The rocks in my yard disappeared...

I was pretty disappointed ... who would steal my painted rocks? ..  I walked up the block to check if the two girls had taken them to put with theirs ... sort of as a joke..... but, nope.  Only the two I had placed there for them.  Still there.

Then, much later in the day, I was doing some weeding and... lo and behold...I spied one about 15 feet further up from where it originally was... face down in the garden.   I was even more disappointed... because that meant somebody had thrown it there ..on purpose.  For what reason?  So, of course I searched around for the other two..... finally found one more under the shrub further away yet..up towards the house ..... didn't find the third.

But, then... the following day...I was walking out of the patio and there she was ...face down under the lilac shrub... almost inside the patio...where somebody had tossed her.  That was getting pretty close to the house...and, windows... so, I'm pretty ticked.  I just want to kick somebody in the ass.

Of course it is kids...but, which ones ....and why would they do that?  What have I ever done to them?  Nobody can ever answer those questions...and, if a person ever accuses somebody's kid.... mostly the parents will deny it was their wonderful child.  Our childhood was much different.  If anybody had ever even suggested that we had done something we shouldn't have .... we wouldn't have sat down for a week.  A different world.  Now, I look at all the kids motoring around on scooters and bikes and wonder which of them it was .... I can't really see little girls doing it.... but, who knows..so more the boys get the evil eye... hahahah......sure wish I had seen it happen.

I moved the rocks.  Nobody gets to see them in passing now.  I put them inside our patio where only we get to see them.  I could put them out during the day and bring them in at night..but, what a nuisance.

I'll just have to play with flowers and photos.... I love this one of my bleeding hearts.

...   and, the little bear buddies .... they are always up to mischief.

"Maybe we should put it back where we found it".....

Good idea boys............ not a play thing.

World wide bear hunt...

They've noticed us 'bear people' on the National Post ...woohooo...

For a few weeks now, bear people have been putting bears in their windows to entertain others who walk past.  I've see so many people walking I can't believe they all live on my block.

They must be bored to tears... or having absolutely not one more thing to do in the house.  I decided to do it after one of the girls on a teddy bear group showed her big red bear in a window...half hidden by curtains.

Tigger, Bernie and Floppy were the first three... well, first let me back track a bit...

There was an episode the first few days that Mr. BumbleVee was working from home ... and poor little Bernie thought it was going to be non stop fun having his Daddy home ... he yukked things up a bit too much from too close to the newly organized 'office area'.. and this happened.... (erm.....it had already happened to me a bit earlier)......

So, little Bernie and I had a chat and I encouraged him to find some other pastimes and ..he did.  He wanted to sit on the windowsill and wave at kids....















But, then it got colder and even snowed.... they were bored......... so Bernie hung out with me at the computer and saw a little bear with a party hat.  That did it.  He insisted that we make one for him.
so, we made a cone out of coloured paper and put two 'scrunchies' on the top for a pom pom and taped it to his head.  He was a bit concerned about the tape on his forehead area and thought it might flatten his fur.  I told him that he already has sort of 'flattish' fur, but assured him I would brush up his fur each night when I take them out of the window.

So, he made a little sign and got back on the windowsill...... looking out for people and waving.... even the Dads are waving back at us....

The neighbour across the street joined in... even though she usually thinks I'm a nut job....

Then Elmo and Radcliffe hopped up there too...and, there were plenty of bears on the sill...which is too narrow for their bums, but I balanced them on books..except Radcliffe; he can do the splits.

Then, it got colder ................ and then............................it snowed some more.  They are not happy bears.........

You can check out the article here...

Bear Hunting

Timothy in the tree

Finished and still looking a bit worried even though he has buddies and friends in the tree with him .. there are other little bears... mousies in their walnut shells... a black sheep ... and several little owls and other birds.....

Where I placed him, I can see him from the kitchen ... watching and wondering.....

Why do they always look so worried? ...

He did have to sit on the dining table for days til I finally got around to finishing him.  Days just seem to whiz past don't they?

I had to re-think the size of his eyes and then, try to guess which of the 15 in the package of 4mm eyes were close to the same size.  They say 4mm, but of course, they range in size from 3 to 6 I'm sure of it.  There was a lot of uhm-ing and ahhh-ing til I made my decision.

How can you totally forget how to seat an eye properly?  Well, maybe there is no perfect way...I did look back at about 5 patterns...nobody actually mentioned how to do it the way I thought I remembered.... some tell you nothing at all... it's a great secret I guess... oh, well.  I did it my way eventually anyway... they look pretty good to me and are never going to pop out of there.  Carpet and button thread made sure of that.

There was a bit more trimming...inside the ears... and a bit more needle felting to get some extra depth in there as well ...and a bit of shading with a dry water colour pencil.  Then, some trimming around the nose and cheek areas... and, a bit more shading.

Finally a length of ribbon which was too wide but which I folded in half and stitched down... made a running stitch along the length of it .. ruffled it and stitched it into position.  They say to put on an alligator clip to attach him to the tree... we'll see if I decide to do that or not.  He could just sit on any branch I'm sure.

Here he is ... still with test eyes and just his nose finally embroidered and finished .. like I say...looking very worried isn't he?   You can click on the pics to see them even larger.

And, now...here he is finished, with the pattern bear for comparison... yep, definitely has a more worried expression...


I love him....and have named him Timothy....

Once I put up the tree and have him in a place of honour... I'll take another pic of him of course.... but, for now... a bough I found recently will have to suffice.

Thanks to Andrea Brewer for her free pattern in the old magazine I found somewhere and hung onto for years.... I'm glad I finally tried him.

...in which I show you MY way to fix baldness....

Yep....I did it.  There I was merrily plucking out a few stray hairs and trying to clean up the nose area where I wanted to embroider his nose.   All of a sudden I realized I was looking at the fabric under the fur, not the fur...damn!!@#  Somehow just plucking on a few hairs had already gotten me too deep into it and the fabric was laid bare.   How could I have been so stupid?  I wasn't even in the exact centre of the nose for heaven's sake.  Me and my eyes.  Very frustrating.  Like I mentioned, they have gotten worse, and, even working with my big magnify9ing glass I still did a stupid thing.  Sigh......................so bloody annoying.

I was contemplating tossing the head in the bin.  Or wondering if I could just make a huge nose and cover up most of the mess...or maybe pluck out some on the other side and match up a bare patch and make a bare fabric snout surrounding the actual nose.  None of the those options appealed.

When Mister BumbleVee came home and asked how the bear making was going I told him my tale of woe.  He said, "Can't you just needle felt some fluff back in?"  HUH??@#!  How the heck would he think of that?  And, of course, at first I poo-poo'ed the idea saying it was rayon and it would probably leave big holes in the fabric and I didn't think it possible to get any kind of result..etc...  but, then, I thought about it and did dig out some felting needles and plucked out some of the rayon curly fluff from near a cut edge of the fabric I was using and needled some into the bare patches.  SUCCESS!!  Wow.  that really worked.

He had remembered that I needle felted a nose onto my scratty bunny.. and figured it could be done on any other animal I suppose.  I do remember doing Eddy, but it was lovely mohair and you can needle felt to your heart's content on that and not ruin it.... rayon, I was not so sure about.  But, I'm hear to tell you....it can be done.  It doesn't look quite the same even when I try really hard to find some shiny new long pieces of fluff..and, try not to needle it much .. so the curls stay a bit...but, it covered up the bare patches and looks great.  His whole snout area looks lighter anyway for some reason...probably because I did snip and trim things a bit ..trying for a nicer shape to the snout.

Click on the pics for close ups....the eyes and also the nose are "test eyes" ... things will move or change in size for sure.  And, his nose will be embroidered.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the bald patches .. so you could see how wrecked the poor little guy was.  But, I do have photos of the fixed areas...and, I can't even tell you where they were really.   Somebody looked petty smug when I showed him the result.   There was a big cheesy grin.  He totally expects to get equal billing when we tell anybody I made the little bear head ornament on the tree I'm sure... and, well....he should....

It's weird when you think your guy is not really paying much attention to what you are doing hobby wise...and, then... they remember some reeellly important thing to help out when you totally forget about ever having done it.   Strange that........ he's definitely a keeper.

This is the first bear I made with this rayon fabric.  A wobble jointed bear named Leonard..he has a ladybug on his foot.  I knew it was a bit tricky to work with ...but, I went ahead with him anyway and he turned out fine.  Very cute actually... so I thought I would use it again.  IT gets a bit matted and flattened after handling and honestly, with rayon? ..you cannot, and I mean CANNOT just fluff it up or brush it out...it fuzzes terribly!  So... my advice ... mostly don't use it.  The chin gusset is part of this guy's nose area...it is softest suede as are the paw pads.

This is what I plucked out to use for needle felting into his nose... the edge bits of some of the fluff.  If I tease it out gently...it doesn't fuzz or get dull .. and, then..try to needle it in with a bit of curl in place.  Tricky, but only jabbed myself one time...ouch... those needles are reeeeellllly sharp..  and then, you do have to wait a bit for the bleeding to stop before continuing.

Here is my Scratty Eddy bunny that I made years ago.  The white snout is all needle felted wool with a pink embroidered nose.   It felts easily into lovely mohair like this...but, I wasn't sure about how the rayon would hold together for repeated stabbing ...somehow it did just fine.

head first into the fray......

Now, this is the way to spend an hour working on a little bear.

Some patterns and some bear makers stitch from tip of nose down to the neck area first and then stitch in the head gusset.  Some stitch on the head gusset piece first..I guess it depends upon which you prefer after you have made a couple of bears, or which you learned first or whatever...I totally forget which I learned first or if I just followed directions for patterns and then... forgot about them and did it my way.  I seem to stitch up the nose to neck first a lot of the time.  But, then..it does seem to be a bit of a wrestling match to get the gusset to line up perfectly ...altough, it is tough either way.
Can't say one or the other is easier for me.

I stitched up the second side of the head on this day... which is always a bit of an eye opener.  You more or less have to stitch from the top side of the gusset down to the underneath side of it with each tiny stitch, as compared to the other side...which seems to be from the bottom to top if you get my drift.  It has to be because you are going in the opposite direction, but can't just back-stitch from left to right instead of right to left.  Hmmm...  maybe you could... you know what ?..I've never tried that.  Maybe I could some day.

So.. totally confused?  Okay then...I'll just show you my head so far then...

This is normally just how I work.  A tiny cluttered space with my light, my "stuff" ..oh, and on this perfect day... Mr. BumbleVee poured me a little drink to sip as well.  Perfect.

It was a cold, snowy day and nice and cozy in the house.... a perfect way to spend an afternoon.

It looks a bit cluttered on the actual head as well doesn't it?  With all those alligator clips.... but, that is an easy way to hold the seam edges tightly together without having to grip it with fingers and thumb and make my hands reeeellly sore.   You just remove them as you get stitched right up to each one..or move one and re-organize the next one if a pucker or ruffle shows up... it is an ongoing process to get a head stitched up the way I like it.

As I mentioned in my previous post..the head is actually stitched together now...and I put in some stuffing...but, I will have to load up some new pics ...so you can see that next.  Patience people.... patience.....hahahha... what am I saying?  I have no patience at all myself... ....I want things now and I mean right NOW! .. but here I am expecting everybody else to wait.  BAD me.... bad me.....

But, there was drama with the nose area.... trauma and difficulties ensued...problems were overcome and I am back in the driver's seat...

Off I go now to stitch up an ear ....

and...............next time I tell you the story of how I made the poor little guy's muzzle instantly bald with just a few plucks...

And sew, it begins......

After many years of not making any bears (or dolls either for that matter) ... and sort of letting this blog become a lot more about birds than bears..... I have begun a bear head.  Woohooo... the "Bearister" lives again!

My eyes have gotten a lot worse, but I can still manage to do a bit of stitching.  Alright!  So, Maggi, my bear making buddy, and I, decided on a short project.  Only a head really.

It is a freebie Andrea Brewer design for a Christmas ornament from an ancient bear making magazine.  A bear head with a ruffle.  So, it shouldn't take too long and maybe even a second one could be done before the big day.  I want to put them on the tree...and, it isn't that far off now is it?

I also have a wonky elbow and man, pinching the pieces together with fingers and also gripping my needle in the usual.... " grip of death"... neck and elbow were pretty sore after my first hour working on it.

Somehow, I need to give up worrying about every stitch being perfect and trying so hard to make sure every hair is tucked into the seams, etc... but, it's tough to do when you are totally anal.   Yeh....I know myself well.......

Click on any pic to see even larger...

Anyway... here is the pic of the pattern and also of the head I have begun..

The fur used on the pattern is mini bear fabric and although it looks very furry... that fabric is pretty flat unless photographed right up close.  And, I don't have a colour I like in that fabric anyway right now..so I chose this curly oatmeal coloured rayon instead.  It will be cute I'm sure even though it looks more like an Alpaca or a sheepdog at the moment...





It is now stuffed and ready for nose plucking before I embroider a nose.  She made a clay nose....but, eh...I still like to embroider them...so will do that.

Watch this space as they say...whoever 'they' is......

Why did I give them hair? ....

.................but, ....I like playing with their hair...........and they like it too..... look at those smiles.....

......see..........??

oh, alright .......

I'll have to admit...I like playing too......... with the beads.... and, they do seem pretty happy with all of it ...so I guess it's okay.........

 ....   carry on playing then.........

Dotee Dolls ... the beading .....

One of the most fun parts of a Dotee is the beading.  Well, it is for me anyway.  I love making the "danglies" and the hangers.  It's fun to arrange the lovely colours to complement the dolly.

Over the past few months a friend and I have been doing a lot of origami ornaments.. she saw some of mine before Christmas and wanted to learn how to fold and assemble...I was thrilled to have somebody to play with..so we spent many an enjoyable hour doing those.  Now, I'm making some in Easter colours...for my Easter Tree.  They have a little gold thread to hang them....with beads on it to complement the colours of the papers of the ornaments.

 I seemed to acquire lots of colours and sizes ..but, you can never have too many beads, right?  They are even fun just to look at and run your fingers through.
Last week, with my 50% off coupon at Michael's, I got this.

A whole container with thousands of seed beads...   whopping total ....  $19.49.  I bought a fairly large string of them at the bead store for $7.00 a month ago...  ...but..... they were all the same colour.  So, if I bought only 3 strings of beads in different colours... I would already have spent $21... what a bargain.

It is a good idea to scrutinize every aspect of it very carefully though...and to make sure how to open each of the containers so as not to spill out any ...(or plenty!) of the seed beads.  Trust me on this.  You turn the carousel on it's side and jiggle and shake it back and forth gently to make sure all the beads are settled into their various compartments.. BEFORE opening the lid.   And, then, when you close the lid... make sure it is done properly and is securely fastened.  See that little crevice in the photo below? (on the red beads) ... a lot of tiny beads can fall out of that opening!  And ... they did!  'Til I figured it out.  Much blue air ensued after the first careless closing.  I failed to realize that the lids fit just so, and must accommodate the corner tabs inside the lid properly, before trying to close the snap tabs on the outside of the lid.   And beads must not be on those little dividers either ..or the lid doesn't close properly.  It's a good system and it works ..if you pay attention.  Just sayin'......... if you buy one .... make certain you have it figured out ... please...

 Then, get a glass of wine and do some beading...oh, just a minute ...I'm empty... hang on I'll go for a refill.... .................  .........................  ......................

Don't you love my clutter?  It's the way I work.  Everything within easy reach ... and as I know you are aware ..all of a sudden, all of it is all over the place.  Soon I'm working in a pretty small space ... like ..  about 8 X 8 ....inches, that is!

Works for me.

It's still kinda organized....  (the ex-dental assistant) ..hahhaha....

....   and don't think I don't use every single tool on that mat either.  They are indispensable.  Every single one of them.


Of course, there is doubt, consternation and downright curiosity from various onlookers....

Well, of course, not everybody is interested in beading.....

Each to his own ........

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you all make it a happy one in some way or other  ....

Today I read ..if you don't have huge expectations for it ...you will be happier.  That sounds good.

I always think too much is made of certain days of the year ...mostly to generate sales of anything and everything... and we fall for it ..of course.

Days like Mother's Day and Valentine's Day.... hmmm.... we should make those days special all year 'round.  Well, that's how I feel about it anyway.

Here are a couple little furry guys to wish you all a Happy Heart Day.

Tuffy, Posie and Scruffy... playing with the heart cookie cutters.  Think they are lobbying for cookies? .... oh, yeh....

And.... here are some chocolate dipped strawberries....... yummmmmmmm

Little Darla says please have one.... "they're luvly"....
                                                                                 


... and, some chocolate covered cherries....... why not?

I'm giving them all to you ... because... right now I am on a chocolate, wine and coffee hiatus..... sigh...
My gut is giving me grief and I am trying to figure out what is causing it.  And, I definitely am not giving up breads and cookies or thinking gluten right away  ...forget that !!  I'll give up the other three before I give up bread.
I love breads...as a matter of fact...today I am baking pretzels... a first time for me but had to give it a go after seeing some my neighbour guy baked ... Trevor, the Renaissance man.... baking and cooking and .... well, he does it.... so why can't I? ....

'Tis the season to be.... sparkly!!

... and, I've been making more origami ornaments like I do each year since I learned how to make them.  I love doing them and using pretty foil type wrapping papers.  My neighbour gifted me a strip of beautiful, sparkly, almost fabric like paper...wow...it folds wonderfully and looks great!

Yesterday I heard some little noises in the front room and poked my head around the corner to see what it was.....


(click to enlarge them!)

Uh, oh.... sure enough, there were these two on the coffee table... playing with the half done papers ............  Tuffy deciding it must be a party hat .... but, then...  complaining because it was waaaay too big for his little head.

..... then, more muttering....something about,'who the heck was it for anyway'? ....

Frikkles, on the other hand, decided he would claim the one with turquoise and pink papers.... because it matched his big ol' hand made glass bead..... and ...he loves that colour!

I tried to explain to them that they were actually ornaments for the tree .... and, now .....they are lobbying to sit next to them in the tree when I hang them........ hmmmmmmm... trouble comes in all sizes ........

Hedging his bets.....

Bernie isn't taking any chances.  He's heard about the Easter Bunny .... but, lately he's been seeing ads on tv talking about the Easter Chicken... and now, he wonders, "who really brings the eggs"? ..

Never one to wait 'til it's too late.... it looks like he found a little pair of bunny ears for his buddy chicken..... he's a clever bear he is ...especially when it comes to chocolate...or "choklit" as his buddy Bob calls it...

I don't really care who or what brings mine...as long as I get sum......

Snow, snow, ....and ....more snow!!

This is a reeeellly big snow year so far.  See those pots in the picture above in the header? ...here they are now.... who can even tell they are pots anymore?

We are nowhere finished with our snowy months.... good thing my arm is working much better this year....I'm definitely getting my shovelling exercise!  Don't get me wrong ...I do love being out in the pristine white stuff ... it is so lovely and quiet; even the sound of cars passing by is muffled by the fluffy deep stuff we have now.  The problem is, I can't throw it much higher in some areas..so, I've resorted to shovelling it all towards the road.  Forget trying to pile it any higher.... I was even using my sister's technique for piling manure ... sort of flattening the cone at the top of the pile every so often to make the hill wider instead of too narrow ... which is when the balls of you-know-what roll right off with every forkful and end up at your feet again (or...worse yet, on them!...'course, usually you are wearing boots so it's not that big a deal.. ) Luckily my rolling snow balls were just that ...snow.... ..

But, the hills were still getting too steep and too conical... just the perfect sledding hills ...or so the guys thought.... and it wasn't long before several of them got out there even if it is -17C..... wheeeeeee...........
 "Hang on Gingy"....!!  it's pretty steep .... and almost as high as a house!

Not to be left out ....  these two found another sled ....and downnnnnn they went too....

"Let's go again"......

...hellllllppppp!!

Okay guys .... time to come in now...my fingers are getting numb .....

Merry Christmas!

Bernie settled in early on Christmas Eve to see the sparkly tree.... of course, it wasn't sparkly when he first got there and settled in to his favourite viewing spot.  It was still daytime.  I think he was a bit over eager.

Nonetheless, he did get the best seat in the house. And, soon...was rewarded for his patience.

oh, wow...........

ooooh....... yeh...........

uhm, Bernie.............

It's bed time, man......... c'mon............