Show time

I just finished my first bear show for 2009. I am pretty happy with the results. A total of 2 mohair bears and one of my needle felted cats went on to new homes.

I hate to say it but I have gone to the dark side; I like doing artist bear shows but they are getting fewer and farther between. So I had to do a Doll and Bear show. Bear makers were definitely in the minority. I think there were approximately 25 doll vendors which includes artist made porcelain dolls, Barbie dolls in all sorts of ‘original’ boxes, doll clothes, miniatures and all sorts of dolls in various costumes. There were three bear makers. I’ve included photos of my table from the show.

Lots of people were going through the show with quite a few walking out the doors with packages in their hands.

It’s fun doing a show like this. You see lots of different people. Some just speed on by to get to the next doll table, a few stop by for a quick look and comment on the bears and others really look at each bear. Usually they have to come by for a second and possibly a third time before making their selection.

I really like watching the husbands of the couples that come by. Some are as involved as the wife in looking and selecting bears, some stand by with casual interest ready to pull out the wallet/checkbook and the last ones don’t want to have anything to do with a ‘Doll and Bear’ show and “I can’t wait to get back home so I can watch some basketball/baseball/football/NASCAR (fill in the sport)”. It’s better people watching than at the airport.

Now that a few bears and cat have moved on to other homes I will start making some new guys and girls. The next Albuquerque show is scheduled for November. I should be able to finish a few more by then....

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark

A visit from the other side

This evening while Sue and I were enjoying dinner we got a knock at the door from a pest control guy.

“Hi I’m Joe from Joe Blow Pest Control.” “DO YOU KNOW YOU HAVE BEES!!!???!?!?”

“I have what?”

“YOU HAVE BEES!!”

“Sure I know I have bees, you should see the catmint down by the main sidewalk they are just buzzing all the time with bees”

“AND YOU’RE OKAY WITH THAT??”

“Yes I am, I want lots of bees; they'll pollinate my blackberry flowers which will give me lots of blackberries later this year!”

He looked at me rather strange at that point “Okay, …… Do you have any other pest problems?”

“No I don’t, thank you.”

Why do we have to kill everything that doesn’t fit the mold of a mass produced ‘American Dream’?

I have fallen into it a bit in the back yard, since I bought some Scotts fertilizer. I figured Sue likes lawn and she gave into my going natural in the front yard, I had better have some good green grass for her in the back. I only bought the fertilizer, not weed killer. Both of us like the little yellow flowers (dandelions) early in spring. Thinking back to when we lived in Milwaukee I don’t believe I would have fit in very well since I would not be out there killing anything that was not green, or did not look like grass.

Long live the bees!

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark

Happy Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a fine Mother’s Day! Babee, our cat, even remembered to get Sue a card! I usually have a hard time remembering all these holidays, I’m glad someone’s on top of it :-)

Since the last photo of the yard lots of flowers are coming on strong. Every time I look at the front yard I’m amazed at how it looks. I was hoping the front yard would pop with lots of color and it’s certainly starting out that way. I suspect a lot of it’s due to the 90˚ temperatures we experienced last week. That’s for those of you that were complaining of the cold weather you were experiencing earlier this year. (You know who you are) Now you will hear me talk of the constant heat we usually get all summer. We are never satisfied are we???

Some of these you have seen the last time. The catmint is literally buzzing from all the bees going from flower to flower.

Some of the new ones are the Rock Rose – Cistus.

And the Ice Plant – Delosperma Cooperi. These stay evergreen all year but just started flowering this past week.

In the back yard another bunch of Bearded Irises is blooming, pink, Sue's favorite color.

And it looks like I may have a large crop of blackberries this June if all these flowers bear fruit, and the heat goes away for a month or so.

Under consideration for my next big gardening project is a patch of blueberries. The soil here is very alkaline which is exactly the opposite of what blueberries need. One of my friends at work has a small patch of producing blueberry plants and has offered his expertise to help get me started. I have been wondering what I was going to put in one of the remaining blank spots in my back yard, I may have my answer…

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark

New members

My new bears are making their debut.

Meet Zoey, Miles, Chester, Mackenzie and Oliver. Mackenzie is 15”, Zoey 13”. Miles, Oliver and Chester are about 11”.

They will be on tour starting next Sunday, May 17 at the MCM Elegante’ Hotel in Albuquerque, NM at the Albuquerque Doll and Bear Show. Show hours are from 10 AM – 4 PM. I’m not sure what the admission fee is.

In addition to these guys and girl I will have another 10 or so bears and a few of my needle felted creations.

Thank you for stopping by.
Mark

Spring is here

Hello all. For those of you that have been patiently waiting for a posting, your wait is over.

I have been busy with bears for the past several weeks and they are now finished and waiting to be named. Which will be another posting… And I have been planning my vacation, yet another posting…

I have been working in the yard; I got to take the lawn mower out for a spin this weekend :-( Not one of my favorite things to do, it ranks up there with going to the dentist, working on plumbing and working on the car. Lawn mowing is not quite as bad as last year since I no longer have a front yard to mow. I have included several photos of the front yard spring progress. I’m adding names to the photos so if you see something you like maybe you can find it at you local nursery.

Here’s a general view of the front yard. I hope you can see improvements from the Feb 21 posting from an image from last fall.

So far all I have done in the front is pull a couple dozen small weeds which stand out quite well in the tan crusher fines. It also helps that I am drip irrigating only in the immediate vicinity of my plants so unless we get rain the rest of the area stays very dry. To date we have received about 0.6” of rain this calendar year.

Walker’s Low - Catmint/Nepeta

Wine cups/Callirhoe and a closeup

All the little mounds in the foreground are Cerise Queen - Yarrow/Achillea millefolium

And in the back yard.

Jupiter’s beard/Centranthus rubber – These guys started out as 1 – 2 plants and after 5 years they have spread to 8 – 10 plants and Karl Forester – Feather Reed Grass/Calamagrostis x acutiflora – these put on flowers that last though the winter.

Bearded Iris – We inherited these so I can’t be more specific than that

Since I took these photos even more is blooming!

I hope this gets those green thumbs going!

Thank you for stopping by.
Mark

Mulder sighting

I received the photos from Mulder’s new family. I’m happy to report it looks like he is very happy. As you can see he seems to have the run of the house, he even gets outside!

Thanks for stopping by.
Mark

New projects

Hi everyone. For those of you that have been wondering where I have been, I am still here. I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I’ve been a bit busy at work; travel and lots of extra hours.

I have all kinds of news. The family for which I made the needle felted cat just loves him. I was very happy and relieved that she loved him so much. This was my first commissioned piece so I wanted to do my best. She did say that the real Mulder was an 18 lb. kitty so this one is about ¼ scale. So for those of you that expressed an interest in him if he was not wanted, you will have to wait until next time. I did receive some photos so once I get them scanned I will post photos of Mulder.

I’ve been working on mohair bears; 5 in this batch. I’ve included the head of the first one. I’ve started crossover my hobbies as this guy/girl has a needle felted nose. I won’t know what sex this bear will be until it is finished, then I turn it over to Sue, my wife, since her job is to name them.

Another promoter has picked up the May bear show in Albuquerque. She does Doll and Teddy Bear Show in several cities in the West and decided to pick up this one with the other promoter deciding to stop. I did her Doll and Bear Show this past November and was happy with the attendance as well as adopting out some bears.

Once I get these bears completed I will jump back into needle felting more animals.

Thank you for stopping by, I’ll try and be a bit more prompt next time.

Mark

Daffodils

This last week we have been enjoying 70 degree temperatures and the daffodils seem to enjoy it. These are a few images from the front yard.

All wrapped up

Out for a peak

Enjoying the sun
I enjoy photography in addition to all my other hobbies. I got back into photography when digital cameras got to the point of having enough pixels to do fairly large prints. I have an Olympus C7070, a high end point and shoot. It has lots of manual capability so I can do lots of different types of images. I like to do macro photography of things going on in my yard. Stay tuned for my yard this year.

Thank you for stopping by.
Mark

head coverings by my talented bro!

As promised here are the pics of the head coverings Mark sent to me... aren't they cool? The brown one is made of, I'm not sure, almost a velour? but thinner and is very soft and almost shines different colors in different light. The purple one is definitely velour, right Mark? (shows how much I know my fabrics) and is really really soft and very very cool. While I wasn't feeling particularly glamorous at the moment, i at least have eyeliner and mascara on...

Thanks Mark!

New projects

Well I’ve been busy starting my new projects. I know someone who may be lurking out there that will be happy to see me back on my teddy bears. I have four cut out and in the preliminary assembly stage. These guys and girls take me about 13 – 15 hours each. Each one is slightly different, you can see from my photo from Jan 23, 2009 post that they are all from the same family but each is slightly different.

On a bad note I found out that the woman that promoted the Albuquerque Teddy Bear show each May is giving up promoting entirely, this includes the one she did in Austin, TX. I still plan on doing the November Doll and Teddy Bear show but nothing is planned between now and then. With the economy as it is I may be better off to lay low for a while. I’m thinking of opening an Etsy shop. If any of you have any thing to say about that endeavor please let me know.

I have been working on head coverings for my sister, Pam. If they look good on her I hope she will show them off on this blog, no pressure Pam. :-)

I have also started working on the yard. Spring is not here yet officially, but the temperatures here in Albuquerque have been in the 50’s to near 60 and some of the plants and trees are starting to put on buds. After 20+ years of cutting grass I decided to go with a Xericscape which is gardening in ways to reduce or eliminate the need for suppelmental irrigation. Here you can see my front yard looked like before Xeriscaping.

Below you can see my front yard as it ended up last year the first month after taking out the lawn.

Since we live in a high-desert environment Xeriscape is the way to go. As of today we have only received a trace of precipitation since the start of the new year, with continued dry conditions forecast for the next week. My Xeriscape is different than most of the landscaping here in that I put in a small portion of very Xeric plants and a larger portion of low water plants. Most people like to do rocks, rocks and more rocks. I am a plant lover so the area includes 40+ plants and shrubs in the front yard. I hope to include photos of this year’s progress. Stay tuned.

Thank you for stopping by.
Mark