Teddy Bears Picnic

I thought it might be fun to introduce the Teddy Bears that live here at Rose Cottage.  I have had teddy bears since I was a baby and still have my childhood panda, Peter, although he is a little worse for wear!  On Saturday's I am going to post some teddy bear pictures and write a little about them.

These are some of the small teddies that live here.  These keep us company in the dining room and live in this little 'cubby hole' in the dresser/wall unit.

Come on guys, face the front!

There that is better.

These four are the newest teddies and they have been here for only the last year I guess.

From left to right: Knitty, Honey, Valentine and Fuzz.  The are made by a Sasha friend, Lesley Shaw.

'Puzzle' is a Bramber Bear and came to me second hand via Evilbay.  He has been here about three years now I think. 

Bobby the puppy is also a 'Bramber Bear' and has been here about four years.

Little Jay is also a Bramber Bear and arrived in 2013.  

A little Hermann bear, currently with no name.

Lucille is another Bramber bear, and she just loves the outdoors.  She was given to me by a friend at the 2013 Sasha Festival I went to in the USA

Another little 'no name' bear.  

Both these two above have been here a number of years.

Rupert was a Wedding Anniversary present and was given to me by my husband in 2009.  He is a 'Vintage Magpie' creation and was made by a lady whose blog I used to follow.

This lovely teddy was my Nan's and is simply known as 'Nan's Ted'  He is very special.  I have no idea how old he is, or what make, but I believe he has mohair (?) fur and wood wool stuffing.

I have a big fondness for pandas, probably as my first ever teddy was one, and so have quite a few.

This is 'Mussel' and he was adopted at the Hatfield Craft Fair in 2002.

If anyone else wants to join in sharing their Teddy Bears, then let me know and I will see if I can work out how to set up one of those 'linky doo dah' things.  

Reminiscing.

On one of the doll groups I belong to we have been discussing doll collections and just how many we have, or feel comfortable with and whether we have them on display or not.

I started 'stock taking' to see just how many I have which includes various dolls from my childhood.

Doing this I realised just what an eclectic collection I actually have, ranging from teeny tiny dolls to the largest which is a doll I got given before we moved from England to New Zealand when I was six years old.

Of course this then led me to scrabbling around up in the loft to find that particular childhood doll that travelled with me from England to New Zealand.

Here I am standing on the deck holding 'Linda' my doll.  My Mum is behind me and my sister to the side.

When I came back to England I couldn't bring a lot of things with me so left my 'precious' childhood toys which included Linda, Jacko the monkey and a stuffed bear pyjama case that my Dad bought me stored in a wardrobe in Mum and Dads house.  Sadly for reasons that will remain unclear to me, my Mum decided to move these things to a dilapidated shed in the grove.  Result:  Most of these precious toys got chewed/eaten or destroyed by rats.  I can't even begin to explain how much this upset me. Now thinking about it I realise that the only childhood toys from my first six years remaining are Peter Panda, a knitted kangaroo, Dougal, and Linda.  There is definitely a feeling of loss involved.  I had thought about replacing Jacko but when I have bought 'replacements' in the past I realised that they still aren't quite 'the same', something is missing.

Linda was the only one who made it out - albeit with a missing thumb!

In the very early days of Ebay I decided to try and replace her and bought a lookalike with a fringe and a brunette friend.

I dressed her in Linda's dress which for some reason I did have with me.  I know she had at least two dresses, so the other one was on Linda.

In 2007 my son brought her back to England with him when returning from a trip to New Zealand visiting family.

I have just retrieved her from the loft.  The first bit of fresh air she has seen for some time!

Still as pretty as ever.  She used to talk and walk.  She can still 'walk' but I am not sure if she can still talk.

Photo of her poor chewed thumb.

I have in the past thought of swapping her arm with the other girl...but I haven't done so as yet as I wonder if she will then not feel quite right...  

Kangaroo - I remember my Mum having to go back home from school after dropping me off searching for the baby joey who had dropped out of the pouch on the way to school.  I would only have been four or five at the time.

Peter Panda, A dear childhood friend who has been literally cuddled threadbare.

Dougal from the Magic Roundabout.