Christmas Update - and Preliminary Plans for 2015

                                              






Greetings Everyone!  
Well, Christmas has passed - very quickly, as is it's wont. 
The celebrations were wonderful, with both daughters together, and Alan as well.  Dotty, the Dog 

Getting to know Pingou, the Penguin

and two cats - Mo and Alfie -

Not sure what Alfie was expecting:  Mo, an elderly puss,  did not grace us with her presence at this time

enjoyed themselves too, and the snow held off until Boxing Day, at which point here in the East Midlands (we are on the edge of the Peak  District, which as it's name implies is quite high by UK standards, anyway) six inches of the white stuff were dumped on us overnight. 

 We woke up on Saturday morning, with a blanket of snow (which meant it took me 30 minutes to get my daily paper, instead of the more normal 15-20 - depending if I meet folks en route with whom to pass the time of day!)  Actually, the need to concentrate on where one puts one's feet and the over-arching temperatures don't encourage too much of the chatting at the moment.

I'm pleased to be able to inform you that Grandpere Tiger Puppet did eventually make it to Tulsa, Okalahoma.  He was picked up by JS on Christmas Eve - when a packet containing a pattern for some puppet felt hands, and some actual felt fabric, was sent to me for transforming into three pairs.   I assume these will eventually end up on the bodies of some of the Puppets, I've already been booked to make.  
Samples of the fleece fabric I intended to use to make these items had been included in the same parcel in which Grandpere Tiger had been packed.  The pink fleece sample was, as feared, somewhat "too pink" for the purposes intended.  So at my suggestion, since dyes in the USA are obviously different to those readily available here in the UK, JS has found some felt more suited to his needs, and I shall attempt to produce his requirements once the package arrives from Tulsa.    (Both sides of the Atlantic sincerely hope that it will not take 22 days for the journey to be accomplished now that the Christmas Mail hurly-burly is over!)
In the interim, two other Cuddlies have found new homes - one is actually a custom order version of 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/107350815/sleepy-teddy-art-doll-yellow-plush-furry?

The Buyer, who lives in Torquay, Devon, England, UK wants to have her Sleepy Ted made in the same fabric as our Baby Koalas.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/55190188/toy-koala-tree-bear-grey-fleck-and-white?

 This I will be happy to do, in between making the first batch of our Puppet Bodies for JS.  I intend to make the templates for these bodies later today, or sometime tomorrow, so that the production process can commence.  (Orders are met in strict order of receipt, and as JS's requirements have been ongoing since November, the current batch of 4 needed will get attention first).
Then on Christmas Eve, another order from Huron, South Dakota from someone looking for Ladies Size 5 Novelty Slippers arrived via the Etsy.com system.  (As these are already in stock, I shall be able to meet this order immediately and intend to ship them off by the end of the Year.)  The Christmas mail hold ups should by then be pretty well over, and South Dakota does suffer from cold temperatures at this time of year.  So, the Grey Rabbit Head Slippers ordered, which are similar to these                                                        

https://www.etsy.com/listing/153816646/ladies-novelty-slippers-brown-plush?

                                                   will definitely keep my customer's feet toasty warm once they arrive - for her, or a family member.  (As I currently am wearing a Size 7 version of our Panda Bear Slippers, I am in a position to attest to that claim!)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/155281164/ladies-panda-slippers-novelty-gift-black? 

Thus, you can see my days are set to be very busy with replacements (currently there are 15 Cuddlies waiting to be remade, or reintroduced in a different form!) in the coming weeks, so I'd  better get on with planning them. 
 In addition, there are several Cuddlies due to be renewed by New Year's Day, so  a rolling programme of relisting/retagging has begun - which hopefully will result in them all meeting their respective deadlines, together with some new descriptions of each particular Cuddly Toy.  By the end of the week, therefore, https://www.Etsy.com/shop/COLDHAMCUDDLIES. should have a new look - in time to welcome in 2015. 
Do hope we'll be seeing lots of you there!  Until then, I'll close this week's post by wishing everyone a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Your friend.  Isobel.                                 
                                                                                                                

Cuddlies Update - and extending Good Wishes for Christmas and The New Year!

Good afternoon Everyone
Having allowed Cy Bear the chance to tell you all about the Tiger Puppets and the New Member of the Cuddlies Family, Harry the Sitting Cat, as the Shop (www.COLDHAMCUDDLIES.Etsy.com) is slowing down to cope with Christmas and the New Year,  I decided to use the opportunity of this week's post to wish everyone a thoroughly Blessed Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.  (Alas, "Happy" and "Merry" when applied to Christmas these days can have some unfortunate connotations - not that I am sure these could ever be applied to our Friends and Followers!! )
The plans for the Puppets remain on track, although Grandpere Tiger has yet to reach his destination.  The tracker on the parcel indicates that he reached the USA, but he has yet to reach his Forever Home with JS and his family in Tulsa, Okalahoma - a victim, doubtless, of the international Christmas mail rush, and super security at all Customs facilities thanks to the unsettling events which we keep hearing about on our news programmes these days.  JS has promised to let us know when Grandpere does reach him, and I'm praying (literally) that he'll make it before Christmas, even though he's not exactly a present as such.   As a result of this hiatus, it has been mutually agreed that even if completed, the Puppet bodies that have been ordered will not be consigned until after the Christmas/New Year period is over.  
Meanwhile, Cy Bear did mention last week that I was intending to make some curtains for the kitchen windows of my new home.  The mission  has been successfully accomplished  and now keep the draughts out, even though the room is somewhat darker than of yore.  

 
These provide an idea of what they look like - and I'm very pleased with the way they have turned out.  It's been nearly twenty years since I made any curtains - but I suppose, like the skill of riding a bicycle, once you've acquired it, the knowledge does not go away - merely reposes in the memory, and one hopes it can easily be resurrected when required!  This time around, having been asked to help daughter Clare recently when she made a pair for the first time, the memories were still relatively fresh!
Once the curtains were up, I also put up a new Christmas Tree, and decorated it with some baubles and lights that Clare and I had purchased a week or two ago.  For the last seven or eight years, Peter and I had had a fibre optic tree which had served our purposes brilliantly.  However, in the last two, it had begun to make peculiar, sparking noises when switched on, and last year the transformer had become very hot within a short period of being plugged in.  Elder daughter, Philippa, therefore decided that tree had come to the end of it's useful life, and although it accompanied me during the move from Wiltshire, I bowed to her insistence that a new tree should be purchased.  Accordingly, having arrived a few days ago, it is now up and lit - by two packs consisting of three AAA batteries. The interesting part will be to see how long the batteries last!  

Before any one enquires:  the picture on the wall is one that has been part of my life since the 1970's and was a gift from a Chinese priest friend from Hong Kong whom we'd had the pleasure of entertaining and helping after he'd trained in Italy, and had found himself - with no where to stay or any  means of getting back to Hong Kong.  He arrived on our doorstep one week-day morning and once we'd learned his story, Peter - who was at that time a Catholic journalist - used his connections to not only get an air-ticket home, but also to put his newly acquired priestly skills to good use.   He visited parishioners and when he wasn't doing that, he spent the whole time playing (and keeping entertained) daughter Philippa, who was then just over a year old.  (Peter was also in charge of a small rural Catholic parish in Suffolk, UK - because the incumbent priest was too ill to fulfill his duties. Part of his duties were to provide priests for the Sunday Masses each week, so, having a genuine priest on site was a great assistance to us at the time! ).
The picture is a silk screen painting of a Chinese Madonna and Child, and we used it as our family Christmas card several years ago.  It has travelled everywhere we've been since 1971 and has been joined by similar silk screen pictures of views of the Forbidden City in Beijing - one of which came from our Chinese guest, and the others from a Chinese professor's brother, whom we got to know when we were living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada between 1975 and 1987!  It can be a small world sometimes!  All hang in my current living room, and are still referred to as "The Chinese Wall"!
Before we close for Christmas - here's a picture of Cy Bear taking part in a farewell photo session for one of the Dressed Coyotes in our Shop.  He's been adopted by a family in Cambridge, UK, and was duly dispatched on Tuesday of this week. 

His Forever Friend is a little boy and he's been wrapped up in Christmas paper, which we hope will still be appropriate by the time he arrives at his destination.  He too was launched into the turmoil that is known as Royal Mail at Christmas Time, but did travel via a route that should have ended up with him being signed for by 1300 GMT the following day.  We've not heard to the contrary, but we hope that it's a case of "no news, being good news"!  (However, if he does arrive late, I've been assured the New Forever Friend has a birthday in February, so Charlie Coyote will become the back-up present for that occasion!)
That means we've no Dressed Coyotes in stock at the moment - as Chuck Coyote found himself a Forever Home at the Craft Fair - which was part of the Kirkby in Ashfield Christmas Carnival on December 5th.
On that hopeful note, I'll close this post!  Please take it that Cy Bear is not only bidding Charlie Coyote farewell, but also wishing you all a lovely time with your Families and Friends in the upcoming festive season.  I do too!  
Isobel