It's Friday!

Hi Georgie, I thought you would like this picture - the purple is soooo pretty. Thank goodness it's Friday. You are sleeping now but I'm sure you will read this tomorrow morning. Have a wonderful weekend my little darling.

Up, up and away .....

Did I mention .... that Ed and I have been invited to go up in a hot air balloon?? I am SO excited and cannot wait for the weekend of 7th Feb. How absolutely romantic!! Will take lots and lots of pics.

Art??

I'm trying my hand at art - altered art and collage. Completed this a few days ago but on completion I realised it's very bland and contrived. But I enjoyed creating it and I'll pursue this craft - need to do a lot more research though. What attracts me is that there are no boundaries, no rules and one can try simply anything. It certainly brings out the child in me.

Do you like my collage Georgie? You can ask your mom to help you make your own. Choose a whole bunch of pictures and then past them all together with bits of ribbons and buttons and colour in the pictures. I highlights bits on my lady's dress with a purple felt pen!!!

Josh

Josh, my third mini bear and he is very cute - a real little teddy bear. He looked as if he should be a winter bear so I quickly knitted his scarf and attached a little button to it.

Winnie the Pooh

I have never read any of the Winnie the Pooh tales! So I decided that I would buy a book and start learning about this little bear. My book arrived and I am thoroughly enjoying the stories of his escapades with his friends. I also completed a mini bear yesterday and I am so chuffed with him. He looks like a winter bear so I quickly knitted him a scarf as well. His name is Josh and I am thrilled with him. Tomorrow I'll post a picture of Josh for you to see.

Enjoy Australia Day Georgie!!!!

Sweet thoughts

Iwas going to talk about Winnie the Pooh but then I had very sad news this morning and I would rather think of our guardian angels. This porcelain object of two little angels making gold wedding rings was on my aunty's wedding cake 70 years ago! These angels are too adorable and they have absolutely no chips or kinks and are in perfect condition. Even the gold on the ring and the anvil is still untarnished with no scuff marks. Evadne, may the angels carry you on their wings until you are well again.

Milo meets Vivian Rose

Milo meets Vivian Rose and she thinks he is a very handsome fellow and takes him to meet the other bears in the hug. Milo is going to be so happy in his new home. We are now waiting to hear whether Joshua will join the hug. I do hope so! Hold thumbs Georgie that Joshua also comes to stay. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Favourite things

I believe that the cure for depression, sadness, anxiety, etc is surrounding myself with lovely objects - things I love and love to look at. And I usually find that they are small objects and quite often, useless objects. But nevertheless they bring such pleasure into my life. For many years I had forgotten this simple cure and I had forgotten that I love to create lovely things. And I had forgotten that my mother was a very good crafter and taught me to love crafts. Now these things have been remembered - pulled out from somewhere deep and the more I get involved with my crafts, the happier I become. Every time I use my sewing machine I think of my mother. Everytime I use her huge, gorgeous, expensive pair of material scissors, I think of her and every time I complete a little bear I think of her and the smile she would have on her face. For the first time in my life I feel that I am my mother's daughter and that she would now actually like me and approve of me. She always loved me dearly but approval .... not quite ...

Now how on earth did I get to my mother when I started with beautiful objects? It's not really surprising because she taught me to love beautiful objects too! So here are a few that I see every day and they give me great pleasure.

The arrival of Milo

Little Milo arrived this morning. I collected him and brought him to my office with me. I'm sure Vivian Rose is going to extremely happy when she sees him later this afternoon. He is quite the fellow is my Milo!

Augusta Sue

My first little girl bear! I first gave her a pink nose and she looked like a piggy so I had to change it to black. After I made her I was looking at the Bumpkin Bears Website and found this little bear who must be family of Augusta Sue!

Grandma Remembers

Seeing Georgia again last month made me realise how quickly time passes and that I need to continue working on my journal "Grandma Remembers" if I want to complete it by the time she is 16! I have to dig up many childhood and youth photographs of myself and last night I found these two, probably taken in 1959. The photo on the left shows a very very old car in the background. The teddy I am holding was a Christmas present and he was big and bright yellow and very beautiful. I certainly wish that I had kept him.

Sewing Circle

Georgia, I think you will love this picture of the little bunnies sewing. I wonder what they are sewing ... probably clothes for their children. Remember the day you and I went to buy all my sewing stuff from Spotlight? Whenever I look at the little buttons I think of you saying that they will be nice on the clothes for the bears. Well, I used one of those buttons on the cone I made. Have a good look and you will see it on the righthand side of the cone.

A bear and a cone

I completed my little bear yesterday. A catastrophe! I made him back to front so he is now sitting on his tummy. Poor little thing!

I also made this little cone which I saw on some else's blog. I will fill it with yummy chocs and give it to one of my friends as a New Years token.

Abigail

The little princess.

The fast and the furious

My friend Karen gave me this lovely creature as a Christmas gift. We were in Durban for the Currie Cup Final when I saw the cheetah in a shop display and commented on how beautiful she is. A little later Karen disappeared to the loo! Then lo and behold when I opened my pressies for Christmas, there was the cheetah in all her glory. She really is gorgeous.

Some cute Ozzie pics ....

Some random pictures taken in Australia on our visit recently.

Through Candy's window

For some reason I just wanted to post this picture. This is what Candy sees when she is at her computer, skyping me. It somehow makes me feel closer to her.

Milo

I have found a companion for Vivian Rose. His name is Milo and he should be arriving in about 10 days' time. Georgie, do you think Vivian Rose will like Milo?

This is Vivian Rose. She came to stay with me as soon as we arrived back from Australia. This little girl bear was brought to life by Megan Chamberlain and she is every mm as beautiful as this picture. She resides in my guest room and every so often I sneak in to pay her a visit and I take great delight in just looking at her. I seriously think she needs a little companion! What do you think of her Georgie? Isn't she gorgeous?

New Beginnings

My new hair cut ...

My little studio ...

Home Sweet Home

We are back in SA and have recovered from the jetlag, thank goodness. We had some very strange experiences on our trip home from Australia. On Friday night when we landed in Sydney we were unable to find any affordable accommodation and decided to spend the night at the airport, not knowing that the airport shuts down at about 22h30. We spent the night with a band of backpackers, literally in a cordoned off corner with access to the carpark (for the smokers), toilets and vending machines selling cooldrinks and chips and chocs. What a long night. I was unable to sleep so I sat and listened to the backpackers telling each other tales of their travels. They came from far and wide - such interesting young people. Eventually the morning came and Ed and I had coffee at Starbucks at 06h00 and at 07h30 when we were waiting to check in for our flight, we were informed by a Qantas customer person that we had been upgraded to Business Class. Despite our exhaustion we were all smiles and had a wonderful journey back home, feeling very posh indeed.

I feel I have earned the title of non-smoker. I spent three weeks with three very active smokers and survived some hair times in our travels. The worst being when I had to get onto that plane at Rockhampton Airport. I turned around to wave and both my daughter and granddaughter were crying and I thought I was going to choke, suffocate and then die ... and I desperately wanted a cigarette but I didn't smoke, so yes, I am now a non-smoker.

Tomorow I go back to the office and my New Year's Resolutions are to be as happy as possible every single day, to be kind, to be generous of spirit, to be forgiving and to make a really good bear.

I now need to go to sleep, so goodnight Georgie, I love you and miss you endlessly.

As soon as I get myself organised I'll post some photos of Oz.