Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Recreating Lou Lou


We lost Lou Lou. Lou Lou is Lydia's lovie toy that she has slept with since she was 4 months old. She is a bear in a bunny suit. We left her in the hotel on our Atlanta trip and after basically staking housekeeping for weeks, we came to conclusion that Lou Lou was gone. (The above photo was taken the last night of our vacation.) We had been telling Lydia that Lou Lou was on an adventure, but she says it's time for the adventure to end. We could have explained that Lou Lou was gone, but all I could think about was when I lost my Cabbage Patch doll Maggie when I was a little girl. I thought my heart would break. When Maggie was discovered in a field months later, it was the happiest day ever. So......I decided to recreate Lou Lou.



1. Luckily I had a back up Lou Lou. I meant it to be a sentimental gift for Lydia's first baby, but this takes precedence. I just had to figure out how to replicate 3 years of wear and tear. My steps....
2. Scrubbed her in the dirt to get rid of the new white look.
3. Pounded her with a mallet to thin her out.
4. Roughed up the fur with a microplane.
5. Dirtied up the pink ears with chocolate syrup and soy sauce.
6. Darkened the nose and snipped away some of the yarn.
7. Gave her a bath in Irish Cream for a more over all dirty look.
8. Scrubbed her in sugar for a bit more wear. Washed her, rang out the water for 20 minutes and then let air dry.
9. Ta Da!!!! Lou Lou is back!!!!!

Lydia was thrilled.

Lesson learned: As soon as we see which toy is "the one" for Collin, I will buy several and rotate them for more even wear. I am thinking of making Lou Lou a Christmas stocking. I had one for my doll Maggie. :)

24 comments:

Nickie said...

LOVE IT...

My sons fav. Is his white blanket. He left it behind at my grandma's one day. She lived out of town and it was going to take a few days to get it back. So I bought a second "white blankie". For a while he didn't know there was two of them. Then he caught on...From that day on he carried both "white blankies". Kids are smart...I hope your daughter loves her new LuLu :)

Recipe Dutchess said...

so sweet!

leah @maritalbless said...

I have a 4 month old son already growing attached to his puppers, which my Mom and picked out the day I went into labor. We've since bought 2 more for situations such as these, but what a great idea to rotate them for even wear!

I love the picture, she's so beautiful! And I had to lol at your list of kitchen items necessary to get the worn in look!

jaquelyn {mama thoughts} said...

Aw! SO glad you could do that so Lydia didn't have to be without. Hope LouLou had a swell time on her "adventure"! =)

Anonymous said...

You're so much better than I would have been! I would have given her the new one and told her that while Lou was on her adventures that she had visited the BearSpa and was feeling all happy and clean again!

Perhaps we can all get together and do an internet search and find you another new Lou to keep for sentiments...

any info that would help? brand? numbers on a tag or anything?

Natalie Jane said...

It is an Easter toy, so I will check out stores then. Internet searches haven't found anything sadly. Thanks for thinking of that!

House Queen said...

Great thinking! Did she believe it was LouLou or did she figure it out?

Jill said...

my daughter has "pinkies" a pink bunny that she thinks is a boy dog. she loves that thing as if it was her own child. just over a year we lost him too and we all were devastated. it broke my heart that she had lost something that was so important to her. i prayed and prayed that i might be able to remember where we could have left him. about a week later and totally out of the blue my husband remembered she may have left him at a restaurant. i immediately called and asked if they by chance had seen a pink bunny anywhere. they said YES! such a tender mercy. we got him back and that day and went straight to the pet store to have a dog tag engraved with "pinks" name and phone number, just in case he ever gets lost again. :)

Are You Serious! said...

♥ how funny! Emma had a baby she took everywhere and it was hideous after 4 years... I tried giving her a new one that looked exactly the same... SHe didn't want anything to do with it! :)

Natalie Jane said...

She actually did believe it! We were so relived.

Laurel @ Ducks in a Row said...

This is hilarious. You must really love her to go through that! Or. . . she must really love Lou Lou.

Emily Taylor said...

I'm seriously impressed. Even if your crafting skills are focused more on destruction.

Brady and Berta said...

How do you do your photo collages?

Unknown said...

This was hilarious, and so incredibly sweet at the same time!! I'm so glad she has her Lou Lou back :)

Lisa B. said...

Oops, didn't realize my husband's mail was open :) That was me, above - Lisa - not "Mark" :)

Christina said...

I love this. I always wanted to have a "lovey" or something to that extent. But, turns out, I was to ADD and would never get attached. I want my kids to have something like this but Ro is already 14 months and just wants A blanket. Doesn't matter which one.

I guess he has my ADD gene.

But this post was SO sweet!

Leslie said...

you are a genius mama. you need an award, i love this post!

Anonymous said...

I noted in the top picture that there is a tag on LouLou's bum - but I'm not able to make things out from it. Can you tell us what it says?

I know you mentioned it was an Easter toy - but perhaps I can find it. I have this weird skill of finding lovies. I recently found one to replace MY MOTHERS favorite toy (circa 1945!!!), so you never know!

:)

S Club Mama said...

oh my gosh, what a sweet mommy!

Moose doesn't have a lovey. I had a panda that he has in his pet net. I wonder if Squirt will become attached to anything?

Jessica said...

Thanks for making me smile. First, I glanced at the title and collage and thought you created Lou Lou from scratch. Some of the photos in the collage had me wondering but then I read your step-by-step outline and figured it out. Second, the mention of your Cabbage Patch kid made me think of the ones I had growing up and how ugly they were (or at least mine were). Third, as a mom my mind started thinking about Kellen's fav and if I was prepared to replace it. :)

P.S. Let me know if you need help with anything for tomorrow esp. since you hurt your neck. I can clean bathrooms, fold laundry, etc. Or better yet don't worry about anyting like that because it doesn't matter. :)

aurora said...

That is pure genius!

Unknown said...

Wow! that will be a great story to tell lydia years down the road

Krulls in Haiti said...

Wow... you are one committed momma!

Heather said...

That has to be about one of the sweetest things ever! So glad you were able to recreate Lou Lou!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...