Giveaway - Online Teddy Bear Making Course

5 Feb 2013 UPDATE

Congratulations to Kay's Kids, Country Gal and Claudia! I need your email addresses to enrol you for the course. Please contact me privately at megbear99(at)gmail.com.

 

Ta-da!  And there it happened.  On Saturday we reached 1 000 sales in the Tin Soldiers Etsy shop.  I'm not rich or famous yet, and nearly three years of hard work went into it, but I'm taking a moment to stand back and congratulate myself for persevering.

 

 



I'm a strong believer in sharing a good feeling.  The customer who was responsible for the 1000th sale will receive our Online Teddy Bear Making course worth $ 65 for free.  Avril from the UK assures me that she is delighted to be that person! 

 

To further spread the good feeling, on Monday 4 February I'm going to announce the names of three more persons who will also receive the Online Teddy Bear Making course free.  Want to be one of them?  Leave a comment on this blog post.  I am going to randomly choose three names.

Something's creeping up in my Etsy shop.  No, it's not a drooly monster... can you hear the drum roll?  There's going to be fireworks when we reach 1 000 sales!

Yargh!  Holiday is over.  It's Monday and the first working day of the year for me.  Double penalty.  I think I would rather crawl under a rock... don't know why, because few people love their job as much as I love mine, and I'm all fired up with ideas for the New Year.  Bear with me while I settle back in, things will start looking up as soon as I have a cup of tea.

Petzi, a little animal I made for my own collection from an Eileen Seifert pattern

I really admire the designs of Eileen Seifert.  Over time I have bought and hoarded quite a few of her patterns.  Oh, to find the time to make all the things that inspire me!
A few years ago I was practising making faces with a press mold.  Most of them turned out awful and were thrown away, but I kept a few that I felt had potential for an altered art project in future.  Recently I came across one of these and thought it looked rather like a cat.  It gave me the idea that I could adapt Eileen's Petzi pattern and make one.  This is the result.

I rescaled the pattern to make an 8cm (3 inch) animal, turned the teddy ears into pointy ears, and made a tail.  My cat-Petzi turned out like a rather well stuffed sausage.  I love the old fashioned look. 
Here is the original pattern.  Also have a look at Eileen's other patterns.  You will be inspired!

Teddy Manufaktur

 

Care Packages for the Elderly - Handed Over!

Yesterday Frikkie and his Lifemed team handed over the care packages that we put together at Tin Soldiers to a group of elderly people in Pretoria.  Here's a picture of the happy conclusion to this year's project.  A big round of applause to everyone who participated!