Christmas Bears

The Christmas bears are done and can be seen on our web page if anyone is interested. I am so happy with how they look and Wendy has made a couple of beautiful ones for the collection.

I had a lot of fun making them but also some stress, I can laugh about it now but there were some tense times. Over the years Wendy and I have just brought whatever craft supplies we needed and because we had a dedicated workroom I just didn't think about how lucky we are. When I wanted something be it ribbon, paint, all sorts of scrap booking supplies ( I don't do scrap booking but I have an enviable collection of stuff that is used for the bears but all in South Africa) etc, we had it on hand and the only problem was remembering where we had stored it.
Well of course when I moved I had two suitcases to fill and that was it, now I know I can do without a lot of things but some clothes are necessary and there wasn't a lot of space available. I packed as much fabric and basics that I could and didn't think about all the decorating that we do on our bears.
Fast forward to now and I have a modest collection of ribbon, embroidery thread and knitting yarn, a half full bottle of glue and one tin of dye. Sounds pathetic but I have lots of fabric and that is the most important thing. I really wanted to make special bears for Christmas and herein lies the tale.
The Christmas Santa looks so lovely all in cream with the vintage lace on his clothes but I had to buy gold paint and a paintbrush ( I can add that to my stash now).
The Victorian cone ornament was an amazing idea I saw on this blog http://the-feathered-nest.blogspot.com/
I thought it would be so pretty with a bear sitting inside the cone hanging on a Christmas tree. I managed to buy the card on eBay and thought it would be easy to do the rest. I went out to buy glitter and couldn't find it anywhere, time was running out and I was getting desperate so I found some embossing powder and duly brought it home. I made the cone and then had to wander round holding it for half an hour because we don't have any clothes pegs which would have helped to hold it as the glue wasn't setting.
Now to make the holes for the ribbon, the punch that I could have sworn was in this house has disappeared down the rabbit hole so I had to use a knitting needle which I promptly bent.
I don't have anything to antique the cone with so I go back to the old standard, a teabag but am not concentrating properly and manage to get some very streaky lines but it looks okay. Now the embossing powder, Aleene's tacky glue doesn't like being watered down to spread on the cone so we have some bare patches when it is rolled in the powder, still okay. Now I have to heat it and the hair dryer is not hot enough so I have to resort to the stove top, it is interesting what goes through your mind when you are trying not to burn your fingers and get the powder to melt and of course my mind was wandering so it got a bit more toasted than I meant it to.

I would be surprised if anyone wanted to buy the poor bear now but for all the drama I am really happy with how it came out and am already planning to make a couple of cones to put on the Christmas tree - without bears at the moment.

The other sorry tale to tell is that I walked past the dining room table last night and managed to trip over the laptop power cable. I grabbed for the table and hit the glass of water sitting next to the computer which promptly fell onto the keyboard. Luckily it wasn't much water and the computer is still working which is such a relief because I have managed to kill one keyboard by 'throwing' water all over it.

Not long till I fly to Cape Town, I can't wait to see my parents again and most importantly my little poodle and the kitties.