testing...

Some people will attest to my lack of Photoshop skills (Sarah?? lol)... even "Photoshop for Dummies" is a bit over my head! lol. I've just been trying to add a blurred border to my pics to make them more interesting, my trusty book mentioned above was no help:( Google searching tutorials, the same. Poor Mum came to the rescue, and voila! So here is two posts in one day, because I might forget how to do it again, and I want evidence that yes, I did do it once upon a time:)
This is one of my little bears perched on a Mushroom in the front yard. It was a bit smaller than the one I took with Sarah's bear. These mushrooms were so magical looking, I think all up there was 5 or 6 of them over a couple of weeks. Sadly they are all gone now, hopefully they will be back again next year!
Now, off to practice mly newfound skill on more photos!

Time Flies..

I don't know where the time goes between posts.... I always think I am doing well at keeping up then when I see the date on my previous post I know different!:)
Getting ready for a show this weekend, close by here in Melbourne, and teaching classes at Bear Essence. We also lined up next term's classes already! We are doing Babycakes, kind of a large bear for me, and also doing a separate hat class- no bear, just hats, small hats:). I will update the Class section in the sidebar with dates.
As usual, classes were a nice mix of familiar faces and new- one of the students had not finished a bear before. It was a nice reminder of how exciting it is to finish that first face:) Thanks all for coming along!
Working on some new patterns, and I will probably make them my next blog post:)
For now, here's Babycakes, for the next class at Bear Essence....

More Exciting News....

Not going to IDEX or Toy Fair in January/February this year with a whole swag of new dolls and bears gave me the time and chance to do something I have wanted to do for a few years now- enter the US Magazine contests. Thanks to the staggered deadlines I was able to enter both the TOBY awards from Teddy Bear and Friends, as well as the Golden Teddies run by Teddy Bear Review magazine. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, the Golden Teddies nominees were announced last week and I was absolutely beyond thrilled to have found out both my entries were nominated in their categories!
Bella (top) in the Small, Dressed category and Pirouette (below) in the Miniature, Dressed category. As with the TOBYs, the public's choice vote will follow later in the year.. and as with the TOBYs just having got this far is thrilling and such an honour!

New Bears, New Shows!

Well, even though I didn't manage to post a sneak preview of some bears *before* the show on the weekend, I am quite pleased with myself that I managed to actually snap a few pics of my new teeny tiny Panda. Mind you this is mostly because of a certain person (thanks Sarah! lol) asking me to!:) This little girl reminds me of a Liquorice Allsort, and only measures about 2" overall. I was pleased that the little ones I made from this pattern were snapped up quickly at the show on the weekend, so I have a few more on the drawing board for the next show!
Speaking of the show.... while it *was* a little smaller than before, it was pretty successful for those who did attend. I know I wasn't able to leave my table until after 1pm and by then there was quite a few tables with empty spaces! Kim McDonalds bears were just about wiped out when I managed to go take a look, only two little cuties left.... I was disappointed as I love to admire Kim's work.
On other show news, I have signed up for three more shows! eek! Next up for us now is another local show here in Melbourne (will update the show listing when I have the exact address) at the end of May. Then it's off to Brisbane in June for Winter Wonderland- which is kind of amusing to us Southerners since it's hardly Wintery in Brisbane in June, compared to what it will be like in Melbourne!:) Then............... in September... I have been lucky enough to have been accepted into Hugglets show in London! You can imagine how excited I was when I got *that* email! I can't wait!