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Daphne-your bear is great! No Sienna doesn't look like a racoon, you silly, but she does have this kind of amazed excited look. I like it.
The class is sort of going OK. My airbrush still isn't here, and I am getting antsi!.
However I printed up Judi's lesson three which goes into airbrushing technique....with the color pictures because in this case they really are important
I am practicing the technique in my mind- I know sounds crazy-but its what I did many many many years ago as a concert pianist-you just close your eyes and feel yourself playing-so why can't you close your eyes and feel yourself spraying?
The instructions are so clear and detailed...if anyone is interested in learning this technique I would really like to encourage them. There is no ambiguity, no feeling of 'now what' I can hardly wait till the....brush gets here.
Judi- for some strange reason I cannot log onto the forum board- just to let you know-I am still there- it is some strange feedback thing where I get into this weird endless loop of campus cafe-click airbrush forum-back at original login screen....oh well
Nancy has tried to help- she doesn't know either
I say its the computer gremlins....they visit here frequently. 
I'll save anything that I can put 4 quarter inch seams in and still have something left over to see.....did that make sense?
Di
I'm in Oregon and I found them by accident at a beauty supply store, while looking for shavers for muzzels.
I know you were asking for Canadians-but in kindergarten they wrote that Diane doesn't follow directions very well- and I figured then, why buck a pattern?
Do you folks have beauty supply stores up there?
If so give them a call.
The metallic makes such a huge differance.
And the technique is sooooo easy and makes us look like we are geniuses.
Have fun....
Dilu:)
Eileen, It is a little scarry- whats worse? Her makeup is out of the 50's. But underneath all that makeup she is really quite pretty. I hope her style changes. All I looked up was her name.....naughty huh?
I'm familiar with some Greek stuff, mostly tragedy.
Of course now I will have to look her up in seriousness.
Oh well, on a happier note-the purple PETA bear is stuffed and jointed. Missing ears and features.
a very tired Dilu (had to get up at 3:30 with my honey-what a long day......
As for warning my son? He's 30.....I can worry, I can pray, but I gotta keep my mouth closed.....darn 
You can run but you can't hide! He'll find you. :mad:
Department stores-over an hour away. e-commerece - priceless. :/
I'm still working on being able to get some pictures up-when I do I'll post one of the hobbit house
Exocisim for our real furs that are being made into teds? YIKES :lol:
I missed out on alot yesterday- teach me to actually do something instead of being here!.
Penny I think you need to bring the bear and yourself over here and we could dp some kind of a something on him. I really had to laugh while I was reading your post, because before I got to that sentance I was thinking 'Chucky'
Laure-Miss Triple A- yep the consenes is the fur face.
But what you learned from the scuptress will be usefull and just what you need for some other project.
Although I do have a problem looking at your sweet face and picturing you ripping off the face....There is so much energy in that-ripping. hmmmmm
Talk to you guys later-----
Dilu 
Shelli- I followed your instructions- wow, I AM SO PLEASED. I especially liked using the topaz colored metallic nail polish first.....I will never buy regular eyes again. Even Mr. Understatement thought they were pretty good.
:):)
Thank you for sharing with us- it has made something obsessional even better!
PS.
I used hemostats to hold the loop, they are so handy they have great grip and you never have to worry that something is going to get away from you----
Actually I use most all my old nursing upplies- another great thing you ALL might like to know about is a tool called ADDISSON"S FORCEPS- which actually look like tweazers-but the cool thing is that they have grooves in the tips so that you can pick up tiny threads with great presission.
Dilu
Dilu
Rita- what a wonderful idea- I'll try to remember to do that-then 50 years down the road....
Thanks
Dilu
Penny
what we need around here are a few laughs....everyone is so terribly dour.....NOT!.......
I am absolutely WONKY GREEN ( a color between pea soup and army green) with envy. Joshua is too cute for words!
I want to be a grandma----my son the PETA Prince just doesn't seem to want to settle down ARGH!!!!!
I like the PETA Princess he is going with now- but her name always throws me
Lysistrada
Some Greek lady who got all the gals to withhold sex until the men stopped a war.....He calls her Lysi- which is good, cuz Lysistrada sounds like a BACTERIA that causes something horrible....actuallyt I'm thinking of listeria, which also has problems
Oh well
Eileen......your therapist is so right....we should all go do something we really WANT to do. Hark! I think I hear the toilet calling me......'come scrub....come scrub......come scrub..............
Wonky Dilu with Hooting Drains and Talking toilets
Has anyone worked on a bear, that no matter what you tried, it just wouldn't work?
Has anyone had a just plain old bad bear? :mad:
Just curious- inquiring minds....:D
Dilu
My mom taught me to sew in 6th grade- from then on I was making my own clothing. Then when I was older she started teaching me about construction/ patterns etc. Sometimes we would take a pattern that was too small and figure out how to maKE IT BIGGER/ where to add, were to subtract...where to add darts or gussets....
I think it has helped a lot in desingning my own bears. I do take the easy way out though....I design a bear in the 10" range then when I am happy I can scan and resize. So I have got bears in 5 or 6 sizes. My favorite pattern is in about 8 sizes. From teeny tiny 3"- 4" up to about 18-20"
I write the size varient on the plastic pieces, 80% smaller that kind of thing, then I keep them in those big leagal size mailing envelopes.
I find that when I do my own patterns I really know the bear- I know what to expect etc. There aren't any surprises in the basic construction.
I like that safety- then I can move out into the creative side.
still feeling wonky
Dilu
I'm saving mine. I will sew them all together and make a big piece out of them and when I have a big enough piece I will cut out a patchwork bear. I believe the head will be one solid color though-so that the personality can come through.
So it will be a patchwork mohair bear.
I made a bear out of an antique quilt for a friend. i sting jointed though- I was afraid the fabric wAS too fragile for reg. joints.
Dilu
Had to be quick thinking there- not usually life or death but the differance between injury and non injury.....but we had a lot of fun there too. Of all my nursing jobs that one was the hardest and the most fun-
But sometimes bad things happened, like suicides, stuff like that. I was extreamly lucky that I never had it happen on my shift. But, I used to pray over my shift, and over the patients and staff I was responsible for. I really believe I had a lot of help from God.
People are infinetly fascinating. The job was humbeing, because it made me realize how close to the edge most of us tap dance, without even knowing it. And their world can be very scarry.
Most of the folks there were just like us, ordinary guys and gals with ordinary jobs and then something happens-and suddenly their lives are upside down-
It is sometimes overwhealming and they just can't quite figure out how to get back on track again. A lot is depression left untreated and it can get out of hand, leading to suicide attempts. But they came in looking for safety while they worked through the problems.
I believe that every single one of us could be there in a heart beat, just depending on what happens, how we react to the stressor, and what kind of support system we have. There but for the Grace of God.
Sometimes the only thing that got me through a bad shift was a quick prayer and absolute faith we could do it.
We kept teddy bears on the childrens unit to help the little tykes.....and they did, the bears, they helped alot....the little ones, usually they just needed a safe place to be while we got mom and dad into a parenting class.
Oh well
I have an unbelievably purple bear pinned that I dyed yesterday and would like to sew up today. Yikes! 
It is synthetic so I got the dye from Beary Cheap in Australia. Many thanks to those who sent me there- the instructions said to let it boil for an hour-I only let it boil for 15 min and it looks like grape KoolAid.
It's for the Peta Princess my son is in love with. No wool....haven't heard back on the silk issue yet.
Wish me luck!
:)
I'm feeling wonky today Dilu
OH! OH! OH! you guys need to go to Jane's site- she has the cutest Gollys!!! "Doodlebears"
Daphne- I hear you loud and clear.
If I ever do another large quilt I am taking geometric black and white and appliquing Rorshack (SP?) blocks and putting them together with a rainbow geomteric colored fabrics done up in flying geese and moving from large to small to large, like its a path.....did that make any sense?
There is a satisfaction in designing your own- I've had couple real disaters.....And I just so hate wasteing the mohair!.
Now I try a dubious pattern out on a 6-7 incher and if it works I can go up or down at will.
Nancy Tillberg teaches a class on the super highway on face sculpting and I think that will be a great avenue to explore.
Dilu
OK Shelli et.al.
I worked in a psychiatric hospital. I was a supervisor of sorts on night shift before I graduated up to the intake office and day shift.
TAKEDOWNS: You have a patient who is going bonkers-trying to hurt his or herself , or trying to hurt staff. You've all heard that insane or cranked people can be incredably strong. It's soooooo TRUE
It could tak 5 really big-football player size- guys to take down a 15 year old girl who was psychotic or on crank.
And you want to take them down without injury to yourself or the patient. Long hair was a favorite thing for patients to grab-they also are partial to biting, kicking, spitting, (hepatitis or aids anyone?) gouging with nails- you name it.
The world of the mentally disturbed can be a scarry place, for everyone, and they become very inventive when they are in the throes of whatever is tormenting them.
I ended up cutting off the hair-way too much trouble when you are wrestling around on the floor with 5 or 6 other people.
It was a really great job-we had a lot of fun working because it was the only place in the world I have ever worked where the staff stood together-no bitchiness, no backbiting or gossip.
Why?
Because the very person you bad mouthed or slammed last week might be the only protection between you and some serious physical damage.
So there was a strong feeling of commeraderie and support-all for one and one for the road....
I have lots of funny stories from the assylam
My favorite weapon created by an inmate was his "light sabre" and being as how the last Star Wars movie is out it fits. He believed he was of the Jedi master group- he somehow managed to get the cage surrounding the cieling lights in his room open. He took out a long florescent tube and broke off one end.
Ah Hah! They called for me to high tail over to that unit.
So there is this poor guy thinking that everyone around him are evil storm troopers-
The first thing that came to my mind was "help me Obi Wan Kenobi- you're my only hope"......He looked at me, and he said " I must protect you" and I said "you have passed my test, you are truly a Jedi Knight, you guys take off your storm trooper suits and let him see the company of Jedi Knights he is in. "
The staff standing around him looked at me like I had grown an extra head-
He literally handed over his 'light saber' which was pretty scarry, and calmly took his shot ( a hefty dose of Haldol, ) and drank some milk and went to bed- in a new room where he couldn't get another light sabre.
Also he wasn't on 15 min. checks that night- he had his very own gaurdian with him, I told the guys not to leave him alone for a minute. I had a motto - "they all gotta be breathing at 7:00 AM"
Why was that the first thing that came to my mind? I was trying to teach our parrot to say it, and you have to say a complicated phrase over and over for her to get it. She never did.
I did finally get her to say WATER I felt like Annie Sullivan with Helen Keller, I was so jazzed!
OK
Princess Dilu signing off from Planet O Brien
Good for you miss Triple A Laure
Can you bring your daughter to Cave Junction- I have a massage table and would cheerfully pay FULL price. I used to get them every single week- in the good old days when I worked and didnt have more important obsessions like glass eyes and upholtery thread!
Glad you feel better
It's not easy being green with envy:rolleyes:
How long did it take before you knew you had to begin designing your own bears?
I quess it took me about 2 months. I didn't like this in this pattern, I didn't like that in that pattern but gosh why couldn't I put this with this and change that, and make this bigger, and change the angel of that.........Oh heck, its just like quilting I might just as well make my own patterns-
And I didn't know there WERE patterns for Gollys. I just took a basic body pattern and figured out how to use this wonderful really long black mohair.....fun, really fun.
so let here you stories
I'm betting it will be fun
Dily:lol:
Sue Ann
You are SO right! I believe that it is a fine line we tap dance back and forth across, throughout our lives.
It is just so sad that some folks never find their teddybear. I am so glad you did. I am so glad you are here.
Who knows who might read your story and find the inspiration in it needed to turn their own life around.
It takes courage to share, but once we do we discover we aren't alone in the world. I sometimes think it is pain that binds us together, it is helping others through pain that teaches us compassion, and it through compassion we become better souls here on earth.
A very gentle bear hug
Dilu
WoooHooo!
Boy do I hear you! My honey is having a spa put in. He says it will help my arthritis, especially in Oregons long cold wet winters...( I know- I shouldn't complain, some of you really have cold winters!)
I think it will help my bearing muscles-
I do have a silly little neck exercise I have done for years....I lie on the bed and let my head hang over the side, so that my head is at right angles to my body. Then I just lift it up and down asnd up and down and......you get the picture.
I actually started it because I had to French Braid my butt-long hair to get it up and tucked out of the way so that the inmates couldn't grab it during take downs. I realized that it was using the muscles that often lead to sagging and double chins
Sooo I kept it up--no double chin
Three cheers for stay at home moms and the moms who homeschool.
As a psych nurse I dealt with lots of kids. The youngest we ever had was 3....90% of the time it wasn't the kids, it was the parents, or the lack of parents. Never ever did I have on the unit, or admit through incomming a child who had a stay at home mom or was home schooled.
I think that's very telling.
Dilu
Ahhhhh Miss Penny Henny we have ways of making you talk!!!
Dumber than a bag of hammers....love it! It's perfect- I used to have CNA (nurses assistant) that I would say was dumber than dirt. (but never to her or ANYone at work)...but bag of hammmers.....It's downright wonky!
Now all the rest of you ladies.....what tactic do we take to get Penny to talk?
Hooting like the drains at the outcome.....hmmmm........translation please
Wonky Dilu
And Shelli, our fearless leader-getting the answer privately?.....you'll tell the rest of us ...Right?
Great Laura!
Doesn't it help when we have supportive husbands? I've spoken of my little home-it's less than a 1000sq. feet and the shape is round. My sewing room is the size of a master bedroom's Bathroom. You have to get really creative in storage. My sewing room, which is about to under go a massive renovation is so full, floor to ceiling boxes, due to lack of storage, that most all the work I do is in the living room. (the reason behind this long explanation.)
My sweetie pie never complains. There was one, only one consideration he asked for. NO PINS ON THE FLOOR!!!!. (My Heman Hero has tender feet)
I appreciate his support so much-couldn't have nearly as much FUN If he were grumpy; I wouldn't be very happy. :(
Everyone has had such wonderful fun stories.
Thanks everyone!
Wonky Dilu Dily:
Hey all you lurkers out there, speak up, tell us a story, talk to us, come out and play, WE WANT TO BE FRIENDS!!!
