Bear Surgery and Holiday Howl

Happy pre-holiday craziness! I am working hard trying to get all my loose ends tied up before leaving on my trip on Christmas Eve, which has left me feeling like a very tired elf. Presents and packing and pre-trip nerves oh my!

For personal reasons, this trip is going to be quite stressful. So I'm also trying to plan some good, fun things to help distract me along the way. I decided early on I wanted to take one of my plush with me for holiday shenanigans, and originally it was going to be Spock. However, I think I have decided to take Howl with me as I have the least pictures of him so far, and I did just do the 12 Days of Christmas with Spock. So I've also been getting him into ship-shape for the upcoming trip, and packing all his clothes along with mine. He doesn't have a very extensive wardrobe (yet), but I have some Christmas items that will be fun for photos along the way.

One thing I did to prep him was to open him up and adjust his stuffing. This is the second time I've done this, as the first time I had to remove his scent disk. I think it got overheated or melted during the stuffing process (the stuffing "pump" can get quite warm during the process, and the staff member commented that he was really, really warm). It ended up smelling like melted chemicals and death, so I removed it. This second time I opened him up to re-stuff as his original stuffing was pretty slapdash. I think it was because it was towards the end of the day, but the staff member who stuffed him wasn't particularly helpful. (Not a big deal for me as I can sew, but I did miss doing the heart ceremony.)

Original stuffing on the left, new stuffing on the right.

His body was mostly stuffed, but I realized that his face was very deflated. In parts it was almost empty, which didn't do him any favors poor fellow. So I re-stuffed his head and his body to give it more shape, and the results are much, much better. You can really see it in the curve of his face, and his nose area. I think maybe that's why I haven't loved some of the Eevees I've seen in the past, because they were under stuffed.

I also picked him up one small item while I was doing the end of my holiday shopping, which is this red shirt. I couldn't find something specifically Santa-themed which was my goal, but I already have this sparkly hat.

I thought this was particularly fitting for Howl. 

Alas they didn't have one for "heart eater."