Sunday, May 15, 2011

Sunny Days and Teddy Bears..

… if you live in Juneau, Alaska, sunny days are not conducive to sitting indoors and working on teddy bears. Sorry bears.

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Juneau is located in the Southeast Panhandle of Alaska in what is described as a rainforest. Not the kind of rainforest you might think of in terms of warm and tropical. This is the kind of rain that looks like 44 degrees and raining… really raining.

My favorite place to be on those rainy days is right here in the teddy bear room, creating to my heart’s content.

But when it sunshines here in beautiful Alaska ….. it is next to impossible to stay indoors. You might even say we are somewhat frantic to “get outside” if you have lived in Juneau for any length of time.

For the past two days it has been sunny and warm. I have planted my vegetable garden, gone for a motorcycle ride with my hubby and poked around in my greenhouse. I am saturated with sun and loving every minute of it.

But you know, even though the sun is gorgeous and wonderful and I need to be in it…. the teddy bear room beckons me even now as evening approaches… I feel that urge inside of me that isn’t satisfied doing anything but creating bears.

I have five projects that are sitting here patiently at my work desk.

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Two little bears… one needs a little extra airbrushing, the other a face and a name.

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A new little panda to be created from mohair I dyed this weekend… (I did stay inside long enough to do that).

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An Alaskan Grizzly type bear to be made from this gorgeous tipped mohair… that I boiled up to make it look a bit distressed.

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And another what I hope to be an Alaskan Brown Bear from some white mohair that I dyed a chocolate brown.

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I hope to have some finished bears to show you here in the next few days…. but it might have to start raining first.

Hugs to all of you! Vicki and the “potential” bears

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing the pics of Juneau and your teddy working area which looks very organized and busy:o)) Winter has arrived here in Australia and I am feeling the cold and have to go outside to warm up! No where near as cold as it would be for you though.
    Take care and have a good week:o))
    Hugs Lyn x

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  2. Can't blame you for wanting to be outside with that sun shining. I enjoyed your pictures and the beginning creation of your beautiful bears. Alaska sounds wonderful. I should one day visit that part of the world

    Hugs
    PatC

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  3. I loved seeing pics of your workplace . . just call me nosy parker! :o) How adventurous of you to go boiling up your mohair Vicki! I'm not that brave! :o)

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  4. Hi Lyn, Probably what feels "cold" to you would be "warm" to us Alaskans. I don't think it got much over 50 degrees F yesterday, but we were outside in our shirtsleeves.

    OK, Pat, if you ever come to Alaska, most especially Juneau, let me know. There are cruises that come up here in the summer..

    Lynda, I love that you came to visit my workplace. It's fun to invite friends over... one day soon I'll photo the whole room and have you all over for tea. Mohair is incredible..... it "loves" to be boiled :)

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  5. Haha! We have been loving the sunshine as well. I love your comment about feeling "frantic" to get out in it :)

    My gosh I had no idea so much work went into making your bears! They are so stinking cute!

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  6. Boiling the mohair!!?? Today is a holiday here in wintry South Africa, so that's what I'm going to do now ... boil the mohair.

    Enjoy your sunshine Vicki ... and all the bear making.

    Lots of love
    Pat xx

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  7. I'm so glad you got to enjoy some sunny weather, Vicki. I hope you have several more of those days.

    Thanks for sharing pics of your teddy bear creating room and some of the process that goes into making one of your beautiful creations.

    Hugs,
    Tracy

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