Squishy elephants now on etsy

I have two golden rainbow boy elephant cushions, and two pink frosted girly elephant cushions now on etsy.

And I will say this - for a nice simple little idea/design/product - these guys were a pain in the butt to get good photos of! :P

Squishy elephants

Chelsea is a tummy sleeper. And she has been, probably since before she was born (if its even possible to 'sleep on your tummy' in utero!?). All medical advice is to ONLY sleep your baby on their back. On their side if you must, but tummy sleeping is a big bad no no. Puts your baby at risk of SIDS.

So after battling to get Chelsea to settle and sleep on her back for the first 8 weeks of her life, I relented, and let her tummy sleep. She was an amazing sleeper ever since, and still is.

The problem with this is that she tends to bunch her bedding up around her face while she sleeps. Two nights ago I went to check her and she had her comforter blanket totally covering her face and was really labouring to breathe. This freaked me out. So the comforter was removed. Which nearly broke my heart as its her favourite blanket in the whole world. You just have to show it to her and she wants to lay her head on it and suck her thumb!

So yesterday I decided to turn it into a nice flat cushion. I drew up a stylised elephant shape to give it a bit more interest, lightly stuffed it, then 'quilted' in the elephant features (eyes, ears, legs). This means that it won't bunch up around her face, and won't get all saggy when I need to wash it. I wasn't sure if she'd reject it now that it was a cushion not a blanket - but her reaction was more than I could have hoped for. She cuddled and stroked her elephant and got really upset when I put him back in the cot. She was actually wanting to get in there with him even thought it wasn't nap time!

I had a bit of fur left over so I thought I'd make a mini elephant comforter cuddle toy to take with us in the car/Nonna's house etc too. I'm really loving the look of them, and Chelsea's reaction to them, so plan to have a few available in my etsy store shortly.

Lets keep things strange...

Sticking to what seems to have become the theme of the month, I thought I'd revive one of my older, strange patterns - 'Flop-About-Bears'.

The whole idea came about late one night when I was trying to get to sleep. I am pretty sure this way way before Chelsea was even conceived, so it feels like a long time ago to me! I was remembering an odd doll I had as a child that was little red-riding hood, but then you flipped her over, her skirt fell over her head and you had the big bad wolf in grandmother's nightgown on the other end. I remembered being very curious with the idea of a single toy being two different things back then. And I must admit, the concept still fascinates me now.

So out of that little mind wandering, the Flop-About-Bears were born. I didn't have much success in selling the first batch. I don't know if they were a little too odd, or if it was because I was marketing them poorly. But whatever the reason, I eventually took the perceived 'failure' of the design personally, and stopped using the design.

That was until I ransacked my pattern folder to choose new patterns to offer for sale last week. I fell in love with the Flop-About design again, and have not only got it in the process of being finalised for sale as a pattern, but thought I'd make some more actual bears from it (the cuties you can see in the photos are Nadia and Aidan - just listed on bearpile). I have no delusions that they will sell any better this time, but maybe being so close to Halloween, people will be a little more accepting of all things bizarre and strange! Only time will tell :)

Beautiful Day!

We've had a LOT of spring rain over the last week or so. (a LOT!) Yesterday we had sunshine. So I got all of our washing done. I started at 7:30am and the last load finished at 5pm, just as Mark was getting home to help me put it out.

So today, with more sun, and no more washing to do, Chelsea and I went for a walk to the local park. There was no one there. (Mind you, it was 8:30am, maybe that's too early for everyone else?).

I was so proud of her. She wore her cute hand-me-down hat all the way there, and for the first 15min of play. If you know Chelsea, this is HUGE! She hates hats! Then I made the mistake of trying to straighten it up, which reminded her it was on her head, and it was promptly pulled off and discarded in the dirt.

It was a really lovely way to spend the morning. And I am so thankful to have the opportunity to be able to take her to the park when we want without having to worry about getting ready for work or daycare. I am loving having a 14month old. She just seems to have morphed from a baby to a child while I wasn't looking though. I mean, how grown up does she look in her big girl shoes and hat. If I take the time to stop and think about it, it's quite scary. Before I know it we'll be walking to school at 8:30 in the morning, not the park!

The first clay/fur bear

As promised - I found the photo of the first clay and fur bear I made. According to my notes I made him back in 2002 (I was 18), and he is a combination of paper clay, acrylic paint, varnish and faux fur.

I actually really like his face and colouring. Might use some of these aspects in the next lot of clay bears. Isn't it fun to travel back down memory-lane!

spending spree

I've been on a bit of a spending spree buying bears for my collection lately. I couldn't resist this little fatty though - and at such reasonable prices, why not!?

This is Minty, completely hand stitched by Pat Morris of Bears by Pat Morris. Hasn't he got the sweetest, squishiest little face!

Minty is extremely well made and his fur is just divine. The exact kind of fur I love in the bears I buy for myself, but hesitate to buy to make bears from due to the cost! Or - when i do splash out and buy some, it sits at the bottom of my fur stash unused because I can't bring myself to cut it! :P

But anyway, the point of this was mostly to encourage you to check out Pat's Bears. She has some incredible sales on at the moment too, with a section of bears half price (which, when they were already well priced is pretty damn good!).

More clay bears, this time with a twist

I've had this idea floating around in my mind since we moved house. I had been sorting through some old photo albums of bears of mine from way way way back when i first started making them, and had found a photo of a super sweet clay and fur bear I made.

He was the only one like it that I ever did. He sold (I remember that), but I also remember that the lady informed me that his arm had come loose in transit. I was horrified! She was so good about it though, and just glued it back on. I had attached his arms and legs using the ball joint method, sewn into the body with a gathering stitch around the narrow part of the ball (similar to how plastic baby-dolls are assembled).


This time I was determined that no arms would be falling off, so I planned to string joint the limbs, button-style. This has worked really well, but I lost a bit of movement while gaining a secure attachment.


These are the finished bears. Percy and Waleran. I am really happy with them. I just wish Waleran's true emerald green colouring had shown correctly in my photos.

I'll have to try and fish out that photo of the original clay and fur bear I made...