Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

HI Jennie,

You should be very proud of your Ace. Your entry is spectacular and your description of how you incorporated the theme scored a perfect 10 across the board.  Do not sell yourself short on your entry.
I've attached a photo cause I'm sure everyone else will  agree with me.  Mac & Moo.  Color Doesn't Matter.

For anyone else who's interested in the restructured ACE awards (Artistic and Creative Excellence) please http://www.kranbearys.com/ACE 

hugs,
nt

Hi Ladies.

Regarding specifics for onion peel dyeing....I'm afraid I don't have any for you.  A handful is just that; a handful.

It's pretty hard to measure exaclty crushed onion peel (outer layers only) ... so I just mix up a pot of water (again not measured) and a bunch of crushed peel.  You'll never be able to duplicate a batch dye lot, so the meausurements won't matter for duplication.

All onion peels dye kind of a tan color...even the red onion.

Hope this helps you out...it's not an exact science but it is fun to just wing it.

hugs,
nt

Hi everyone,

Thank you to all who had glowing reports...it's very much appreciated, although the site is still a work in progress, and there are bugs that have to be fixed.

Thanks especially to you WildCat for your detailed report.  You saved me a lot of time!    I've gone in and corrected all the errors that you mentioned.    Jane Perala's site link still is not working, but that seems to be a temp problem with her site's server.  It was working yesterday.

With regards to the Java... for those that have Java, the effect of the aplet is beautiful,  but I want it to look nice for those who don't have Java as well.  The link to Java now works ( I forgot the closing ")  and I've tried adding a link to the photo that should take it to the available page.  Since I HAVE Java, it's difficult for me to see if this works.   Thank you to Loonie who's been helping me with this! 

For the Adopted pages, I hadn't intended to create clickable photos, but you've got me thinking now that I might add some hot spot links to larger images. 

There is so much to consider with all the different browsers and html validation, that the whole site won't probably be finished for another week or so, but it seems to be working reasonably well across the board.

Thanks again everyone for all your input!
hugs,
nt

Hi ya,

In 1995, I got my first web site. What a trend setting thing that was back then! I believe I was one of the very first to advertise in TB&F with a web site, and the ad rep at the time didn't quite know where to put it! That was one of their gallery ads.

Then in 1997 I had it redone by an internet company. Very slick for the time.  I have  maintained much the same design  as what was inplemented in 1997 until..TODAY!  whoo hoo! Brand new design. I'm still taking out a few of the bugs, and validating the html as well as testing it on different browsers, but hey ...it's up and running.

Please visit my new website at www.kranbearys.com I'd appreciate knowing if you experience any difficulty viewing it, or if anything 'weird' happens on the site...as well as buttons that don't work etc. Anything that bugs you, will bug me! 

I'll be adding my available bear pics this week as well. 

hugs,
nt

I am running an anti-sniping program on Bid 4 Bears.  Any bid made in the last 10 seconds of the auction automatically extends the auciton by 1 minute.    The theory is that this will raise the price to the true maximum that a bidder is willing to pay for the item  which of course makes more money for the seller.

hugs,
nt

Ugghh...   Just when the internet was getting fun and multimedia was more than a movie that took 10 minutes to load.   

No fun.    Firefox anyone??

hugs,
nt

Hi,
I have ordered from them successfully about 2 years ago, but since then have emailed and left phone messages with no response.    Another TTer recently placed an order, and had no problem communicating.  She also passed on the concern that I thought the company had gone out of business because of lack of response.

It seems they are still in business buy suffer from sporadic customer service.   Try emailing them everyday until they answer you.

hugs,
nt

HOLY CATNIP BATMAN!
Those are awesome!

nt

Hi,
I've used waggle shafts quite a bit in my 'bear in box' style bears.   They work well, but I've found in a plain bear they don't do much.  You have to sew the head to the body and leave enough of the neck area unstuffed so that the shaft actually has room to move.  Jointed heads don't work with this apparatus...bear and body must be sewn together with a 'neck' so to speak.

Other consideration is that you have to measure the body very carefully...so that the key for the music box comes out of the back exaclty where it should be make the shaft fit into the head properly.   I always like the key to come out of my bear's tush so that I can cover the key with a tail.  For a 15 inch bear...that means my waggie has to be about 8 inches long to fit from the music box up into the head.   I've bought extenders and such to make the shaft the correct length, but I don't know if Spare Bear sells them.   I've always purchased these contraptions from Lamp Industries (Virginia I think?.)     

Another consideration....they are fairly fragile...so package WELL for shipping.   I've had one break during shipping...snapped right off at the music box.

Hugs,
nt

Congratulations!  What a magnificent baby!   You look wonderful.  What great news.
hugs,
nt

Just thought I'd drop in my two cents.  Copyright is covered by Law.  That means there are laws in place that are enforceable regarding copyright.  Copyrights don't need to be registered. They are an automatic right of the artist/creator.   Registering just helps the originator prove ownership in court.

Copying from books can get you in hot water cause most publishers have lawyers with big sticks working for them.  yikes.

Here's two links to stuff on my websites that cover copyright as it applies to bear patterns and instructions and such, should you like to read more.  The Canadian Copyright Act and US copyright law are very, very similar, as are the Acts of about 100 other countries.
This link is the NCTB copyright policy:
http://www.northcountryteddybears.com/G … yright.htm    (There is also an excellent link to the Library of Congress's copyright page within this article/policy page.)

This link covers works at the EbearZ U:
http://www.kranbearys.com/workshop/beagle.html

There's also an article on copyright in my book 101 Bears to Make.

Hugs,
nancy tillberg

Hi Penny,
Wow, I can sympathize with the feeling of being overwhelmed.  I asked Santa for 36 hours in a day for Christmas, but alas, he didn't come through for me.    In the meantime I use a 'To-Do' list with a twist that I learned in a management course at work.  The To-Do list gets prioritized.
I keep it on my Palm organizer so it works in terms of 'screens' instead of pages.   Items that MUST get done today become priority one.  They'll show up everyday on my calendar until I make them go away by doing them.  This list includes yukky things like taxes.

Priority two includes most of my bear things that are time sensitive, like finishing online classes, or web updates for clients.

Priority three are all the thinks I'd like to get done.   The list is dynamic and something that's a 3 today can become a 1 tomorrow.     I never put more than three priority 1's into one day. 

Now if something doesn't get done, I forgive myself and move on.  Little bites, and the list always gets eaten away.... bit by bit.   Sometimes life just gets in the way of things you want to do, and oh well. That is life.  If someone wants a custom order, and it can't be done because one of the kids gets sick, or another life issue, so be it.    Just do your best and 99% of the people will understand.  The other 1% .... well they're just not worth having as customers.

Custom orders though...I found very tedious.  Redoing a design over and over took the fun out of bear making for me, and so did creating to someone elses specifics.  So, I stopped doing them about 18 months ago, and have felt better for it. 

By the way...your Moonlings are absolutely stunning!
hugs