A bear is born . . .

I gave birth to a baby bear tonight, may I present:

Luckily a dress from the dolls of my childhood fitted just fine

I'm not sure I would have the patience to make clothes aswell

xx

Crafty things

I have been trying to brighten up the house.

I crocheted some mandalas and a jam jar cover:

zootyowlcards - granny-mini-mandala

I made up the jam jar cover as I went along

zootyowlcards - sunny-flower-mini-mandala

zootyowlcards - /starflower-mandala-pattern

I also decided to do something different and made a mixed media collage :

and a little card

Made from an old jumper

Can you tell I have some time to myself 

without work getting in the way. . . 

xx

Where to start?

It's raining today.  I try not to let it affect my mood but it always does.  I have so many things on my 'To do' list that I can't decide where to start. They are all bits of things, most of which involve getting in the car and driving somewhere and I am trying to combine journeys.  Somehow I am not doing any of them but sitting here writing a blog post.  I blame the rain.

A while ago the lovely Natalia and Shawna nominated me for a blogger award to share some more facts about myself.  It always takes me a while to get round to things but I get there in the end. . . .

• I was born in Chesterfield in Derbyshire.  The lovely Curtise has photos of the flea market in Chesterfield in one of her posts here Chesterfield flea Market.  
• I now live in a small village in South Buckinghamshire, near the River Thames.  The village park was flooded this winter with all the rain we had in the south of England.

source: Bucks Free Press

• This is a photo of my mum and dad in their young days:

• Sadly my mum and dad both died before my two children were born, this is one of the great sadnesses of my life.

• I studied psychology at university in London, although it was called a polytechnic in those days.  This is where I discovered my brain does not work like most people as I have no visual imagery in my brain.  I have no 'mind's eye' and I cannot hear anything in my head.  My tutor said my consolation was I would never be troubled by disturbing images or voices but I would have a boring mental life - all true.  He said about 5% of the population are like me

• I love to travel and spent a year backpacking around Australia, New Zealand and Thailand in my younger days.  I worked on the Darling Harbour project in Sydney when it was first being built and have fantastic memories of my time in Australia.

My love of VW Combi vans begins

• We have two cats Alfie and Annie.  Both rescue cats.  I love them both dearly.

Alfie peeping out from my washing basket which is now his

Annie, sleeping peacefully.

• I love to crochet and last year I made lots of these and sold them to raise money for charity.  I was amazed people wanted to buy something I had made and sold lots of them which was great

I have just booked two tickets to go and see the Matisse Cut-outs exhibition at Tate Modern in London at the end of May.  I am going with one of my closest friends who I met while working as a waitress in a cocktail bar (cue Human League) many, many years ago.  I love spending the day with her.  It does me the world of good.

Well I have faffed about for so long it's nearly time to go and pick up my son from school.  It's his last proper day at school ever - end of an era.  Just his A level exams to go (stressful times ahead).  Keeping the karma calm.

Thanks to all you lovely ladies who take the time to comment on my blog posts. I had no idea what I was getting into when I started just a very short time ago - you all know who you are...  And special thanks to Natalia and Shawna for setting me off down memory lane.

xx  xx  xx