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!!

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!!

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!

Great excitement at Coombe Leigh

We are all very excited here at Coombe Leigh. We are going to have a photoshoot here at the house with a proper professional photographer. (Not just me with my little digital camera!). Jack is coming to take some lifestyle shots for DevonBears publicity so we are all running around trying to make everywhere look beautiful.

Of course Amy feels she is already beautiful and when the words "camera" and "photograph" were mentioned she immediately started posing madly. She was made worse by the coincidental visit of Kelly, our lovely grooming lady, who came to give her and Ben their regular beauty session. Here's Kelly hard at work ..

Amy feels that she should be the centre of attention, so keeps edging closer and closer to Kelly ..

Meanwhile Ben is surreptiously chewing through the lead Kelly has used to attach him to the railings!

Afterwards they were quite worn out. I didn't have the heart to tell them that we weren't actually planning to include them in the photographs. I expect Amy at least will manage to push her way into one or two of the pictures ... and where she leads Ben usually follows!

As you can see, the grass has been cut ready for the shoot, and look at that lovely edging - shame it's not straight!! Never mind, perhaps wonky will become the new trendy after our uber-cool photographs demonstrate this new look?! (That's the studio/workroom on the left in this picture and the handrail leads to the steps to the courtyard. Our house is built into the side of a hill, so the garden is actually above the house).

While all this activity was taking place, I was in the gazebo painting - Christmas cards!! Surreal or what? But my summer's going to be so busy I thought it was best to start early rather than risk running out of time as they'll need to be at the printers by the end of August.

Here's the first (still rather rough) version of card one for the set of dog cards. More will follow..