Wednesday 30 July 2014

Forever in blue jeans

It's was a long time in the making, but last week they finally sealed their sixteen year deal - my photographer sister Tina and her partner Ian were at long last married!

A very relaxed, happy couple - Tina & Ian

The wedding service took place in secret on Friday, then on a very sunny Sunday afternoon, they threw open their home to invite family and friends to celebrate with them, in a super relaxed 'I do in denim blue' garden party celebration.

Making bubbles - Tina and Great Niece Ella

Tina and her daughters must have worked incredibly hard to create the denim garden decorations and pretty blue and white trimmings, not to mention the super denim mugs Tina and Ian printed for everyone to take home!  Ian's hard work in the flower beds and decking looked absolutely beautiful and he cooked up a huge lunch for everyone on his enormous barbecue.  The lawn was full of fun games for the children and the rifle range in the driveway was a stroke of genius, keeping all the big boys and girls entertained for hours!

Fun on the rifle range: Annie Oakley move over, here comes my daughter!

Tina and Ian's reception party was a true reflection of my sister and her new husband ... fun, relaxed, creative and most of all, full of family warmth.

Opening wedding gifts

The one person I know Tina would have wanted present, was definitely with her in spirit throughout the celebrations.  Our Dad never missed a good family knees up and certainly wouldn't have missed this one!  We five sisters were delighted to be able to share Tina's happiness with Auntie Mona, Dad's sister ... and thanks to Tina's generosity with her photographic studio throughout the afternoon, we were thrilled to secure our first ever group photograph with our very special Auntie.

Auntie Mona and her five nieces - Tina top left, Fiona top middle, Laura top right,
Me bottom left, Auntie Mona centre, Lynda bottom right

Ian has been part of our family for many years and it doesn't feel quite right to welcome him into our family at this late juncture when he's been part of our family furniture for donkey's years!  So instead, I'd simply like to wish this very happy couple many more years of happiness and partnership together ...

The groom's speech

Cheers you two!!!
xxx

'Forever in blue jeans'

And in case you were wondering ... yes, of course I made a bear to celebrate!

Thursday 24 July 2014

A Refreshing Read!

A very dishevelled, undeniably sweaty bearmaker stepped through my front door after dog training this morning, only to find a copy of the latest 'Teddy Bear Times' magazine waiting on the mat.  Published in its hallowed pages, was not only my new advertisement and one of my recent clown bears in the forthcoming Hugglets show preview, but also a rather lovely 'My Workroom' article, featuring an entire page of chat about little ol' me 'n my bears!!!


I may have been making bears for the past twenty years, but believe me, seeing them in print is a privilege I never take for granted - it is every bit as much of a buzz today, as it was way back in the mid 90's.  Seeing my bears published today refreshed up my hot, sticky self instantly!

If you would like to buy a copy of this month's 'Teddy Bear Times' magazine, please check out your local WH Smith store (UK readers) or alternatively, if you are unable to visit your High Street, or you live overseas, simply pop over to www.teddybeartimes.com where it can be ordered online and delivered straight to your door ...

Happy reading everyone!

Monday 21 July 2014

Postcard from Cornwall

The sun shone, the scenery beguiled and Polly made a wonderful walking companion ... Cornwall last week, was a fabulous breath of fresh air!


Here are a few of our Cornish holiday snaps, I hope you enjoy them.


I have been visiting Cornwall for about twenty of the past thirty years and if you have ever walked the Cornish coastline yourself, I am certain you will understand why this magical county has the power to draw me back time and time again.


We hiked across the Lizard Peninsula, which I think has to be one of the most beautiful walks in the UK.


Tangy sea air invigorated us as we gazed from pretty St Mawes castle, across the Fal Estuary.


And wherever we went, Polly came too .. even up on castle ramparts!


We visited picture perfect English castles ...


Spectacular English gardens ...


Lands End ...


And of course, no visit to Cornwall would be complete without time to paddle on a few of those glorious unspoiled Cornish beaches!


Cornwall steals my heart every time I visit and I never ever tire of it, no matter what the weather ... but sunshine and Cornwall?  I defy any other destination in the world to beat such an amazing holiday combination!!!

Thursday 10 July 2014

Real Time

To spur me on to finish this little bear before teatime yesterday, I decided to have fun by tweeting work-in-progress pics from my mobile 'phone in real time throughout the afternoon ...


I had previously drawn out, cut out, trimmed, pinned and stitched all the pieces together and stuffed my bear's head, so the first job of the afternoon was to carefully stitch his nose.


Then I set in one eye ...


By the time both eyes were fastened, kind Tweeters had begun to 'favourite' and retweet my little bear's progress among their followers!


I zapped my pics through 'Photoshop Express' on my Iphone to liven them up with a colour filter ... I love using this little gadget to personalise pics.


Without the Twitter pics, I might have talked myself out of finishing my new bear yesterday, but interest from generous Tweeters is a great creative motivator, so I worked hard, tapped my foot to the blues guitar of fabulous Albert Cummings and stuffed and sewed ...


My little bear made good progress during the afternoon and by the time Polly came to collect me from my workroom to make her dinner, 'Marvin' had created a lovely stir among my Twitter friends.


Ready or not, my new bear was consigned to the worktable overnight.  Polly had been very patient with me while I worked during the afternoon, so it was only fair to feed her and indulge in some daft dog rough 'n tumble playtime on the living room rug, before cooking dinner for my husband and daughter and settling down with them for the evening.


This morning we were at dog training, so Marvin had to wait a little longer for his formal photos.  Polly worked hard at school so thankfully, by the time we came home, she was very sleepy and ready for a long, lazy nap (I was too, but no such luck!) I set up the studio in my lounge, grabbed my Canon SLR camera and these are the results ... 


Cute eh?!

Marvin is now ready to find a new home, so I've popped him onto my website in the hope he might catch a kind collector's eye ... 


Fingers crossed!


By the way, if you would like to follow me on Twitter to gain an informal, real time insight into what goes on in my workroom (and beyond!) you are very welcome to join me at:


Update: Marvin has been adopted.

Wednesday 9 July 2014

Dreaming of Dreckly Time ..

I confess to dreaming of Cornish cliffs and cream teas when I should probably be planning ahead for the 'Teddies 2014' show in September ...


 It's always hard to focus on work when days are long and skies are blue ... if I'm honest, much as I enjoy bear-making, I'd far rather be tromping with Polly in the countryside, or sitting in a deckchair with a cuppa and a good book, (preferably a thriller!)


I'm delighted to tell you my latest collection of five teddy bears all found new homes and shipped out to reside in America, Germany, N. Ireland and the UK.  Receiving lovely emails from delighted new owners has been a pleasure and a relief ... it has been good to hear the bears arrived safely, but even better to hear they were well received because that made all the summer sewing worthwhile!


I have a small bear waiting on my worktable and as it's overcast outside, I won't begrudge him the time spent working today, but while I sew I may indulge myself in a little Cornish dreckly time daydream ... and yes, it may involve fresh scones, strawberry jam and clotted cream! YUM!

Tuesday 1 July 2014

Creative Clutter Clean Up

After seven years of waffling in the form of 857 posts relating to my life, the universe and almost everything in between, not mention over 331,000 'visitor hits', I think this blog earned the right to a smart new makeover for 2014, don't you agree?!


Since I wrote that first post all those years ago, my blog has accumulated so many links, photographs and heaven only knows what else, I grudgingly confess it has become rather overly cluttered, so earlier today I decided to make a determined attempt at sweeping clean with as much minimalist style as I am ever likely to achieve.  

The trouble is, when every photograph is a precious memory and every widget a link to creative impulse, it's really not easy to clear my blogging deck absolutely, so rather than a completely clean slate before bedtime, I have instead achieved what I hope will be a tidier, fresher, slightly smarter corner of the World Wide Web, in which to host my waffle.

I hope those of you who regularly pop in will find this somewhat more contemporary blogging outpost every bit as comfortable as the old one - but hopefully a little better organised.

Before I sign off and head up the wooden hill to bed, I want to say a very special thank you to those of you who have been reading my blog since that fateful day in 2007 ... you know who you are and I hope by now you also know how important your support continues to be to my inner writer.

With warmest hugs and eternal gratitude from,

Your De-Cluttered Blogger xxx




My first ever blog post (March 2007) can be read by clicking the link below: 

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