Fofurree Central

April 14th Craft Day Journal making

Belle was a little apprehensive about the “ladies” we were doing craft with – [she has got a bit sensitive since her rude comment in the supermarket] I knew they were all happy for us to come to their craft day – They have all made a fuss over me lots of times before.

We arrived with our aprons and met everyone had a cuppa and a hot cross bun, and then it was work work work. Very exciting for little bears to get to use SHARP cutting things, glue (I kept a bit of a distance from it as I didn't want to get it in my fur) and all sorts of “tooly” things. The hardest thing in the whole day was choosing the papers to use in the project – there were hundreds of pretty paper, eventually we limited it to five or six and we were under way.

We had a short (?) break for lunch – wonderful fresh sandwiches, yum yum, afternoon tea, home made shortbread biscuits, but the rest of the day was paper here, glue there, pressing and rubbing and talking and laughing, and loosing tools and finding tools, and yet at the end of it all we had made two wonderful books, covered and bound by us – Belle and I [not to mention the others] though we were very clever little bears.

Home tired but happy little bears to a great tea, more hot cross buns and then fall asleep watching TV and listening to the humans chatter, to dream our beary dreams.

If you want to see all the fun we had just go to our photos

Belle comes to Mudgee
I have been waiting for this day for ages. Belle is coming to Mudgee to visit and to teach me how to fix my coat – It will be wonderful to have my coat back – especially now it is getting colder. I went to the shop, with my human to wait her arrival. I knew she would not be there for ages so I filled in my time leaving messages to all my friends on FFB and reading funny comments about their photos and adventures – this is the bestest of things to do. Belle arrived earlier than expected and I was SO surprised. She had a present for me - easter egg (yum yum,) in a SHEEPIE cup – how clever of her to find a sheepie mug, just for me -

The day one wanted no customers, we had lots and Belle and I got interrupted over and over.. Eventually we got to leave the shop and head home. I wanted to get the sewing machines out immediately ( In fact mine was set up, threaded and ready to go), but no the humans 'needed' a cuppa and a time out – we did get to share their hot cross buns, with lots of butter, so that was great.

We made an APRON first – they are very simple, so Belle's human, said to make and would be a good introduction, before tackling my coat. I soon discovered the “joys” of sewing- it is called unpicking- I don't think it is much fun undoing what you have already done , but this is what my human called it – “Bonnie unpicking is one of the joys of sewing” (– if anyone can ex plain that to me I would be forever in their debt). I did a lot of unpicking – it appears I am better at that than sewing.

After much laughing, talking, and a little sewing we had wonderful aprons. Belle wasn't too keen having me pin it on her to try it out, but she only got pins in her a couple of times, and I didn't cut her at all with the scissors. The humans said they needed to recover by having another cuppa before tackling my coat – Belle and I were ready for anything after seeing how clever we were at making aprons.

Guess what – more unpicking – it appeared that my coat still wasn't in enough pieces to satisfy Belle's human. The coat reassembly was a little tricky, and I am sad to say that I did get a bit cross at it, but eventually, after more unpicking, it started to look like my old coat. It is very thin in places we discovered and needed a little “darning” attention ( it is called this I think because every time another hole was discovered my human would exclaim “Oh darn, another hole”). Belle reckons that it wouldn't be hard to make a complete new coat if the wearing gets too bad, I would be happy to do that – but I AM NOT unpicking all this to make a template for the next one – whatever a template is...

My coat is done – complete and it looks and feels just like old.... I am a very happy little bear. Belle and I did have a bit of a falling out – one of us liked “ears in” and one 'ears out'. I am not saying who, we decided to get our FF friends opinion [see file] about which looks the cuter.

After more laughing and eating and talking (with our beloved coats on) we fell asleep [I forgot I mention we ate our chocolate egg along the way]. We fell asleep and dreamed unpicking dreams – well I did.

WEDNESDAY 11TH MARCH 2009
Bonnie's human woke everyone up very early this morning... Bonnie and I felt we needed a good sleep in to recover from all the poking and prodding and pulling that we had endured yesterday to produce our new look. But this was not to be. We were to go to the art gallery to gain some culture (I thought this was what they added to make yogurt!).

It was better than it sounded – the paintings were all right, but the comments we got were WONDERFUL. In fact we had lots of wonderful comments today, and even one complete stranger came to have their photo taken with us. It must be the 'new look' as this as never happened before.

We went to a very fancy restaurant for Jam and Scones – it was delightful, a piano playing in the background, made it complete. We did have fun taking photos, Bonnie and I climbed the Sydney harbour bridge, we slid down the sails of the opera house climbed some trees, we were pretending to hug them which was allowed (climbing wasn't, I am not sure that sliding down the opera house sails is allowed either, but there were no signs that said so.)

The only cloud that darkened our sun today, is the fact that this is our last day together, so we did our photos for the easter egg hunt forfurree competition, and then sat and ate chocolate eggs, well I didn't have many I have sort of gone off chocolate. I fell asleep thinking about the fun the taxi ride will be in the morning accompanied by strange rumblings still coming from my tummy!

DAY THREE 10TH MARCH 2009
Bonnie and I awoke early but the humans didn't. They just rolled over and slept on and on. Every trick that we could think of we tried nothing worked so we just had to let them sleep, it was very frustrating especially as this was OUR shopping day.

This was to be the most exciting day of our lives, as it turned out. We caught a train, and even had to to change stations,tricky that. Bonnie was non stop chatter about the new shoes, but I had a secret desire to find a better shoulder bag than Bonnie's. After a lot of heated discussion about where to go,we eventually found the shopping centre – it was enormous – six stories high and covering about two blocks, with all the joys of discovery before us.

We headed first to the bear shop – and found it had a complete "bear make over" department – to make slightly warn bears look like new. This shop was more than a bear could dream about. Shoes to the left of us, bags to the right, fluff your fur out machines, give you a nose lift – choose your own snout – put sparkle back into the eyes, a complete colour change if you like, blue rinse through the hair was very tempting, but bonnie was having none of that – it wouldn't go with the shoes!! So we had a body make over and we even had our overcoats removed, our straps have been updated so that we can now change our outfits – this might stop Bonnie's obsession with shoes.

We went through each department choosing outfits to try on. This is such a novelty since we have been a little hampered with our big coat limitations before. Bonnie and I found six outfits to try on, we agreed that we didn't have to dress alike anymore, so we went to different fitting rooms and to choose which one we would buy. Guess what, we both ended up liking the same outfit!!!! I found a wonderful bag, pink and so much prettier than Bonnie's, the trouble was Bonnie's human thought so too and bought her one, not as nice as mine but very similar. Bonnie got new shoes but I decided my lovely gold and silver sandals looked wonderful with the new outfit so I didn't bother. ( I am really saving up for another outfit, now that we can change them as I have lots and lots of lovely shoes).

We looked and felt like two new bears. We floated out of the shop feeling wonderful, and looking forward to wandering around and looking for photo opportunities. We found two sheepies in a shop window that would have been great, my human asked if it would be possible to take a photo but the lady in the shop had limited imagination and no 'joy of life' in her and stated 'it would be against shop regulations to change the display window” as if!!

We took one photo on a road cross over but no other photo opportunities came our way, but we cared not, we felt and looked transformed and the sun shone the birds sang and every thing was right with our world. We went back to the hostel very tired little bears and fell asleep dreaming beary happy dreams.

Day 2 9th March 2009

We awoke to the sounds of light rain, and a cold wind blowing through the wide open windows that our humans insisted should remain open all night to let the room air. We were very glad owe are bears and have warm fur. An unusual sound penetrated our delicate ears, what on earth was that low rumbling noise – we later discovered it was all the traffic running endlessly along the roads.

We went down for a lovely continental breakfast had a nice lady commented about our sandals. They certainly catch the eye of every discerning passer bye.

Off to discover the trains that go under the city. It's amazing how harmless the city looks in the day light. No dark shadows for monsters to hide in and strange shapes to engulf us.

Bonnie and I had been dreaming and scheming for months about what we would do – but nothing happened that we had planned. We did have fun on the monorail very high in the sky, and on the underground trains roaring into the stations from the black holes of the tunnels. But no shoes, no bear shoes anywhere, Bonnie's new bag was hit with the humans as she could carry the train tickets easily for them.,and I must admit my tummy was playing up a bit – I found the lifts going up a bit hard to take.(too much chocolate is not good for bears with sensitive tummys ) Bonnie just thought I was scared of lifts and I needed to get some backbone.

No photos taken all day!!!, we were very upset to find some wonderful photo opportunities but on the other side of a locked door!! Such is a bears lot. We did get our Christmas shopping done – organized bears we are and its still 9 months till Christmas! Hopefully our humans will not forget to post them in time..

Back to the hostel, and a little time to do some updates on Facebook, a quick bite to eat and then off to the Pictures – our humans said as it was only rated PG we could go – how heavenly. Great big soft seat, dim lighting and Bonnie and I were fast asleep in no time, we have no idea of what the picture was about.... we awoke when the lights came on, and off to have another final ride on the monorail to see Sydney by night – it was very very pretty, especially around the harbour with all the lights twinkling into the water. Back to the hostel and a quick cuppa a promise from the humans that tomorrow will be OUR day for shopping Bonnie and I soon fell asleep dreaming of new shoes and maybe a bag or two....

DAY 1 Sunday 8th March 2009

I (Belle) went to visit my humans son in Summerhill, a suburb of Sydney ( though it was not summery nor hilly) the daughter in law was very impressed with my wonderful gold and silver high heel sandals and asked if they were “ high fashion bear society shoes”, which of course they are: a girl with such good taste is hard to find, while on the other had the son was pretending that I didn't exist, even though I had brought him a present!!!! He did begrudgingly say thanks Belle – I should think so!

But while this adventure was taking place Bonnie was about to step on to the bus to start her travels to Sydney. She was very exited and anticipated a great trip... like me she was heading for great disappointment. The bus bussed along happily, and even arrived in time – for them to told that the connecting train was running 30 minutes late, and they would have wait for an hour on the platform.... That was fine, till her human wearing flimsy summery clothes discovered a freezing gale blowing down the platform. Bonnie not tactful in said she should have been more prepared and have a nice warm coat on like she did. Things went downhill from then.

Eventually the train appeared on platform. Full of cranky tired people... and they were very squashed into their seats... Bonnie, I am sad to say even spent time on the floor under the chair while her human played on the laptop.

I (Belle) arrived to a cold, dark, lonely empty Motel room, cheered only by the fact that Bonnie would soon be here. I had brought a surprise supply of chocolate for her. Got a message, Bonnie was going to be half and hour late! Oh dear! I consoled myself with chocolate. Got another message Bonnie was going to be an hour late! Oh dear! I consoled myself with more chocolate! Got another message Bonnie had no idea when the train was arriving! Oh dear! Oh dear! There was no chocolate left.

After rearranging the motel room furniture, opening and closing the windows, and diverting my boredom by cuddling up with my human to watch some Jane Austen, I got a message Bonnie had arrived at last in Central Station.

My human and I decided to surprise them and meet them at the station they were coming to. It was a bit scary to do this in the middle of the night, in the “big bad city” centre near Hyde Park. Did I mention it was also raining. So we braved the elements, overcame our fears and strove brazenly into the unknown. All for nothing, I might add. Bonnie's human had had enough, she was not in a very nice mood and had decided to catch a taxi.

Bonnie was thrilled, she has never been in a taxi before, I still haven't.

Bonnie (who I notice has her own handbag) produced from it a present for my human – not a present for me her lovely twin, (not even a bag likes hers). So I didn't mention the chocolate surprise I had brought for her, which was now causing rumbles in my tummy.

The humans talked and chatted as Bonnie and I, exhausted, fell asleep.

Hi Friends, Welcome to Fofurreebook!

I’m writing this FAQ because I’ve noticed new friends have joined up but that they maybe missed a few steps in the setting up of their page.

It’s a little confusing here, but when you click on the EDIT PAGE link and go into the ADD WIDGETS area, you need to click SAVE after you have dragged the widgets to the columns you want them to show up in on your profile page. If you don’t click SAVE after adding widgets to the columns, they won’t show up on your profile page and your friends won’t be able to see them.

Your PROFILE PAGE. You can see your profile page by clicking on the little icon of yourself located on the top of any page on the far left. If you haven’t yet uploaded an icon, just click on the little blue/while head icon up there.

Once you are on your profile page, and your widgets are all there where you want them, you can then click on the EDIT link on each icon and edit the functions for each widget a little further. Such as, if you click the EDIT link on the FRIENDS Widget, you can change the amount of friends that will show up in that widget, and also who can see/access your widget (I recommend choosing “logged in users”), and the icon size. All of the Widgets are Editable but have different options, so check them out.

Adding an ARTFOLIO or uploading a FILE to you page. To do either, go up to the top bar there on your page, and where it says TOOLS, choose your option from the drop down menu and follow the instructions which are located on the left panel of the new page. ie: “Write a artfolio post” will lead you to the page where you can up load photos to an artfolio. Unfortunately you can only write text to an artfolio, not the individual photos within it. Check out this artfolio on my page as an example: http://www.fofurreebook.com/pg/artfolio/jedbramwell/read/5046/pillow-fight

ADDING/FINDING FRIENDS
The best way to find friends is to look on other friend’s walls. Then click on the icon of the friend you want to add to you friend widget.

If you have videos on Youtube, you can add them directly to the youtube widget by clicking the EDIT link on the widget and then copying in the url to your youtube video.

GROUPS. There’s lots of groups on here. Again, the best way to find them, is to look on other friends walls. Some groups require membership, but don’t worry about that, all are welcome in any group, so just sent the group owner and msg so they can add you.

HAVE FUN!! And if you need any help, just ask any of us who’ve been on here a while.

Jed xo

PS there is a HOW-TO VIDEO on youtube that shows you lots of the ins and outs of fofurreebook. I highly recommend giving it a gander: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBc9CGyMMCg

Today is my birthday! I'm 13 today!! Yippy!!!

Anyways, I've upload loads of photos into 3 artfolio albums but thought I'd mention it here because I'm not so sure if artfolio uploads show up in the activity feeds.

Here they are,

My Birthday Artfolio: http://www.fofurreebook.com/pg/artfolio/jedbramwell/read/5053/my-13th-birthday
My New Bearmani Suit Artfolio: http://www.fofurreebook.com/pg/artfolio/jedbramwell/read/5048/my-very-own-bearmani-suit
And mine and tito's Pillow Fight Artfolio: http://www.fofurreebook.com/pg/artfolio/jedbramwell/read/5046/pillow-fight

Thanks for looking!
I gots ta go to bed now; I've been up all night partying! WOO!!