More about the Coyotes

   

Hello again - Isobel has allowed me to continue to tell you some more about our Coyotes.

  Since we last posted, Isobel has recovered the article telling everyone about Charlie Coyote's arrival at the Wylye Coyotes After School Club in nearby Codford.  She also remembered that The Warminster Journal have agreed to our publishing the article in any blogging we did, provided we mentioned them - which we now have!  So, here is the article - just to prove I wasn't talking through my fur!  The picture clearly shows that Charlie in his purple coat, but I don't think you can see the logo that Isobel embroidered on it. (Sorry the picture is not clearer, but it's the best our scanner could do with the picture in The Warminster Journal itself).

While we are on the subject of Coyotes, we also have another version of Chuck, which has been named Light Brown Chuck Coyote (www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com/#67039032).  Really think Isobel will have to re-name  him, because I do't think that's terribly original.  The reason he's that colour is that immediately after Charlie left us in January, we needed  a replacement for him in the Cuddlies family.  Isobel was in such a hurry that she pulled out the wrong package of plush fur, and without checking (she has a tendency to go at things in a hurry sometimes) and the final result was a very much lighter coloured version of a Coyote.  However, she liked the finished toy, she decided to name the new chap that, and began another one in the RIGHT colour this time, who is the one pictured in the ColdhamCuddlies shop at www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com/#61408931.

This is the Light Brown version of Chuck Coyote.

 We'll have to see what Isobel and I can come up with in the re-naming stakes.  In the meantime, bye for now.           Your friend, Cy Bear. 

 

Talking about the Coyotes

Hello everyone:  Cy Bear back again (wondered when Isobel would let me get my nose in again!)

This is a picture of Charlie Coyote's replacement Chuck Coyote

So, taking up where Isobel left off yesterday - more about my friend Chuck Coyote (Etsy Listing: #61408931/www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com).  He's the American version of Charlie Coyote, who is now the Mascot for the Wylye Coyotes After School Club in a village called Codford, which is about two miles away from where we all live at The Hospital of St. John in Heytesbury, Wiltshire. England, UK - in case you didn't already know!

Apparently, Chuck is an "experiment" like me!  Charlie changed his name when he left the Family, which happened before I appeared on the scene.  But I am told that he started life as  a dressed Bear!  What on earth did Isobel think she was doing, I wonder?  Fancy having dressed bears!  Apparently, that chap's head did not work, so Isobel made a Foxy head, with a different colour plush fur and liked the final result.  So that  is how the Coyote collection began. 

The original Bear which was deemed "unacceptable"

Shortly after he was completed, Isobel saw an article in the local weekly newspaper, The Warminster Journal, about the After School Club and telephoned to see if they would like to have a Mascot.  They asked to meet him, and he changed his name (from Chuck  - Isobel did not realise that there were Coyotes of any kind in the United Kingdom - to Charlie, which is the English equivalent nickname) before he was introduced.  He was invited to become a fulltime member, and Isobel was about to leave, when one of the young members enquired why Charlie did not have a purple top like the Adult Helpers at the Club!  Isobel quickly offered to make him a coat, so honour was thus satisfied!  We do have a picture of Isobel handing Charlie over to the club, complete with his purple jacket which appeared in The Warminster Journal a few weeks later.  However, there are still some issues around permission being obtained from their parents for them to be included in a blog like this, so, instead, we'll include a picture of the Wylye Coyote's After School Club logo, which Isobel copied and embroidered on his coat - so that Charlie really would look like an Adult Helper!

The Coyotes Logo

I am also told that the Coyote Toys are made in a slightly different way from the other dressed toys in the Coldham Cuddlies collection.  Instead of their trousers being made to look like plus-fours or jodhpurs, their trousers are straight and they are made to look slightly less formal than their cousins the Foxes.  They also do not have separate bodies like the other dressed toys.  Their shirts and trousers are all made in one piece, whereas the other dressed toys are more complicated to make, having more pattern pieces to put together.

 

Chuck Coyote's rear view

   That's it for this post folks.  Good to be back talking to you again.  Bye for now - Cy Bear.

Looking on the Bright Side (Continued)

Wow - second comment on the blog!  Thanks Clare - keep up your positivity, just as I am definitely doing now!   It's a real boost to know that someone is actually reading the blog - and finding sufficient in it to comment about.

Actually, you're the second person to do so this week - one of my "new best friends", Yenbo FilipvanP ( a Dutchman, who was responsible for the shop banner at www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com) told me it could take  4-6 months before any comments were forthcoming.  Was in touch with him about getting permission to use the banner as background for my replacement business card design. Bless  him:  his response was affirmative, and he said that he enjoyed reading it, it was good, and to keep it up.  So, two positives in one week is a real bonus!

What about my business cards?  Well, I had 250 printed earlier this year:  guess what?  after distributing well over a hundred, one kind soul took the trouble to come round last week-end to tell me she'd had difficulty finding the Shop at www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com.  When we checked together - the address was incorrect!!!!  No wonder there's been such a little response locally to my attempts at self-promotion.  So, have contacted the printers:  so far no response.  Next week, I'll be going elsewhere, using the Shop banner artwork as the basis.  Much better than the original ones, anyway!

Once I've sussed how to handle all the side bits of blogging, I really will enjoy doing it.  Firefox (whom I am following on Facebook) have just posted something on the internet about them being faster, plus offering a better service.  Have commented - challenging any of their brilliant techies to go right back to basics and be prepared to teach a 70+ silver surfer the same!  It's not that I have'nt checked all the Help Pages on both Google and Blogger:  but they all assume a certain level of understanding (which I presently do not have), and I've never found I absorb the information as well on screen as I do on paper.  Must be my age!  Still, am open to anyone's help, so wonder what response, if any, I'll get?  Am that desperate!

Meanwhile, the soft toy clinic idea is getting legs. Once I've done some more thinking, I'll be expanding about it in this blog:  as well as having had time to practise on a couple of samples.  Two Foxes I made for family members 35 years or so ago, are coming back for a makeover later in the year:  and a long-time friend is sending me his old Teddy for renovation job - hopefully next week!  Have to work out how I'll charge for the consultations and treatments!

Was talking to the owner of "Think Outside the Box" in Warminster today.  This shop is the source of most of my haberdashery needs, as well as some dress-making materials - when I don't have suitable remnants given to me by folks who are clearing out their old collections!   The lady has just become a granny for the second time.  We cover a wide area in our chats, and she was very enthusiastic about the idea.  Apparently a customer came in just yesterday, who doesn't claim to be a sewer, and purchased some felt to renovate the paws of a bear she wanted to give to a smaller relative.  Mrs. G. promised to recommend me to any others with a similar need, plus she mentioned she has an attic-full (which needs clearing out) of stuff - including her daughters' toys - which may well need similar attention!  Offered her a "special price" for any she wants me to rejuvenate - along the lines of Little Red Ted.  She's been very helpful to me in the months I've known her since we moved to the Hospital of St. John, and one good turn deserves another.

Mrs G. and I have a date next week, with me taking in the collection of Baby Rabbits and the Koala selection for her to choose as "Welcome to the World" presents to her grandchildren.  A Rabbit for her week-old grandson (a whopping 9 pounder) and a Koala (possibly) for her grand-daughter, who is just over a year old, so that she doesn't feel left out.

Next week could also be a good one for another sale or two:  am presently waiting to hear back from the Heytesbury C of E Primary school Head, as they have a Foxes class, (as well  an Otter class and I think a Badger class - hence the need for patterns)  I wonder if anyone out there knows of a Badger pattern?  Several primary schools hereabouts seem to have classes named after these samples of local wild life - and I'd like to suggest they use my toy-making skills to get mascots for their classes.  They'd then be joining Charlie Coyote, official mascot to a local After School Club (Wylye Coyotes) in a nearby village.  I'll get Cy Bear to write about him in my next post:  he's beginning to get a bit miffed at not being able to write another post!!  Meanwhile, Firefox is not allowing me to upload pictures of Charlie from my computer.  Will have to check this out - so this will have to be the second post without a relevant picture to illustrate it.