Benjamin’s Birthday Party

February 24, 2021February 24, 2021 / Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

Text & Photos by Ann La Mar

My Yarm bears sort of live in secret being rotated from the top of a chest of drawers to the drawers in the bed…. and other hiding places so no one except me actually knows how many there are!

Benjamin is celebrating a very big birthday this year so Honey our bear cook wanted to have a little party for him. Auntie Miki sent a picture of some Teddy bear cupcakes so she decided to try and make them. Honey worked her magic in the kitchen and very soon the little cupcakes were baked and transformed into little teddy bears.

Honey invited Benjamin and a few of his closest friends to the party. He was so happy that Honey had made Teddy bear cakes especially for him, they even had candles 1 for every decade he has been with me. After the party and eating the cakes they all went for an afternoon nap.

Guess who did the washing up?

Wilfra Cakes For Bua And Truffle McFurry

August 21, 2018 / Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

by Miki de Goodaboom

You saw it probably, Ann La Mar recently baked Wilfra cakes from Ripon and shared them with us here. They looked gorgeous!

Truffle wanted to try them and Ann was so kind to send him some. Under the pretext too of needing help by the quality control.

Truffy invited his cousin Bua to share them with him, as Bua was with us as we visited Ripon during our Tour Of Yorkshire in September 2016. We were delighted to see him again and to share Ann’s cakes and apple with him. Bua looks always a bit sad, but he is not sad. He is originally a German bear, and he tends to think too much, and always gets that expression on his face when he thinks…

You might wonder how we do it… but we, The Urso Majors, have invented another kind of internet, where we can send each other not only words, but also food, drinks, bears, etc… It works fantastically! But it is not a world wide web, it works only between Planet Goodaboom and Planet Boomerann’.

(Prints of all sorts are available. Click on the painting to go to Miki de Goodaboom’s shop online)

Winnie Wimbledon In Thirsk

August 16, 2018 / Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

By Ann La Mar

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

I first saw Winnie on the Internet, she was so cute and had such a sweet face. We, the other bears and I decided we would like her to come and live with us on Planet Boomerann. She lived on the south coast of England so arrangements were made for her travel to Yorkshire.

We waited and waited, days became weeks and still Winnie didn’t arrive. I checked with the lady at her previous home but she hadn’t gone back there. By this time we were very worried. I knew Winnie had been to that place called ‘ the Royal Mail sorting office’ full of conveyer belts and big baskets of mail. I think poor Winnie had been dispatched to Wimbledon in London. This would have made her happy because she had big dreams of becoming a tennis champion.
We were so sad and downhearted that Winnie was lost that Miki and Truffle decided to look for her. Some weeks later a surprise package arrived and to our delight there was Winnie. Miki and Truffle had found her and sent her home from her adventures. We were over the moon.

Winnie has settled into Yorkshire life but she is always up to mischief with her brothers and sisters so I thought it would be a good idea that she had a hobby. I decided to take her to Thirsk to visit the yarn bombers display. These ladies as so clever knitting amazing things to decorate their town. Winnie loved sitting on the bollard with the Yorkshire rose and a background to match her dress. She was very high up, her ‘head in the clouds’ needless to say not one stitch of knitting has been done!

Little Addition by Miki de Goodaboom

While I was painting Winnie sitting on that lovely bench knitted by the Yarnbombers from Thirsk, in North Yorkshire, a little bear with a blue bow came around. He looked at Winnie, looked at the free place next to her and then asked her if he might sit there next to her.

“Of course you may!’, she said in a quite posh way. “I am Winnie Wimbledon… and who are you?”
“Hello Winnie… I am BlueBow, and I come from Richmond.”
“From Richmond? It is quite a distance! Have you come walking, all alone?”
“No, there are others like me, we came in a bus to see the Yarnbombers decorations!”

And they went on and on and on… Teddy bears have always so much to tell each other!

(Prints of all sorts are available. Click on the painting to go to Miki de Goodaboom’s shop online)

Teddy Alphonse At Fontvieille Windmill

May 2, 2017 / 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

Truffle McFurry And Galway In Marsaxlokk

March 16, 2017 / Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

By Truffle McFurry

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom)

Hello everybody, i’s me, Truffle! I hope you are all well and still loving and protecting us, Teddy Bears from around the world.

I am very fine, thank you:-)

We were on a long wonderful holiday on that island. It is called Malta. We took the plane there. My Mom even painted me at the airport in Valencia in Spain!

My Auntie from France, Mahe The Free, joined us there, and brought with her my cousin Galway. He is an Irish bear, you know, she found him and adopted him in Ireland in the summer. It was the first time I met him in person, it was so nice!

We went everywhere together and had a great time. the first day we went to that lovely town by the sea, there were many beautiful boats, in all colours of the rainbow. We loved it there, we had such fun on the boats and everybody was looking and smiling at us. We were the only Teddy Bears around!

Love you all, take care!

xxx

Marsaxlokk Truffle And Galway S

Heather For The Ones We Love

August 25, 2016 / Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

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

Benjamin And Little Ann On Their Way To Scotland

June 9, 2016June 9, 2016 / Miki de Goodaboom / 1 Comment

By Ann La Mar and Miki de Goodaboom

(Illustration of Little Ann and the van based on a photo provided by Ann La Mar)

Benjamin is the oldest Teddy Bear I have ever met! And yet – this is the wonderful thing with Teddy Bears when one cares for them- he still looks so young! Ann La Mar, to whom he has belonged since she was a little girl, certainly cared – and still cares – for him with all her heart.

Ann La Mar tells the story of Benjamin :

“… Benjamin was given to me by my grandparents. The little doll was called Tammy and I don’t remember the name of the other bear but he was yellow. The camper van was racing green. Benjamin and friends -including Golliver- used to go on holidays with me. My father loves Scotland so that is where it usually was. Benjamin lived in the UK until 2009 where sadly he has lived in a box until he was recently discovered. He will return to the UK very soon. He is about 53 years old…”

I -Miki de Goodaboom- met Benjamin some weeks ago when Ann La Mar came to spend some days in Mojacar, Spain, next to the place where I live. We – Ann, Benjamin, many other bears from Ann, my own Teddy Truffle McFurry and me) met for coffee and treats by the beach and had a wonderful time. I had already seen the photo of Ann holding Benjamin and the other toys in her arms in front of her father’s van, and when I saw Benjamin, now, 53 years later, I was extremely emotional. It was such a powerful way to connect Ann’s present and past through a Teddy Bear. Somehow it was like magic, as if time did not exist. My Teddy bear Truffle McFurry and me are very proud to have met Benjamin in person, and it already feels as if he has been 53 years in our heart…

Benjamin And Little Ann On Their Way In Scotland S

Group Portrait With Auntie Nelle Teddy Bears

May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 / Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

By Miki de Goodaboom

(Illustration based on a photo by Auntie Nelle)

As Truffle’s Auntie Nelle, from the North of France, heard about “Go Teddy”, aour project to love and protect and paint all the teddy Bears from our world and beyond, she was so kind to send us a beautiful photograph of her 3 bear children.

We were so over the moon!

Then I asked her for the name of her bears, but she said they haven’t got any names! Now she must have her reasons for that, she is a very intelligent person, so she sure knows what she does!

But I could not help calling the little one in the middle, the one wearing the white hoodie, “Capuchino”.. simply because “capuche”, in French, means “hood”!

I had much pleasure painting these new cousins of Truffle, but it was tough. They have all three a very sophisticated fur, with colours difficult to render! And also, one is not so sure where one bear ends and the other begins, but it does not matter, Teddy bears are simply a big lovely family and are all united!

Auntie Nelle Bear Family S

Baby Bear

May 4, 2016June 6, 2016 / Miki de Goodaboom / 2 Comments

By Miki de Goodaboom

(Illustration based on a photo by PamPam La Rue)

Mother’s day is coming soon in the USA, next Sunday, the 8th of May this year. So I thought it would be the best occasion to present you “Baby Bear”.

Baby Bear is one of Truffle’s American cousins, a daughter of Auntie Pamaretto. She is so cute that when you look at a photo of her, you want her to leap out of the photo so you can cuddle her… and eat her cupcake, says Truffle! Truffle never met her in person, and perhaps it is better this way, as I guess he would never let her go back to America, so adorable she is!

Baby Bear is holding in her hands a beautiful giant purple cupcake with a cherry on top and with the words written on it ” World’s Best Mom”. Well, Baby Bear was a gift to Auntie Pamaretto, from her daughter, and she must know what a great Mom she is! Truffle surely knows that Auntie Pamaretto is one of the World’s best Aunties!

Baby Bear lives among books about Italy. Books telling about the story of Ancient Rome, about the Etruscans, about Who was Who in Rome, about new Italian poets, much clever stuff like that. But the most clever and beautiful book ever about Rome, “Bridge Of Sighs And Dreams” was actually written by… Auntie Pamaretto herself! Yes, Baby Bear is so proud to have such an amazing author as a Mom. And not only that: Auntie Pamaretto is a brilliant artist too!