Why Do We Travel?

Not all who wander are lost.
~ J. R. R. Tolkien ~

Do you like travelling?

For us, travel is almost not a choice. We do believe that when our body was stuffed with fluffy stuffing and love, a travel bug crept inside our body! We just cannot stay still. If we stay in one place too long, we get a nudge and start dreaming about all the adventures we haven't accomplished yet.

Every time when we visit a new place, it doesn't matter whether it is a nearby town we've never been to or a different country & culture, we get a great excitement. A excitement for something unknown, for the joy of freedom (well, we are always free to do anything anyway), for the new possibilities, and for all the wonders!

It seems to us that the travelling is one of those things either you hate or love. Love, for us, of course.

Where is the most memorable place you've ever visited? Would you like to share your experience with us?

What Teddy Bears Are Up To

Recently, one of our new friend "ChewMouse" sent us these photos. (We really love the first one :-) )
There are some very "active" teddy bears around!
We are going to take over the world!

A Cute Bear Pin

Look at this cute bear!
Artsy Clay made this :-)
She is one of our friends and we got to know each other quite recently throught BlogCatalog. She makes all sorts of beautiful things with clay.
We were talking that it would be nice if she could make something "bear", and there it is! A bear face pin out of polymer clay.
Isn't she great?

God Save the Black Bears!

If you have travelled to the UK and had a little tour around London, or have watched a program about the country, you might have seen the "Queen's Guard" standing outside the palace in the bright red and black uniform with a big bearskin hat.

That's right, that big furry hat is made of bearskin, real black bears' skin. It takes as much as the entire hide of one bear to make just one guard's hat. Those black bears are hunted in Canada, and their skins are shipped to the UK. Many of the bears are shot several times before they die, and some escape the hunters and bleed to death. When mother bears are killed, orphaned cubs are left behind to starve. According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), in the past five years alone, more than £321,000 was spent to the slaughter of black bears for ceremonial hats.

PETA is calling on Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to stop using bear pelts to make headpieces for the five guards regiments and to have the hats fashioned from luxurious faux fur instead.

We strongly believe that, with the human technology now, there's no good reason to keep killing the black bears any more. The faux fur is surely good enough, wouldn't you say? Some of those faux furs are so realistic and beautiful. Look at us Teddy Bears and other animal friends!

You can learn more about this on their website http://www.unbearablecruelty.co.uk/. If you want to do something, you can help these bears by joining their teddy revolution. Just take a picture with your teddy bear with a sign saying, "Your Majesty, teddy and I say leave the bears alone" – or something similar – and use the form on their website (http://www.unbearablecruelty.co.uk/teddy_bears.asp) to send them your pictures. After they gather everyone's pictures, they'll deliver them together to The Queen and ask her to spare bears and stop using real fur for the palace hats.

And there's some more. This is the option only if you can bear. You can actually send your Teddy Bear to PETA. PETA want you to send your teddy bears to them so that they can send those teddies to The Queen along with your plea asking her to stop allowing real bears to be killed for her guards' caps. Unfortunately, if you choose this option, once your teddy is bound for Buckingham Palace, they wouldn't be able to come back to you.

This is the address if you decide to send your Teddy Bear to PETA.
PETA Europe Ltd
PO Box 36668
London
SE1 1WA
UK

The Teddy Bear Rescuer

Today, we'd like to introduce you a lovely lady who rescue Teddy Bears on a regular basis.
Astrid, a crafter and a designer from Amsterdam, walks around her vicinity and save Teddy Bears and other love-seeking goods from the incinerator and the trash.

Above pictures are some of the Teddy Bears she managed to save from the horrible fate. She picks up those poor ones no matter how grubby they are, and bring them home and give them a good wash and, if necessary, a repair. We can just imagine how happy they felt when they were picked up by her loving hands...

There are so many things, including Teddy Bears, out there on the street corner or at the dump, still perfectly OK and just needing loving and tender care from you.

So, go on, visit Astrid's blog at http://trashcollector.blogspot.com and find out what sorts of things you can find, and then go out and have a nice walk around your area. You might find a treasure hiding just around the corner, and, you as well, can be another "Teddy Bear Rescuer". There are many, many of them crying out for your help.

Oh, and if you found and saves a teddy bear, please send us an email with photos. We'd always love to know that there is one more happy bear out there ;-)

Why people fight each other?

We've been collecting Teddy Bear related photographs for a while, especially the ones which show the bond between people and teddy bears.

These are the ones we found recently.
It is heartbreaking that those kids look so sad and desperate.
Why people fight each other?
Why can't we live together loving, helping and understanding each other?
We truly hope that those teddy bears are giving them some bits of comfort...

(If you click each photo, it will lead you to the website where you can read the description.)

KUMAYT, Iraq

KHALDIYAH, Iraq

MONROVIA, Liberia

Trying Out the Weaving Loom

We are quite creative teddy bears, you know. We found this little weaving loom in a bascket - we think it belongs to one of the human members of our family. We wanted a nice rug by our bed - like the ones we saw in the Native American Arts & Craft book, so we decided have a go. Once we got the knack, it was so easy! We made a few of them.

Teddy Bears' Nightmare

I can't believe this! It's horrible! It's sooooo barbaric!
Did you see those poor teddy bears? Boucing against posts and crashing on hard, cold ice and, and....
Who on earth came up this "Teddy Bear Toss"!?

Post by Teddy (who had a bad experience falling from a tree)

Wild Asparagus

"Asparagus Hunting"

We went wild asparagus hunting.
There were many, many of them growing everywhere! We enjoyed them in Pasta Bake last night and in Risotto for lunch today.
We love Spring.