Warming up.

Well, I think I'm about ready ... let me see: the bears are finished, groomed and ready for their big day, I've spent the entire morning building my full Winter Warmer website show preview, sent show details out by email to my mailing list, revealed the WW bears at the TeddyTalk Forum, oh and taken a quick snap of the bears in my workroom so that you can have a rough idea of their general sizing while they wait patiently on the shelves.

On Sunday I drove the bears all the way to Hampshire so they could have official photographs taken, courtesy of our official 'All Bear' photographer, none other than my lovely sister Tina! (Incidentally, please excuse little 'Farthing's' presence in the centre of this official 'Winter Warmers' photograph ... he was caught up in the pre-show excitement and couldn't resist making up the numbers for the photographer! The official photographs will be used for promotional purposes throughout the coming months and as usual, Tina has excelled herself on our behalf! I'll share more of them with you at a later date.)

Now all that's left for me to do is make sure I'm still awake when the show goes live at http://www.bear-artists-online.com/wwintro.html at midnight tonight (GMT)!

I'm hopeless at staying up late, so don't doubt it will be a struggle. I think my best bet will be to set my computer volume high, so that when email lands I'm audibly 'nudged' by the AOL 'you've got mail' lady!

Judging from our online chat, we participating bear artists are now all buzzing with excitement. This show has a wonderful international flavour and thanks to the miracle that is internet, we will all be able to 'chat' on the BAO forum while our show takes place. Penny, our multi-talented show organiser, will be popping in every so often to let us know how things are progressing overall, which will make for a genuinely interactive show, despite it being online. In fact, if last June's hugely successful online show was anything to go by, there will be every bit as much atmosphere as there usually is at our more traditional 'in the fur' shows!

Right, that's my lot for now! I'm going to pamper myself at the hairdresser's this afternoon; a treat well earned!

Incidentally, if you would like to see more of my clever sister's photography, please take a moment to visit http://www.tinaallinghamphotography.co.uk/

I do hope you enjoy sharing our Winter Warmer Show tomorrow and most of all, I hope the show brings you the bear of your dreams x