ok what is with the live feed thingy Feedjit Live?

Just for fun I put one of those live feed thingies on the side of my blog (>>> see it over that way?) to check who visits my blog.
Well how come it cant work out where I am from when I sign in? So far I have been from The Leap in Qld (which apparently is up near Mackay) from Fairfield (which is the other side of the city and about 30 mins drive away) At the moment Im from Montville which is near the Sunshine Coast and a good hour or more away from Brisbane and the suburb where I actually live!
Not sure how it works but unless my IP is floating around all over the place I have no idea where they get the info. Makes for interesting reading though and it looks like I get to travel around without actually going anywhere!

My Emma bear finished

Well late last night I finally finished my bear made from the free pattern by Emma of Emma's Bears and she has turned out lovely. I used a thick pale blue acrylic fur and wool felt for the pads and inner ears. I needle felted flowers on her foot pads and embroidered around them to define. She has quite a lot of glass beads inside her for weight - I like my bears to be heavy! She has glass eyes and a dark grey embroidered nose (Im not too good at embroidering noses). I have named this bear Emma after her designer. Hope you like her!
She is my 26th bear I have made since 2008 when I started my bear making adventure. Most of my bears I have either made for myself or to give as gifts and a few I have sold at our African Violet Society show - 2010 show is Oct 16 and 17 at the Auditorium Brisbane Botanic Gardens - Mt Coot-tha Brisbane.

Free pattern by Emma's Bears

free pattern by Emma's Bears

Im trying out a free pattern by Emma of Emma's Bears - the bear is called Gracie and its a nice easy one to make, so try it out. Im making mine from a thick pale blue acrylic fur and she is turning out rather good. Photos as soon as Im finished and that shouldnt be long! Ive done the head and body, done some flowers on the foot pads and just have to sew up the arms and legs and join it all together and stuff it (LOL). I hand sew all my bears so they take a little while to do and I ran out of the strong thread I use for hand sewing (C Lon nylon thread) and had to order some more. It was just as easy to order from the UK than drive down to the Gold Coast to the bear/bead shop I usually get it from. Anyway photos soon!

This is Gracie by Emma so you can see what the original looks like

My Bumble Bear finally finished!

Well I finally finished my Bumble Bear a week ago and wanted to show you the photos. He turned out really nice after all - wasn't sure I liked him till I trimmed his nose and then he started to look cute. I changed the original pattern so that the muzzle was 2 colour instead of one. I changed the body so that it had stripes. Im happy to say the changes worked and he wasn't misshapen like I thought he might be.Hope you like him!

We die 3 times

I heard that on a TV show "we all die 3 times" - first is the body dying, 2nd death is when our body decomposes back to the earth and the 3rd death is when our name is spoken for the last time. Isnt that sad that some of us will die for the 3rd time while others will be remembered for all time and their name will go on. I guess if we dont keep track of our family tree and have names written down then some of us do disappear. I have been doing our family tree for many years now so at least in my family our names keep going and therefore we keep going for a bit longer now.
I just thought I would share this with you all (all 2 of you at least who follow me)

Fireball doll - Drossel von Flugel

I just bought myself this little poseable doll - called Drossel von Flugel from the Fireball anime series - see Youtube to see episodes (they are quite funny -subtitled from the Japanese). She is only 10cm or 4inches high and everything moves! You can pose her in almost any position even on one leg, so I can have her doing something different every day. I saw one on a blog for Little Bearies and just had to get one myself. Kids think Im mad but I like her on my computer desk! I think you can get larger ones that are made from metal and plastic - mine is only plastic, and the larger ones sometimes come with the different heads - my Drossel is the "fighting" one something to do with the head wear. Her usual get up is long pigtail type things but I liked this one the best. Have a look on eBay under "Fireball Drossel" if you want one. Mine was only a cheap one from the USA but its got the Disney name on it so Im pretty sure its genuine. My only worry is that the thumbs are movable but fall off if you do try and move them and unlike the other pieces they are so tiny that if you dropped one on the carpet you would never find it again and she would look weird without a thumb so I might supaglue them on...

My latest craft project... well one of them

Im sure no one cares as no one reads this blog but in the off chance that in years to come this blog is still here and someone comes across it they may be wondering why the bumble bear still hasnt been finished. Well the African Violet show is in Oct and I always put as many crafts as I can on the craft table to sell. I usually make a couple of hundred $ from sales so I think its worth while. Usually I start just after Mothers day in May to make a heap of crafts so I have plenty to sell by Oct but its almost July and I havent even looked to see what I had left over or thought about new things to make.
I dont know where the idea came from but I decided to make some little felt covers for notepads. You can buy the little spiral notepads for less than 50c each in a pack and I had lots of bought felt on hand. I make the cover and hand sew the edge with blanket stitch. Then I am making little flowers and leaves with my clover moulds by needle felting them into shape. I then attach the flowers and leaf by felting them onto the cover and then embroidering on the centres of the flowers and the stem of the leaf. I can make one cover from start to finish in around an hour. I can also do them while I watch tv so that is good as I hate watching tv without doing something else at the same time.
Im not sure what to sell them for - perhaps a couple of dollars to cover costs? Maybe $3? They are only small and measure 12 x 9cm (4½ x 3½ inches).
What do you think of these? I also have an address book to cover - it was given to me and I really dont need it so I will make it look pretty and sell it too.

Do you believe in reincarnation?

I was never really sure but I kept an open mind. The reason I believe now involves my eldest son.
When I was pregnant with him (not knowing the sex of the baby at that time) I caught bronchitis & as I was up coughing half the night I was sleeping in the spare room/nursery so my hubby could get some sleep. I was about 8 months pregnant at the time and laying on my side asleep when I felt someone poke my thigh and tell me to roll over. I looked up and saw my hubby there and rolled over not really awake. In the morning though I asked my husband why on earth he came in and told me to roll over. He just looked at me strangely and said he hadnt done anything like that. Then I looked at him and realised- the man I saw didnt have a beard but my hubby did at that time. That sort of shook me but I then I assumed I must have been dreaming.
When my son was born we named him James but when he was old enough to start talking for some reason he called himself "Da" my husband laughed and said he used to call his grandfather that name. It was many years later that I finally got to see a photo of my husband's grandfather -Da and was shocked - this was the man who had told me to roll over! He had died in the late 1970's and I had never met him or even seen a photo of him. But this was him. I then wondered if he was looking after me when I was pregnant as he was coming back as my baby and this is why James called himself Da! Who knows...

Just thought I would show you the cute little dolls I made over the last few weeks (my internet connection was on go-slow and had to do something instead of surfing the net). Each doll is needle felted over a wire armature and is about 10cm or 4 inches high. The hair is mohair and the dresses are made from bought felt and needle felted on the edges to join. I am selling them on Etsy (link on the right >>>>) except for the purple one which I am keeping as that was the first one and I love purple.

Last week I decided I had to get back to my daily walks - Im 47 now and need the exercise! So every day last week I went for a walk around the suburb in the morning. I walk for at least 40 mins and as the suburb where I live is quite hilly there are plenty of ups and downs to get the blood pumping. I feel great after a walk. Average is about 4km per walk and if I need to go to the post office or local shops I now walk rather than drive. It takes 5 mins to drive there but 25 mins to walk there. Its the start of winter here so its really nice walking weather. Summer can be just too hot (although last time I did these walks I would just jump in the pool after the walk to cool down).
Hopefully I can keep walking every day (except weekends unless I can get the boys or my hubby to accompany me! In my dreams! LOL)
I used to belong to a gym many years ago and the only machine I really enjoyed working out on was the treadmill so rather than renew my expensive gym membership I decided to just walk around the local area for free. A bonus is that I can check out everyone's gardens and see what is growing well around the area and get ideas for my own garden.

Im still working on my bumble bear - here are a few photos - the pattern Im using is nothing like the way this bear will turn out, the body is now striped, cut and sewn together with 2 different fabrics as is the muzzle. I love the little clips I use for holding pieces together when I sew them & all my bears are hand sewn. More photos to come.

A new bear?

Ok all these bear makers are inspiring me - I designed a bumble bear months ago and cut it out but never got around to making it. Why I am I sitting on the computer when I could be making a bear? So I am off to the craft room (rumpus room shared with my son's Xbox) and will take photos of the process - will only post them 1. if I can work out how to here & 2. if it works out the way I want it to.
This is my first designed bear made from bits of other patterns and Im really not sure if it will go together properly.
Oh well here goes...

My first blog

No idea what Im doing here but here goes...