Bears Chat...

I got this candid photo snapped whilst the bears were occupied. I've noticed that miniature bears really enjoy getting together for a good old gossip ; particularly when they're still in "holding" trays - before I've given them their final finishing touches.You can separate them out , eyes front, to patiently wait their turn , but when you look again they'll be re-grouped! I'm not even joking ....

I know what these 3 might be talking about in very slightly growly whispers .... when are they going to get their finished final "look"? This is what happens (unfortunately) when you're in the middle of 3 separate consignments of bears; all of which are exclusives so you can't even photograph them! Any bears who appeared just before that are going to be in holding trays for a while, with quite a bit of time on their , um, paws.(I could say here that the cotton reel is left in there for it's recreational value , but it isn't ; it's so I don't forget which shade matches the red bear!)

I will get back to them eventually.I'm working the long hours as fast as I can ... and then my mini-bears will be rather like buses- none appear, then 3 come along at once!


T.T.F.N  Ruth XX

Money!

I wish I could say this is a real coin of the realm, featuring my little "Miss Majesty" - but no; it's just a bit of mischief for a Wednesday morning! I must have coins on the brain.....I went to a very large antiques fair at the  Staffordshire show ground on Sunday and silver threepenny bits were some of the very few items I brought home. Most of the stuff there was more in the "aspirational" line! I sorted out 5 very nice ones - the oldest minted in 1874 - with Queen Victoria's head on one side (2 of the coins have a more mature profile from later years) It was only when I examined them more closely at home that I noticed one of them looks a bit bent. Well duh .... I expect someone dislodged a filling when they chomped on it in a Christmas pudding or something! Can't say my family ever went in for that sort of culinary / dental Russian Roulette!

On the same stall they had Roman Coins - loads in a box at £1 each - great! We started sorting through them to get one for youngest son , but unfortunately it was really just a big disappointing box of smooth green discs. The minting was no longer raised or visible ... they could've been mouldy chocolate drops for all we knew...
Thank goodness for Vintage Button stalls; they did have some teeny tiny ones , and the price tags didn't involve too many decimal points.A few more magpie bits to hoard.

Talking of hoarding reminds me that I tried to see the famous Staffordshire Hoard a few weeks ago, before it left the nearby town for its next destination (touring to raise money to keep it locally, where it was plucked from a field) It's a huge , monumental, cache of Anglo Saxon gold burial artefacts; the biggest ever found - some pieces are worth hundreds of thousands of pounds apparently. I was at the museum just 10 minutes after official opening time , and there was a short queue of people. The doors opened and a few started going in , whilst a museum official proceeded down the queue with the news that from where Brett and I were standing it was a 2 hour wait!!! Neither of us could face standing there all that time so we left. Brett's friend who arrived later in the day declined a 4 hour wait.
It is thousands of years old though ; and Time is Money so they say!

T.T.F.N Ruth xx

(You can see some of the pieces here)