#stuffed panda

Back in August a gentleman reached out to me about his wife's giant panda, Edward (Eddie) Bear. He wasn't just giant by breed, but he was actually a giant at about 5 feet from head to toe.

Here are some diagnosis photos:

In addition to stuffing compression, Eddie had quite a few seam issues, and some (not visible) tears. He came to the hospital for a spa and wound repair. Here he is in his bubble bath (he gets the giant tub).:-)

Restuffing took quite a few adjustments to get his shape right, but soon he was restuffed, fur fluffed, wounds repaired, and ready to head home:

Now Eddie headed home and his family was very happy! They wrote:

"Thank you so much, Beth, for providing the excellent care that our boy needed and deserved.

S and I are 100% satisfied with his outcome, so much cleaner, much less slouched and his wounds are all fully healed.

I wonder how many people realize and act on their true calling in life.

I believe I do with my wood working, and I know you do with Realms of Gold."

Nice, yes? But even better... a few weeks later the gentleman's wife reached out. Now that Eddie was better, she wanted to get her husband's companion, Mr. Monkey repaired. She wrote:

"First off let me start by telling you how happy Les and I are with the care you gave Eddie Bear. He is like new again and we are so pleased! 

Sooo, it got me thinking about Mr. Monkey. Mr. Monkey is Les’ child and has definitely seen better days. I have my doubts as to whether he can be helped because of the shape he is in.  But I thought it was worth a try to inquire."

Here are his diagnosis photos, and if you've been a long time reader of my blog, you may guess my response... he's not nearly as bad as you think and we can definitely help him!

The plan was a spa and recovering Mr. Monkey's brown. The brown area was originally knitted (which I don't repair), but we agreed recovering it in a fur or fabric would add to his stability without changing his personality. So he came to the hospital and....

Here he is in his spa:

Much tinier than Eddie, Mr. Monkey is slightly bigger than a hand!

Of course Mr. Monkey (and Eddie) got hearts of original stuffing... here are the two hearts:

There were several fabric options for Mr. Monkey's brown, and his people opted for a thin minky fur. Here he is all better!

Mr. Monkey headed home and when he arrived his family wrote:

"Mr. Monkey is home safe and sound! He looks GREAT! He said he enjoyed being at the hospital, getting such great care from you! By the way he talks, I think he’s quite smitten with you! He says he’ll miss you!  

Anyway, we can’t thank you enough for your TLC and expertise! 

Don’t you love the red bow tie? It came on a Christmas gift and L snatched it and saved it for when Mr. Monkey returned home. "

And here he is looking spiffy in that new bow tie!

This whole weekend I have been away from the entirety of my jellycat collection except for Pan-Pan he has absolutely been doing his best to keep me happy while we're puppysitting.

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughter, and Tobias Iaconis. Rating: 3.25 Stars.

Read from January 12 to January 14.

Parker Panda and I just finished reading Five Feet Apart. I originally picked this up because I saw somewhere on the Internet that Cole Sprouse was playing the main male character in the movie and just bought the book. I didn’t even watch the trailer first. Overall, I thought it was pretty ‘meh’ but I also realize that it’s based off of the screenplay for the movie coming out later this year. It immediately contextualized for me the reasons for the flaws I was finding in the work.

It was too fast paced for me to connect with the characters. I saw them and their struggles and really appreciated what they were going through, but I needed more filler scenes to get an emotion out of me. Which would have been there from the start if it was just a book written for the sole purpose of writing a book and telling that story that way. But coming from screenplay to book I can understand that movies are faster paced and you can connect more with the visuals or the music and that you don't have to rely so heavily on the filler scenes. It was also way too short for me.

Things I enjoyed: Stella’s stuffed panda (duh), Poe’s backstory (I just wish we had more), and Will’s growth. I wish we could have seen what was going to happen next because that ending was kind of killer. The hospital setting was very real in my head so they did a great job with that. It was also an easy read and something that you can get through quickly if you need to fit another book in your TBR for the month or if you need something to break up all the Fantasy/Sci-Fi.