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Hello to you all, I hope you are having a good week. After our busy cutting out day on Sunday, we have been getting on with lots of sewing. We bought quite a lot of gorgeous new fur on Saturday and that always inspires us to want to make new bears. The first two of these have now been added to the website shop and I thought I would introduce them to you here as well. On the left you can see a really striking bear who is called Neptune. Strictly speaking as well as being the Roman God of the Sea, Neptune is a planet, not a star or constellation, but I decided to make use of artistic license! The name Neptune just seemed to suit him so well. He is 12" tall and is made of lovely German mohair with a denim blue backing but a turquoise blue and white pile. The fur also has a wave and swirl in the pile which shows all the different shades of blue and turquoise off really well. It is very hard to do justice to how lovely this fur is in a photograph, but you certainly wouldn't lose Neptune in your hug, he makes a statement! His pads and paws are deep turquoise ultrasuede and his nose is stitched in the same shade. He has a rather nice turquoise blue shell belly button which we bought just for him as the colour matches so well. We have given Neptune some weight with glass beads in his arms and legs and steel balls in his tummy, but he also has lots of polyester to make him soft and cuddly. We do hope that you like him.

Our next offering was actually finished before Neptune, he is called Capella and is 6" tall. He is the fourth bear to be made in our new style, but only the second to make it as far as the website shop as the first two sold before I could put them on. Capella is made of slightly longer fur than the first two and the pile is very dense. It is dark brown alpaca with a black tip and now that it is trimmed back around his eyes and nose, it gives him a wonderful shaped face. He looks very young, almost like a baby. This style of bear has quite straight arms and short legs with quite big feet, the footpads are tapered to the heel. His pads and paws are made of dark tan cashmere, he has a tan stitched nose and shiny black English glass eyes. Capella is steel shot, glass bead and steel ball filled so he has a lovely weight, but the length and softness of the alpaca also make him really soft and cuddly. 6" is a nice size for a bear as it is not too big for those of you with space issues, but he is big enough to cuddle! I don't know if there are any Stars Wars fans out there, but he reminds me a bit of the woodland creatures that help defeat the Emperor's troops in Return of the Jedi! Small, furry and very cute! I hope you like him.

We are still busy sewing and have another bear in this style stitched and awaiting finishing. He is in very different fur to Capella and it will be interesting to see how he looks when he is complete, I suspect totally different but we will see. I had better go and get on with him. It is not a very nice day here today, frosty first thing but now it is just damp and cold. Believe it or not Steve is outside cutting the tops off our conifer trees. He has about 20 layers on to try and keep warm and I can just about see the the top of his hat sticking out of the top of the trees! I'm more sensibly staying in by the heater!

Hi everyone, I hope you are managing to keep warm and snug in the delightful Winter weather! We should have been at the Harrogate Toy and Collectors fair today. We got up at 5am and got ready and before setting out checked the weather reports on-line. We had freezing fog here and there was also freezing fog on the M62 plus one of the roads we use after coming off the motorway to get to Harrogate was closed in both directions because of snow and ice!!!! At this point we decided that it probably wasn't sensible to risk the long journey in those conditions, so we reluctantly decided not to go. The problem is that when the fair is a long way off, we have to set off so early that we are in the worst of the weather. We hate cancelling fairs, especially when we have told people that we will be there, but it is very rare that we do and it is better to be safe. So sincere apologies to any of you who planned to see us at Harrogate, or who managed to get to the fair only to find that we weren't there. We are very sorry. Hopefully by next Sunday when we are due to be at the NEC Toy fair, the weather will have improved.

The upside to all this is that we have got new bears that we hadn't put on the website because they were only finished yesterday! So I have added five new bears to the website shop, including two lovely new Smiley bears. You can see one of them here on the left. This lovely chap is called Crane, he is one of the new bears in our Stars and Constellations collection and as you can see, he is gorgeous! Made in pale pink tufted, short South African mohair, we have used pale pink backed, brown tipped Schulte alpaca for his tummy and hair. Crane has pale pink ultrasuede pads and paws, a lovely wide smile stitched in black thread, a black stitched nose and shiny black German glass eyes. He sits beautifully on the edge of a table or shelf as he has long bent legs, he is also nice and heavy as he is steel shot and steel ball filled. We hope that you like him.

Another of our new offerings is Barty Braces, a sweet little 3 1/2" Braces Boy shown here on the right. He is made of short, quite sparse German mohair in a lovely shade of gold, whilst his trousers are made of dark gold backed, dark brown tipped South African mohair. The backing colour of this fur can be seen through the pile and it matches well with the gold of his top half. He is steel shot filled for weight, has black ribbon braces and a black stitched nose. His pads are dark brown ultrsuede and his paws are gold ultrasuede. As you can see, he is really cute. Another of our new bears is also shown here, he is called Phoenix and is one of our Stars and Constellations collection. He is made of gorgoeus two-tone Hembold mohair, red backed with a deep blue pile. We have combined this with lovely soft, white mohair tipped in pale blue. This fur has a much longer length and a slight wave in the pile. The blue picks out the colour of the other fur perfectly. Phoenix has deep blue cashmere pads and paws, a blue stitched nose and shiny black German glass eyes. He is steel shot and steel ball filled so nice and heavy for his size.

Yesterday we made a short trip to the Church Hall in the next village where one of our fur suppliers was selling her wares. She usually does this on the first Saturday of the month, but this was her first trip here since November. Last winter she had to cancel the December and January visits because of the weather (she comes over from Lincolnshire) and so this time she decided not to book those two months but to come in February instead! The irony is that this winter the weather was fine in December and January, whereas yesterday she would have been racing the snow clouds home! It is great for us that she comes to Sandiway Church Hall, as we only live down the road. It is because she bought the business from a couple who used to run it in Sandiway and so she has a lot of local customers. We always try to buy our steel shot and steel balls etc when we see her as it costs so much to get it posted! Plus we love to see the fur we are choosing and she always has new fur to tempt us! As we had not seen her since the Sheffield Bear fair in November, we had quite a long list of requirements and had a great couple of hours, I love buying fur! Plus the nice thing is that we have friends among the other customers who come, a lot of North West bear makers make the trip to see her, so we had a good gossip with them while enjoying the tea and biscuits which are always on offer. We also managed to acquire quite a lot of lovely new fur which I am itching to use. So as we have an unexpected day at home today, we are going to get a roaring fire going and then spend the afternoon planning our new bears and cutting them out whilst keeping warm! I can't promise we won't nod off though, as we decided not to go back to bed this morning once we'd made the decision not to go to Harrogate, so by about 3pm I might be ready for a nap! I hope you enjoy your day, keep warm and snug! I will write again soon, bye for now..............

Hi everyone, I hope you had a good weekend and are managing to keep warm on this cold winters day. We had a busy weekend, on Saturday we spent the day finishing the last of the bears we were trying to get done for our fair on Sunday, which was the Trafford Centre Toy and Collectors fair. For those of you who are not local to the North West, the Trafford Centre is a huge Shopping Centre just outside Manchester. It was built 10/15 years ago and is supposed to have the most amazing architecture. I hate shopping, so have never actually been there and the Toy Fair is about the closest I get! Sadly we weren't in the amazing architecture, the bit where the toy fair is held is on the edge of the centre in an older building which is gradually being turned into an Exhibition Centre. They have spent money on it since we first started trading at this fair, but it is basically a huge barn of a place and yesterday they failed to deal with the winter temperatures and so by the end of the day Steve and I were frozen! Despite this, we had a great day with lots of our bears finding new homes, which is why there is so little left on the website shop! However, I have just put three new bears on, Swan is the first of these, shown here on the left. He is 3 1/2" tall and is the latest of our adorable clown bears. He is made of pale lemon Schulte mohair with a real silk content and it is this silk which gives the fur such a fluffy appearance and it also makes it incredibly soft to the touch. We have given him dark blue ultrasuede pads and paws, a blue ribbon ruff, a blue stitched nose and a cream felt hat with little blue stars stitched on to it. I really love this little bear. Lemon and blue is my favourite colour combination and the texture of this fur is so gorgeous. Swan is steel shot filled for weight and he really is a sweet little bear, I do hope that you like him.

Our next offering is Perseus shown here on the right. He is a 5 1/2" Harlequin bear and as you can see he is very sweet and made of lovely colours. The wheat gold fur is a South African mohair with a tufted, quite dense texture. We have combined this with German mohair in a gorgeous shade of peach, the fur also has a very similar length and texture to the South African fur and the two go very well together. With his steel shot and steel ball filling, Perseus is nice and heavy and he has a lovely expression. We have not made any Harlequin bears for a while and will be doing a few more over the next week or so, so if you miss out on Perseus, don't worry. Our final offering today is Peacock, a 5 1/2" bear made of mohair in the most amazing shade of turquoise. The fur is hand dyed (not by me) and is such a vibrant shade that you would never be able to loose Peacock among your hug no matter how many bears you have! We have combined the turquoise fur with pale yellow cashmere pads and paws, a yellow ribbon ruff and yellow stitched nose. Peacock is part of our new Stars and Constellations collection, Peacock is a constellation in the Northern Hemisphere and the name seemed to suit him so well as the turquoise colour reminded me of the pattern on the tale feathers of a peacock. We are still busy sewing and will add new bears as we finish them, so do visit again soon to see who else has been added.

Our next fair is this Sunday at the Great Yorkshire Exhibition Centre just outside of Harrogate in Yorkshire, where we will be trading at the Harrogate Toy and Collectors fair. This venue is huge also, but light and airy with a great restaurant and masses of free parking. We will have lots of new bears with us and would love to see you there. The doors open at 10.30am and we are usually to be found down the far end, on the left as you come into the hall, near the restaurant! Yesterday we also learnt of and booked a plot at a new fair to be held at the Alton Towers Resort on Sunday 4th March. It too is a Toy and Collectors fair and although the theme park is not open at that time of year, the grounds, mini golf and other activities are open so it could be a great day out. The fair is to be held in the Conference Centre and should be a big fair. We have put the date on our fair guide and if you need more details, just let us know. Well that's it for now, I off to do some more sewing, I have a 3 1/2" Harlequin bear calling out to be finished! I hope you have a good week and maybe we will see you on Sunday in Harrogate. If you can't make that fair, keep your eye on the website shop for all our new bears which we will try and put on as they are finished. Bye for now, I'll write again soon....................

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't written anything for a few days. We did a Newsletter last weekend and had a fantastic response to it, which meant that lots of our bears found new homes and also meant that there was very little left to buy on the website. So we have had a busy week cutting out and making lots of lovely new bears which we will be putting on to the website over the next few days. On Sunday we traded at the Donington Park Toy and Collectors fair and had a great day catching up with all our friends in the Teddy Bear world as it was the first time we had seen them since the New Year. We also managed to buy some lovely new South African mohair for small bears, especially clowns so look out for the new bears that result! The fair involves quite an early start for us as it takes a couple of hours for us to get there. Luckily the weather was kind because although it was very windy, at least it was dry and very sunny first thing. One consolation for the early start was that you get to see the sunrise and in the winter that can often be very dramatic.

Last week on the BBC there was a short series of programmes called "Star Gazing Live" which you may have seen. We watched it with interest as we are not that far away from Jodrell Bank which is where the program came from. I love looking at the stars although I am not very good at identifying them. However with last weeks Radio Times, there was a free star guide which gave you the positions of the stars and constellations in the North, South, East and West at certain times and dates over the next few weeks. The first was last Sunday night at 9pm and as it was a really cold clear night here, we ventured outside to see what we could see! It was fantastic and it was so much easier to identify stars when you knew what you were looking for! All this is a very long prelude to telling you that the theme for our latest collection is Stars and Constellations! There are some lovely names and the first bears in this new collection can be seen here. On the left is one of our very popular Smiley bears and he is called Dipper. He is 6" tall and is made of cream backed, light brown tipped, soft, very curly Schulte mohair, whilst his tummy and hair are made of beige alpaca, long and dense. As you can see he is a happy chap with a lovely beaming smile which just makes you smile too! He has bent legs, perfect for sitting on the edge of a table or shelf, ultrasuede pads and paws and is quite heavy with steel balls in his tummy.

We have been making lots of new clown bears recently as they are always so popular, we never seem to be able to keep up with the demand which is nice. One of our latest new clowns is Chameleon and you can see him here on the right. He is also part of the new collection and he is a new size of clown bear for us at around 7" tall. He is made of the most gorgeous hand dyed, pink backed, blue tipped, curly German mohair, soft and fluffy. He has dark blue ultrasuede pads and paws, a dark blue ribbon ruff with white polka dots and a blue felt hat with a small brass bell on the top. Chameleon is steel ball, glass and steel shot filled so lovely and heavy. He has a navy blue stitched nose and shiny black English eyes. We do hope that you like him, he is very sweet.

Panda bears are also very popular and our latest offering is called Li. As you can see, he is not a traditional panda but he is made of gorgeous soft, deep blue alpaca with toning blue cashmere pads and paws. The white fur is South African mohair with quite a tufted texture and lovely metallic gold threads running through it. Li has a blue stitched nose, painted panda markings and shiny black English glass eyes. With his steel shot filling he is nice and heavy, I hope you like him. He is 5 1/2" tall and can be found in that section of the website shop.

There are lots of other new bears in each of the sections of the website shop so do go along and have a look. Our next fair is this Sunday when we will be at Event City at the Trafford Centre near Manchester. This will be the third time that we have traded at this relatively new fair and if you feel like a day out we would love to see you there. We will have more new bears to tempt you as we are busy sewing and hope to have another bear in our new style of 6" bear, like Columba (for those of you who got the Newsletter.) He didn't make it to the website as I was just in the process of putting him on when someone rang up to buy him! He was very sweet and we really like this new style so watch this space and we will try and put the next one on the website.

Well that's it for now, I must get on with some sewing and fur sorting! I sort fur in my sleep you know! We went to Ikea yesterday and found some really neat little drawer units, perfect for small pieces of fur, and as they are made of a sort of mesh, you can see what is inside each drawer so I am hoping that these will help to keep some sort of order! Part of my problem is that I hate throwing fur away, so I end up with these tiny little pieces which aren't even really big enough for an ear never mind a whole bear! So every now and then I have to be strict with myself and get rid of the little bits and just keep the sensible pieces! Well that's my day planned, I hope you have a good day and I will write again soon. Bye for now....

Hello everyone, I hope you had a good weekend and have got back into the routine after the Christmas holidays. We had a busy weekend as we were trading at the Buxton Toy and Collectors fair on Sunday and so spent Saturday finishing off the last two bears that we wanted to take with us. Thankfully the weather had improved for our journey there on Sunday and it was quite a nice trip, over the top past the Cat and Fiddle Inn, (the second highest pub in England.) This was our first fair of the year and it was, as we expected, very busy all day with a huge queue in the morning when it opened. On the left you can see a picture of the room (before it opened, just in case you're wondering where the crowds are!) We are always on the stage at Buxton, so get a good view of the room. We had quite a few new bears to show on Sunday and had a busy day talking to lots of collectors. The weather changed as the day progressed and when we packed up in the afternoon it was foggy! Well it made a change from gales... Thankfully we were going to my parent's for tea so we don't go back over the top, just as well, we might have still been up there lost in the fog!

As our regular collectors will know, we always have a different label on our bears for each year so last week I designed the 2012 label. When you next buy a new bear off us, you will notice that the 2012 labels are smaller than in previous years. They still have all the same details on them of the fur and fillings used, the bear's name etc but we thought smaller labels would be better for the small bears. (Long named bears could be a challenge, I'll have to write smaller!) We have also had a colour change as we seem to have been stuck on a blue/green theme for a few years. I hope you like it.

Last time I wrote I told you about a new bear we were working on who was a much smaller version of one of our larger bears, well we got him finished and are delighted to introduce you to Hobson. He is 7" tall and I am really pleased with how he turned out, he is very sweet. He is made of short, very soft and woolly turquoise alpaca mixed with wool. His body is made of white backed, grey tipped alpaca with a much longer pile. Hobson has long curved arms and short legs with quite big feet. He has curved ears stitched quite high on his head, loose joints and a wobble head joint. We have filled Hobson's arms and legs with glass beads and his body is loosely filled with steel balls and polyester. The combination of the fur used for Hobson and his weight, make him incredibly cuddly. He is not too big for those of you with space issues, but he is big enough to cuddle! I hope you like him, he is available to buy now in our website shop where you can also read more about his name. We will be making more of these sweet little bears, so if you miss out on him, don't worry.

I have added two other new bears to the website shop today, Cole who is our latest 3 1/2" clown in more subtle colours than some of our clowns, and Little Lou, a really adorable 8" bear made in lovely shades of gold and copper. As you can see, he is very fluffy and cute. He is made of two shades of luxurious, silky soft Schulte mohair and has toning cashmere pads and paws. Little Lou has bent legs, which make him ideal for sitting on the edge of a shelf or table, long curved arms and quite large ears. He is glass bead filled with rubber pellets in his tummy for extra squashiness! I hope you like him.

Our next fair is on Sunday 22nd January when we will be at Donington Park Racecourse for the recently revived Donington Toy and Collectors fair. There will be lots of new bears to tempt you and quite a few other Teddy bear stalls to see, so if you feel like a day out, do come and see us. The fair opens at 10.30am. Well that's it for now, I'm off to finish off a sweet 3 1/2" bear who has been waiting for my attention all morning! Have a good week, bye for now, I'll write again soon.

Good afternoon to you all, I hope you have survived the first few days back at work, and the weather of course which has been horrendous! Thankfully here today the wind has calmed down and we have had a lovely sunny morning, a bit chilly but at least you could walk upright without having to look out for flying trees! We have stayed indoors as much as we could this week as the gails and rain haven't encouraged us out. So apart from the odd dash to the Post Office to send our bears on their merry way, we have been tucked away in our workroom near the heater and have been busy sewing and stuffing. Unfortunately for us at times like this, our workroom is in the loft, so as the speed of the wind increased we had to keep turning up the radio to drown out the sound of it roaring around the roof! We have discovered a brilliant new radio station, Smooth 70's, which plays only 70's music and is great for getting you going in the morning. It just makes you want to sing and dance! So it is quite possible that the bears we make from now on will have dancing feet!! You'll have to keep you eye on them, before you know it they will have all your bears up dancing as soon as your back is turned!

Golden Russet is made of gorgeous Japanese mohair which you will have seen before. We love this fur, it is so different to anything else we see, it is a mixture of colours, orange, copper, gold, green and brown and we have combined this deep orange ultrasuede pads and paws. This bear is a much smaller version of a bear we made last year called Autumn, but the reduction in the size of the bear whilst using the same fur makes him look quite different to Autumn, stockier and much fluffier. We hope that you like him.

Our next offering is Peacemaker, a sweet name for a very sweet bear. Peacemaker may be a bit bonkers, but he is very cute. He is made of lilac backed, plum tipped South African mohair, quite tufted in texture, and this has been combined with the most gorgeous lilac alpaca for his tummy and ears. The alpaca is very thick and quite long, it is soft, fluffy and hand dyed in a pretty shade of lilac and the length of this fur gives Peacemaker those wonderful ears! He is steel shot and steel ball filled for weight and has lovely deep pink ultrasuede pads and paws, a toning pink stitched nose and shiny black English glass eyes. I do hope you like him, I think he's wonderful! I know, I'm biased!

I hope you like these new bears, we are of course still busy sewing and have a new small size of a larger bear that we make underway which I am really looking forward to seeing finished. He should be about 7" tall and I am hoping he will be very cute. We will let you see pictures of him when he is finished, so watch this space... In the meantime, if you are off work this weekend I hope you enjoy yourself. I will write again soon, bye for now, I'm off for a dance..................

Happy New Year everyone, I hope that you had a good Christmas and a nice break from work. For those of you who have returned to work today, I hope you have a nice peaceful day, ease yourself back in to it gently! To cheer you up if you are feeling a little down at the end of the festivities, I have added two new bears to the website shop, the first two bears of 2012. On the left you can see Hitchin Pippin, a sweet 3 1/2" clown bear made of tufted white South African mohair, combined with bright pink ultrasuede for his pads and paws. As you can see the main theme of this bear is pink! He is a bright cheerful little bear with a lovely little face and he is sure to cheer you up on dark January mornings! He is named after a variety of apple, as is our next offering Yellow Bellflower (don't you think that's a gorgeous name?) As you can see, he too is a clown bear. He is 5 1/2" tall and is made of gorgeous two-tone Hembold mohair, yellow backed with a deep blue silky pile. We have given him yellow cashmere pads, paws and hat and a pretty yellow woven ribbon ruff. He has a deep blue stitched nose and shiny black English glass eyes. Yellow Bellflower is steel shot filled and so nice and heavy for his size. We hope that you like these first two offerings of the new year. We are busy sewing and have lots of new bears cut out ready to make, in a range of gorgeous colours and different styles.

Our first fair of 2012 is the Toy and Collector's Fair at the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton, Derbyshire on Sunday 8th January. We always enjoy this very popular fair and hope to see lots of you there on the day. It opens at 10.30am and there is sure to be a big queue waiting to get in. If you want to come for the day, there is lots to see in Buxton, as well as the lovely gardens Buxton has a range of pretty individual shops and is always good for a day out. The Pavilion Gardens has a lovely restaurant so you could treat yourselves to lunch. We will have lots of new bears to tempt you, all the first bears of 2012.

Well I had better get back to it, there is a stitched bear on my work table waiting patiently for his filling! I hope you have a good day and manage to avoid being blown away! The weather here today is awful, although the sun is shining at the moment, the wind is fierce and from what I have heard on the radio, it is like this across the whole of the UK, so take care and keep indoors as much as you can. I will write again soon, bye for now......

We did manage to have Christmas Day without any sewing which was a treat, but then we were back home on Boxing Day to get ready for the Toy and Collectors Fair yesterday at the NEC. It was an early start for us and when we left the house at 7.30 we felt like we were the only people up as most houses were in darkness! We did get to see the most fantastic sunrise though, and once we got on the M6 we found where everyone was! 8am the day after Boxing Day and the M6 was packed!!

The NEC fair was great, masses of traders, I don't think they could have squeezed anyone else in, and a huge queue formed for when it opened at 10.30am. Quite a few Haven Bears found new homes for 2012 which was nice and we got the chance to catch up with lots of our friends. There were quite a large number of Teddy stalls at the fair, more than usual, which was good for the visitors who came as it gave them lots of choice. We packed up around 3.30pm and were home just after 6pm. The worst bit of doing fairs is having to put everything away when you get home, by then you're pretty tired and just want to sit down with a cup of tea. I keep trying to train our cat, Tigger, to put it all away for us, but needless to say I am getting nowhere!

Today I have had the chance to update the website shop with three new bears to tempt you all. On the left you can see a photo' of Jago Braces, a small Braces Boy with a big attitude! He is 3 1/2" tall and is made of sparse, tufted Alpaca in a nice shade of gold brown. His trousers are made of quite long, felted Hembold mohair in a plummy brown colour. The two go really well together and we have given Jago plum ribbon braces, a plum stitched nose and a sweet heart shaped belly button. One of our other offerings is Boulez, a 5 1/2" Clown bear named after the composer. He is made of lovely deep purple Hembold mohair with a dark green backing fabric. His pads, paws and hat are made of lime green cashmere which contrasts with the purple and helps to give Boulez his striking looks. There is also a new 5 1/2" Braces Boy called Bjorn Braces made in gorgeous colours so do go to the website shop and take a look at our latest offerings. I am busy now sorting fur out so that we can have a big cutting out session as we have finished all the bears we had prepared. Our next fair in on Sunday 8th January at the Pavilion Gardens in the lovely Derbyshire town of Buxton. Do come and see us if you can, we will have lots of new bears and Buxton is always a great place to visit for the day out. If it is a nice day, the gardens are well worth a look and the town of Buxton has lots of pretty little streets and nice individual shops. We hope to see you there on the 8th, if you need more details or directions, just let us know. The fair opens at 10.30am and we are usually on the stage so you can't miss us!

Hi everyone, I hope you are not wearing yourself out having to get lots done before Christmas. We went into Chester yesterday for late night shopping, we'd done most of the shopping, but always go into Chester once or twice at Christmas to see the lights. It always looks beautiful, but I forgot my camera so you will have to take my word for it!! If we go again next week I will try and remember to take photo's for you. However, I am showing you a couple of photo's of the blizzard we had here earlier today. The picture on the left is the view from our workroom after about three hours when it had snowed like mad. Within an hour everywhere was covered and it just kept coming. It looks beautiful, and as long as you haven't got anywhere to go it's not a problem. Luckily I had managed to get too and from the post office before it got too bad on the roads. On the right is our garden in the snow. It's great for hiding all the weeds! We have had such a busy Autumn that the garden has been a bit ignored, but the snow hides a lot of evils and manages to make it look nice! I hope you are all managing to keep out of the worst of the weather. It is very seasonal and pretty but not much fun if you have to catch a bus to work!

As well as shopping and taking photo's, here at Haven Bears we are still busy sewing and today I have added our latest 5 1/2" Panda bear to the website shop. He is called Shi Feng and is very sweet. We are hard at work on another 5 1/2" Panda bear, plus will have more clown bears and Braces Boys to add soon, so do keep visiting us to see who is new. Talking of Clown bears, last time I showed you a photo of Parry, a sweet little 3 1/2" Clown without a hat who is available in the website shop. We have now made him a hat and here you can see him with it on. So now you have a decision, you can either have Parry with or without a hat, the choice is yours! If you want him, just let us know when you order him whether you prefer him with the hat on or off.

Hi everyone, I hope you are well and having fun getting ready for Christmas. We have been at the Brighton Christmas Bear fair today at Brighton Racecourse and despite the horrible weather this morning, there was quite a big queue and lots of people braved the wind and rain Brighton Blog

to visit the bears. The venue was really nice, a lovely room with good lighting, a cafe and even views of the sea! It looked a bit grey and cold though, not very inviting so we didn't go for a paddle!

Today I have put four new bears on to the website, two 5 1/2" Panda Bears and two 3 1/2" Clown bears. Yung Yoo is shown here below, and as you can see, he is an Alternative Panda which means that he is not the traditional black and white. This doesn't detract from his charm though, he is really cute in wonderful vibrant red. This fur is soft and silky, bright red Schulte mohair tipped in black. We have combined this with tufted white South African mohair, red ultrasuede pads and paws, painted red panda markings and shiny black English glass

Our next fair is not until December 27th when we will be at the NEC Toy Fair. This is the biggest Toy Fair in the country and the Christmas fair is always very busy. We will have lots of new bears for you, so if you are off for Christmas (it is on the Bank Holiday after Boxing Day) and feel like a day out, do come and see us and the bears. The fair opens at 10.30 and there is masses of free parking. We hope to see you there.

Hi everyone, I am sorry that I have not written anything for a while. We have had a busy couple of weeks as last weekend we were at the Harrogate Toy and Collectors fair at the Great Yorkshire Showground just outside of Harrogate, and this weekend we were at the New Forest Christmas Bear Fair in the beautiful village of Beaulieu in Hampshire. So we have travelled quite a lot of miles over the last few weeks and have had the chance to meet up with customers around the country. Luckily so far the weather has behaved itself and we have had good journeys with lots of sunshine and none of the dreaded white stuff! We just need it to be nice to us for another week (as we are at the Brighton Christmas Bear Fair this coming weekend) and then we have a couple of weeks before our next fair which is the huge NEC Toy Fair on 27th December. Last year they had to cancel this fair because of snow so we don't want any of that nonsense this year!

The fairs we have done recently have been lovely, particularly the New Forest Christmas Bear Fair last Sunday. This is a really gorgeous event that puts you in a nice Christmassy mood. All the traders decorated their tables and the aroma of spiced apple filled the room. If you missed that fair but can get to the Brighton Racecourse this Sunday do come and see us and the bears. We are busy sewing and will have lots of new bears for you, including some Panda bears.

You can see a picture here on the right of Blazer Kris. He is made of pale stone coloured Schulte mohair, with his jacket made of white South African mohair shot through with a metallic gold thread giving him a lovely Christmas sparkle. His pads and paws are two-tone Hembold mohair, red backed fur with a deep blue pile. His nose is stitched in metallic blue thread outlined in red and he has three blue buttons down his jacket. With his glass bead filling, Blazer Kris is nice and heavy and as you can see, is a lovely looking bear.

Below you can see a picture of Mat Braces, he is made of short cream mohair, with his trousers made of dark charcoal grey Schulte mohair. This fur has quite a long pile so it gives him lovely fluffy trousers. He has black cashmere pads and black ribbon braces, whilst his paws are dark cream ultrasuede. With his steel shot and steel ball filling, he is lovely and heavy. You can see both these bears, and all the other bears we have available at the moment if you visit our shop page. We will try and update it each time we finish a new bear and if you are looking for something in particular, either for a gift, or for yourself, please do not hesitate to get in touch and we will do our best to help.

For those of you who are looking for Christmas gifts, I thought it might help to let you know the last posting dates for Christmas delivery. Within the UK we send all our bears by Royal Mail's First Class Signed For Service and the last posting date for that is Tuesday 20th December. If you miss that date and still need an "emergency bear"! then we can post bears by Special Delivery up to 22nd December, but there will be an additional charge for this so you will need to contact us first. For details of the last posting dates for bears being sent to the USA, Canada or Australia please check the latest entry on our News page. I hope that helps but if you have any queries, do let us know.

Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed your weekend. We had a busy day yesterday at the Great Yorkshire Teddy Bear Event at the Hilton Hotel in Sheffield. Steve and I, as many of you know, travel the length and breadth of the land to our fairs and use only a map book and a bit of common sense. We can cope with most places and their quirky one way systems and strange road signs and get to most destinations on time and without getting lost, but if you want to really scare us, tell us that we have to drive through Sheffield!! I'm sure Sheffield is a really lovely place, but for us it is also the easiest place in the world in which to get hopelessly lost. Last year was the first time the Great Yorkshire Teddy Bear Event had been held and we had never been to the Hilton Hotel before, but we have previously traded at fairs held at Sheffield Wednesday's football ground and we used to get lost getting there! We found the Hilton Hotel last year more by good luck than good management so this year I had been on the internet and printed off 2 maps and written directions which should take us straight to the door...... Well we did get there, and we did in fact follow the route exactly as I had printed it, the problem was I didn't think we were following the route and so we were on the point of turning round when we realised we could see the hotel right in front of us! Never mind, we found it and we weren't late so we got set up and I even had chance to have a quick look round which I don't always do.

The doors opened at 10.30am to a large queue which is always good. The fair was very busy and there was a great buzz in the air of excited people choosing which bear was to go home with them. Quite a few Haven Bears were adopted and we had a great day chatting to customers. Katherine Hallam of Katie Rae Bears and her husband and family work really hard to make it a lovely event and it is great that so many people came and enjoyed their day. Of course we still had to face the trauma of getting out of Sheffield at the end of the day, made more difficult by the fact that by this time it was dark......

Next week we are at the Harrogate Toy and Collectors fair at the Great Yorkshire Showground and we know our way there! We are busy sewing lots more new bears for that fair, including more of our 2011 Christmas Collection. Today I have added three new bears to the website shop, two 5 1/2" bears and Grey Pippin, a 6" Smiley bear. I will add more new bears as we finish them, so do visit the shop again to see who is new. I have also put the first of our 2012 fair dates on the Fairs page so you can see where we will be in January. I can't believe that we have only got 6 weeks left of 2011 - where did it go?

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't written anything for days, we are really busy getting the last of our bears ready for the Great Yorkshire Teddy Bear Event at the Hilton Hotel, Sheffield tomorrow. We had a very busy week on the website last week plus a successful fair at Troon the previous weekend, and so have had to work extra hard to get enough bears together for a good display at the fair tomorrow, which means that we have had little time to update the website. I am sorry about this and will try to update it on Monday with lots of new bears, including the first of our 2011 Christmas Collection. We also have a gorgeous new 17" Panda bear and a new 6" Smiley bear, so you may see both of them on the website next week.

For those of you who are coming to the fair at Sheffield tomorrow, we look forward to seeing you. I can't believe it has come round already, it doesn't seem like 12 months since we were last there. If you are undecided about the fair and would like more details, visit the show website at www.thegreatyorkshireteddybearevent.co.uk for all the latest information including an exhibitor list and details of the special prizes on offer every hour. I hope this gives you a taste of the show and encourages you to visit. It opens at 10.30 and we look forward to seeing lots of you there.

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't written for a few days, we were busy last week getting ready for our fair at the weekend and since we got back we have been trying to catch up with the website and planning our new bears. We were at the Scottish Bear on Sunday, held at the Concert Hall in Troon, Ayrshire, on the West Coast of Scotland. It was a really lovely fair and lots of our bears found new homes North of the Border. We have traded three times now at this fair and this is the first year that we have not experienced the gales for which the West Coast of Scotland is known! I kept watching the weather forecast last week, and the man on BBC News kept assuring me that Scotland was going to have wall to wall sunshine. I was hopeful, but the man at the BBC was going to get a letter if we got blown away like last year! However, he didn't lie, we drove up on Saturday in lovely sunshine and although it was noticeably cooler the further North we went, the sunshine continued even after we passed the Welcome to Scotland sign! Sunday dawned bright and cold with no wind and as you can see from the photo here, the skies were blue. Troon is a lovely place and the coastline is spectacular. You can see for miles in both directions and the air smells of the sea, lovely. Lots of people were making the most of the weather and many of them also visited the fair so there was a great buzz of noise in the room all day.

The Concert Hall is a great venue for a Bear Fair, the room we were in was light and airy and as it has been refurbished recently, it looks lovely. There are big windows all down one side of the room so the sunlight could stream in. There were quite a lot more traders than last year too which was good as the visitors had lots of choice. Some were from Scotland, but quite a few of us had made the trip North from England, Bear Basics fur supplies were there and they come from Somerset, and Apple Pie House who are in Gloucester. One bear artist had just moved house three days before, from Scotland to Lincolnshire and they returned north as they didn't want to miss the fair! That's dedication for you. Lynn Bowie (Madabout Bears) and her family worked hard all day to make the fair a success. The room was decorated with balloons and looked great. There was home made soup and cakes for those who wanted to stay for lunch, and many did. It is always sad when a really good fair ends, but 4pm soon came and we all packed away. Lynn will be organising the fair again next year, so if you would like a lovely weekend away in Scotland do think about coming. I can't promise that the weather will be a good as it was this year, but you never know.

Our next fair is on Sunday 20th when we will be at The Great Yorkshire Teddy Bear Event at the Hilton Hotel in Sheffield. We are busy planning the bears for that, but I have also put three new bears on the website shop today, our two new Apple Varieties, (I did promise they were on their way!) Blue Pearmain and Cockle Pippin, plus Jasper Braces. All three bears are 5 1/2" tall so you will find them in that section in the Shop, have a look and see what you think.

Hi to you all, today I want to introduce you to Bliss, a gorgeous 3 1/2" Harlequin Clown whom we have donated to an on-line charity auction. We were contacted earlier in the year by Judi Herschell from an Australian charity the NCHI Ovcare Program. They raise money for research and treatment into Ovarian cancer and hold an annual "Bears That Care" auction to raise funds. They asked us if we would consider donating a bear for the auction and we happily agreed to do so. Bliss is our donation and he is on his way to Australia right now! He was very excited to be selected and although a bit nervous about the long journey, was looking forward to arriving in Victoria, Australia and meeting all the other bears donated by Bear Makers from all over the world. It is a very worthwhile cause and if you would like to take part in the auction, or just read about the event and see the bears involved, visit their website www.bearsthatcare.com.au

We have had a busy week catching up with things that got rather neglected in the couple of weeks leading up to the fairs last weekend. As well as the more mundane matter of washing/cleaning/gardening etc we also had some paperwork to catch up on and of course the website to update. I have managed to put quite a few new bears onto the website shop this week and happily some of them have already found new homes. Today I have added a further three bears, Tucker who is 10" tall and named after Tommy Tucker and his Orchestra. He is a lovely bear in South African grey mohair and a rich deep blue Schulte mohair. This style of bear are always called after Big Band Leaders, hence his name. I have also added Gluck who is our latest 3 1/2" Clown bear. He is in lovely two-tone Hembold mohair, red backed with a blue pile. And finally there is Blazer Gus shown here on the left. He is our newest 5" Blazer Boy, made in soft, silky stone coloured Schulte mohair with his jacket made of soft, velvety bright red Hembold mohair. His nose is stitched in bright red thread and he has ivory cashmere pads and paws. With his steel shot filling, Blazer Gus is quite heavy for his size, and although not intended as a Christmas bear, he is in very seasonal colours.

Whilst we were at the Rivington fair on Saturday we did acquire the odd piece of new fur, not a suprise really, and so we are busy planning our latest new bears. The fur we bought is short pile fur in lovely colours, perfect for little bears. I started the cutting out yesterday and will be doing more later so there should be more new additions to the website shop in the next couple of days. Do visit us again soon to see who is new. In the meantime, I hope you all have a lovely weekend, lets hope this sunshine lasts, it's a gorgeous day here today, cold but sunny. And don't forget, you get an extra hour in bed on Saturday night as the clocks go back one hour. I'm not a fan of the dark nights, I love the long light evenings of spring and summer, so this isn't my favourite time of the year, but we will be so busy over the next few weeks that before I know it, it will be the shortest day and then Spring is just around the corner! I will write again soon, bye for now.

Hi everyone, sorry it has been a while since I last wrote, but last week we hardly got chance to do anything except make bears as we were busy preparing for two shows last weekend. As you know, we don't usually do two fairs in a weekend, but we didn't want to miss either show as they are both so good and we have loyal collectors at both venues who we did not want to let down. So, we were at Rivington Hall Barn near Bolton on Saturday and then after the fair finished at 4pm, we drove down to Swindon to stay the night. We got up bright and early on Sunday to drive the rest of the way down to Minstead Hall in the New Forest ready for the fair there at 10.30am. After that fair finished at 4.30pm, we drove back to Swindon to stay Sunday night and then drove the rest of the way home yesterday. It was certainly a packed weekend, but great fun and luckily the weather was kind to us with dry roads and lots of sunshine which certainly made the travelling easier. We are happy that lots of our bears found new homes over the weekend and if any of them are reading this, I hope you are settling in well! The photo on the left shows our display at Rivington on Saturday before the fair opened. I hope you are all suitably impressed at the amount of stock we had!

On our way home yesterday, we called, as we often do, at a National Trust property for a look round and the essential visit to the Tearoom for tea and cake!! The property was Berrington Hall near Leominster and in the potting shed in the walled garden they had a fantastic display of almost 200 varieties of English apples. You wouldn't think that there could be so many shapes and shades of apples, it was an incredibly colourful display and as we wandered through reading the amazing names it inspired our next theme for names - apple varieties! So watch this space, the first few will be appearing on the website in the next week or two, there really are some great names.

We do have a few new bears to put onto the website shop and so today I have added three new bears, Gannet who is 10" tall, and two more of our pretty 3 1/2" Clown bears, a lovely Harlequin called Lully, and Orff who is in one colour. You can see pictures of Lully (on the right) and Orff here, as you can see, they are both very sweet in their own way, we do hope that you like them. We will be adding more new bears over the next few days, so do visit again soon to see who is new.

Our next fair is the Scottish Bear Fair at the Concert Hall in Troon, Ayrshire, on Sunday 6th November. We are hoping to have the first of our 2011 Christmas Collection ready for this fair, we have bought some gorgeous new Sassy fabric and are planning some of our ever popular Christmas clowns. We will also be doing some Christmas Blazer Boys and maybe some more Elves. Of course for those of you who cannot get to the fairs, we will be putting our Christmas Bears here on the website as soon as we have any available. I know it's only the end of October, but scarily, Christmas will be upon us in no time. In fact if the aisles in our local supermarket are anything to go by you could be forgiven for thinking that it was Christmas next week and not Halloween!

Well I think I've brought you up to date with the latest happenings in the Haven Bears world. We have lots of new bears planned, not just Christmas bears but more Braces Boys, Bygone Boys and Pandas. We bought some more gorgeous fur at the Rivington fair on Saturday, so are feeling inspired. If there is anything in particular that you are looking for, don't hesitate to get in touch. I will write again soon, bye for now.

Good morning, I hope you are all well and had the gorgeous sunshine yesterday that we had. Sadly we seem to have returned to grey and damp today, but maybe the sun is shining where you are, I hope so. Whatever the weather, the new bears we have just put onto the website shop are sure to cheer you up, especially Damson our latest 6" Smiley bear shown here on the left. He is made of damson coloured, dense, tufted South African mohair and long, very thick ivory Schulte mohair for his tummy and hair. With his lovely wide stitched smile, Damson is sure to bring happiness to your hug, we hope you like him.

We have also put onto the 3 1/2" section of the shop a new little Clown bear made of mink coloured mohair and viscose. He has bright pink pads and paws and pink detailing which stands out brilliantly against his more subdued fur colour. He is called Nono and as with all our other Clown bears at the moment he is named after a composer. We are still really busy sewing and have lots more Clown bears and Harlequin bears in progress which we will add to the website over the next few days. We also have a few larger bears cut out for those of you who still have a little space left in your hug!

Good morning everyone, we have had a busy few days planning lots of new bears for the two fairs that we have coming up next weekend and cutting them out ready to stitch. We will have to work hard over the next week if we are to have enough bears for the two fairs, so I think there are going to be quite a few late nights! Hopefully though it will be worth all the effort and we will have a lovely selection of colours and styles to tempt you all! There will be lots of Clowns and Pandas, more of our new Blazer Boys in gorgeous colours, Bygone Boys and Harlequins. We really enjoy planning them all and choosing the colours and it makes you want to get on with them so that you can see the lovely charactors emerge from the piles of fur.

For those of you who are not able to get to the fairs, we will be adding lots of new bears to the website shop too, so do keep visiting to see who is new. Today I have added a sweet little 3 1/2" Panda Bear called Yeon. He is made of lovely soft, silky black mohair with his paler parts in yellow mohair, very short and sparse. Whilst Yeon is not a traditional Panda, he has his own charm and is very sweet. You can see him in the 3 1/2" section on the shop page for more details. I will be adding more new bears over the next few days as we finish them so come back again soon. Well I must get on, sorry it's such a short blog but I have a bear with his nose half stitched looking at me reproachfully, so I had better go and finish it off! I hope you all have a lovely weekend, whatever you choose to do. Bye for now.

I hope you have all had a good week and aren't letting the miserable Autumn weather get you down. But maybe you haven't had awful weather where you live, I've just spoken to my sister Judith, who lives in Surrey and she has had sunshine and 21 degree heat today! We haven't!! Never mind though, we have had a great day at the Donington Park Toy Fair, the first one to be held there for over 2 years. It was packed, the queue started before 9.30am so by 10.30am when the doors opened it was long... Luckily the weather was kind and it was quite a nice morning so no one got wet. The doors opened promptly and within a few minutes, the crowds had poured in. Everyone was really pleased to be back at Donington, there were around 570 tables of traders which took most of the day to get round. The venue is massive as you can see from the photo shown here, with stalls extending the full length of the room. We met up with familiar faces and met some new collectors too which we always love to do. Some of our bears found their way to new homes too which is great, but don't worry there are still some new bears to put on the website shop, which I have started to do tonight. One of the bears I would like to introduce you to is Sun Yung shown here on the right. He is a gorgeous red panda bear made of lovely soft, fox red alpaca, incredibly soft to the touch. We have combined this with silky soft, white Schulte mohair and toning terracotta coloured cashmere pads and paws. Sun Yung has painted panda markings, shiny black English eyes and as you can see, this combination makes Sun Yung a very special little bear. He is filled with steel shot and steel balls which make him nice and heavy for his size. You can find him in the 5 1/2" bear section of the shop if you want to learn more about him.

Our next fairs are in two weeks time when we will be at the Rivington Hall Barn fair on Saturday 22nd and Minstead Hall fair on Sunday 23rd. As we don't usually attempt to do two fairs in one weekend, this is going to be a challenge and we are busy sewing in preparation so that no matter which fair you come to, there will be lots of lovely new bears to tempt you all! It would be great to see you at one of these fairs and if you would like more details of them, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Tomorrow we have a cutting out day planned, which basically means me being sat on the floor surrounded by lots of lovely fur, trying to choose combinations for all our various styles of bears. I have notebooks with details of all our previous bears to make sure we don't duplicate the colours and it can take quite a time! I have to have my brain in gear so I had better stop now and go and get some sleep! Tomorrow is another day in the wonderful world of Teddy Bear creation.....goodnight.

Hi everyone, sorry it has been almost a week since I last updated the Blog, we have had a busy week trying to catch up with some orders, so if you are one of our patient customers waiting for a particular bear, there is light at the end of the tunnel! I have had the chance to add a few bears to the website shop this week and I will be putting two more on shortly, a gorgeous 12" Bygone Boy called Anton and an 8" Blazer Boy called Blazer Bruno. You can see a photo of Anton here on the right, he is made of really lovely Japanese mohair that we bought at Hugglets. This is the same fur that we used for Autumn who sold straight away, so if you like Anton do let us know quickly as we may not have him for long. The fur is very soft and has mixed threads of gold, yellow, copper and brown shades - scrummy! He has toning terracotta cashmere pads and paws, a sparse horizontal stitched nose and shiny black English glass eyes. He is glass bead and plastic pellet filled so does have some weight and as one of our Bygone Boys he has the styling of bears from the past with slightly longer arms, legs and body and a more pronounced hump. He is a gorgeous bear and we hope you like him.

We have just taken delivery of the latest edition of the Teddy Annual and that too can be bought here on our website shop. Alternatively if you will be seeing us at a fair soon and would like us to reserve you a copy, just let us know. The Annual costs £5.95 or £6.95 with the postage charge. It is a lovely read for the Autumn with lots of details of new bears and fair dates for the next few weeks. With the demise of so many of the Teddy Bear magazines we are trying to support this Annual by advertising in it and also selling it. When we first started making Teddy Bears over 9 years ago, there were three monthly magazines and now we are down to only one which is bi-monthly. It is a shame that it is becoming so hard to read about what is happening in the Bear world, so give it a go, I am sure you will enjoy it.

As some of you may know, my mum is a keen "cross stitcher" and she has created some sweet little Teddy Bear hangings which can be bought for £5 plus postage of £1. They are currently available in shades of blue and here as you can see, shades of brown. The bear is stitched on aida and then a small cushion is made which is filled with polyester wadding. They have a ribbon hanger in the top to enable you to hang them up. I know many of you have a special room for your bears and these would make a lovely decoration for the room. They will be available to buy from our website shop soon.

I have been out this morning to see Tracey from "Sew What and Stuff It" who supplies us with a lot of the fur that we use for our bears. Once a month she comes to a local Church Hall and sets out all her fur. Quite a few of the local bear makers come and see her there as it is always good to see and touch the fur before you buy it and not all makers see Tracey as often as we do at the fairs. Luckily for us (but not for our bank balance!) the Church Hall in question is only 2 miles up the road from our house, so I have been to stock up on steel shot and other fillings, plus joints and other essentials. Of course while I was there, I couldn't resist looking at all the fur and this resulted in my being tempted to acquire some! I shouldn't look really but I'm like a child let loose in a sweetie shop! So I have some gorgeous new turquoise Hembold fur which is alpaca and wool combined, really soft and perfect for pandas. This fur is a "one off" piece which Hembold have made and there is no guarantee that it will go into production, so I couldn't resist it. I found a lovely red squirrel coloured alpaca fur which is also a "one off" piece and which again I thought would be perfect for pandas, so watch this space! A few other pieces of fur managed to tempt me and then I thought I had better leave before I was tempted some more! I love buying new fur, it gets my creative juices flowing and I can't wait to use it and see the bears that result. So I had better go and get on, we have lots of fairs coming up over the next few weeks and want to have a great range of bears to show you all. Bye for now, enjoy this lovely sunshine while you can.

Hello everyone, today we are at the NEC Toy Fair which is one of the biggest toy fairs in the UK with over 600 stalls of everything from Dinky Toys to Teddy Bears. There were quite a lot of Teddy Bears here today, from older Steiff and traditional bears to the more modern unusual bears. We were trying to have 25 bears ready for the fair but we didn't quite make it so there were 24 bears on our display when the doors opened at 10.30am. It was a bit of a slow start to the fair because although there was, as usual, a big queue waiting to get in, we are down the far end furthest from the entrance so it takes a while for people to filter down to our end of the room.

As the day progressed we had a busy time chatting to familiar faces, old friends and new customers. The sign of a good fair is not having time to eat your lunch and for the time to pass quickly so before you know it, you are packing away ready to go home. Thankfully the weather had improved by the time we were ready for loading the van, as earlier on it had been pouring down, not what the weather man promised!

We always enjoy this fair because it is so busy and we usually sell lots of bears which, as you know, we love to do! On the left you can see a picture of Steve and some of the bears we had on offer at the start of the day. We are happy to say that we came home with quite a few less than we went with, so tomorrow we will be back to the cutting out and production of our latest new boys. Don't worry though, we do have quite a few new ones to put on our website shop which I will try and do tomorrow, so do visit again soon to see who is new.

Good morning everyone, here in our lovely Cheshire village the sun is shining and it is a gorgeous Autumn morning. We had a great response to our new Blog and I am glad that you enjoyed reading it. Since I last wrote we have been busy trying to get more bears finished for our fair at the NEC on Sunday. We have 18 finished and I had another cutting out session yesterday, so have 7 more to try and get ready for Sunday. This may be a tad optimistic but we will do our best.

Added to the bears we will have with us on Sunday is Cardinal, one of our 6" Smiley bears. He is made of scarlet red, tufted, dense South African mohair with his tummy and hair made of really long, thick, grey backed, ivory Schulte mohair. We don't make many smiley bears and they are always popular, although as they are usually fairly mad, they are not to everyone's taste. However we love him and he is sure to bring a smile to your face with his bright scarlet colour and wide happy smile. Cardinal costs £44.

We have also managed to finish another Blazer Boy, Blazer Huw, who has the most gorgeous blue backed, lilac pink jacket made from two-tone Hembold mohair. Like Blazer Alf he is 5" tall and as he is steel shot filled, he is nice and heavy for his size. He is a really sweet little bear with a lovely toning lilac stitched nose and purple buttons on his jacket. You can see his photo here on the right. On Sunday, we are hoping to have another 5" Blazer Boy with us, which will give us 3 as well as an 8" bear in the same style.

Our Clown bears have been really popular recently and we always try and have a range of sizes available. Yesterday we finished Monteverdi who is a magnificent 8" Clown, named as part of our collection of Composers. He is made of very dense, mushroom brown, tufted South African mohair with deep plum coloured Sassy fabric pads and paws. His ribbon ruff is lilac with white spots and he has a cream felt hat with purple stars stitched on it. He is quite heavily stuffed and is a really striking bear in gorgeous colours. We will have him with us on Sunday so I hope those of you who are coming to the fair are looking forward to meeting him. He costs £65.

Hello everyone, welcome to our new Blog page where we will keep you up to date with our lives as busy bear makers and give you a preview of bears as they are finished and before they make it onto the website shop. The theory is that we will update this page regularly, every day or so, but for any of you who receive our Newsletter and know how hopeless I am at getting that out on time, I am sure you won't be suprised if the theory and reality don't match up! But we will do our best.

Since then we have been busy sewing and are getting bears ready for our next fair which is at the NEC in Birmingham on Sunday 25th (this Sunday.) The fair is an enormous Toy Fair held in Hall 18 at the NEC and we would love to see you there. The fair is open from 10.30am to 3.30pm and there is also free parking which is a bonus. We are hoping to have around 25 bears to tempt you, most of which will be new as we did not have many left at the end of last week. To give you a glimpse of what will be available, you can see pictures here of the bears we have managed to finish so far. On the left is Autumn, a gorgeous 10" bear made from fantastic Japanese mohair that we bought at Hugglets. Some of you may remember that we used Japanese mohair earlier in the year and we managed to find a piece in a different colour. It has the same multi-coloured strands as before but this time in shades of copper, yellow, green and brown. If I look out of the window of our workshop I can see these colours on the leaves outside, hence his name, Autumn. He is rather lovely and we will have him there on Sunday if you are tempted, he costs £70.

At Hugglets we introduced a new range of bears called "Blazer Boys" so called because they are designed to look like they are wearing little jackets. I am sorry that none of them have as yet made it to the website shop, but they were really well received at Hugglets and sold out. We are busy making more of them and the first of these is Blazer Alf who you can see here on the right. He is 5" tall and is made of lovely soft stone coloured Schulte mohair. His jacket is in vibrant shades of green. It is two-tone Hembold mohair, grass green backed with a bright lime green pile. Alf has three green buttons on his little jacket and a toning green stitched nose. We will hopefully have a few of these sweet little bears with us on Sunday with different coloured jackets. They cost £40 each and we also make them in an 8" size which cost £65.

Our Clown bears have been incredibly popular recently and we are hoping to have a few with us on Sunday in a range of sizes, 3 1/2", 5 1/2" and 8". On the left here you can see two of the bears we have just finished, Glinka and Holst. All the clowns we are making at the moment are named after Composers, a collection that was inspired by watching the BBC Proms season this summer. Glinka is the is the bear on the left. He is made of two-tone Hembold mohair, a blue backing with the pile in a gorgeous rich copper shade. The blue backing shows through the pile and is picked out with the colour of his felt hat. On the right is Holst, he is also made of two-tone mohair, creamy orange backed with a scarlet red pile. His ribbon ruff is black with red polka dots and he has a black felt hat with a small brass bell on the top. These bears are both 3 1/2" tall and cost £39 each, the 5 1/2" clowns cost £44 and the 8" £65. Steve has just finished stitching an 8" clown called Monteverdi and I will be finishing him off this afternoon. He is in gorgeous South African mohair, dense and soft in a lovely shade of mushroom brown with lilac trimmings.

Well I hope you have enjoyed this first glimpse into our world. I had better go and carry on now otherwise there is no chance of having 25 bears ready by Sunday! If any of you are considering coming to the NEC toy fair, I hope I have persuaded you that it will be worth the visit. We always really enjoy this fair, I think because it is always very well attended and has a busy atmosphere, plus we get to stop off in Lichfield on the way home for a pizza! If you would like more details about the fair or any of the bears shown here, just get in touch, we would love to hear from you.