Classic Bears

Today I ended up in Callander and nipped into the Hamilton Toy Collection. It is a weird and wonderful collection of toys from the Victorian era onwards with such classic characters as Rupert Bear, Action Man, Sindy, Barbie and Count Duckula all represented. They also have a whole load of bears. Inculding a few Schuco miniatures... There was also a very handsome Steiff called Gerhardt and a picture of him being loved by his original owner...

However my favourite Steiff creature was this Goldfish! There was no label on it but a bit searching has lead me to think it might be a Steiff Flossy Fish (No. 2300/22 from 1968 - 1978). It seems to have been made in a range of mohair colours over the time.

Now if only I can convince Tom this is the goldfish I need to have to celebrate our anniversary this year!

Finally a bear!

Just when you thought I'd given up on the bears I make a real sweet heart! Olave is a bit of a cheat I did half of her before breaking my hand and then just finished her off this weekend.


Her badge and colours are that of the Senior Section - no not a bunch of OAPs but the name of the section of Girlguiding UK for 14 -26 year olds that I work with.

She's named after Olave Baden-Powell - the wife of Scouting founder Lord Baden-Powell and the original Chief Guide.

On a technical note I needlefelted her muzzle, used Ezy-Wax on her nose to make it shine and dyed the mohair with Kool-Aid.

Summer Bag

Wednesday night crafting was just me this week so I decided to make myself a summer bag. I treated myself to Cute Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo (ISBN: 978-1934287095) recently and I hadn't done anything out of it. So I decided last night was the night.

I went with the Gusseted Ecological Bag, I adapted it a bit so it is fully lined and has inside pockets - two on one side and four on the other. This means there are plenty of spaces to store my keys, etc. so I can hopefully find them quickly.

For the front I went for the Gecko in the bug pattern - it's supposed to be made into a wee bag itself but I just used it as applique.

Zoo Trip by Dumbledore (King) Part 2

Welcome back loyal subjects!

After lunch we decided to walk on the wild side. By taking a look at some cats.

Now those of you who know me may know I live with a couple of tigers (one a tad bee obssessed and one who is a spider fan) neither are exactly towering.

It turns out that they are very little indeed compared to those who feast on bigger meat than insects!

I on the other hand am as tall as an 8 year old Chimp!

I then hunted spoke to some of my subjects.

The penguins looked tasty but I just couldn't get their wrappers off!

Alas it finally came to heading home.

However I had found a new subject to help me rule my Kingdom.

Bill Tong is a Red River Hog and is now the offical Royal Chocolate Finder. This high honour is because I am told that pigs are specialists at finding chocolate truffles.

Until next time,

King Dumbledore.

Zoo Trip! by Dumbledore (King) Part 1

Greetings Loyal Subjects,

I thought I would share some of my royal adventures with you (so you can feel close to my greatness).

Last week I went on a royal visit to Edinburgh Zoo with some of my subjects (opposite).

Apparently it was one of the smaller subjects birthday so as a special reward for surviving a year I let her carry me.

There were of course many animals for me to talk to and it was intersting to catch up on gossip and of course for them to have the honour of meeting me.

The Honey Badger was filling me in on good places to find honeycomb covered in chcocolate.

The trip was very educational apparently these camels do not carry fat in their humps but rather babies.

Not all of my subjects seemed keen to chat. This Koala seemed much more intersted in sleeping than meeting his King. However, even he felt the aura of greatness I project and woke up to say hello.

For lunch my subjects provided me with a range of chocolate choices. Including the zoo themed Animal biscuits I love so much. Nothing like munching on monkeys to set you up for the afternoon!

Then we looked at the map and decided which of the animals I'd like eat meet.

Pacman Coasters

I was inspired by a Etsy item from Lost Mitten to make my own version of her Pacman Coasters. I borrowed heavily from her design but I made my own verison of Mrs Pacman and I changed the eyes on a couple of the ghosts. I used Hama beads (and the generic Tesco equivalents for the orange one) and an iron. I must be one of the few adults my age who didn't used these much as a kid so it was a bit of a first. It was bit like doing cross stitch - the trick was to do the outline and then fill in the colour. Still took me most of an evening but it was totally worth it since my coffee table is so much improved.

ÄLGDRONK

When I went to Stockholm a few years ago I went into a great shop called KALIKÅ it had loads of cool kids toys including Älgdronks. Now the made up versions were a bit outside my budget but they also did kits and instructions so I got myself a pattern and kit for Älgdronk.

As far as I can figure the name is just that of a moose (Älg) stuck onto the shops version of a gonk (dronk doesn't see to have an English equivalent).

Anyway despite parting with cash for this gem I never quite got round to sewing it but last weekend Tom had headed off to other pastures for the weekend so I pulled it out and went to work.

The poor thing does seem a little down at having been ignored for so long!

Camera Bag

I got a new camera - it's rather dull and black so I decided that to make it more exciting I'd make a camera case.

It was just a simple rectangle 14cm by 26cm folded into three (or as required by the camera).

I used two layers of fabric and a bit of wadding as padding (cotton front facing each other, then the wadding on the bottom), with a quarter inch seam allowance.

Then a simple slip stitch up either sides to about a third of the way up.

I added a wee loop of ribbon (as I sewed up the gap created from turning it the right way round) and a button to keep it closed.

I even put in a pocket so I can carry a spare memory card/ battery/ credit card etc. Then I went a bit mad and quilted the top round the island and the cap in the map.

Best of all I got to use my pirate fabirc and the dubloons!

Fabric plans

So having gone through my fabric stash I am planning some projects. I bought this buddle of fat quarters to go with fabric I had for a few specific projects.One of my plans is to make a quilt with jars and bookshelves I was inspired by a quilt design I found online by One Day Quilt Frenzy which combined books and jars!

I reckon the wood effect fabric will make good shelves and the mottled fabric good book covers, plus the dubloons will make a good jar. I already have some other prints that will make intersting jar contents and some genius spider web fabric to add in a few corners!

Dr. Who Cookies

I love cookie cutters (not that I bake that often) but I couldn't resist this Dalek cookie kit from Greens. They were really easy to make and tasted pretty good too!

They proved to be a lot easier to exterminate than the originals :)

Badge madness

I went to the School Library Association conference the other weekend. During the session on school tranisitions the speaker suggested that the librarian could wear different badges during the year. This would mean the kids would remember you and think the library was fun.

Now i have no idea if this will impress the youth of today (though a few of my new sixth years did say they liked my 'Einstein is relatively good' badge) but the school has a badge maker I could borrow and I had crafty inspiration.

So Wednesday night was badge making with a librarian theme! Now I am rubbish at thinking what slogans to use so I hit cafepress and looked for librarian themed badges. My favourites include 'Question Authority, Ask a Librarian' and 'I read dead people'.

I also did a Dr.Who badge - partly since David Tennant is a local boy but mostly because Dr. Who has twice featured a library and the Doctor clearly feels they are important!

Now all I have to do is wait and see if my first year are impressed!

"The fat just walks away"

Clair and me both made Adipose (for the post about where we got the pattern click here). I already mentioned this in my crafty madenss post but here are both together for the first time - mine is on the left. Neither quiet looks like the original but both were made with love! Possibly they were generated from bones, blood and tissue rather than fat :)

Clair's rather cleverly actually weighs a pound!

Secret Patchwork Project

For the past few months (lets say somewhere in the region of 9 months) Clair and I have been doing a patchwork quilt for our mate's new baby. So the child is now six months old but the quilt is done! Made with love (if not competence).

We started with this great red fabric covered with loads of brightly coloured animals and somewhere along the way that fabric ended up as the back! So to bring it to the front we cut out five love hearts with an animal pair in each. I can neither confirm or deny that these love hearts cover up a couple of errors.