A little DIY

Lately I've felt in a rather DIY mood & as my new wooden Bärenwald house came without a table (and official ones are difficult to find in Australia), I decided to make one. Also I'm a big believer in re-using the materials we have on hand, so I scrounged around the house & found some wooden Childrens blocks that would make a good table. 

I glued 2 together & painted them slightly 

Here is an example of the natural colour before painting (also this is going to be the table base) 

Then as the table top wasn't quite the colour tone I wanted I decided to lacquer it. A easy cheap lacquer to use on wood is a clear nail polish. It has its own brush & is good for small projects. 

Here it is after the first coat. 

This is a chair I'm trying to match the table to. 

Currently I'm waiting for the second coat of lacquer to dry & then I will glue the top & base together. (I use PVA+ Woodworking glue) 

 

An exciting trade parcel from Hungary

This arrived just yesterday, 

A Bärenwald hause (house) 

Some furniture 

Opa Bear (I made some glasses for him) 

Mama Bear (teddy bear world) 

They join the rest of my small Bärenwald/Teddy Bear World collection

Also Papa bear (Bärenwald) received a new red shirt & holiday chair. 

Now

Oma & Opa have been reunited 

Mama (TBW) has her babies

And the rest of the family now have a house to stay in. 

My collections cupboard

Today I organised my collection cupboard & here is the end result:

Sylvanian Families 

Top shelf

Hedgehogs

Moles 

Cats

Sheep

Squirrels 

Beavers

Mice

Dogs

Elephants 

Badgers

Foxes

Middle shelf

Bears

Rabbits

(The Evergreen, Wildwood & Babblebrook families are missing from this picture as they get to live in their houses full time. And they won't fit on the bear & rabbit shelf...)

Bottom shelf

Teddy Bear Story

(Minus a couple of bears who are currently in their lounge room (box) in my craft room) 

My Bärenwald & Forest Families are still waiting for a permanent place to live. At the moment they are in my craft room moving from place to place. 

New beautiful bears

Today I received a parcel from the USA that contained this beautiful bears. 

Mr. & Mrs. Claus, and Teddy & Tammy (the wedding couple)

I especially like the wedding couple. Tammy's dress is made from satin & stunning. 

Teddy's suit is quite dashing. 

They are a bit different to the Teddy Bear World wedding couple. The TBS couple are smaller than the TBW couple. 

Box rooms

As the original house for Teddy Bear Story is very hard to find I've decided to make box rooms to house my collection. Here are the first 2. 

Kitchen/Dining

Lounge

You might have noticed that not all of the lounge room furniture is TBS, the red couch I made & the coffee table I have had from a child. Also the food is Forest Families & the teaset is a doll house set from my childhood (unknown brand). 

I'm quite pleased with these rooms! My next one will probably be a child's bedroom or maybe the school room. 

Edit: 

I've taken a couple more photos to better show the size of the rooms & what scale they are. (I think it would be classed as 1:12 scale) 

Lounge room. 

Dining room. 

Even more figures!

Just when I think there can't possibly be any more of these bears I find information on two more!! 

Barney with Canoe

Barney looks a lot like Henry, but his overall straps are white not blue. 

Terry with Truck

I've seen the truck a couple of times, this is the only one I've seen in its box. 

Terry looks similar to Beatrice, but although their clothes are the same colour Terry's straps are white & Beatrice are yellow, plus her clothing is slightly shorter. 

(Below is a picture of Beatrice on her swing) 

I will post these on the website when I get all the permissions from the eBay sellers. 

Bearnut Grove: The Honeypot Family

The Honeypot Family 

Mumma June & Mumma May are twin sisters & have lived their whole lives near to each other. 

Bearnut Grove: The Bearnut Family

Bearnut Grove in Blisswood County is where my Bear families live. I hope to write some biographies for them, some will be from the official biographies on their boxes, some will be made by me. 

(* indicates non original names) 

Bearnut Family

Papa "Gus" (August)*

Papa is the official head of the family & gets a special satisfaction from working the land. He knows that by their own efforts the family can be productive & happy. There's nothing he likes more than sitting at the big dining room table & sharing in the fruits of all their hard labours. 

Mumma May*

Mumma holds down the domestic front & supervises the kitchen. From dawn to dusk, it seems her work is never done, but she always has time for a smile & plenty of love to share. Mum as pies sells so well in the Bearnut Grove Bakery that she's enlisted Donna & Daisey as Chief Assistant Bakers so that now almost two dozen pies a week find their way into happy homes. 

Darryl

Daisey

Donna

Deena 

Dee Dee & Cece

Amanda

Henry 

Honey

Holly & Huck

Heather & Thistle

Ginger & Poppy

Beatrice

Terry

Amanda- & the double dilemma

Up until today I had two copies of the bear I thought was called Amanda, one good copy & one with a dress needing repair. Today I pulled out the dress to fix the elastic on it & noticed it was different to the original Amanda I had!! It was pink with white spots & my other "Amanda" had a pink & white check dress. Mm, so I pulled out the leaflet & sure enough the "real" Amanda's dress is pink with white spots!! So here is my Amanda & the other little bear who I don't yet know the name of. 

Amanda 

Her "double" who I am considering calling "Mindy" 

I'll update the website when I've had time to edit the pictures for it. 

Leaflet scan

1986 Teddy Bear Story leaflet