Gorgeous Gingham

 

I have been struggling to get my swaps out before going on my holiday. I have succeeded, except for one. I will be able to finish whilst away, so I am happy. It always amazes me that I can begin a project and get nowhere with it for hours on end…something that should be easy, and yet the colours are wrong, or I can’t get positions right, or the materials are not quite right. So I start on something else and bingo! Straight away the inspiration is there and the project flows. This has happebed a couple of times this wekk. I made a set of ATCs for my Gorgeous Gingham swap on Swap-bot. This was the one I hosted. I had already made quite a collection of items to illustrate the swap page, so I couls have just sat back and used them for m swaps, but I had a hankering to do some ATCs. I did three and struggled a bit…but got there eventually. But then I started the fourth card and it worked first time and was I think the best one of the four. This is the one I’m talking about. It just seems to flow naturally.

 

I also had a degree of success with another set of ATCs. I worried about what I was going to do for the ‘marine’ theme. Fish, boats, a light house? I don’t know where I got the idea from, but suddenly I thought about the squares of gummed paper I had. The sort that children use…all lovely bright colours, and away I went, with no lack of inspiration. These were the result. I have to say I am very pleased with them. The cruise liner could have done with being slightly longer as it’s shortness makes it look like it’s sinking. The perspective isn’t quite right, but heyho, I think it’s recognisable as a liner.

 

       

 

       

These ATC’s have been laminated so the light shows all the laminating flaws.

Sawmill on the doorstep

Poor Guliver woke up to loud sawing noises yesterday. He didn’t know it was a saw. In fact he thought it was a drill because it squeeked, but either way, he was not a happy bear. We went outside to see what was making the noise and discovered that a neighbour had bought in the tree surgeon who was cutting down a tree. Once I explained to Guliver what was happening, he was fascinated and asked if he could sit on the doorstep and watch. There was a funny machine that looked a bit like an old fashioned combine harvester, which I think must have been for shredding the smaller branches and leaves. Guliver watched and pondered for a while, surmising that if he’d been born in Austrailia he would have been better at climbing because he would have been a Kaola bear. I said that I thought most bears could climb trees and he would probably be able to as well. He said he thought he’s quite like to be a tree surgeon, but then that would mean cutting down trees, and then there would be no trees for bears to climb. I couldn’t argue with his logic. Guliver is a thoughtful bear, quite deep!

 

     

Guliver thought he might look cool in a yellow hard hat. I assured him that he would, especially if he got a yellow ribbon to match the hat!

Today has been very quiet for Gulliver. We are getting ready for our holiday so didn’t have a chance to take him to explore Aberdeen. I told him all about the place we are going to and I think he is impressed. He was concerned because he thought we were leaving the cats by themselves. But I explained that someone was coming to stay and look after them for us. He has become great friends with two of the cats, BearCat and Jiffers. BearCat even slept next to Guliver. In the photo it looks like he slept on him, but he wasn’t touching him. I could hear them both gently snoring.

Tomorrow will be a long drive, so we are going to bed shortly. I told Guliver to get an early night because tomorrow will be a busy day, with lots to see! So retired a couple of hours ago.

I may have difficulty getting online whilst away…we’ll see, but I’ll do my best to keep Guliver’s family informed of his adventures 🙂

Crows

I have discovered that I am not very good at drawing crows. No matter how hard I tried, they either came out looking like ducks, or pigeons or some other bird, and I couldn’t quite get the hostile look. They all seemed to emerge as benign, not feisty. But I had to draw a couple of ATC’s (my partner in the swap prefers hand drawn ATC’s rather than collage) so I had a go. Don’t laugh…but here are the results of my painful endeavours!

When I tried to make this last one a bit smaller, I couldn’t replicate it, so I made it into a blank card for her. I think I had more success with the flamingos!

Hello Guliver!

    The first of my guest travelling teddies has arrived. Whilst Bruno is off on his visits we get to host ten visits from other bears, the first of whom is Guliver. He is from Cambridge, which, as he points out in his diary, is a very beautiful city, famous amongst other things for its prestigious university. I grew up in the home counties and remember Cambridge chiefly for the Fitzwilliam Museum which as a child I loved visiting. Museums were usually pretty boring in those days, but for some reason I really loved the Fitzwilliam, which, if I remember rightly was all about Oliver Cromwell. But back to Gulliver…

When he arrived he was pretty tired, so he had some light refreshment and then lay down on the settee for a long nap.

     When he awoke from what looked like very peaceful slumbers, he was introduced to some of the members of my hug, who had been loitering in the background, very curious and more than a little excited. Introductions made, they grouped around Guliver as he showed them his diary and explained that he’d like us to write about his activities during his stay here. My eldest Ted, who is 54years old can read a little and he pored over the diary, very interested to learn about Cambridge!

 I think little Violet was quite taken with Guliver…

Guliver, bless him, seemed unperturbed!

I love the little rucksack that Guliver bought with him, especially the yarn. I must remember to ask his human, Frances, which yarn she used.

Gulliver bought his passport (as he will be visiting Germany next), and a photo album for us to display photos of his adventures, plus his diary.

He is such a sweet bear, and no problem to look after. My cats were intrigued and had to check him out. It’s not a brilliant photo, but here is Jiffers doing a double take!

Once he’d had a sniff and was satisfied that Guliver wasn’t another cat, he settled down next to him and went to sleep. Guliver is used to pets. At home he has five Retrievers and a cat called Sophie.

Fun with ATCs

I have been having fun making more ATC’s for swaps and as ‘extras’ for my swap partners. I also made some bookmarks, remembering to keep them as flat as possible so that I could laminate them.

 

 

 

 

 

                      

And lastly some cat ATCs. I didn’t plan on making these…they just happened!!

 

                  

Bruno hits London!

Bruno arrived in London at his first holiday residence this morning. Pretty good going considering he was posted in Aberdeen at 4.50pm yesterday evening. He has settled in really well and Kaet sent piccies of him having some light refreshment with his new friends. He will rest tomorrow and then I believe he is going to a knitting group tomorrow evening. He’ll love that as he sat and watched me make his scarf and hat. I reckon he may even be able to knit himself now, given the chance lol. Thanks for looking after him and making him so welcome Kaet 🙂

Kaet is blogging about Bruno and her sweet little bear, Luna. You can read about them here.

 

Bruno is on his way…to London

Bruno has begun his European tour! As we speak he is on his way to London to visit the first of ten other bears’ homes and families. He was so excited but was not happy about going into his travelling bag. I had great difficulty getting him in and it really upset me too, but I assured him that once he began his travels he would feel much better and would have a great time.

As you can see he took his passport…     

 

and his journal,

so that folk could write him little messages as keepsakes…         

I made him a new backpack, (a second one as OH said it didn’t look like a backpack) and a scarf and hat. The hat is a little too short, but I was running out of time, so decided to leave it be. I put buckles on his backpack, and a pocket on the outside, and decorated it with a bear embellishment, which was really totally the wrong colour, but Bruno thought it was ok, and he’s the one using it!

                

 I also made a magnet for each of the bears families, with a picture of Bruno, so they can remember his visit, and an identity pendant, same photo, with details of my contact email addresses which he wears around his neck, but slightly hidden by his scarf.

              

I hope Bruno has everything he needs. Hopefully he will arrive in London tomorrow, or Wednesday. I can’t wait to hear that he is safe!

The travelling bear round robin is organised by one of the groups on Ravelry which is a website for knitters and crochet freaks, like me 🙂

Random cards

I have been holed up today crafting, making cards and ATcs. Two of the cards were for family, and all the ATCs are for swaps. The first set is flower themed. The swap was for one flower ATC, but I always do an extra, and then, thinking I had finished, I checked for my partners address and realised that I had not read her profile. Reading her profile meant that I learned that she particularly likes violets, so I made another ATC with violets and then a card to accompany the swap package. I quite like these. People always seem to add text, but I think it’s often nicer just to let the images do the talking. Anyway, here are the ATCs.

         

 

 

Having finished these, I then turned to a card for my neice who celebrates her first birthday shortly. I decided to stick with easy images, ladybird and butterfiles, and some toadstools and leaves, and made them brightly coloured. I used my cuttlebug for all the images except the butterflies. I hope it is stimulating enough,or at least colourful enough to capture her interest.

 

Next was a card for my daughter. I am sending her the bag I crocheted for her (previous post) and made the card to accompany it, and explain the surprise. This card is in colours I wouldn’t normally use. I love my purples and pinks, blues and greens…but yellows, oranges, peachy pink?!! Well I quite like the colour combination in this and I think it’s refreshingly different for me.

 

And lastly, I made some ATc’s for a swap called ‘The colour Purple’.  Self explanatory really. Of course, being this colour, I was in my element. I had the drawer of flowers out after making the flower ATC’s so I ended up using more flowers. I did try to vary the theme a bit in one of them…the stripy ribbon one, but even then the desire to add a flower got the better of me. My favourite is the one with the crochet diamond. I really like these, and make no apologies for lushness or overcrowding. They are sumptuous and purple. Brilliant! Gosh…I really hope my swap partners love purple as much as I do, and flowers! 🙂

        

          

 

Quite a day for crafting, and at least three cards to make tomorrow!.

Best get some sleep!

Finishing touch…

…to my bag. This bag is being sent down to my daughter as a surprise gift. Before I wrapped it up today I added a key fob internally, so that she can attach keys, or a purse or whatever. Just makes it that bit more secure. I just hope she likes it., and doesn’t say she does just to please me:(

Ted gets a rucksack

Bruno is a teddy bear and he may be going on his travels. Nice travels, that is, to several European countries. If he is lucky he might get picked for a Teddy bear round robin journey, visiting nine other places in Europe, meeting bear friends owners and having a little look around. As part of this adventure, he will need a rucksack to put in a passport and a notebook for his friends to leave messages. So I have made him a ruck sack, although I have told him I might make a different shaped one tonight…but we’ll see. This one is nice and roomy so there will be plenty of room for his bits and pieces. If he’s a lucky bear, I may even knit him a complete new outfit to travel in, hat, scarf mittens etc. If it is cold, he may need something more substantial, like a jumper and trousers.

However, we have to wait and see if he gets picked to join the round robin. If not, I’m sure there will be other opportunities. In the meantime, here are some pictures of him wearing his new rucksack  (prototype 1).