@curiouslilbird / curiouslilbird.tumblr.com
Aren't plushies beautiful? They were created so a sick child had something to hold. They were created so an adult living alone might have a friend to keep them company. They were created for a teenager to clutch to her chest as she cries. They were created to accompany a college student to his geology classes. They were created not for any material benefit, they don't change tires, but to be loved.
They were created for the purpose of love.
Horsey was in pretty good shape, except for her dress, which was her body, which wasn't as sturdy as her horse skin! Here are her diagnosis photos:
You can see where she had past surgery around her neck. Her family wanted her to get a spa (she was definitely losing some stuffing muscle tone in her legs and shoulders) and to have her dress redone.
She came to the hospital with a little unicorn buddy (Pom Pom) and a very decorated box. She also came with pre-selected fabric for her new dress.
Here she is in her bubble bath:
The plan was to recover the body of her dress, but replace the skirt, so I used a bit of the original skirt fabric, and a bit of the new fabric, to make the heart with a bit of her original stuffing:
And here she is feeling much better. These are chubbiness approval photos (hence the belly poke... there's also an open seam under her skirt):
And here she is all better waiting to fly home with PomPom:
Her young person's response "I love it!"
I swear I get sad if I wake up and one is on the floor
They are exploring under the bed! This is normal stuffed animal behavior, as they are trained to protect you from monsters and shadow creatures, so it's natural that they want to keep an eye out. Don't be sad, thank your friend for doing such a good job.
they have little adventures with the dust bunnys under there
I’m so emotional about dinosaur stuffed animals,,, there are these creatures, extinct long before any of us were alive, but we found their bones and their eggs and their footprints. And we made drawings and models of what they could’ve looked like. And we made them into stuffed animals so we could hold them. We made them soft so we could love them. I’m sobbing
Yeah, we're the animal so preoccupied with petting other animals we're sort of collectively upset there are animals we never get to pet, so we make proxies to snuggle and tell their ghosts we'd have loved them if they were here.
...and tell their ghosts we'd have loved them if they were here.
Hang on i just have to cry for a minute
Ok so aneurotypical people love stuffed animals right? I don't understand why so many companies that make stuffed animals insist on hurting us with cheap felt bits and scratchy bits of glitter??
And then on the other hand, there are a lot of stuffed animals that just sorta feel stiff and can't be hugged?? Like they look cute, but if you try to move them too much they break and... ugh.
So some online autism communities and I have been working on sorta improving stuffed animals with these little Borbs (my hyperfixation rn), that are super soft and squishy and don't literally hurt you when you sleep with one.
And even Kickstarter is supporting us by saying its a "project we love," which I think is pretty amazing! Please check it out if you want to help support us in making the stuffed animal world a little more accepting of AuDHD people!
It's been a while since I've posted about a jigsaw puzzle patient, and I just sent one home, so I thought I'd share his story today. :-)
Mr Theodore E. Bear, known as Teddy to his friends, was not feeling well. Teddy's person wrote:
When I was born, my father bought me my first (and only) teddy bear. That was 66 years ago. Sadly, our new pup tore it up. I cannot describe my heart break. I lost my dad in 1999 and this was the only personal thing I had left from him.
Could I please get an estimate on fixing him?
I would so appreciate your efforts.
This is the photo she sent of her Teddy:
She actually had both eyes, and the tears were pretty clean, but Teddy had lost a significant percentage of his head and front body. We agreed on a treatment plan to include a spa (thereby removing Puppy saliva), and he flew to the hospital from Arizona.
When patients are in pieces like this, spa photos can be a bit... disturbing, so I don't send them. Suffice it to say that given his age, the surviving cream and brown parts needed to be separated to be safely cleaned, and I kept his googly eyes out of the water.
Once he was dry, surgery proceeded. It's a bit complicated when you aren't sure what his original shape was. I sent this photo I found online to ask if it perhaps looked like him:
It was so close, his person thought it WAS him at first! But there were issues I could see with this sample. For instance, when teddy arrived one eye was on cream fur. So using this as a guide, but keeping that in mind, I went about putting him back together. There's a fur whose reverse side is a really close match for older, well loved bears like him, and I used that for the darker brown areas. For the missing cream areas (which were really more of a yellow) I used a smooth minky fur.
Here was the first set of photos of Teddy:
Well, it turned out that despite the eyes being on yellow cream on arrival, his person remembered them on brown. That memory is what is important, so that part of his face needed to be adjusted. Also, the head and muzzle were a little too big, as was the nose... but his body was looking good!
Here's the next set of photos (without the nose on... it'd go on once we got the muzzle size/shape right).
That was right! And then there was the new nose, which was embroidered:
All set! His person wrote:
Love it!
Thank you!
He’s perfect!
Oh, and lest you think I forgot his heart of original stuffing, he did get it, it just goes in at a different time with jigsaw animals that need lots of adjustment. Here it is being made and installed:
Teddy made it home safe and sound. His person wrote: Thank you so much! You saved him and a huge piece of my heart! Teddy is HOME! He’s wonderful and I so appreciate your hard work!
ive been working on and off with kids for about 6 years now, (a decade if you count babysitting), and something i’ve only noticed this summer is that this generation of kids is calling their stuffed animals “stuffies.” it really weirds me out for some reason, so please let me know what you called them when you were a kid. bonus points if you tag approx. when you were born so we can figure out if this is a generational thing:
“too much love” - photo sequence by katja kemnitz
#oh to be loved and worn down and turn into something else for it #still yourself but now fundamentally changed #rather be aware of your imperfection through love than remain perfect and unloved
actually slaughtered by this tag response thank you
“Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
The Velveteen Rabbit — Margery Williams
i had so much faux fur left over from project slipperpaws that I made Toddler Niece a baby bear from the extra fabric
and when I gave it to her, obviously, she grabbed it and hugged it and squealed “BABY BA!!!!” with a level of sheer delight I wish I could still attain as a tired and jaded adult
and then, all at once, the joy vanished from her face, replaced by a look of deep concern, and she looked me dead in the eyes and whispered “...Mama??? Ba?????”
And I looked back at her and patiently explained that with work and my many responsibilities I simply did not have the time or energy to make yet another stuffed animal for her but that baby bear would be fine without a mommy and that sometimes if real baby bears were old enough and strong enough and lucky enough they might manage to survive the cruelties of an uncaring planet without their mommies and
I’m totally kidding I obviously immediately made her a mama bear and i don’t give a shit about how tired and jaded you are, you would have done the same
My friend is embarrassed and thinks she’s the only one and I said id prove her wrong.
34 and still do! Sleeping is difficult enough without objects of comfort close by--no shame!
dare i say that stuffed animals are one of the single greatest inventions of all time and im thankful every day for the fact that someone thought to make animals but in huggable plush form…..saved me from a lot of bad nights and nightmares as a kid, i love you stuffed animals
You may offer your thanks to Magarete Steiff
She lived in Germany and could be considered as the first person to sew stuffed animals merly for children to play with and to counter the common “hard” toys out of wood or metal wich were popular back then.
There is even so much more to the story, because she was as you can see paraliezed from polio, she couldnt walk or use her right arm, she had to fight all her life just to be accpeted as a human being, she wasnt even allowed to sit in the front row of church in her home village and had a pretty abusive mother. One time she and her brother almost drowned but the townpeople only attempted to save her brother because he was healty. Her father saved her from drowning in last minute.
Only her father and brother stood behind her, still she learned to accept her faith and make the best out of it. After a failed operation she said she had gone around living this way anyways. She started to sew, more importantly she started to sew with a sewing machine wich was realy new at this time. People would not buy from her at first but then she made a realy beautyfull dress for her best friend and suddenly everyone was crazy for her work.
Then she started to sew little elephants as pincushions, but when she attempted to sell them around christmas she quickly realized that for one children were crazy for them and wanted them as toys and also. this was what she wanted to do, bringing happiness to kids.
She expanded futher and gave work to over 20 women as sewers in her factory, her brother helped her to do so, and she started producing stuffed animals of all kinds (almost) their trademark was a button sewed into every anmals ear. It still is to this day.
Whit the economy crisis her factory, and she almost lost it, she already couldnt pay her workers, he factory was about to be forceclosed and the last hope was a toy fair they would attend,
and then she had an idea, she sewed a bear, the very first stuffed toy bear there was, with moveable head and limbs and realy soft fur and glass eyes, it was beautyfull, but at the toyfair most people thoght it was to expensive
most people because one american buyer fell in love with the bears, he bought them all and he ordered 3000 more, it saved the factory
you may ask why would anyone need 3000 stuffed toy bears easy, to support and advertise the candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt as the U.S. president, trough that the toy bear invented by Magarete Steiff became well known as the
Teddy Bear
<3
Disability history matters!
The fact that she faced so much ableism and discrimination in her life was indeed sad (and infuriating!) – and that may be the reaction of many abled people when they hear her story (the poor disabled little girl).
But the fact that she survived, and innovated, and brought modern machines to her hometown, and advocated for herself, and brought joy to so many people, in spite of that discrimination (and I do mean “spite”) is not sad at all.
It’s downright victorious!
Gorilla had a very unfortunate accident. His arm and head were torn off and he lost and eye, nose, and part of his face!
Here are the diagnosis photos I received from his person:
Fortunately, he looked quite treatable. We started with a spa, because he was already going to need new stuffing:
Then he got his heart and was restuffed:
I thought he was back together and sent these photos:
His person wrote “ Wow he looks amazing!” …. but he used to have ears, can you add some? Apparently, the gorilla had lost he ears entirely! So I made a small sample ear and put it temporarily in place:
“Perfect!” said his person. So I affixed it firmly and did the other one as well. Here he is ready to fly home:
Sturdy with 100% scent, 20/20 vision, and perfect hearing again!
this is the best blog in the world
