Bustle & Sew, my new blog

I've decided to start a new blog in addition to this one ... and I'm calling it "Bustle & Sew" (more about that below!)

I've found that things are becoming very muddled - I want to blog about all my new ideas and products, but also about the life I enjoy here in Devon with my two naughty newfies, Amy and Ben. So Bustle & Sew will be more of a "how to" blog incorporating some tutorials and giveaways from my business, DevonBear Designs and lots of crafty photos and links, while stories of our day-to-day life will remain here. Hopefully this makes sense and if anyone decides to visit Bustle & Sew you'll enjoy some of the pictures and tutorials I'm going to put together over the coming weeks and months.

The name ... well ... I wanted to keep it separate from DevonBear Designs and was stuck for ideas until I remembered my names for the two newfies .... Amy bustles around looking very important and girly while Ben slinks through even the smallest space (not bad for 11 stone of dog!) with his young, flexible body. Clearly Bustle and Slink wasn't really going to be suitable, but what about "Bustle & Sew"? I thought. Especially as Amy likes to sit with me while I stitch. So a new blog is born.

Next week I'll be posting a tutorial for my handmade heart brooches (shown at the top of this entry on my new blog) - just in time for Valentine's Day. If you don't have time to make them yourself, then they are available for purchase on my website. I've crafted them from vintage Welsh blanket scraps, but felt would be just as good.

Back on the beach!

The weather here in Devon has been cold and gloomy with icy winds for most of the holidays, so we haven't been to the beach very much lately. Of course the newfies adore this weather, and often beg to be allowed outside to bask on the cold cold slates and turn their muzzles to the icy blast! But today dawned bright and sunny, the tide was right so ... the beach it was! All is revealed in our video below...

Weather ... I love this poem!

January brings the snow

Makes your feet and fingers glow

February's ice and sleet

Freeze the toes right off your feet

Welcome March with wintry wind

Would thou wer't not so unkind

April brings the sweet spring showers

On and on for hours and hours

Farmers fear unkindly May

Frost by night and hail by day

June just rains and never stops

Thirty days and spoils the crops

In July the sun is hot

Is it shining? No it's not

August cold, and dank, and wet

Brings more rain than any yet

Bleak September's mist and mud

Is enough to chill the blood

Then October adds a gale

Wind and slush and rain and hail

Dark November brings the fog

Should not do it to a dog

Freezing wet December then:

Bloody January again!

Michael Flanders

Merry Christmas everyone!

The flu struck - so no posts this month! No Christmas party either, though we did make it to the Carol Service.

Better now - so Merry Christmas everyone!

Press cuttings

Isn't this just wonderful - such a shame that it's sized only for babies up to 6 months. What about adults up to 50 years? Anyway, the pattern was published in the Daily Mail earlier this week and you can see it by clicking on the image above - it was far too nice to keep to myself!

It most definitely wouldn't fit me anyway as I think my head has grown several inches this week after seeing the mention below in "Quick and Crafty" magazine - which took me totally by surprise! I feel very humble too as there are so many wonderful blogs to be found and mine's really very ordinary in comparison to a lot of them. But nice to be mentioned anyway.

As usual we are all becoming very busy in the village. Our Christmas tree hasn't gone up yet, but the Lunch Club party is next week and I've been nominated to make the bread sauce again - that's 12 pints of the stuff!! Don't mind really - that's the easy part. I've also been nominated to play the piano for the carols, now that really is scary. Hopefully 100+ massed voices will drown out the multitude of wrong notes that are sure to occur, and if they are heard, well, we'll all have enjoyed at least 2 glasses of wine each, and most of us probably more so nobody will mind anyway. (Note to self - remember to wear elasticated waistband this year!)

The Lunch Club party where so many people freely give of their time and money to make a really special occasion for our elderly villagers to me epitomises the spirit of Christmas. So often it is lost in the cacophony of shop tills ringing and raucous TV shows. I particularly like this extract from a poem which nearly featured on my cards last year ...

I do enjoy all the hustle, bustle, shopping and preparations for Christmas, but sometimes I think it's good to take a few moments to remember what it's all about.

OK, now you've done that get moving again - remember there are only 22 days left to do EVERYTHING!!

Amy's getting thinner!

Amy in her "Guess the Weight of the Dog" outfit.

Read about the time Amy was a competition at the Church Fete

Christmas is coming ... and the goose might be getting fat ... but Amy's latest diet is working!! Instead of her usual regime of food combining - that's any food she can rootle out, combined with any other food she happens to be able to obtain from one gullible Russian human in particular - she's been restricted to plain dog biscuits and limited portion of meat in the evenings.

My friend Elona is the worst culprit for feeding Amy, but she has been visiting her family in Russia, and while she was away Amy lost 8 cm (about 3 inches) off her rather substantial waistline. She now measures a (mere!) 104 cm (41 inches) around her middle! And I think this time Amy will have the last laugh as Elona is expecting a baby in the spring. Elona's convinced that she will never be as fat as Amy, but we're keeping a record and Elona has already reached 99 cm!!!

Meanwhile we're surrounding ourselves with all sorts of baby catalogues and planning to make lots of baby goodies in the new year to compliment our existing babychange bag. Watch this space! Meanwhile Elona is proudly wearing her DevonBears T-shirt...

Daughter's visit brings chaos!

"Let's have a photoshoot!" said Rosie.... none of my friends at Uni will believe how big the newfies are." So we did.

She invited Ben onto the sofa - this is normally TOTALLY forbidden. He became a little over-excited ....

and tried to sit on Rosie....

had to be restrained ....

..... then became totally hysterical.

Meanwhile Amy sulked as she adores having her photo taken and hates not to be the centre of attention. When sulking turned to petulant barking the photoshoot was cancelled and all canine participants removed for a cooling-off period.

Rosie also wreaked havoc with my little knitted mice! Now I'm not the fastest knitter, but had managed to complete 3 mice ready for the Yuletide Fair at Saltram House next weekend. I'd hoped to take at least half a dozen with me. But Rosie fell in love with them. Above you see Ralph, Alice and Fred. Rosie has now rehomed Ralph into her bag to take back to Bristol, together with a personalised hot water bottle cover, lavender heart, spiral bound DevonBears notebook and assorted sundries.

At least she didn't help herself to a needlebook - my answer to using up all the vintage blanket scraps ...

But she has thought of lots of things she'd like me to make her for Christmas!

Only a month to go!!