Free Pattern bear

Just had to share this with you all - this is a gorgeous teddy made by Nicky from Silver Nik Nats using my free Gracie pattern. How awesome is that fur! She's lovely Nicky!

If anyone else has a bear they've made from my patterns feel free to email (eleb2000@hotmail.com) me and I'll give them a shout out too :)

Work in progress

These three are the little bears I planned to make before I got sidetracked by the guinea pigs (real and plush!).

They look a little creepy sitting there without heads... but it shows the beautiful fur quite nicely.

Custom Mini

I sold Brokk on ebay a few nights ago. But forgot to take down his etsy listing. So (of course) he then sells through etsy a day later! Woops!

I offered the customer a refund or a replacement custom bear. He chose a custom bear as it was to be a gift for his sister. I send him photos of fur options, he choose his colours and this little guy is the result...



Meet Beauregard, named by his collector. He's a real little sweetheart too. The mini's are a little more challenging for me, but so worth it!

Byron chatting and toy voyager update

This is just a little video I took of Byron having a chat with me two weeks ago. It's a little wobbly, so if you get motion sickness it might be best not to view it. But it is pretty cute. (well I think so anyways, but I could be biased. I have to be, otherwise I wouldn't still be getting out of bed three times a night for feeds! But now I am getting off topic...)

I also wanted to do a toy voyager update. Just after Byron was born I made him this little teddy who was supposed to go travelling the world on his behalf. I signed up to the toy voyager website, purchased tags and was all ready to go. Then I read some of the forums. LOTS of toys get lost. I really didn't want his bear to get lost. So I chose a bear from Chelsea's extensive collection that was nice, but not so special that I'd be heartbroken if it went missing. Chelsea and I left it sitting on a bench in our local shopping centre last week.

This evening the travel log was updated! I am very excited, and so happy that someone else saw the fun in the idea as well.

Another non-bear related post!

I still have those three sweet little bears I promised to make way back here sitting in pieces on the couch beside me, waiting patiently to be sewn. Every time I look at them there it is a constant reminder of how sidetracked I've been with the guinea pigs over the last few weeks. I do plan to sew them tomorrow however. Which should mean more gorgeous bear photos in a few days time.

In the meantime, I have some kid update photos for you. Byron will be 12 weeks old in a few days! Holy Moly! Where did those 12 weeks go?? He's such a content little guy. He actually fell asleep in his rocker chair this morning (after Chelsea turned the rocking motion up to max) while Mark and I were running around trying to clean the place up before family visited. Byron just sits back and watches us all. I think it's a really good indication of the person he's going to become. (at this age Chelsea would NEVER have fallen asleep like that! She's a little more highly strung...)





Chelsea got her first haircut last week. I had built it up in my mind as something that was going to be really difficult. But Chelsea was perfect - sat really still and was very calm. And Byron was perfect - sat in his pram and 'cooed' at his toys!

They gave me a little pink bag with a curl they'd cut off as a keepsake. I thought that was a nice touch.






Oh, and if you've visited this blog in the last few hours you may have noticed it was changing colour/layout every few minutes. I appologise for that. I decided to brighten things up a bit, and tried in vain to find a nice blog template to download, but nothing was quite right. So I've taken the boring standard option... which is also exactly the same as my guinea pig blog... but it will do for now. (Until I either get really lucky and find a nice, easily accessed template, or get more computer savy and work out the beautiful complicated ones!)

Easter Holidays

My little 8 year old sister Lilly came to stay with us again during the week. It's becoming a bit of a school holiday tradition. She is AWESOME to have here too, as Chelsea just follows her around all day saying 'elee, elee' instead of clinging to me!

Last time Lilly visited we made a bear. This time we did some drawing. Lilly painted some lovely little art cards (ACEOs) that I've popped in my etsy store. She's very excited about the prospect of someone buying her drawings! She won two easter colouring in competitions this week, so she's positively glowing when it comes to her art work!

I've redirected my obsessive guinea pig posts

Just as the overly long title states - I've now redirected my obsessive guinea pig posts to a whole new blog! I've called it (so originally!) 'All Things Guinea Pig'. It's pretty brand spanking new right now, but feel free to check it out if you're so inclined.

If not, take a sigh of relief in knowing that the incessant guinea pig posts will be significantly reduced on this blog now!

Fake Guinea Pigs

Got some photos of the plush guinea pigs to share :) I've called the design 'Stardust', and am in the process of popping them on bearpile if you're interested. I also thought I'd take some photos of the plush piggys with the new little babies I adopted this morning. The babies are silver agouti too, so it shows the real version next to the plush version really nicely.

More real guinea pigs

Continuing on with the 'theme of the month' this month, I've just adopted two more guinea pigs! These two are brother and sister. The boy has a stunning curly coat, and the girl is unbelievably soft! I've called him 'Sprout' and her 'Sparrow'!




The owner told us that they were 4 weeks old, but after checking them over at home I seriously doubt that. I'm thinking they'd be lucky to be 2 weeks. Which is way too young for them to have left mumma. As a measure of comfort they have the big fuzzy rex girl in with them to give them someone to hide under. I'll have to keep an eye on the little boy though, in a few weeks or so he'll discover his manhood... and we'll all know about it! :P

Real guinea pigs!

We got two new guinea pigs today! The big brown ball of fluff is a 1 year old ginger agouti rex with a super thick coat. And the little orange one is a ginger Abyssinian baby, only 5 weeks old. I drove 40mins in the rain to the other side of Brisbane to go to the breeder to get these girls. I actually went there because the breeder had advertised a silver agouti rex baby that I'd agreed to adopt, but when I got there she tried to tell me that a different baby was the one she'd sent me a photo of (it was a completely different colour/fur type!). I don't know if she thought I wouldn't notice... but it wasn't all bad, these two lovely ladies pulled at the heart strings, so they came home with us.

Chelsea is so good with them too. She handles them like she's been doing it for years! I still have to watch her carefully though as she gets a little too confident sometimes, moving them around to different locations every 30sec or so!





I had partially finished one of the silver faux fur guinea pigs when I was taking the photos, so thought I'd get one of him posed next to a real piggy! How cute do they look together :)



I also got a video of the newbies meeting Custard and Alice (our original piggies) for the first time. I wasn't sure how they'd go, sometimes there can be fighting for top position in the group, but they seemed to get along quite well. Fingers crossed no one has to be separated!

Silver Agouti Guinea Pigs - Unstuffed!

Three un-stuffed, un-eared guinea pigs! I think they look a little like moles :P I should have their finished photos for you all tomorrow :)

ebay bargains

Just over a day left on my bear army 99c eBay listings! They're still really cheap too so grab a super bargain!

guinea pig design attempt no. 3

So this is 'guinea pig no. 3' - I've called her Izzy. I am really quite happy with her too. She's still not perfect, but for what I think I am going to be able to achieve from mohair, I think she's pretty damn close! The next step is to try the pattern in a synthetic. I think the faux furs are probably going to allow for a more life-like fur effect. Well, that's what I'm telling myself anyway!

I even found this photo on google images today that shows a real piggy just like my Izzy! How cool is that! Sparked a little idea about the potential to do custom guinea pigs for owners to photo specifications... I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet. But maybe one day soon.



And I think the only thing better than one mohair guinea pig is a group of them! Check out those cute piggy behinds! Also shows the different design attempts as well! :P

Another addition to my collection!

Two new bear parcels in one week! I am spoilt!

Yesterday morning a little box from Barney Bears arrived on our doorstep. Chelsea was very keen to help me open it after the last parcel that had arrived!



We pulled the string, and popped the lid, and out came the tiniest, cutest, heaviest little bundle of beary-goodness you could ever imagine!



Chelsea didn't want to give him up, so he got a few cuddles for a while till the novelty of his arrival wore off.



Then I was able to claim him back and get a really good shot of him. Look at his little face. Some times I wonder if I'm more of a bear maker... or bear collector!

Oreo is available again!

I don't know how many of you will remember this bear, but I made him and his brother 'Blizzard' (the polar bear) a few months before Byron was born. Blizzard has long since gone to his new home just a few suburbs away from here! But Oreo was on a lay-away that has had to be cancelled due to financial issues.




So, Oreo is back up for sale! He's sitting next to me now, giving me that same bashful look as he has in all his photos. He really is a (big) sweet boy!

Two new additions!

I received a neat little package this morning containing two gorgeous mini bears from the talented Carol of Bears of Bath. If you haven't seen her bears I thoroughly recommend checking them out. They are so sweet, beautifully made and so incredibly under priced!

These two are Honey (gold one) and Alice (pink one custom made for me!). Chelsea LOVED them as soon as I got them out of the box. They even have the same hair style as her!






Thanks so much Carol!!

guinea pig design attempt no. 2

I sat down in front of the TV last night and attempted to make some improvements to my first guinea pig design (see last post). This is prototype no. 2. I must say I like his back side and profile a lot better, and his ears and feet are better, but I've mucked up the face again. I need to get the nose lower and more pointy.

Back to the drawing board (or in my case, lounge room floor!).

Couldn't help myself

I did fully intend to work on some little bears as mentioned in my last post. I even got as far as cutting out the pieces... then I got sidetracked, and just had to try and re-design my old guinea pig pattern!

I decided to try for an all-in-one head and body idea this time, with a more realistic look. I figure, if I can get this right, I can always adapt it to include a jointed head later on. Getting the shape perfect is going to be the challenge for now. (guinea pigs are tricky! Or maybe that's just because I'm not the best at working out the whole 3D shape thing...)

Anyways - these are some of my old guinea pig creations from my original design. I wanted to get away from that overly rounded head look. Guinea pigs have much pointer noses.






This is what I ended up with. She still needs a LOT of work, but I'm pretty chuffed with her as a first go!




After I realised the camera battery was flat, I briefly left her sitting in the vegy patch while I went inside to grab a new one. When I came back out I actually got a bit of a startle when I spotted her in the garden. For a split second I thought she was real! :P I figure thats a good sign that I'm on the right track! Chelsea didn't mind her either.



(How funny is this - check out what I posted exactly a year ago on the 11th April 2010! Must be something about the month!)