My place and Yours- Where I sleep

( on me)

on the hot water heater

on some mohair i was just about to use

and her favourite the modem
Well not technically me, but the sleep champion of the family.

Vic said we could use some creative license!

More sleepy arrangements here.

Aha! found the real Derek Wildstar in action

He's the one in the red and white with the groovy styled haircut whos leading a bit

Widget

The bears that I make fall into 4 categories. They are the crazy psycho bears, the sweet sensitive gentle bears, the boy bears and the daggy dorky dweeby bears.

Widget here definitely falls into the last category. He is one big dag. Widget ( i seem to be on a real kick of calling bears after cartoon characters) like his name sake is deeply into all things space. He's the sort of bear that would spend all his lunchtimes in the library studying, or reading and finding out about everything there possibly is about his latest passion.

Don't get me wrong I'm very fond of a dag and am one big dag myself.

ON the making side of things, i was particularly proud of the colour I dyed the mohair, though I really can't take any credit for it, as it happened by accident. I was dying some red mohair and green mohair in my usual ageing solution. And usually when I dye two lots with one pot of , I dye the dark colour first as the lighter colour will need less dye. I followed that logic and dyed the red first and then made the mistake of following it with the green. But as you can imagine the red dye from the mohair ran into the pot and hence I have this greeny yellowy, browny colour.

he also have different eyes than I normally use, but I'm quite liking them for a change, and a different shaped body than usual , more a jelly bean type body.

For more creative spaces visit the home of creative spaces

PS Oh there must be someone out there who remembers or knows Widget ? PLEASE?

My place and Yours- My Pincushion

I've had my pincushion for 10 or 12 years. He is one of the first things I made when I was starting make bears. He was inspired by the early steiff elephant pincushions, which were amoung the first things Steiff made ( actually the first toy Margarete Steiff ever made which is a nice parallel being one of the first toys I made too)

And not to worry he once had ears but over his 10 or 12 year life span of being pinned and transported about the place, he lost them.

Unlike a lot of things I've made in the past, which I'm quite often embarrassed by, I love my pincushion. And I know I could make a better one now , i love his wonkiness and to be honest i find his lack of ears rather endearing. He is a reminder of where I've come and he's been with me and served me well for such a long time.

Despite my attachment him, i was shocked to realise this morning that he doesn't have a name.

Except Ear less Elephant Pincushion, and when I tried to think of another name none seemed to suit him as well ;)

I also have a second pin cushion because of my wonderful capacity to loose things ( or ELEP goes walk about - you decide), Which I also made 12 years ago now, when I was at the Embroiderers Guild. I figure by having two , I'm doubling up my chances of having one pincushion on me at all times. However I've found this logic doesn't always work, and they often both get lost at the same time.

as you can see both my pincushions are quite well loved, and stuffing covered- inevitable I guess when you are a toy maker.

To Peak at more pincushions, pop over to Vic's.

Derek Wildstar

If your family is anything like mine, there are those stories of when you were a little kid, or when your parents met that you hear over and over again, stories that are part of family folklore that become famous and alot of them as you as you start to hear them you want to block your ears, you've heard them so many times.

One such story ( tho I like this one) is when I was 4 and was in the park with my mum, a lady asked me " what's your name and how old are you"

I answered very adamantly " Derek Wildstar and I'm 17".

For those of you who don't know who Derek Wildstar is , (which i'm assuming is all of you as my entire adult life i have not met someone who does) Derek Wildstar was the main character in a Japanese Anime series Star Blazers that i was obsessed with. For a while i actually began to believe Derek Wildstar was a figment of my imagination, because no one had ever heard of him, but then good old google proved that I had created this character out of thin air.

Derek Wildstar became one of my nicknames, that and Derek the Dwaddler as I was known to trail behind the others on family walks, off in my own world.

When I was making and then finished this little bear, he struck me as a Derek, and a bit of Wildstar at that. A bit cheeky, a bit innocent , a real "boy bear " if you know what I mean.

PS If there is anyone out there who like me was obsessed with Derek Wildstar as a child, please come forward, or who has even heard of him.

because I can't help myself

thank you so much for all your lovely comments and advice about my losing my faith.

It really was so sweet of you guys.

But it seems I can't help myself.

I know probably i should have made something else new as one wonderful person suggested, but the thing is i couldn't think of anything i wanted to make other that what i was struggling to make. I wasn't inspired by anything else, and when I thought of anything else my heart wasn't in it. And in my experience things don't turn out so good when my heart isn't in it.

the thing is things have been a bit rough over here at late, life has thrown up some challenges and difficulties ( not related in anyway to losing faith in myself) and it's at these times I need my making more than ever and my heart needs to be in that making. Because it is a form of therapy in it's own way. if that makes any sense

so slowly over the week i've been working on this little guy, while doing some crochet here and there, a new old one , a variation on a pattern I've been working with for a while that i feel Im getting somewhere with ( but still needed some tweaking)

And my heart feels happy that I'm persisting, and i might just be feeling happier with him too.

who knows,too early to tell, but it feels good to be getting back to it.

My place and yours : on the shelf.

WOOHOO for Vic bringing back the old favourite meme. My place and yours.

This week's theme is On the Shelf ( something people could say of me hehe)

mine is technically not a shelf but on the mantle.

This is the mantle in my bedroom, and every time I look at it it makes me smile or feel happy. I guess there are no surprises here for you. Favourite bear cards, my mum's childhood cat ( mummy cat) two tiny old bears,an advent calender in the shape of house that I can't bear to put away , an old wind in the willows set of felt figures, an old wooden peg doll, an old mammoth ( bellboy) whose vertically challenged, various cups and saucer and other bits and pieces ( you may want to click on the photo to see a bigger pic)

I also had pretty much the same set up on the mantle of my old bedroom, and made sure to try to have the same things, because it made me instantly feel at home looking at them

TO join in and see other shelves go here.

Losing faith

It seems I'm experiencing a loss of fatih.

A loss of believe in my own skill, my ability. I was not that happy with the last bear I made. and that bear like every bear i make had a lot of me in him and then suddenly to finish him and dislike him feel disheartening . And then a failed head, and trying to figure out where I went wrong, what to fix and feeling clueless and hopeless. the sneaking doubt " have I lost it" or " did i ever really have it" etc. the self doubt and worry.

that other people don't see what you're unhappy at some level doesn't help or change your mind.

You ( I) have to be happy or Happier.

i know everyone has these days or weeks, and I know I've had a lot, but it doesn't mean it's any easier each time.

i know there are lots of more things in the world though, it's just can be a bit disheartening.

Hope your creatings going well.

xo

PS sorry to be so somber.

patience is a virture

Remember this guy? I told you his body was on the way.

Admittedly everything took a bit longer with him than usual ( whatever "usual") is, being delayed by sickness ( feeling heaps better) and catching up after being out of the world for a while, major wobbles of him , of course the odd bit of head obsessing and then the last minute "fear" of finishing him off. Do you ever get that weird fear of finishing off something you've worked for a long time on and is something important to you?

But Bear patiently waited and waited until his maker was ready and able to put him together to complete him and make him whole.

And now he'll patiently wait for his soul mate over here.

cosied up

I am very guilty of many of getting all excited about granny squares and the idea of rugs or cushions, but then after crocheting up a few, I loose heart ( it's not a bear or animal or something 3d with life) and give up. I've been guilty of doing this more than once and hence I have a large collection of single granny squares.

while I've always been to lazy or toy obsessed to do anything with them, the thought of throwing them out or even giving them away ( especially as they are in varying degrees of neatness, so I'm not sure they would be much a "gift" for the someone).

SO they sit there unused, except for performing the task as a lap rug to the occasional ami who feels the cold.

But then I was lucky enough to receive an iphone for my birthday and so there was the whole issue of how to keep it safe and protected ( and warm)

and 3 granny squares crocheted together and folded over was a quick and easy and cheap way to provide said Ipod with a cosy. Not the neatest and certainly on the wonky side of things. But a cosy none the less.

Now what to do with the remaining 16....

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