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Us Bears wrote:The clothes are a nice idea, but I prefer my teddy bear naked.
Ahem! I believe the correct term is "bare Bear."
Pah. Same difference. :)
Well, if a Bear's got fur, he isn't naked. Is he?
He's bare.
The clothes are a nice idea, but I prefer my teddy bear naked.
Ahem! I believe the correct term is "bare Bear."
About 15 "Build-A-Bear Workshop" Bears live in this den. They are great friends. They make good mascots and seasonal holiday Bears, too.
We have a chef bear who is the chief cook and kitchen manager. We have a fall/Halloween Bear. We have a Christmas Bear, a Valentine's Bear and several others.
We like being able to dress them up in seasonal costumes. The Bears like to be able to change clothes when they want to.
The birth certificates are a nice touch. It's cool to have an official name certificate for the Bear but being able to register the Bear's official birthday is cool. (Bearthday? ) We have a Bear who was born on Christmas Eve. We have a Bear who was born on Good Friday. (Stores are closed on Easter Sunday.) We have a Bear who was born on Melanie's birthday.
Putting the bar code inside the Bear is a nice touch. If the Bear is ever lost, he can be returned to his human if he is sent back to Bear Headquarters first.
Build-A-Bears are 
Sorry... Can't identify him. Our Bear encyclopedia doesn't have a picture of any of his brethren.
Any Bear who has his fur worn and shows some "love patches" has put in yoemen's service taking care of his human.
As far as Bears go, wear and tear is a badge of honor! :thumbsup:
Let the bare spots be. If he needs to be sewn up, that would be okay if it's done by a skilled human. If he needs to be restuffed or otherwise repaired that would be okay, too.
Ask the Bear if he wants some new eyes. We suggest black "button" eyes or glass eyes.
It's strictly the Bear's decision. If he wants some, give him new eyes. Otherwise let him be.
For his name? Ask him. If you listen carefully, he'll tell you. But Bears don't tell people their names just any old time. You have to pay attention for when it happens. If you listen long enough he'll tell you. Be patient.
I can tell you what he probably would REALLY like!
He wants a cookie! Preferably chocolate! :D
Give the Bear a cookie! He'll love you forever!
Brenda;
It wasn't you that caused the blur. It was the camera.
Look carefully... There is a horizontal zone going across the bottom third of the picture where everything is in focus. Right about where the dog's paws are, things start going out of focus. The farther up the picture you go, the more it's out of focus.
The auto-focus feature of your camera keyed in on the area right in front of the dog's face, right about where its paws are. At that point in the picture, focus is good. As objects in the picture get farther away from the camera, they get more and more out of focus.
I don't think this was caused by you, per se. I think it's a "depth of field" problem caused by the camera.
It is possible to learn how to prevent these problems. If you read the camera's manual it will tell you how to set the camera so it won't have this problem. Even then, it can be tricky.
To sharpen the image, here's what you do. Use your "Magic Wand" or "Quick Select" tool to select ONLY the dog. Apply a sharpen filter to JUST the dog. Do the same thing for the background of the image.
The reason for this is because the foreground, the midground (dog) and the background areas are all sharp or blurred at different rates. In order to get a good, clear picture you'll need to sharpen each area separately.
If you don't do that, you'll have some areas of the image that are over-sharpened and look all "pixelated" and other areas that will be hardly sharpened at all.
Selecting and sharpening different areas allows you to fine-tune the sharpening.
If you copy the image to different layers, you can sharpen each area the way you want then adjust the opacity and blending to make a smooth transition between them.
Here's a version of your picture I sharpened up just the way I described. I hope it suits your needs.
Depends on the cause of the blur and how much the picture is blurred.
In Photoshop Elements, you should probably use the "unsharp mask" tool instead of the "sharpen" tool. It depends on what version of Photoshop Elements you have.
If the picture is blurred because the camera was not focused correctly you CAN correct for a certain amount of that using Photoshop Elements.
If there is an object or objects in the image that are blurred because they were moving (they have "trails") you can eliminate a small amount of that but if there is a lot, there's not much that can be done.
If you are using the full version of Photshop there are other, more advanced tools you can sharpen pictures with.
Post an example. I can tell by looking at it.
Hey! Just so y'all know, "xteddy" is quite the famous Bear!
But only us computer geeks actually know why!
And, for the record, the Bears in this den do snuggle with their humans.
They watch TV with us. They hang out with us on the computer. They occasionally do sleep with us.
And, recently, when I was in the hospital, two of them came and stayed with me for moral support.
(The nurses didn't quite get it but they just quietly accepted it. )
Laura, there are 1,000 Bears living here! Honest!
We've got everything from 1 inch tall to almost 3 feet!
If we wanted to give you a report on what size Bears live here we'd have to give you the statistical mean and standard deviation!
The movie is good. Great cinematography. Wonderful story telling.
But me and the Bears here are wondering...
We kinda' think a grizzly bear, even one as young as that could take out a mountain lion or, at least, give him a run for his money.
What do you think?
Never thought of it that way! Cool! 
I'm not being picky. I'm just being silly. Okay?
But, yes, cats DO have scent glads on their faces. They have the one at the corner of the mouth, just like you say. But they also have scent glands on the side of their faces, part way between the corner of the eye and the base of the ear. That's where the hair is a bit thinner.
Take another look at that male lion. He's got his nose just inches away from that female's scent glands... both the facial and the mouth.
The use of scent glands is a two way communication in cats. The cat puts its scent on things and other cats (people too!) to indicate possession, plus other cats smell those scents to tell what other cats have been in the area and what they've been up to.
Cats DO use anal glands for scent marking and identification in a very similar way as dogs. Cats are just more dignified about it. They don't go sticking their noses up everybody's butts like dogs. They sort of "waft" the smell. That's why cats sometimes stick their tail straight up in the air and wave their butts around. They're broadcasting their butt-smell. ;)
Yes, yes! I agree! Cats who are not familiar with each other do NOT rub heads and do NOT share their scent by rubbing on each other.
It's a cat's way of saying, "Honey! I'm home!" 
Okay... Does this mean that those cats aren't smelling each other's scent glands so that they can identify each other?
Make a sign that says, "I was designed by..." then put your Bear den's name and logo.
Just put that sign in every picture. The Bear can hold it. She can stand in front of it. She can lean up against it. Make it so the sign is an integral part of the picture that can't be cropped out.
You can get creative in how you put the sign into your pictures.
The Bear can climb it. He can stand on top of as if he just conquered Mt. Everest.
When the sign becomes a part of the picture it also becomes part of your trademark.
It's like Elvis in a gold lamé jumpsuit. Elvis just wouldn't be Elvis without it!
There's more than one way to skin a cat.
1) You can simply superimpose text or a trademark logo over the image. As you say, people might be able to crop it out.
However, if you are creative in placing it, it will be difficult. Superimpose it between the Bears arms and legs or right above his head. If the person tries to crop out your watermark, he will have to cut off part of the Bear too.
2) You can make the watermark partially transparent so it can be superimposed right over the Bear's image. Any attempt to remove the watermark will destroy the image.
3) You could be sneaky like me. Here's something you probably never noticed...
Way back, last November I made some banners for Pipkin's Bears (Jane)
Take a careful look at those images. Look closely. Right under the part of the name where it says, ".COM"
You'll see some numbers hidden in the background. That's my codename. "11811"
The untrained eye won't see it but those in the know can.
If you made a semi-visible watermark like that you could very easily hide it in a Bear's fur. Nobody would ever notice... Until you busted them for stealing your stuff. And you've got proof. That's my name right there in your picture!
4) You can INVISIBLY watermark pictures. There are several methods to do this. Chief among them is one called "Digimarc"
Hidden codes are encrypted into the picture so that they can be recovered by special software. These codes can survive being copied and, if done correctly, can even survive being printed out on paper and being scanned on a scanner!
Digimarc also offers a service that goes out on the Web and finds secretly marked pictures and reports back to the copyright owner if it finds one.
All those are well and good. I have used every one of them. But there is something better!
Jujitsu!
Use your enemy's own force against himself!
Go to any website where you see lots of models or movie stars.
Look at the Oscars:
http://www.oscar.com/redcarpet/?pn=gallery&g=0&i=9
Look at any Hollywood gossip site:
http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/galle … en-choice/
Isn't it weird how just about every one of those sites has a "conveniently" placed background in every picture with the logo of the event or website prominently displayed?
You'll never be able to crop that out!
Furthermore, every time somebody tries to steal that picture, all they are doing is to advertise the original website.
Sooo...
Why can't you use Jujitsu in your photos?
Make a background that has the name and logo of your website in it.
Photograph every one of your Bears in front of that background.
Let people copy them! Go ahead!
Every time they copy one of your pictures they are doing nothing but giving you FREE ADVERTISING!
I use every one of these tricks in my pictures that I post on the internet.
Why not print up a little sign and have your Bears hold it up while they pose for their picture?
Bears like to be sneaky sometimes! 
This is why God invented watermarks. Isn't it?
It's not the first time this has happened.
If a topic is removed it would be nice if the offending person could be notified of the reason. People are less likely to repeat an infraction if they know what it is.
Wee Scones can never really go away as long as you are still around.
The knowledge is in your head, the talent is in your hands and the creativity is in your heart. Those are things you can't just "put away." They are always with you wherever you go and nobody can ever take them away from you.
Go ahead and find homes for all the Bears you have now then put your sewing basket in the closet. Your Bear business can just hibernate for a while. If and when your situation improves you can always get your sewing stuff out of the closet and start working again.
Just say that Wee Scones are in "indefinite hibernation" until further notice.
While not a fan of snakes, I'm not particularly afraid of them either.
As long as there's no element of surprise I'm happy to let them be.
Many species of snakes will play 'possum when threatened. Chase them or thrash at them with a stick or something and they will roll over and play dead.
Grass snakes are one of the species that do this, IRRC.
Thus, if you come upon a grass snake, stomp your feet, chase it and threaten it. If it doesn't flee it will play dead.
Either way you will be safe.
"Nope. You're good!"
Oh, goodie! We're posting Bear pictures! :D
As I said, our Bears were in our wedding.
We don't ask personal questions to our Bears but we're pretty sure they got married too. ;)
Out of all the different types of plush animals, Teddy Bears are the most human like. As such, they promote a more human emotional connection than other types of animals that aren't. Big eyes and round faces promote bonding. There is something hard-wired into the human psyche that creates this reaction. Basically, it is the instinct to protect and care for our children. The shape of a Teddy Bear's face stimulates this instinct. This is probably why Teddy Bears are so popular and why they become wildly popular in times of unrest. The "protection" instinct is strongest then.
Tami, your son's Bear is AWESOME! He doesn't even look like a home made Bear, let alone like the first Bear a kid ever made!
Sure, it helps that he springs from a Bear-making mother. I'm sure you advised but it is clear. Kid's got talent! :thumbsup:
Clarebear, it looks like Kenworth had a good time on holiday with you. Do Bears travel with you often?
There is at least one Bear with us whenever we travel. We went to Wal-Mart and made a dog tag from one of those engraving machines they have in the vestibule. The traveling Bear wears that tag around his neck on a shoelace at all times when he is away from the den.
It's always so difficult to pick which Bear goes traveling with us! 
I worked at FAO Schwarz when I was in college. At first, the store was a small, boutique style shop on Boylston just a half a block from the Boston Public Garden. Later on, the store was moved down the road to the corner of Berkeley. The new store was 10 times the size of the old and covered two floors.
The flagship store was broken up into departments but, because I worked in the old store, I knew about all the departments. Not just one. My primary department was electronics, radio control cars and video games. I could sell Legos, infant toys or plush just as well.
This is where I got my first Bear. He is a FAO "Soldier Bear" by NABCO. Up until I met Melanie he was my entire collection.
When we got married, Soldier Bear also married "Ellie Bear", one of Melanie's Bears from L.L. Bean. Really! The Bears were at our wedding. They are in the pictures and everything. :D
Now we have 1,000 Bears living with us. Seriously! Not kidding! They are in every room of the house!
Why do we love Bears? Well, all the things they say: Soft, cuddly, good for hugging when you need support, good to talk to when you need a friend. All those things. But there's a little bit more than that.
Bears make very good emotional surrogates. You can impose your emotions, which you might have a hard time expressing by yourself, upon a Teddy Bear. If you feel bad, you can say, "The Bear is not having a good day." If you are feeling happy, the Bear can jump for joy.
If you are peeved off at your spouse you can hold up a Bear and say, "He wants to know why you acted like that."
If you are sad but don't know how to say it, the Bear can tell your spouse what's wrong and it will be a little easier to express.
Our Bears buy us extra birthday and Christmas presents and cards. When you get a gift from the Bears, you know there was some extra special thought put into the gift.
There is always a Bear sitting on the sofa with us when we watch TV. Sometimes Bears might snuggle in bed.
Sometimes the Bear will turn to one of us and say, "Change the channel. This is boring." Sometimes he might say,"Hey! Stop hogging all the covers!"
About a month ago, a whole, unopened bag of potato chips turned up missing. Melanie asked me what happened to the chips. I said, "I don't know... The Bears must have got them!"
Yes, I did have a Bear when I was young. He went to live with the Velveteen Rabbit before I was ready for him to go. Maybe I have so many Bears now to compensate for the loss early on. I don't know. Just a guess.
Sure, I could collect coins or stamps or model cars but those things are cold and impersonal. I suppose we could collect dolls but, to be very honest, hyper-realistic dolls just look macabre to me! Baby dolls just aren't my style.
So... If I'm going to collect something, why not Bears? They're good company! 
