busy,busy,busy

I must apologise for not participating in all the blog awards and tagging on my blog but I received far too many requests all in one go including some by e mail so thought it fair that I would not participate in any so not to upset anyone.I have just been too busy lately.There is an endless round of doctors and dentists appointments ,helping at playschools etc and just not enough hours in the day.I usually make my bears in the afternoons and evenings and have been really slack this past week.First the washing machine broke last week so it had to be replaced and then we had a phonecall to say our new settees were ready to be collected-not too good timing moneywise.Then to top it all off my cooker blew up this week and we had to spend £400 on a new one.I hope nothing else happens as I want to go to hugglets in a few weeks and

will want some money to spend on materials.

I have posted a photo of 2 of my cats.The left one is a balinese and the right one is a siamese.The siamese is 1.5 years old but if you want a nice quiet cat don't have one of these.He is a super little cat but has he got energy.He tears around the house including racing down the stairs and whizzing across the living room at great speed and then takes a flying leap out of the living room window where he can safely go outside in an enclosed area.He is such a fun cat and loves to play although all the other cats find him a bit too lively.You know when he is hungry because he starts to chew on any plastic he can find so its like having young children about where you have to keep things out of his way.

Well it is time for me to go as it is nearly 1am.Trouble is the later I go to bed the harder I find it to go to sleep.

New bears for 2009

I am trying my hardest to keep my blog more up to date but it seems the longer I have been making bears the more sites I sign up to and I just forget how many different things I have on the go including my blog.There are passwords for this and passwords for that and I am sure I wrote them all down somewhere but I have this bad habit of putting important things away in a safe place so that they don't get lost or to stop the children finding and moving them but when it comes to finding them I can't remember where my safe hiding place was!!!

Anyway onto my latest bears.There are two new minis just over 4 inches and two bears in a new design that are both around 11 inches.I am still finding that I really am loving the minis at the moment and am now making two bears around 3.5 inches and they will be the smallest I have done.I just love making them even though they are so frustrating as it can be such a challenge trying to make something so small.It is not sewing the small bears that bother me it is trying to make a bear that small with a face that I like and there have been a few that end up in the bin.I am cruel I know but it has to be done as I will not make a bear just for the sake of it if the face is not up to scratch.I hope you like my new bears and they can be seen on my website www.laurieloubears.com

My gorgeous puddle from Wendy

I am a bit slow posting this but as xmas is over and I am now getting over this flu bug I thought it was about time I posted my lovely swap that I done with Wendy from Matilda-Huggington beare in Australia .We each received our swaps before xmas with my elephant taking 5 days longer to arrive even though we posted the same day.I was starting to worry in case he had got lost.Well anyway my Merry Sparkle puddle is gorgeous and I love him.He is so well made and I love everything about him.He has inspired me to have a go at needlefelting as I bought myself a kit just after xmas last year and I am ashamed to say that it is still in its box.I really want to have a go at the needlefelting and hopefully I will have made something by the time I next post even even if I just needlefelt the feet and paws on a bear that I finished not long ago.I don't want the bear sitting there until next xmas do I

because the kit is STILL in its box!!!!