June's Team Thursday: PuzzledOne

I came across this jigsaw on Etsy today

How awesome is he?!  And so colourful

You can see him here

43 of 52 - The Mini Bear Army is not all about world domination you know.....

Every so often, I get a photo of one of my bears getting it's fair share of love in it's new home.  But this one has extra cuteness built right in there for you.

Maisy of OneLittleHouse is a big fan of cats.  Some would say a crazy cat lady but not me, nope, not a bit ;-)  Recently she has been volunteering at a cat foster home and making lots of new furry friends and blogging about them here.  Needless to say, it didn't take her long to start fostering herself and she gave a home to Pip just last week.  Maisy is also a regular bear adopter and one of the mini bears met Pip yesterday.  And I think you'll agree, they get on well!

All together now...... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

41 of 52 - And the winner is......

There were 37 entries for the little giveaway!  And there was a great selection of names for my poor sad sock bear.

And the winner is (randomly picked using Random.org) .......

Tia!!  (who apparently is a Rottweiler) and she said:


I think you should call him Edward Sockbear... after Edward Scissorhands, who was a scarred gentle soul who just wanted to be loved... also he said "I am not complete" and the sock he was made from was flawed... besides the movie makes me cry and Sockbear deserves his happy ending :)


So Edward Sockbear it is!!  Check your emails Tia and send me your address :)


Thanks to everyone who entered and shared the blog post.

40 of 52 - GIVEAWAY! He's the bear with no name....

Poor chap.  He has no name at all

See, he's all sad

Now, he's not going in my shop at all.  There was a fault in the sock that I didn't notice until I'd nearly finished him so after fixing that which left him with a rather fetching scar across his head, I decided he wasn't going in the shop.  But, I have plans for him.  He's going to have some adventures along with us and I'm sure he will get acquainted with Baby Bears in the coming weeks but he doesn't have a name!  And our naming efforts are exhausted by trying to come up with names for Baby Bears.

So, drop your comments here before Wednesday 3rd November at 5pm and tell me what you think I should call him.  And if your name is chosen, you can choose a mini sock bear from my Etsy shop to be all yours!

39 of 52 - WIP busting continued

So yesterday I showed you my WIP bucket and my mission to clear as much of it as I can.  Well, I have success to report!

Not only did I finish a number of WIPs but I also found some finished things that needed photographing for listing!  WIN!!

The pile of finished things looks like this:

So 4 bears, 1 waterproof bag and 4 waterproof lined purses, a pile of padded hexagons for baby spills etc, 3 gonks, an embroidered bag (I found this finished but it needs ironing today) and a sale!!  Oh and I should have added a pair of gloves that i've finished for my Father-In-Law's Christmas present, but I'd hate to spoil the surprise ;-)

I call that a very productive day.

So the remaining WIPs look like this:

So that's the Pooh kit (GAAAAAHHHHHH!!!) the dress (in the Fenwick's bag) and the embroidered shopping bag to be ironed.  That means that the ironing board will be out and I'll probably end up tackling the ironing pile as well.  This morning has mostly involved preparing this blog, doing some work for UK Handmade and trying to work out what socks to knit my Dad for Christmas.

So keep an eye out in my ClareBears shop for those new things coming soon!

21 of 52 - Oh Blimey!! I didn't realise it had been that long!

Oh dear, I neglected my blog again.  It was the 9th of June when I blogged last.  So I'd best tell you what I've been up to.

I've been knitting!  I love to knit and I now have a really good excuse.  My Twitter followers and friends around the interwebs are probably aware that we have a baby on the way due at the end of November.  I mean that's pretty big news but time is marching on and now that 20 weeks is approaching, you sort of go 'eeep!' and get your butt into gear organising things that you need.  So I started to knit.

And so far, I'm getting head start.  As you might have noticed, we don't know what it is yet (and we don't intend to find out) so it's neutrals all the way.  I've even got a mint green and a white cardigan that need buttons and little finishing touches before they can be photographed.

We also have had a holiday!  woot!  It was a lovely week in a caravan in Moffat, Scotland.  The caravan was kindly loaned by my in laws and we had a lovely chilled out week.  We did go to Edinburgh Zoo and saw penguins and monkeys and lions (oh my!).

And of course there are some new things coming.  Here's a sneaky peak of my latest work in progress.

Now I must go and write a note in my diary about doing a blog post every week.  This Mummy brain is not doing me any good!

17 of 52 - It's Sale Time!!!

Over in my Etsy shop, it's time for a little clear out so that I can make room for more bears and other animals so, I am offering 30% off selected items in my shop.  And all the bears and bunnies have free shipping so what's not to love?

Here are a selection of the reduced items.

And you can find them all here!

16 of 52 - The Pattern is READY!!!!

A few days ago I said that I was working on a pattern to go on sale in my shops. Well, this weeks news is that it's finished and ready to go to the testers! Here's a preview of what you can make with it.

I have about six testers at the moment but if there is anyone else who is interested, please leave me a comment and I'll get back to you or convo me via Etsy with your email address. Thanks!

PS. Keep your eyes peeled on my shop today. A little offer will follow :-)

15 of 52 - New Items for patterns are turning out nice

So last time I blogged I mentioned that a new pattern was coming. My first efforts at the items have turned out well (apart from one of them being a Koala and NOT a bear at all). There will be a bear version of this pattern but he is this afternoons mission after i've messed around on Dawanda a bit. And played Scrabble on Facebook. And procrastinated a little bit more......

So here are the first pictures of the toys!



More photos of these and the bear when I get to it can be found over at my Flickr photostream

Enjoy your Bank Holiday!

14 of 52 - All the days merge into one

It's official, I've been out of work so long that I don't know what day of the week it is. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Anyway, that doesn't mean I haven't been busy but I haven't been getting as much done as I would like. So I took myself out yesterday for some fresh air and had a wander in town. I had to get some presents as apparently everyone I know has a birthday this weekend so after I did that I sat and had a cuppa and a bit of a brain storm. 2 pages of scribbles later and I came to conclusion that it's about time I made a pattern for a toy. A proper pattern that people can follow and make their own version of a new bear design.

This particular pattern will be a 4 in 1 so you'll be able to make variations on this item depending on your fabrics. It will also be more than one animal, but i'm not going to spoil the surprise yet.

So, if you would like to be a pattern tester please let me know. I'll be putting out a further call for testers closer to when it's finished but anyone who's interested, please let me know!

And for those of you who like a picture, here's a recent addition to my shop:

13 of 52 - New places to find me!

It has been a good week again around this bears' house! The to do list has been massive but i'm slowly working through it.

I have a whole bunch of new bears coming soon


I have also started to appear in some new place. If you want to by in pounds then you can find me on WowThankYou! And if you want to buy in Euros, I can be found on DaWanda!

Items are added to both of these stores on a regular basis so keep checking back.

10 of 52 - Quilt Voter

Thanks to all the lovely people who voted for me! I came 3rd, which was fantastic (I managed 4th with Dracu-bear back in October so i'm really thrilled).

The prize for the voter was a front page that was up at 10pm (UK time) last night!

Thanks again to all who supported me. It means a lot.

9 of 52 - VOTE FOR BEARS!!

To my great surprise, I found myself in this weeks Etsy voter! There are many beautiful quilted items in there, including my Green Bear.

I am woefully late in getting my campaign going but I need your votes! Thanks!

Go Vote!

8 of 52 - And the winner is.....

My very first giveaway has been a huge success. There were lots of entries from all over the world which was very exciting!

So the winner is NorthStar (Jill), who left a comment on my blog. Jill has a fab blog and Etsy shop that you should all take a look at.

She's still new to Etsy but will have some fab new quilts in the future. Here are some of her past designs:

Look at how intricate they are!

The runners up prizes go to

Allan Middleton (a Facebook Fan)

SofiaSobeide (a Twitter Follower and fellow Etsian)

beckslayer (Rebecca Jackson, a Twitter follower)

I'll be in touch with the winners this evening to arrange the delivery of their prizes.

Congratulations to you all! I selected the winners using Random.Orgs number generator.

In celebration I am now offering free shipping on all items in the ClareBears shop (this is worth about 15% depending on where you live). Feel free to stop by and take advantage of the offer.

Thanks to all who entered!

6 of 52 - Some New Things!

Since I have been home and I can't sit still for five minutes without fidgeting, I have been making some new bears. At this exact moment I am sitting next to a pile of sock bears just awaiting their facial features and final finishing but before them, I have completed two new traditional bears.

You can find both bears available here:

Flower of Scotland Bear

Blue Steel Bear

Happy New Year - 1 of 52

There's an ominous title!

Yes I plan to blog once a week for the next year. This goes completely against my resolution to NEVER make a resolution but if this is one small thing I can do on the way to world bear domination it's a good thing, right? I even have a calender of things I plan to write about and everything! Now, just to write about something every week! I suspect some entries will be cop-outs and just be some pictures of things I've made or new things I've found that I like. So in that vain, here are some things I made for the delightful Miss Maisy!

This cute guy was made from one of the pairs of socks she sent me! This is the other:

I hope she likes them!