Oops...

Forgot to blog yesterday!

We were left with the unanswered burning question of the day: What is a Knarf? And what is this Knarf thinking? (or something like that...)

Answers:

Drum roll please......

Thinking...

As you may have guessed a Knarf is a really wonderful bear by artist Maria Devlieghere of Knarf-bears from Belgium. And this is Father Grimm, a great scruffy bear who just happens to be a "millenium" kind of a guy...he's dated January 2000 and is #1 of 3 LE. F.Grimm is about 14 inches in size, made from a really amazing scruffy, long, sparse mohair. Though he doesn't have super tight joints, he sits up quite nicely. His original price was $125, now on sale for $75.

F.G. (which he likes to be referred to, by the way) is probably bound for ebay in the next few days. If he is calling to you, let me know! Enjoy!

Featured Artist Bear of the Day

Q #1: What's a Knarf Bear?

Q #2: What's could this Knarf Bear possibly be thinking about?

Answers tomorrow "In The Blog". See you then!

Better Late Than Never

Here's a little something of interest:

Imagine our surprise while listing two distinctly different bears from our older store stock, we discovered a mutual similarity between these two unique creations...

The little guy is an artist piece named, appropriately, "Little Tyke" by Yolanda Levy (Yoyo Bears) and the big guy is a manufactured bear from Effanbee, designed by none other than Yolanda Levy!
For more info...check it out here on ebay...low, low opening bid!
Enjoy!

Saturday's Featured Bear

Isn't She Lovely?
"Lucia", a beautiful 15" rusty mohair bear from FBS Bears...Fredy and Bettina Springweiler...Germany...This is one of Fredy's I think. Dressed in cotton jumper. Was $320. Now $160 during our January Sale!!
Have a great weekend and I'll see you soon "On The Blog"

Today's Featured Artist Piece and a Love Story!

"A Tail Of Two Bunnies"

Once upon a time there were two fabulous creamy white curly matted mohair bunnies made by artist Mary Ann Neisz! They both stood tall and proud...at say, oh, about 18 inches in size. They were amazingly limber with their 5 disk joints. And they absolutely loved their smoky pink ultrasuede paw pads.

They kept an eye on each other with their ultrasuede eyelidded eyes...his lids brown and hers (of course) mascara'd with black...

One day, the boy bunny (lets call him Harvey Hare, shall we?), decided to visit the girl bunny. We'll call her Harriet Hare. He brought a bouquet of red roses (Harriet's favorite, no doubt) and with hat in hand, he proposed they live happily ever after.

She accepted.

They romped through the countryside and past a lovely fountain. Once, Harriet even lost her black boa... and Harvey could see that she had the same puffy alpaca tail has he did! They lived happily ever after...

Wait!

I mean, they WILL live happily ever after once they get adopted! A great Valentine pair...Harvey and Harriet Hare.

Regular $420. During our January sale, H&H Hare are just $378! Enjoy!

Thursday's Featured Artist Bear

This little lady's personality speaks for itself!
Today's feature artist special is made by artist Melanie Nathan, "Maggie" stands about 9 inches tall and is made from a unique rayon fabric. She has ultrasuede paw pads and is fully jointed. She wears a little smocked cream/flowered dress and an oversized bow in her hair. This piece is undated but is probably from about 1999. She was normally $115. On our January sale, she is just $65. Enjoy! Thanks for looking and I'll see you again tomorrow!

Featured Artist of the Day

Hello there fellow teddy bear lovers!

I thought I'd get a little jump on tomorrow's featured artist bear by posting my Inaugural Special! It's appropriate that today's trio of patriotic bears will help raise some very needed funds for the National Military Families Association, (http://www.nmfa.org/) an organization that supports soldiers' spouses and children.

So here are the candidates, so to speak, for a new ebay auction for 100% benefit NMFA. The trio will be grouped in one listing. I hope you get a chance to take a look and maybe even put in a bid or two.

Enjoy!

P.S. We will be open Wednesday through Saturday this week for our Super January Sale. (see our older posts or visit www.mostlybears.com for more information about the sale!

Today's Featured Artist Piece!

Our first ever vid-cast from Mostly Bears! We present today's featured artist piece. Click on the forward arrow below to view:

P.S. Your feedback is appreciated!

He ain't Heavy...

Here's our featured artist piece of the day who weighs in at 1 1/2 lbs!I'm not sure about this "weighty" theme I seem to have going...might not the best choice for the new year (after somehow eating my own weight in cookies over the past month)...however...

"Bismarck" is made from a really awesome reddish brown scruffy (really scruffy) wool fur by The Bear Lady. At 16 inches in size and with his manly leather collar around his neck, he would look great with a handknitted Fisherman's sweater, don'tcha think?

And Bismarck looks like he's a little worried too, so he fits right in here at Mostly Bears...(maybe he's contemplating Jenny Craig)...Originally priced at $249, our super January sale price for this awesome artist piece is $120. Enjoy!

Teddy Bear worth his weight!

Here's our featured artist piece of the day...

"Jesse" is a 10-inch scruffy, curly, matted mohair bear by artist Bonnie Foster. He's stuffed with just the right amouint of glass beads (if you like weighted bears, that is)...this little guy weighs just shy of a pound! Although these snapshots seem to look a bit honey-colored, Jesse's fur is really a taupe color with that cool darker underfabric to give him loads of character. The regular price for Jesse is $120. During our super January sale, he's just $60! Let me know if Jesse just "has" to come home with you! Enjoy...and be sure to check back here On The Blog for tomorrow's featured artist piece.

January Newsletter

Happy new year fellow teddy bear lovers, near and far...

I hope y'all are hugging tight to your bears as we strap ourselves into this roller coaster ride called 2009! Here's hoping at the end, we'll all step safely out of our seats shouting "Whew~ what a ride!"

To start the year off right, we need a sale, of course. And what a sale it will be!

I'm nick-naming this the Mostly Bears "10-70 sale" for the following reasons:

10% off All Artist Pieces

20% off All Hansa

30% off All Steiff

40% off All Hermann

50% off All Deans & DCAD

60% off All Gund & Mary Meyer

70% and more on Selected Artist Bears

This is a GREAT chance to pick up an artist piece or Steiff bear you might've had your eye on for awhile.

JANUARY HOURS ~EXPANDED

Through January, in honor of our 10-70 sale, Mostly Bears will be open 11-5 Wednesdays through Saturdays. (just like the old days!) Hope to see you soon...

NEW CLASS
On Saturday, February 21st, Mary Ann Neisz will be offering a one-time class in Japanese braiding (otherwise known as kumihimo). These braids are quite beautiful and can be made from all sorts of wonderful cording, ribbon or thread. Mary Ann is a multi talented, creative artist & this is just one of her new interests!The class will be $75 and will include supplies and tools, so you can make more braids on your own after you learn the basics. There's more info and a link to sign up for the class here on the website or you can call the store anytime at 322-0208 or toll free at 877-709-7191. We hope you will be able to join us for this great new class!

JOIN STEIFF CLUB in 2009 for FREE!

Mostly Bears will deduct the price you pay for you 2009 Club membership from your first club piece order of the year. (Last year, dues were $55, this year may be a little more.) In addition, you will still receive the usual 10% discount on all Steiff items, club or otherwise, purchased throughout the year.

CHARITY EVENTS

Here's a trio of fundraisers for charity in the new year:

Plan One: STOREROOM BOX SALE

Long story short... a.)I found some older Steiff Club and Boyds club kits in the storeroom. b.)I want to raise some money for charity. So, I am asking $25 each for them to benefit the Ben's Bells Project here in Tucson.

If you've never heard of Ben's Bells, I hope you'll take a gander over to their website here and check it out. It is a wonderful, wonderful organization started by a Tucson mother to honor her son, who died at age 3 from croup. Several times a year, hundreds and hundreds of Ben's Bells are distributed randomly around town for people to find and take home. The exponential goodness which has arisen from Ben's Bells has been immeasurable.
I have found found two Ben's Bells in my front yard in the past several years...true random acts of kindness that seem to show up just when you need them the most. The first one, I gifted to a friend who needed a lift...the other is hanging in my kitchen window waiting for the right moment to pay it forward.
Uh oh, I guess that wasn't exactly a short story...but the bottom line is...if you are interested in these older Club kits (and whatever goodies are in their boxes), let me know and together we'll raise some funds for Ben's Bells. Thanks in advance!

Plan Two: RAFFLE

We are raffling off a really cute pair of bears by artist Sandy Czaja. All money raised will go to the Community Food Bank. Here's what the little cuties look like:Tickets are 50 cents and can be purchased at the store, by phone or on our website at www.mostlybears.com/raffle.htm. The drawing will take place Saturday February 21st during Mary Ann's braiding class. Good luck to all!

Plan Three: START THE NEW YEAR OFF RIGHT ON EBAY

Here's the third charity fundraiser for the new year to benefit our favorite local charity, the Academy for Cancer Wellness. I'm selling 5 like-numbered DCAD bears from the New Friends series on ebay. 100% of your bid will go to ACW. Check it out here on ebay. Starting bid is $80 for all 5 pieces. A great deal for a great cause! The auction is ending January 17th, so I hope you get a chance to hurry on over to ebay and take a look.

BEAR MAKING WEDNESDAYS

Mary Ann's back (yay!) from Winter Break & will be restarting our Wednesday get-togethers this week, January 14th. We invite you to stop in and start a bear, finish a bear or work on any of the numerous steps in between! Mary Ann is a true professional and can help anyone (including me!) to work out the fine details of teddy bear making. We hope you'll be able to join us one of these Wednesdays.

BEAR MAKING SUPPLIES

We've been hard at work since the holidays trying to get all our bear making supplies & fabric organized and neatened up so we can find stuff! And whew, we're just about there. We hope you'll stop and see what's new and/or re-found!! We're happy to say we have everything you need to make your first...or hundredth...bear!

On that note, I will leave our January Newsletter at that and sign off.

Sincerely, Trish

A great cause in 2009