I Can Definitely Feel It

I'm sitting in a pool of sunshine in the bay window, it's real frosty outside but I'm feeling as warm as toast. Lately it has definitely felt like spring is on the way, the wattles are bursting into bloom, and in a few days the bush around here will be golden and abuzz with bees. The birds are certainly gearing up, our little Blue Wrens are becoming extremely vociferous and the other day I spotted the first of the returning Welcome Swallows wheeling above the house. Yes, I can definitely feel it :)We have bought a new camera, it's a little one to take travelling with us, so I have been "practicing" with it. I'll have to get used to not looking through the viewfinder, though (it feels kind of odd) but I'm pretty happy with the pics I've been taking. Here are a couple of test photos I took of a bear I've been working on, I wanted to see how close in I could get it. These are with the bear sitting in my lap as I was working. Not bad for snaps! I think it will be a great little camera to take with us to Spain and Morocco, much less cumbersome than the SLR which tends to stay in the bag becuase it's such a pain to get out and use. So hopefully I will have lots of great travel pics to share with you when we get back from our trip :)

This is Amazing

For Christmas, I received from Chris this amazing book of bear portraits by Jill Greenberg. When I first looked at it I thought they were incredible drawings, however on reading the text, I realised that they were indeed photographs and that they were given their unreal appearance with Jill's studio lighting. I find myself having to look through this book, in awe of the beauty, power, and even the comedy that has been captured in these portraits. It is truly a book to treasure and one full of inspiration for me in my bearmaking.

Time

Here it is, the last day of my forties! EEEEK. Trouble is I don't feel old enough to be this old! I don't feel middle aged, if the mirror didn't tell me otherwise I could imagine I was still twenty (I wish!). I guess I've grown a little wiser with age, and I certainly made choices when I was young that make me cringe now! As they say "youth is wasted on the young", it would be so good to be able to go back and have all that energy, with a head full of the knowledge that only comes with experience. The things I would get done! Truth be told I'm actually in better shape than I was ten years ago, physically stronger though definitely wrinklier, my hair has only just started to show a little grey, so I guess not too bad. I do enjoy being a grandmother, I have found this new role in my life very fulfilling, though lately I just haven't had time to see enough of my precious grandson. Hopefully this will change when I get back from the UK, even though my calendar does look rather full with workshops in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania in November and December.

I'm beavering away at getting a collection together for Hugglets, my fingers are very sore. The other day my "thimble" finger lost it's callus which will make miniatures difficult. I do wear a leather thimble when working on my bigger bears, but find it too inhibiting when working on minis. It will take lots of sewing to work that hard pad back. This happens from time to time, usually when the tip of my finger has got to the stage where is has no feeling left in it, that's when it will peel off revealing the healthy new pink skin underneath, ready to start all over again.

Not long now to the next online show. Having got the bears done and the photos off I keep forgetting that it will be on soon. I can't wait to see what everyone has done, this show is quite small but there should be some really great works exhibited, I do hope you all will find the time to drop in on the 5th and 6th of September. Here's another little peek at what I will be offering.

Yi Min

This is the panda I've been working on, I finished her on Monday but had to wait for some decent weather for her photo shoot. Today started out with a hard frost and the day developed into a cool but cloudless winter's day, so I was able to set things up outside and got I some good shots without the aid of lights.

I managed to squeeze Yi Min's dark parts out of the alpaca left over from making Bronson, so there is absolutely none of that fur left. This panda is a one off, there will never be another one made in this colour. You can see more photos and read all about her on my website.

I've just felt the temperature plunge as the has sun dipped behind a rather large blackwood tree, I'll be lighting the heater early today. Having the sun streaming in through the windows all day, I'd forgotten just how cold the day really has been. The days are so short now, only a couple of weeks and we'll be past the solstice, then our days will begin to lengthen again. It's a bit like taking a big breath when we get over that hump and we start heading for Spring and Summer........still there are many cold days to come.

Autumn

Autumn has definitely arrived, we have abundant fruit from the garden, the trees are turning golden and I'm having to trawl through my recipes for 101 things to do with pears! I have a fabulous little book written by fellow Tasmanian, Sally Wise called; "A Year In A Bottle", it's packed full of great recipes for times of glut. Later today I'm going to try her Pear Ginger, which sounds delicious.

The Kurrawongs are feasting, they're driving Lily mad and she spends alot of the day racing around the orchard trying to catch one, though I don't know what she would do if she managed to do so. I've given up shooing the birds out of the trees, we have too much fruit as it is.

I'll have to put some of the apples through the juicer and freeze it. I did this last year and was totally blown away at how fresh it looked and tasted after several months, makes you wonder what happens to some foods in manufacturing that it seems stale before you've even brought it home from the supermarket. I've noticed this with the jams I've made from our fruit, the colour is so vibrant compared to what is available commercially.

Yesterday a big parcel arrived from the US with a couple of yards of wonderfully long and dense alpaca fur fabric inside, some more black and white to make more pandas! I'll have to rework my large panda pattern some more, I want to get it just right before I cut into these pieces, because the fabric is so beautiful and it was very expensive.

I've almost finished my collection for the Black and White Ball, which is just as well since the deadline for submission of the photos is the 1st of May. I'm going to try and set up a light tent inside to get the photos, the days have been very gloomy lately and I need a more reliable set up so that I can get a really good set of pics.