Thursday, August 16, 2007

 

4th and 5th August Peace in our house.

On Saturday, after the car boot sale at Faygate, I had to go and do some food shopping. Ecky stayed home with her Dad and Grandad.
She made a display of her toys on the dining room table and called it her museum for me to explore when I got home.
The fluffy black and white cats are mine - they have been given names by Ekatarina according to their colour - Bianca and Jetta.



Then Ecky did some painting. We had bought a kit of girls and clothes which stick onto the fridge at the car boot sale on Anglesey (North Wales) a few weeks before. She painted them very neatly.
On Sunday we went to the car boot sale at Pease Pottage. Ecky found lots of bargains - including 2 Pixelchix toys. These are little houses or cars with a screen on one side with a computerised girl who responds to instructions, talks and fits into the imaginary world of a child.
But the best bargain of all was Peace.
Now you may not know about Beanies manufactured by an American company TY. There was very clever marketing in the 1990s. Once a bear became popular it was "retired" and prices often went sky high for mass produced little cute bears and other animals. New designs were being introduced all the time and people - mostly adults, felt a need to have them all. It became a worldwide craze. Each bear was given a name by the manufacturer with details of its birth. Daft, I called it.
The bubble burst and now they are much harder to sell.
Some bears were produced which were much larger than the norm - including extra large bears (27 inches tall).
Peace is an extra large bear.
I have done some research and know that it sold originally in the USA for $75.
And I have just checked on eBay and I could buy a second hand one today for $70 - and there was even a bargain one for $45!
Anyway, on that Sunday, we had almost finished looking for things when we saw Extra Large Peace. Ekatarina was entranced! We spent a while looking at it and read on the tag that it took the stuffing of 75 little bears to fill Extra Large Peace.
Of course Ecky couldn't have the bear - and I asked the price just to show her how very expensive it would be.
Well, I had to ask the seller to repeat the price in case I had misheard.
He said "20p".
Then he said it again.
Well, how could we resist such a gorgeous bear and such a bargain?








Peace has gone everywhere with us. He is soft and cuddly and wonderful as an extra pillow in bed.


Here Ekatarina models her Princess cape that she had bought at Edenbridge on the Saturday. It comes with a muff and a crown - but the day was far too hot to wear a muff.
And then after Ekatarina had patiently done some photographic modelling, I handed her the camera and suggested she take some pictures of me.

Here I am, with George the cat.

And for the time being I still have Peace in the house. She (all Ecky's friends are female) was far too big to carry to Bangor on the train with all the luggage they had.
I promise I will look after her, Ecky, until we can come and see you again.
Next time we will enjoy a short visit to Goffs Park in the blazing sunshine.

4th and 5th August Peace in our house.
posted by Grandma P on Thursday, August 16, 2007