See you soon-ish!

 
There may be a slight break in "transmission" here on my little blog; I'll be going in to hospital tomorrow morning for some surgery (nothing to worry about / women's lot etc) but it does mean a longish recovery time, so I'm not sure when I might get back here! I have more than plenty of sewing to get on with, and luckily that will probably be an ideal occupation whilst otherwise largely out of action. Just what Mum-in-a-household-of-5 needs before Christmas eh? Ah well, I'll sit back and await the Christmas Fairy's return, LOL!!!

TaTa For Now!

Ruth

Cloud Nine!

I'm still feeling as though I need to pinch myself after the wonderful time I had on Saturday night at the Gala Presentation for the Excellence in Bear Artistry Awards. This took place at the Hilton hotel in Sheffield, where the Great Yorkshire Teddy Bear Event was due the following morning, so I met up with lots of  bear artist friends, and even a few collectors who attended.
I am totally over the moon that "Lilibet" - who received a Judges Choice award in September - was chosen as the Winner in her category (Miniature Dressed Bear) so I would like to thank all the lovely people who voted for her! Thank you so much!

(Just a little phone pic I'm afraid; so not brilliant!)

We all had a wonderful evening, with the tables looking an absolute picture; perfectly Christmassy with red crackers, and candelabra, and red goody bags stuffed with lovely things like gold teddy chocs, Deb Canham teddy baubles, Bear Bling and lovely diaries from Apple Pie House (the "other halves" didn't miss out either!) Katherine Hallam (Katie Rae Bears) who organises the fair had worked so hard to make it all so festive and pretty. We had a great dinner - I had baked salmon; mmmmm :0) - and then it was on to the charity auction in aid of Sheffield children's hospital, and a fabulous raffle just for the attendees, where the first prize was a gorgeous bear by Michelle Lamb.My lovely friend Lisa Page (Arcas Designs) won it, and another sweet young friend on my table won the 2nd prize bear ; so we were all very lucky on the night!!
Susan, of Bear Basics, who organised the EBAAs gave a really excellent presentation all about the aims, organisation and judging of the competition, and then as my category was first I suddenly realised I'd have to go to the front (I was a bit stunned to be honest!) As you can just about see I received a really lovely crystal trophy, and I was bowled over to also be given a huge basket of beautiful flowers! I was hoping to get a pic' to put on here as they are delightful - maybe later on.

I'd like to send congratulations to all of the nominees; as all the pieces were amazing, and also very many Thanks to Susan for bringing this competition to us all, which she is clearly passionate about. You can catch all of the winners on the Excellence in Bear Artistry website here, together with details for 2013.

Phew, my feet are just about touching the ground now, lol,

T.T.F.N  Ruth xx

Virtually Real!?

Course; I don't really have a cat (I'm a definite dog-person) and this "book" only exists in my imagination.OR; does that make it real enough??? I will soon be joining the millions of technologically informed people who own virtual books. And magazines. And .... well, all sorts of intangible text and visual matter which add up to what might formerly have been packaged between 2 printed covers!

The postman has indeed just handed me the Amazon* parcel (*Boo Hiss - sort your UK tax out pantomime villains!!) and it contains a Crimby present from my lovely Father - a Kindle Fire HD! I'm beyond excited. You see I fell for them in Waterstones in Chester ... and there was no turning back. They are small sleek objects of desire, and importantly, not too frighteningly techy. Yes, I LOVE real books, I really do. I've devotedly collected them my whole life. I've heeded the dictionary definition of "virtual" (Adj: "being something in effect, though not strictly in fact.) and scornfully dismissed these upstart interlopers with their lack of ink smell, and non-rustling, non-fiddley pages. But; I'll be able to surf the net or watch BBC I-player, or catch up with radio I've missed. Not to mention squillions of other things within its 32 Gigabytes of something or other I won't be clever enough to use! I'll even be able to talk to people on Skype!! And it's seductively small and sleek - and I can choose pretty "clothes" for it! **

Even a Luddite can change can't they? Quick, where are some trusty old fashioned scissors so I can get in to the parcel? :0)

TaTa For Now (Obviously I couldn't stay long today, LOl!)
Ruth XX

** Definition of seduce - "attract or lead astray by offering temptations." That'll be a Kindle Fire HD then......

Doesn't Time Fly?...

I certainly didn't intend to be absent for so long without posting!!! It can get quite difficult to blog if you don't have anything visual to share, and I haven't been able to get hold of any photos for a while now. Autumn will soon be waning in favour of Winter at this rate! My head has been well and truly down; producing Limited Edition pieces, and others. All of the Fairmont and Clio designs from my previous post have now sold out, which is wonderful :0) My household is back to normal with youngest son at college (studying A levels) and oldest back at University.Frustratingly my middle son has had to sign on for Jobseekers Allowance as apparently nobody wants to offer work to a fit, trained, hard-working young man with a spraying licence and Horticultural qualifications. It would be polite if potential employers at least bothered to let him know they'd filed his application in the bin, but "meh", he's just another economic casualty, right ?....  To keep him out of the doldrums I've bought in a huge mixed batch of Winter vegetables, which need to be raised and planted out, so I'm quite looking forward to cooking some Swiss Chard, and Kale, and lots of other yummy things :0)

The leaves have all turned those pretty shades, and the frost was thick and sparkley this morning - I'm not sure we've had frost on Bonfire Night in recent years (?) think it will be a cold one for all those intrepid Firework Display Co ordinators (..Dads, in other words, lol) It will be interesting to see if many people on my estate actually bother at all this year. I must admit I preferred the fireworks of the long-gone past which were more "whizz" than "bang", with fountaining colours dwarfing the back garden, rather than relentless shot-cakes and monumental deafening explosions! My little doggies will be safely indoors all the same.

Safe fun tonight wherever you are!

Ruth xx