Birdie Bear is in his new home with Caran. The dear lady refuses to wait for Christmas to open her packages so here she is first to report in that a bear has arrived in her life. I love how she gave him the company of her nephrew's drawing. I was thrilled to learn she preferred to keep him at work where she spends more of her waking hours. I wish the two of them a long and happy life together!
I am still working on the lion. He really soaks up the beads! I tried to find any of his cousins online and found nothing. Am beginning to wish I had photographed him officially before beginning.

Work goes on even when the photo set-up has gone Christmassy on me. With a bit of sun today I am trying to get an official portrait of the Garcia bear. Tomorrow we have appointments at the Doctor's so I am trusting that we will have energy afterwards to take the bear to Sus. Got to find help with my aches and pains. Beading on the lion and listening to Christmas carols keeps my mind off of them - until I try to stand up or walk.

Here is the lion I am working on now. His exaggerated nose reminds me of the Beanie Baby hound dog's muzzle. This beast has movable arms and legs so I need to keep moving the leg to make sure the beads are not stopping the movement. I cannot believe how happy I am when working on these stuffed animals. I was thinking back to my girlhood and remembered that my bed usually had twenty or so stuffed animals on it. I thought nothing of the work taking them off at night and replacing them in the morning. Even after I had children I still kept a stuffed animal on the bed. It was a huge, 3 foot long tiger we called Unga. I had gotten her cheap after Greggs in Lima had used her as decoration for Christmas and my Aunt Evelyn, who worked in the glove department, helped me buy her. Went online looking for Unga and here she is on ebay  Thanks ebay for keeping the memory alive!

The guitar arrived so I was able to finish the Garcia bear. I had forgotten the possibility of putting a strap on it to hold it in place. I thought I would have to sew down both arms to secure it. The little instrument was accurate right up to having tiny metal buttons for the strap. So I beaded one in purple and lavender beads which I then sewed in place. The ability of the strap to hold the guitar in the right position works for this miniature as well as the real thing. The guitar is a bit too big but since the bear is a caricature, I feel it works. Am very eager to give this to Sus to see what he thinks of it. The whole venture as many of the same feelings I had when I made toys for the kids for Christmas and then found it hard to wait to give them something I was very excited about. It is too cloudy today (another storm on its way in to us) to take an official photograph. Besides I took down the backdrop and put the Christmas tree in its place. In December the sun comes in at such an extreme slant there is not enough light for a whole photograph. I'd rather look at a tree than work waiting to be done.

No picture, no work. It is so very rare that there is a day that I do not bead, unless really, really sick, that the event deserves a note in my bead blog. Yesterday after grabbing the news on Google, I somehow ended up in You Tube and found out they now have complete operas. Over two hours of  performances I never would have otherwise seen. It all came in without delays to load, beautifully streamed, images as sharp as any DVD. I was amazed. All for free. So I watched three and one-half versions of "La Traviata" in one day.
First was a French production with Christine Schaffer. Her voice is marvelous but she seemed unable to move any thing but her hands. She was not sexy from behavior in spite of a tiny perfect figure. French sets were awful and the costumes were worse.
Next was an English production from Covenant Gardens with Renee Fleming. She had the body and the movements (from the waist up - when will opera costumers realize that in those huge dresses half of the actress's body is unable to emote) of a courtesan, and the looks. The sets were gorgeous and opulent and set in the 1850s. This version alone closely followed the original score so it was easy to image that this the premier performance except the soprano was TB-thin.
After watching half of this again to show it to Werner, we dug out our DVD of the 2005 Festspiel version with Anna Netrebko and Roland Villezon and we could not stop looking until the last note of joy. This is still my favorite version. The voices, the set, the ideas, the theater - all were just right.

Here is Bronty wearing her green glass slippers and wanting to meet you! The attitude of this little animal was a delight to find each time I picked it up to work on it. After finishing this, I returned to making the Santa Claus with a fuzzy bead beard earrings and now have three or four pairs. I did take the lion from under my monitor and laid it on my bead tray so I can see what I will do next and to give me encouragement that fuzzy face Santa earrings are not my complete future.

Isn't she charming? I love how her head is turned in question. I made a new discovery with this animal. I did the belly first. It is my least favorite section so it usually gets done last. By doing it first I could maneuver the legs outward and flat as I work. None of that bending the needle to do armpits.
Did you notice her diamond necklace? I have no idea why I stopped working, went to the studio for those time Swarovski crystals to sew them down under her chin. Perhaps it was because a few days ago, while putting away the crystals I discovered a tube of these very tiny crystals and wondered how I would ever use them again.
I just went to the gallery to pick up one of my animals. I have decided to give them to my children as Christmas presents  - oh joy - a beaded gift from mom. . . I saw that only two of the Christmas earrings were left so I imagine that when I get Bronty here finished I should go back to making Santa Claus earrings.