Decisions, decisions....

I have been blogging lately on free webs and I have all of my information showing the site I have on there. My problem is that I don't like the lack of options I have with freewebs. I'm talking about simple things like templates and so forth. I am not a computer whiz by anyone's definition but to be able to do simple things like have a three column layout is important to me. But, what a pain it will be to switch everything over to (back to) blogspot. Heavy sigh. I definitely don't want to keep up both blogs because I can barely do one without it being completely boring! What to do...I guess I'll worry about it after Thanksgiving.

Please visit my new blog!

I am now blogging at http://carlylebearco.webs.com/ so I hope you will visit me and my bears there! It was just a little easier for me to work with that one site instead of trying to keep up with two blogs. Thanks for dropping in!

First International Sale

I am very excited to say that I have made my first international sale! My bear Jeremiah is en route to Paris, France as I write this. What a lucky bear he is to go to Paris in the late spring. Paris anytime for that matter. I will attempt to post a photo of him this evening when I get home. Yes, I am writing from my day job but we don't have any patients this afternoon since the doc is out. I did have a heck of a time with printing the label on PayPal for some reason. Normally the domestic ones I print are a cinch but I had a devil of a time getting an international one printed. Argh! I am challenged electronically it seems. I know how to do these things it just seems that there is always a glitch or a gremlin when I really need to complete something. So I am really crossing my fingers and hoping that the buyer is pleased once he arrives. Such a long journey for a little bear. But so thrilling to send a bear to Paris. I was over the moon.

I am finishing up a bear now that I will post on EBay soon. She is made of fluffy grey mohair and I'm thinking she will be dressed. We'll see.

My brother is coming for Memorial Day weekend from Ft. Myers FL so I doubt I will get much sewing in. So I will more than likely not have pics up of the new girl until the first week of June. I hope you'll be back to have a look then! I wish you all a safe Memorial Day weekend!

Finally! Here they are....

Here are the two bears that I recently listed on Ebay. They are my first listings ever with Ebay so I am very nervous. I was really pleased with the way my new pattern came out. It is very vintage/traditional and yet they still have character on their faces which is really important to me. I am starting on a smaller version of this pattern next. These guys are 13 inches and the smaller version should be around 9 inches. Even if they don't sell at least my bears are "out there" so to speak for people to see. I really hope they find good homes though.

Name change

I've decided to revert back to using the name that I originally used on my bears, Carlyle Bear Co. Why? Well, I recently took a bear design class from EZ Bear University by Nancy Tillberg and through that process have been making bears from a more traditional pattern that I designed. To me, a more traditional looking teddy requires a more traditional sounding name. Hence the return to Carlyle Bear Co. Yummyheads was fine for the anime-style friends that I designed but I seem to be moving away from them with my recent patterns. I have completed several that I will be posting pictures of very soon and I think I may even post one of them on E-Bay! This is a little scary for me but I think it's time. I've been waiting for a sunny day here in east Tn to take pictures of the bears and we are scheduled to have one this Saturday so I should have them up this weekend. It's a little hard sometimes to work full-time and try to get my bears out there the way I want to but it will happen eventually I hope. I also hope to be better about blogging. I never was a girl to keep a successful diary so this is a challenge for me. But I love reading other bear artist blogs so I figure if they can find time to do it then so can I!

Here is a side view that shows his tail.

This is my first cat. He was hard to part with but he went to an excellent "cat loving" home with my friend Dawn.