Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

(((((Big Hugs, Marie darlin' :D)))))

This sounds to me like a fraud, but check with a lawyer, then report it to the authorities. I'm guessing that all you'd need to do is reply by registered mail that your lawyer will be in contact. I don't think you'd hear another word . . . but like the others, I know nothing about Japanese law.

When my mother died in Missouri, we were badgered with all sorts of claims. Most of them were frauds, but even the legitimate credit card debts were not our responsibility, even though the credit card companies tried to convince us otherwise, the snakes (no offense to real snakes). It's a risk the credit companies take. The senior residence where my mother lived for 15 years even tried to convince us that she'd 'signed' for another month's rent, and that we had to pay. Garbage--they couldn't even produce a document!

So listen to the bearladies, and see a lawyer, hear?

Eileen

Daphne! :D

Thanks for the encouragement. I think you're right. I've taught university, high school & elementary (volunteer), Girl Guide origami, Sunday school and community-center quilting. Not to mention my current one-on-one tutoring. I love it. And bears.

I guess it's a chicken/egg thing . .  which comes first, the bear artists or the collectors. I've been expecting the collectors to just show up somehow, but maybe the better way is to create more bearmakers. I don't know. But it sounds like fun!

What do you experienced bearmaking teachers do about supplies? Do you make up kits for each participant? Ask them to bring their own stuff? Make up hardware & eye kits and ask them to bring fur, thread and stuffing? Is it cricket to give them a commercial pattern, or do you need to supply an original?

Eileen

p.s. When I say middle, I mean as in "Toronto is the center of the universe" middle. Just wanted to make that clear! :lol:

Eileen

Louise, :D

Absolutely. Let's do 'er. You take the west end of the country, and I'll take the middle (Nancy's got other things to do). I know that one of our bearbuds is from Nova Scotia, but can't at this particular senior moment remember who. Anyway, let's draft her for the east coast. Anybody else?

So how do we start convincing people that life without a bears is . . . unbearable?

I'm tempted, in a few moons, to try my hand at teaching a beginner-bear course at the local library, just to stir up some interest before the Christmas rush. I doubt it would pay anything, but I could charge for kits. Why not? I may be a beginner myself, but I've already made enough mistakes for a dozen beginners.

Eileen

Thanks, Marie:D

Great pictures! I know Chinook from Nancy's website! I couldn't figure out where he could be hiding, but I'm glad to know my eyesight isn't completely gone!

Eileen

OK, Louise--cheap! What do I know, I'm just an immigrant. :/

But you'd be amazed at what people spend here in Toronto, especially on 'high status' items like (poorly made) clothing, gift wrapping, SUV's for . . . jumping curbs (?),  candles, garden ornaments, Williams Sonoma doodads, and crapola of every description. Not to mention decorators, dog-walking, cat grooming, child-care, taxis, lawn care and hair styling. City stuff.

Any ideas on how to tap the market?

My son-in-law and his partner have set up their own renovation business. Part of their business plan is to hang around the Home Depot and similar stores, where people buy all sorts of do-it-yourself stuff for projects they can't actually do themselves and never get done. Ambulance chasing, I call it, but they've picked up a number of jobs this way! Adrian used to work at Rona, the Canadian Home Depot, and he knows the turf well.

So maybe around Christmas time I should plan to hang around the high-end shops downtown with an armful of bears? :D

Eileen

Most interesting.

I'm having a terrible time finding out the details of the Canadian shipping process.

I've only been a buyer so far, and any package over a certain value or size or weight (can't find that out either) costs me another 15% plus a $5.00 customs handling fee. It can really add up. I'm learning that it's cheaper to buy small amounts of stuff and pay more postage than to pay the tax and customs charge.

I've paid hefty charges for 'used' fur coats and 'gifts' from my sisters and 'previously owned' mohair pieces. All of this can be appealed, but I'm not confident of the result.

Eileen

Shari,

Check out The Olde Teddy Bear Shoppe in Kleinberg

http://www.theoldeteddybearshoppe.com/index.html

I have no idea what their terms are, and haven't enough inventory even to contact them yet, but it looks like a very nice and very busy shop . . . I mean shoppe!  :rolleyes:

Don't you dare give up, hear? Your bears are to die for!!

Speaking as an American who's lived in Toronto for the last 28 years, I've got to say that Louise is right. I'm not sure the problem is  'cheapness'. Maybe it's just a kind of practicality and reserve. Americans have less trouble going nutso  with enthusiasm--just ask any of my Canadian friends! :lol:

Having said that, Toronto buyers go just a bit crazy around Christmastime. I'm going to be pounding the pavements with whatever inventory I can pile up by early October, trying to get the big and small shops to add some bears to their holiday displays. You never know. Sometimes people just don't know they want something until you tell them that they do--"GOT BEAR? That's where advertising comes in. I mean to be shameless and ruthless and much better dressed than usual :D

Eilieen

Hayley, she's PRECIOUS!!:D

Eileen

Paula:D

That is a most wonderful landscape. Sea, rock, cliffs (sigh from a landlocked east-coaster).  More pix, please!!

Eileen

Marie :D

Gorgeos picture, but I can't see Chinook!! Give us a hint, please . . . where is he?

Eileen

Thanks, Hayley!

Just what I wanted to know too. I've just ordered one! :D

Eileen

Beautiful, inspiring work, ladies. What a variety!

And another rooster, Sue Ann! I love that guy.

Eileen

:D Bears of Green Pastures, definitely.

What a beautiful name that is. There's nothing difficult to spell or remember, and it brings up the most wonderful visions of peace and happiness. Love it!

Eileen

Kirsten,

You're right--pregnancy can do strange things to you, especially at first. Think of all those rioting hormones!!

I found myself totally uninterested in literature for a few months, which wasn't good because I had several months of teaching it ahead of me before end of term . . . But all this passes, you get your drive and your energy back just in time to take on your baby! Another story there, but if the little nipper sleeps at all, you'll be back to yourself in no time! :D

Eileen

Gorgeous avatar, Shelli Congratulations, Nance

Eileen

I'm here, I'm here :D Thanks for missing me!!

Wouldn't you know, my computer got invaded by who-knows-what, and my Windows was "corrupted". I had to pay $250 to get it fixed without losing my files. Sound familiar Nance? I had to reinstall everything, which took forever. Now that I'm fairly sure it won't all blow up on me, I'm getting ready to install the software for my new camera . . . at long last.

Actually, the computer techie told me that no security system is airtight. He's right. My hubs's computer is protected at 2 levels, by U of Toronto's security and by his own Norton system, but last year somebody managed to download a program onto all U of T computers.

In the meantime, I've been tutoring and dying mohair. My first attempt at grey turned out dark blue (too much black dye, I think) but the second was perfect.

Why didn't anyone mention that wet mohair smells like wet goat????? Faintly, maybe, but goat all the same.

Sorry you've been feeling yucky, Winney!!

Tomorrow I go to my first real bear show. Matthea will be there too, huzza! :DI start to hyperventilate just thinking about it . . .

Eileen

Another way to make the stuffing stay where you want it, especially if you want to stuff softly and with body contours, is to take several long stitches through the body to hold it in place, making sure that the stiches on the outside are too tiny to show.

Eileen

Wow, Shelli :D

I wish I'd thought to ask this question before I started my first fur bear! Everything here is gold. As my ladder stitch improves, I find I'm using it a lot on fur and little bears--saves the old heart, though Noah's picture nearly stopped mine!!!

Eileen

How right you are, Dilu

My dear mother-in-law died shortly after her first grandchild, my Eleanor, was born. We rushed across the pond as soon as we knew something was wrong, and got there in time to introduce them!! As it turned out, Eleanor was a cherished family name--why her son and E's father didn't know that, I couldn't say, but the minute my firstborn emerged, she looked like an Eleanor to me.

My mother-in-law, Easter Clifton, was a gem. She was more of a mother to me than my own for the short time I knew her, even though (as some of her slightly snobby friends put it) I was An American! She was born to a very wealthy English family, married the family's estate steward when she was 18, and got herself disinherited. When he died, she paid off massive debts and raised three teenaged sons by herself. She'll always be my model of toughness and femininity, though I rarely live up to her example of either. :(

We didn't meet until after I married John, and she was so nervous that she lost her voice. I was so nervous that I managed to spook her miniature Schnauzer, who bit me! I think we bonded over our nerves . . .

Sorry to ramble on, but I do miss the lady!

Eileen

Kerren,

Your 'Charmin' bear is much, much cuter than the animated bears in the commercial!

Eileen

. . . such as 'I'm never touching another drop' and 'I'm never having another baby' :rolleyes:

Eileen

Shelli and Millie and Tammy and Dilu and Shelli's Michelle

You have no idea how you keep me going! My Korean Angel and I are struggling to prepare three essays for tomorrow's exam, all about discrimination according to gender, race, sexual preference, ethnicity, age, blah-de-blah, and without you funny ladies I'd be dying of an overdose of politically correct sociology!! :(

Jane, my experience with scratchy British loo paper was many years ago, in a London hotel where we had to share a bathroom with 20 other guests. This loo and its roll were about a quarter of a mile from our room, and I had a bad case of Montezuma's--no! make that Cornwallis's Revenge. What a night!!

When we journeyed to Scotland to meet John's Mum, she'd thoughtfully stocked up on American toilet paper and French coffee, just for me! I'd been promised the honor of roasting the Christmas turkey, but had to pass the job on to John when she presented me with what was basically a dead bird--naive as I was, I'd only seen turkeys frozen in plastic wrap!

Eileen

:D Way to go, girls :D

Eileen

Kirsten, Kirsten :D

I hate advice, never take it, rarely give it. But for your consideration, two insights I've learned over 6 decades:

1. Decisions you make while puking don't count.
2. There is life after motherhood, sometimes during motherhood, sort of.

Hang in there, darlin'

Eileen