Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Wow!!  What a beautiful bear on that auction!!!  What a price!!!     I can dream....when I win the lottery....hhmmmmm........
My bear doesn't have his button either - this tends to de-value an old Steiff by about half of what he would be priced if he did have his button - which is the only way we could afford to have Alfie!!  Believe me - he was only a fraction of the price that this auction is going for!!!!

Awww thanks! :redface:   He is blonde.  I don't have any other old Steiff bears!! I had longed for a really old Steiff bear since I was a little girl, and I know I am so so lucky to have a bear like 'Alfie' in my collection.    Most of the rest of my collection are artist bears.

What a lovely bear!! And a great name too!!!  Everyone needs as least one Steiff bear in their collection!!

Although my collection is predominantly artist bears, I do have a couple of Steiff bears. I got my first two Steiff bears on my 21st birthday a couple of years ago, but my most special Steiff bear called 'Alfie' dates to c.1906 and my husband bought me him as my wedding present.

Here he is:

Thank you all for your kind words.  We have still got a bit of tap water left, but my parents who live a few miles away in Tewkesbury have run out, and our supply will run out very soon.
I'm glad to hear everyone else is ok at the moment.  It just seems so ironic that we are knee-deep in water, and yet there is no clean drinking water!!

Daphne - I can't believe it is on your news!!  The water treatment plant is only a couple of miles away from me!  Have you seen the aerial footage of Tewkesbury?  If you have, the Abbey which is in the middle of the 'island' is where Alan and I got married.

Glad to hear you are safe and dry Chloe!!
We've still got tap water at the moment, and we have filled lots of buckets, pans and bottles in preparation!!

I have added some pictures of the local flooding on my blog if anyone is interested in taking a look.

Well, the flood waters may have got lower in my back garden, but the problems are not over yet.  The waters are still rising in areas around me, and we have today been told that our tap water is going to run out in the next hour or so, as the local water treatment plant is flooded and has stopped working.  They are saying that it could be over 72 hours before the water is turned on again.
So many people's homes around us have been flooded, including two houses opposite us.  When will this end?
Is anyone else affected by all of this??

We woke up this morning to find that the water has gone down a lot.  It started going down late last night.  We had been desperately waiting for last night to be able to go and collect the new Harry Potter book at midnight, so once we knew our house was no longer in danger, we waded out to get to the shops!!  We must be mad!!!!

It is so tempting to read some of the end, just to see what happens!!!  We won't though - I just hope we can get to the end before we accidentally find out what happens!!!!

I live in Cheltenham and I am currently living on an island!!  I have had to wade knee-deep to get to my house.  Luckily we are still high enough to not yet be flooded.  Houses next to us are flooded.  It is so upsetting to see people trying to rescue their belongings.  We've moved lots of things upstairs just in case.  We are anxiously watching the water to see if it is going to rise.

Here are a few pics:

This is our back garden:

This is the only entrance to our little housing estate:

This is across the back gardens of our neighbours.

My Dad actually got trapped at work.  The whole of the village was cut off.  Luckily someone had a van and was able to drive him through the water.

Happy Summer Time!!!!

Thanks for sharing that - I really like it!!!!

Ouch!!!!    That made me cringe just reading it!!! I hope your leg gets better soon!!!!   :hug:

Awww, thank you ladies.  Your comments mean a lot to me. :hug:

As the only time I take Paypal is when I sell a bear through my website, I take this as a 'selling fee'.  If bears are sold at a fair, then you have to cover the cost of the stall, etc., so to me the fees of paypal are the cost of selling through a website.

When you fill in your tax form, you should only be paying tax on your profit.  Therefore, make sure you are only paying tax on the amount you got for the bear after paypal fees have been taken off.  You do this by including the fees as a business expense.  This doesn't get you your paypal fee back, it just means that you are only paying tax on your actual profit.  Sorry - difficult to explain in writing, but I hope this makes sense!! (PM if you are not sure what I mean but would like to know!!! :lol:)

Hope this helps!!

You need to take care when adding steel shot to thread-jointed bears, as the shot gradually wears away at the thread running through the body.  One of my first weighted bears ended up falling apart because the shot caused the threads inside him to break - it was suprising how quickly it happened!!
For this reason I don't tend to weight my minis.  I don't mind 'light' bears!!!

Christine - congratulations on your new home!!  It must be such a lovely feeling to be in at last!!  Also - those bears are gorgeous!!!

I am definitely looking forward to the new book, although it will be sad that it is the last one.  We are going to collect ours at midnight.  As we have reserved a copy, I am looking forward to seeing their face when they ask for our name and we say 'Potter'!!  :crackup:

Congratulations!!!

What a beautiful little baby - I love that she has a big smile on her face!!    You must all be so happy that she is here safe and sound.

I haven't received mine yet either, and was beginning to wonder whether there was a problem.  I guess we just have to wait.  It usually gets to me really quickly - before many people receive theirs in the USA!!  I am just so impatient when it comes to bear magazines - I want them immediatley!!!

Tami - your house is beautiful!!

I have an exciting summer in front of me.  I will be going over to Canada and the USA for the first time.  It will be my first time on a plane, so I am really nervous!!
I will be visiting the Expo and the GT Awards ceremony, participating in the TBAI and doing three weeks worth of sightseeing!!
This is the first time I have ever had a holiday like this, so it is pretty exciting but also rather nerve-wracking as it is a completely new experience!!  

Jodi - I hope your summer turns out better than you expect it to be.  Good luck with everything - sending you lots of hugs. :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:

Just got back from the 10am showing on the first day it is out at my local cinema (I'm not obsessed - I promise!!! )  Its a super film.  I agree - very dark and intense.  I jumped a couple of times aswell!!  I always feel a bit sad when I know the books so well and they have to miss out some of my favourite sub-plots, but thats Hollywood I guess!!!!  Highly recommended!!!      

Thank you all for your kind words. :redface:

Brenda - TBAI runs from 16th to 18th August this year, with the public show and sale on Saturday 18th August.  Check out www.tbai.org for more details!!  It would be great to see you there!!!   

(This little guy is 6cm sitting.)

I have been working hard recently making bears for the Teddy Bear Artist Invitational (TBAI) in Binghamton, USA, and also for Hugglets, UK which is two weeks later.
Here are a few bears that I will be taking to the States with me for TBAI.  There are more preview bears on my blog if anyone wants to take a peek.

(These guys are about 7cm sitting)

Brilliant!!!!!!! :crackup:

Dancing is fab isn't it!!!    My hubby and I have tried 'le roc' dance (which is where we met!!!), ballroom, salsa and others!!  We don't dance so much anymore, since we left university a few years ago, but we would like to dance again in the future.  I have always danced - I started ballet at the age of 3, and didn't stop until I was 18 and going off to university!!  I still go dancing once a week, but not partner-dancing.
I know so many couples who have got together through dancing!!!  So if anyone out there is looking for someone - take up dancing!!!! :crackup:  :crackup:

Thanks for sharing the pics Mindy - oh how I wish I could have been there!!!!!

That hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :crackup:  :crackup: My husband had to ask me what I was laughing at so much!!!!!! :crackup:  :crackup:

I love the dancing pics!!  My hubby and I met through dancing at university.  Judi - were you both able to dance when you met, or was it something you learned to do together? (sorry- being nosy now!!!! :redface: )

It certainly looked like a fab event!!!!