Christmas is coming!

Wow, I hadn't realised how long it was since I last blogged - time has simply flown past! Here at DevonBear Designs we've been lucky enough to have some of our products featured in various magazines - which has led to a significant rise in orders. Christmas paper bunting has proved to be particularly popular -

- I guess it's a bit different to more traditional Christmas decorations - it was certainly great fun to design.

As well as Christmas orders, I've also been busy getting ready for the Yuletide Craft and Food Fair at Saltram House next weekend and have added little knitted mice to the cupcakes I'm offering in support of the Gables Animal Rescue.

And yes .. that is Craft and FOOD Fair. Can't wait! All profits may well be spent before I leave the event!!

Meanwhile, Rosie's home for the weekend ... she's brought some work with her - but may well find herself packaging Christmas bunting if this rush continues. It's great to have her here to spoil, and husband's off to Twickenham for the England - South Africa match so we can have a really girly time together. Chocolate may feature prominently on our menu, whilst Bridget Jones is sure to find her way into the DVD player!

Sunday afternoon ...

Oh, what a wild, blustery, sodden afternoon we had yesterday. Outside the skies were an unremitting leaden grey as the rain hurled itself against the windowpanes and rushed down through the drainpipes to the well below the cellar. It was dark by four o'clock and I was glad to pull the shutters closed against the stormy weather. It was an afternoon to forget all outdoor pursuits - I had planned to get out into the garden ... being a subscriber to Vita Sackville-West's philosophy that:

"If it is true that one of the greatest pleasures of gardening lies in looking forward, then the planning of next year's beds and borders must be one of the most agreeable occupations in the gardener's calendar. This should make October and November particularly pleasant months, for then we may begin to clear our borders, to cut down those sodden and untidy stalks, to dig up and increase our plants, and to move them to other positions where they will show up to greater effect. People who are not gardeners always say that the bare beds of winter are uninteresting; gardeners know better, and take even a certain pleasure in the neatness of the newly dug, bare, brown earth."

But it was not to be. So I closed the shutters and we all settled into a long, peaceful Sunday evening in front of the fire....

Amy chose to stay with us in the living room, but Ben became far too warm and retired to snooze on the chilly flagstones in the hallway. Husband was busy with the papers, so I picked up my latest project...

The knitting!

I have been inspired by a great blog I found called "Little Cotton Rabbits". I purchased one of Julie's patterns for her knitted cupcakes

and am knitting my own to sell at the Yuletide Fair at Saltram House in aid of our local animal rescue centre, Gables Farm, which helps unwanted and abandoned animals find new homes. Up until Ben arrived I'd always had rescue dogs - you can read Susie's story here from my blog entry of March this year. Her tale was so sad, and now I have a house full of newfies I can't possibly adopt any more - but maybe this way I can help give other animals a second chance.

Susie

The cupcakes are turning out rather well, and if you'd like to purchase one, then you can do so on the DevonBear website. Profits are going to the Gables Farm Animal Rescue Centre - I'm not making them on a commercial basis. To make the little cakes extra special I've put a sachet of organic lavender into each one, so they smell as good as they look, and will keep those pesky moths away!

And finally, from my trusty Book of Days ... on 10 November 1960 D H Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was first published in its entirety, and the first run of 200,000 copies had sold out by the end of the day. So there!

Autumn pleasures

Over the last week or so I've noticed the days are growing shorter and every day I seem to draw the curtains earlier. Ben misses his evening walks - over the summer months we developed a habit of taking a second or even third walk up through the woods behind the village while Amy remained at home snoozing happily on her bed.

For all the drawing in of the days I love autumn, the way it smells, fruity, damp and smokey, the colours of the leaves drifting down from the trees, lying crisp and crunchy underfoot until it rains again. Autumn fills me with nostalgia for old school days, the start of a new term, clean exercise books and new beginnings even as the year draws to a close. I love the clear bright mornings after a night of rain when the air is crisp and chill and a mist rises over the tree tops by the stream.

In the garden a few last apples lie rotting on the ground, decaying gradually into the soil as the birds have taken all they want. There are chutneys in the larder, dried herbs in jars and blackberries nestling in the freezer ready for autumn feasting. The painting above reflects the final summer harvest and will soon be featuring on some tea towels and canvas totes for Stokeley Farm shop, just a mile or two down the road.

Autumn is also a great time to enjoy indoor pursuits - for me painting is a major pleasure, but I also love sewing and have just taken up knitting again as one of my very best friends is expecting a baby in the spring. I was helping her sort through some very old boxes and we came across some lovely vintage knitting patterns. I particularly liked one for a knitted tea cosy, taken from a 30 year old magazine ......

Back of teacosy.

It was designed by a lady with the wonderful name of Mrs Halcyon Green. The back of the cottage has a single window and three Welsh sheep. I think the front would look even nicer with maybe some embroidered roses around the door. If you'd like the pattern then please click here to download it as a pdf file. I think I'll practice my rather rusty knitting skills for a while before attempting this, but I'd love to know if anyone does try it out, it would make a great Christmas pressie!

And finally ... another couple of exerpts from Vita Sackville-West's epic poem "The Land" (one of my all-time favourites) - from the Autumn verses.....

"If you may snatch before the rain

Crisp days when clods will turn up rough;

Gentleman robin brown as snuff

With spindle legs and bright round eye

Shall be your autumn company....

...Then may you shoulder spade and hoe,

And heavy-booted homeward go,

For no new flowers shall be born

Save hellebore on Christmas morn,

And bare gold jasmine on the wall,

And violets, and soon the small

Blue netted iris, like a cry

Startling the sloth of February."

Demented

I'm a great fan of the Demented cartoon strip by Jacky Fleming which comes out in the Mail on Sunday magazine. I particularly enjoyed this week's offering which I think just about sums up the last few months .....

.. and not just the weather!! Enjoy.

News from Ben

Hi everyone!

It's me, Ben Dickson, reporting in. Shockingly Mum hasn't posted in our blog for a whole month ... that's one whole month without Amy and me getting mentioned on the internet. UN-BE-LIEVE-ABLE!!

So .... what's been happening here in deepest darkest Devon? Apart from rain that is! Well, we've been to the beach a lot ....

We don't go too often in the summer as it gets very busy and Mum says me and Amy do not behave very well. But all the families with baby humans have gone now so I can charge around at 100 mph on the sand and go swimming again. All the families with picnics have gone too, so Amy can't plonk herself in the middle of their picnic blankets and refuse to move until they give her food.

We had our own picnic on the beach, Mum and one of her friends and our most favourite people, Elona, took lots of nice food - good - but sat up on the rocks where we couldn't reach the sandwiches - BAD BAD BAD!!

We sat and looked at them to show them how thin we were and to try to make them give us their food but they just laughed! Huh! We will call the Dog Rescue People!

Mum has bought us new collars. She said it's no good buying us leather ones because they just go mouldy and funny with all the swimming so she would get webbing ones. There was a problem though. It was easy to get a collar for tiny little Amy who only needs a size 24". But big strong me needed a 27" and Mum couldn't find one anywhere in webbing, just leather.

Then she found this wonderful American site called Big Dog Boutique. She chose a very pretty girlish one for Amy called "Pink Lemonade" and "Seaside Stripe" for me - very masculine. Here we are modelling them. It was very hard to sit with our backs to the camera but we managed it for oh about 0.1 of a second. Mum said she was very impressed with the site, the collars arrived in less than a week and not too expensive either.

Mum has been busy upstairs in her workroom for EVER. She says it is something to do with Christmas. But I don't understand. That's not for ages yet. I remember last year that I was responsible for pruning the Christmas tree while Amy helped with the cooking. Now I'm older and wiser I'm going to cook as well! Mum is sure to need my help too. Mum's been busy with some downloadable stuff for Halloween - this bunting thing again. Here's the Halloween bunting ... lots of it is black - just like me, so I know it's very attractive!

And finally ... for other Devon dwellers - you MUST get Devon Today October issue. An article about our Mum is in there!! A picture! And our names are there too - a whole page just about DevonBears. So we is famous after all.

Goodbye from your favourite newfie
Ben Dickson.

Of bunting, beer and TWO competition winners!

What a busy weekend! But here's the names of my competition winners. There are going to be two prizes - first for Cait O'Connor as I just loved her suggestion of the Huggy Bag - irresistible! And secondly for Faith for the sheer quantity of wonderful names - some of which will definitely be used for future products. Meanwhile a big fat

THANK YOU

to everyone who took the time and trouble to leave suggestions. I'm just sorry I can't give everyone a prize!

Last week was the Dartmouth Regatta and our friends Rory and Elona took the bus with us to Dartmouth to spend Saturday afternoon/evening there. The Red Arrows were scheduled for 5.30 pm and Elona was particularly looking forward to this as she only moved here from Russia last year, so has never seen one of their spectacular shows. The crowd was full of anticipation ...

Pavements and balconies were crowded ..... the men had appropriate nourishment in their paws!


And then ..... the cloud came down.

Sadly no Red Arrows after all. This summer has been dreadful - I've spent more time knocking water off the canvas roof of the gazebo than I have sitting in it. Last night the rain was lashing against the windows - in a way it's almost a relief that it's September now as at least we can stop hoping for good weather. Although the economic doom and gloom news is so awful it feels as though it's going to be a long winter. So I thought we needed cheering up, and have spent the last few days developing DevonBears' answer to the credit crunch. Yes, it's PAPER bunting!!

OK stop laughing and get back on your chairs. It's cheerful, colourful, fun and cheap! What could be better? It will encourage people to have parties and make them smile. Well, I like it anyway.

... and at only £5.50 per pack for 18 flags, I'm sure it will add some cheer to the autum and winter months. I'm going to put it all around the office and workroom to give me a summer feeling inside even when it's cold in the garden.

Competition Time!

Hi everyone - I need help! I have a new product for DevonBear Designs which I'm anxious to put on the website, but I have a problem - I can't think of a name for it. It came about originally because of the Babychange Bag .....

The Babychange Bag

Which, as you can see, has a very long handle - to go on shoulder or over buggy handles. Now this is fine, but it left me with a long rounded piece of fabric that was too small for most projects, but too big to waste. Then I realised that the shape was very like that of the bottom of the Amie bag - but probably just a bit narrower....

Here's the Amie Bag so you can see the bottom ..

The Amie Bag

And I had an idea ... initially just for the nursery. What about making some sort of container to keep things tidy. So, basing the shape on the Amie Bag pattern, but making the interior from 12oz canvas to give strength and some rigidity, I made a pouch shape - then put a large brass eyelet in the back for hanging. (Love all that banging with the hammer - great for working off stress!) And this is what it came out like .....

The new product

And then I thought - but it will stand up too, and why keep it just for the nursery (although it will be good to hang over the end of a cot - maybe with a velcro loop?)

So I made more .....

And then I made one in vintage linen. It looks great hanging next to the Aga piled high with my vintage moulds.

I'm sure other people would find them useful too. And I want to put them on my website, but can't think of a name (got hung up on tidy pocket, which does what it says, but isn't very exciting).

So, as I said at the beginning of this post, I need help. Suggestions for a name for this product would be much appreciated.

And the best one will win a "tidy pocket" by any other name!! Please leave your entry as a comment - the competition will close on 31 August when I'll contact the winner and let everyone else know the name.

Thanks for your help.