Polar Bears Day 2

Day 2 - All about Polar Bears!

Now that you've adjusted to the fact that I'm blogging 2 days in a row, I've got some fun tips about Polar Bears I bet you didn't know. And if you DID know then you should go make yourself a big cup of hot chocolate, with marshmallows of coarse, and grab the embroidery floss, because today your get a freebie embroidery pattern featuring some of my Arctic creatures. But first…

Some Polar Bear Facts

• Polar bears are the largest bears in the world - weighing from 352-680kg

• Seals are their typical prey and they would have to eat about 45 a year to survive 

• They are the Arctic's top wildlife predator

• The life span of a polar bear is 25 to 30 years

• There are approx. 20-25,000 polars bears worldwide but 60% of them live in Canada (woohoo!)

• Their status is listed as: Vulnerable :(

• Have a thick coat of insulating fur that covers up a nice layer of fat - to keep them warm in one of the planet's coldest environments

• Fur even grows on the bottom of their paws!

• While their fur is white, to help camouflage them in the snow and ice, their skin is actually black to help soak in the sun's warming rays.

• Females give birth in the winter and usually to twins (awwww!)

• They will dig a den deep into the snow drifts to help protect and insulate them from the elements

• Cubs will live with their mother for around 28 months, while she teaches them all they need to know to survive the Arctic.

Crafty Fun!

As many of you may know, I have a wee side project with my good friend Quilter Steff called Pickled Herring Design. We create really pretty quilt and embroidery patterns for all you sewing friendly folk and for today's perk I thought I would create some embroidery patterns of the Arctic creatures from this years Polar Nights collection. These patterns aren't even for sale - super exclusive for all you hard core Arctic fans. Download the pdf here

And lastly, a little video about Polar Bear senses

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Polar Bear Love

Like I need an excuse to celebrate all things Arctic, but the WWF is back with it's annual Polar Bear Week this February 23-27th and we're all on board this year! (and with the weather we've been having in Toronto it kind of seems appropriate)

So be sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram for all the fun facts, photos and a pretty sweet etsy shop event!

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The weekend has been all wrapped up!

Wow, even I can't believe how quickly this month has gone by! This was the first weekend in the last year of my 30's (yes my birthday on Wednesday saw me turn 39 - holy crap) It's the last weekend before the One of a Kind show. Saturday was our first snowfall this season, it didn't last long but it's still awesomely frigid here! I finally have my living room back as the packing station was itself packed away, and all my stock is boxed are ready for move in on Wednesday. Lot's more happened in the past 24 days but honestly I don't even remember half of it, it's been such a whirlwind!

I started putting the final (and best) parts of the booth together. And man, is it looking sweet. I can't believe it looks pretty much the way it did in my head.







































If you're in the Toronto area, come on down to the show to see the final booth, it's pretty fun! If not you'll get the whole post show wrap in a couple of weeks. I have some fun posts all ready to go during the show too.

I went searching and searching for a specific video for today's post. Unfortunately this one's an oldie (but goodie) so there's only audio. In honour of our first snowfall, this is one of my favourite Holiday songs. Because I love snow. And marshmallows. And sweethearts.

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Meet the 2013 Polar Nights Collection

I'm super excited about this years Polar Nights Collection. I got so busy last year and didn't plan well ahead and well... you know the fallout. No Polar Nights at all :( I am such a bad winter lover.

So, this years collection had to be Extra Special. Super Awesome. SpEcTaCuLaR. And honestly I'm in love with this years collection, it's especially close to my heart (and not just because of that giant Troll ;)

The story started back in the summer when I decided I really wanted to expand upon my Troll characters, give them more of a story and maybe even a new Troll. And then I started watching Frozen Planet. Haven't seen it? You should. Since humans are doing such a great job at destroying the Arctic I figured a big intimidating Troll would be the best Defender of our frozen wonderlands. And he'd be the biggest and baddest of Trolls.... the GrandDaddy of Trolls. And he needed a catchy name (and leg warmers) As much as I'm inspired by so many Nordic and Scandinavian stories and design, I did want to try to do something a bit closer to home, and with a large part of Canada being in the High North this works perfect for an Arctic themed collection. So Arctic Troll's name is a Inuit and a bit Scandinavia. I found the word Siku, which in Inuit means "Ice" and this word is so close to a scandinavian name I love = Suki, so I figured it was the perfect name for this new Troll. His decoration is inspired by Norwegian sweaters and Inuit boots and his colourings are all shades of ancient glacial ice.

Here it is.... Starting with Suki - Defender of the Arctic, and his 4 Arcticland wildlife buddies. For the next 4 Fridays I'll be showcasing a different featured animal, to help you learn a little bit about all that is at risk right now, in our Arctic regions. If you are looking for more info, you can learn all sorts over at the WWF's website.

The Polar Nights will be available starting at the One of a Kind in Toronto (November 28th to December 8th) show with card sets and prints, and during the show $1 from each piece sold will be donated to the WWF and it's efforts to help protect the Arctic. As of Saturday, the Society 6 shop will have all the illustrations available as canvas prints, totes, iphone/ipad cases etc. The Arts Market will be stocking the card sets after OOAK as well as framed prints. Hopefully more venues will be stocking this goodness soon too!

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