MariAnn

I've finished nose, ears and both arms, and begun a leg. I'm working this one out quickly, because I want to get the pattern down on paper so that I can turn it in to JoAnn's for a Trend class. I want to offer the class in the fall--which means that I'll need to keep working at JoAnn's until the bear class is over.

I've got my  list of notions and materials ready. Now I'm just doing the crocheting and writing the instructions down. There's more information than for the Pacifier Bear, on which my design is based, but I'm making the bear from a totally different material, using different instructions and adding in some things that Pacifier Bear didn't think of, and I believe that my changes are for the better. MariAnn's legs will be a bit shorter than Lester's or Monica's. I think that Lester and Monica's legs are just a mite too long. I'm also adding some better instructions on making the bear up.

I'm also adding a valentine, instead of the pacifier and the bib. I didn't care much for the pacifier to begin with, and Lester didn't have one. Monica had the heart and no pacifier, and the heart can be played with all by itself since it's not "part" of the bear or sewn on. I'm also considering some sort of flower--maybe on a headband--to go around MariAnn's head. I haven't got that down firm yet, but there will be something--I just haven't completely thought it out yet.

Work was difficult today. It took 3 hours to do the mail. I was lucky. The afternoon mail was next to nothing. The morning mail was horrible. I was lucky that I was able to get the lion's share of my other duties out of the way before the mail arrived. After lunch, I finished up the mail, and then finished up some more duties, then started on another, before the 4pm bell rang, and I sang out

"Yabba Dabba Doo!" Donned hat, sweater, coat, scarf, gloves, grabbed my purse and MariAnn Bear and walked back to my car. When I got home, hubby had made supper. Woohoo! So I ate.

The trees are flowering, and so I am sneezing EVERYWHERE.

Off to work on MariAnn Bear. Pictures, perhaps tomorrow.