Christmas Gifts From My Shop - 68 Days To Go

Another selection from my Etsy shop.
This time the theme is The Christmas Tree.  I have picked out a selection of items that would be suitable to hang on your tree either as special little wrapped gifts, or just as general tree decorations.  Some are handmade, some are vintage.
We will start at the top of the tree with a fairy.  There are more available in my Etsy listings.

Blue and purple fairy £8 + postage

Pink and white fairy £8 + postage

 Next the tree decorations, all handmade from felt -

Large star £3.50 + postage

Teddies and small stars £4 + postage
 

 Diddy Dogs - can be hung on the tree as they are to give a bit of colour, or gift wrapped as a surprise for someone.

Diddy Dogs - any colour you want - £12 + postage

 A selection of hanging floral shapes - decorate your home or tree.


Colourful Ducklings £4 + postage

Floral hearts £4 + postage



Pretty shapes £4 + postage

Tufty - 4"/10cm £25 + postage

Miniature mohair bears to wrap and hang on the tree for someone special

Squeaky 4"/10cm £25 + postage

Red charm £9 + postage

Gold charm £9 + postage

 Little mohair bear head bag/zipper charms.  Or they could be hung on your tree.



   

Novelty vintage tape measure - dog/cat in slipper £16 + postage
 

And finally, a couple of lightweight vintage items that could be gift wrapped for the tree.

Tiny pram toy pure wool dog £14 + postage

If you like my selection and want to see more, then visit my Etsy online shop - www.etsy.com/shop/pollysvintagebears or my website www.pollysvintagebears.weebly.com

Christmas Gifts From my Shops - 74 days to go

I have been thinking about what I have in my shops that is suitable for Christmas gifts or decorations.
Although in truth, all of the bears, dogs etc could be given for Christmas.  A vintage bear can be a personal thing and unless you actually tell your loved one "I like that bear" they may not choose correctly.
With this in mind I have tried to put a few items into the shops that could be used as stocking fillers.
There are bag/zipper charms, small Pud Bears, door hangers and of course the new Diddy Dogs.

Here is the first collection of gift ideas, aimed mainly at pet lovers or anyone that loves cute and cuddly.



Beautiful Steiff 'Whiskas' Grey Tabby Persian

Merrythought Lamb









What about a nightdress/pyjama case?
These would make great gifts.


Yellow Bunny Nightdress Case

*These are vintage items with glass eyes and the rabbit has wire in his ears so not suitable for young children.

Pekingese Pyjama Case (others are available in my shops)

This cute musical dog nods her head when wound up.





Stripey Diddy Dog
Only £12.50 including postage to UK

Then of course, there are the Diddy Dogs, cute little knitted pups in many different colour combinations.
If you would like one making up in your own colour choices, please message me.







Hand knitted Diddy Dogs

Diddy Dog in blue and white



I hope you enjoyed this first collection of Christmas gift ideas.  Over the next few weeks I will be showing more items from my shops www.etsy.com/shop/pollysvintagebears and www.pollysvintagebears.weebly.com

If you have any questions about any of these items please feel free to contact me.  There is a contact form on my Weebly website for messages.



Going to a Fair with the Bears

Well, that's booked the Minstead fair in a couple of weeks time (28th October). Pop in and say hello if you are in the area.   It is a lovely fair, with artist bears, old bears, newborn dolls, bear making supplies and also mass produced bears such as Charlie Bears.
I went last year and enjoyed the experience.   Plus we managed a short break in the New Forest, so we are going to do the same again.  It is such a beautiful part of the country and we only saw a small part of it last year.
I have booked a B&B that has a couple of fishing lakes so Alan will be happy.  He is really loving his fishing now and goes to the local rivers and broads regularly.

Yesterday morning was spent trying out my table for the fair. 
This is what I have got so far. 




 

       My favourite - a Chiltern Hugmee I have
      named Chester SOLD

Last year when I got there and set up I realised that I had far too many old bears for the space, so I am not taking all of my stock this year. I have quite a mixture - Steiff cats, Chiltern bears and Panda, Pedigree bears, an Irish Republic bear, Deans bears and dog, Muffy Vanderbear, and a few others.

Beautiful Steiff 'Whiskas' Kitten

Irish Republic Bear





Muffy Vandabear 'Gibearny'SOLD


I think I will need some sort of shelving making up (thank goodness Alan is an ex carpenter) to give height to the back of the table and more area to display the bears.






I want to include the Pud Bears this year so they will need an area of the table to themselves, and there are more old bears/cats/dogs I want to add.  The table will be 12" longer than this one, but I still don't think it will be enough.

I was known at work for being able to find spaces for new ranges when the other staff couldn't find anywhere to put them.  I think this one will be a bit of a challenge!

A Baking Morning in the Pud Bears Household

I was given a breadmaker a few weeks ago.  The first attempt would have made good doorstops. I persevered with the recipes in the booklet that came with the machine, but with no luck.
After perusing the internet I came up with a recipe that was getting good reviews from other breadmakers so I thought I would give it a try.
My first atttempt was a big improvement on the previous loaves, but still needed tweaking.
After a couple of more goes, this morning I adjusted the recipe slightly more and lo and behold I have rolls and a brown loaf that looks good enough to eat.  I will try them for my lunch shortly.

I am especially pleased with the rolls, they look as good as those in a baker's window.  I just hope they taste as good!











After this success I decided to carry on and make a fruit cake and a sponge sandwich.
I should have stopped whilst I was ahead. I burnt the fruit cake (and one layer of the sponge), and the sponge is about an inch deep (:

After scraping the burnt bits off I cut a wedge of the fruit cake. Surprisingly it looks ok inside, quite moist.



I stuck the two pieces of sponge (if it can be called that) together with Strawberry jam.  The top cracked in half just to finish it off.  A sprinkling of icing sugar makes it look a bit better.
I have never been good at sandwich cakes, but this must rate as one of my worst attempts :(



A Panda With a Serious Weight Problem

I found this little Panda on Ebay and immediately knew I had to buy him. 
A few bids later and he arrived at my house, in a much sorrier state than I had expected.  I knew he was flat and needed plumping up, but not that his stuffing had disintegrated into a nasty red powder!

I left him for a couple of months until this morning, when I decided
to destuff him and try to clean him up.

Chiltern Baby Bruin (SOLD)

The first job was to unpick his neck (sorry if you are squeamish) and turn him inside out to get all of the horrible gungy red powder out of him.
There were some chunky bits, which I now realise were probably his squeaker.  I had a Chiltern Baby Bruin recently sold which had an intact squeaker, so I would imagine that the Panda would have had one too.



So far, so good - look at the mess, it is a good job I thought of doing it in a box.  You can see the lumps that I think was his squeaker.

 



I disposed of the mess, took him outside to knock and brush the rest of the powder off him and then carefully turned him back to his right side.
A bit of gentle stuffing later and he looks very handsome.  I tried not to stuff him too much as he would not seem right as a hard stuffed teddy.

What a pretty head he has



Standing proud

He is now available in my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/pollysvintagebears

Diddy Dogs

I wanted to do a bit of knitting, so set about looking for something that I would enjoy doing.
Being predominately a toy maker, I thought I would like to make little dogs or cats.
I came across a vintage pattern that gave me the basics and set about designing the Diddy Dogs.
The first prototype was ok, but not to my liking - the head looked too small for the body, the nose was too flat (non-exsistant really) and I wasn't happy with the nose stitching.
Here is Mark I

Diddy Dog No Nose

I started knitting the next one - blue and yellow stripes, making the head a bit larger.  As I was knitting and kept looking over to this one I realised  all that I had to do was make a little knitted nose for him.  I did so, put a bit of stuffing in, restitched his nose and mouth and 'Hey Presto' his head immediately looked in proportion to his body and I am now happy with him.
Here is Mark II.  He looks better don't you think?


Blue and White Diddy Dog



4" of cuteness

I can't believe how different this small addition has made him look. 
Everything is firmly stitched in place, including his knitted collar and he is stitched together with a strong back stitch.  His eyes are embroidered too, so there are no plastic or sharp bits to come adrift.
I will now get busy knitting various colour combinations in the hope that they will be popular at the Christmas craft fair in a couple of weeks time.  I would like to get at least a dozen made by then.


The Tale of Blue Bunny

Who or what is Blue Bunny?
Blue Bunny is a once fluffy, white (he used to be anyway) and royal blue rabbit owned by my daughter.

My beautiful baby with her Blue Bunny

He was given to her by my sister when she was 6 months old and has been with her ever since.
She is now 41 and he still resides in her bed, albeit under the pillow.
A few years ago I was asked to give him new paw pads as his had worn out.  If I remember rightly I used a white handkerchief for the job. They are now quite discoloured (BB must stop smoking).

My daughter needs a heart operation which is booked in for next week, and of course BB has to go in her suitcase for moral support.

BB on the operating tray

He was sent to me last week for much needed repairs. 
He has had lipsuction (his stuffing had gone all lumpy and hard).  His ears needed work as he had no inner on one and very little on the other.
A few stitches in his neck and legs and he was, well not as good as new, but stronger and more able to withstand a hospital stay.
I thought of giving him a ribbon, but I don't think my daughter would have appreciated that, so I decided to make him a scarf.  Then, of course, he needed it monogramming. :)


BB wearing his lovely new scarf with his initials on it



Today I took Blue Bunny on the bus from Norwich back home to Holbeach, Lincolnshire.

Sitting in my handbag on the bus

I'm not sure if he enjoyed the journey, but the other passengers must have wondered what that mad woman was doing taking photos of a toy rabbit in her handbag!
Tomorrow he will be back in his rightful place with my daughter, and I will feel that there is part of me with her when she goes to the hospital.




Christmas Decorations (and an Occasional Bear)

I have been busy making Christmas decorations.  I have never done these before so  they are all new designs and ideas to me.  I found some squares of pretty felt at a boot sale the other day and spent a few days wondering what I was going to do with it. 
I am finding it really easy to work with after sewing mohair all these years.
My bits and pieces and button tub is expanding as I source pretty items to decorate my hangers, key rings,Christmas decorations etc.

So far I have made hangers for the home from pretty cotton material. These are not specifically Christmas items, but are decorations.

 

Also, mohair teddy heads as bag charms or even Christmas tree hangers.

Then there is the felt, which I have used to make teddy bear heads and stars Christmas tree hangers.

These are the smaller stars that I am working on at the moment.  They will be fastened in 3's to give a long decoration for tree or home.
I have also made a template for a smaller felt bear to make as a keyring.

So, I said there would be bears so here they are:-

This is a cute little 12" Panda with weight issues.  His stuffing has disintegrated into the brown powder that you see in the box.  I have to unpick his seams enough to carefully remove all his stuffing (without staining his white parts).  Then he will need to be re-filled, this time with polyfibre filling.
He is such a pretty little fellow, I think he may be a Chiltern as he is very much in the style of their 'Bruins' and I know Chiltern made some nice looking Pandas.

Another Panda, this time of my own Pud Bears make.

This is Ginger a very unusual Panda Bear. He is 8" tall and is avaiable in my Etsy shop, as are the Christmas decorations.  www.etsy.com/shop/pollysvintagebears