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:dance: :dance: :dance: :dance:
These are great news, Jeremy!
i cross my fingers for you.
May that house be THE house...
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Thanks sooo much, Lynette.
This challenge means a lot for me as this is my first international one!
I enjoyed a lot viewing everyone's bear/critter. They are all beautiful.
I was surprised not to see Marie's bear (Marie from Japan): didn't she say she would enter a bear? Unless she is just a little late.
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Dear friends,
I thought you might enjoy seing my competitor bear for the TBOC 2008. This is my first time participating to an international challenge.
Feeling a little bit nervous about it.
That's strange, because i just cannot manage to love that bear even if every person to whom i showed him just loved him.
I guess this is because my scissor sculpting on the muzzle did not went the way I wanted.
I hope to find him a loving home...
But if he happens to win an award (we never know, after all!!!), I may keep him some time before I let him go.
He is 39 cm tall.
I used Hembold air force blue mohair and some Schulte creamy white mohairs. I needle felted his paw pads.
I hand made his outfit including the weaven flag, necklace and macrame belt.
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Jacky, albert has got the sweetest face!
I love him! 
Plus he looks so cuddly... I love the way you made his bow.
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
I want to join too...
I have been thinking about making a panda for a while but have not done it yet, so you give me the opportunity to go for it this Summer!!!!
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
:dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance:
Yeah, well done Popeye!
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Gorgeous bird, Kelly!
I cannot wait to see your next critter! 
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Thank you soooo much for sharing these beautiful photos!
I understand you want to go back there... Maybe some day...
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Dear friends,
A long while ago, I posted about my project to get my Fourth Graders to make teddy bears.
This has been a long project and hard one too for these pupils.
My pupils are young kids in high scholar difficulties plus they have difficulties to concentrate on what they do. In addition they are not much selfconfident, which does not help.
Anyway, with a bit of help, they all managed to get their bear done.
This bear is from the pattern "Bonjour" designed by the French artist Laurence Veron.
Just a detail : none of my pupils lives nor is born in Lyon (France) but they are big fans of Lyon football team.
The bear with brown paw pads and foot pads plus a necklace is the first teddy bear I made in my life.
Here are the photos :
They were very happy with the result and could not wait to bring their bears home.
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Dear friends,
I finally take a moment to post photos of the flooding we had in our street the 31 may 2008 : a saturday afternoon.
This all began like any stormy rain : very heavy rain with some thunder.
The only different with an usual one is that the rain did not stop after a few mintues but lasted over one hour.
The draining system of the street could not handle it the very quickly, the water began to invade the street.
We did not expect the water to come inside the house at any moment until the water level began to reach the bottom of the doors, and then it was too late. there was nothing we could do but try to save as many things as possible.
In our rush against water, we forgot the cars in the courtyard, like all our neighbours...
Some neighbours called the firemen but they answered there was nothing they could do.
While the water level was getting upper and upper, we were staying at ours windows, talking with our neighbours (of course only after we saved everything we thought about).
The firemen finally arrived at about 6 pm and began evacuating people.
Some neighbours had only one-floor houses and could not think about staying in their own house.
We too left our house, even if we had a second floor (there was over 50 cm high of water in the first floor). we went to Malko's parents house (we ask them to pick us up as both our cars were flooded).
In the end of the afternoon, the water level began very slowly to get lower. It took the whole night to the water to leave.
When we came back the sunday morning, the water was gone and instead we found a very yoke layer of mud everywhere. The firemen were there to help getting rid of the mud and water trapped here and there.
And then began the long work of cleaning, contacting insurances etc.
Our house insurance asked a cleaning society to come to our house and give us some help. The cleaners left us two big deshumidifiers for two weeks plus did some cleaning, of course!
It took us a long time to get all pieces of furnitures cleaned as well as all electrical appliances. malko managed to save most of electrical appliances, but our water tank died.
We lost our sofa (the only piece of furniture we are happy to part with, as it was not comfy at all), plus a few cheap pieces of furnitures made of chipboard.
Our cars are still under reparation.
My cars is having problems with its starter motor, so Malko and his dad will have to fix it when they have a moment. all sits etc are now dry and there is no major problem so far except that starter motor.
Malko's car is waiting to be repared at a garage (his car insurance will pay for repairs). My car insurance did not include natural catastrophs.
Anyway, we are lucky Malko kept his old Citroen Visa car, so I have a car to go to work (better, as my school is 54 km away from my home).
Last friday, Malko and his dad bought a new water tank and installed it, :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: . We will not need to go to our neighbours' anymore to shower.
The houses facing ours :
In our house :
The kitchen:
The living-room :
Inside one of our "pig houses":
The courtyard (see my poor car):
We will cross our fingers for our street not to be flooded anymore.
The last time the street was flooded was in 1961, for a different reason : a dike broke.
We are not supposed to be in a flooding area...
Well, compared to flooding happening in USA, this is almost nothing, but still, not a good time. 
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Argh, how confusing.
So to make things clear, the challenge I will enter is the Taiwan Olympic Bear Challenge...
Marie, thanks for the tip in your PM!
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Oh, what did I do???
totally confused now. I accepted Lynette proposition to represent France in that challenge in Taiwan without realising it was that Olympic bear challenge!!!
So now, not only i will have to make a bear, but that bear will have to be a champion!!!!!!! Oh dear!
Well, after thinking longly about it, I decided that bear could be a judoka. French champions are good at Judo!
I selected a beautiful piece oof deep blue mohair from Intercal...
Now, please cross your fingers, as I am not sure I will manage to finnish him in time! 
As any of you ever desinged a kimono for a bear???? This is going to be a challenge for me!
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Waiting is very hard! So please, show us your first creation as soon as possible!!! 
:hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Do you remember me posting about our house we bought a little over one month ago?
Well, this same house ended up being flooded last saturday.
Saturday afternoon, a little before 2pm, we had shower heavy rain for over one hour. I never witnessed so long shower rains like that.
The problem is that all taht water was not properly evacuated and it quickly transformed our street into a river.
The level of water reached almost 90 cm in the middle of the road.
In my house, the level reached over 50 cm everytwhere in the first floor.
The water stayed there quite a very long time and may have taken the whole night to leave totally.
It left a beautiful thick layer of mud everywhere.
Needless to say that the rest of the week-end was busy for everyone in the street, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.
Our two cars were filled with water enough to cover the sits and even more. I don't know whether we can save mine. Malko's one can be saved.
In the house, results could have been worse, as Malko managed to save the firdge, washing machine and dish washer plus a few smaller devices.
A few of our cheaper pieces of furniture are dead.
i will post a photo report about it all when i find time for it (it may not be before a few days).
Such a flood has not happened since 1961 in the village. Fingers corssed that it will never happen again.
But please, all of you, if this has to happen to you, first drive your car in a safe place before trying to save anything else! We were stupid to concentrate on the things inside the house when the water began to come inside the house and totally forgot the cars.
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Jane, i am thinking about contacting them indeed to ask them how they discovered my website. always good to know. and as you say, maybe they will make more advert about me in the future, hehehehehehe...
This magasine is very cheap (only 2 euros) and is published every three months : one per season. My article is in the summer one. The name of the magasine is Happy sitiz of Le mans (written like that) : French people like to use English words.
They have a website in building process : so far they have only an home page with no link to any other page (www.happy-sitiz.fr).
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Dear friends,
Las sunday, Malko's sister told me she found an article about my bears in a French local magasine and showed it to me. She discovered it while in the waiting room at her GP's. So she borrowed the magasine to show everyone in the family.
This is so surprising. No one came to interview me neither asked if I did not mind being featured in that magasine.
This is a magasine all about Le Mans and its whole county. That magasine was born only one year ago so it is not much know yet.
I guess someone working for that magasine discovered my website and picked there everything for the article.
Still, this makes me good free advert!
This is the first time I am featured in a magasine if we except the teddy bear face book.
:dance: :dance: :dance:
Yesterday i finally managed to get a pair copies of the magasine after asking in a few libraries.
This is written in French, but basically this is a sum up of my page about the artist from my website. Plus it says that some of my bears went to Sydney Teddy Bear Fair.
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Paula, Paula, Paula, your Primrose caught my heart!
i think she is my very fav among all your bears I ever happend to see!
I really love this design.
these colours you chose are beautiful.
I can tell you Primrose would be great on some postcards.
Did I tell you I am in love for her????
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Stephanie, sher is adorable. i am in love with her smiling face.
Smiling bears are my fav!
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
AAAAAAAAAAAAh, Tami, I love love love love Edward!
I love his gentle face.
You are just brilliant!
All your bears are so cuddly... I will have to add one of your bears in my hug some day...
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Yeah, wonderful, dear Wendy!
:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Connie, you did a brilliant work!
It really did worth the effort.
I am in love for the orange bear...
The other two are beautiful too.
I cannot wait to see the next!
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Hey, I invite you to go in the reporting live section to enjoy the photos I posted.
I went for a small ride two days ago and took some photos to share with you.
If you love countryside, you should fancy them!
I hope to do more site seing in the coming weeks and I will keep posting photos for you from time to time.
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
I told you there was another place of interest after leaving that charming little road along the Loir River.
We stopped in the past. In a time when people were still speaking latin, during the Roman era. Indeed, we arrived at a big archaeologic site, with lots of Roman ruins.
The two first photos are of a temple :
And here is a photo of thermae :
Here is a market place:
In the background of the second one, you can see the small hill along which was the charming road...
On the top of that hill there is an oppidum we hope to visit soon.
And there an amphitheatre :
I hope you enjoyed the tour.
That's all i have so far to show you. More to come, but i do not know when. It will depend on when I find some time to go site seing!!! So please, be patient!
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
