and trivial.

That i was lucky enough to be born into this life.

Yes Lucky doesn't even begin to cover it.

makings

a new little bear/pattern in the pipeline, not for anything , on a impulse, just because.

and an old favourite Cumkwat between him and the much talked about giraffe.

It's nice to have the mixture of new and exciting and challenging, and old, comforting and familiar.

hope you're enjoying a good creative mix this week xo

It's been a while

Between potholders.

His name is George by the way, and he likes bungee jumping and white water rafting. He's one of those crazy outdoorsy dare devil types, which I'm not.

Today I'm feeling a bit under the weather as they say, luckily I'm not working today so I'm hoping a quiet day will keep the bug at bay.

on other fronts, this guy was picked up on Saturday. It was very sweet, the person who wanted him, thought he'd prefer to be picked up than put in the post.

I'm re watching the West Wing, my all time favourite show ( along with Friday Night Lights) It's been a while so I've sort of forgotten bit and pieces from it and when stuff happens etc.

God it's a great show.

I've also joined Twitter, under squidgyandwonky. I currently suck at it. Im hoping in a few days I will get the hang of it though.

hope you stay cosy on this wet and windy Monday

Y oh Y?

With this whole alphabet thing I've got going on, with some letters I have heaps of possibilites for words/pictures, like D or H or C, whereas others like A for example I struggle for ages until I find the right one.

So who would of thought Y would be one of those ones with more than one? At some completely random moment, two Y words came to me. So later on ( usually late at night) i decided to do a really rough sketch ( rougher than my usual rough sketches) to test each idea drawing out, and maybe it would become clear.

Problem is I like both, and I'm not sure you can totally have an alphabet book with two ys. Admittedly I'd be happy to trade V or X in , but I'm not sure that's how it works

So HELP? any thoughts, opinions which you like better?

Happy Saturday

She stands

Beast conquered.

Have never been so excited to finish something in my life. At one point there I felt I was never going to finish her.

While I've never been one for having a party around my birthday, I'm seriously thinking about having a giraffe finishing party.

And she stands, which I'm totally surprised by, as once I had the body under control, I was having real doubt about how vertically stable she was going to be ( she has a very long neck, and is a bit top heavy). And she's not even wired, i had thought about doing that, but tried first without it, because to be honest, I don't like putting wire in toys.

anyway I'm sorry, but you know I can't show you anymore of her because she's for the colab, yadda yadda...

and now I'm going to do something easy, an old favourite, with NO spots or colour changes, where I don't even have to think.

hope you have something to shout about today xo

Today

tomorrow night I'm going to South Side Brown Owls in which they are doing embroidery as the theme. I thought it might be a help if I brought a long my old work book, which include handstitched samplers, from my days at studying at the Embroiderers Guild. I was 19 at the time and at the start of my crafting "career".

when I pulled the book off the shelf, water came gushing out and my heart sank. This wasn't a good sign. When I opened it up, my heart sank further, my whitework ruined, pages wet, with runs and stains, and many of my samplers stained with colour runs and for the book itself. it had been a casuality of a new leak in my roof.

Luckily not all were affected. The second half of the book seemed to go untouched. But without the other ones, each week we did a different stitch, the book feels incomplete.

While I am very aware compared to the huge losses the people in Queensland, NZ, and parts of Victoria, this is small, but I must admit I was/am a little devastated.

This was something from my past, a marker of where I started, that i would never do again, from different phase in my life, when I was just learning the ropes. I had hoped to pass this one to a daughter or son, niece or nephew. And now I feel unsure.

that said, i don't feel I can bear to throw any of these out, knowing the work and story behind them.

I know I'll get over it, move on, but for now I'm a bit sad.

you know?

It's a real achievement i think

I've talked before about our family footy tipping, and I've told you about how I have my own special take on tipping.

this year so far, I'm outdoing my self in my usual coming last. ( please note I don't try to loose either, but it does say something about how the sides I like are doing , doesn't it, also with a new side coming into it, I feel like I'm DGFing all over the place )

it felt too much of an achievement ( or a giggle at least) not to let the moment past - two week's of my all time low of 2 points, was the real turning point I think.

Cumulative totals:

Molly	141
Matthew	133
Lucy	133
Posy	131
Harrypalooza	127
Grandma	127
Sarah	127
Jörg	127
Peter	125
Jimmy	125
Mary	125
Brigid	125
Lola	125
The Scorer	123
Ellen	123
Tom	115
Dan	113
Harriet/Rosa	109
Jess	73

Conquering the beast

a day and half and eight bodies later, I think I might be getting somewhere.

I always knew the giraffe was going to be hard, but perhaps just not this hard.

It's been a while since I've been so completely stumped by a project.

Even when I wasn't "making it" so to speak, I was plagued by giraffe body thoughts.

Saturday night late I was ready to throw in the towel and resign to making a separate body and not a conjoined one like I wanted to.

But then at 1am 4 more brilliant ideas came to me, and Sunday morning arrived, and starting up again, my perfectionistic obsessive side kicked in- I would not be beaten by this body.

It may take me a while to regain my love of giraffe's however.

(the second image is my first and hopefully last handwritten crochet chart , it may make no sense what so ever to you- but I am immensely proud of it.)

hope you're having a great long weekend ( and normal weekend to those who don't have it)

Spots

are a pain in the arse!
Happy Friday xo

And then came Trevor

Deja vu?

Not quite, but sort of .This is Trevor Twinkletoes, twin of Terry Twinkletoes.

he's a tad tubbier than his brother.

he like tacos, tulip, trampolining and Tina Turner.

He doesn't have much time for Talk Back Radio though.

It's funny how using the same pattern , materials every ted turns out a touch different.

I do really believe that I make them to a certain point, and they take over and their own little individual self does the rest.

Trevor Twinkletoes is for a very special yet to be born baby of a super special Lady.

I hope she likes him!

For more terrific texitiles and things travel here.

xo

NO more t's I promise for a while.

all about the bear.

I'm being so good and you guys don't even know about.

I'm being so disciplined and it's killing me.

the thing, I recently made a bear for my colab with Martin, and it's painful for me that I can't show you. Really painful, because well i love this bear. I mean really love him, and I'm proud of him, and well you know me of old self doubt, that hardly ever happens.

Really not since Posswonk the 1st, has a bear affected me like this. and yes you might be thinking why not keep him Jess? But the thing is, if i feel this way then I know he is probably really quite good, and that's exactly the sort of quality i want exhibited. I know I'm my toughest critic.

SO I'm thinking perhaps I can tell you a bit about him, like his name which is Edmund, and that I even made him a jacket. And when I feel a little sad i pick him up and walk around with him.

when people come to my house, i casually leave him sitting in the living room ( the room you enter from the front door - i have no hallway in my place), just so someone might say " who is that magnificent bear?" ( er no one has) or even the possibility that I may be able to share him with someone.

and I've got a whole nother 8 months to wait. I don't know how I'm going to do it.

J is for joy

another rough sketch

Some stuff from the weekend

Attending a Climate Change rally

Finishing one bear, Wombok
and starting the next

Plus spotting Wayne Carey at my local deli!

hope you had a great weekend

I bet you saw this one coming

His name is Marcus.

He likes croquet chilli fries and break dancing.

Obviously.

His day job is being a hot water bottle cover.

And he's part of the Hottie Challenge.

happy Saturday xo

B is for Brave ( very rough)

Because true courage and bravery isn't when you're not scared, but when you are and you do it anyway.

this ( very rough) sketch is dedicated to this lovely lady

PS apologies about crappy image, my scanner doesn't like my sketches.

A bit of an update ( again)

Thank you all so much for the lovely commments, messages , thought and loving over my last post about my grandma. I'm sorry if I have yet to replied you , please know each and every one of them was so appreciated, treasured and taken to heart. You guys really are amazing, and I can't thank you enough.

it's been a strange and tiring week , in terms of my grandma.

Last Tuesday Grandma was really on her way. She looked and sounded very much like my grandpa the days before he passed. My dad and his siblings felt she was going and so did the doctors and nurses.

Over the course of the day our family gathered together and visited her, saying our goodbyes, how much we loved her and whatever we needed to say to her. It was a very emotional time.

Amazingly the dementia was gone, she knew what was happening and who we all were.

In many ways as sad as we all were it was a beautiful day, to be there to experience this with her, her most coherent her had been in months, and to experience it too with each other. the bond that is draws between all of us there. How at any point i could turn to a cousin, an aunt or an in law to be hugged and comforted. An understand that needed no words.

Then suddenly later that night, she rose from the dead, punched a nurse in the face and became quite abusive. The next day she was up and about, with no memory of the day before, and sadly the dementia had returned. Leaving many of us with that ambiguous feeling of " perhaps it would have been better..."

It has been strange to live with a constant feeling of uncertainty, would this be "the day", would Grandma be better or worse today and a quiet sort of waiting.

And still waiting. Grandma has her better days and her worse days, but there is still no further clarity. Right now last Tuesday looks like a faint memory, but then that Tuesday came upon as suddenly. I guess it's no different to before last Tuesday, but somehow it seems a bit different, or at least a new element has been added to the mix. THe thing is it could be tomorrow, in 2 weeks time, another month, or another year of this.

I do feel grateful to have had that day with her, to have said goodbye and to share with her when she knew who I was and who everyone else was. That if she went tomorrow, we've had our time with her already , if that makes sense.

I feel too incredibly grateful to you guys for the support and love I received over this bit.

At times I've felt a bit bad, or guilty, as she is still here and everything is so uncertain and you are sending me these lovely thoughts about her going etc. But they have been an enormous comfort in this new strangeness too.

so thank you very very much xo

PS the Polar, Walter in this post will be part of an auction Cathie will be running over at her place during this month. If you feel he is your sort of bear ( and I have to admit he's amiable chap) , make sure you grab a ticket to be in it to win him, and many other wonderful prizes too.

PPS. Despite what one of the pictures suggests, I have not turned to alcohol to get me through the week, I can not however speaker for Walter.

PPPS. The Again in the title refers to the fact that I wrote this post or a similar post earlier today only to have blogger swallow it up. I did in fact cry a little. Funny the things we cry over, when other more cry worthy thing we can't.

PPPPS. In case you haven't noticed, I really like doing PS's .