Monday, October 27, 2025

Orange, Chairs, and Bears.

Waking up very early has its benefits.

I can use candles to light up my gourds and pumpkin display inside. The warm orange light is comforting as is the flickering from the candles.



 Then there is that advantage of getting out the door before the sun gets up.










It seemed that this day's theme was Orange. Orange and red sunrise, orange reflections on Bridge M, outside of Readstown, and orange reflections through the fog coming off from Blackbottom Creek at the bridge on Riley Road.

So on our morning walk we continued the theme.  In this shot there looks like a tiny dragon fly stuck in some sort of gossamer thread. You may have to click and enlarge the photo to see it.


Back inside I just had to take a shot of my Grumpy Planter. He never became a planter, I like his facial expression too much to stick a plant in him.
Perhaps in the future I will.


The only downside to waking up very early is on these shorter days, I feel like going to bed much earlier.

Evening hours are spent on my chair project. I like taking my time with it and enjoying the process.

Here is the chair and what it looked like after some sanding and cleaning.


So I started it. The colors were okay-ish but not quite what I wanted. I was using Chalk Paint as it is supposed to go on easier.



I checked into my acrylic paints and tried something different. I kind of liked the purple, but then I didn't.
I found my Brilliant Blue and tried it out on one of the rungs. I liked that.


The Linen White was much nicer and it looked cleaner.

I had some really fun colors in my acrylic collection so I added Lime Green to the lower legs. I liked it.  Fun and bright colors always make me happy.


I mixed two paints to come up with another color for the back legs. That utterly failed for the effect I wanted.

I wanted a warmish color for the back legs.  Hmmm. I wanted a more gold-ish tone, but this might have to do unless I can locate a soft gold color to layer over the yellow. 

Or...I'll keep the wild yellow just because it is unusual. 

It can be a reminder that days can be bright and full of light.


Here is Rich's ancient Teddy bear. I'd love to know exactly how old it was.

However his parents are gone and his sister in not in the picture.
The bear currently resides on the old Christmas Chair which may be my next paint victim. I might color it in a brilliant Christmas Theme.


I did use Google Lens on  photo of this Bear and it is a 1950's era Bear. 

I saw prices from $50 to $200 for this Bear. Not that I thought it was a beautiful bear, but it does let me know that my husband loved his childhood Teddy Bear enough to stick in his trunk of keepsakes for years.
 
He made mention that he thought he got it when he was about 6 yrs old.

That makes this bear around 70 years old?



15 comments:

  1. Nice looking bear for being 70 years old! You got some great photos with orange. That chair is so happy looking!!

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    1. And it shall be a happy chair. It is great to have painting as a way to deal with quiet nights.

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  2. We still have daughter's teddy and a prize doll.
    We also saw orange today. Although it was brilliantly lit, there wasn't as much of it.
    Your chair is something special.

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    1. I've made a few over the years, it has always been fun and rewarding. Thank you.

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  3. Anonymous4:43 PM

    Hi - I’ve never commented before and I am a relatively new reader of your blog. But when I saw the picture of the teddy bear, I wanted to let you know that I have a bear just like him! I got him for Christmas in the first grade which would have been 1956 and I still have him. I named him Tim after the teddy bear in the Dick and Jane readers at school. He slept in bed with me for many years. — until my father told me I was just too old for that. (What???). He came with a red satin bow around his neck about an inch and a half wide. I never ever saw another bear like him, so I’m so glad to know Rich had one too.

    Receiving him was one of those miracle Christmas stories. Things were pretty simple back then and all I really wanted for Christmas was a teddy bear. I got up Christmas morning looking all around the tree, but there was no bear. I was crushed. How would I survive? Then I turned around and there in a corner, pressed up against some furniture was my bear!!!!!! Oh how I loved him instantly. The true miracle of the story wasn’t known for decades - maybe 40 years —- when I was talking to my mom about how excited I was to find him in that corner. And she looked sort of astonished and said - You know, I had no idea you wanted a teddy bear. That Christmas Eve I went to the grocery store to get something I had forgotten to pick up, and on my way out I saw the teddy bear and just decided to get him for you!

    Really?

    All of this is more miraculous because we didn’t have that much money, so how did she have enough to even buy him?

    Somehow without being told my mom somehow knew that her little girl really really wanted a teddy bear and somehow she made it come true without even knowing she was doing it. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.

    So there’s some magic in these particular bears. They loved us. We loved them. That’s why they’re still here 70 years later.


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    1. Thank you Chris for that story, it makes this bear so much more special than I could have imagined. Rich's parents didn't have much as he worked as a herd manager on a dairy farm in the early 1950's. I wonder if my MIL found it at a grocery store also...I will never know the story but yours adds so much!

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  4. Anonymous4:44 PM

    Whoops - forgot to add my name.
    This is from Chris

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  5. Anonymous4:47 PM

    LD...Your color choices are great. I like all the first orange photos. I haven't had an orange sunrise for quite some time now.

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    1. My color choices end up being on a whim with no plan. I'm happy you liked them knowing that you are an artist!

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  6. Anonymous6:15 PM

    I love the chair you are working on! Great colors. We had a fundraiser at the library....SIT DOWN AND READ....and we auctioned off hand painted chairs. I will send you some photos! Lori

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  7. I like the colours. There is something satisfying about refinishing furniture!

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  8. The fourth picture is really terrific. We have always been brutal about getting rid of stuff, so we have no old bears or anything else for that matter. No old chairs to paint, either!

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  9. Anonymous8:02 AM

    I love the colorful chair! Happy colors! When people walk into our large kitchen for the first time, I think some are shocked to see lime green (Dancing Green -SW) walls. 😂 After 14 years, I’m still not tired of the colorful walls. RHill, TX

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  10. Love the photo of the tree reflected in the water. Also the photo of Grumpy Planter with the fall leaves and pumpkins/gourds. And when I saw the old teddy bear, I thought "1950s" too! Those plastic snouts were practically "standard issue" on bears from that era.

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