Play Time

I spent the weekend babysitting our three year old grandson. I enjoy spending time with Corson, although it is hard to keep up with him! Saturday was rainy and dreary but Sunday was bright and sunny, so it was off to the park.

The park is only a block from Lake Ontario and a few blocks for their home. It has the usual climbers and swings for the toddlers and older children, but this park also has a large area for sports (ie hockey) for the older kids and a water park for the really warm days - it's a wonderful place to spend time.

Corson loooooves to swing. He could spend all day swinging - he really enjoyed his baby swing too. AFter spending a few hours pushing him, your arms feel like they have had a workout at the gym. His constant chant is "higher Nanny, higher"!

I find it really relaxing to just watch the small children at play. That's their entire world - play, play and more play and they are really good at it. I was annoyed that I had forgotten my camera, but I've posted a few pictures from last week at the park near our house. I'm also posting one of my favourite pictures of Corson - one of those miracle pictures that I managed to capture - a picture that you couldn't possibly pose for no matter how hard you tried. I love it and hope you enjoy them, too.

Jumping on Board

After enjoying so many hours of reading other artist's blogs, I decided to try one myself. Creating has always excited me, whether it's writing, drawing or making a teddy bear. I have always had a million ideas floating in my head at once and although I've used many different
mediums over the last 25 years, making miniature teddy bears and bunnies has completely captured my heart. I'm not sure if its the designing part I like best or the thrill of seeing a completely new animal staring back at me. It's simply the best job in the world!

Art has always been a part of me. I really enjoy collecting antique postcards and classic children's books, for their wonderful illustrations - they are truly pieces of art. Children's books are magical and they transport me back to a time when I was a child and life was much simpler. There were many wonderful Victorian illustrators - Arthur Rackham, Beaatrix Potter, Jessie Wilcox Smith and Cicely Mary Baker are a few of my favourites. I have several copies of some of my favourite books, "Peter Pan" and "Alice In Wonderland", illustrated by different artists, and it's really fun to open all the books and see how each illustrator has interpreted a particular scene. You get a little glimpse into their minds and how they saw things. It's also interesting to match the scenes by the old illustrators with some of the wonderful current ones like Michael Hague, Lizbeth Zwerger, Scott Gustafson and Robert Inkpen. All the different interpretations are valid, whether Victorian or current, and it helps open my mind to other possibilities.

Since I started making miniature teddy bears and bunnies, I find myself trying to put some of the charm of the old illustrations and post cards, into my pieces. I love making vignettes and re-creating the old scenes. Recently I have begun to age and distress my miniatures, to look more like antiques. The challenge has not been easy, but I am slowly getting the "hang of it". I'm posting a few pictures of my pieces - I hope you enjoy them.