toys

Lily Lavender De Boomerann And Christine De Lafontaine

/ Miki de Goodaboom / 1 Comment

By Ann La Mar & Miki de Goodaboom

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom)

Ann La Mar:

“After a day in the house I felt I needed some air and some shopping so I decided to incorporate it with a little bear hunt. I decided I would look in the shop where I bought Alphonse. Miki was having a really bad day so I told her what I was going to do. She asked me to look out for a bear for her saying ‘I really need a bear right now’  she gets so much comfort from them. I really hoped I would find the ‘right one’ for her.
I went into the first two shops…nothing, then I went to the ‘house of Alphonse’ …nothing. Next I went to a local shopping centre and thought I will try ‘the house’ of Fluffle (another bear I have)….no bears at all. I decided to go a different way home to pass through Yarm and visit ‘the house of Noel’ ( a bear I got for Miki), they had bears in here but not the right bear… I would know it as soon as I saw it. I then walked to another shop I’ve never been in before as I had seen a huge Paddington there as I was driving past the previous week. Outside there was a basket with an assortment of bears and other creatures I dug deep into the basket and pulled out the most beautiful white bear. She  had a little mauve bow in her fur and was wearing pretty floral dungarees. Her fur was so soft and white as a lily, her features so fine and elegant. This was the bear for Miki without doubt. I immediately thought Lily Lavender for her name but it wasn’t my bear I would put it to her later. I was so thrilled I had found her because I really wanted Miki to smile this day.

I went home delighted with my purchase. I couldn’t wait to tell Miki…I took some photos and wrote to her spinning it out….at the very end I told her and sent the pictures….she told me ‘ She is so adorable… she makes me feel alive again’ Her reaction, just what I was hoping for.
  I told her what had come to me about a name, she loved it. Unbeknown to me Miki’s  grandmother was called Lily. She was very close to her they had a special bond so this was a beautiful connection. I was so happy.

Very soon Lily will be going on a plane  to join Miki and the ever growing Planet  Goodaboom family.

At the end of the day Miki said I had helped her find her way again…that made my day. My work was done….until the next bear hunt! ”

 

Miki de Goodaboom:

“The day I saw Lily was the time I ever saw a Boyds bear, and I fell in love immediately. It was the beginning of a long Boys love story, which is far to be finished. Ann and me are still in love with them, especially the white ones.

As Lily was a gift from Ann, I called her “Lily Lavender de Boomeran”, Boomerann being the name of the planet on which lives Ann La Mar.

One week later, Ann found another white Boyds bear at the same place, “Blessed Baby-Bear-Boyds”. Another little beauty! As my Mom saw the photo of her, she wanted me to have the same. So I hunted for the Blessed Babybear through the cyber-world, and finally found her in the USA. She flew all the way from there to Planet Goodaboom, and lives now happily among all her new brothers and sisters.

Her being a gift from my Mom, her name is now ‘Christine De Lafontaine”, “Lafontaine” being the name of the planet on which my Mom lives.. and Christine? It is simply a bit like me…”

 

Lily Lavender De Boomerann And Christine De Lafontaine S

 

 

Advertisement

Comtessine Coccinella De Lafontaine

/ Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

By Miki de Goodaboom

 

Stage 5 of  “The Tour of Teddies”.

As my Mom saw Comtessine Tivolie, she fell in love with her at once, and wanted to know if Tivolie has got sisters and brothers. She said:

“She is an aristocrat, you know, she needs some aristocratic company!”

And there she was, my 92 year old Mom, searching the net for Tivolie’s relatives! She found a lot, and eventually she ordered for me 4 Sisters for Comtessine!

I am not sure I will have time to paint them all, so many other bears have been waiting for their turn to be immortalised for a much longer time.

But here is “Comtessine Coccinella”, wearing a Lady Bug costume. All my Comtessines are in disguise  by the way… I wonder if they are a bit embarrassed to be aristocrats… Coccinella is at our home in good company with some others from her kind… I am not sure they are Ladybugs too, or some extraordinary mutation, but my Comtessine feels very well among them all!

 

Comtessine Coccinella S

Elise And Eloise

/ Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

By Miki de Goodaboom

 

On my 2 week Tour of my Teddy Bears Art, I have arrived to the end of stage 3 . After Shakesbear and Napoleon Bearnaparte, the Tour took me to Elise and her grand-Ma Eloise, my two wonderful Settler Bears from Australia.

As I saw that collection on the net, I feel in love with them at once. They look so cute and mental at the same time!  I love their fur, so wild, and so soft. Somehow I recognised myself in them, with my hair always wild, hardly ever able to get combed in the right place, like a real lady should wear her hair,  but following all wind directions at the same time. I just wished it was as soft as theirs!

My Mom call them the “Espeluadas”, a word from her South French dialect. It means something like “with hair all over the place”. She says, there exists no word in French to describe them so accurately. I agree with her.

These two really don’t need hair gel to get their hair all punky!

As Ann La Mar -our  Go Teddy star reporter- saw the painting of Elise and her Grand-Ma Eloise, she wrote:

“… Wow they are beautiful…they look so well together…it is like they are reminiscing and sharing memories…”

They do indeed… and surely they are very exciting memories from their life in Australia!

Elise And Eloise S

 

 

 

 

Napoleon Bearnaparte

/ Miki de Goodaboom / 1 Comment

By Miki de Goodaboom

Our bear family has grown a lot in the last months. I was very busy with some painting projects, and still am, but now I have decided to take 2 weeks to catch up with painting some of our new bears. A portrait is a portrait, be it of a person or of a Teddy bear. Painting them if for me the best way to get really close to them, to look into their soul. Because in case you don’t know it: Teddy Bears have got a soul, a wonderful one!

I started the two weeks painting Shakesbear giving writing lessons to my Teddy Truffle McFurry.

My mother, who is a very nice 92 old lady, always loved dolls (not like me) and did not really know Teddies. But with me, she got to know them, as I always bring some of her grand-children with me to her. She has caught the bug now, and always get me some new. This is how, partly, my bear family increased so much!

She recently saw Napoleon Bearnaparte on the net (yes, she is a profi with the internet, needed a tablet and just a bit more than one year to learn it all) and wanted me to have him. In memory of my brother, who recently passed away and loved Napoleon. She too likes Napoleon. I am a bit embarrassed about that, as I am not sure Napoleon was a good person… but one can admire him for his military skills, I suppose.

Anyway, my Napoleon Bearnaparte is a good person, and certainly looks infinitely cuter than the original one!

 

Napoleon Bearnaparte S

 

My Sea Cruise In Tivoli Gardens

/ Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

By Truffle McFurry

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom)

Hallo everybody!

We have just come back from a trip to Denmark, my Mom making beautiful paintings and my Dad playing wild music, and between, we were visiting many places!

We were at that park called “Tivoli Gardens”, with many rides! I have never been before in such a fun place, with so many rides. I was not allowed to go on them though, my Mom was much too scared for me. I wanted to go on the sea cruise on the Viking boat ride, but she did not want. Then I asked her to make a painting of me there in my seaman outfit, it is better than nothing!

Love you all, take care

xxx

Truffle McFurry

07 The Sea Cruise Of Tivoli Gardens S

Teddy Bear Ince

/ Miki de Goodaboom

By Teddy “Ince” and Miki de Goodaboom

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom, based on a photograph of The Pirate by Jo Du Nor)

Hello ! I am Teddy “Ince” Bear.
I play football and as you can guess, my hero is Tom Ince, the best midfielder in the world !
He belongs to a very, very good team : the Derby County FC.
You know what ? If I keep to be a good son (and a good pupil…) my father promised to get a complete supporter kit, just for me !
I love you, dad ! And Up the Rams !

PS: Miki de Goodaboom and her Teddy bear Truffle McFurry want to dedicate that post to their favourite football team, Derby County FC. Today is the last game of  the season 2016/2017, The Rams have not performed as well as we would have wished, but our love is unconditional, we will always support them! UP THE RAMS indeed, Teddy Ince and Jo Du Nor!

 

Ince Bear S

The Pirate

/ Miki de Goodaboom / 1 Comment

By Teddy “The Pirate”

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom, based on a photograph of The Pirate by Jo Du Nor)

Hello ! I am Teddy Bear “The Pirate” !
Jo du Nor, my adoptive father is native from Calais and when I was young, he used to tell me the story of Levasseur, a famous pirate from Calais…
I was so scared because this pirate was a very bad guy.
Please, do not be afraid ! I only wear a disguise because I am a very, very kind teddy bear and I love all of you !

Pirate Bear S

 

The Champ Skier

/ Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

By Teddy “The Champ Skier”

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom, based on a photograph of The Champ by Jo Du Nor)

Hello ! I am Jo “The Champ’ Skier” Teddy.
You know it has snow a lot in French Alps, so yesterday I decided to go to ski.
It was cold but I made a descent of so fast ski as I lost my woollen cap !
If you found it, give it back to me and I will invite you to share a friendly cup of hot chocolate.
See you !

Hallo Champ, here is Miki. I have found your cap, but it is too high up for me to get it, I am too small. Can you spot it on the painting? I hope Jo can get it for you, h is tall!

But even if I can’t get it, I have found it. So, I think I still have earned a friendly cup of hot chocolate, haven’t I?

Ski Champ S

Teddy Alphonse At Fontvieille Windmill

/ Miki de Goodaboom / 1 Comment

By Ann La Mar

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom)

One day in early March while racing round making holiday preparations I went to Thornaby on Tees. The little shopping centre there doesn’t have all the fancy chain stores but enough shops to provide basic provisions to the community. It was an ideal place to go for my last minute bits and pieces and the parking is easy.
As I was wandering and as is habit nowadays…probably addiction…. any way one of my many guilty pleasures…I went towards the charity shops, there are three close together to look for teddy bears. I went in the first two and didn’t find any bear that I felt…all teddy bears are beautiful but I like to feel something personal from them. Outside the third shop was a tombola..now I’m not sure how Miki and Truffle would feel about this (maybe they will tell you) and I didn’t tell them at the time because they had so much sadness going on in their lives it didn’t seem right. The tombola was raffling very many orphaned bears all sitting patiently waiting to be loved in new families. I couldn’t pass by and not try to bring some home so I had ten goes on this tombola and not one bear was to come with me.
I went in the shop thinking should I try again then I saw a higgledy piggledy pile of bears and other creatures in a basket in the corner so I began looking in the basket and the back of a yellow patterned waistcoat stood out so I lifted out the bundle and to my joy it was a beautiful little cream coloured bear. He looked so cute in his waistcoat and he was also carrying a sign saying Provence… I had found my bear…Miki and I have had conversations about Provence so he was perfect. I went and paid for him then as I was leaving lots of children were at the tombola so I hope they had teddy bears to take home. I had to walk quickly otherwise I would have gone back and tried to get them all.
Once my bear was safely home I took a good look at him and discovered he was indeed a real French bear from Colmar in the Alsace region of France. Hopefully one day we will all go on a trip and take him home for a visit.

Next he had to have a name so I searched the internet for famous people from Provence while reading the list I read about Alphonse Daudet a writer…he wrote’ Lettres de mon Moulin’ about life at the windmill in Fontvieille well this was an amazing coincidence  as Miki had told me her family name was Fonvielle ( a modernised  version of Fontvieille meaning ‘old source’)….so he had to be called Alphonse.

I took his picture and sent it to Miki saying meet Alphonse, she adored him and asked me to bring him to Spain the following week. Alphonse was going on holiday to meet Miki and Truffle.

PS: Miki de Goodaboom here. Truffle and me did meet Alphonse, what a beautiful bear he is! And a perfect personage to invite you to visit the Provence, and the Fontvieille Moulin. My Dad loved teh Lettre De Mon Moulin, the famosu book written by Alphonse Daudet. For those who know the book and its characters, my Dad made a phenomenal impression of the “Curé de Cucugan”… it still cracks me up when i think of his face doing it!

 

Alphonse At Fontvieille Windmill S

 

 

On The Little Train At Newby Hall

/ Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

By Truffle McFurry

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom)

Hallo everybody!

I haven’t written for a long long time, because we were very sad in the family and I could not come to the computer and Go Teddy, my paws could not write any more.
I am a bit better now, thank you!

When we were visiting all the famous Teddy bears in Yorkshire, we also went on the little train, Auntie Ann, my Mom Miki, my Teddy cousin Bua and me. It was wonderful!

I love trains, and I have been on 2 already before, in Portugal, and in the Pyrenees, my Mom’s big mountains in France. We all love trains in the family… we are even thinking on travelling one day from one side of Canada to the other in the train!

Love you all, take care!

Truffle McFurry

Newby Hall Little Train S