Running with Abandon

One of the pieces I have currently under construction is actually in pieces. At this stage, the photos of the work in progress are rather mundane.

This is a photo of my effort to take a slight warp out of a board – you know, so it will be straight. Woohoo.

This, well this is another piece – a rather important piece of the theme sort of . . .

and the bear is also in pieces.

I know someone for whom none of this matters - not one whit.

He embraces nearly every moment at either top speed or a dead stop.

I know this feeling. I recognize it. Do you?

It’s quite joyous! It’s called running with abandon.

Have a terrific Hump day!

Over for Another Year

Hi ho. Sebastian here with a fascinating tale of what I have been up to lately. As you know, because someone here told you, it has been State Fair time.

And since I have been around, they don’t go without me anymore. In fact, if there is the slightest hint that they might leave me behind, I only have to remind them of the time they left me at home when they went to Disney World and well . . . enough said.

Anywho, the fair is over for another year, but it was a good one for the most part. That’s what I am going to focus on. Speaking of focus, I think I am in focus in most of the photos, but you’ll understand the odd one or two where I’m a little bit fuzzy and not because of my fur. It probably had to do more with fair food overload of the photographer. We won’t say who she is.

I hope these photos will give you a feel for our fair. It is so varied that these are just little itty bitty glimpses of various parts of the fair and they do not even make a big dent in all that goes on there.

I thought we could play one of my favorite games here on bearbits. It’s called “Where is Sebastian now?” First I will show you a close up photo of me that doesn’t have many clues and you try to guess where I am – besides “the fair”! Then I will show you the answer. You guys are pretty smart so I don’t think it will be too hard, but there might be one that will get you to thinking.

We’ll start with an easy one.  Can you guess where I am?

If you guess the largest watermelon of the year, you got it right!  Not everyone gets to go behind the ropes, just so you know.  Only certain people and the occasional furry bear called Sebastian.

Okay, now that you know how this game is  played, take a shot at this one.  I don’t think you will be able to figure it out, but give it a try.

Did you guess me with Smokey the Bear?  No?  Well, I will give you another chance.

I think this one is really hard, but take a wild guess.  You never know you might be right.

Did you guess correctly?

These birds were huge but not real, so it was not quite as scary.

Okay, the only reason I am including this next photo is because I am in it.  I am not sure what the significance of this huge chair is but what does one do when one comes across a giant chair?  It begs to be sat in, I think.  There are some folks who know this isn’t the first time giant chairs have been here on bearbits.  I wish I knew why they keep cropping up but alas, I am still pondering on it.

And that my friends, is some of what we saw.

Now I am one tired teddy.  I hope that you enjoyed this tiny tour and will come back again when I have another tale to tell.

love and hugs,

Toothpicks

Here’s the thing. Sometimes I have an idea that comes to me all sorted out just waiting for me to pull it all together in a form that makes sense. Other times I’ll have an idea that needs to gel a bit before making an entrance.

Last year I happened upon this

and had a vague idea for it but ran out of time so I put it away. The other day, I started thinking about it in earnest and decided I should begin working on it. The gel had begun to solidify – in a good way. It only took a year . . .

While in the midst of sorting out the details for that lamp thing-y, I had the urge to begin another box project. After some poking around, came up with a design that involved using two boxes.

Mind you the two box idea was there when I discovered them, but I didn’t know exactly how I would make use of them together. Now I have a plan.

Let me qualify that. I have a design in my head and sort of in my sketchbook but the details – well, those are sort of fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants again. You’d think I’d expect that by now.

I did get some really good carpentry advice from my IT guy. I’m lucky my IT guy is just one chair away, works for fair food and will take the dog out when I have glue on my hands.

I used toothpicks.

The toothpicks weren’t his idea, but he approved. Use what works, and they do lend a sort of “what the heck is that all about” air to this project. As always, I hope it will progress quickly but who knows, these things tend to be unpredictable.

Of course, I am working on two projects – sort of. We’ll see how that goes.

And finally, this little lady is still available – in time for Halloween! You can see more photos here.

It’s Thursday. Really? Thursday already. Topher! What did you do with the other days of the week?!

“Who me?  It wasn’t me.  It was probably that crazy squirrel I keep seeing.  Sneaky critter.  I bet he buried those other days with the acorns in his stash.”

Furry Faces X 3

First new furry face.

Second new furry face.

Two new furry faces together.

Third furry face. What a card!

His empty bowl antics are too funny. Jay thinks we could start calling him The Toph-inator.

And that is today’s three furry faces. Happy Monday!

Close at Hand

Topher can be kind of quirky sometimes. I have no idea where he could have picked that up. Not from me certainly. (Okay, well maybe I will admit to being a little tiny, teensy weensy bit quirky.)

He likes to be close at hand – literally.

“When I’m tired, I’m dog tired” says Topher.

On a different note, we are beginning to see a few signs of Fall here and there. With Fall, comes the fair and ours opens today. While this may not even be a blip on the radar for most people, in this house, being married to one huge State Fair aficionado, this is a BIG day.

The leaves weren’t really this color just so you know. I was messing about with the settings on my camera.

Of course, none of this makes any difference to The Toph when his bowl is empty.

I have an idea percolating but there isn’t anything to take a picture of just yet.  And that, my friends, is a peek into what’s going on here. Life changing I know.  Guess it’s time to find my walking-all-over-the-fair shoes.

Until next time,

Pumpkin Finish: The Pick of the Patch

Just in time for Halloween, the pumpkin project is finished. There were a lot of technical and engineering details that I had to work out. I would show you photos but I don’t think a photo of me laying on my back staring at the ceiling is very interesting. Suffice it to say, I had to give careful thought to putting it all together rather than spending time assembling the lot.

So I will start by showing the back of the pumpkin with its little round windows

and spider web sheers.

Recently I have been mesmerized with lighting things up in one way or another and that was the impetus for this project.  Hence the spot to hide the battery pack for the light strand.

    

Now let’s move to the other side which I call the main event, also known as the front. Here it is in the daylight.

Then in the late afternoon.

Finally, in the evening.

My favorite detail is these three little BOO jack-o-lanterns front and center.

Behind them sits the little pumpkin colored teddy with her/his pick of the patch.

S/he stands 4.5 inches tall – a quite diminutive little bear but just right for this pumpkin.

If you want to see larger photos, you can click here.

This afternoon my husband said, “The summer sure went by fast, didn’t it?” Yes, it did. Now we are nearly to Halloween and we know what follows that. Yep, the summer went by fast.

As always, thank you for stopping by, for reading and generally being all around aces.