Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Hello Listies

I have just heard some very sad news this afternoon. Angela Last has passed away following a valient battle. Angela was an amazing soft sculpture artist from Canada and on TT.

I shall miss her smiling face at the shows. Angela also donated an annual  teddy bear to my Children's Aid Foundation project for many years, creating amazing pieces that have truly helped some of the most disadvantaged kids in Canada. Angela was a sincere lovely woman and we will cherish the pieces of her art in our home, two of which welcome all into our home.

With sadness
Dianne

Hi All

I only sell teddy bears at Teddy Bear Shows and I think that internet sales are very different from selling at a show. I have often bartered with a customer for multiple purchases or a repeat customer. I have had clients barter the first time and pay full asking price the next. I have a neighbour who always buys my teds and always barters and I smile and know what a good home they are going to.

The range of pricing is enormous throughout the teddy bear world and you really shouldn't take any offence. My Steve ALWAYS tries to barter for a bear and often he and the artist have a great laugh over the entire transaction. We have about 200 artist teddy bears many of them his choice so I guess most artists didn't mind.

For me I want to sell my teds so I can have new ones for the next show...nothing worse than the same bears on a table show after show. After all if you sell wholesale it is often 25% off. No FAIR price refused, I say!!!!

Hugs
Nurse Ratchet

Hi Brenda

That is fantastic, what a wonderful memory for you and your family. I submitted my name but alas was not asked. Cherish every moment of this amazing honour.

Hugs from Toronto]
Dianne

OOOOOOOOOOOOOPS

I should have said "tuna" sandwich not "salmon". My apologies to the salmon family.

Hugs from Toronto
Nurse Ratchet   :redface:

Hi ALL

I have been an RN for 37 years working in Public Health for 18 years, 10 of which were in the Vaccine Prevetable Disease Division. IMHO any health care worker who does not get immunization for H1N1 is irresponsible to those they care for. Ask your self why there is little polio or diphtheria in the news?? Could it be...vaccinations??

I get the infuenza vaccine every year and had my H1N1 vaccine about 5 hours ago. This is a very different influenza which has the potential to be devastating. The information I have read from reliable scientific resources is that the most severe cases requiring admission to ICU and ventilation to date have been young women. The coroner who examined the 12 year old athlete who passed yesterday here in Toronto said the virus attacked his heart like lightening. Does the public really believe the health care profession is trying to hurt them...I cannot tell you how many many hours have been spent planning for pandemic for years. In Toronto SARS almost leveled our economy not to mention our population. Thousands of people were on home isolation  and nurses and doctors died from SARS after caring for those infected.

Those who do not get vaccinated (unless you have an allergy to a component) lack a social conscience and are riding on the coat tails of the rest of the population who does get the vaccine. There is something called herd immunity which means if that enough people in a country or area have been immunized that a vaccine preventable disease cannot spread...the naysayers depend on the rest of us to get the vaccine to protect them. Shame on them!! Our society has become one of look out for number one not a community working together...so sad. I have never once pondered whether to immunize myself nor my now 31 year old son...who by the way is for the first time going to get immunized against influnza.

There is way too much fiction and myth on cyberspace. Canada has 15 million doses, some already in use and others on the way to the MD's. Toronto Public Health will have clinics all over town and in fact will not turn anyone away if you attend the clinics this week which are really for health care professionals. Our vaccine is made in Canada and remeber vaccines are not new! The mercury component has been blown way out of proportion ...you get more mercury in a salmon sandwich than a vaccine. The allergy to eggs really refers to an anaphylaxic allergy to eggs. I am allergic to eggs according to testing but eat them.

One year I did not get immunized and spent 6 days flat on my back with inflluenza. True influenza is an awful disease. This influenza is not an old people and young child flu. Do yourself and everyone else a big favour this season...get you and your children immunized  against H1N1 and seasonal flu. Protect yourself ..protect your friends and family.

Stay healthy and remember to wash your hands and sneeze into your sleeve,
Nurse Ratchet

Hi Tammy

I am so sorry to hear of your son's recent medical diagnosis. I found the following article written by a Canadian MD in BC. Please, please as an RN I ask you to be very careful in chosing a chiropractor if you go that route. There are several schools of thought in that profession ...some do not  believe in immunization...or the germ theory. I ask everyone to not email about immunization , please...that was my job for over 10 years. Ask an MD to refer you to a chiropractor. Our medical systems are very different but the Canadian system of universal health care for all is nothing like it has been portrayed during your recent debates over health care.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/311959-overview

All the very best to you and your son on this journey,

Nurse R

That dog is a vintage poodle and I had a mauve fellow to call my own when I was 7 or 8!! Alas my childhood is vintage now!!! Whenever I go to a fleamarket/antique show I seem to see  my childhood there for sale:lol: If it isn't a toy it is my grandmothers curtains.

Hugs from Toronto
Nurse Ratchet