Life long friends...

Whilst I was in blog land over the weekend I came across Jayne's wonderful site, Country Cottage Chic Click here to see her blog. She has a Teddy Challenge at the moment for people to share photos of their childhood ted or toy. My childhood teddy is called Billy, I can still remember when my Aunty gave him to me when I was little, must have been about 5 I should think. She won him in a raffle, he was all fluffy and with a pale yellow ribbon round his neck - he looks a little different nowadays! He went everywhere with me and I slept with him every night, he even came on adventures like a holiday to South Africa with my Granny where she used to live.

My other special toy was a cloth horse called Blue Boy (I've always been crazy about horses) that stayed at Granny's so he was there to greet me everytime I stayed. I have a sweet photo of my Mum as a child with Blue Boy, so he's had quite a life!


I've taken a photo of these two friends along with Willem, my Mum's chad valley bear (in the jumper) that she was given for her 21st b.day. They all keep an eye on me in my craft room :) I took a photo of them on my piano, you can also see my lovely horse statue that I inherited from Granny.

I spent yesterday needle felting a little easter friend to go with a mini bear I'm making, so watch this space :) Catherine x

Introducing Benson P. Hamilton

I just heard today that one of my latest commissions arrived at his new home in the states so I can now share this special panda with you. I'd like you to meet Benson P. Hamilton, He was created as a brother to Sim-Sam, who you can see in the photoshoot! Sim-Sam is looking for a special new Mummy Click here to see him.


Benson is a loving soul with a strength of character which helped him when meeting his new Mum's cats for the first time! His name Benson shows his English roots, with P standing for Panda and Hamilton meaning Beautiful mountain, which has a rather nice chinese feel to it. Benson is 17" and brought to life with wonderful heirloom style mohair and with sweet needlefelted toes.

If you would like to commission that special bear for yourself or a loved one then just drop me an email. I'm always happy to chat :-)

Doing the happy dance ..

Well I have to send out a big thank you to Tracy of Pink Purl for the most beautiful bracelet. She had also sent some chocolate but because I can't eat that right now with food intolerances she ever so sweetly made some matching earrings! How kind is that! Anyway I got them last week on the day of my Dutch exam (trying to learn it, now at levell 3), I was rather nervous but wearing my new bracelet must have brought me lots of luck! I got my results and certificate yesterday - good job I was sat down when I got my results, I got 89% and an A!!! A's are not usually sent in my direction so I was really happy if not a little shocked! So THANKS brain and thanks Tracy ;-) Click here to check out her blog.



I woke up today to a misty scene out the front of the house and took a quick photo before my cup of tea! Busy day so had better get on, Happy Beary Days, Catherine x

Meet Huckleberry

Hi everyone, my fiance is recovering well after his accident, just a fair bit of pain from the broken ribs. I've just finished this lovely new bear called Huckleberry. I have been working hard on a new older bear shaped design and I just adore his heirloom style mohair - really tricky colour to photograph though, he is a lovely greyish brown colour, very unusual. He has a lifetime of adventures that he loves to talk about, so you and your family could have many happy evenings all snuggled up together listening to his tales!

He is available for adoption from my website - www.bumpkinbears.com.

We had a buzzard in our garden this week, so I'll share a photo or two next week!
In the meantime enjoy your Sunday. Happy Beary Hugs, Catherine and Huckleberry xx

glowing..

well Spring was in the air today with lots of sunshine so I got out in the garden and took some photos - my first daffodils were unfurling in the warmth and glowing like gold, I do love these moments when the garden starts coming back to life :) I've started a new bear in this gorgeous wavey mohair...so a bit of sewing tonight I think :) Enjoy your weekend Catherine x

Flying high...

I have been doing a lot of drawing lately and just finished this illustration of a little girl on her magic rocking horse! I used a combination of pencil, watercolour and digital colouring. I'd like to get more into illustration so this is one of my first steps...

This morning I finished a commission panda and took his photos, once his new Mum has seen him I'll share him with you all :) I'm also going to be creating a special panda for a special cause which I'll tell you all about soon too..

Lots to do today and the sun is shining finally, so had better get on, but have a good day everyone, Catherine x

birds, birds..

Each year on the same weekend there is a bird counting event when lots of people across Belgium note down how many of each variety of bird they see in their garden. This information is passed onto an organisation called Natuurpunt (Nature Point!) so they can keep track of how the bird populations are reacting in Belgium with changes in weather, loss of habitat etc.


I took a few photos and the sheep in the field behind our garden came to take a peek too!

I've also been doing lots more drawing lately and will share some of my illustrations soon. Catherine x

Warmth of friendship

Thank you so much to everyone sending kind words of support. Marc is doing ok, he has broken one of the bones around the front of his ribs, so just rest is the order of the day. You've all been so sweet. Talking of sweet I just heard that I won THE most gorgeous bracelet from Tracy of Pink Purl, such a lovely surprise :) Tracy is the kindest soul and makes such fabulous jewellery, Click here to check out her blog.

Inspired by all the kindess of friends this week for myself and Marc I have hand knitted a sweet outfit for Georgie bear to keep him warm and hand made a felt button with the words WARMTH embroidered. The warmth of friendship surrounds us and hugs us just as a teddy does. Georgie is available on my website.

I have also been taking photos of the birds in my garden this weekend, so will add some photos over the next few days. Thanks again everyone, Catherine x

too close...

for comfort is how I would describe last Sunday night.. My fiance, Marc, was in a serious car crash whilst driving back from a football match with two of his friends. He was late back home so I called his mobile and heard those dreaded words.." there's been an accident, I'm in hospital..." It was entirely not his fault, some idiot for some unknown reason came back onto the motorway out of an EXIT just in front of Marc as he was driving along.. so it was like hitting a wall.. The motorway was closed off and the firemen had to also cut the top off the car to get a friend out of the back seat that had neck pain. BUT thank goodness all three of them are ok, one friend has got a fracture in his neck but is going to be ok with lots of rest, the other has a very sore shoulder. Marc has got badly bruised ribs and a sore back, but luckily nothing is broken, just very painful. It was a very frightening experience especially as the firemen said that they were very lucky to be in such a good solid car with good air bags too otherwise it would have been a very different story... It is the most horrible feeling to know how close I was to losing my lovely man. Catherine x