Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Bwahaha... Karen...  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:

LOVELY site, Jenny.  Did you learn FLASH to create it?  I'm so impressed and the soft, sorta baroque neutral colorway really compliments your bears beautifully.  So nicely done!!

Ooh, pretty, Roxanne.  Don't stop making your gorgeous bears, though, please; I'd miss them too much.

Absolutely adorable, Paula... and Edwina's Friends sounds like a great opportunity and exciting new venture.  I hope it works out well for you and Kathy!

Wonderful bunnies!

Awesome tip, Pat!  Thank you!     

I'm working on a pattern incorporating some of these ideas.  I'll let you know how it goes!  I'm sticking with poly fill and poly pellets rather than the squishy ones, though; I kinda like the noise they make as they slide past one another in a bear belly!

Man, I wish gorgeous flowers would just pop up out of nowhere in MY backyard.  What a treat!

It's really beautiful, SA.  Have fun with it!

Heya, Granny!  Congratulations to you!!

I'll be expecting lots of photos and updates, so please, don't disappoint.

Thanks, you guys!  I'm definitely thinking that pellets are involved in this effect. I use them occasionally in my bear bellies but that's more for weighting and touch purposes than to keep my bear "floppy."  I think I've figured out how to make the limbs appropriately floppy -- starting at the paw, I stuff hard, then use pellets, then stuff softer near the joint.  But it's the body that eludes me.

I'm wondering if it all comes down to a combination of the right body pattern, and the correct head placement, so it doesn't bow over onto itself. ???

Keep the ideas rolling!  These are all good ones.  Thanks again!

Thought I'd post this oft-asked question again to see if anyone has new tips and pointers to share.

HOW DO YOU GET THAT FLOPPY BODY THING IN YOUR BEARS??

I'm still working to find a just-right way to achieve this, myself.  Usually I'm disappointed with my outcome(s) and end up stuffing firmly to get around the fact that what was in my head didn't translate well into reality.  Stuffing really, really firmly is my go-to method of filling my bears.  But I'd really like a softer, more "huggable" effect.

I'm afraid I have not much to offer in the way of help at this point!  Understuffing is the closest I've gotten to achieving what I'm after, but sometimes the head is then just too lolly and heavy, and I end up firmly stuffing the body after all.

Do you have any ideas to share, for me and others to benefit from...???  Please be specific! 

Thanks!

Wha...???

Huh???

Seriously?!?  Someone wrote with complaints about your picture parties? Really??

I don't underst.....

Really???

I love and adore Jane; she's been a staunch supporter of Teddy Talk MEMBERS -- the individuals that make up this site, each and every one, singly -- since TT opened its doors.  More than any one other person, she's gone out of her way to create community and a sense of welcome here, even though there's no direct benefit to her in spending her time, doing so.  Her heart is one of the purest I've ever witnessed.  I'm so honored to call her a peer and a friend.

Seriously, my response to this news -- that someone complained about Jane's picture parties -- is entirely and completely this:

How cute is THAT?  Totally darling!!

I'm moving in with you, Kelly.  Make more room.  It's just too dreamy there!

BEAUTIFUL website, too, by the way; I really like it.

Personally, I always tried to give 0 feedback bidders the benefit of the doubt.  As eBay buyers, everyone has to start somewhere!

The only problem auctions I ever had were with people with much more than 0 feedback.  Rarely, a person with 50, 100 feedback would bid and then back out on the auction, sometimes without even communicating.  They just kinda... disappeared.  This only happened to me once or twice in my eBay selling career, but it did happen, and again, these folks had positive feedback.

I totally empathize, and understand your nervousness.  But my personal approach would be to assume the best and prepare for the worst.  In either outcome, though, you're bound by eBay rules and guidelines, and just have to watch it play out.

If it makes you REALLY nervous, I think there's a way to block bidder with negative or 0 feedback.  Can't remember how to do it, but I think it's do-able, as is blocking particular bidder names.  Or, at least, it used to be that way.

Good luck with your auction, hon!

Awesome...

... but I hope, for the sake of their webmaster, they NEVER discontinue those items!!!

Gail, if you've got your photos hosted somewhere on the web (photobucket, flickr, picturetrail, wherever) and appropriately referenced in your webpage (I forget the code for it but it's like "href" something or other), and your webpage is saved as html, I believe you can just insert the whole thing into the window you're provided when you begin to list your item on eBay.  There's an option available:  you can either let eBay "build" a sales listing for you, or you can insert your own html.  You just click a little tab to toggle between one option, and the other.  If you've got a webpage built and you've already got code, just copy and paste it!

I wrote my own code a while back, creating a custom template, and that's how I did it.  I keep my photos hosted on my website, although photobucket, picturetrail, flickr, all work just as well.

OMIGOSH, how absolutely awful.  And what a painful irony, that someone with such a warm/fuzzy heart, off at a bear event all day, would come home to such callous mistreatment.  There's no justice in the world sometimes; bad things happen to good people.  It just seems so... unfair.

Vicki, if there's anything I can do to help out, please let me know.

Hewwo cute Chawlie.  I wub you.      

Excellent, Catherine... and what a cutiepie bear, too.  Congratulations to you!

One of my earliest music memories is listening to "Benny and the Jets" with friends of our family in Madison, Wisconsin, one summer vacation so many, many years ago, when I was a little girl.

I'll bet Elton gives a totally rockin' live performance!  You'll have the best time.

Have a blast!

If that thing got any more real looking, we'd need stitches.  Amazing, Judi.      

ADORABLE bears!  What a stinker you are postiing a peek like this.  I wanna see more!

He's fabulous; of course you've been playing with him!  You are seriously the master of monkeys.  The Monkey Mistress?  That sounds a bit odd, but you know what I mean.  lol...

Show us a closeup!!   

I don't have tennis elbow but years ago I did have a killer case of tendinitis (DeCuervain's) which locked my wrist at an angle and really burned and pinched and hurt, all day long. It was most noticeable when I tried to cut with a knife at the dinner table... and most handicapping.  This all preceded my bearmaking but it absolutely interfered with my activities of daily living.  It also had me in chronic pain and as a result, grouchier than I've probably ever been in my life; despite earnest efforts to be pleasant, chronic pain just gets to you after a while.  Anyone who suffers it probably knows that all too well, already.

I absolutely empathize with your situation and understand how changed your life seems.  I'll be hoping you have a quick and complete recovery and can get back to what you love as soon as possible!!   

By the way... after many cortisone injections and years of failed hand therapy, my tendinitis cure was outpatient surgery to open the tendon sheath.  I've never been bothered with it again!  Sometimes surgical intervention really is the best option.  If your problem persists and surgery is a possible solution, be sure to give it a look-see.