fun

Bears And Babies From Benidorm

/ Miki de Goodaboom / 1 Comment

By Miki de Goodaboom

 

I always paint with deep enthusiasm the Teddy Bears which our 2 reporters from “Go Teddy!”, Ann La Mar et Kev Le Chat, meet during their missions. Unfortunately I often forget that my Truffle McFurry and me always go on bear photo safari when we are visiting my parents in Benidorm, on the Costa Blanca in Spain. And it is not fair: Benidorm Teddies also want to be loved and protected, and the best way I can help doing that, is to paint them and making the whole world aware of their existence by showing them on the internet…

Last time I was on a bear photo safari in Benidorm, 2 weeks ago, I could not find any. I guess they were all hiding in the caves of the surrounding mountains as it was very hot.

But the time before, I did meet some beautiful and special ones. I adored the motif of that big bear girl with her own little Teddy, sitting in the middle of baby dolls. That motif was weird, somehow, almost spooky. The baby dolls looked like an army of little soldiers wanted to take over the stage again, having been superseded by the Teddies… The funny thing was that they all had these giant  white dummies in their mouths, and it made them look like as if they had a snout like Teddy Bears! A typical case of genetic mutation due to forced adaptation to the environment … or of mimicry!  🙂

Benidorm Bears And Babies S

 

 

The Bears From The Yorkshire Moor 05

/ Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

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

/ Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

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

/ Miki de Goodaboom / 1 Comment

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

/ Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

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

Truffle McFurry And His Girlfriend From Portugal

/ Miki de Goodaboom / 1 Comment

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

 

The Oxfam Camel And Teddy Bears

/ Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

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!

The Oxfam Camel And Teddy Bears S

Dory The Fish And The Teddy Bear

/ Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

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!

 

Dory The Fish And Her Teddy Bear S.jpg

Big White Rabbits And Teddy Bears In An English Flowershop

/ Miki de Goodaboom / Leave a comment

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!.

Big White Rabbit And Teddy Bears In A Flower Shop S