How does your garden grow?.......

Well, if you live in Maleny it grows at a great rate as do the weeds. When we moved here two and a half years ago everyone told us to be careful what we planted as things grow to about 3 times the size here. Well its true. Just look at the lemon I picked today - its huge and if its like all the others it will be full of juice.I made a lemon meringue pie which called for the juice of two lemons - it was so sour we could hardly eat it!! Juice of half a lemon would have been enough.

I have had little success growing carrots - they just don't seem to germinate . I put this down to insects and birds having a feed on the seeds, until I pulled out what I thought was one big carrot, but it was a whole lot joined together. All the seeds must have washed in together. I'm not the best gardener!

This week I also managed to do a revamp of my website. It was something I'd been wanting to do for sometime and even though I should have been madly sewing for the Sydney Doll Show next weekend,the computer kept getting in the way. Anyway its finished for the time being.

I did finish a 5"/13cm tall bear named Rachel. Rachel is made from a short pile golden mohair with matching ultrasuede paw pads. I knitted her some cute stripey overalls. And now back to work!!

Beginings....

I'm often asked how I started into the wonderful world of bear making..... so here's my story.
I was walking through the Riverside markets in Brisbane one Sunday morning with my daughter, Emily and we came across a lady selling bears. They looked so gorgeous that I thought then that I would have to find out how to make one. When I questioned the seller about where to buy fabric she was totally unhelpful and wasn't going to divulge her secrets!! The following week I was collecting the fees from one of the YMCA playgroups ( I used to work for the Y) and the playgroup leader knowing that I was into all sorts of crafts asked me if I knew of anyone who taught bear making. She then told me about a good book she'ds seen ( The art Of Teddy Bear Making by Jennifer Laing) and where I could buy some supplies. So on the way home I picked up the book got some fur - Synthetic and plastic joints - and that weekend my world into bears started. I went to the craft fair to buy eyes and there I bumped into Gerry's stand. A visit the following week to Gerry's ( she used to work from a very small room off her house at Rosewood) and I was never to be the same again. I just had to keep making bear after bear. Everyone (friends and family) thought I'd completely lost the plot! That was in 1993 and in 1995 I was made redundant from the YMCA and so bears became full time and I also started working for Gerry in her new shop which opened in Brisbane Arcade.

But my bear making goes back many years before when I was about 7 or 8 yrs old. I grew up in England and at primary school we used to spend some time learning a variety of crafts. I remember sewing dolls clothes and I made a little bear then with glass eyes - more like a koala. He sits in one of my cabinets along with Sooty the first bear I made in1993.

Sooty and my first bear