Melbourne Teddy Bear Fair Weekend

Hi everyone! Well, it's taken me a week to get organised after my whirlwind trip interstate to Melbourne on 5th & 6th May. With my girlfriend (and neighbour) in tow, the weekend started out with a 2.5 hour drive from my hometown to Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport - lots of fun spent chatting and laughing. We treated ourselves to a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers on the flight (something I wouldn't normally do, but am so glad we did!) Arrived in Melbourne to dreary skies and cold weather - so glad I rugged up and brought my thick jacket and a couple of scarves! We picked up the hire car and found our way to the hotel in the city - easy when you have a GPS ha! ha! As promised, we met up with Wayne Lim (Wayneston Bears) and his family who flew all the way from Singapore to attend the show - our first stop: The Eureka Skydeck on Melbourne's Southbank - 88 floors up and nothing in between us and the road below except a glass floor!!!!

Exceptional views all across Melbourne as you can see - that's the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground all lit up in the foreground with a game of Australian Rules Football currently underway!

After our extreme adventure, we decided to meander across the Yarra River enjoying Melbourne's cityscape and made our way to Chinatown where we all enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Wayne's family before heading back to our respective hotels to get ready for our early start in the morning.

The show venue was an hour's easy drive from the city where we quickly set up before the doors opened at 10am - people were lined up outside waiting to get in!!! I had a fantastic day catching up with my beary friends and fellow artists, plus some new bear friends and welcomed a whole new bunch of people to my mailing list - but before you knew it time had ticked by and it was time to pack up. This is my table.

Here's Wayne and his lovely Mum, Dad and cousin.

Here's us with my wonderful friend Linda Benson (Benson Bears)

And here is Wayne's mum, me and my friend Aggie.

I was sad to head home - we'd had such fun! Until next year ....

Melbourne Teddy Bear Fair - a preview!

Hi everyone - as some of you know, I've been away from home for a few weeks in Phuket, Thailand which was absolutely bliss!!! This meant no work, no answering phones, no planning and cooking meals after work, no washing or ironing (yuk!) and beautiful warm and humid weather. It was lovely to enjoy summer weather, at least for a couple of weeks - we seemed to miss out on summer here in my part of the world this year. Of course, the break away meant a hiatus away from my beloved bear making - although I did manage to stash a couple of cut out bears into my bag to sew up while I was away. Those little bears are from my newly developed pattern, and they will be making their debut this Sunday (6th May) at the Melbourne Teddy Bear Fair in Berwick, Victoria.

These little pandas are Asian-inspired, as you can tell from their custom-accessories which are all hand made by me - what a lot of fun that was! I rather like designing little hats for my bears that are different and quirky! I thought I'd show you a little sneak peek right here on my blog - I hope you like them. Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment here. For those of you who will be in Melbourne this weekend, please drop by to say hello. The venue for the show is the Berwick Leisure Centre, 79 Manuka Road, Berwick, Victoria - doors open at 10am until 4pm and all traders tables are sold out! It's going to be a fantastic show - I can't wait - I'm here in Melbourne and just about to leave for the show! Hope to see you there!!!