Salt Spring updates

Friday August 24th

Early morning send off, then we went and had a coffee in TJ Beans and breakfast at home.

After a quick check in with Ian about the whales - or lack of - we packed a picnic and drove down to Ruckle Park and walked out to your point. 

Great spot to while away a few hours with a book, a camera and a nutter who decided to have a swim!

After having a horrible little snake scare the life out of me, 

we set off for home again - via Fulford Harbour and the ice cream shop. We had a nice look around the shops there and took in Burgoyne bay on the way home but too hot to walk again so headed for the supermarket instead to buy beer!

We enjoyed Susan's crawfish with pasta and cold beer.

Saturday 25th

Lazy start to the day and a chat with Karen and Greg then off to the wonderful market. 

We had a great time mooching round there and Keith bought me a lovely necklace and earrings made from pressed flowers but didn't buy me a wonderful woven wool rug ($325!!).

Got lovely salad stuff and g/f breads and came back for lunch on the patio in the sunshine.

Then headed off towards Vesuvius for a little walk in the woods and down a steep path to a beach with huge logs that made lovely sunloungers for a few hours while we read our books and sunbathed. Mr Warren of course, couldn't resist the sea despite not having swimming trunks with him so went for a swim in his pants!! He said it was really warm and it can't have been too bad cos there were quite a lot of people in the sea too.

We walked it to town to the Tree House for dinner but the wait was over half an hour for a table so after a look around the gallery opposite we came back and went to Harbour View (?) hotel and had their yummy lamb burger and salad.

Sunday 26th

Keith went for an early morning run to Long Harbour and then we went to the Anglican church opposite, and it reminded us why we don't do Anglican anymore! So boring  - should have waited an hour and done the baptist one instead! Enjoyed watching the chickadee birds in their garden during the sermon though! Thankfully we managed to get away without anyone being friendly and came home for coffee and breakfast and a sleep cos I was really weary. Nearly fell asleep in church!

After coffee and cinnamon bun revival, we took off for a little walk near Southey Point. It was lovely through the woods and down to the sea shore but the tide was in high so we couldn't finish the circle cos you need to go along the shore line and can only do it at low tide. So, we went back same way and drove to the first part of Southey Point we visited and settled down with our books to read for a few hours, watching the sea for signs of life. Chatted with a couple heading out in a little boat who saw whales there earlier in the week (tuesday) and dolphins played round their boat last week! Then we were lucky to spot a sea otter and watched him for a while - he tried hard to climb into a moored yacht which was very funny! It was joined by another and we watched them for ages hunting out at sea. Then after being pelted with pine cones by a squirrel high in the tree we headed off and stopped to watch and photograph some lovely deer by the roadside. 

A quick visit to the supermarket and Mr Warren was all set to be chef for the night, making salmon, prawns(shrimps!) saute potatoes and veg. Very pleasant!

An evening spent uploading photos and lots of oooh and ahhhs especially at the seal pictures!

What a lovely weekend

Gorgeous weather this weekend had us packing the dogs into the car and heading off for Seven Sisters near Eastbourne for a lovely walk to the beach. We followed the river at Cuckmere Haven, enjoying the wildlife along the way - especially the little white Egret who seems to live there! It was really hot and everyone else had shorts and t shirts on so we felt overdressed in jeans on that October Saturday afternoon! Alfie and Meg had to be on leads for the first part because of the sheep but then had a wonderful time sniffing about and running around on the beach while we sat and just watched the sea, filled our lungs with wonderful fresh air, and just unwound. Wonderful!

Here are some photos for you to enjoy too......

following the path beside the river down to the beach - about a mile of the most amazing meandering river.

Pretty windy at first but look at that lovely blue sky.....Alfie found a stick to chew!

Meg enjoying the beach all to herself (or so it looks!)

Blue sky, seaside, fresh air, my very own hunk and our 2 lovely dogs! Perfect!

SUCH EXCITEMENT!! New Website is working ☺☺☺

Oh I am so happy!!!

Its taken another 3 hours today, but finally, you can see the new website.

Its the first time I have been able to update it myself for over 2 years since I changed computer and lost all my files. I am incredibly grateful to Keith of MawsPaws who has been looking after it for me in the meantime, but now, Big Girl! I can do it myself again!!

Please have a look - its very simple for now and I am too scared to mess about with it again today, but its a start! You can see all the new bears too.

Have fun

Website updating frustration

Hello again

I am completely frustrated with my website - I just CAN'T upload the new bears to it so it is destined to remain out of date unless a knight in shining armour comes to my rescue!

In the meantime, I have been busy.

We had the most fantastic holiday ever, in SW France, close to Dordogne, Toulouse, Pyrenees sort of area and you just HAVE to go! www.salazarholidays.com and its even more amazing than it looks on the website.

More about that in another post though - for now, I have some new bears to introduce.

It is Hugglets Teddy Bear Festival on Sunday 12th September at Kensington Town Hall, London and it would be lovely to see you there if you are planning to go. Do come and say hello - top of the stairs right by the refreshments.

And finally!

Well, at last I have both time and creativity back again and yesterday I was delighted to spend some time at my bear making table in my bear making corner, and finally get started again.

I am beginning with two fun little Warren Bunnies - one is white and lavender and the other is pink and pink!! They will be little handful ones and hopefully ready to show off for you soon. It felt so good to get my hands in the mohair and the stuffing again, and this afternoon maybe I will even venture to needles and threads!

Life has been full and fun, with exams and trips to the beach in this gorgeous weather we have been enjoying, seeing friends, doing lovely soothing treatments for lots of people, and tonight - Cinders is off to the Ball! The Grosvenor House Hotel in London no less! So I am looking forward to that, and just thinking that maybe I have left it a bit late to think about getting hair and nails done as its lunchtime already. Why didn't it occur to me last week to book something! Oh well! Posh frock and high heels - that will have to do!

Anyway, I would rather be making rabbits today than sitting being fussed about! Come back later in the week and you may get to see one!

Time has flown whilst I have been having fun!

I have had a really busy, but wonderful, few months and here is a quick taster of whats been going on.......and before you get excited - absolutely NO bear making (sorry!)

We had 2 brilliant weeks with the Changfeet staying here. So many laughs and special treats, and now - very happy memories - despite Alana's swine flu episode!

We 3 girls had a great day out at the Radley shop, Liz Earle shop and then afternoon tea at the Dorchester (as you do!!) and we had a great evening out seeing Evita too. We joined with Vicky and Vianney for a day out in Bath and there were many fun evenings and silly games played too. Come back soon Changfeet, we love you! ♡☺♡

(and I am still trying to persuade Janet to start making her lovely Changle Bears again)

Meg is still as obsessed with her pond as she was last year. Much to Alana's disappointment, despite waiting with the camera for hours, she didn't oblige and fall in that time, but we got some sweet pics.

Andrew went off to Mexico at Easter with Urban Saints and Amor ministries on another house building mission and here is his finished house. We are so proud of him for all his amazing work fundraising, and then the actual build too. A family are happily living in it already.

I have been studying hard trying to get my head around chemistry for my aromatherapy qualification, but loving doing the treatments with all my wonderful essential oils. Its like being a witch!!! (well thats what my minister thinks anyway!)

And now I am a grand old lady of 50 having just celebrated my Birthday in the most beautiful place in the world, the Lake District. We had a lovely week, with gorgeous weather, lots of wonderful walks, red squirrels visiting most days, new born lambs all around and the gorgeous scenery and lovely food that makes it all so special up there!

And best of all was the knock on the cottage door on the afternoon of my Birthday and there were my children to see me!!! It was the most amazing surprise and treat ever! I am still stunned.

So thats why I haven't had time to make any bears for months!!

I promise to make one as soon as I can understand the chemistry and have learned all about the essential oils. SOON I hope!

I found this tonight, and thought I would share it with you.

Click for details!

Not going to Hugglets this time........... BUT!!!!.........

Sadly I am not able to be at Hugglets Winter Bearfest next weekend. I always need the assistance of Keith to get there, set up, clear up and get home again and he is away so not able to do all that.

There are 4 new bears and I hope they will be up on the site this weekend, but just in case, here are their pics. The reason they are all looking up is that it had just started snowing and you can just see snowflakes on the cover they are sitting on!!

OH Yippee! I am off to Lincoln to be with Rosemary!

I am off to America to Tim!!

Woo hoo! I am off to America too - to Helen's!

If you would like information on materials and size etc please just email.

Really excited!!

I am really excited!

It is a while since I bought a new bear, and there are rarely any bears available from multi award winning Donna Griffin of Donna and the Bears so when I saw that she was auctioning 3 bears in aid of the appeal for Haiti earthquake survivors it seemed a good time to buy one.

He is on his way from Carolina now and should be here in a few days.

Here he is - Richard! The three bears are named after the Top Gear presenters, so I got the hamster!

Isn't he lovely? He will be coming to join little Dibley who I have had for just over a year now and love to bits. You can see him on her site, on the bear gallery.

Gorgeous, proper, traditional teddy bears!!

I still haven't finished my little gold bear yet. I never seem to get much time to spend bear making at the moment, it is very frustrating. I will post his pic in a day or two when he is finished I hope.

Bear making again!

It feels so good!

I finally started making a little bear today.

I just don't seem to have had the time and space to get near my sewing table for weeks and have been busy with so many other things. It was wonderful and I really enjoyed getting a couple of hours peace (well there were lots of interruptions but I soldiered on!) to get started on a little gold bear. Pics will follow when he is finished.

In the meantime, here are the same dogs who were charging round in the snow chasing sledges and riding on them!

Happy New Year - Snow fun!

Our local woods - it looks like Narnia doesn't it. Their footprints were the first in the snow apart from some deer.

The little dog laughed and had such fun........

Here is Meg enjoying the snow and sledging with Keith

on Saturday afternoon!

Internet Cache

I just had a very annoying few hours!

My friend told me he had updated my site, but when I looked it wasn't any different.

I tried everything but still got the old pics up and not the new festive opening page.

I knew it was there but for some reason I was just getting the page that

has been there for months.

So, I refreshed the page over and over, I deleted cookies, history,

bookmarks, more history, everything!!

Then I found a button to DELETE CACHE and lo and behold,

there was my new exciting page with the new bears on it too.

I don't know what it means and hope I haven't messed anything up but

at least I can see the new photos now!!

So if you aren't getting the festive vibe when the home page opens up,

maybe yours is stuck somehow too. They ARE there. I promise!!

Thanks Keith, you have done a lovely job as usual with the site!

Festive Bears 2009

Well finally (a chest infection later!) here is the photo of my little white bear and another one that I have just finished too. I hope to be able to make a few more before Christmas, but have some orders to complete first, so fingers crossed!

Anyway, here they are;

Jingle Bear (13") and Little Berry Bear (10")

I hope they delight!

Bear making again!

YEAY!! I made a bear today!

Its been SO long since I have been able to and it felt so good.

I have been busy with my other job (holistic therapist) and away on a training course for therapeutic massage, so it was lovely to chill out and make a lovely little bear.

She is a sweet, white little handful bear with mulberry pads, hat and bow.

It was too dark when I finished her to be able to take a photo but I will post one tomorrow.

Warren Bears are up and running again ☺

It's nearly a month since my last post, sorry.

I had to come back early from Japan unfortunately because I was so unwell, and it took a long time to recover. I think it had all been too much having had swine flu and a serious chest infection whilst still trying to prepare for the trip and then fly out there. Oh well. I tried!

Here are few more pics from my trip....

This one is Big Ben being admired before going to his new home.

And here is Yumi who ADORED Olivia!

This one didn't hang around long.

He sold the afternoon he was finished.

Very cute!

And this was Rieko, after we had all decided we were too full to eat any more Chinese food. "just one more mouthful!" and she finished it all!!!

That was the nicest Chinese I have ever tasted, thanks ladies for taking me there.

And then I had to come back early cos of feeling so ill.

I can't wait to start making bears again, and hope to by the end of next week when I have enough energy, so check out the website after that!

Bye for now.

Saturday update from Japan

Well more bears made and more bears have found new homes!

Here is Rieko modelling Jonny,

and here she is with George who was finished today.

These two bears went off to new homes today...

and here are Patrick and Lucy, 2 other English artists here, with some of their work behind them.

The bad news is, I have gone down with shingles today. I started to feel unwell yesterday evening and by today it got worse and worse. I knew by the afternoon that it was definitely shingles and am feeling very ill. So that's a bit awkward to say the least!

After the Typhoon

Well I am delighted to report that the dreaded typhoon which decided to come early and was forecast for last night, then also chose to swerve away from Tokyo at the last minute and hit them further up north. Sorry for them, but very relieved for us. It was still a very wet and windy night although Reiko and Yuki slept through and didn't hear a thing, I only got 1 hour sleep so its been a bit of a jet lag day again. I am very relieved though. It was still very windy earlier on, but cleared now, and all is well!

The lady who tried to climb on my shoulder to watch me sewing the other day, came back again today. I think she is lonely and likes to chat which is amusing as I don't do Japanese and she doesn't do English, but it doesn't seem to stop her. She is fascinated with my hands and keeps grabbing them and squeezing them for some strange reason. Big Ben, the bear I made yesterday went happily off with some new owners today, so that was nice.

I had quite a few nice chats today with people who DO speak English (and some English people too!) and one lady of 80 had just decided to learn it, and was amazing already. So it was a busy day and I didn't get a bear finished today, so will have to work harder tomorrow. And on that note, its time to get some sleep.

Still in Japan

I thought I would upload a few pictures from the British Fair at Mitsukoshi in Tokyo for you to enjoy and see where I am and what I have been up to.

A happy new Warren Bear owner with Yuki

and another new owner who seems very pleased with little Samuel.

(A name that sadly proved very hard for them to say.)

Here are the 2 new bears so far.

The one in the blue duffle coat is Big Ben and the other is Marlborough (another tricky name for them!) He looks a bit cross in the picture but its just cos his fringe is squashed down.
This is Reiko and Yuki, the two ladies who are selling the bears for M's Collection here and looking after me so well.

This is a sweet little girl, loving the bear,

who then wiped her mouth on it straight after this photo was taken!!

She said "Hallo" so nicely too!

The typhoon is scheduled for 3pm tomorrow (Thursday 8th) so I hope I will still be here to let you know what it was like! I had an encouraging email from a friend who said he was here in a 45 second earthquake that knocked his beer on the floor and broke a fish tank of piranhas in the restaurant (I presume they are no threat floundering on a dry floor!!) and the local people took it in their stride so I hope they look after me tomorrow. I feel like its having earthquakes all the time. Its a strange thing I always get with jet lag, feeling like the world is rocking and swaying. I know it isn't cos I keep checking all the cabinets around me and they are all very still and not shaking but I swear they should be, it is rocking so much!

And all without the aid of drugs

(well apart from anti biotics but I don't think they can do anything exciting like that!)

Today was fairly quiet - still raining constantly - and I was able to try out the umbrella machine. Everyone here has an umbrella, even just about every man you see, and at the shop there is a special gadget that you put it into and it wraps your brollie. Its just like the Christmas tree wrapping machines and I felt that it ought to be tried out whilst I am here!

So I did!

Anyway, more tomorrow......

In JAPAN

Well hello from Japan (as you do!)

I didn't get chance to write anything after the show at Hugglets as I went down with the dreaded swine flu at the actual show. By the time we got home, I went straight to bed and was ill for a week and then had the complications in the form of a stubborn chest infection which is on its 3rd course of antibiotics and only just easing. So all my plans to have 3 calm weeks before travelling to Japan never happened. The long walks with the dogs, the various things I wanted to have time to go shopping for (saved a fortune!) the food I was going to cook and leave in the freezer, bears I needed to make ready to bring etc etc. It just never happened. All I did was go to the doctors 3 times! And then get up for my first full day on the day I had to fly 12 hours. Not ideal but I managed it and I am here and finished a nice little 13" alpaca bear in a peachy colour today.

People seemed to enjoy watching him being created, and I even had one lady virtually sitting on my shoulder watching the nose stitching from behind me. I was worried I would poke her in the eye with the needle if she got any closer! Lots of nice people practiced their English on me and all apologised that it wasn't very good - which is a shame they feel like that when my Japanese is non-existent. That was another thing I was going to do in that 3 weeks.... Oh well.

So no photos this post but just to say hello from a different side of the world this time and let you know what is happening.

Apparently we are getting a typhoon tomorrow which doesn't seem to alarm them in the least but I have to say I am absolutely terrified. When I asked what will happen I was told it will rain very hard and be a hurricane, and be dangerous to be out but we still have to go to work. Wish me luck please cos I am very scared.

Will let you know (hopefully!) how I survived!

Bye for now.

Ready for Hugglets on September 13th 2009

Well, at last I am ready for the BIG SHOW tomorrow. I can't believe what hard work it has been making all the bears, and then getting them all ready - photos, labels, layout, packing etc but its all done now! Phew. And I just had a lovely lunch and coffee out with Keith at a local Italian deli just down the road. The table wasn't big enough for all the plates! Getting ready for a show makes you hungry!

So here they are for your delight!

I thought it was about time I did a theme again so welcome to the

GARDEN COLLECTION

Willow 21"

very long and dense mohair in cream and gold

(On the lace collar it has a commemorative bear badge

but you could use your own keepsake if preferred)

Lily the Panda Cub who sits or lies down

13" dense mohair

Magnolia 13"

dense and fluffy white mohair

Jasmine 17"

dense and fluffy white mohair

Sweet Pea 13"

cream kid mohair (incredibly soft)

Capability Brown 17"

vintage quality luxurious dense cocoa alpaca

Radish Little Handful 10" Honeysuckle

soft grey alpaca 13" dense cream and

gold mohair

Briar 11" Poppy

sparse gold mohair 9" caramel and beige alpaca

Lavender 9"

Sparse white mohair

and then because I promised you a picture of "Meg's pond" (and she has just this minute been bathed again following a swim this morning!) here is is looking quite settled and established although with less fish than Wednesday following a visit from a Heron on Thursday!