#stuffed bears

[webkinzbunny]

various cute photos of djungelskog, the ikea bear! ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ

[doctorbeth]

Get Well Teddy's own trip to the doctor

Teddy belongs to a 3 year old who was very concerned by his run-in with the puppy. Even before her mom wrote to me, the little girl believed Teddy was at the doctor and being well taken care of. She thought Teddy would be quite comfy, because he clearly had been to a doctor before based on his belly band-aid. Here is his diagnosis photo:

And here is what he was supposed to look like:

Clearly, Teddy needed his little head pouch reattached, eye socket repairs with new fur, and two new eyes (they had his original eyes but they were too damaged to reinstall). As time is of the essence particularly when a three year old is involved, we did not schedule Teddy for a spa, just surgery.

So... he came to the hospital and I had near perfect fabric match for his eye sockets. Coloring his new eyes took a little time (they need to dry thoroughly before being installed and as it was rainy here, it took a little longer), but within the week he was ready to fly home. Here he is, just before he flew home to MN:

His person's mom wrote:

Oh my goodness, thank you!!!!! We will have one for pleased little girl.

and when he made it home, the family wrote:

    I wanted to thank you for restoring our F’s teddy bear, I could barely get her to bed last night because she couldn’t stop hugging him & talking to him. You did excellent work & it brought a lot of joy! Cheers

[treasuregamble]

plush bears wearing little outfits

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

[petsincollections]

[The interior of Allen Bowling Alley]

Photograph of the interior of the Allen Bowling Alley looking from the register's window. On the window sill are a few plus animals and ceramic figures of bears. Through the window, the alley lanes and bowling pins are visible.

This photograph is part of the collection entitled: Byrd Williams Family Photography Collection and was provided by the UNT Libraries Special Collections to The Portal to Texas History, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries.

[plushiepalz]

me and who

[reasonsforhope]

Sometimes you just have one of those moments where the progress we've made as a culture get thrown into stark relief. You look at something and go "Holy shit, that would never have happened when I was a kid."

Today, I had one of those moments when I realized that the teenage boys I'm working with are just. genuinely, openly enthusiastic about going to Build-a-Bear for their outing.

These are sixteen and seventeen year old boys! They just had a whole conversation about what to name their "cute", mostly new squishmallows! They're genuinely excited that they're going to Build-a-Bear this weekend and asking other kids to pick up specific accessories for them!!

Holy shit, that never would've happened when I was 16. None of the boys would have dared to be visibly interested - and neither would most of the girls! There would have been a million gay jokes and "Haha, you're a girl" jokes and "What are you, a baby?" jokes. Teenagers weren't even supposed to care about anything back then!

Less than 15 years later, and I'm watching three 17 year old boys treat all that as not even worthy of comment.

So let's call that a reason for hope. Even when the kids aren't alright, in some ways apparently they are alright. Go Gen Z, honestly. It's so lovely to watch you guys just openly doing and saying stuff that, when I was a teen, would've been a social death sentence.

[mountainofcookies]

I found some old drawings!

[plusie]

[munchboxart]

So I've been doing this thing for months where I just start grabbing one of my plushies to have as tummy support to prevent me from leaning too far forward towards my screen (the plush pushes me back as it's against the desk).

Maybe not good advice but for now it's better than me leaning all the way forward like a dog

[retrogamingblog2]

[theyshapedlikefriends]

New IKEA AFTONSPARV plush line

[jellycatstuffies]

Bartholomew Bear Bathrobe

Ko-fi / Instagram

[hauntedtoybox]

sunlemon fluffy tatton heart and flower bears and bunny

[petsincollections]

Portrait of a Young Girl, Morgantown, W. Va.

A little girl holds onto her teddy bear in this picture.

West Virginia History OnView

[doctorbeth]

An elderly patient part 2: Bearie

Last week I told you about Poochie the dog, who was in his sixties and came in to be stabilized so his original person could continue to hug him. Today, I'm going to share Bearie's story. Bearie is a 70 year old panda bear, and he was getting ready to go live with his original person's daughter.

Here are Bearie's original diagnosis photos:

Like Poochie's family, Bearie's family wanted to keep some of his original self visible, but since he was eventually going to be loved by a new person, he needed more stabilization, and a bath and new stuffing as well!

There aren't photos of Bearie in the bath... spas for black and white patients of his age are major surgery, because their colors need to be separated for safe cleaning. But I did clean him, and restuff him. Then, he was recovered in new fur on his head, torso, and limbs. This left his original ears and pawpads visible. He kept his original eye, and hand a new nose and mouth embroidered. Rather than replacing his missing eye, he got a removable eye patch. Here he is before we added his new mouth:

And here he is just before he headed home:

[planetbeanie]

From 1998 to 2008 an EBay seller/artist by the name of Tina Tate was creating OOAK beanies

She used the Color Me Beanie as a base and then designed, painted, and made everything

Pictured above is ‘Queen of Hearts’