The Best Laid Plans.......

Well now, after a perfect alignment the other day, the stars must have jumbled themselves up again! So much for yesterday's plans! In the morning the car had a flat, Chris changed it and on inspection noticed that two other tyres had worrisome splits in them! (We have a very bumpy drive into our place which can be very hard on our tyres but to get three splits all at once was just plain unlucky, I think some track maintainance has become rather higher on the "to do" list!) So yesterday was spent replacing the tyres and wandering around Launceston while waiting for the task to be done. We looked at vacuum cleaners, as the one we have is barely functional. Don't get me wrong, it still sucks.........but it sucks........it is held together with gaffer tape and now the head has lost a spring and I can no longer lower the brushes for hard floors, so I guess we need a new one. I could go for one of those little cheapies, but I do like the Dysons! And of course, depending on who you're talking to, things get confusing. I'll just have to struggle on with my geriatric Phillips for a while, but will have to decide something soon.
So........because of yesterday's dramas I didn't get around to photographing my giveaway bear, let alone getting him in here!
I can say our shortest day was cold, wet and windy. Today is looking decidedly better with a frost this morning, and the sun shining through the bay window is managing to warm me a little. I have just popped outside and taken this photo. This is my next giveaway! ( Thankyou Sandi for making such a cute button for this one)

If you want to be in with a chance to win this bear, leave your comment below with a suggested name for him/her. If you want some extra chances repost this photo on your own blog with a link back here and I'll add your name an additional two times to the hat/bowl/basket. I think that will do, I don't want to inundate you with rules! I'll look forward to your name suggestions, the draw will take place in two weeks and the bear will be given the name that comes out of the hat. Good Luck!

I Always Get It In The End (and you might too)

It seems that I can puzzle over things for years, trying various methods of approach that don't work and then all of a sudden all falls into place and the solution to a particular problem presents itself when I wasn't even trying (perhaps the phase of the moon or the alignment of the stars were perfect)! This happened today. Over the years I have tried and tried to sculpt a leather nose for my pandas which has the distinctive shape of a real panda's nose.  Many times I have tossed the resulting misshapen mess into the bin and reverted to my more typically beary nose. Today it's a different story, I wasn't even putting serious thought into it just fiddling about with a piece of green felt, trying out different shapes, "et voila" there it was in my hands, a panda nose! I'm so happy about this, but you are going to have to wait to see it, as this head is barely recognisable as the beginnings of a panda! (Does have a cute nose though)
My real reason for posting today is to let you know I'm having another giveaway. I see that I am inching my way to 300 followers (thanks y'all), good enough reason to celebrate along with midwinter I'd say ;o)
Tomorrow, on the shortest day of the year here for us down under, I will post a photo of the giveaway bear. So stay tuned, there will be some rules!

Meanwhile here's a little shot of Funi from our trip to the Adelaide zoo in January.......just to give you an idea of what I'm on about when it comes to noses and pandas :o)