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Teddy Bear and FriendsThursday, April 6: Planes, Trains, and U-Turns
I got up before dawn so a friend could drive me to the train, which I took to the plane, which brought me to Chicago. Kellie Love, who got in from Boston about an hour before me, picked me up in our rental car, and we were off on our Chicagoland adventure.
Our first stop was the Weber Grill Restaurant, where all of the food is cooked on, you guessed it, Weber grills. Remembering our extreme lack of vegetables at Toy Fair, we ate salad (with grilled chicken) for lunch—and lots of coffee, because we had gotten up rather early.
We then drove over to Fairytales, a teddy bear store in the nearby suburb of Lombard. It’s a cute shop with floor-to-ceiling display cases of bears and some great Steiff Studio animals. We had a hard time finding it, as we missed one street on the way and were required to make a few U-turns, but it was worth the search.
Next, we headed downtown to look around. (I’ve been to the Chicago suburbs a couple dozen times, and only made it into the city once or twice.) With Kellie driving and me navigating, we made it downtown with only a few U-turns. (I thought it was cool that we got to drive under the Chicago Stock Exchange on the way.) We walked a few blocks of Michigan Avenue, admired the lake, noticed that the Sears Tower doesn’t look as tall from close-up, spent a few hours goggling art at the Art Institute, and grabbed a bite to eat. We finally decided to call it a day about 7 and, with the obligatory U-turns, navigated our way out to Schaumburg and the Marriott.
Friday, April 7: Shades of Green
Pea Green: After our daily dose of veggies (salad and the Marriott’s terrific chicken quesadilla), we went to set up “Teddy JeoBEARdy.” The game was inspired by one my husband runs at an annual convention he attends. He uses a PowerPoint template downloaded from the Internet, and a friend built a buzzer system for him. I adapted it to teddy bears and will be running it at several shows this year.
It went really well. Three brave souls, Barb, Donna, and Peggy, played the inaugural game. Everyone seemed to get a kick out of the “daily double” and the theme song, and they answered quite a few questions. (Categories included “The Real Thing,” about real bears, “Born in the USA,” and “Cele’bear’ties.”) We’re going to run it again tomorrow when more collectors will be here.
The only down side was, everything on the screen was green instead of blue. We checked the computer, the cables, and all of the projector settings, and finally decided it would play the same in green as blue. Oh well.
Green lettuce: After JeoBEARdy, we indulged ourselves by going to the nearby Woodfield Mall. It’s one of the biggest in the country, and another of those places I’ve only been once. They had a whole store of Lindt chocolate! We also spent a happy half-hour in Sephora smearing ourselves with all kinds of make-up and testing perfume, then added fruit-scented body butter at The Body Shop. When we walked into a restaurant for dinner, the hostess said, “Wow, someone smells great!” I think she was being polite.
Dinner, however, was great. We ate at PF Chang’s, a gourmet Chinese place. Kellie introduced me to their chicken lettuce wraps—addictive! Kellie’s fortune cookie told her to wear shamrock green for luck.
Green mohair: Back at the hotel, we gussied ourselves up for the dessert reception and show preview. ABC is trying a new format for this show: dessert reception and preview for three hours Friday, banquet breakfast and show Saturday. The reception and preview seemed to be well attended, I noticed sales taking place, and people seemed to be speaking positively of the change, so perhaps it will stick. Regardless, it’s good to experiment with new ideas!
(To indulge your vicarious sweet tooth, the desserts included tiramisou, cheesecake, chocolate cake, fruit, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and cookies. I especially love the Marriott’s peanut butter cookies.)
On the show floor, Kellie went left and I went right. In my aisles, I visited with...
Pete and Judy Eppolito, who drove in from New York, Pete with mohair and Judy with her wonderful animals.
Tyler Craine has designed some new animals, including a green dragon, a penguin, and a giraffe.
Margaret Mount Zimmerman is introducing teddy paper dolls because she wanted to have something for kids. They’re cute characters and nicely done. She’s going to develop some characters for boys, too—she and Kelly visited the Field Museum and we got to talking about the coming Tut exhibit there, which made her think maybe boys would like Egyptian teddies. Fun!
Karen Lyons has a new “ocecat,” which is a gray spotted cat, and she’s also dressed a couple of kittens. She’s mentioned that she will have more new designs coming this summer, maybe for IDEX Vegas.
Mark and Susan McKay reported finding a new, faster way to drive down from Toronto—only to get stuck in Chicago traffic for two hours. I hope to reciprocate their visit by attending their show in Ottawa or Toronto this fall. And, of course, we’ll be exhibiting at their new show near Baltimore in November. (Put it on your calendars!)
Ben and Beth Savino of The Toy Store Collector’s Gallery are going Internet-only this year, having recently closed their store. I forgot to ask about Festival of Steiff for this year, but will double-check on that tomorrow.
I was especially pleased to see Rosalie Frischmann, whom I haven’t run into at a show for more than a year. Her work was recently on the cover of Review, and her darling dogs will be in my July issue.
Let’s see, I also chatted with Martha Burch, Pat Berkowitz, Donna Nielsen, and Cindy McGuire. The artist formerly known as Michaelyn Page is exhibiting, but wasn’t at her table when I walked by—haven’t seen her in a long time. Amy Thornton and Barbara Burke are both excited about my upcoming article about embellished bears, in which they will be featured (May issue, coming any day). I’m sure I’m leaving out some people...and that was really only two aisles’ worth...more tomorrow!
Tomorrow morning is the Theodore Society breakfast, then the show from 10-4. I’m hoping to pop some pictures up for you then, but between seeing the show and running another round of JeoBEARdy, it might be Sunday before you see images.
Cheers!
Mindy
Newcastle, OntarioHi Mindy,
Sounds like you are having lots of fun. That was always a great show. Tell Connie and Amber that Neil and Brenda Power say "hello". Haven't seen them in ages.
Hugs,
Brenda
DoodlebearsGreat report Mindy! Do we get to see lots of pictures? I hope so! Sounds like you are having a wonderful time, I'll look forwards to part two of the report.
Hugs Jane :hug:
LuxembearsWell, KUDOS to you, Mindy, for being brave enough to navigate around O'Hare International Airport. Talk about a spaghetti dinner of roads!..maybe I shoudl give Kellie the credit 
Sounds like you're off to a great start. Can't wait to hear more....and see some pictures too! :dance:
Posts: 8,574Searching out salads,
! (yikes)
gollyhugs
dilu
Past Time BearsLOVE, LOVE reading your report, Mindy . . . can't help being sad that I'm not there. Was there last year and enjoyed it immensely! Jebeardy sounds like a hoot and what a clever girl you are to have come up with the bear version! Will you be posting photos, too? Looking forward to the next report! :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: 
Budd Bears BoutiqueThank you Mindy for the report, always look forward to them.
