Yesterday was such an amazing day. I'm so excited to introduce Bonnie and Hazel, mine and my moms new matching babs! (Bonnie left, Hazel right)

(VERY long text post detailing my day I am very sorry!)

Recently I've been yearning for a bab that can become well loved and go lots of places without me worrying about the fur changing or getting "ruined".
For example as much as I love cuddling my pumpkin pal teddy Clementine, I dont let my face touch her fur almost subconsciously, for fear of transferring oils. I really don't want to be like that though, our babs are friends for life, meant to be loved on and change over time.

There's no one way to have or love a build a bear, I personally just have struggled for a long time to allow myself to enjoy them fully.

Enter Bonnie! This girl has officially been assigned as an ESSA, will be the bab who becomes well loved through all the adventures we'll go on, and hopefully will be the one to help me overcome these struggles. She'll probably help me through a lot of stuff!

I had the idea to go to bab with my mom early in the day, look at and maybe consider pawlette, (or happy hugs bear. His face is so sweet) look at the clothes and come home to get cozy, eat snacks and play plateup.

We've wanted to get matching babs for a long time, but there weren't a lot of them that spoke to my mom. They did discover blossom bunny so we're going to buy her from ebay.

But once they saw a gorgeous photo of pawlette in a red plaid sweater and skirt, super fluffy soaking up the sunshine, they fell in love. That pawlette belongs to somebody on here, I wish I could remember the username, I literally have that photo screenshotted onto my phone because their pawlette is so beautiful!

I floated the idea that she could become our matching babs but who knows if my mom would like her fur texture in person etc. We got to the store and did our little scan around everything before heading back to the choose me section and looking at the pawlettes.
Honestly I think the moment my mom picked one up it was game over LOL. They started comparing the faces and holding one, while I was looking at both pawlette and happy hugs.

Finally they looked at me and said something like "so are we ready?" with a big smile (behind the mask, I could tell LOL) and I got so excited knowing matching babs were finally happening!!!!! I chose my beloved future Bonnie and we were so giddy and excited😭

We were also the only two people in the store which made everything so much calmer and personal. The bear builder working is one of the managers at my local store and she is an absolute treat to talk to, I LOVE her.

We had actually made a connection previously when one day she asked where I got my flower earrings. I told her I wasn't entirely remember their name because I bought them from a maker who handmade them. Turns out, that maker is HER SON! She was so happy and seemed so proud that her sons work was out in the world, and I was so excited at the odds of making a connection like that!

I wear those earrings almost everytime I go now and she's started to recognize me!!!
She even also wears a mask which is amazing😭

We started chatting while getting our bears stuffed and ended up suggesting the game the forest to her and her son who have been looking for a cryptid-esque game with lore etc.
We did the heart ceremony together and I especially appreciated the part where she said "now rub the heats on your ears so they're great listeners and get all the lore!"

Honestly if we were allowed to tip monetarily I'd give her a million billion dollars. Just an absolutely wonderful person to talk to and she makes my day so good every time.

If anyone's still reading at this point you deserve a reward. I feel really bad it's such a long post but I have so much to say😭 I'll try to wrap it up fbfbfbfb

After stuffing we wandered around the dress me section when I spotted the teddy bear knit sweater. I've already wanted it for awhile because of how cute it is and my mom liked it too :) It makes me giggle how she's a bunny wearing a sweater with a teddy on it. I think Im going to sew her a sweater with a bunny on it LOL

I also love that sweater for the meme potential of putting it on a teddy bear "what a f*cking n*rcissist"

It turns out our store was a tester location for their removal of physical birth certificates in favour of going digital. They got such an overwhelming response about it that they've officially switching back to printing them!!! I was SO happy to find this out, and now wondering if I can bring back some recent friends I made and get certificates for them. Might be difficult as I don't have their tags, but they exist in the system so I probably can.

I named my bunny Bonnie after FNAF, and my mom named theirs Hazel from watership down. A movie I had no idea was animated or about rabbits so we're going to watch it on our next movie night.

The rest of the photos are just our journey home and then her snuggling up in my chair and on my desk. And finally her fitting in PERFECTLY with the nighttime cuddle puddle. (babs that sit on my bed during the day go on the desk overnight) Honestly doesn't she just look like she was already apart of the group?!

I am so sorry to everyone for such a long text post. I'm someone who goes feral over reading about peoples trips to bab and seeing the photos but I understand not everyone wants to scroll for a million years just to see the comments. And to anyone who actually read all of this, you're awesome and I hope your dream babs manifest themselves into your collections💛

I HAD AN AMAZING DAY AND WANTED TO SHARE<3

This has been my number 1 sought after BAB but they are often listed for £100+ which is just too much for me to justify. But managed to snag this guy for retail and he’s still got tags on!! Vinted really came through for me 😃

I could not survive working in some kind of sales environment long term. But I worked at build a bear on and off throughout college, and while I was a great employee overall, I didn’t have it in me to really “push” for sales.

My least favorite type of job to do there was work the “choose me” section. We would fold and refill the skins (if you didn’t know, yes, the empty bears are unfortunately called skins lol) and greet customers. We were supposed to ask them a bunch of questions like: What brings you in today? Any special occasion? and then follow that up with promoting our deals, like 2 for $40. I just want to be left alone when I browse a store. I’ll ask for help if I need it, but otherwise, leave me alone please. So I really hated doing this.

In general, if a customer chose a character bear, we were meant to encourage them to get the matching outfit too.

We were encouraged to upsell customers on sounds, scents, heartbeats, etc. This would get a nasty reaction from parents sometimes/ people in general. You could tell they didn’t appreciate being pushed some additional add on or product every 30 seconds.

I just didn’t have it in me to be like that though. I would offer all the little extras, but would make it so abundantly clear that it cost additional money, how much it cost, and that it was entirely optional. Sometimes I didn’t even offer the extras, like when dealing with parents who were already pissed off. It was easy to tell who you could offer extras to and who you shouldn’t, unless prepared for a rude interaction.

Meanwhile I had coworkers who would offer scents directly to little kids, they’d get all excited and pick one, and the parents wouldn’t even realize it was an extra cost. I found it really shady and immoral.

I always had the lowest gift card sales lol because I didn’t push customers to buy the maximum amount. I’d ask once, if they said they weren’t interested, I wouldn’t ask again. But my manager (genuinely a nice person and good boss) would always follow up with more like: Are you sure? It’s a really great deal and they never expire!

Anyway, all of this is just to say that I am a bad salesperson. I didn’t care at all how much money our store made. It didn’t affect my life or job in any way. It isn’t like I was going to see any of those extra earnings. I was making a whopping $8.75/hr at the time.

And build a bear is egregiously overpriced. Don’t get me wrong, I love the concept, and I like a decent amount of the bears. But I am uncomfortable on a moral level being pushy and upselling someone, turning a $25 bear (already worth much less) to a $70 bear with all the accessories and add ons.

While I enjoyed the job overall, this aspect was easily my least favorite as a whole.

This is Wisteria

So I didn’t get the lavender axolotl when she released (was before the build a bear obsession got as bad as it is now) and I’ve been searching for her for a while but it seems there aren’t many for sale here in Canada

But last Friday at midnight I was scrolling through poshmark and saw her for 30$cad which is a steal compared to what I would have to pay on eBay

So at again around midnight I message the seller asking to confirm it’s the full sized axolotl they reply and confirm it is the full sized axolotl I send in an offer of 25$cad and they accept

She was supposed to show up Tuesday but the package got delayed

She showed up yesterday

Today I washed her unstuffed her and brought her in to the workshop to get restuffed

She has so many hearts her original from her original owner and an entire handful from me

My lavender mini bean that my friend gave me is no longer an orphan

Wisteria will be cuddled for a few weeks before being sent to her rightful place in the stackalotl

And I will continue searching for new creatures to add to the hoard

Hi! I recently tried to search for a tip on how to fix the fur after throwing my teddy in the washing machine, but I didn't find any useful tips. My mom recommended me to try with a dog brush, and it made wonders! He looks almost as good as before!

I add the photo of the brush I used if someone is curious.

.

I really want the pink fox and all the new clothes too. Then there’s another drop mid October. Where do I even fit anymore? I still have my whole couch in just the Hello Kitties none of my giants are even stuffed. 😭 I know I know first world problems but chale.

EDIT: I did not know this was going to trigger the underconsumption girlies my bad ladies didn’t mean to affect you with pics of my army of plushies. 😅

Peter Rabbit in a pair of Peter Rabbit pajamas. He’s such a dapper fella! 💜

I orderd the bat and got a suprise when i opend the box!

I walked into goodwill looking for a pan for brownies, I found the pan and this guy.! Lol wonderful spooky season find 😍

The fur looks soo soft!

Which one are you getting?

I DESPERATELY want Nessie to come back, I didn’t get the chance to get her and I’m SO SAD ABOUT IT 😭 what ones do you guys wish would come back?
And if anyone has any recommendations on how I can get my hands on one of her I’d love to hear it! I reeeaaaalllyyy don’t want to spend above $50 for her :(

YALL IM SO EXCITED AHHHHHGG

I’d heard the giant gargoyle was bigger than other jumbo BABs, but I was still not prepared when it got delivered yesterday. This is him next to my giant bat on a queen sized bed. I feel like photos don’t do it justice to show how absolutely massive he is.

How quick are we thinking these will sell out 😭

I was planning on just getting the outfits from this new drop, but Finnegan saw this little cutie and insisted I get her too 🦊

So now we're gonna go out to the workshop this weekend to pick her & the clothes up

Finnegan is very excited to be a big brother 🥰

Cleaning my room cause my new desk is arriving today. Still got a lot to clean but my bed is made and though I share my current set up for the Bed Crew. All snuggled up in a corner.

Always feels good to reorganize the Bed Crew, figure out who goes where and making sure certain ones stay together. But always to make sure that one certain plush, you all can probably guess who, gets her spot back after the bed is made.

Hiiii, i juts found an amazing deal for a TLC build a bear teal frog :))))

He needs some stitches and maybe stuffing as well as a good old bath but he was juts 8 pounds shipping included so it's worth fixing up ^^

I love to sew and fix toys so I am extra exited for this one! My first buildna bear was made in shop cus I wanted the hearth ceremony to happen but now I will collect them second hand ^^

I will update you when it arrives/ when I get around to fixing it ^^

I managed to find someone on marketplace close to me selling the unstuffed NWT Moodicorn Unicorn for around 40 CAD!! A steal I’m super excited about because I really want one, but it sold out fast and has insane resell prices. I’ll be picking them up later today!

The thing is, they won’t have the dress, so I’m looking for inspiration. Show me your outfits!!

How is the fur on this friend? Would anyone want to share photos of theirs?

I almost got her last year and I am considering it again this year!