Ellen Borggreve Design

In Print!!!

Oh, I forgot to tell you all about this... I am currently featured in ''Meet The Artist'' in Teddy Bear Times and I am so proud of this article.... I was actually squeeking for pure joy when I received the magazine! Of course I had known for a few months that this was in the pipelines, but I can now finally share it with you. Yayyyy!
Here is the cover of the magazine:

And here is the header of the 4 page article...

If you want to read all 4 pages and the rest of this brilliant magazine, please order your copy from http://www.teddybeartimes.com

The magazine has just gone back to its old name again and has a new size. I for one am pretty fond of this magazine and was glad to be able to support it by having one of my bears pictures in the Pawtrait Gallery in the same magazine. I am really, really excited to have been featured by Kirste McCool (the editor).

To Change or Not To Change

If it ain't broke don't fix it ; that is what they say, right? Well, it ain't broke, but I sure am longing for a change of direction. I have big plans or should I say : dreams. I am not sure though how practical they all are and I know I have had these dreams for 5 years now, but the work on my usual bears and animals just keeps taking over and does not leave me the time and energy needed for these dreams. I think though, that I will start pursuing those dreams this year. I will not be taking orders for a while, so I can start working on new stuff and just the idea makes me feel filled with excitement once again. Yes....it all sounds mysterious, doesn't it. I will keep it that way until I know I have not made a big disaster out of it...LOL If you never hear about this again, you will know that it did in fact ended up in the bin, but for now...I am confident that I will master this.

Another change for me....My first larger than 16 cm BJD....She is still called a tiny BJD and the thought alone of what a non-tiny would look like makes me feel daunted...I will stick to tinies, I think....They are more than big enough for me...
This is Bambicrony Tan Elf Shlphia and I called her Keyra...She is 27 cm and she is gorgeous. I wish I had her slender body and cool boots :)

Hideho...here is Palomino

Sorry, could not resist this....This is the first raccoon to be finished this month and I am so pleased with his looks. He is a small raccoon and this is the first one I made in 1½ years, can you believe that? He took ages to finish and he already has been spoken for:o)
Now, it is back to someone else's raccoon....a birthday raccoon! I hope to finish that one tomorrow. I still have flu, but I am getting some work done. It is so good for my weight though...Who needs Jamie Oliver's plans to fight overweight? Just get the flu and hey presto...You don't even want to eat anymore. What I don't like is that I don't want any coffee too...I am usually quite a fan of Latte Macchiato's, but I just feel like drinking boring water with bubbles...LOL

I am digressing, as usual.... Here is Palomino....ain't he cute?

In his log :)

F L U ...

Yep, that spells flu and I have it. Gosh, what is this??? I have never been ill this often in my entire life. After I have been unable to sew for two days due to the sore joints, I have however started again today...in bed... I have some bears coming up that I am so excited about, that I don't want to be ill and to be honest...I can't afford to be ill anymore after my close encounter with shingles :)
My desk is overflowing with bear and raccoon bodies, now 8 of them... Am I daunted by it? Yeah...but it is also an exhilarating feeling to be able to finish them all soon. I have a very funny way of working and this is a typical case of : Don't try this at home ! hahaha

Working Night and Day...

Well, that is how it feels anyway. I have many ordered bears on my desk, but I so desperately needed to make new ones as well, that I am doing everything at the same time now. No matter how much I can love being a bear artist, I have to admit that the last few months were very trying. Of course I knew that if I would get ill, I would not get paid and you think you understand that. If you can not work much at all during 3 months, it all becomes painfully clear how dependent you are on your health for your income. Now I really want to get going again. I don't even dare to take a look at my production list of this year....aaaarggghhhh...rather empty...to put it mildly...Anyway, a raccoon will be finished today, one other raccoon will be finished tomorrow and I have 4 bears on my desk all with fully assembled bodies and no heads yet...You have seen these shocking pictures before, so I will leave it up to your imagination this time...The bears will get heads soon, I promise. Two of these bears will be available :o)
My fabric pile is intimidatingly high, so I should be able to keep myself busy for a while, except of course if I feel the need to make something entirely different and I do think I feel something like that lurking inside my mind...I feel the urge to use some pastels again and of course...I don't have those in my pile ....

March Showers

Isn't March full of surprises? One day the weather is so friendly, bright and breezy and the next day it is totally the opposite with storm, hail, snow and rain...
When the hail was bashing against the windows yesterday I rushed to get my camera, put Tess (my Lati Yellow Elf Lea) in front of the window and took this picture...Yes, I know...she has no dress on, but I was in a hurry, you see....I have all your orders to finish...hahaha

Looking for new homes

I have this urge to have a massive clear-out and I have taken down the curtains, packed huge moving boxes with books and took them to the local library, cleared out all drawers and the attic and took all the things I did not need to the salvation army. I can be like this sometimes, I need space around me and so I am also looking for new homes for some of my beautiful bears. I had to take away one glass cabinet and another bookcase as they were falling apart after almost 20 years and so everything now has to fit into the other cabinets :o) Even though these bears are super lovely and I totally admire the artists who made them, they need to find loving new homes...
This is Theo by Christine Pike and he is just a few months old.
Doll will not be included :)


This is a bear called BauBau and he is a miniature bear by Christine Pike
Again... doll not included :)

 This is another miniature bear called Doodle by Dalila Spada
 

And another miniature bear by Christine Pike called Sunny

All bears at reasonable prices, please send me an e-mail if interested :o)

I'm a bad mum

No seriously....I don't have children, but I am beginning to think that that was in the benefit of the children....I can be such a walking disaster zone. Poor little Caya was feeling happier every day. She is really doing amazingly well, until I was scratching her head on Saturday and poked my finger in her eye. Poor, poor thing....Off I went to the vet today to have them take a look at her poor eye. The vet jokingly said that he now understood why hubby wears glasses...to protect him from my poking fingers.... To get her there looking presentable, I had to wash her this morning and brush her for a few hours, so no work has been done on the bears today, but tomorrow there's an entire new day and I am up for it!
This is a picture I took of my lati elf Lea in the kitchen. She is looking unhappy, but of course she has a difficult life having to wear pink hair, not getting any food and having to pose for hours for a crazy woman with a camera :o)

Back at Better Photo

Yayyyy! I am finally back at betterphoto.com
This is the place where I took 2 courses in photography and I have plans to start new courses very soon. I am so happy to be back with my nose stuck to the camera again, it has been a while since I was really, really involved in photography, even though I really love it. I could say I am besotted by photography and have been since the tender age of 6. I'll be taking new composition courses and studio photography courses. Photography has always been one of the only things that made me feel truly alive and so it was about time I returned to Better Photo :o)

Just a few pictures that I took for my courses at BP. The picture underneath was an editor's pick. It is a picture of a machine that seperates gravel from sand at sunset, See, I don't just do ''cute''....Surprised???

Looks like a studio picture right? It was taken in the garden though, with the lens turned upwards to the sky.

Piles and Pipes...

That is what our life has been about for 1½ weeks : Piles and pipes...
We had places surrounding our house that were formerly known as back yard, front garden and driveway, but they had changed into big piles of clay, mud and enormous 4 meter deep holes.  Since yesterday afternoon we have our house and garden back to ourselves to my utmost relief. I was getting rather sick of it to be honest.
It had to be done though....The sewage system was completely shattered. Here just an example of how the pipes looked like and this is one that was in really good condition compared to the rest:

This is what our front garden looked like during the weekend:

And especially for all of you who worry about the little furry girl....Here she is, garding house and herd (so to speak)

The good news is that my energy is coming back. I am so very grateful for that. I am finally back in my studio; not yet working full time, but at least I am working again. I have a few projects on my table that really went smoothly and quickly compared to the last months, so I could not be happier.
Caya is looking like a walking muddy yeti and I suspect the little lady is in need of a good wash. She has been supervising the whole thing as you can see :o)