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krystolla

My mother is starting a pet-sitting service in North Carolina and she's asked me to think up a cute name. I think it's a great idea -- my mom is great with all sorts of animals and I think she'll be happier doing petsitting than more dog training (she used to train assistance dogs). The only problems is that I'm drawing a complete blank trying to think of a name! After a day of hefty gardening (tilling beds and hauling gravel) I'm not at my most creative . . .

So help? Anyone out there with a nifty petsitting company name that they'd be willing to part with? I've seen the very creative names everyone has come up with for their bears and businesses so I know there are some bright people around here!

Thanks much,
Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

Lindt. Definitely. Absolutely the best truffles and they make these thin slices of chocolate that just melt on your tongue. Lindt's white chocolate isn't as good as Godiva's, but I prefer milk or dark chocolate. I find Godiva generally a little too bitter (and pricy!) and Hershey's too sweet. I admit it, I'm a chocolate snob.

If you have a "Trader Joe's" store near you, their chocolate is really good too -- they actually have their own brand of chocolate (although the "Trader Joe's" on the label is pretty small). It's also really well priced for very good chocolate -- maybe $2 for a package of three bars.

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

That reminds me, I've got to get my bat house up this year. I love bats, what other mammal fits so neatly in a garden? Eats the bad bugs at night, curls up tidily for the day, no holes dug, no bulbs eaten, and doesn't bother with the bird feeders.

I think a bat would be a great speciman to turn plush too -- they have those great big ears and delicate pointed faces. Unfortunatly I'm still struggling with my gryphon pattern or else I'd propose a bat challange! :)

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

Congratulations!  :clap: That's not just a win, that's a winning streak!

krystolla

Overwhelming cuteness . . . weak with cuteness . . . 16 panda cubs is cuteness overload . . . gah . . . .

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

Okay, this won't win me any fans but I've been reading all the comments about copying and biting my tongue is starting to hurt.

If all you have is a gimmick then people copying you is a problem -- it's still copying if all you do is repeat yourself. Your only option is to whip out copies faster and cheaper. You can make a good living (briefly) off the people who are willing to pay for a gimmick -- remember Furbies? If you plan to only ever have one good idea then get yourself to the patent office and invent the new silly putty.

If you are an artist you learn that art isn't the thing you end up with, art is the process. Copying is just people following behind you, and no one can copy something they haven't seen yet. If it makes you feel better invent an -ism and name the path you are creating through the wilderness. Or consider that if no one is trying to copy you then perhaps what you're making isn't all that distictive or interesting.

If you are mostly interested in making money to get by then this probably not the industry to be in.

But regardless of whether you are an artist or you are just turning the crank to whip out the latest fuzz with eyes get off your whiny butt and DO it. So what if there aren't hoards of collectors shoving money down your pants, you really think somebody on ebay is to blame?  bear_angry Get over it. Use that energy to do something positive, because there's enough negativity in the world already. 

Bitching done. I feel better now.

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

I've been teaching myself to crochet since this weekend. Work has become REALLY stressful so I needed something to distract me -- learning a new craft qualifies. So after unravelling my assorted lumpy disasters I really appreciate the work that goes into the crochet bears. Five, six years of making awful scarves I might be ready to try a bear. bear_original

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

I'm equally guilty with regards to spending more money of pet bath products than for-human ones. For me, whatever shampoo is on sale is fine. For the cats I spent 45 minutes at the grocery store finding the exact variety of spray conditioner (for humans) recommended by one of my cat show friends for use on Xander's tail. Yes, just his tail.

I had really awful dry hands this winter -- I think that because I spend all day on a computer my hands aren't getting enough blood circulation and that's making my skin more dry. I was applying mosturizer every couple of hours and still had cracking skin -- I pretty much looked like the "before" picture in a commercial for moisturizer actually. What worked for me is "Bag Balm" which is (don't laugh) cream designed for use on chapped cow udders. The stuff is basically petroleum jelly and lanolin (the stuff that makes sheep waterproof). It's thick, yellowish goo in a tin can. It did leave a sort of waxy residue (which actually felt good given the shape my hands were in) and smelled  . . . well. I guess it smelled approximately like wet sheep smell, which is not entirely unpleasant once you get used to it.

I wouldn't suggest applying the stuff and then proposing some late evening festivities with your significant other. bear_happy More like applying it and then going to sleep.

Anyway, if you get desperate enough the stuff does work (on dry feet, elbows, knees too). My hands actually look like they belong to a human being now and not some science fiction lizard monster. I bought mine from a vet supply catalog (Drs Foster and Smith I think) but farm supply stores and some pet stores carry it too.

-- Erika (now lizard monster free)
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

Dilu we miss you already!

I can sympathise with the two cat night -- a two Maine Coon cat night involves not being able to get out of bed because you are pinned under the covers by their cumulative weight. :)

-- Erika Fawcett
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

Shantell: Red cats with green eyes happen, and every so often you find a red cat with lots of white that has blue eyes. Blue eyes come from variations of the albino gene, so there's always some white involved. There's a new breed called Oros Azul (I think) which claims blue eyes on non-white cats so maybe in twenty years or so you might have your blue-eyed red.


Shelli: Here's two of my herd, Ripley on the top and Xander on the bottom. Thea loves to get her picture taken but taking pictures of black cats is really hard, even if they have white. Bluesette is solid blue and even harder to get a good picture of. 'Sette has gorgeous sea-green eyes, I really wish I could have posted a good picture of her for all the green-eye fans.

Ripley.JPG Xander.JPG

Ripley is coming out of her winter coat so not as fluffy as a month ago -- the fluff is now attached to the couch and clogging the vaccum cleaner. Xander is only two years old so he's still in his kitten coat, he's got another year of growth and filling out before he's done.

I wish I could somehow express how neat it is to live with domestic cats that are just so large. Thea's whiskers spread wider than my hand can stretch, Thea has champion whiskers. All other cats look like kittens to me now, I can't imagine not having coonies in my life.

-- Erika

PS. if anyone is looking to add a coon to their lives I know a few breeders with new litters . . . :twisted:

krystolla

She's lovely, so ethereal -- the silvery blue violet and gentle shading . . . gorgeous!


-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

In my home ec class I made . . . a teddy bear. bear_original I'm glad I didn't have to do clothing, that wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.

I did have to take shop class too, most of the shop teachers scared me (why are they all missing fingers!) except for the one shop teacher who let me play with legos instead of the loud, finger-removing equipment.

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

Let's see if I can dredge up my feline genetics knowledge here . . . with blue eyes I'd bet Surrender is actually a red-point or cream-point (like a siamese cat with red instead of black). The color develops on the head, feet and tail because those are the coldest points of the cat so kitties who live outdoors with wilder weather tend to be less defined than the pampered show cats. If he has white feet I'd guess he has Ragdoll in his background, or maybe Birman.

If he's the only daddy of Miss Skippy's hypothetical litter they should be all red tabby like Mom unless she also has siamese points in her genetics (in which case you get half like Dad and half like Mom). If Skippy is genetically Manx I believe you'll find shortened or kinked tails in the kittens but if she lost her tail in an accident that won't be passed on.

But then, since cats can have litters of kittens with multiple fathers it's still really a toss-up. bear_original Any girl kittens will have red on them (from Mom) and any boy kittens will be red (because boys inherit color only from Mom). So you could get calico, patched-tabby or tortiseshell babies, or solid white which is a different gene entirely.

Sorry, that's probably more than you wanted to know . . .

-- Erika, proud caretaker of Grand Premier Coons Landing Ripley Lovelace (brown patched tabby with white Maine Coon), Premier Fuzzyland Amalthea Softpaws (black and white Maine Coon) and Premier Coonbitzky Xander (blue tabby Maine Coon). Plus Gizmo and Bluesette who were way to smart to do that cat show thing.

krystolla

Congratulations! There is no greater gift than to be able to make friends with strange cats, and no greater luck than to have strange cats make friends with you. Here's hoping she'll learn to trust you enough that you can get her some vet care and cuddle her like she deserves!

-- Erika Fawcett
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

I've got a semit-related question, how many bear artists doing "traditional" designs have been sued by Steiff? Quite a few of the descriptions in bear magazines I've read include "I got a few Steiff bears and tried to figure out how they were made".

My bears aren't even reasonably close to traditional, but the first time I showed one to another artist she said "Oh, that looks just like Artist_X!". bear_cry  Heartbreaking moment, let me tell you. I hadn't even heard of said artist, let alone tried any copying. All that hard work I'd put in and I'd ended up just like someone else . . .  well, I looked up the artist in question and I didn't see the resemblence which made me feel slightly better. I've changed my designs since then, too.

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

Happy Birthday Sylvia! I hope you have a stupendous day!  :cake:

-- Erika Fawcett
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

My mother says that if you have two options that seem equally good then what you need is a third choice . . . so time to try some string mohair.  Or velvet. Or, um, denim?   bear_happy

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

PS. Of course, if what you have is three really good options, what you need is a fourth . . .

krystolla

And he's adorable! Thanks so much Anne, I love him. I love those pink needle-felted feet! I did have to rescue his whistle from my cats who determined that he didn't need it since he'd already arrived and wasn't in danger of being lost anymore.  bear_grin

Please excuse my poor picture taking ability, but I'll try posting pictures here:

Liam.JPG    Liam2.JPG

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

I spent weeks agonizing over just the right fabric for my mer-bear's tail -- I finally settled on sparkly ultrasuede with organza fins. I carefully wired the tail so it would be posable but the ultrasuede + stuffing ended up too thick for the wires to hold position  :redface:

My plan for next time is to use darts around the hip to make sure that she has a large enough "butt" area to sit, and maybe thinning out the tail so it's narrower. It you look at most mermaid dolls online you'll notice that the tail narrows to about an ankle width rather than staying as wide as if there were two fused legs going on.

You might want to think about trim to accent the area where the tail meets the body (and possibly where the tail meets the tail fins). I had some good luck buying freshwater rice pearls on ebay and used those to good effect, but I think a bit of sparkly trim might be nice too.

Oh, the other thing I'd suggest is to have the area connecting the body to the tail be curved rather than a straight cut -- furry belly but scaly hips sort of thing rather than a panda pattern. I think it would look more natural now that I've tried the straight line approach. 

So that's my small store of mermaid-tail knowledge -- I hope that helps! Please share what you find out too, I need all the help I can get for my next round of pattern editing!

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

I'm so glad you like him! Somehow I'm not surprised he decided to visit the customs folks . . . no matter how much tape I wrapped around that box. He's a pretty friendly fellow. Probably already looking for the green beer to start celebrating St. Patrick's Day!

Debbie: Yes, he's made from string mohair (mostly). The rainbow area is an acrylic yarn I fell in love with. I don't know how to crochet so I sort-of satin stitched it into place over muslin -- I liked the striping effect.

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

I think it was the small pupils in the first set of eyes that made him look a bit creepy. When humans see someone or something we like our pupils widen, so when we see someone with widened pupils we assume they like us which makes us like them. Advertisers digitally enhance the size of pupils in their pictures for better responses! Small pupils mean bright sunlight, but also suspicion -- so the instinctual reaction is to feel a bit nervous.

I think the light eye color would have been fine if the black pupil was larger -- although eyelids might help lessen the impact too. You might be able to salvage the eyes after all.

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

Can I provisionally sign up? My "real" job (the one that pays for the mohair  bear_original ) has instituted mandatory overtime for all of March so my bearmaking time has dropped down to doodling patterns on the edges of paperwork. Sigh. I'm going to go stark raving mad if all I do is work (and sleep, eating is optional) for the whole month though, and this challange sounds like way more fun than having myself committed.

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

Gah! Now I'm going to have that Guy Fawkes poem stuck in my head!

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason that gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

------------

bear_wacko

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

krystolla

Not all manufactured bears are created equal, I can certainly see the "high end" manufactured bears at a bear show -- like Gunds (now discontinued) signature line or Dean's Artist Showcase. You'll notice the price point on those doesn't vary that much from the artist bears -- at least in part because the materials are the same. If I went to a show (as an artist or a collector) and saw a display of Dakin and Boyds I'd be disappointed. A bear show shouldn't be a reorganization of the same stuff you find at Hallmark card shops and "Toys R Us".

I've been to a few non-bear art shows too (as artist and visitor) and there are usually some displays of relatively mass-produced stuff -- oversized pictures of wild animals (often three or four photos superimposed) or wooden signs with semi-whimsical sayings. The neon-light artwork. It's cheesy but passable, whether mass produced or just poorly produced. An art show with a booth selling poster reproductions of "Persistance of Time" and "Waterlilies" (college campus style) would be too much. Crying clowns, googly eyes glued on kitchen utensils and velvet Elvises likewise.

So I my point is that it's the value of the work itself that matters, not where it came from. An artist passing off cheap synthetics and shoddy stitching isn't any more show-worthy than a mass produced bear with the same characteristics.

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

PS. Whatever happened to Boyds? They had some innovative stuff a few years ago but now it all seems like the impersonal-bear-in-a-cute-sweater crap.

krystolla

Wherever she is now, whatever comes after this life, she loves you and knows that you love her. It's not much comfort now, death is most difficult on those left behind, but if there is nothing else real and true in this world you have to know that love is real -- even when it hurts. Hang in there, **hugs**

-- Erika

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