Easter 2020

Easter 2020 is weird amid the Covid-19 pandemic. All of us who celebrate Christianity’s most holy day of the year are missing our families. We can attend church services virtually or replay the sound of dear voices raised in cherished Easter hymns in our minds.We can only hope that our social distancing is helping to stem the spread of this disease and we’ll be together next year.

I thought I would share a little Easter cheer in the form of some of my collection of bunnies. It’s not all bears, you know! Spring is time for bunnies. In fact, I scared the Easter bunny the other day as I poked around in my garden to see what is blooming and what is poking out of the soil to delight me in the weeks ahead. Boy, he sure can run!

This is my Easter cabinet display. The plush bunnies are all by Steiff with one Leghorn rooster in the lower right corner by Joel Hoy!

Blessed Easter, everyone! I am grateful today for my memories of Easters past.

My Birthday Bear 2020

birthday bear 2020When I found out that I was going to be at a board meeting in Kansas City on my birthday this year, I figured I’d better buy myself a new bear. Sounds good, right? I would have bought myself a new birthday bear anyway!

This happy fellow is a 14 inch tall chocolate brown fully articulated Steiff mohair bear. I am not familiar with this fellow. He seems to be a cross between a Teddy Baby and a Zotty. I collect Teddy Baby, but not Zotty. I am a sucker for open mouth bears done well, and this one is done well. He’s in perfect condition and has a beautiful growler. If you know anything about this guy, please let me know. Steiff EAN# 008504

My board meeting went well. It’s always great to see this group of women. I did not have time to do any antiquing, which was sad. It was just before we were really aware that this pandemic was going to change our lives dramatically. Many of the antique shows that I look forward to in the spring have been cancelled. Bear hunting is going to be difficult.

Purple Bears for Rett Syndrome Research

Rett-Bear-1
The First Purple Rett Bear – SOLD

Every year I do some fundraising for Rett Syndrome research in honor of Emma Larson who suffers from the condition. The Cure Rett Iowa Strollathon does a fantastic job and has raised an impressive amount of money each year. They have an silent auction of donated items and the first year I participated, I found that the people who come to these things do not understand what an artist bear is or how much it might be worth. I ended up offering it online at the same time as the auction and it sold for a respectable amount to Mostly Bears owner Trish Stoll. Thanks, Trish!

This year I am bypassing the auction and will just put the bear up for collectors to buy online with the funds going directly to my Rett fundraiser account on rettsyndrome.org. This has worked well for everyone in the past. It will also let me do my own thing as far as designing the bear without worrying about catering to potential buyers at the auction.

Stay tuned for updates!

A Teddy Bear Outstanding in His Field

Coming back from Christmas in the country with my siblings and their families, we stopped to take a photo. I am always on a bear hunt and couldn’t pass this one up!
hay bale bear
Turns out my sister’s co-worker knows the family who made the bear. I have seen bears made out of hay bales and odds and ends several times in my travels. It speaks to the universal appeal of the teddy bear as a symbol of love, peace, and good will.

2015 Easter Decorating Part II

Beside the quilt ladder I have stacked some of my small chests and one antique egg crate. A prim bunny peeks out of the top chest. I got the bunny on our birthday antiquing trip.  I got the chest last fall at Mud Pies and Sassafras Tea in Prairie City, Iowa. I love the size of this chest. It has nice dove-tailed joints, too. I placed a pillow made from a quilt top that I got at Junk Jubilee in the back of the chest to fill it out.

That Reminds Me of a Story

I just love baby chicks. I remember my parents bringing home boxes with holes in the side filled with madly peeping baby chicks. When they hatch, they still retain a bit of the food from the egg which keeps them going through transit, but when they get where they are going they are HUNGRY! Dad would have the brooder house all warm and we would release them under the heat lamps. You had to be very, very quiet (like Elmer Fudd on a duck hunt) because chickens scare easily and will pile up in a corner and smother each other. Probably where the term “dumb cluck” came from.

That Reminds Me of Another Story

When I was a kid, my Grandma Hattie put the most realistic looking baby ducks in our Easter baskets. They were so soft and cute and I just adored them. Then Dad said they were made from real baby ducks. Broke my heart, but that’s the kind of thing they did back then. I don’t really know that they were made from baby ducks, but maybe baby rabbits. Either way – horrible! I had a stuffed kitty that I also loved and found out was made of rabbit skin. Grandma Hattie again. I wonder where she shopped.