This week I'm grateful for... Bearmaking

My passion is bearmaking - as most of you know - but recently I simply haven't had the time to do any bearmaking, or any crafts at all for that matter, and in addition to it being my passion I find it a great source of stress relief. Tonight I have finally found a snippet of time in which to do some bearmaking.

I have finished of the basic prototype of a new design - a little 5" bear...

And I have finally had a chance to sew the ears on my fluffy bear with needle felted paws and nose. I then started scissor sculpting his face and paws, but it has become a little extreme...

So now I'm thinking he needs a little pair of overalls... We'll see when I'm finished "sculpting" lol!

Pop over to Maxabella Loves to see what other people are grateful for!

 

The last eggs of Easter...

My kids got so many Easter Eggs that I never did get a chance to count them all! We are having a lazy Saturday morning and finishing off the last of the pile of eggs. Leah was generous enough to give me one of her eggs - and it was a very cute one...

It got a bit boring looking without the wrapper... But still intersting because it is chocolate after all!

And after all was consumed, the traditional smoothing out of the wrapper occurred...

And while I was savouring my single yummy Easter Egg, Leah was enjoying a lot more!

My Creative Space... Take it away Leah!

Once again I have been too busy to be creative - how utterly depressing... I have mohair calling out to me to be made into little bears; yarn yelling at me to be crocheted into all sorts of different creatures, and felt screaming at me to be released from it's boring rectangles and made into something pretty!

On the other hand, my baby munchkin, Leah, has been very creative putting stickers on my laptop...

And arranging different shaped blocks in all sorts of patterns...

Pop over to Kootoyoo to see how everyone else is being creative this Thursday!

Wordless Wednesday: Toby

JKD Giveaway

Please, please, please remember to leave you email with your entry!!! If you win I need to be able to contact you - so I need your email!!!

Standard email disclaimer applies...

Thanks! Bec

Another wonderful family day

Today was just as glorious as yesterday...

So we decided to hit Willy Park (aka Williamstown Park)...

Of course the playground was the main attraction...

But the HMAS Castlemaine was also fascinating...

Except I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside the ship...

Meeting a friend for coffee was great fun - especially because he brought along his dog, Buddy...

We then went down the road a bit to the beach and I had a walk...

While the girls had a swim...

And of course we brought home some treasure!

Another wonderful day spent with my wonderful family. Now we're off to have dinner - fish & chips in our local park! Yum!

Bliss on this glorious day

I spent most of today sitting and relaxing in our local park having a good old relax while the kids had a good old play in the fresh air and sunshine...

The girls are playing on the swings, monkey bars, slides and being very creative with the equipment that is on offer - it is fantastic to watch and be a part of! They are also making new friends which is absolutely wonderful!

I snapped a whole lot of pics of the girls playing, of course, and as always Little Miss Attention-Loving Leah was front and centre in most of them!

It is only 11 sleeps until Abigail turns 8!!! Time has gone so fast!!! It seems just yesterday that she was just a brand new bubby lying next to me on the couch...

But that is a whole other post!!!

Back to the glorious day at the park... I am constantly amazed by the creativity of the girls...

All the ways they have come up with to go down the slide alone is commendable!

I'm also extremely grateful for how close the girls are; how close they are as friends even though there is a 3 year age difference between them.

It was a stunning day at the park with my two beautiful girls!!!

Colours of Friday

My creative space...

This week I have been too busy helping my parents pack and move to their new home in Castlemaine to have any new creative projects on the go... I'm actually sneaking a quick break from helping unpack a huge number of boxes atm to quickly post this!

I'm sure everyone else has been terribly creative this week though, so pop over to Kootoyoo to see what everyone has been up to!

My daily trivia...

Congrats my transport friends - 53 MVA free days!!! I'm speechless!!!

Give Away Time!!!

As promised, I am running my first give away becuase I have reached (and have a couple more than) 20 followers! YAY! My give away is a gorgeous, BIG 62" x 22" (157cm x 56cm) piece of oh-so-soft faux fur that is white with rust tips. It is long pile, 3/4" (2cm). The photos don't do it justice - it is a beautiful piece of fur that would make a wonderful bear or two!

So, to enter - easy! You can get up to 3 entries if you follow all 3 steps below!

1. Follow my blog (if you are already a follower you automatically have 1 entry); and/or
2. Leave a comment on my blog that is in some way related to the give away; and/or
3. Link back to my blog from your blog - don't forget to let me know by leaving a comment!

PLEASE remember to leave your email address with your post so I can contact you if you win!


ENTRIES CLOSE FRIDAY 13 MAY @ MIDNIGHT AUSTRALIAN EST

Giveaway posts will not be made public and all email addresses will be forgotten after the give away. I promise they will be seen by my eyes and my eyes only and only used for the purposes of this giveaway!

Entries will be assigned a number, on a first-come-first-served basis, and a winner will be chosen via a random number generator. The decision is final and no correspondance will be entered into.

Entry is open to anyone anywhere in the world. The winner will be posted the fur at absolutely no cost to them.

Good luck everyone!!!

20 followers!

Yay! I've reached 20 followers! Not many by most blog standards... but enough for me to run a Give Away!!!! Stay tuned for details!!!

ROFL!

Pop over to Ann's Rants today - hilarious!!!

My first ever GIVEAWAY!!!

I feel it is almost time to have my first ever blog giveaway! Just 2 more followers, and the giveaway is ON! So, spread the work about my blog, recruit a couple more followers, and I shall reveal all!!

I just need 2 more followers - to hit 20 - and I will hold my first ever giveaway!!!

And things (or parents) move on...

Today was the last afternoon I will ever spend at my parents house in Cottles Bridge. Why? They are moving to Castlemaine :-)  They have bought the cutest little house there!

I have only seen photos of it so can't wait to see it on Thursday, when mum & dad get to move in! I love that they chose to move to Castlemaine - it is such a gorgeous country town with so much going on!

Look what we just missed out on! A must in the diary for next year!

The Castlemaine State Festival

This week I'm grateful for... Peaceful Moments (belated...)

I love this photo - I find it relaxing...

Colours of Friday (a belated post...)

Wonderful colours of mohair for gorgeous bears-to-be

Wonderful colours of wool waiting to be needle felted

Wonderful colours of yarn ready to be crocheted

My Creative Space...

Kootoyoo may be taking a break from My Creative Space during the school holidays, but I thought I'd keep posting what I'm up to creatively on Thursdays :-)

I am finishing off a gorgous pink and maroon bear as a special gift for a very special person...

She just needs a name (and a body...) Any name suggestions???

Others with

Creative Spaces

this Thursday:

Curly Pops

Another Donkey Design

Plushka's Craft

Fillagrie - A Crocheted Bear

My current bestest bear friend - isn't she beautiful?

I am going to crochet this wonderfully too one day!

This week I'm grateful for... My Mum

She is the most wonderful mother and grandmother - such a wonderful role model and mentor for my girls. Not only is she doing her PhD, but she takes time to do the little things with the girls, like making cupcakes. Love you mum!

Pop over to Maxabell Loves to see what other people are grateful for this week!

Blog Love

Pop on over to Blog Love and join in the fun!

Blog Love is a cool community of bloggers who want to find new blogs and be found by other people. And don't you hate it when you can't find someone's blog on their profile? Or you follow someone back and loose track of where you were or wanted to go? Well, this dilemma inspired Blog Love!!!

So pop on over, check out the blogs and join on in!!!

Crochet!

I have always loved crocheted bears and always wanted to give it a go and make my own - so I have taken a couple of crochet classes and I'm addicted! It is great fun! Not easy, but great fun! I also love the little Japanese "amigurumi" style bears and critters - my first attempt at a little amigurumi amigo is...

Ta da! Yes, it is just a ball with eyes a mouth and some hair, and not very neatly crocheted... but it does prove I can crochet and not only that, I can increase and decrease! Now it's just practice, practice, practice!

I received the new issue of "Australian Bear Creations" in the post today - and bonus! There's a pattern in there for a crocheted bear!!! I am meant to crochet :-)

Just discovered...

A good friend of mine, Cate - over at Keep Cate Busy - told me about a wonderful blog to visit on Thursdays...

Unfortunately, My Creative Space is taking a break over the school holidays, but check out today's creativity and I'm definitely going to be joining in starting Thursday 28 April!

Exhaustion can now be acknowledged...

Term 1 has now come to a close so we can now all admit we are exhausted, blah, over it all and really do need the holidays! I'm sitting here ready for bed - at 7.15pm - but happy knowing that tomorrow morning I don't have to get the kids up, make lunches, get everybody ready to go and out the door in time to get to school by the first bell. Yippee!!!

And the kids sure do need the break - my two are absolutely exhausted and tonight were doing serious impressions of being completely passed out on the couch in front of the TV. They were asking me over a very early dinner what we were doing tomorrow, and I list off the errands I had to run and other stuff I needed to do and they complained that was too much stuff and they wouldn't get a chance for an afternoon nap! Neither of my two have had an afternoon nap since they were 18 months old!!!

I am going to sit back and relax in front of the TV, have an early night and look forward to a slow-paced, relaxing morning!

Oh, and I must congratulate my "MVA Free Days" friends - they have reached 41 days!!! Amazing!!!

A little trivia in my day...

Every morning and afternoon when on the school-run I drive past a certain shall-remain-nameless transport company's yard and they have a sign up at the gate telling everyone how many MVA (Motor Vehicle Accident) Free Days they have had in a row. Not sure this is such a good advertisement for the company... However, I was shocked to see that the number of days they have actually reached is, drum roll please...

And in the past I was impressed if they made it over ten! LOL! Little things and all that...

Time - I just want a little time!!!

Please??? Just a few minutes here and there??? All I want is a little time to needle felt, finish one mohair bear, write up the instructions for a needle felted bear and do a little blogging... is that too much to ask???!!!