Bad Black Newfie!

Now, I'm sure you will agree, Ben is a very handsome young newfie. And two of the certainties in his life are .... he is NOT allowed in the workroom and ....

.... he loves his stuffies to pieces. (Literally!) This is a major reason why he is not allowed in the workroom of course. But yesterday he mounted a raid...

"Haha! Mum has some new Welsh blanket pieces. I wonder where they came from? They smell good. Perhaps she'll make something for me? My stuffies don't seem to last very long and Mum makes good ones."

"Oh no!" (guilty expression) She's seen me. (acts innocent) I just thought I heard a noise Mum, honestly, just making sure everything's alright. OK OK I'm going now."

"Is this far enough outside? Look my paws are behind the threshold." At which point he was summarily dispatched downstairs where Amy was waiting to hear the results of his daring expedition.

So then I closed the door, picked up my knitting and took myself off for tea and an old movie at Elona's house. She loves the old musicals, never having seen them before (the Sound of Music didn't make it to Azerbaijan) so last night it was "The King and I" Lovely.

I took my knitting - I've found a great vintage pattern for Alexander - his first hoodie!! And the patches read "Elephant" both in English and Russian - Elona wants to applique them onto a toy elephant she's making for Alexander.

Hard luck Ben - no handsewn stuffies for you today!

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.