If you go down to the woods today …

I have made my first teddy bear and I have a feeling it could be addictive.  Here he is:

As he is pink and flowery I am not sure why I think he is a “he” but it feels as if he is.  He is just a prototype so I could learn about making him.  He isn’t a jointed bear but is joined through the arms and legs by linen thread which goes through the buttons.  I have learned so much making him.  Firstly, I now covet a rather lovely carved stuffing stick.  However, at the moment, the blunt end of a pencil will do!  I also learned about massaging the stuffing once I had filled the bear – particularly the head.  I used this on a heart I have been making and it really improved the finished look.   I also watched a really useful YouTube video about stuffing into points and small spaces; it was very useful and there are loads of tutorials out there.  I did think it seemed a bit spooky putting “how to sew a bear’s head to its body” into Google and this is when all the information about making jointed bears came up.  I think I may have to try it ... 

Can I, while I am chatting, draw your attention to Joanna Sheen’s blog “County Days”   It’s not about her sales side of things but more the diary of a country crafter.  It has made me think about telling you more about lovely North Yorkshire so you may find odd things coming up in my blogs.

Joanna loves gardening while I, it must be said, love gardens.  I decided to get out on Sunday and make a move towards the new design I have planned for my garden.  The garden at Granny Crafting Cottage is very small but can take quite a bit of work or it becomes overgrown.   I am going to make it as low maintenance as possible to allow for future inability to do as much.  Did I say future inability?  Gardening seemed a long way away by the time I had finished as I was cleaning the drive.  Unfortunately it was long overdue and very mossy so I ended the day with no wafting scent of roses or extra baskets and pots of flowers but very, very stiff joints and a lingering smell of Jeyes fluid!

Have a happy crafting week (or gardening or even drive cleaning)

Can I just add a PS to this weeks blog.  Yesterday my mother was called by "Dyson" to arrange a service for her cleaner.  She thought it odd because it is only a couple of months old but they insisted in making an appointment so she put them off until next week.  Well done Mum!  They said it would cost £15 which seemed very odd indeed.  I rang Dyson and they said they had been on Watch Dog on TV and advertised in the papers but these people were still able to approach vunerable Dyson owners and, saying they were from Dyson and capitalise on the name.  She said they would charge the £15 but often they would put other parts on the cleaner, saying it needed them and charge anything up to £90 and also negate the Dyson warrenty.  They have also, recently, been signing people up to a monthly payment scheme to cover the cleaner.  The lady I spoke to - who was extremely helpful - said Dyson would never cold call.  They have a free phone number and a very good warrenty so you ring them is there is a problem.  I just thought you might want to warn anyone you know who is vurerable to this sort of thing.