BESTeam Featured Shop blog - my first for the team

The Boosting Etsy Shops Team's goal is to offer support
and promotion of one another's Etsy shops primarily through our
personal Blogs, and also through our Twitter Accounts and Facebook Fanpages.
Commitment to this common goal is what makes our team the BEST!   
Right, that defines the objective - but even so, this is definitely an experimental blog.  Hopefully there will be no major hiccups and what I'm trying to do - boost the Team's shops - actually works.  So here goes.

My first contact with the BESTeam was a suggestion I join from Annie Oliverio, whose Etsy Shop is known as Empty On The Inside - describing her hand-painted, original Greetings Cards that she designs and sells (not only in her shop, but off line as well).  I feel it fitting therefore that the first featured BESTeam Shop from this blog should be hers - especially as I've been lucky enough to receive two samples of her work myself.


The illustration below is one of her recent Christmas cards - send to my husband, Peter and myself;

Sprinkles

 It is such a lovely, festive picture and makes a great card for the Christmas season, and would have looked great alongside all the other cards Peter and I were fortunate enough to receive.  Alas, thanks to the vagaries of the respective postal services on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, Annie's greetings only arrived last Thursday, January 5 - just the day I'd decided to take all the cards down!  However, that did not detract from Peter's and my appreciation of the seasonal greetings from Annie, Kel and naturally, Ike - their wise dog!


Folks can see all the other cards she has designed recently at her Etsy Shop - http://www.etsy.com/shop /EmptyOnTheInside.  She can also be contacted at http://www.facebook.com/EmptyOnTheInside and her regular postings on her blog http://doughdirtdye.blogspot.com/ are not to be missed.  If she wasn't already a gifted artist, she really should be a writer!

Now you're in for a treat - because this is My SPECIAL card.  Annie signed up for the Etsy Greetings Team Special Event - 52 weeks of Mail - whereby she committed herself to writing a traditional "snail mail" greeting every week to someone she knows for 52 weeks of the year, and I was honoured to be selected as one of the 52.  Her note of friendship was very much appreciated and it was accompanied by my own EmptyOnTheInside Greeting Card - very appropriate one too, given my toy-making proclivities and actually rather prophetic as to how one of  the recent patients in the ColdhamCuddlies Soft Toy Clinic actually turned out!  Let me show you:

The title is "Teddy Bear" 2011 - has Annie's autograph as well (wonder how valuable it will become in future?) and is absolutely delightful, to my way of thinking.  Sums up a Teddy Bear to a tee!

How here's the final picture of Tommy Teddy - my daughter Philippa's bear - as he appeared at the end of his treatment (which was covered in the post written by my  co-author, Cy Bear:  Official Mascot to ColdhamCuddlies on November 27, 2011 and entitled "Tommy Teddy's Rejuvenation Therapy").

Amazingly coincidental aren't they - and I promise, there was absolutely no collusion between Annie and Cy Bear and I!  Her artistic production preceded Tommy Teddy's rejuvenation by several weeks!

Here's to the next time!  Isobel


As part of my BESTeam commitment, throughout the coming months (provided they accept me as a full time member) I hope to  be posting short features of each of the fabulous shops and talented craftspersons representing the team.  What is BESTeam?  It's The Boosting Etsy Shops Team and our goal is to give support to each other and to help promote each others' Etsy shops through blogging, Facebook and other social networks.  If you are an Etsy shopowner and are interested in learning more about BESTeam, please visit the team page on Etsy or have a look at the BESTeam blog.

Spreading the net wider

ColdhamCuddliescalling is about to seek a wider public.  Just a quick line to update folks on what's been happening this week in the ColdhamCuddlies family scenario, as well as mine!

Beginning with me - because it has potential to grow the Cuddlies line - is that I have finally accepted an invitation from the Etsy BESTeam to join them in their endeavours to Boost Etsy Shops through their blogs.  Am still finding my way around, and feel it's a bit daunting - never seem to be able to find my way back twice to the same site(s), but I guess it will all make sense soon!  Hope so, anyway.  Debbi, the Administrator and Team Leader invited me before Christmas, but I've been dithering about it for a week or so and finally took the plunge as of January 3.  Am on two weeks' probation - which is just as well, methinks (for everyone concerned) - and have yet to do my first featured blog, but hope to correct that tomorrow - just in time for the first week anniversary.

Not sure whether it is connected, but after week - if not months - of trying, I seem to have finally sussed how to grab buttons!  The New Katney - a prominent Blogger Help person - has been tearing her hair out (metaphorically speaking, I hope) trying to explain how to do it, but in the end although I followed her instructions, after weeks of non-success, all of a sudden - with a link from the BESTeam site as it happens -  I managed to get a five-button scenario;  and all at the same time, too.  Since then, there have been some additions, and now I've got the hang of it more will follow - so, please, watch this blog space!

Next week, after consultation with my new team mates, I hope to be announcing the beginning of the ColdhamCuddlies Guest Blogger sessions.  I've been mulling over how I can invite folks to guest blog about their shops and products, while at the same time maintaining the toy theme that is the thread of  this whole ColdhamCuddliescalling blog.  Think I've hit on the right format - but will trial it via BESTeam before opening it out to those who've included me as a Guest  first, and then to the wider Etsy family.  Again, watch this space.

Hairy Bear 4 is now complete.  He will be listed tomorrow - after I've taken pictures using our new Mini Instant Photo Studio (mentioned in our post "Resolutions for 2012 + Future Plans/31.12.11), but I've taken a series of the usual snapshot pics I've used to date to illustrate my posts to date - just to whet your appetites.

Provided the surface is level, Hairy Bear 4 stands by himself!

 I'm seriously considering listing these Bears as Limited Editions. The popularity of this particular Bear means I'm rapidly running out of the Hairy Bear fabric from which they are made.  As you may recall (either from previous posts, or from the individual descriptions of the toys in our shop at www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com) many of the toys are made with off-cuts obtained from the same source as the polyester fibre. - where I'm off to tomorrow (for Rusty's further treatment in the ColdhamCuddlies Soft Toy Clinic - described in my last two posts).  I visit them twice a year - with extra calls when more stuffing is needed - to collect off-cuts they would otherwise take to the dump, and on the last two occasions, they have not had any Hairy Bear material for me. I'm hoping they may have some when I see them tomorrow - but if not, Hairy Bear 4 will have an added tag - "Limited Edition Bear - 4/7 or 8.  I think I have enough fabric in store for another 3 or maybe 4 more Hairys.

Then, earlier this week, Ferdinand Fox - the Hunting Gentleman, was sold to a Heytesbury Resident, who has had her eye on him ever since meeting him at the Craft Fair held at St. George's RC Church in Warminster earlier this year.  Although resident in Heytesbury for some years, MrsPW is in fact a Canadian-born lady, with a daughter - who is a keen rider - still living there.  Now Canada, as I know, is a big country, and I'm not sure exactly where MrsPW's lass resides (think it could be British Columbia), but I will, of course, discover (and report) where Ferdy's new Forever Home will be.   However,  I'm going to be in trouble with Cy Bear though:  Ferdy left www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com before I remembered to allow  Cy Bear to perform his official Farewell duties, so he missed his opportunity for another photo-call!  Oops!

That means I shall be de-activating Ferdinand Fox from the Shop for the moment, while I get round to replacing him.  Still, selling Ferdy last week, means that  I've got cash in hand to purchase the polyester fibre from Fine Quality Feather Company (my Frome, Somerset supplier) and saves me a trip to the Bank.  Helpful, because if I paid them with a cheque, I'd have to pay Value Added Tax) (VAT)  at 20%:   this way, as a cash transaction, I don't and that's a saving!!  All goes towards the bottom line, as they say!

On that mercenary note, I'll close - with some further illustrations of Hairy Bear 4:

A rear-view of Hairy Bear 4

Hairy Bear 4 sitting on the Printer!

Head and shoulders - Hairy Bear 4

Until the next time - wish me luck with the BESTeam, please.  Isobel

Stop Press - Latest bulletin about Hairy Bear 3 and Rusty!

Greetings everyone!

Cy Bear and I are pleased to announce that Hairy Bear was  acceptable to Mr.TG.    So,  having been safely wrapped in chemical free tissue paper, bubble-wrapped to save him from some of the inevitable rough-handling that is part and parcel (pun intended!) of travel via the UK's  Royal Mail First Class Small Packet service, and slipped into a polythene envelope (dimensions 420 x 500 mm), he was dispatched to Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK early Tuesday morning.

This afternoon (Wednesday, January 4) I received the following message from M. TG:

"Received Hairy Bear (or Hairy, as he is now known) this morning! L was delighted with him. Very soft and cuddly, and also, very well made! He will fit in well with all the other bears that take up most of the room on our bed.

Thank you so much for all your hard work, it has definitely been worth the wait. You couldn't have been a more helpful, interesting and fun person to communicate with and buy from.  I will leave feedback on the Etsy website today (positive, of course)

Attached is a photo of Hairy, with all his new friends. Feel free to use it on your blog, if you want."

Not one to refuse such an offer, here is the picture!

Hairy will not be lonely will he?

Mr. TG had earlier said he was "honoured" to have been included in our blog - all of his comments are much appreciated by both Cy Bear and myself!  It was a real pleasure doing business with him from our viewpoint.

As for the latest on Rusty.  I've started the research into his possible dry-cleaning treatment.  When in Warminster this afternoon (picking up our monthly medication supplies - such an exciting life I lead, eh?) I visited a dry-cleaning outlet and discussed the matter with them (without taking Rusty!)  It was pouring with rain and thus not conducive to lugging a big Bear like him around - not to mention the attention he would likely attract among the passers-by!  The upshot is that such therapy is not such an outlandish thought!  Provided he is thoroughly de-stuffed and his eyes and nose removed before presentation (they could melt during the process!), he could be treated either as a "Jacket" or a "Coat".

(Philippa informs me - because I've not dared to check, as yet - that they are "stuck on".  After 25+ years, they should therefore not be too difficult to unstick, be cleaned up (and maybe repainted), so that should not present a problem).

The price charged for Rusty's clean-up would depend on the final decision of the dry-cleaning operative!  That seems a reasonable suggestion, and although there might be some risk of shrinkage, it's not as likely as it would be if I were to wash him and try to pull him back into shape myself!  

Action will not take place for a week or two yet - but watch this space!

Must be off to carry on creating Hairy Bear 4 - so he can take his place in the shop at www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com!  Other things being equal, that could be by the end of this week.  Still waiting to make contact with the 3D imaging experts - but being Scots, they will probably still be celebrating Hogmanay so it's likely to be early next week before a further bulletin can be issued about Madame Lapin.

All the best for the time being!  Isobel and Cy Bear.