Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Aww, somebody loves their bears.

Oh, thank you for putting him in the correct section.  Becky said he should be our spokesbear, lol.

There is a wonderful story behind this bear.  I've had three tragedies within about seven or eight months of each other, one being the death of my 20-year-old little sister in October of 2010.  I've always loved and collected teddy bears, but since she passed away I've drawn so much closer to them.  The bears are about the only thing that has helped me get through this. 

A few months later I was reading another board and I found out that I was an arctophile.  I'm a huge word geek, so the first thing I thought of was that I really wanted a bear named Arcto.  The next day, February 1, 2011, I was having a really bad day.  I was looking for my cell phone, but when I looked on the floor under my bed I found this fuzzy wuzzy little bear I didn't know I had.  I think someone gave him to me a while back, but I can't even remember where he came from.  He still had his tag on his ear, can you believe that?  I hugged him and said, "I think I'll call you Arcto", and then I took him to the piano and started playing.

From that moment it was complete and total love.  I had some more tragedies that I won't go into here, and Arcto has always been beside me or in my arms.  I've cried so many tears on him that I'm sure his fur on the top of his head is all faded.  I've had a lot of bears that I've loved, but I've never had the type of bond before with a bear that I have with Arcto.  I know I've probably got everybody turned into a big puddle of awww, and I probably better stop before I cry on Arcto again.  I kind of get emotional when I think about this bear.

Sweet, Retro is here now.  I'm still working on that picture.  My pastor's wife took one, but I'm still waiting for her to send it to me.  I hate pictures!!!

Lenora, I told Gaither about that and he says to tell you that the bears are probably very grateful.  I panicked when his tag fell off because we used to have some Beanie Babies that our Mom literally made us keep in the bag they came in and didn't let us play with them.  They came out of a McDonnald's happy meal, folks, and we couldn't even open them.  I hated it!!!  So when Gaither's tag fell off I freaked out, but Gaither told me he was glad to get the blasted thing off.  I don't know what he would be worth today, but I wouldn't sell him if somebody offered me a million dollars for him.

Where do they sell Charlie Bears in the USA?  I don't like shopping online because I can't feel them.  Do they sell them at any stores?  I wish they carried artist bears at stores or something so I could feel them.  I know I'm weird.

You need to have vision to do this.  I tried that once, but since I can't see what i'm doing, it was a hot mess.

I started a thread about my bear Arcto in the general section a while ago.  Can someone please put it in the collector's corner or should I go ahead and start a new thread?  For some reason photos don't like me and Photobucket is really not liking my screen reader.  I'm afraid if I post the pic again no one will see it.  I definitely can't resize photos because if I do it won't look like a bear anymore.

I'm definitely not rich at ALL, in fact, I'm broke.  We're both unemployed.  I guess no Steiff bear for me, shucky darn.

Sorry, guys, but I have to blow the dust off this thread *cough*.  For me, my bears are like my kids.  I don't discriminate between the few artist bears I have and my manufactured babies.  My Gaither, a Ty bear, not sure if he's a Beanie Baby or not because he's a little bigger and furry rather than that plush or whatever that is that some of them are made of, has a lot of value to me.  As much as I love artist bears, it wasn't an artist bear who was there for me in college and in these recent years, it was a bear that had no label and would probably be sold for a quarter at a yard sale.  I never had an artist bear until a few months ago and I adore them, but in my hug, all the bears hang out together and I love them all equally.  Of course, if I wasn't in the financial situation I'm in right now, I would buy a bunch of artist bears, but I don't think I'll ever stop loving my manufactured bears.  This is partly because I don't have vision, so I'm not distracted by visual beauty.  I've heard people say that regular bears that you would buy at the store seem to have no character, but the way I see it is that to appreciate these bears you need to look on the inside rather than the outward appearance.  Sorry, I'm sort of passionate about my bears.

I know it's an old thread, but I have a few Ty teddy bears.  My two favorites are named Gaither and Statler, but those are the names I gave them.  I don't know what name they came with.  They are the only bears I ever deliberately tried to keep the tags on because back when they were supposed to be very collectible, my mom, who is absolutely not a bear collector, told me that they had to stay on.  Of course the blasted tags fell off a long time ago.  I got Gaither in 2005 when I was in college and he has slept with me every night since.  Statler belonged to my Grandpa.  When he passed away, they gave him to me because I'm the bear lover in the family.

Yep, I just found it right after I posted this.  Here's my sign.  I thought it would be in the teddy section.  I get the duh award for the day.  Oops.

Where could I find one of these bears?  Do you think I could afford one?  I want an old bear so bad.

I have a few artist bears that were not made by me, a few that I made, and the rest are bears that people have given me or that I've found at yard sales or thrift stores or that someone wanted to get rid of.  I love rescuing these type of bears.  Oh yes, I have one Boyd's bear Retro.  He's probably the most collectible bear I have other than my artist bears.  Most of my bears and plushies are the kind y'all would probably make fun of.  They have no monitary value, but they bring me so much joy.  Oh yeah, I even have a puppy dog that I think is actually a dog toy, but he spoke to me when I saw him at the store.  I've been laughed at by a couple of kids over him, lol.

Oh, I hope I don't sound stupid, but for some reason I can't find this section.  Can you please help?

I clicked that box.  I'll try again and see what happens.

A great cheer just went up from about 100 bears.  YESSSSSSS!!!

I can't see it because I'm blind.

What is this web site?  I really wish I could see your little guy.

You think you're soppy?  I wish you could see me right now.  We're not able to have kids, so my kids are my cat and about 100 bears.  I spoil them rotten.  If I had a lot of money, I would adopt every artist bear on this site and rescue every manufactured bear from every yard sale and thrift shop and attic around the country.

I couldn't do that to this guy.  He was just like, "Mom, I know I'm goofy, but I still have a lot of love to give."

I'm glad someone else carries her bears around.  I thought I was weird.

I just signed up for Photobucket so I can upload pictures here.  For some reason I can't find the place where it will let me select the files.  It says select photos and videos, but then it's not giving me the dialog box where I can go into the computer and find my files.  Can someone please tell me how to get that dialog box?  I need it to display just the basic uploader like this forum has where you can hit the browse button and then press tab until you find what you want.  I would just post them directly here, but they want a smaller size than all my other boards, so the picture doesn't display.  Thanks.

I wonder if that's the lady I talked to on the phone the other day when I was seeing about ordering some mohair.  The lady I talked to was very nice and very patient with me as she tried to explain the textures to me.  I kept asking the poor lady about faux fur, though.  It's kind of a bummer that they don't carry it.

Is she still with Intercal?

I think I'll do that.  He's very cuddly and loving despite his, um, original appearance.