By Miki de Goodaboom
Here is the first part of the article published last week in the international magazine “Teddy Bear Times”…
Month: July 2016
Truffle McFurry And His Girlfriend From Portugal
By Truffle McFurry
Hello everybody, are you ok?
We have come back from the Algarve in Portugal, we had a beautiful trip in our new car “Hey Juke”, and we saw many lovely things, and even our footie heroes “The Rams”, and Miki did many paintings.
And I fell in love!
There was this doll in our flat, she had such amazing blond hair, and that lovely face with the bright blue eyes and the cute red mouth… Miki had told me to be more careful with girls, after I had my heart broken by an island princess in Tenerife some years ago. And I was very careful, I never fell in love again. But this time, I could not resist, it took me by surprise, it happened in the same moment as she looked at me with her bright blue eyes.
Her name was Veronica. She was so nice to cuddle!
Now we are separated again, but we have promised to be friends for life, and to write to each other. I still haven’t done though, I was too busy with other stuff on Planet Goodaboom. She hasn’t written either, she must be busy too… I am not sure if I should be worried…
What I am really worried about is the colour of my fur. Normally I don’t go in the sun, Miki does not allow it, saying it is bad for me. But in Portugal we had to be in the sun, it was everywhere, we could not escape it, and now my fur is lighter at some places. I don’t understand: Miki is the contrary, after the sun, she is darker in some places. She says she will soon be white again, but she says too, that my fur will stay like that, with these lighter pieces. She says, we will call them “highlights”, it is very modern and fashionable and girls like it. But I am not sure if Miki says it to please me… on the other side, Veronica did love me exactly how I was… I wonder if I should dye my fur now… it does look so weird! But I think Miki would not let me… she is scared that I am allergic to the chemical stuff… she is always scared for me! I guess, it is because she loves me so much… 🙂
Teddy Bear Times
By Truffle McFurry
Hallo everybody!
We are back from Portugal, I have seen the Rams playing footie against Benfica (they lost a lot though…) and many beautiful places! I hope Miki will soon do some paintings of me there and I can show you.
But for now, I have fabulous news: I am getting famous… at least I hope so. Me and “Go Teddy!” and Miki, we are featured in that great international magazine called “Teddy Bear Times”, with a big article and many of the bear paintings.
It starts in the first page with one of the bears from the series “My Teddy And Me”… but the amazing thing is that within the painting they have put the famous English broadcaster Gyles Brandreth holding one of his bears! He is a big fan of Teddy bears, and has a huge collection. And do you know what? Ann La Mar, our wonderful reporter at “Go Teddy!” has invited us to visit Gyles’ collection at Newby Hall, when we will go over there in August.
I am SO excited, I can’t wait!
Bear-sur-Ciel
By Truffle McFurry
(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom )
Hello everybody, Truffle here!
Yesterday I said in my Facebook page that Miki would stop for a long time to paint Teddy Bears, because we we go soon on a painting trip to Portugal, and when we come back, she would have to paint serious stuff like boats, houses, churches, streets, etc… People buy this kind of things, you know, but they don’t buy Teddy bear paintings, and Miki has to earn money for us.
But today she could not resist… she did another one! She really can’t live without us! We saw this one while we were in the South of France, last time, in a lovely village called Cordes-sur-Ciel.
It means Cordes-upon-Sky. I don’t why, because we were climbing and climbing and we never arrived above the sky. But the name is nice. She and my Dad were impressed by the monuments, but me, I don’t really like old stones, I much more prefer the toy shops. There was a lovely one in Cordes-sur-Ciel, full of old toys, as old as the stones. Most of them were white, as if they were made out of snow. Or of clouds. They were so cute!
I wanted so much the little dog with the black spots, but Miki said a very loud NO. She said, dogs are nice, yes, but if we had a dog, we wouldn’t be able to travel where we want any more. Dogs are not like Teddy Bears, she said, one can’t take them everywhere… and one cannot abandon them again when we don’t need them any more…
I called that Bear “Bear-sur-Ciel”… a lovely name for a French bear, isn’t it?
His Bearness
By Miki De Goodaboom
(Illustration based on a photograph by “Pete”, from the UK)
I can’t tell much about this motif, except that a certain “Pete”, from the UK, sent me a photograph of his Teddy bear, dressed as a basketball player from the Chicago Bulls.
Pete only told me that he is a fan of the Chicago Bulls, of Michael Jordan and that he is somehow related to one of the players from an earlier time.
I personally don’t know much about basketball, but I do know from the legendary Michael Jordan, of course, and that one of his nickname was “His Airness”. Which is why I allowed myself that wordplay and called Pete’s Teddy Bear “His Bearness”! 🙂
The Oxfam Camel And Teddy Bears
By Miki De Goodaboom
(Illustration based on a photograph by “Go Teddy!”‘s reporter Kev Le Chat)
It is wonderful to have these reporters, such as Ann La Mar and Kev le Chat, so dedicated and committed to our cause in “Go Teddy!”. Every time they sent me some Teddy photos, it is an immense joy for Truffle McFurry and for me. We love so much to see all these bears from around the world!
Kev le Chat who often goes to charity shops, mostly in search of books, has noticed that there are great motifs for “Go Teddy!” there. And this is true. Most of the time, the bears and other soft animals he sees in these places are quite old, and look so different from all the modern Teddy Bears. Having started very late (only 3 years ago) to be interested in Teddy Bears, it is a whole new fascinating world opening to me. I really do not know how Teddy bears looked like in earlier days…
When I see these Bears from earlier times, I feel that they carry many stories with them. You can feel that they have been cuddled many times, that they have comforted many children (and adults like me probably), and that they have listened to many secrets. They are so touching!
And it is so interesting to see how different they look like and feel. They are less sophisticated than the modern ones, and made out of different material. Material that last forever, I guess. I was amazed as I had once in my hands Benjamin, Truffle’s oldest cousin. He felt so unusual, it was because of the stuffing. I think it was made of real straw. And there was the other one – I don’t remember which one it was,- he was so heavy, I think he was full of lead pearls!
Here is a wonderful motif coming from OXFAM, in Derby I think. A camel and his Teddy Bear mates… judging by the looks, from many different eras!
Dory The Fish And The Teddy Bear
By Kev Le Chat
(Illustration based on a photograph by “Go Teddy!”‘s reporter Kev Le Chat)
“Mmm….” thought Dory, ” I’m going to swim, swim, swim down to the
bottom of the ocean today”
Halfway down, she wondered what she was doing there, and very nearly turned
around and headed back up where the shafts of sunlight pierced the deep blue like tiny daggers…
….but something had caught her fishy eye down in the depths…a small figure..
It seemed to be waving at her…
So she swam and swam, and the small figure came into focus..it wasn’t really waving,
It was the gentle currents on the ocean floor making its arm move to and fro.
She got a little bit excited then, it was orange and white striped, was it her friend Nemo??
No! She swam closer and saw that it was a Teddy bear wearing an orange and white striped hoodie – which made him look just like her friend! Now, Dory didn’t really know what a teddy bear was, and even if you told her, she would forget almost immediately, but she DID think it was cute!
She swam alongside his soggy fur, and he gurgled “I can’t really drown, but I would really like to get back to the surface and let the sunshine dry my fur”
“Okay!” Said Dory, “I can do that! let’s swim, swim swim together!”
So Dory helped the teddy off the ocean floor and they headed for the surface where the sunshine sparkled like diamonds.
“What do you want?” Asked Dory suddenly when they were halfway there.
“Err…” Said the confused bear. He didn’t realise fish had short memories, and Dory’s was shorter than most. But as it transpired, Dory even forgot that she’d forgotten who he was and continued to swim to the surface. Eventually, they emerged into the sunlight, Dory splashing and jumping in and out of the waves.
She nudged the little soggy bear to a nearby beach, and they spent many happy days with Dory playing in the surf and teddy sunbathing and diving in and out of the ocean.
Surely there has never been a more unlikely pair of friends, or indeed a happier one!
Big White Rabbits And Teddy Bears In An English Flowershop
By Miki de Goodaboom
(Illustration based on a photograph by “Go Teddy!”‘s reporter Kev Le Chat)
“Go Teddy!” ‘s reporter Kev Le Chat sent me that charming photo from his recent bear photo safari in Derby, in the UK.
I was amazed that the giant rabbit and the little bears were sold in a flower shop… amazed and very pleased as I have the feeling that Teddy Bears are taking the whole world over. One can see them everywhere nowadays!
My Own Teddy Truffle McFurry was a bit upset though… never saw such a big rabbit and such tiny bears, and he said, somehow it is not right. I tried the usually comforting phrase, telling him that it does not matter, that it is never a matter of quantity in life, but of quality. He said:
“No, it is not true… there are many bears around the world, a big quantity, and each of them is huge quality, and the world would not be such a beautiful world without all these bears!”
Again he is right, my lovely Truffy… Anyway, what upset him, is what made me want to paint this motif: I loved the contrast between the rabbit and the bears sizes!.
Go Teddy! 