Byron's Octopus

This is the result of my toy-making adventure, attempt no. II. It's still basically an octopus. Only with longer, individually sewn legs this time, that I've left quite floppy. This gives Mr Octopus a lot more movement.



Of which Byron seems to respond to really well. The long crazy legs also seem to be quite useful for chewing on! So, at this stage the new toy is ok, but definitely no 'Mr Elephant'. We'll see how the relationship between boy and octopus develops over the next few months though...





Oh - and just because I know you guys appreciate cute fluffy things - how gorgeous is this Koala mum and baby we spotted at my mum's place today. They are so lucky to get these incredible creatures sleeping only a matter of metres from their house!

One week in the life of my strawberry

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.

And the waters retreat...

The flood waters peaked yesterday, but are receeding now. People are starting to be able to go back to their homes, and the news crews are showing footage of all the destruction the water has done to so many houses. Power is apparently starting to be reinstated to the central business district of Brisbane, and to the 120,000 homes that were cut off for the last few days. And a lot of the major roads and highways are still impassable, simply due to the massive amounts of stinking black sludge the waters have left behind.







There have been so many sad sad stories to come out of this flood. The one I mentioned in the post below about the family trapped on their car roof that the rescue helicopter lost sight of, had a bittersweet ending. At last word they managed to find the mother and the son a few kilometers down stream, but no sign of the father yet. Another death occurred when a rescue worker was helping evacuate a family and a 4 year old boy fell from the boat. It really is quite horrendous. And kind of surreal for me. I know that this is MY city. I know all the places they show on TV - I've been there, had a meal there, done shopping there, taken Chelsea to the park there - but because we were up high and dry, and we didn't see the floods first hand, it feels like it is happening somewhere else. (These photos were taken from the Brisbane Floods facebook page - everyone got together and shared photos and information. It was pretty amazing.)

So while Mark has been home (the city went into a bit of a shutdown - people couldn't get anywhere, food was scarce, employees were told to stay with their families), and we've been watching the constant footage, I managed to get that Mongolian Wool bear done. I've named her 'Jindalee' after one of the suburbs that got hit really badly.




The weather is beautiful today, with just a slight breeze. But as Jindalee's stunning fur is so soft and light, it only took a slight breeze to make getting a good photo of her rather tricky! She's now on bearpile, ready to face the world!

A break from the Brisbane Floods

I'm not sure how many of you have heard, but Brisbane is in the middle of a bit of a flood crisis. (which may be a slight understatement!).

All the TV/radio stations have been broadcasting updates all day. The suburb where I grew up as a child, and the suburb that my mum lives in have been evacuated. The Brisbane River and surrounding rivers have risen so much that many of the main roads, bridges and highways have been cut off. Toowoomba (a city further inland and up in the mountains from Brisbane) got hit yesterday with torrents of rain. People have been killed and heaps are still missing. All that water is making its way down to Brisbane, joining up with the swollen river. And, to top it all off a king tide is expected for tomorrow! There has been footage of horrible scenes all over the TV today. Last night we watched helicopter footage of a family stuck in a car in the middle of what seemed like a lake of mud and debris. They climbed onto the roof, hanging onto the roof racks. Apparently the helicopter landed so the emergency crew could go rescue them, but when they got back out there they couldn't find the car.

I am sure many more reports like this will start coming in over the next few days too. Our place is fine. We're near the river, but high enough that we won't go under. Which is a relief. Mark went to the shops this afternoon to grab some milk, bread and supplies, and he said he has never seen it that busy. Apparently there were only three loafs of bread left, and all the bottled water was gone! (all the photos above were taken by a friend of mine).

So after a good 12 hours of solid news, I decided that I needed a break. I haven't been game to check my blood pressure today because I'm sure its high! In an attempt to take a break I did a bit of sewing. I found a stunning Mongolian Lambs Wool cushion in the sales after christmas, and decided to turn it into a panda. I've worked with this wool before and it can be a bit tricky. This particular piece is just stunning. Uniform, rich, silky curls and a very good backing. It always amazes me how much volume you get when you turn it right way out too! The arms show this really well. Hopefully this little guy will get completed over the next few days. (disaster permitting!)

Just some more random updates!

I have been wanting to take Chelsea to the zoo for ages!!! But with the weather so bad we had put it off and put it off. But today was Mark's last full day at home with us before he has to go back to work, and before baby comes. So we bit the bullet and went anyway!

When we drove in the gate there was a big sign warning that the zoo was very muddy, and the lady we purchased our entrance tickets from explained that it had actually been closed for two days last week due to the lake surrounding 'Lemur Island' flooding right up to the back of the cafe! We were unperturbed!



I think (again) that Mark and I got more enjoyment out of it than Chelsea did. We saw sun bears and marmosets, red pandas and camels... plus all the usual Aussie animals - wallabies, kangaroos, emus, cassowaries, frill neck lizards at every turn!





This Koala looked like he was sick of the weather too!


It started to rain a little heavier at one point so we took refuge at the farm animals display. This was the only time Chelsea cried. The sheep was baa-ing very loudly as they could see we had the little packets of food, and I think it scared her a bit. After she settled down we patted some alpacas and feed a very large and very friendly cow. The sheep were a little too enthusiastic though, so I fed them myself. They were clambering over each other to get to the food. I laughed to Mark and said that at the rate they were going they'd climb out of their enclosure... and sure enough the biggest one got out! We're not sure what happened after that as a new group of people arrived for the sheep to pester for food!

My favourite animal of the day, and probably one of the least exotic, was the donkey! He was very friendly, and even though the sign said not to feed him as he wasn't well, he still came right up to us and said hello.

Bessie (and the never ending rain!)

In my internet wanderings last week I came across a sweet little lady bear called Bessie, and just had to have her! She arrived today bringing with her the most amazing aroma! I am guessing this has to do with whatever it was she was dyed with - My husband thinks its cinnamon, but I can't decide what I think it is! It reminds me of those gorgeous handmade baked goods stalls at early morning markets, or the quintessential 'grandmother's house' of your earliest memories...



Bessie is made by Di Paulovich of Woollybuttbears, a fellow Australian bear artist. If you like little Bessie as much as I do, she has another little guy - Robin Love - in the same style available at present as well.

Bessie was such a nice surprise to wake to this morning, on yet another soggy, rainy day here in Brisbane. We're all incredibly sick of the rain that seems to have been here forever (well, at least the better part of the last 3 months anyway!), and I'm sure many of you will have heard of the devastating floods in the northern part of our state. There are many people here who would like to see some sun I think!




(Even Oliver seems a bit depressed by the weather! There's nothing else for him to do but sleep all day, only venturing out into the rain and soggy backyard when he needs to go to the toilet!)

Australia Summer Storms

I'm not quite sure if I've complained about the weather here in 'Sunny Queensland' over the last few weeks or not... if not, I'll fill you all in now! The weather has been crap. And that's an understatement! The nightly weather reports show the forecast for the next 7 days - and it has been solid rain graphics for weeks now.

This week it was solid storm graphics, complete with the little bolts of lightning coming down from the cartoony grey clouds. I saw this, but dismissed it! The days had actually been quite nice for a change, and I managed to get some washing done. Then yesterday afternoon I got an emergency alert phone message explaining that severe hail storms were on their way. I went outside and the sky was clear, no clouds, soft wind blowing... for all intensive purposes a beautiful summer day. About an hour later I could hear soft rumbling noises in the background. The sky was still clear and bright, so I dismissed it as neighbourhood noise.



About half an hour after that, the sky changed colour. The air had that electric feel to it and the rumbling noise was louder. Chelsea and I went outside and sure enough some ominous looking clouds were heading over. I quickly grabbed the washing off the line and took some photos. This is looking from our side gate towards the neighbours house across the road. Within about 2mins of taking this photo Mark got home from work and the clouds opened.



We had so much rain in such a short period of time that our back patio flooded (much to Chelsea's amusement, but not Olivers!). Oliver is a bit of a Princess dog and doesn't like loud noises or getting wet, so he took refuge inside, behind the couch!


It was all over within half an hour or so, and we got lucky that the hail stones were only pebble sized. But it had obviously damaged the power lines somewhere, and we went without electricity from 5:30pm till 12pm. Right on dinner time! And Chelsea's bed time. So we all had a rather miserable night last night. And tempted as I was I decided not to try and finish my bear by candle light... goodness knows what he would have looked like by the light of day! :P So hopefully, if I can stop rambling on here, I can go do a bit more work on him tonight!

Jessamine and Larue

Today was rainy and gloomy in 'Sunny Brisbane'. A good day for staying indoors and watching DVDs. I managed to sew these two bear yesterday, and got their limbs jointed, eyes set and noses sewn last night. Today was simply ears, heads jointed, stuffed, shaded and otherwise finished.


This morning I watch Juno while I stuffed (and had a bit of a cry at the end... I always do right at 'some day you'll be back here on your own terms'). Then after Chelsea woke up we watched 'UP' - or rather it played in the background while she danced around the lounge room, scattered her blocks everywhere, crumbled biscuit into the carpet, begged to be picked up, then wriggled to be put down, then picked up, then put down... yet somehow I managed to get these guys done!



The bigger one is Jessamine, and the little panda is Larue. The darker fur looks more red in these pictures, but is actually a lovely dark berry-pink. The lighter mohair is a wispy cream with soft pink tips. Both bears are made of of the same fur, and i thought it would be fun to photograph them together showing how different they can look with different colour placement.


I've currently got Jessamine on bearpile, but ran out of camera battery, and daylight, before I could get photos of Larue. So he'll have to go on sometime tomorrow.

The Weekend

We had a pretty big weekend... so not much bear related got done!



Saturday morning was quite hot so we let Chels have some fun under the hose. She looks so much like a little girl in her swimmers... my tiny baby is definitely gone now!





Then we had my brother's wedding. I did a reading and was a little nervous about it - but I survived. In my infinite wisdom I decided to wear the highest pair of stilettos I've ever worn in my life - to a garden wedding. So I had to quickly learn how to manage the whole 'sinking into the ground as I walked' problem. The shoes were off by the reception though! And pretty much stayed off for the rest of the night! :P


Then Sunday morning, in another incredibly foolish move, we decided to walk Brisbane's new Gateway bridge (one of the main bridges that joins the northside to the southside over the brisbane river. We took Oliver too. He took one look at the bridge and decided to hitch a ride in the carrier basket under Chelsea's pram! After a little bit of walking I think it got a bit boring under there for him though and he came out again. He did really well - and so did Chels. As you can see she did quite a bit of the walking herself!

So a big weekend, but lots of fun! More bears to come this week though ;).