Introducing Pippin

On Saturday we added new addition to our family! Pippin (already shorten to Pip) is a lab cross retriever, he's 12 weeks old and is a beautiful bundle of trouble.

British Bear Artist Awards

I was chuffed to bits to find out at the weekend that Van Gogh has been nominated for a British Bear Artist Award! The judging for this show will be held at The British Bear Fair held in Brighton in December, for more information on the show please visit here.

Available bears, mice and a wonderful Hugglets show! (update all bears now sold)

Its official I am exhausted! Working like a mad woman for the last three weeks has finally caught up with me because today I feel like a zombie, I can barely keep my eyes open to write this, oh dear, oh dear. I always have trouble sleeping the night before a fair, part nerves, part excitement so that didn't help matters either, however after a day pottering and meeting a dear old friend for coffee I'll be fully charged to meet the rest of the years deadlines!

Hugglets was, as always wonderful. Both me and Mum sold well and I only came home with one mouse and two bears (see below) the day went by so quickly so I didn't have time to speak to all the people I would of liked, but I did get to see some of my favourite people, even if it was just for a few minutes. I brought a big pile of fabric home from ThreadTeds for the next load of projects I have got to complete before the end of the year! Special orders, shows, shops etc. Its all go until Christmas now!

Now here's the three little ones that didn't find a home yesterday, Giggles is my favourite out of the collection this time so if he doesn't find a home quick he might just have to stay with me ;-) If you would like to purchase any of the little ones please send me an email at:

shantockbears@tiscali.co.uk

I can take Paypal, UK Cheques, or Credit Cards. UK shipping will be £6, please email me for international shipping costs.

Noodles is 4" high, made from golden upholstery velvet, with matching felt pads and black glass eyes, he is a heavy bear filled with steel shot and polyester stuffing.

Noodles is now SOLD

Giggles is 4.5" high, he is made from red upholstery velvet, with matching Ultrasuede pads and black glass eyes, he is a heavy bear filled with steel shot and polyester stuffing.

Giggles is now SOLD

Harpo is 3" high, he is made from ginger upholstery velvet, beige felt pads and black glass eyes, he is filled with steel shot and polyester stuffing. Harpo is a new design of mouse for me, with longer legs and arms, he sits on a bale of hat with his straw hat!

Harpo is now SOLD

Hugglets Preview

Teddies 2010

Sunday 12th September
10:30am to 4:00pm
For more info please visit here

Here's a sneaky peek at the bears and mice I'll be bringing to the show tomorrow. We will be at our usual spot, hall 4 stand 125. Looking forward to seeing you there!

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

Bunny Giveaway, from the beautiful Catherine

Catherine AKA Bumpkin Bears is having a fab giveaway, she has a new line called "Summer Hill" and is giving everyone the chance to win some great goodies from the collection. I think Catherine's work is super, I've had her Christmas cards and they are stunningly pretty. Take a look at Catherine's blog for more information.

Catherine's Blog

Road Tripping (its a long post)

Sorry its taken me a while to get around to posting pictures of my holiday, for one there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day especially when Hugglets is only 12 days away (argghhhhh) secondly blogger has been playing silly b*ggers with my photos and its been taking so long to get photos uploaded, thirdly its taken me well over a week to get myself back to normal and organised, fourthly it was Lex's birthday at the weekend so I spent a great deal of it making sausages rolls, sandwiches and trifle!!! So there's all the excuses out of the way let me take you on a journey............

So we picked up the car in new Jersey and traveled to New Haven

Beautiful Church somewhere around Yale

Yale buildings are so stunning, it was very quiet around town because the students were off for summer holidays.

After one night in New Haven we traveled up the road to Essex, very unlike our Essex here in the UK!

This town was exactly what I expected a small American town to look like, simply charming

While in Essex we had a steam train ride

and then a steam boat ride

With beautiful views, a very relaxing day was had

We then headed to Providence to stay in the BEST hotel I've ever stayed in! It was a shame we only had one night here before we set off for Boston

The Boston Public Library

Cheers!

On our way to Binghamton we visited Woodstock and its wonderful shops

A candle shop in Woodstock

The most amazing sweet shop somewhere that I can't remember the name off

Stockbridge, a town with not one traffic light

A restful time was had in Lake Placid before we hit the city

I wanted to go here after reading about it on Gingers Blog it did not disappoint, I could have stayed all day in here and could have spent a million pounds. I didn't though, I was very well behaved and only brought a birds nest.

The real reason I was so good in Tinsel Trading was because I had already been here and brought myself a naughty present

Lex in the best Pizza place in Little Italy Lombardi's

Washington Square Park

A New York view

A very strange shop, I wasn't sure whether to be fascinated or disturbed, I decided to be fascinated, but be warned its not for everyone, take a look at the website if you dare

http://theevolutionstore.com/

What I love about New York is turning a corner and stumbling across sights like this

Lex made me walk the Brooklyn Bridge, I was not very happy with him afterwards, I hate heights, but I'm glad I did it the once!

The view from Brooklyn

If your around Union Square you must eat here Chocolate by the Bald Man

Chocolate pizza, yummmmm

My favourite shop ABC Home and Carpets

We had a bike tour around Central Park

Alice in Wonderland in the middle of Central Park

Our last night in the city, we had cocktails on a roof top bar

The view on our last night

I hope you've enjoyed this little trip down memory lane with me, it really was a brilliant holiday! The weather was perfect, the people were very friendly, the area beautiful, I couldn't want more from my Great American Road trip.