Saturday, February 12, 2011

Furry, Furry


This week was NOT a very creative one for me - with the exception of the Inspiration Avenue challenge I didn't create at all. And even that took forever.

We still have sunny and pleasant weather here in Northern California, and I was afraid that the fruit trees would think it's already spring and start to bloom before I'm done trimming them. This is one of the garden chores I like the least, but I overcame my laziness and trimmed and pruned those trees - I'm almost done. This is the reason I didn't spend much time at my worktable. However, while I was doing this, I thought about the IA challenge's theme - "furry". Well, I was sweating out there and didn't like the idea of something furry at all! Oh boy, this was quite a stretch.

Animals are furry (well, not all, I know!) and the next thought was "bear" and then it slowly developed in my imagination. I finished the card yesterday - I took the picture of the bear in the summer of 2009 while visiting the Berlin Zoo during our trip to Germany. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, although the most famous Berlin bear of course is Knut, the polar bear cub who was abandoned by his mom (he's not little anymore, but very funny). Anyway, I was quite happy to capture this bear this very moment where you can actually really see his eyes. So this had to be the picture for "furry".


And then I got the idea of taking a picture of the bear card with Kaefer's teddy bears sitting in the little rocking chair that I painted for her several Christmas ago. One picture turned into many, I had such a blast. In none of them you can really see the card, so here's a scan. Oh, and thank you for your patience to read through all of this...

I'm a little bit disappointed that you're not able to see his eyes in this picture - I lowered the resolution for the web.

10 comments:

gatheringwonder said...

great post!

Maggie said...

Awww, teddy bears are the cutest furry creatures! The real bear looks rather cuddly too, but I guess looks are deceiving hehe. He's got such a sweet face though!

La Vie Quotidienne said...

Cute...all of the bears, real and stuffed although I don't think the real one would welcome cuddles.(-:

patty said...

I've always had a thing for teddy bears and for a while I had quite a collection. But it does strike me as a little odd how we hold them up as the epitome of "cuddliness", when in reality, they can be anything but! Since we started having cocker spaniels, my cuddle instincts have gone more in that direction, but I do still love a good teddy!

Rhonda said...

"Furry"....that's a tough one! But looks like you did a great job of meeting the challenge.

Theresa said...

So cute. I especially love the last image! Although it is easier to snuggle up to those furry teddy s. I have been outdoors pruning too. Its suppose to rain again, so I know what you mean. Have a wonderful week ahead. ~Theresa

Kat W said...

Adorable furry bear images, photos and card. Real bears and stuffed cuddlies - love them both. I was thinking teddies for this week's challenge but then went for 'Miss Furfuffle' cause she nagged at my imagination!

Kat :-)

Silvia(Barnie) said...

Herrliche Fotos, die Bären machen sich in dem Schaukelstuhl sehr gut.
Ich wünsche dir einen guten Start in die neue Woche.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

As always, you are SO creative. I'm glad you joined the challenge, because you had at least one thing artistic you did this week. Of course, pruning trees is pretty artistic, too. Prune them wrong, and you have a big mess. Love the furry IA Challenge bear entry. You did GOOD!!

Ginnie Hart said...

You really are an artist, Carola! The bear card would sell a ton if it were out in the stores, trust me. When you started talking about the bears in Germany, I started thinking of all the Buddy Bears we saw there in our two years...and how we even bought the United BB book to see all the bears everywhere around the world. It's quite a 'village' of bears, as you surely know.
http://www.buddy-baer.com/united-buddy-bears/idea/overview.html