Author: Miki de Goodaboom

Heather For The Ones We Love

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By Miki de Goodaboom

(based on a photograph by “Go Teddy!”‘s reporter Ann La Mar)

Yesterday Ann La Mar went on a walk through her beautiful North Yorkshire Moor and picked up some heather for Truffle McFurry and me. She knows how much I love the heather, and as far as I remember, I have never seen some “live”.

Then she went home and had three of her lovely Teddy Bears sending the heather to Truffle and me. From right to left they are:

Marlon, Fluffle & Travis

What a heart-warming gesture!

I have already introduced you to Marlon, – his full name being Marlon Blanco-, from Spain but living with Ann in the UK now. I have painted him at different occasions, last time being at the Tour de Yorkshire.

But it is the first time I have painted Travis… he has a touching story, told by Ann:

“… He is small and cute his little patches are made of something like rain coat material and were going all hard and crinkly in Spain so I brought him back they feel better now.
A little back ground on Travis…..I went to my dentist one day and was sitting in the waiting area and in the corner of the room was an open box all I could see was two dark eyes staring at me. I went to look and there was a little bear starring at me with several others. My name was called so I went for my check up and came back to pay. I looked round and this little bear was still looking at me…..I had to have him…the receptionist said they were being sold for a local charity so that was it I bought him. In the back ground was music it was ‘why does it always rain on me! By Travis…..outside it was raining so he became Travis…..”

Travis is immensely lucky to have been adopted by Ann!

As for Fluffle, the big fluffy one in the middle, I will paint him again one day, and tell you his story then.

For now Truffle and me just want to add:

THANK YOU SO MUCH, ANN, MARLON, TRAVIS & FLUFFLE!

Heather For The Ones We Love S

 

The Bears From The Yorkshire Moor 05

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By Truffle McFurry

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom  based on a photograph by “Go Teddy!” s reporter Ann La Mar)

Hallo everybody, it’s me, Truffle, writing again about the Teddy Bears from The Yorkshire Moor!

Now, I have never seen in my life such sad Teddy Bears!!! It breaks my heart only looking at them.

I don’t know exactly why they are so sad. If I had been there I would have asked them. But it is Ann La Mar who sent me the photo, and I think she forgot to ask them. Well, I think they are so sad because they are stuck in a suitcase. I don’t know why so many people put Teddy Bears in suit cases to sell them. Oh yes, it kind of looks cute, with their heads popping out of the suitcases, and normally the suitcases are beautiful, but have these people ever thought how we Teddy Bears feel about it? It is like when you put people in a drawer… you know, people don’t like that either!

Well, these two they do look as if they need to be rescued. I hope they will soon find their adoptive house! Who ever you are out there, please write to me if you have adopted one of them. And how you have called him. I say “him”, but I am not sure they are boys. The one on the right is perhaps a girl. I will tell you something which I am a bit ashamed of: I don’t know how to recognise if a Teddy Bear is a boy or a girl when he/she does not wear clothes! I know that by human, it is almost the contrary: you can recognise it better when they are naked!

My Mom Miki puts a bit of heather in the background, to make the painting look happier… she so much loves all that heathering stuff!

The Bears From The Moor 05 S

The Bears From The Yorkshire Moor 04

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By Truffle McFurry

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom based on a photograph by “Go Teddy!” s reporter Ann La Mar)

Hallo my dear Teddy bear friends, here is Truffle writing!

The other day, our lovely Ann La Mar went on a mission in the Yorkshire Moor again, chasing with her camera these amazing Moor Bears. She had gone there already, some weeks ago, and had sent us such fabulous photos, my Mom Miki had painted all these bears with such a pleasure!

She did it again! What a treat to find all these bears in my mail box! It is every time like Christmas, a big happy feast with many twinkling lights in our eyes!

Now, this time she sent us a green bear on an amazing tractor! I had never seen before a bear on a tractor! You know, I am a bear, but I am a boy too, and like all boys, I love all these machines with wheels! The cars, the bikes, the skate boards, the big American lorries… and the tractors! I wish I had such a one too, like the one from the green Moor Bear… I could drive everywhere with it, I must not stay on the boring grey roads. I might ask my Mom, but sure she will answer again that it is too dangerous for a little bear. But the green bear looks pretty safe to me up there!

Anyway, Miki did that painting of all the new bears, the one on the tractor and the other ones, admiring him passing by. There is much heather in the Moor right now, says Ann la Mar, so Miki painted some in the background… she even painted one of the bear girls as if she was all made of heather! She is so cute! I could fall in love with such a heathering girl bear, me!

In the meanwhile, love you all! Bye!

The Bears From The Moor 04 S

 

 

 

Truffle McFurry Reading The Teddy Bear Hall Of Fame

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By Truffle McFurry

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom)

 

Hi Everybody!

Some days ago I had a big surprise: I received a book! Yes, me, Truffle, got that book addressed to me on Planet Goodaboom. It was a gift from my Mom, she had ordered it on the Internet and it came all way from England. I was over the moon! It is my first book ever, and I know it will be my favourite book for ever.

It is an amazing book. It is called “The Teddy Bear Hall Of Fame:”, and it is written by a wonderful lady called Michele Brown. She is the wife of Gyles Brandreth,  and they have the most beautiful collection of Teddy Bears in the world. We hope we will visit it soon in England, perhaps even this summer already.

The book is full of beautiful images of their bears, and Michele tells stories about them. They are all famous bears, you know. Not like me. Really famous bears, like Paddington bear, Winnie-The-Pooh, Rupert bear, François, etc.

And then there is that amazing one, called William Shakesbeare. Michele writes:

“… this is a bear of very great brain…”

and he has written fine plays like “Macbear”, “The Merry Bears of Windsor” and “Two Gentlebears of Verona”.

I am a writer too, you know. I am writing a book right now. And if I do meet William one day, I will speak to him, from writer to writer. Perhaps he can then give me some tips how to write a bearseller!

And do you know what? Gyles did William! Gyles is my big hero now, he has even sent us an email saying that he is looking forward to meet me! You don’t believe it? Well, it is true!

The Teddy Bear Hall Of Fame S

 

Teddy Bear Day Out In Sweden

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By Miki de Goodaboom

(Illustration based on photos sent by “Go Teddy!”‘s reporter Ann La Mar)

I mentioned it in my last post, our wonderful reporter Ann la Mar, from the UK, is actually on a mission in Sweden and sent us  photos of beautiful Teddy Bears she met there.

The big one stood at the entrance of a toy shop, welcoming the clients I suppose, and was incredibly tall, taller than Ann. As for the little ones, they were sitting on shelves inside the shop and immensely bored. They seemed to have sat there for ages! Ann noticed that many of the children hardly paid attention to them, their interest mostly taken by the Frozen Characters and Superheroes dolls. What a sad world, she thought. And so do I!

Not that I don’t like all these modern toys. In fact I even drink my water everyday out of wonderful little bottles shaped as  Frozen and Superheroes characters!  But a Teddy Bear is, and will always be something else, timeless, irreplaceable. Would a child or event an adult grasp hold of  Superman or a Frozen princess when he needs comfort? I doubt it!

There they were, these wonderful little bears on their shelves, forgotten, unseen, nameless. So the Big Bear decided to take them out on a ride for the day in his beautiful wooden carriage and the little bears were over the moon!

And I decided to give them a name:

The white one in the carriage is called “Snowflake”.

The red one behind him is called “Redmoon”.

And the orange one, in the arms of the big one, is called “Gingerly”

 

Teddy Bear Day Out In Sweden S

Smogenbear

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By Ann La Mar & Miki de Goodaboom

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom, based on a photograph by Ann La Mar)

Yesterday Truffle and me received an electronic postcard from Ann La Mar, one our star reporters at “Go Teddy!”. She is actually on a mission in Sweden. She wrote:

“… Today we went to a place called Smogen it was by the sea and very pretty as I imagined…We were just walking along a decked walkway looking at the boats and I found something to embrace….some cousins for Truffle!…love from me and the Swedish Teddy Bears…”

A wonderful motif and… the first Swedish teddy Bear I am meeting… it is very exciting!

Smogenbear S

 

Truffle McFurry And His Girlfriend From Portugal

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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…  🙂

The Girlfriend From The Algarve S

 

Teddy Bear Times

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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!

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Bear-sur-Ciel

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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?

Bear-sur-Ciel S