What a strange little Panda!

Check out this little guy! I found him on etsy last week in this stunning store by Verity of The Square Pumpkin (some of you might recognise her work? This is the Verity from 'merbears', the talented maker of bear-mermaids from a few years ago). He's made from recycled shopping bags. How ingenious! I just LOVE his shape. And he's unlike anything else in my collection. Verity has a few more baggy bears in her store if you hurry on over ;)

My First Mother's Day with Byron

Happy (late) Mother's Day to all the amazing, selfless, sacrificing, hard working and just generally incredible mum's out there!

Yesterday was my first Mother's Day as a mum of TWO! And it was lovely.

Chelsea spent the weekend at my mum's place because we had a wedding to attend that she wasn't invited to. That meant a weekend with just one kid again. And a baby at that. It was bliss! He LOVED it too. He had us all to himself, slept better than he has in his whole life, and actually smiled so much I managed to capture it on camera - complete with newly sprouting toothie!



(Check out Byron in his wedding gear. How sweet is this little man!)



Sunday we drove to my Mum's place and had lunch with all the family. It was the perfect end to a lovely weekend. Chelsea was so happy to see us. There were cuddles all round before she ran off to keep playing. Having that break from the DEMANDS of an almost 2-yr old was incredible. I didn't realise just how impatient I had become with her. Today was a lot more relaxed. She was still hard work - don't get me wrong. But I didn't feel like I was angry all day. Which can only be a good thing!




I also have some interesting news to share too. But it's getting late, so that will have to wait for tomorrow's post.

Bitha on eBay

Little Bithia is having her turn on eBay this week. She is starting at 99c, no reserve. I'm so curious to see how she goes. eBay is such a fickle medium for art...

My Silly Bear

Look who arrived for me today! Her name is Lucy Jane, and she is a fantastic bear by 'The Silly Bear'.



The quality of this little lady is fantastic! I have to admit that bear collecting is addictive... and not 'helped' by getting another bear! Every time a new bear arrives for my collection it just re-kindles the love of this works of art, and makes me want to find the next 'special one'! Ah dear... at least I can make a few of my own in the meantime to help buffer the cost of such an addiction...

...and at least it's a nice addiction, not detrimental to my health, not detrimental to my family(Maybe slightly detrimental to the space in my house though!)

Oh, and here is a sneak peek at my lastest project. This MASSIVE piece of gorgeous animal print faux fur has been sitting in my craft room, begging to be chopped up for months now. So chop it up I did! This will be 3 gorgeous big curvy bears like Jaguar, and one fatty-fat bear like Ikey (but with a bit more hair!).

First Tooth for the B-Man

We had a bit of a crappy day here yesterday. Chelsea and Byron have both got colds which means Byron can't feed properly (he guzzles like a mad man then pulls off, spluttering for air!), and Chelsea can't be happy! :P

So after attempting to put her down for her noon nap for the second time at 2pm (first attempt was a disaster), I had a moment to breathe. Then my B-Man woke up...

After another snuffly feed, he was sitting on my lap munching on my finger when I felt something sharp. There was a tiny, white tooth popping up from his bottom gum! I was blown away! It had fully cut through, so must have been there for at least a few days and I had no idea! I was all over Chelsea's first tooth, I knew it was coming before it had even appeared. Mind you, she was 8 months old so I had to wait a lot longer. Byron is only just 3 months!



I wonder if this is a sign of things to come; if he is going to grow up way too fast...

Facebook Fan Page GIVEAWAY

I've had a number of blog give-aways over the last year or so of running this blog... but I've never had a facebook give-away. So I thought it might be fun to try that too!



Head on over to my facebook page to check it out. You could be taking home this sweet little guy.



The winner will be drawn on Mother's Day, 8th May 2011 at 9pm EST.

Heather Blush, Sunny Rose and Pumpkin Spice (and the fall!)

Three new bears for your viewing pleasure!

Meet Heather Blush, Sunny Rose and Pumpkin Spice - named after the amazing pieces of hand-dyed mohair they were made from. (Many thanks to Alison from eTeddies for the fur!)

All three were made with my 'Willa/Attila' pattern, but have been altered differently each time. Heather Blush has the gusset flipped around backwards. Sunny Rose (yellow bear) has her eyes set further back along her nose, and Pumpkin Spice (orange bear) has a much smaller face/nose/mouth.

It is pretty cool just how much variation can be achieved by changing such simple things as eye placement, fur direction, gusset shape and ear placement!





I had a bit of trouble getting these three finished as Byron and I had a little accident on Saturday morning. I was walking through a carpark with him in my arms when I felt myself loose balance. In that split second I thought 'I'll just right myself here, I won't fall down. I can't fall down, I've got Byron in my arms' - then I fell down.

I landed flat on the gravel, one shoe went in one direction, one in the other, and Byron landed about half a metre away. Once I got over the shock of finding myself on the ground, I quickly scooped him up. He'd curled himself into a ball on his back and was in the silent stage of a massive cry. Then he screamed and screamed and sobbed and screamed some more. I held him out to check his injuries and he had blood spotting all down the left side of his face.

I gathered my shoes and my bag and started walking the two streets to our local medical centre. I didn't want to put Byron through the trauma of being strapped into the car seat after being dropped!

The doctor checked him out, but he was fine. Then they realised I was injured too. They cleaned me up as much as they could, wrapped round some bandages and sent Byron and I off to the kids hospital in an ambulance so he could be monitored.

We spent the day there, but Byron was fine. After 6-7hrs of having to hold him constantly, not having anything to eat, and just my water bottle to drink I was well and truly ready to go home.

A friend (who happens to be a nurse) came round that evening and helped me clean myself up a bit, but she said I should probably have had stitches.

This morning things were not looking good for me. Byron on the other hand was healing up beautifully! We decided to make a trip to a different medical centre that promises 'rapid treatment'. We were there for about 3 hours, but most of that time was spent getting x-rays, having my rather deep and infected wounds scrubbed, cleaned, cut and stitched, and ended up with my right arm in a sling!

The sling lasted about 5mins before I took it off so I could carry Byron! It got really painful once the local anaesthetic wore off, but it's feeling quite good now. I still haven't looked to see how many stitches I ended up with, but I do know I had two yucky mangled holes in my elbow, a bruised hip and a gashed up knee!

Moral of the story - don't fall over! :P Kids seem to get away with falling over. Adults, not so much. Not that I planned to fall down! I'm still not sure how it happened to be honest. And I feel so bad that I hurt Byron too. I'm just so relieved that he escaped with only a little bit of damage!

This is him all tucked up in his daddy's arms this morning. The little cuts above his eye are already looking so much better!