So much seems to happen in a day that I sometimes just can't seem to find the time to write my blog. So apologies to all the friends waiting for an update.
I have been busy working on bears for orders and for shops so just haven't had a chance to make a new bear for eBay. I did finish a little girl dressed in pink yesterday but then she found a home with a friend who had come to pick up another bear she had ordered. They just looked so cute standing together they had to go as companions.
This is Bluebell, look out for her on Bear Paths website.
Bronwen and I have still been looking for a new place to live and today we were successful. We will be moving near Stratford in London, it is the east side of London not far from Leyton. We are in a house share but will have a lovely big room to share. There is a garden for Max when he is released from quarantine and there is a parking for the other new addition in our lives.
We have a car, a tiny Nissan Micra that is rather old and luckily was dirt cheap (of course there is a reason for this)
This car has been around a bit and seen better days and sometimes drives like a spastic chicken but so far we are getting around okay. And no I haven't learnt to drive in the last few months, Bronwen is designated driver but it is something that I promise will happen in the future.

I am off to France on Saturday to do a bit of cat sitting while Wendy (Mom) and Dad come over here to sort stuff out. I am looking forward to going, I get to spend time with my parents and the kitties, who I miss so much. I am sure I will be roped into mowing lawns but it is good exercise and Wendy and I can plan the bears for the Stratford Bear fair and maybe finally start working on some new kits.

I have a new bear on eBay, if you have a minute please go and have a look at 'Cooper'. I made him out of the new cashmere type fabric from Sassy Bears, it is so lovely and soft you really just want to rub the fabric all the time.

So onto the saga of the house move. Yesterday Bronwen and I caught the tube down to Canada Water and then a bus to a rather strange area called South Bermondsey. We met a very nice man who took us to see two places.
Number 1: was a short walk away from the office, this was advertised as a studio with garden. Well we walked in the front door of this building and where met with the most disgusting smell. Walked through this house out to the back and we are met with what used to be the garden and is now a wooden hut built to look like a sauna, I kid you not, he opened the door and we both nearly passed out from the heat trapped in the room. A room with a shower in one corner and the bathroom in the other, you could just about swing a cat (please don't try this at home) and only bump his head a couple of times and we have to share this space (remember it is a double studio) Oh and we mustn't forget the garden, in front of this shed is a decked area about 1 1/2 metres by 2 1/2 metres and the best part of all is that when you look over the waist height wall you look straight down onto railway tracks. Well we were very polite and said, could we have a look at the other place advertised.
Number 2: we had to go for a short drive and sweet as this man was he was the most appalling driver. So risking life and limb we arrive in what looks like an industrial area with some rows of flats on one side of the road and businesses on the other and at the very end a very dilapidated looking house. This is also advertised as a studio with a garden. Inside the entrance hall is okay, the room is very nice, kitchen is to one side and there is space to have two beds and two desks and the bathroom is not the size of a cupboard but the garden has mysteriously vanished and the street looks like a gangland movie set.

So we very nicely say thank you and we will think about it and then get out of there as fast as we can walk. The worst thing is that these two 'studio' rooms each have an asking price of £740 a month. So back to the house hunting, I am not a snob but that just seems like daylight robbery to me.
We have to find somewhere by the end of May as that is when the lease runs out on this flat and we will be homeless so please hold thumbs and think good thoughts that we can find a new place soon. We are also looking outside of London as the job hunting is not going great here either and at least it is cheaper to live out of London.

Saturday was my sister's birthday but unfortunately there were only the two of us to celebrate and not having much money means we kept things very ordinary. She went to visit Max in quarantine and I spent the day stitching bears but we had a good dinner and a cupcake each for a birthday cake.
The real treat was on Sunday when we went to the Scrapbooking and Stamp Show at Alexandra Palace. The photos are of the venue, the building is absolutely beautiful and we meant to take more photos but we got waylaid inside and just never got around to it. The scenery is also incredible as it is so high up here you feel as if you can see the whole of London, it was lovely weather on the day so a lot of people where out and about in the park.

The show opened at 10:00 and we where there at about 10:30. We each had a tiny little bit of spending money and we started looking at stands. I had said to Bronwen that we would most probably be out of there by lunch time as I was sure that we could look at the 60 stands very quickly, well at 4:00 (closing time) we staggered out of there totally exhausted having made it around all the stands. I spent a bit more than the budget but came home with some lovely ribbon, paper and buttons. Bear in mind that I don't do scrap booking but I still have a need to collect all the lovely stuff. My sister could have brought so much if money permitted but we had a wonderful day. I now understand what a big craft show is like, we never had anything like this in South Africa.

Today we are back to normal business and the house and job hunting continues. At least amid all the chaos and uncertainty we have good days to remember. Who knew when we started planning this move over two years ago that the world would be so different now. I think it is just a case of staying positive and eventually things will work out. So on that note, back to the bear making and hopefully I will have some new photos to show you at the end of the week.

I seem to do my blog updates a week apart, totally unintended but a bit strange. All sorts of things have been happening, still no luck with the moving, who knew prices where still so high in London, the frustrating thing is that it is only sort term that we are wanting to stay here, as soon as possible we want to move out of London, but I will just have to persevere and see what happens.
The most worrying news is that my sister's dog Max has got kennel cough from the dreadful place he is having to stay in for quarantine. They really are the most useless and awful place, it started off with two dogs getting sick and now almost all the dogs have got it. Luckily he is a very healthy dog and managed to fight the infection off until this week. Yesterday he was showing a very slight improvement. The time till his release date can't come soon enough.

The only real sightseeing we have done this past week is that I took my sister to Piccadilly Circus, no photos to show you as she took them all and I just haven't got around to asking her for some copies. We have also been exploring below the river in the South of London but still no photos, I have been a bit lazy about taking the camera with me.

This is 'Pippin' a new little bear on eBay, if you have a minute please go and have a look. I love this pattern, it makes such a beautiful round handful of a bear.

I have also been busy in some of my spare time with some cross stitch. This is a scissor fob that I have just finished. I must also try and find the time to do some more tatting before I get rusty and forget how to do it. I need more hours in every day to do all the things I want to, that is most probably such a familiar phrase that crafter's use. I have started taking my knitting on the tube with me and when I get a seat (which is not that often) I sit and knit the mini jerseys for the bears.
I ran out of stuffing and nose thread for my bears this week, luckily the lovely Amanda from Sambrook Bears has come to the rescue and I will have stuffing again and the nose thread is on its way from a internet craft shop so the bears are back in production.

Alright then, it has been rather a long time since I updated the blog, life is hectic and then some but more on this later. Photo above is 'Dandelion' my new little rabbit on eBay, he has just made it in time for Easter, I really didn't know if he would be finished in time.

Last Sunday I played tourist with my sister Bronwen, I have been lucky to come to London for many years but this is her first visit so we had to have a look at some of the sights. It was a lovely sunny day (yes I can hear the laughing - given my hatred of sunny climates I did say that)
we went to Westminster to have a look at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. The photo below even has the Millennium Wheel in the background.

We had a lovely time walking around looking at all the old buildings, even managed to cope with all the tourists. We luckily managed to see all of this before the protesters blocked the roads off the next day.

The reasons that I am so frantic is that besides trying to make the bears and look for a job I am also trying to find somewhere else for my sister and I to live. We are living in the flat that I was sharing with my brother but it is too small for all of us and we need to have somewhere on our own. Renting in London is not fun, it is so expensive but it won't be for ever, once Wendy can bring the cats over we will move out of London. So that is my story for the week, hold thumbs that either I or my sister can get a job soon, it will make our lives a lot easier.

In the meantime it is Easter this weekend so I think we need to venture out somewhere for some sightseeing and I have a whole pile of little bears waiting to be jointed.
Just one final photo, this is The South Bank Lion. He is at the end of the bridge crossing the Thames River, I had to have a photo of a cat in my blog somewhere.