Saturday, June 26, 2010

Wee Wee Wee...

A Little Piggie Story by
Cindy McGuire

 ............


This Little Piggy Went to Market...
 

•••••
This little piggy stayed home...
 

•••••
This little piggy had roast beef...
 

•••••
And this little piggy had none...
 

•••••
And this little piggy went...
 
wee wee wee...
all the way  home (with you...)!



Set of piggies by artist Cindy McGuire...
(Now available at Mostly Bears;
click link below to purchase or visit the website here.)
 
l to r from top: "Market", "Wee Wee",
"Home", "Roast Beef" & "None"
Made from mohair with jointed arms and legs, glass eyes.
Accessorized as shown.
Set of 5 pieces
$800.


Enjoy!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Monday, June 21, 2010

Trip Home & Winner of our Grand Blog Giveaway!

Hello campers!
The Bear Store on Wheels has arrived home... it was a wild ride! We had a great time at TBRH & a fascinating trip home... now it's time to settle in & figure out how we're going to stay cool in HOT Tucson!
Here's a link to our trip-home photos... (click on the photo to start the slideshow)... enjoy...

Trip Home from Iowa June 2010


And now for our final winner in the Mostly Bears 'On The Road' Blog Giveaway:

For a fantastic artist lion by Sandy Czaja of Notchlok Bears:


Our winner is:

Sharon C.
Congratulations Sharon!!




:)

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Last Day of TBRH 2010 recap!

Sunday the 13th at TBRH was all about the artist bears!





The afternoon began with me spending a littIe while on the "other side of the table", in place of Steve Schutt & Laura Sanchez, so they could attend the Boyds events at the Museum.

It was fun greeting collectors & also conversing with the neighboring artists… Renee Casey and Joan & Mike Woessner.  I took a liking to the antique toy sewing machines on their table… not to mention their Spirit of 76 pieces from the Smithsonian collection…

And then there were the little carved wooden bears from Barb & Gerald Smith (Santa's Whiskers)...

After Steve and Laura returned to the showroom, I visited some of the creations I had my eye on. There was the old fashioned pincushion bear I had my eye on by artist Isabella Hoffman. And the Peeps by Adriana Esqueda. And the fur bears from Diana Watts. And then the friendly faced bears from Marilyn Wagner.  And the little handful of a bear from Peggy Fleming.

(If you're in Tucson next week, stop in and see what we ended up with.  Or, check back on the blog and I'll be posting pics right here.)

And, then, before we knew it, the showroom was closed!

While us pink-name-tagged people (collectors wearing pink name tags) were treated to one last dinner in the cafetorium, the green-name-tagged people (artists) quickly vacated their tables & the gym was prepared for the final hurrah, Closing Ceremonies.

The emcee for the ceremony was John Paul Port. And Denis Shaw assisted with loads of fun "door prizes" for us!  And we heard a wonderful thank you from Barb Mussman.


In the drawing, I won pretty black and white pieces of mohair donated by Alison Mckee. (will make a pretty panda). And Mary Ann's husband Jim, won some mohair too! Guess Jim and I need a class if we're going to use our winnings. Haha!

We tried to say so long and see you in 5 years to as many people as we could. Pretty soon, we were driving away, already feeling nostalgic, reliving the memories and hoping for there to be next TBRH.



One last stop before getting on the road… we stopped by the Museum & picked up a whole bunch of wonderful bear-themed clocks (photo soon) for the store… a fun offering for our own customers who may not have been able to attend.



And NOW for the winner of our On the Road Blog Giveaway…
For a little Grisly, scruffy patched old fashioned mohair bear…



And the winner is:

Bev S.

Congratulation!

Tomorrow's prize… a wonderful mohair lion by artist Sandy Czaja.



Good Luck to all!

(I have one more of these fantastic lions (different color) available at the store… if you don't win... and if want one!)

TBRH Saturday Recap & the Blog Giveaway

Dear teddy bear lovers...

The Saturday and Sunday festivities at Clarion TBRH 2010 (the ones we made it to...) are now, alas, in the past, soon to be fond memories... once we make it home, that is.

Saturday morning, the 12th of June, dawned in a torrential downpour! Yours truly opted for sweet sleep over early-morning attendance at the Pancake Breakfast at the Firehouse... so I do not know if that event even took place!  I still have fond memories of '05's pancakes and was a little disappointed that I missed it. But what can you do?

By 9:30 or so, we made it to the showroom floor, an exquisite sight! Some of our favorite artists were attending and it was so fun to see what was new. Did I take photos? Of course not! I was too busy looking and (kinda) drooling :)

I did get a couple of generic shots of the showroom on Sunday and will post those in the next blog entry.

But, gentle reader, fear not!  I shall recommend to you the following website for additional photos of the event... (Wayne Baldridge Photography)

My master plan was to not buy anything until I had looked at EVERYTHING. And I knew my time was short. (seeing as how we slept in on the most important day of the Reunion, and all...) The showroom would be closing very soon for the parade and the Festival In the Park. So I took a spin around... quickly... and spotted far too many AMAZING creations... then out the door and off to the town square. (Luckily, it stopped raining just in time!)

Here's a few pics from the Clarion park & Grandstand:

Lunch in the Park
Mariachi music

Arts and crafts booths

Info booth at Steve's house

From the park, we made a short trip to the Teddy Bear Museum:

Heartland Museum

Teddy Bear Museum

The late Kathy Wallace's Smithsonian Creation

Display cabinets in the Teddy Bear Museum

Shelves filled with artist bears!

(more photos from the museum in the album links below)

By then it was afternoon and we hustled back to the showroom for what I like to call "artist beartopia"...

My first adoption of the day took place at Joel Hoy's table. I had so admired Joel's auction piece the night before:

Auction piece

...and Joel's table held so many lovely dressed bears, impeccably outfitted. But the bear that jumped off the table for me was a bare bear, a classic short mohair sitting bear with gentle face, weighted just a little, with a slight bit of understuffing in the belly.  Really the perfect old fashioned style bear. Joel told me he "went out on a limb" to make undressed bears... a rarity for him.... to try for this show. I picked my bear up and the deal was instantly sealed. Sometimes, you just know!

I will post photos after arriving home, as all my bears are packed safely for travel at the moment.

Next, I wandered past Jeanette Warner's table.  (Nettee Bears) The bear I purchased there has a fascinating story:

In 2000, the Smithsonian Institution began making plans for a Teddy Bear Centennial Celebration, scheduled to take place in June of 2002. Many prominent artists at the time were asked to produce pieces (and many artists did, in fact, produce them) for the event. However, because of the events of 9/11, the celebration was canceled and was never rescheduled.

For TBRH this year, Steve Schutt put together a display at the Museum to honor those pieces; he collected 18 artists' creations that were supposed to have been shown at the Smithsonian event:

Joan Woessner & Renee Casey, Spirit of 76
Smithsonian artist piece

Smithsonian pieces. (Teddy Trivia in coffee can!)

Smithsonian artist piece.

Which brings me back to Jeanette Warner, the creator of the Smithsonian piece called "Teddy Trivia"! As you can see above, the prototype of Teddy Trivia is on display in the exhibit. In addition to the prototype, the artist produced a limited edition of 3 of these pieces. And I purchased #2. 

My Teddy Trivia bear and coffee can came with all sorts of wonderful paperwork, explaining about the Smithsonian event, the cancellation and the story of "good to the last drop.". Can't wait to reopen the package and see all the extra goodies! Of course, I will share it here with you when I do.

And there we have it for my first day of the artist showroom! There were SO many great creations I had wanted and had to leave for another day...  Pam Pontious' superb lions and roosters, Bobbie Ripperger's fabulous pandas, Diana Watts' and Kim Zeman's lovely fur bears, Denis Shaw's grizzlys... so very many talented artists!

But, before I knew it, the showroom was closed and we took ourselves out for a cool and relaxing bike ride around town. (Clarion is a GREAT bike town!)

...caught a glimpse of the requisite bears, of course:




And now to resume our On The Road Blog Giveaway!
The winner of our prize today... a yard of bear themed cotton fabric...



The winner is:

Karen B.

Congratulations!

Tomorrow's drawing is for a little Grisly bear that's been traveling with us...

Mohair, scruffy & patched!


Good luck to all...

I added a few more Teddy Bear Reunion pics here: (click photo to launch slideshow)

TBRH 2010

And some "traveling home" pics here: (I'll be adding to these as we are traveling)

Trip Home from Iowa June 2010

Enjoy!

(I'll cover Sunday's events in the next post:)

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Haven't forgotten you!

Hello fellow teddy bear lovers! It's been non-stop action and adventure at TBRH 2010! I'll be posting details at the end of the weekend...
and we'll also get caught up on the winners of our On The Road Blog Giveaway...
for now, here's some some of the photos I have taken over the past two days...
Click on the photo to start the show.
TBRH 2010
Enjoy!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

A rainy day!

Greetings fellow teddy bear lovers!

Most of our day was spent hunkered down in the RV... rain & wind swirling around us...
View from the camper... we were surprised the tent didn't blow away!

By early afternoon, there wasn't much left to do but take a nap!

Around 3, I ventured out and spent a few minutes with Steve... marveling at how easily some of the biggest names in the artist teddy bear world passed in and out of his home while I was there... and how little I know of this exclusive club of highly talented creators! It was fun just to observe.

After we finally got ourselves packed, stowed and moved out of the driveway, we proceeded over to the registration office, located in the old railroad depot. What a great, old building! We picked up our packets, which contained loads of TBRH goodies and a fun tote bag. We also got to meet one of the principal organizers of the event (and the local newspaperwoman) Barb Mussman. A neat lady!

From there, we went to find our Clarion hosts, the Rectors. What a great town, the people are so friendly, we sat and talked on the porch for awhile until the event shuttle (school bus) stopped out in front of the house. The driver happened to be the Rector's neighbor, so we were sort of peer-pressured (ha ha) into taking the bus over to the museum for dinner.

The shuttle driver is a volunteer, as are all the workers here. By day, he's in charge of buses at the school district. (he's also an EMT... we had a long conversation about heart disease.) After he was dropping us off at the museum, I said, "by the way, what's your name?" He said, just call me "number 2."  Ok... "thanks 2", I said.  Later I found out his name is Mr. Tew.
  
At the museum, a dozen tables or so had been set up in the air conditioned room (mostly full of people talking and eating by the time we arrived); there were sandwiches, salads and drinks served by a crew of volunteers. The meal was included in our registration for the event. We saw quite a few people we recognized, both artists and collectors.  (including two of my faves, who happened to be sitting nearby... you know who you are, ladies :)



We took a quick walk through the teddy bear museum and vowed to return later to take proper photos. The new exhibits are fantastic! There is a tribute to the Smithsonian 100th year of the teddy bear celebration, which was supposed to take place in 2002 but was canceled due to 9/11. Some of the original bears meant for that exhibit are being shown. There's also a wonderful new artist bunny exhibit. I promise to revisit, photograph and share as much of it as I can.

After catching the shuttle back to the Rectors house, we drove over to the high school for opening ceremonies. John Paul Port emceed the event. Collectors and artists are here from all over the world. Even though it seems a smaller number than the last time we were here (which we expected due to the economy), everyone seems excited, which is good.

The keynote speaker was Jack Wilson, House of Nisbet bears. He presented an interesting account of the development of his company and how he got into making bears. 
 
All in all, a fun night!
Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will take the trusty camera out and get some more pics of the town, the venues and of course the bears. There will be a preview of the auction bears in the afternoon & viewing of the Most Spectacular Bears. Lots of photo-ops.

As for today's On The Road Blog Giveaway, here's today's prize:
1 yard of bear themed fabric. And the winner is:

C586 (follower via Google)

Congratulations!

Tomorrow's prize:

A Steiff plush bear, approx 16" in size. "James"; good luck to all!

Tonight's fundraiser:



Steiff mohair keyring, approx. 3 1/2 inch, with gold metal clasp. Reg. $52, special $46 All proceeds go to TBRH!
Click below to purchase:





Thanks for following the blog and our On The road postings... more from Clarion, Iowa tomorrow night...

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

In the Heartland!

Greetings from Iowa!
Yes, we have finally made it to Clarion, Iowa and ready to attend Teddy Bear Reunion in the Heartland 2010! It's beautiful and green here... and the townspeople of Clarion are the nicest ever.
I updated the photo album with some new pics:

Trip To Clarion 2010

Tomorrow, I will start a new album with TBRH photos in it...

And now for the winner of today's On The Road Blog Giveaway... a little bitty elephant from Deb Canham's dollshouse collection:


The winner is:

Eileen S.

Congratulations!

I'll post tomorrow's prize tomorrow... tired... goodnight!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

"On the Road" Update

Greetings teddy bear lovers, from cool, beautiful South Dakota,

I swear we learn something new every day, today it's geography! Who would have known? A tri-state city, smack in the middle of the heartland... Sioux City, Iowa... South Sioux City, Nebraska... North Sioux City, South Dakota... I kid you not...


Before we get to today's drawing, here's the requisite bear... (for Christine, with love:)



We found this guy outside tonight's camp spot. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, without delay, here's today's prize in the On The Road Blog Giveaway. A rolly polly bear, baby play toy, from Tolo:

And the winner is:

Diane G.

How fun! A fellow Arizonan AND a fellow TBRH attendee for our winner... see you in Clarion, Diane!

Tomorrow's prize is a little-itty-bitty-ellie from Deb Canham dollshouse series:


Good luck, everyone!

I uploaded some more travel photos into the album for viewing. Click the album below to view:

Trip To Clarion 2010

Tomorrow we will arrive in Clarion, Iowa and we'll be ready and waiting for Teddy Bear Reunion in the Heartland to begin on Thursday.

Oh, one more thing, here's another fundraising piece for TBRH... a Hansa squirrel.  I convinced the driver to stop at a park for the photo shoot.



He's about 11" size, regular $30. Specially priced at $24. All proceeds going to TBRH.
Click below to purchase:





Enjoy!