Truly Scrumptious

These little darlings have just been 'born' this afternoon. I've been posting updates of their progress on our facebook page, and asked for some name suggestions which is how 'Truly' and 'Scrumptious' came about.

Truly is the big sister and Scrumptious the little one.

They're both cut from a piece of our hand-dyed rainbow sparkle mohair and one of the last pieces of our white curly kid mohair! (I still can't believe we got through a WHOLE ROLL of that fur!!!)

Truly is 13" tall and has actually already been adopted.

Scrumptious is 9" tall and also available in our esty store.

The Candy Collection

This was a 'work-in-progress' photo I posted on the Emma's Bears Facebook page a few weeks ago. I had the brilliant idea to do a 'collection' of themed bears, and these guys were the result of the new design. At this stage they still needed stuffing and finishing, but they were looking cute (I also added a 'vanilla' bear to the group after this to make it an even dozen!).

The bears sat finished, but waiting for their accessories for a week or so after the last seams were closed. These gorgeous handmade polymer clay cupcake, donut, marshmallow and lolly pop pendants were coming all the way from the Philippines to us here in Australia. They arrived yesterday - and I got straight into allocating the right pendant to the right bear!

(you seriously NEED to check out this artist's store - 'AroundTheWorld'. She makes the most incredbly detailed little pendants!)

These are the finished 'Candy Collection' bears - all dozen of their sweet, fruity little buts! With names like 'Citrus Twist', 'Vanilla Pudding', 'Cranberry Crush' and 'Melon Mash'... they sound good enough to eat!

We started out making these guys with the intention that they would be small and afforable. So many of our larger bears cost over the $100-$200 mark, which seriously puts them out of reach for most people. I know I second guess myself about spending more then $100 on a bear for my own collection these days... where as once upon a time I wouldn't have blinked at that. If I wanted it - I would have bought it! Finances change though, and I know a lot of people are doing it tough.

These bears are still certainly not 'small change', but at $54 AUD for a one of a kind, handmade (some are even hand-dyed), fully jointed mohair bear (with awesome pendants!) - I think these guys work really well. And a 6" bear is able to slip into even the most well endowed bear collection!

These three are my favourites! I love the look of the 'Lilac Dreams' mohair on this little lady - with the trimmed back pink face and ears. (Plus I just like these girly colours!).

And for the 'last minute' bear, 'Vanilla Pudding' is a real sweet heart too. This was a piece of blonde mohair I had left in my personal stash from some other bears made a while ago - so it was good to be able to bring it to life.

And the little lady below was the result of a bit of Kool Aid mohair dyeing - I love the effect of Kool Aid, with the darker pile and lighter backing. And it's worked nicely here to give her ligher ears and a lighter nose.

If you particularly love any of the Candy Collection bears, it will be best to grab them as soon as you can as they won't be repeated. I may do another 'collection' again later this year though... maybe next time they can be bunnies... 'The Bunny Batch', or the 'Riot of Rabbits'... lol!

The rest of the rainbow gang

So, because all of these guys have found new homes - I'll just list all of their photos for your viewing pleasure ;)

This is 'Myrrhini':

This is 'Azure':

This girl is yet to be named. Feel free to throw some name suggestions our way if you have any!?

And this big guy (66cm tall) is called 'My Dream'.

Rainbow Bears (and some BIG news)

It feels like it has been a VERY long week! lol. And in many ways it has. I had been posting progress pics and promising to get this group of bears finished each day this week over on the facebook page - but it just didn't happen. Tuesday Byron has a temp at kindy, so we had to go pick him up early and he just wanted to be cuddled. Then thursday we get another call and Chelsea was vomiting at kindy - so again I head back down and collect them both early (we get her home and she has a miraculous recovery and eats all afternoon!).

Then today (friday) we had them both home because they can't go back to kindy until there has been no vomiting for 24hrs (though I doubt the severity of the original vomiting episode...). So we ran a few errands this morning, then tried to keep them entertained this afternoon while Mark and I ran around like headless chooks trying to get all the last minute parcels out the door, and getting the last touches on these bears finally done.

I JUST squeezed in a photo shoot this afternoon before the sun went down. In the midst of all of this craziness I got a phone call to let me know that the blood test I'd had done first thing this morning had come back positive - I was indeed pregnant. (this is the digital test I'd done yesterday - so I kind of knew what they were going to tell me! lol).

BUT - that's not all. The craziest part about this is that this baby is not my husbands. It's not mine either! lol

I'm currently a gestational surrogate for friends of ours who are physically unable to carry their own baby (this just means the baby is genetically nothing to do with me - I'm just the 'oven'). It's only recently become a legal fertility option in Australia in the last few years, and is only legal if done so altruistically - un-paid. It's still very early days (as in today would be considered 4 weeks pregnant) - so we're just taking it day by day, but I was too excited not to share with someone!

We actually did embryo transfer the day before I started work on the five bears in the top photo - so this has kept me nice and busy while we waited.

Legally I'm not able to share any identifying details about the intended parents, so will keep things anonymous in that department. But I do hope to be able to share this journey with you guys as things progress over the next 9 months :)

But - back to the bears! lol. Little Orchid is actually the only one left available from the batch of 5 at the moment. She can be found in our etsy store, but I'm not sure how long she'll stay available for?!

(if you like her - get in quickly as this was the last of our super long pile german white mohair - and I don't know if I'll be doing my rainbow dyeing in the forseeable future!)

I'll post the close up photos of the other 4 bears over the weekend... right now it's nearly midnight and the buzz from today is giving way to a desperate need to sleep! :)

Shadow, Bruno and the rainbow pieces...

This wide-eyed wonder is 'Shadow'. Made this week from a super luxurious piece of hand dyed midnight blue mohair I had left in my personal stash. Teamed with the silver and cobalt blue of his eyes and bow... he's just a blue beauty!

Shadow is currently available in our etsy store. He is made from our Kanoa pattern - so it long and lean, but has a decent amount of weight in that pudgy belly!

We also finished this big boofy-bear from the Collaboration Bear's box. He had a note in his bag saying his name was Bruno, so we kept it for him.

(Random cat pic - this is 'our' Bruno - our British Short Hair kitten. Had to throw a pic of him in too! lol)

Bruno the Bear is also currently available in our etsy store.

We've also been working on some custom rainbow-dyed bears this week as well. On the table above is actually the pieces for 4 new bears.

With colours like this, just pinning and sewing is a pleasure! A feast for the eyes!! More updates of these bright bears will come as I get them completed over the next week :)

The pig and the bear

We decided to test our pig design from a week or so ago on a different fabric. Nothing is quite as perfect as the rhubarb mohair - but I was too curious to see the pig in a non-piggy colouring!

So we grabbed a piece of our hand dyed sparkle mohair, and got to work. 'Bluebell' is the result!

She's pretty sweet  (and has already found her new home), but I still think I liked the soft pink of the original pig best. We want to try the design in a few more fabrics, then we'll probably get it ready for sale as a PDF pattern.

~*~

We also got a request for a custom bear in pink and purple - and this was the end result! We ended up calling her 'Jelly Bean' and she's made in 'Perky Pink' and 'Amethyst Sparkle' faux fur lines from our store. This was the first time we've used these fabrics, and put them together - and I'm really impressed with how well they've worked considering they have completely different textures/densities!

(The necklace has now become a favourite with Chelsea (nearly 4yrs) too. She was eyeing off the one I made for Jelly Bean, so I told her I'd make her one just for her. It's just a heap of our tiny coloured bells strung onto a cord, then tied into a ball. Chelsea wore hers all day - I just had to bargain with her to take it away for the night!)