Keeping up with a hungry hungry baby!

We were down to the last three of Chelsea's chicken, veg and pasta meals, so i decided it was time for a new batch. This is what was whizzed up this afternoon, along with some lean beef mince. I made WAY too much (again!), and ended up with about 21 meals (cost approx $15 and took about an hour all up from chopping and boiling, to sterilising the containers to whizzing it up and packing in the freezer).



I actually ran out of my nice little clip lock containers and had to use our breakfast bowls for some of the ones i'll keep in the fridge and use over the next day or so. Not sure what we're going to eat our cereal out of now though... :P

Postcrossing

I found another postcard waiting for me when i got home yesterday evening. This one is from France. Must get off my butt and post some more. At the moment postcrossing lets me send 12 at a time, and I've now only got two travelling. So that's 10 little pieces of joy I can send!

New Bear - Sullivan

Sullivan is the successful compilation of my hand sculpted eyelids and some hand sculpted claws. I am REALLY happy with him! He took a hell of a lot longer to finish, but i think if i do a few more like him i'll get faster as i figure it all out. Bella strolled on over to see what I was doing (I took him to mum's place today to show her his funky feet in person. She was amazed by how real they feel too). And my little sister Lilly chose Sullivan's name! So it was a whole family affair today!

Backyard picnic

Chelsea was going crazy inside this afternoon, so i packed up all the bear-making stuff and some of her toys and we set up camp in the backyard. I plonked her right in the middle of our rather large picnic blanket - but she still managed to find her way off the edge of it, and into the muddy grass! Her nice little romper is now in the washing machine in a (probably in vain) attempt to get it clean again!


I should probably change the title of this blog to 'The Inner World of Chelsea' instead! Seems like it would be more appropriate! :P Nevermind. I did get a heap of bears drawn up on saturday night while Chelsea and Mark slept. A bit of Harry Potter on the TV in the background, and i was inspired like i haven't been in a long time. So now the slow process is cutting and pinning them all out. I have one that i sewed while Chels had her morning sleep today that i'll try those polymer clay eyelids on tonight.








So bear stuff is happening. Just slowly, and in the background at the moment. More bear photos will come soon enough!

Sunday Roast

Chelsea was a little trouper tonight. She normally has a sleep every two-three hours or so. But this afternoon she went from 2pm till 8:30pm solid - no sleeps, and no crying either! We were all very impressed. I think she was having too much fun with all her Aunties and Uncles (and the dogs!) to try and sleep. Here are some pics of her playing on the floor with her Aunty Anya and Punky the dog.

Oh, and the caramel tart went down a treat too ;)

Desert!

This evening we will be visiting my dad's place for dinner. I decided that i wanted to bring something yummy, and this is what i have made - Roasted macadamia nut and gooey caramel Tart, with a drizzle of melted dark chocolate! We need two because there are soooo many of us.

Me, Mark and Chelsea
My Dad and his wife.
My brother and his fiancée.
Three more teenage brothers.
And three teenage step-brothers and partners.
Oh, and a dog and a cat! :P

Wind Warrior Goddess

I recently purchased some polymer clay to use in making bear claws and eyelids. I was messing around with it this afternoon when i thought i might have a go at making a doll. The original idea was a simple companion doll for a future teddy... but this doll took on a life force of her own. Her name is 'Oya', which apparently means Wind Warrior Goddess in Africa. She is fully anatomically correct and detailed. Will get some more (tasteful) photos tomorrow in day light, but couldn't help myself in uploading at least a few tonight! Not sure if i should keep her, sell her as an individual item, or pair her with a similarly themed bear! So many choices!




















I've added some photos of Oya outside as well. She looked quite at home in the trees! Shows off her exaggerated proportions and her somewhat 'spaghetti arm' look :P

Saturday morning at the playground

We decided to make the most of the amazing weather this morning and took Chelsea down to the Wynnum waterfront. She had a go on a 'big girl' swing for the first time too!

My Little Easter Bunny

My mum came around today for a visit. She gave Chelsea her first Easter Bunny ears. They were HUGE on her! But so so cute. Chelsea left them on just long enough for me to get some pictures.

Postcard Bonanza!

About 18months ago my step-dad Neil told me about this awesome online community/hobby site called postcrossing where you can send and receive postcards all over the world. Each time you ask for an address and send a postcard and the recipient registers it on the website, a random other person in the world is given your address to send you one. I have sent and received over 200 cards now and have an awesome little collection starting. You can ask for certain cards, or for people to say a little about themselves on the card you receive. One of the people i sent a card to recently just wanted to know, yes or no, are you happy. I thought that was really simple, but profound.

Today i found four more postcards in my mail box.
One from the Netherlands.

One from China.

One from the Czech Republic.

And one from Taiwan.

New Reborn Bear - Angel

Decided to give this little bear a quick restoration last night before bed. That wasn't one of my better ideas though, and i didn't end up getting to bed till after midnight!

On first glance there wasn't much that needed doing to cute little Angel bear, but as is sometimes the way, the harder you look - the more you see! He's still not perfect - his arms are a little too far forward and a bit loose in the joints, and his nose isn't embroidered as straight as i would have liked, but i think he has still managed to come out with some appeal. Hopefully he'll tug the heart strings of someone out there in the big wild world and find a new home to be cherished.

His full listing can be seen here.

Our Garden

One of the positives of having a pet-free back yard is that we can start to fix it up a bit. For the past three years we've kind of let it just do what it wants. The shrubs and bushes have gone crazy and the guinea pigs had little tracks all through the undergrowth. I had a quick weed and 'stocktake' of our current plants this afternoon and thought i'd share this photo of our pink rose bush. My mum gave it to us as a house warming present when we first moved in, and now (thanks to hap-hazard pruning)it's taller than me!

New Bear - Malani

Well, the attempt to use eyes with sculptured eyelids didn't really work, so i ditched the idea for now. I will have to use a completely different pattern i think. I do like to make things more difficult for myself :P

This is the little bear i tried the eyes on. She has turned out quite nicely despite the last minute change of heart over her eyes! It was ridiculously hard to get the pink bow by her ear to actually look pink in the photos for some reason. Maybe early morning lighting in my backyard is not ideal for pink on brown contrast... who knows. But i did get some nice shots. Her full listing : www.emmasbears.bearpile.com

Chelsea was as helpful as ever, firstly getting into my sewing box and spreading embroidery thread all over herself. Then trying to climb through the cat door to get to me as i was taking photos outside! She's getting more and more mobile each day!

Cheeky Monkey

Had a lovely morning this morning having coffee with a friend from school and her 7 week old daughter. Chelsea was pretty good. I think she used up all her 'goodness' while we were out though, as she became a little more challenging this afternoon. I couldn't move without her crying and clinging to me. But as long as i sat on the floor with her she was content to climb all over me and chew on my jeans.

During the precious downtime i get while she has her daytime sleeps, i managed to sculpt and bake some polymer clay eyelids that i'm going to try on a new bear. I'll use the chubby 9" pattern i designed to try and get the multi-coloured Russian eyes to look right - and see if the eyelids help at all. Might get to work on it later tonight if I'm lucky!

Bear Reborning

A little while ago... maybe six months or so... i discovered that there was some hostility towards bear reborning out there in internet-bear-making land. I was totally oblivious to it up until that point, and had already happily re-done a number of bears that needed a little TLC.

Some of the points raised in objection to reborning a bear were that you were messing with someone else's piece of art, that bears have souls and by changing it's look you destroy it's essence, that no artist could feel secure that their work would be kept as they intended it once it is sent into the world, that the reborner would try to take all the credit for the bear etc...

So, last night i managed to muster up enough courage to try making-over a little bear called Morris that had been waiting patiently for his turn at a new life. I have tried to address as many concerns about bear-reborning as I can in his bearpile.com listing, but i'm still not sure how he will be received.

I feel that I have given him a whole new lease on life, but I do understand that there will always be those who disagree with what I have done. And I accept that. What matters is that I feel I have done this as ethically as possible. I don't wish to claim that I am the greatest bearmaker on earth and all bears should be 'reborn' by me, but i do think that this little guy will now have a good chance at being cherished by a new owner.

Would love to know your thoughts. Positive and Negative.

Sophie and Custard Move out!

So after last night's incident with the cat attack, it was decided that the surviving two guinea pigs, Sophie and Custard, should be relocated somewhere safer. This is a photo of them in their new home with a friend of mine. Her 3 year old Zeke is now their custodian, and he assures me that he 'will feed them every day'! lol. So cute!

RIP Bundy

Last night our neighbours cat attacked our guinea pigs, again. I ran outside but was seconds too late and our fluffy white one (we called Bundy) had been bitten. She was still alive, but in shock and whimpering in pain. She spent the night with her remaining sisters, then I took her to the vet this morning.

Her injuries were too great, so it was decided that it was kindest to put her to sleep. Chelsea and i said our goodbyes and left her there. Later this afternoon i will be taking the last two sisters to a friends place. She lives on acreage and has safer accommodation for them. So no more piggies for Chelsea to giggle at, which is a bit sad...

New Bear - Lukman

Finished another bear. Feels like he was a long time in the making! But i am very happy with him. His name is 'Lukman' which means wise and intelligent. (as much as a bear can be wise and intelligent!) - i think it suits him though. He has such a nice expression on his face! His full listing can be seen at: www.bearpile.com