Panda Project

She arrived in a white plastic garbage bag about six weeks ago. A large, very dirty, sooty, stuffed Panda with big sad eyes. The request from her owner was, “Can you bring her back to life? She belonged to my grandson and he is about to become a father. I would like to give him back his childhood bear as a gift to his about to arrive child.” I assured her, as I gingerly touched the bear, that I could, in fact, bring this particular bruin back to life in time for her great-grandson’s arrival.

Panda has remained in her plastic bag for over a month now, as I waited for the day inspiration and energy would compel me to remove her dirty self from the bag and see what I could do.

The day has arrived, and that would be today.  First I brought out the Dyson and placed rubber gloves on my hands. Oh, I know…. I just don’t like touching things that I don’t know where they have been. I know our friend Panda has been in a garage, but I don’t know who or what was in the garage with her, and by the looks of her, it wasn’t all that pleasant.

Next I vacuumed away most of the loose cobwebs (really), dirt, sawdust, and there is even some paint on her that I’ll have to deal with later. Having gone as far as I could with the Dyson, I pulled her out of doors onto my deck and started brushing her with my specialized teddy bear cat brush.  As I brushed, her personality began to emerge through her big sad teddy bear Panda eyes. Now that she is “surface-clean” she can, at least, come into the house without her plastic bag.

I decided to let her absorb the energy of the bear house and visit a bit with Woody before we begin the next stage of our restoration project.

Woody, as you know, was rescued from the tideflats way back in the 90’s. I figured if anyone one of the bears was suitable to share hope and survival stories, it would be Woody. Tomorrow, perhaps, Panda will get her new face. Her nose, if you can tell from the pictures, is quite flattened out. Probably from many hugs in her previous life. Now I need to prepare her for more hugs to come.

Stay tuned! Hugs and love from Vicki

Saving Face with Facebook

OK, I know.... I feel a little weird, but I'm back on Facebook. I miss my friends on there, even though I don't spend too much time on board. Oh my, I'll give it another go and just quit trying to do everything perfectly... he he

I have two new bears to post, however, they are both custom orders and their recipients have not received them yet. I best wait until the bears are delivered before I post their pictures on the blog.

Working in my greenhouse and gardening (well, cleaning up last Fall's mess, have kept me busy these days. I have a stack of mohair here in my closet that is calling to me. Maybe tomorrow.

Just wanted to touch base. Love and hugs, Vicki

Restoring Peace and Sanity to My Life

In an effort to cut down on the stress in my life, I ended my relationship with Facebook. I just sort of skipped “Facebook Town” without even an apology or an explanation. I left flat all my 30+ friends and just disappeared. I felt slightly bad for an instant. But here’s the jist of it…. I just don’t have time.

What happens is, I dabble a bit here, I dabble a bit there, I try to get a footprint in some other area… and I never really arrive anywhere at all. I just sort of appear and disappear and stress out and frankly, I would just rather make bears and change my house around.

So, I decided to end my account with Facebook as I ended my account with My Space a few months ago.

Another part of the reason, is that I just don’t want to sort of kind of belong somewhere. And I felt like I sorta kinda belonged on Facebook but I never really got it. And it seemed like it was getting out of hand. It’s like, if I am going to be your friend on Facebook, or anywhere else, for that matter… I want to really be your friend. I want to look at your pictures and get to know you. I found that I just didn’t have time to do that to my satisfaction in that arena.

I want to keep up on my blog and my website and my Etsy store. I have found lovely friends here on the blog and trust me…. I won’t just disappear from here without an announcement. I feel committed to my blog, even if I can’t post as often as I would like.

The internet is an amazing phenomenon. And it is so packed full of “things to do” places to meet people and it goes on and on….. it can be very stressful. And at this stage of the game in my life, I want as little stress as is absolutely possible.

So, to those of you who read my blog and whom I have abandoned on Facebook, do not dismay. I am here, alive, well, happy, and a little less stressed, with hopefully more time to read “your”  blog posts and keep up with you here. Thanks for stopping by.

Love and hugs, Vicki and the Bears