Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Thankyou all, I feel SO much better now!!!

There's nowhere I can leave my daughter, Sandi, but hubby will be off work on Friday (hurrah!) so if I need to nip out for last minute things I'll do it then....good luck with your 12 dishes on Christmas Eve! Eek! What part of Europe demands a 12 dish dinner?! In the UK we normally make do with a pint of beer and a packet of crisps (please)  :lol:

Eggnog...Deb you are not the first one to mention Eggnog...and now it's on my mind I'm going to have to buy some. I remember drinking it with lemonade as a youngster (tiny amounts, and only at Christmas!).

Clare, I was a little bit lucky this year. Katie caught her usual stomach bug wayyyy before Christmas. But I notice it's still going around? I hope it's the same strain because we don't want it again! I hope you get everything sorted out in time for the big day!

Well, I'm with everyone else this year and trying to keep it simple. Fortunately I love cooking roast dinner but to cut down the stress I've bought frozen parsnips, frozen ready-dressed turkey breast and frozen roast potatoes too.... I know it'll be ok on the day but it's all the last minute things that keep popping into my mind that make me panic! Thanks for listening to my rant - you're a great bunch, and I wish we could all sit around a huge table together, eat a Christmas lunch and clink a few glasses! Wouldn't that be wonderful?!

PS I can't imagine selling a house at this time of year too! Well done Laura, I hope it all goes smoothly for you!

Hehe, we think alike Penny!!!! 

Is it just me or does anyone else get stressed about Christmas? I've been doing really well this year, remaining much calmer than usual, but today....well, I'll just be glad when it's all over! It just seems a bit overwhelming at the moment, and although I thought I'd done most things and had got most jobs out of the way, I've suddenly come up with a whole list of bitty jobs that need doing! Aaargh! And my daughter finishes school tomorrow, so that leaves me a day to do the 'secret' stuff. Anyone else feel this way? How do you unwind? And why do we put ourselves under pressure for just one or two days of the year?

I think I'm going to run a big bubble bath tonight, pour a glass of wine and try to forget about it all.....

Gosh, I've just experienced synchronicity!!! I was talking to some friends recently about praying to St.Jude....it was new to me, being the fairly un-religious person that I am. But we were talking about the power of prayer in the context of positive attitude, fate etc etc. And also synchronicity (aka meaningful coincidence).  I'll have to tell them about this one :lol:

Shari, I'm thrilled for you! And your daughter too, who will no doubt be delighted with her present. Have a wonderful Christmas, and thanks for making my day!!!

Quick question - to anyone who took the 'free' part of the subscription, did you get e-mail confirmation too???

Hi Pipa, I'll e-mail you!

Yay, this will be my first teddy bear mag subscription - the start of another addiction?!

They are gorgeous....!!!! So sweet and cuddly, you did an excellent job! 

Would anyone like to split a subscription with me?   :angel:

I'll pay the additional $15 postage to the UK 

Oh gosh.. that brought a lump to my throat. What a kind thing to do, and I really hope it brings some comfort to Laura's mother. Well done, Shantell.

:hug:

Thankyou Sabine - that's very kind of you!  :hug:

Now you're making me jealous Sabine! I wish the same were true for the UK, but somehow they find ways to add charges on here, there and everywhere. I think it's particularly for those who use a business account - but even a plain old personal account is bad enough. It's good to know that Sweden is more organised and forward thinking.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with a stolen card. Glad they took responsibility for it 

PS I may be visiting Sweden next Spring! Can't wait!

Oh my goodness - what a mark-up!!! I had no idea what the normal price was, and I wouldn't want to spend so much on one either.

Enjoy your own monkey-making....look forward to seeing it!

That sounds like a great Christmas Day to me, Estelle!

We'll be up at some unearthly hour, so our daughter can see if Santa's arrived....yawn! Lots of unwrapping, chocolate eating, and general slobbishness later I'll get the meal ready (turkey etc). My dad and sister will be staying with us and sharing the lunch. In the evening we'll pile round to my sister-in-law's to meet up with the rest of the family. We've been invited out on Boxing Day this year too, but it's tricky when you have kids, don't you think? I know Katie will want to stay at home and play with her new toys!

Estelle, it's so annoying, isn't it?! The banks in the UK are very expensive. But I've found the following site very useful and much, much cheaper: www.auctionpix.co.uk . They offer an auction payment service (they'll send a USD cheque to the seller, and you send your sterling cheque to auctionpix) for a 2.5% charge. I haven't used this particular service yet, but I have sent them numerous US cheques and money orders and found them to be cheap and reliable (they send a UK cheque by return post).

:hug:

Shari, I found 16 on ebay.ca, by searching on 'fur real chimp'. Some have the buy-it-now option. They seemed pricey at $90 and upwards tho. Is that the usual price? (And who can put a price on a child's excitement at Christmas anyway?!).

Oooh, thanks for your replies!

I do pay my bills (invoices) via online banking here in the UK - and it's free for those purposes. But to pay bills outside the UK the banks charge hefty fees. As I understand it, this is to cover handling and conversion from one currency to another. If the UK were to adopt the Euro as it's major curency than presumably the banks wouldn't have the excuse to charge these fees any longer.

However, it is possible for UK residents to accept cheap direct bank transfers within the EU provided the money is sent in Euros...I've just been reading all about this on a thread in the community section on eBay! I've learnt a lot this morning! I've opened a 'Smile' bank account online and will be offering bank transfer as a payment method to buyers in Europe. Sabine, your experience gives me confidence I shouldn't hit any great problems (no more than usual!) because many Europeans are already savvy with international transfers.

Patsy, my bank charges something like £7 to accept an overseas payment. Possibly more...  But I would be prepared to do this for highcost items, and share the costs.

(I accepted an international money order in dollars once, and the bank wanted £10 for conversion - eek!).

I just logged into eBay and was greeted with this message:

The use of instant money transfer services, such as Western Union and Moneygram, as a payment method is now banned on ebay.co.uk and ebay.ie.

Hopefully this will help to cut down the number of fraudulent activities there, since most of the dodgy auctions use this method. Not sure if this will or has been extended to other eBay site (.com?) but I think it should.

They still accept bank-to-bank transfer....has anybody ever done this? I know it's quite a common payment method in some parts of Europe, and I just opened an account specifically for this purpose but don't have the courage to offer it yet! 

Gosh, that is a good offer...I've been looking to subscribe to a magazine or two...thanks for the link!!!! 

Awww, thankyou Daphne, and you said what I've also been thinking! This place really is the best. As Kimberley says 'giving is truly contagious' - TT-ers are proof of that!

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!!!

Let us know how you get on Daphne!  :)

PS Just noticed your change in avatar --- gooorgeous bear!!!

Oh, woo. A really gorgeous bear who fits so well with your own beary family....love the photos, and the bears! You must be soooo delighted!!! 

LOL Penny! We'll have to agree to disagree on this one! I have PSP version 7 which I love - maybe it's the later versions that have you so bothered? Jasc, the software company that made it, were merged (?) with Coral after the release and the newer versions get less favourable reviews.

I think it's what you get used to. I've used PSP for endless graphics and effects and found it powerful and fairly easy....especially if you follow  tutorials (tho I've never been able to get my head around the 'masks' feature - what's that all about????).

Now when I was working I had to learn to use Excel spreadsheets and it took me two or three days of ploughing through the manual before I could even enter my first numbers! Gawd, that and Powerpoint were nightmares. I'm glad those days are over!!!

:hug:

Hi Daphne,

You could try decreasing the size in increments, that might help (especially if your original is big). Decrease by 50%, then sharpen, decrease again.... maybe just once or twice. I used to make graphics for a web competition and found that I lost a lot of detail in PSP unless I used this method  :).

Other suggestions: PSP has various ways of reducing noise on photos such as 'jpeg artifact removal'. You should be able to find them in the 'effects' menu, but it depends what version you have. Also, did you lighten or sharpen the image before resizing? If you did, try doing the adjustments afterwards instead and see if it makes any difference.

Hope this helps!

He's a real cutie! Very charming and sweet!   

Your bears are gorgeous, Fran...and they are clothed so beautifully. I really love this bear