Bear Essence

Some brainstorming in time for Christmas...

Over the past month or so the shop has been a hive of activity...   Every day has been busy, busy and busier...  We have had quite a few interstate teachers come visit us and have run some very successful and fun workshops -- Susie McMahon with her beautiful dolls, Merilyn Pursell with her amazing bears and Lynne Parker with her quirky little characters...  It has been so rewarding to see the smiles all round!!!  Well done ladies!!!

Apart from all the workshops, we have also had quite a few shows this half of the year...  And as you know, shows are extremely hard work -- each time you have to destroy the shop, only to put it  together again at the shows end!!!  Brisbane and Woodend were our last shows for 2012!!!


So today found Kim and I at the shop all alone, trying to pick up the pieces and put the chaos back into some form of order.  We worked really hard and managed to achieve lots -- we sat done with a cuppa at the day's end to do a little brainstorming!!!

Back in August at the trade fair, some gorgeous Christmas trees caught our eyes and on impulse we bought them.  These little trees are eco friendly and made from 100% coco fibre.  Each tree has been carefully handmade using Fair Trade principles so its not only kind to the planet but also cares for the communities that make them too.  The trees have been sitting around in our back room for a couple of months -- so we needed to make a plan for them.

We decided that they should be decorated with some gorgeous little decorations which have just arrived from the U.S. -- miniature garlands, baubles, gingerbread cookies, stars, wreaths, and the list goes on.  We also have some very cute battery operated mini lights which have travelled all the way from Italy...

And of course no Christmas tree is complete without its skirt!!! (But you'll have to come back next week to see that)  One thing led to another and then we both thought "This tree needs a bear" -- so we opted for a mini version of my "Nicholas" 

 We put it all together (quite roughly) and were very excited with how it was all looking...  Come back next week after we've done some more fine tuning, to see how it all looks finished!!!

We've set aside Tuesday 18th December to run a workshop in creating this little vignette...