could spring be here

The first flowers of the new year have made an appearance in the garden, I hope it is the sign of things to come, such a wonderful time of the year.

I cant wait to get back into the garden.

Happy 30th wedding anniversary

Wishing my sister and her husband a very happy 30th wedding anniversary, congrats.

in choccy heaven, LOL

I promise not to mention my birthday anymore, but just had to show you what has just arrived, a large box of wonderful chocolates, yummy, and blow the diet, LOL.
Thanks Keith, Martin, Leona and my little man Jake.
Its now back to work after a great 4 day birthday party.

Thank you

A really big thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, I really do appreciate them, Thank you, does not really put it in words, but they all mean so much to me.
I have really been set up by Keith and my sister Elizabeth, what with the newspaper announcement, then to my great surprise, Elizabeth turned up at my front door to come and stay for a couple of days. She has taken me shopping and tonight the 3 of us will be having a nice meal.
I had some wonderful presents, and have been told that the postman is bringing some more later on in the week, can't wait.
The bad news is that I can't get my bus pass for a couple of years yet, what a cheek, changing the rules when you get older.
Thank you all so much.
Bearst wishes
Maureen

me and Maureens sister are in trouble, LOL

Keith here, I do not know how this appeared in our local paper, LOL.

You wouldn't believe this was Maureen when she was much younger, hehe.

Thanks to Elizabeth for the photo, hopefully that gets me out of some of the trouble, or else no tea for me today, LOL

Happy Birthday

my favourite Vegas place to close

I have just seen that the MGM Grand is to close the wonderful Lions Habitat at the end of January 2012.
I have had many an hour watching these beautiful animals

albeit in a false surroundings, however this was the only way I could get a real close up of them.

Wishing any staff that may lose their jobs all the best.

back from a break

We are now back from our break, Las Vegas called again

In the photo above just how many heads does this lit up lady have.

She is part of the new Winter in Venice at the Venetian, really wonderful.

We managed to see some shows including the outstanding Andrea Boceli with the amazing Heather Headley, Cirque's Michael Jacksons Immortal world tour, and of course Phantom again. We love the rodeo and all the cowboys were so friendly, their xmas fair was excellent.

Had a great time although for some reason both of us were never feeling the best of health.

However we managed to get up very early to see the eclipse of the moon, we were practally the only people walking the strip at the early hour.

It is back to work again now, and Keith is trying to get on top of the emails we had whilst we were away, please bear with him.

last gardening question of this year, promise

I promise this is the last , what is it, from the garden this year. LOL
We have had this fern like plant with a thick reddish main stem, it now appears to have flower buds appearing.
We think it must have come out of a packet of annuals that were sown early this year, there was no list of contents on the packet, so we are again having problems saying which plant it is.

Bearst wishes

Maureen and Keith

new view of back garden, tree gone

Hi

Here is the new vista of our back garden, the tree that has been causing damage to our property has now been removed.

The great news is that the birds are still coming into the garden for their food.

Balmy temperatures

Firstly thank you to everyone who email and solved our flower problem, we now know what it is.

We are currently having very unseasonal temperatures, on the 1st Oct it was 29C, and we are supposed to be in autumn.

As the photo shows even the goldfinches are getting confused, thinking a house is a tree and attaching themselves to the wall.

I have had to suspend making creations until the weather gets cooler, it is impossible to handle fabric with very sweaty hands, thankfully this very hot spell is due to end in a couple of days.

do you know what this flower is.

We brought some annual seeds, shaked and raked, and this lovley flower came up,
Keith has tried to find out what it is, without any luck.

If you know what it is please email me, we will be really grateful.

I have just added a new creation to the web site, hope you like her

Hugglets, London 11th Sept 2011

Thank you to everyone who came and adopted my creations and said hello at Hugglets yesterday.

Your very kind words and gestures really made my day, and are very much appreciated.

Keith has just put some new creations onto the website, I hope you like them.

Thank you again
Bearst wishes

Maureen

a great day out

As a break from getting ready for Hugglets I had a great day out at the Bucks County Show, the fine beast above really was trying his best to get all the focus on him.
I love this show and well done to eveyone who showed their great animals.
Keith said I should have won Best in Show, not sure if that is a compliment or not, LOL.

busy getting ready for Hugglets

Hi

I am very busy at the moment getting some new creations ready for Hugglets show in Kensington, London on Sunday Sept.11th

Keith has put a new page on the webiste with a few more photos.
Thank you for all your lovely emails with such kind comments about the Hugglets creations.

We have put this frame around the photos because our garden has become a haven for ladybirds, bees and many other insects that seem to be attracted to some flowers we planted from seed this year.

What a bargain they were, £1 a box, loads of my favourites, poppies, which I have been trying to grow for many years, and a flower called malope.
The flowers have been a great distraction, whilst we still wait for answers regarding the tree roots.
Thanks for your patience on the webiste as I work on the show creations, it is really appreciated.
Bearst wishes

Maureen and the old boy, Keith

tree roots - what a weekend

What a weekend, we just had intentions of a relaxing time, both Keith and myself instead found out we had a major problem with tree roots in our beloved garden, and as the photos show we spent some time digging them up and trying to contact the relevant people to try and get this sorted.
By the way the tree causing us problems is in the lower photo, a silver birch.
Now we have to wait and see if anyone we have contacted is willing to help us, and hopefully then we will be able to get our garden back the way it should look, without any roots coming close to our house.
If you want to see some more photos there is a web page on
www.mawspaws.com/rootsjuly11/

Bearst wishes
Maureen

Hampton Court Flower Show

Alice in Wonderland was one of the themes for our first visit to the Hampton Court Flower Show. We were in wonderland, quite overpowering, all the fantastic flowers in one place, too much to take in just one visit, however we have come home with some new ideas for our little garden. It was interesting to see and compare the gardens and stands with what they looked like on TV, they certainly look bigger on TV.

The first rose we saw was called Silver Wedding, how apt, myself and Keith have just celebrated our Silver Wedding Anniversary, it is a wonderful white rose, and not the photo above.

Our one big regret was not being able to meet up with friends for a cup of tea and a chat, so sorry to the Greene's.

All in all, a very interesting few hours, planty to think about and now in the process of working out what we can order for next year.

Plenty of photos to sort out today

Thriller Live - what a show

Hi

Last night myself and Keith had the great pleasure of seeing Thriller live, at our local theatre.

2hours 20 minutes of Micheal Jacksons music performed by a variety of some excellent singers and performers.

A clever concept where different singers take a number of songs each and join up to perform some of the Jackson Five and Micheal Jacksons great music.

The young boy who represented Micheal in his youth stole the show.

A really great night, and they even managed to get Keith standing up and bopping, well done to all the cast and the musicians.

Bearst wishes

Maureen

my cards now on website

Hi

I have just put onto my website a selection of my handmade cards that I make when it is to dark to work on my mawspaws creations.

Hope you like them.

Bearst wishes

Maureen

busy times

Hi
What a couple of weeks I have had, although I am not that green fingered, I love my garden.
Everything seems so early this year, so myself and Keith have been trying to get our garden sorted out, we also help our elderly neighbour by doing her garden, so it has been sore backs and standing, looking and admiring our handy work.
It is wonderful when you see the rewards of the hard work.
We also had some not so good news, Horace our friendly hedgehog has passed away, but there is some good news, the next day we had a new hedgehog has taken to visiting us at night, and eating up the food we leave out for him, or her, very hard to tell, LOL
We have heard that a couple of our collectors are not very well, myself and Keith are passing on our prayers and very bearst wishes.

100,000 thank yous

Myself and Keith wish to say a very big , no, 100,000 thank yous. We cant believe we have just hit this magic number of hits on the website, something we really could not see this happening when we started out so many years ago I have changed the front of the web site with a litle fun page, hope you like it. Thank you again, we really appreciate your friendship and support. bearst wishes Keith and Maureen http://www.mawspaws.com

back with you

We are so pleased to be able to say that we are now back online, can you believe the big black box that it took to mend just a small wire, LOL

Sorry for any delays with emails , but Keith has now managed to update the web site.

Have a great weekend.

Bearst wishes

Maureen

Please bear with us

Please bear with us whilst we wait for our telephone and broadband line to be reconnected.The white wires in the picture are supposed be be joined, that was until our builder decided to cut through it. Being fair to him, the wire was not very deep under the path.
So sorry for any delay in either answering emails or updating the web site.
Bearst wishes from a very quiet house.

Maureen and very unhappy Keith

underneath the arches

Hi
Here is what we have been up to this weekend, replacing a single rose arch with 2 new ones, watched by Sid the squirrel, who wa smore interested in being able to get to the peanuts put out for the birds. I can't wait until our new climbing roses start to grow and then flower, fingers crossed because neither Keith or I have green fingers.

Bearst wishes
Maureen

busy weekend

what a busy weekend, I have just put my latest creation, pictured above, onto my web site, been shopping for most of Saturday, I need some retail therapy for a break from bear making, that is my excuse, not sure Keith understands, LOL.

Also been counting the birds in our back garden for a survey by the RSPB, had the pleasure of seeing many waxwings last week, it appears they were travelling through Aylesbury on their way to warmer climates, a very pretty and sensible bird.

Now I am cheering on my football team, West Ham, in the FA Cup.

Bearst wishes

Bearst wishes for 2011

Back from holidays

Hi, we have just returned from a great break in Las Vegas.
The photo above is from the Bellagio Conservatory, an amazing free attraction, although, yes, you guessed that Keith says it looks like me.
No doubt Keith will be putting some more photos onto the web site later.
We saw Diana Ross, Terry Fator, Phantom of the Opera twice, and Rod Stewart, sorry to say that Barry Manilow cancelled his show.
All in all a really great time.
It is hard to come back to the UK with such cold temperatures and to recover from jet lag.
Thanks for your patience, all your emails will be answered as soon as we can.
Bearst wishes
Maureen

Evita at new Aylesbury theatre

HI
Myself, Keith and a couple of friends have just been to the first night of the touring Evita at the new theatre in Aylesbury, our home town.
What a wonderful production, 1st class, congrats to all the cast and crew involved.
We all loved it, although the seats in the theatre are not that comfortable.
But it saved us travelling up to london to se the show.
Well done every one.

my little Cupcake

This photo is of Cupcake with a special card I have made.

Cupcake - breast cancer charity panda

Cupcake is now on eBay, all the profits will go to the Breast Cancer Charity.

Full details and the link to eBay is on my website.

http://www.mawspaws.com.

Please note, there is no postage/shipping to add to the final bid, as I will be pleased to take care of that.

Thanks for your support.

Bearst wishes

Maureen

Teddies 2010

Hi
Well what a wonderful day at Teddies 2010 yesterday.
The drive into London was straight forward and we did not get lost, that was a nice change.
Then after setting up the show began, and it was great, we met so many of our collectors and some new ones now.
I was so pleased with all the positive comments I was given, it really is appreciated and keeps me going.
I know I have said that before, but I really mean it.
So a very big thank you to everyone we had a chance to speak to and especially those of you that adopted one or more of my creations.
Thank you.

The photos Keith took have come out with a red mist over them, but if possible I will add one to the blog later.

Now we are looking forward to our holiday and have seen that other friends have had the experience of a chocolate pizza, we cant wait to try it out.

Thanks to all of you that sent birthday wishes to our grandson, he had a great day, and my how the years past, he was 2 years old on Saturday.
Bearst wishes
Maureen

Dental torture

Hi all

We have all been there, I had to go to the dentist and the torture was not only in the dentists chair, my how expensive things are nowadays, for 2 crowns, the bill, just short of £1000.

My do I have to be careful what I eat now, no hard toffee for me, but cream cakes are fine, LOL.

I have also been trying to get some creations ready for my big show in London in Sept, also trying to keep the web site ticking over.

Our garden has really suffered from a lack of water, it has rained all around us, but we have missed out, it has been such a shame for the plants.

So glad that July has now passed and looking forward to a better August.

At least our hedgehog, Horace , has been visiting us every night for his food, sometimes bringing friends with him, well we think he is a he, to prickly to pick up and have a look......

Enough of my moans and groans, back to making a new creation for the web site.

our other passion

As most of you know we are not green fingered but do love our little garden.
When some trailing lobelia came out as shown in the picture, we thought we would win the world cup. Well at least our lobelia is putting on a good show.
Keith has spent ages trying to find out the flowers name, but has failed, so we will just enjoy it without it real name.

4 hedgy's and waddesdon manor

What a great day yesterday was, Keith and I spent a few hours at a mansion near our home, thank goodness it is not our house, the bills would be enormous, LOL.
Then I just had to wake Keith up, we had 4 hedgehogs having fun in our back garden, we are not sure if Horace our original hedgy has found a mate and there was 2 offspring or if we have some new visitors.
Bearst wishes
Maureen

back from our holiday

Just getting back into the swing of things as we have just returned from a wonderful week in Spain.

Thankfully our flights were OK, after the volcanic ash problems.

Had a lovely time and stayed at out favourite hotel in Fuengirola, Costa del Sol.

The Yaramar is the tall blue hotel in the photo, with the other photo showing the view from our room.

Must say a big thank you to the wonderful staff at the hotel
although we had some very sad news whilst there, the resident pianist, who we had known for many years and had a special tune that he played for us, theme to Titanic, has passed away just a week before we arrived at the hotel.

There was also a great internation fiesta that eventually some photos will go up onto the web site..

Now it is back to work for both myself and Keith, who is getting through the emails that need replying to.

Congratulations

Hi
It is congratulations to Kim in Ohio, USA, who was the lucky winner of Rosebud in the Easter Draw.
Thank you for all the wonderful comments you sent regarding the draw.
Bearst wishes
Maureen

Easter Gift Draw

Rosebud draw
My way of saying thank you for your support and Happy Easter.
Check my web site for details, but you need to join my website email update list to have a chance to win Rosebud.
Bearst of luck.
Maureen

great weekend

What a great weekend we have just had, we had a very tiring visit from our grandson, who has far to much energy for his granny and granddad. Bless him

new creation on Ebay

Hi

Feeling a bit better this weekend, but my word how long does this cold stay around. Thank you for all the get well wishes.

Keith has put Cider on Ebay for me, there are links to him from the web site. The auction ends in a weeks time.

Bearst wishes

wonderful birthday

Thanks to my sister, Elizabeth, for the wonderful handmade birthday card, photo above.

She came to visit me and had been baking cakes, just for me, well Keith did have a couple. They were gorgeous, at my age I have given up counting the calories, LOL

I must say a big thank you to everyone who has sent cards and emails, they really made my day.

Bearst wishes

Maureen

Happy New Year

Well after a great holiday in Las Vegas, and yes the fireworks on the top of The Aria were just for us, LOL, yes new photos are on the web site.
If you ever come and visit us, dont ask to see the holiday photos, Keith took over 450, yawn, LOL
We saw the Blue Man Group whilst we were in Vegas, I loved it, a bit to modern for Keith, LOL.
After a very pleasant Xmas, although Keith has been really rough with bronchitis, it is back to work now, but through the blog can I thank everyone for the wonderful cards that have been sent, and for all the support over the past year, everyone is so kind, it is really appreciated, thank you.
Bearst wishes for 2010 from myself and Keith

Put on Xmas wish list

Hi
I guess this will only apply to our UK friends, I have just watched the most fantastic concert on DVD. If Keith had not treated me to it, it would have been on my xmas wish list.
It is going to show my age, but Take That, The Circus Live, is excellent, reminds me so much of the shows we have been lucky to see in Las Vegas, I guess Cirque du Soleil had a lot to do with it.
Fan-tas-tic
Bearst wishes

This is it

Sorry this is the first blog for a while, but time is just flashing by and I do not know where it goes, especially as I am trying to get some new creations completed before we go for a break in December.
Just been to see the Michael Jackson documentary, This is it, I did not really know what to expect, but really fascinating and enjoyable a masterful entertainer.
What a shame we will never get to see the real show.

It is not often I blow my own trumpet but the following was sent to me and Keith, and it brought a lump to our throats, and makes all our hard work worthwhile

Dearest Maureen and Keith,
It is with tears in my eyes that I am writing this response. You're so wonderful. With all the business you do and people you come in contact, I'm amazed at your personalized service. You make me feel as if I'm the only adoptive parent you have. Thank you.


I am hoping to get to the NEC Craft show this weekend, if you are going or have already been, please email me with your thoughts on it.
Better get back to sewing.
Bearst wishes