I'm Back!

It's been a long while since I wrote here on my blog, as you can see from the date since my last post.

A lot of general life and family things just seemed to get in the way of my bear-making passion, and I've got to be honest: I felt like I had lost my way for a while - after returning from our holiday, my job was just so busy at work, and I was always so tired: and then Christmas preparations ... like so many others, I just simply lost my enthusiasm for creating and designing new bears: I'd lost my mojo and I didn't feel like I would ever get it back. I'm sure this happens to all of us at one time or another, but it's a really depressing thought to be surrounded by fabulous alpaca and mohair, loads of hand-crafted bear claws and hand-painted eyes - and not have the inclination to put them all together.

We did however, enjoy our trips to Thailand and Hong Kong, and then to Cambodia for a very dear friend's wedding back in November - a whirlwind trip of one week - I hope you enjoy this little peek:

Here's a view of the Tonle-Sap River where it joins the Mekhong River at Phnom Penh, overlooking the Royal Palace complex at night - just breathtaking!

The sad reality of the Killing Fields memorial shrine in Phnom Penh, where tens of thousands lost their lives at the hand of Pol Pot in the 1970's:

Beautiful relics in the National Museum in Phnom Penh:

Looking back now, that holiday seems like a lifetime ago!!! I'll post photos of our Hong Kong trip in another blog post!

When I packed away my bears for a while, I had 3 bears on the go and great plans for a swap bear with my great friend Wayne Lim of Wayneston Bears in Singapore.

Only last week, Wayne and I chatted about when we would conduct our swap and we've decided on a time frame - hoping we can swap in person! It's just the lift I needed! It's of course early days, but I have already finished sewing Wayne's bear, I'm updating my blog, and I'm going to have a new Nikkel Bear available for adoption in the next week or so!

I think my mojo is slowly returning - with the announcement of the 2014 TOBY awards this week, I've rekindled my interest in work other artists are doing and the wonderful pieces everyone has created, so I'm hopeful of getting back into the swing of bear creating! I've got a few design ideas ... just got to get them on paper!

Wish me luck - I think I'm going to like being back!!