Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Hi everyone,
I have a whole shopping list of goals, starting with being more active on my groups. I have been lurking a lot.
I have a full time day job and did 7 bear shows last year so with reading my copious emails daily and bear making there was not too much time left over.  Did I mention I am also a webmaster and manage 8 websites? I want to set some new priorities. 

I have been in a bear making slump since Xmas. So I am tidying my house and spending some time on ME. But I am working on getting geared up for more bear making, I am just not quite there yet.  Some of the things on my todo list for bear making are:
make an open mouthed bear
learn air brushing
start selling on ebay
design a centre seam bear
create some new bear designs
try something different like a dog or cat
start dressing my bears ( I tend to do minimal dressing)
submit my bears more to my groups like this one
learn to dye mohair

On another front, I am interested in learning to create Chain Maille jewllery. It could be really neat for bear accessories as well.  I want to do scrap booking too  but some things will have to wait until I retire. Sigh!  I love my paycheque but my job really interferes with my other interests. At least I won't be bored once I do retire. 

Aina

Hello all,
I have been lurking a lot and want to get more involved this year.  My two top favourites from 2006 are the following. First is the Teddy Hug. It features a pale pink traditional bear, hugging her brown crochet teddy who is also hugging his tiny white teddy. It is a play on the word hug which means a group of bears and also hugging is what bears are for, right?

The second one is Captain Cruise who was created as a donation for the Children's Aid Teddy Bear Gala in November in Toronto. He is also featured in the 2007 calendar.