I think I've mentioned before that I love elephants, haven't I? Well I just couldn't resist felting another elephant for my store.


Junior weighs in at zero pounds and maybe 2 ounces and is approx. 10 cm (4 inches) tall with out measuring his trunk (15 cm (6 inches) from his feet to tip of her trunk), 17.5 cm (7 inches) long!
I was inspired by the great scene in the Jungle Book where Colonel Hathi tries to get all the elephants in line for the Elephant March and the little baby elephant stretches his trunk out for inspection.

You can see his little back foot stretching out to give him more height!

Felted Snowmen

I know it seems early to list Christmas items, but you know, the early bird gets the worm!


I've only started listing a few snowmen so far, but keep watching my shop over the next few months and you will see the rest of them.

They all have acorn berets and their own style of wool scarves.

This is my big happy snowman family! Aren't they cute all together? I have another trio of snowmen listed as well. They are the A. Corn family and all sport little acorn berets and lovely blue scarves!

New Neckwarmer Pattern - Belmont.

Just released today! My newest pattern Belmont Neckwarmer!

I named this Victorian looking neckwarmer, Belmont, before I realized that Belmont means "beautiful mountain". How perfect! The peaks of this neckwarmer do in fact remind me of a row of mountains.

The back view of Belmont with the mountains pointing both up and down. With the blue jean jacket peaking out from underneath, it reminds me of mountains being reflected in the water.

Tied with a simple black ribbon to give it a real classic appeal.

Now available at my shop: Bella McBride Designs!

Report Cards

My mother-in-law found these wonderful report cards tucked in the back of a drawer of her new antique oak sideboard. The first report card for Miss Dorothy Hughes shows great grades but two years later there is a marked decrease in her grades. What happened I wonder? Family problems, new teacher, new school, simply the move from high school to college? You can't see in the second report card but the classes include Psychology, Dietetics and Foods, along with Biology, Physics and Economics! How interesting! I wonder if she graduated from college? Maybe this is why these were tucked way, way in the back of the drawer where not even the antique dealer saw them! Either way, they are a wonderful treasure!

New Pattern Project

I'm really excited about the new pattern I've been working on! It's for a new pair of mittens to add to my collection and I just love them so much I might just name them the Bella Mitten Pattern... or maybe the McBride Mitten Pattern!


It's a good guess that if they are named after me then they must be PINK! The first prototype is complete, the pattern is written and proofed, now all I need to do is remake a pair and get some stunning cover page shots... sigh... is that all!?


Not only are these mitts pink, but they have grey trimmings! Ahhh, my hearts all a flutter! My favourite colour combination, Pink and Grey!

Speaking of things that set my heart all a flutter: Remember the little "runt" kitten that we got? This is him sleeping out in the middle of the deck getting some sun. His name is Piggy because he has a bit of a cold and he just kind of goes around grunting all of the time. He is feeling much better and is starting to put on some weight, but not as much as his brother Porky... hence the name!

Is It Just Me Or....

Has anybody else out there noticed the trend that Etsy is leaning towards when they choose their pictures for the front page? About 90% of all pictures have either plain white backgrounds or another solid colour. Well I certainly have and this led me towards a shopping trip to find the supplies to build my own light box.

This is a first time try of one of my Santa Clauses in the light box. I still have some adjusting to do with the lightening with my camera settings... don't get me started on that soapbox, but this is what he looks like with a plain white background.


Now here is the same Santa taken with a background of wood tones and old books. I don't know about you, but I like the textured background better. Call me old fashioned I guess!

This is the full view of Santa and his Snowman. Again, in the light box with a plain background... boring... but what do you do? Etsy clearly leans toward the minimal look and if you can't make it to the front page your chances of selling is decreased, and who are we kidding, we all want to sell, sell, sell! I'm still not decided if I should sell my soul for a sale, or stay true to what I personally like... anybody else struggling with this?

Some Days...

Some days when you want to just throw in the towel and forget all this nonsense business, you receive a beautiful gift.

The gift came from Beth at IndieNorth who featured me in this fantastic blog post! Now how can you be mad at the world with kind words like that? Thank you Beth!

Sooo Cute!

Just had to share this picture! Is he not the cutest little kitten you have EVER seen! Of course I'm biased, but you just have to admit he's adorable!

Nice Surprise!

I discovered a great blog, For the Love of Cute the other day that devotes it's site "to handmade cuteness". Every day Anna "posts a new selection of cute handmade items found from all over the web".

And this morning I woke up to an Etsy convo from Anna saying that she included my Shu Shu Panda in with some other great panda bears on her blog!

What a wonderful surprise! Then I discovered that Anna is in fact the creator of House of Mouse on Etsy! If you haven't seen her little mice you have to check them out! Fantastic!

Rain, Rain, Rain and More Rain

It's been raining again all weekend! Now I like the rain, but it rained all of June and now July is not looking much better! Sigh... at least I'm getting lots of work done inside and on my new McBride House site. Look on the bright side Bella, look on the bright side.


I added Mr Mouse and his Flower Pot House to McBride House yesterday. As you can see Mr Mouse is peaking out his Flower Pot House to see if the coast is clear before he heads out for some food for his little flower pot family!


I also added my little Gnome Home which is a set of three red and white mushrooms. They are going to be featured in a great blog on Friday! I'll let you know how it goes!


This morning a added a set of three evergreen Christmas trees. The yarn I used as garland is an old yarn that was donated to me by that wonderful Auntie. The label says 70% wool and 30% goathair, made in Sweden. Isn't that cute? I don't know why, but I laugh every time I look at the label!

The trees also come decorated with little bits of red, yellow and maroon roving. I haven't listed the decorated trees yet, but they are coming!

McBride House is Now Open

I've done it! McBride House is officially open for business! I only have a few listed so far, but over the next few days I should have a lot more! Keep watching!

New Venue

I've just spent part of the day setting up my new Artfire store! I've been finding both views and sales on my Etsy site are waaaayyy down and it was suggested to me to try ArtFire.


This is my Artfire homepage. Nothing too special, but it has potential and that's what I'm looking for right now. Apparently if I sign up 12 different friends to ArtFire then I get a lifetime free membership! So if any of you bloggers out there are interested, use this link and don't forget to mention where you heard it from!


On the kitty front, Frosty is getting much more accepting to the two new babies. He's not thrilled about the bigger kitten (that we discovered, after a kitty bath, is in fact a boy!), but he seems to like the little one that is the runt. It's hard to see, but BB (temporary name) is laying right on top of him! Soooo cute!

McBride House is coming along. This is Gallagher, another felted wheeled animal.