Santa Came Early

Meet Linda Benson's Holly, a fabulous little bear holding her special cat friend.  She is 14 inches or 35cm from head to toe and fully poseable. With Linda's trademark leather nose and open mouth design she was a sweet bear I couldn't resist adding to my collection from the recent TWW Christmas Treasures on line show.

And how about these fantastic leather paws, she is a real treasure !













Here's Holly with my little Benson Family collection.  The very cute little bear at the front wearing green handmade boots and a beautifully smocked play suit is one of Linda's from 1994 and Matilda the fantastic life like Bilby is from 2009.

We are busy picking mangoes from our tree again this year and have a good sized crop that will keep us in frozen mangoes for most of next year. We haven't lost many mangoes to the bats and bat numbers seem to be down compared with last year.

As Christmas day is almost here I'd like to take the opportunity to wish all my beary good blog friends every happiness for the holiday season and an inspired and creative new year. Cheers for now, Robyn.

Show time!

Not long to go now ! The show opens on the 16th November 4pm New York time and you may still have time to vote for your favourite show preview bear.  Just click on the banner above which will take you direct to Teddies Worldwide where you will find a stunning collection of Christmas Carol themed bears. Eighty five    artists from eighteen countries are participating in this on line show over two days, so there is bound to be a treasure there for you.  Enjoy!

Oh ... I almost forgot to show you my preview bear, Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum!

A Beary Long Hibernation

As it's almost mango time again I thought I'd better come out of hibernation!!  Goodness gracious how time does fly but I must say I have enjoyed the break from bear making and with that came the chance to explore   some new ideas and sort out some old stash that has been waiting for attention.  I have become involved with a wonderful group called Knit-a-Square who work very hard to help and support kids orphaned by Aids in South Africa.  Please click on KAS to find out more about their work.  Since I joined the group late last year I've had a great time breaking into my treasured yarn stash, (some of which was over 30 years old would you believe !!!) and knitting up a storm. It has been a lot of fun putting my stash to good use and creating simple but cosy garments and squares.  Please check out their website, you might have a yarn stash that could help the kids too.  I also visited South Africa in April and spent a magic four weeks exploring  and travelling there with my daughter and granddaughters.  We went on safari of course and here is a photo of a sweet little ellie we fell in love with and a pair of Cheetah brothers who along with their mother are being monitored as part of a research programme that will eventually see these young males moved and released into a new reserve, the father of these brothers was cruelly taken by poachers.

After getting back into the swing of things after our trip,  I decided it was time for a big clean up and a new outlook .... so I  moved my work room back into the main house.  Phew! what a business but I'm glad I did it and I'm enjoying the new space and getting into bear making again.

I've always loved the old Australian teds in my collection and in particular a little Emil design made around  1945 - 1950. He's very sweet and obviously much loved by a previous owner who at some time gave him little pink eye brows no doubt with mums lipstick! it just adds to his charm.  Anyway I decided to use him as a model for some new designs I wanted to try.  I'm still working on these but here is a picture of 'Emil' and one of the teds he has inspired ... a work in progress.

and last but not least we are still enjoying last years mangoes ... they do freeze beautifully :-) 

Cheers for now, Robyn.