Okay okay, Pam has shamed me into making my additions. One of my problems is, and I have many, that I do not type nearly as fast as Pam so it takes me many minutes to get down on ‘paper’ what I want to say. I have been around her when she had her own business and couldn’t believe how fast she could type. I’m the get it down on paper and edit like mad type of person.

My other problem is this four letter word called work. I will never make enough money at my bear making or my newly found needle felting hobby so I have to work. I am very happy to say that these two hobbies are the first hobbies of all that I have gone through that are almost paying for themselves. (Sue, my wife is not convinced yet)

I’m the Southwest part of the North by Southwest blog. I will fill you in on the good and bad of the Southwest some other time.

I have been making collectable mohair teddy bears for 5 years now, the last four years are my own designs. I’m up to around 60 of my own creations with over 40 of them adopted and living somewhere other than my bedroom dresser. My dresser been crowded for the past few years with anywhere from 17 – 25 bears competing for a seat. The good thing is I don’t have to dust my dresser :-) You can go to my website www.marksbears.com to get a closer look at these guys and girls.

My needle felting hobby is only about 9 months old. I’m not even certain how I got started with this new endeavor. Probably surfing the net and thought ‘This is cool’. I took Kay Petal’s class; part book and part online, it’s a great class, I recommend it to budding needle felters. She does human caricatures and imaginary creatures. I also found Birgitte Krag Hansen’s site and like her animals. I decided I like doing the animals better so you will see animals pop up here from time to time.

I made several small, 3 – 6” teddy bear Christmas ornaments. Like anything else small is harder to make than large. You have to pay a lot more attention to what you are doing; if you are off by ¼” it’s pretty noticeable on a 3” ornament. I’ve since moved on to larger animals. Henry, my first mouse, was passed on to a dear friend who happens to be a mouse lover, figurines, not the real things :-) He is now living among her teapots, I go to visit him every once in a while.

I’ve since moved on to cats, another friend wants me to make a cat for his wife so I’m on cat #3 which I hope to finish before Valentines Day. I’ve included photos of my first cat; she’s about 8.5” tall. I’ll try and shoot my latest work in progress so you can see how my cats are created.

I don’t have any of my needle felted projects on my website at this time. Visit it every once in a while and they will show up someday, I’ll probably have a big announcement here.

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark