Wednesday 27 January 2016

Sunny smiles and curiosity!

I'm into my stride as 'childminder' for my Grandson now and despite the early morning starts, really look forward to spending Tuesdays with him.


He is the sweetest little boy, all sunny smiles and curiosity. I don't know what I ever did to be this lucky, but whatever it was, I am so very grateful for my special time with Toby ... he lights up my world!


We spend our days together chatting, laughing and of course, whatever the weather - exploring. We love to go out walking, listening to the birds, splashing in puddles, touching tree trunks and finding special treasures like sticks, stones and leaves.


So my apologies for the slow start to teddy bear production this year ... but as you can see, I've been a little busy being Nana!

:-)

Monday 25 January 2016

Lily the Pink

This was a little indulgence bear on my part as it's been ages since I worked with alpaca, so when I saw this pretty powder puff pink piece, even though I had other projects I should have been working on, I couldn't resist buying it and squeezing her into my bear-making schedule.


I happened to have a couple of balls of lovely soft alpaca yarn in my work basket, in the perfect shade of pink for this bear, so over the weekend, I snuggled into my chair to knit her a cosy hat and scarf to wear.

Lily looked so pretty in pink, I am delighted to say she was adopted as soon as she went onto my website yesterday!

:-)

Wednesday 13 January 2016

Happy 80th Birthday Dad, from us all xxx

I didn't write a blog post for my Dad's birthday on the 10th of January this year. I didn't forget, I just didn't feel like dwelling on him not being with us to celebrate his 80th, so instead I visited my son and his family, spending the morning laughing, chatting and playing with my Grandson. That afternoon, my husband and I took Polly and Betty out for a good run on 'Big Field', squelching through puddles deep enough to swim in as we battled driving rain. Needless to say my mucky pup Goldie girls had an absolute blast playing in the mud!

So Dad's birthday was a normal Sunday for me, packed with family and outdoors, as most of my Sundays are.  Later in the day though, I felt the urge to catch up with the rest of my family on Facebook.  Dad always enjoyed Facebook.  He would often mention how much he loved being able to keep in touch with his 'girls' and grandchildren via the computer ... and he was a mean online Scrabble opponent too!  My first job of any day was always to turn on my computer, log into Facebook and catch up with Dad's antics on our virtual Scrabble board.  He delighted in beating me!  

How I miss those morning Scrabble games with you Dad.

A rare gem of a family photograph!
Our Dad (blue shirt) celebrating with his sisters and their husbands

Anyway, as I was saying, I turned on the computer, logged into 'Facebook' and found myself strolling down Memory Lane, back through old family photos, photos of my Dad.  As I browsed the few pics I have of him, smiling to myself, I wrote a little birthday message and before I knew it, several of my nieces, my sisters, our Auntie (Dad's sister) and some of Dad's nieces had joined me online from their homes across the South of England and we began to reminisce fondly about Dad, on what should have/would have been, his eightieth birthday.

Sadly I have very few photographs of Dad because I grew up in the days when a camera was a fairly rarely used item in most families, saved mostly for high days and holidays and of course as a youngster, I didn't own any of our family photographs ... so when my younger sister Lynda (blushing bride in the pic below) sent me a virtual 'handful' of the equivalent of dusty old photographs from our younger days, on Sunday night, I was bowled over.  We don't live close to one another these days, so I had no idea those pics had ever been taken!  I think we girls all assumed our Dad would live forever, so it never crossed our minds that photographs of him could and would become so very important to us. Sharing precious 'Dad' photographs and memories on his birthday, brought Dad close to us all again.

We five sisters, with our Dad

I don't say this very often, 
but thank you Facebook.

And special thanks to you Lyn.

And a very Happy 80th Birthday to you Dad,
With love from us all.
Your Family.

 xxx

A Crystal Day

It may have taken me a while to find my creative stride this year, but I can, at last, introduce you to my first bear of 2016 ...

So without further ado, meet 'Crystal'!

Crystal 18"

Crystal puts me in mind of the kind of day when the world should wait, while you muffle up and enjoy a bracing walk beside a frozen lake in watery January sunshine.  I love days like those!

For further adoption details, please visit Crystal on my website:


Update: Crystal has been adopted!

Saturday 2 January 2016

Christmas Cobwebs

There's nothing quite as good as a crisp, sunny day, straight after Christmas ... the kind of day that calls you to don walking boots and head up the nearest hill to blow away overindulged Christmas cobwebs!


We headed up to Bluebell Hill with Polly and Betty to walk off our Christmas excess and the view was spectacular!  The girls had a whale of a time chasing up and down steep paths, while we strolled downhill, then huffed and puffed like geriatrics on the uphill trek.

It might take a few more of these walks to shift our mince pie muffin tops, but who cares when the sky is blue and you can see for miles and miles and miles?!!!

:-)

An Adventuresome Bear!

When my sister Lynda asked if I 'knew anyone' who would be able to create a teddy bear from her daughter's old Scout camping blanket, naturally I proffered my own name!


The blanket duly arrived in the post a couple of  months prior to Christmas and I must admit, my initial thought was that it was a pretty uninspiring piece of woven cloth (and quite scratchy! Given the lovely soft fleece blankets available today, maybe it's time for the Scout movement to upgrade their camping blankets?!)  Anyway, on the upside, the cloth was strong enough to cope with the rigours of teddy bear construction, so after mulling things over, I set about designing a suitable teddy bear ... nothing too cutesy as this was to be an adventuresome kind of bear!


Lyn's concept was for me to make a memory bear, large enough for my niece Charlie to attach her Scouting badges and her Grandfather's.  (Grandad had been a Boy Scout in his youth and sadly passed away recently.)  This would keep the hard earned badges safe and proudly displayed ... such a lovely sentiment couldn't help but inspire me!


So, the brown wool blanket became a 19" teddy bear with a lovely round centre seam head, accessorized with Charlie's Scouting neckerchief and two of her Scout Movement badges. 

Needless to say there is a certain professional pride, (not to mention nervousness!) in accepting a secret commission from one's sister of all people (!) so I was relieved to receive a highly delighted response when she came to collect him in person ... phew!

'Scout' hopped into Santa's sack, finally meeting Charlie on Christmas Day. Charlie has renamed him 'Bear', in honour of the inspirational Bear Grylls, Chief Scout for the UK Scouting Movement.  The perfect name for such an adventuresome bear!

:-)

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Polite Request

Copyright: All Bear by Paula Carter 2019



I hope you enjoy sharing my blog and politely request that you do not copy either text or photographs without my permission.



Thank you.