Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Hi Wendy thanks, I do have DMC3021 and all the other shades but they are embroidery silks, can I use those???? :hug:

Jodi thats brilliant, if you hadn't told us I would have thought it was the new heinz commercial. I can only say that the one that won must be fantastic but I doubt it :hug:

Amazing such detail and so life like :hug:

Sorry kim, I did mean pearle cotton and embroidery floss- is this the same as used for cross stitching as I have loads of beautiful colours but as this is 6 stranded I was worried it would seperate when pulled tightly.

Thanks also Paula, Ellen and Susan, I am grateful for your advise :hug:

Daphne, a woman after my own heart, LESS STITCHES LESS COCK-UPS :dance:

What colour should I use, is Black too stark on some mohair colours? should I get a shade of brown as well

Many many thanks

Hi Laura, have had a look at this program and it looks good, is it just on US dollars or can you change the currency? Also can you obtain a profit and loss from it and see what is in your income and expenses catagories? :hug:

Hi everyone, I am determined to crack noses and have been looking at buying some thread from the company I use. They sell size No 3 and No 5, which one do I use. My bears tend to be on the bigger size (12 inches) but just recently I have been trying to get a little smaller aroud the 7 inch mark, so which one do I buy or do I buy both??
Many thanks :hug:

Hi Daphne, do let us know how you get on with the trials please, its always great to add to ones knowledge and there is no better way than giving it a go yourself :clap:

I clicked too and added to my favs, will try to get into the habit of a few clicks a day :hug: thanks

Hi Bonnie it is the same, I guess they must have called it something different over there. I do know that Sage has been buying all the competition and is the biggest accounting software company in the world. We at work use TAS which was a small UK company, they are slowly changing it to look like Sage, it still has an advantage -PRICE, its still alot cheaper :hug:

Hi Daphne, sorry didn't realise the US has no vat, most of us across europe have to endure it
I have heard of MYOB (mind your own business) but never seen it, it is Australian :hug:

Hi Daphne, QuickBooks is made by Quicken and has the same problems. It sounds to me as though you may need Sage Line 50 (single user, single company), It has your book keeping, vat, profit and loss etc I also think that it will print your customers names and addresses onto sticky labels -I think. It has a facility to use templates to compile letters as well - please check all this. The stock facility is reasonable as its designed for medium sized companies who manufacture so you can set up a stock code for a bear and add all its componants to make the whole, a word of caution if the parts are not on stock (not been entered) and it goes into negative stock it will use the selling price of the item to enter into the P&L, therefore messing figures up. The big down side is the price Sage Instant (mentioned earlier but has none of the extras) is about £100, Sage Line 50 last time I looked was about £1500. I have to say thats a lot of bear pennies.
I would also recommend having a word with your accountant, its amazing how many of our clients never ask and then end up paying us more as we have to do extra work to correct and adjust the books.
I hope this extra bit helps :hug:

Hi Daphne, I am not sure exactly what you want, I think you are after a 1 program that holds everything, I'm not sure if one exists but I can tell you that Quicken is not so hot from an Accountants point of view, unless you have the professional (more expensive) editions, we have several clients who use the basic version and the reporting part of it does not seem adequate. Also their seems to be a problem with the vat (unless they have corrected it), it will not lock the vat returns, so for example if you have an item that should have been in a previous return that is where it will put it, not in your current return, if you lock the months, therefore saving the vat, then this means that anything prior will have to be dated later-adjusting your reciept or invoice. All a bit messy. For book-keeping I would recommend Sage Instant (the basic package) It will hold all your customer addresses, deal with vat correctly etc, but if you require an invoicing facility you may need a more expensive version, hope all this helps :hug:

Thanks Tami

Bronwen, I am an idiot as well :redface: what is TGIF pleeeeeeeeeaaaaase

OMG what a stunning face , you are one talented lady, I did a double take that face is so lifelike :hug:

Hi Jane, I have not been doing this long and I have tried this last weekend to professionally design a bear, starting with a head shape then moving on to other parts, what a disaster Finally after several hours of frustration and a few swear words, I went back to how I started to do patterns at the begining thinking that this method must be right for me, feeling very disappointed. The next thing you know I had done 3 bears in different shapes and sizes, at the end of the day I kind of figured that everyone is individual.
I must admit that I was glad to read Shelli's post as this is what I do, I ruler a line down the side of my paper and mark at intervals 1 inch, so I can get proportions correct and then go with the pencil flow, loosely, finally ending with a mass of lines making the shape, the head gusset and foot pads are last on separate paper. For the next bit I cheat, I photocopy the drawing many times then cut out required no of each shape, then I use masking tape to stick my bits together to see if the bear works, if it does great remove the tape and pattern is ready to go
PS remembering to add seam allowance when cutting, if not samller bear :dance:

Glad you like Loubears, I haven't bought anything yet but budget this month went when we went to the fair the samples took 10 days to arrive so no too bad
You may be semi- young but you seem to have your head on the right way with regards to the wedding, our biggest saving was the reception -we hired a village hall and got my mums friend of a friend to do the catering (buffet), she did a great job with the food, it all cost about a third of the price of a hotel etc doing it and a very big bonus we had 130 guests to the day do and 300 came at night, which made it a great party but shopping around is the best thing you can do :hug:

Erin, know what you mean about no little shops as we live in the middle of nowhere and our 3 local towns (all about 20 miles away) do not have supply shops at all, I do all my shopping via the internet (at about 7am, he's gone to work  )
I did persuede him to take me to my first fair last weekend but OMG we spent 2 hours looking round , way too much time  and we spent money on some fur........have I not got enough already..............NO..... I only have a small box 
A note on mohair have you tried www.loubear.com, they are in South Africa, I have just recieved free samples and they are lovely. The big bonus is FREE delivery (it's included into the price of the material) so you can only order a small amount and for me the prices are cheaper than the prices in the Uk

Getting married aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh, good luck, if you are young here's a piece of wisdom from a 40 going on 41 year old who has been married over 19 years, have a nice wedding but don't go mad because years down the line you will remember it as a special day whether it costs $2000 or $20,000, its the people who make it great and memorable, if per-chance you are older, then just ignore me :hug:

The bunny wins for me :hug:  :hug: so adorable

Oh Sophie, you have my admiration, all those hormones, I know I could not do it, I think their would not be a prison sentance long enough for me after I had finished with them, good luck and I hope your year is the start of many more :hug:

Erin, you have my sympathy, I too am on limited funds, I just buy when I can and have found ebay invaluable for faux fur, if you cut through the rubbish there are some great offcut to be had, I found a great lady (in the UK though) she makes beautiful expensive -to me, bridal wear (worth every penny) and she sells her remnants to recoup her costs, so thing lateraly and certainly complain to the supplier, any supplier worth their salt will replace free of charge and apologise, threaten to tell the teddy bear world, who are your friends hopefully that should speed them into action, good luck :hug:

Oh that gave me such a laugh on a rainy friday morning, I am sure it must be a nightmare with 6 but anyone who has kids at all can identify with some of it or all of it :crackup:
I read a bit of the blog and she is very funny :crackup:

Gosh you guys are amazing, thank you for all the great information
Bobbie as always I can understand you and was very grateful for the bulb bits, I think I understand :hug:

Gijzette, thanks for the reply , I think I am completely ignorant about it all and may have to do more research, I am sorry I am not sure I understand about the lights, what is ott and do I actually need a light box??

Oh Daphne, you will have to let us know what they are like when they arrive, my samples took 8 days airmail so not bad at all :hug: