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?

If We Can Put A Man On The Moon

May 22, 2020 / Miki de Goodaboom / 3 Comments

Text by Kev Le Chat, Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom

Doris was upset.

Very upset.

Her husband had taken her favourite parasol , turned it upside-down
And used it as a planter for his petunias.

Now the summer had come, and she’d been looking for it. He’d panicked and
Washed it out and emptied it, and it was now an unattractive soggy mess.

Fed up with men, Doris decided to go on strike.
Every day for a week, she went and stood outside the local co-op with this sign around around her neck.
It was a bit boring, but better than having to talk to her idiot husband.

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

If We Are Kind And Polite

April 22, 2020 / Miki de Goodaboom / 2 Comments

Text and Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom

(Illustration being a copy of a painting by R.W.ALLEY)

Hello, Paddington here!

In these crazy times of Witch Corona making us all suffering so much, all over the world, everybody has something to say and advise about it. Especially all the celebrities come out and say something clever!

This is why I am here today, I am a celebrity too and I have something very important and clever to say. Well, it is not me who said it the first time, it was my Auntie Lucy in Darkest Peru. She said:

“If you are kind and polite the world will be right!”

So, PLEASE, everybody, and you too, Witch Corona, be kind and polite!

If We Are Kind And Polite S

Lifes Too Short For Ironing

April 8, 2020 / Miki de Goodaboom / 1 Comment

Text and Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom

I could not agree more with my beautiful teddy:

“Lifes too short for ironing!”

I have an iron though… but I cannot remember last time I used it!

Except… it was yesterday!

I used it yesterday to iron my newest watercolour painting! When they are painted with lots of water, there is hardly anything you can do against them waving when drying. Clever people advice to wet the paper before, let it dry, and then do the actual painting. Well, it never worked for me! My waters are probably wilder than theirs… or is it my painting style?

The only thing that works a bit is ironing them. The waves don’t really disappear, they just get flatter. But it is a very delicate task, as you can imagine: I have already brunt some of my paintings as I was not well-experienced in that domestic work!

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

Modelling For The Yorkshire Cap

August 13, 2018 / Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

By Truffle McFurry

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom)

Auntie Ann asked me if I could model for the Yorkshire cap, and how much it would cost. Well, she asked my Mom, because I am under age. We said yes, and it costs nothing of course, you don’t make family pay when you help them. I was so proud to be asked!

For the modelling my Mom asked me to stand straight and look serious. I can’t stand straight, my legs are too wobbly, I have got no bones inside of them. But without the bones, I am very elastic, I can sit and cross my legs, that looks cool too.

So here I am, with the Yorkshire cap on my head and a matching bow around my neck. I had to squeeze my ears under the cap, so that you know, in case you wonder where they have gone.

I am glad the modelling is finished, it was so hot under the cap. That is tough in our Andalusian desert! Now that I have had a bit of Yorkshire on top of my head, I feel a bit more like a Yorkshire guy, just missing the whippet pet!

Bye for now, take care!

xxx

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

Children From Beaumaris

October 30, 2017 / Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

By Truffle McFurry

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom)

Hallo everybody!

I told you in my last post that we were in Wales on a painting trip. We met many bears there, and we adopted loads of them. They are all my brothers and sisters now!

In Wales, in the North, there is an island , it is called “Anglesey'”. There, there is a town with the beautiful name of Beaumaris. They have bears too, but also sheep and they are all playing together. In the past I was very jealous of sheep because my Mom loves to paint them and I was always afraid that she abandoned me for a sheep.

But I am a big boy now, and I understand many things about love. So, I am ok with sheep too. And this is true that they are so cute. The cutest one being my little sister Mary,

Here are some of the children from Beaumaris, painted by my Mom of course!

Bye for now, love you all xxx

Truffle Beaumaris Children S

Tough Ted And His Friends At Newby Hall

February 13, 2017February 19, 2017 / Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

By Miki de Goodaboom (Text and Illustration)

Some more wonderful bears from Gyles Brandreth Bear House at Newby Hall in the UK…

These were not celebrities bears, I think. They were not behind glass, and they were no explicate notes telling who they are. They were sitting directly under the roof, on a wooden bar from the roof structure. They were not famous, but nevertheless incredibly cute and touching.

I fell in love with this scene, with Tough Ted and his big Teddy Mate, and the bear girl with the marine dress turning her back to them! Reminded me of so many scenes between children…

newby-hall-tough-ted-and-friends-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!