Coldham Cuddlies come in all Shapes and Sizes

This is Cy Bear calling in once again to say Hi!  

This week, we find ourselves having to get used to a new format for creating our blog posts - because Blogger.com (where we post from) have this week introduced a new one.!  It is designed to make it easier for people to read our stories via their telephones, rather than just their lap tops or other technological inventions.   (I know Isobel finds it difficult to keep up with technology:  can you imagine just how much more difficult it is for a Beaver Lamb Bear?)  So, as we go along, if margins are slightly different, please forgive us - Isobel has got to type this for me, while working out how to fit things onto the screen.  Life isn't easy sometimes.......!

A new photo of myself - together with the newest member of the Coldham Cuddlies family.
Last week I suggested that we might tell you about some new toy projects that Isobel is planning/being asked to consider making.  She's been hard at it this week (when not involved in sorting out a major mistake in one of the new projects).  That's had a happy ending (or will have tomorrow, when the toy in question heads off for his Forever Home, so I'll keep you hanging on to hear about that incident!  I'm hoping that the Buyer will kindly send us a photograph when the Toy gets to her home, which we can then use in the post about Isobel's recent major, but "honest" mistake!  
However, after a longer time than we would have wished, we can now introduce you to the first of our new Toy Friends in the Coldham Cuddlies Shop (https://www.etsy.com/shop/coldhamcuddlies) - our New Lion Cub.

He doesn't have a name - Isobel, in a recent change of policy, has decided not to give any of the Cuddlies a name from now on (for a little while, at any rate).   In the listing for Lion Cub, he's described as "playful", and I do think that is a good way to describe him - don't you?

Here is Lion Cub, sitting on top of Isobel's  Printer.

He's made with the wrong fabric that Isobel first ordered when the Tiger Puppet Premier Plush fabric (called Khaki) ran out.  This Lion material is labelled as "Mustard", and we've got 2 metres (roughly 6.56 feet)) with which to make several more.  As a matter of fact, while she's been selecting other new Toy patterns to attempt, she came across one for a "Daddy" Lion, complete with mane, and thinks she could also make a "Mummy" one too!  This means there's plenty of uses to which the "mistaken" Mustard Premier Plush can be put! Presently, Lions seem to be the most suitable use to which this particular material can be put.  (It's important that we do find such projects, because we still have a pretty full cupboard(s) of fabric with which to make our existing toys, as and when they find new homes - so space is limited!!)

A proper side view of our Playful Lion Cub

This pattern was stumbled upon when Isobel was picking through her Pattern Library, and was actually one that originated from daughter Clare's sister-in-law's collection - when she used to make toys several years ago.    Isobel was given several likely toy patterns when a family cupboard clearance was under way, and this is the first time that she'd looked through the collection "with intent" since they arrived.  (There's one for a dressed Hedgehog as well, which we've been told is "delightful" when made up - so we may be adding that to the "To Do List" as well.  Isobel's Son-in-Law is quite keen on this addition being on that List too!)  

Lion Cub Rear view  - showing his tail off well and the fluffy, soft look of Premier Plush fabric

We've already got an Elephant pattern cut out and ready for placing on a Grey version of the Premier Plush, plus we've got to repeat the "major mistake" I mentioned earlier in this post,but this time without the error!  We've been waiting for this Grey Premier Plush fabric to materialise since February/March.  Somehow, our suppliers were caught out by the Covid19 pandemic that has hit the world (and is still raging by all accounts) and the shipment containing this particular Grey version was held up.  It eventually arrived in the UK in the middle of June.  Our suppliers - Fabricland (of  Bournemouth, England, UK) were as good as their word, and sent our order on to us almost as soon as it arrived in their warehouse.  You can't ask more than that, can you?

Currently, Isobel is nearly half-way through making "fully-grown" Otters complete with their Goldfish.  She cut out two, because they seem fairly quick to do, especially as she's made three or four Otter Golf Club Covers using part of the pattern before.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/743820454/

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/757697515

The Golf Club covers only consist of the Otter "bust" from the arms upwards.  This time Isobel is actually using the entire original pattern she got (from Jenny Mai from  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Fluffmonger  which is an original downloadable pattern created by Jenny Mai from  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Fluffmonger.)  Her pattern for "Squeakers" the Otter is just what Isobel was looking for when making her first Golf Club Cover with an Otter Head.  Jenny Mai was only too happy to allow us to make some adjustments to her original pattern.  These included substituting a handmade small fish for the hands to hold, rather than the ornament originally created for the pattern.  Anyone interested in other similar free patterns from Jenny Mai should click here:  http://fluffmonger.net/category/free-sewing-pattern. There's a whole "pattern Zoo" from which to choose.
So, this is all for this week - while Isobel sews busily away in the evenings, she's busy during the day with those plans for trying to introduce the Coldham Cuddlies brand to new markets. (I told you about those in the first post of this series about 5 weeks ago)  She's been watching "Webinars" and learning lots of new things she needs to know about:  and is waiting to have a One-to-One on line meeting with someone from the East Midlands Office of the UK Department for International Trade to discuss the best way to achieve this objective.  
Meanwhile, she's also been working with the technology whizzes from Yell.com, together with our Account Manager, Daniel Forbes on the website - www.coldhamcuddlies.co.uk. Since that was first published, we've been able to add the Shop site to the original Animal Hospital  (for which the site was originally conceived) and this blog now appears on the website, just as soon as Isobel publishes it - when it has been edited and passed as correct and ready for publishing.
It's all systems go - as you see, and it seems to be betting busier by the week!  See you all again, next week
Your friend,
Cy Bear.

Post Tiger Invasion; What Happened Next?

Hello there!  Back, as promised, to carry on with the Tiger Who Lost His Stripes Saga you learned about late last week.

Well, Isobel did not want to find herself in the same position of having orders, and no way of meeting them.  So, when the Honey Plush purchased from Plush Addict of Peterborough had proved a suitable substitute for our favourite, Khaki Premier Plush, she went back to the new supplier, and ordered the normal 2 metre length we go for when stocking up.  It arrived, again, almost by return of post, but because the material comes in a different roll width, so we didn't get as much to work with for the long term, but sufficient for the time being. 

 

The New Look Tiger Who Lost His Stripes:  slightly smaller  -due to the different fabric weight.

As we still had one more outstanding order for a Tiger Puppet, this time heading for Franklin, Wisconsin, Isobel set to and cut out the entire new Coldham Cuddly using the current Honey Plush fabric (making a bit of a dent in our supply).  After 14 repeat Tiger Orders, she'd got into a good working routine for these Activity Toys, and the remaining order was completed in two evenings and dispatched early in June.  MrsSD, who had been kept informed about the dramas happening before her commission arrived at the head of Isobel's "To Do List" - and was equally  happy to accept the new-look Puppet  - has yet to respond as to whether the toy has arrived safely.  However, as we always send our Cuddlies by International Tracked and Signed For service offered by Royal Mail, (the best travelling route available) Isobel has just checked the Tracker Number under which the Wisconsin Tiger travelled, and sees that it was safely delivered on 13th June.  Now that is somewhat longer than our toys normally take to reach their destinations in the United States, but all international travel is taking longer under Covid 19 Pandemic restrictions than it once used to.  (So far, too, all our packages sent to the United States have got to their addresses:  some people around the UK, have not been as lucky!)

The New Look Tiger Puppet has ears that have a furry lining, rather than the usual silky look

However, it has meant that our Listing in our Shop - https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/650644825/tiger-puppets-without-stripes-tiger?ref=shop_home_active_55 needed to be up-dated, with photographs of the New Look Tiger, rather than the original ones.  You can see some of them interspersed with the story here today as well.  There are still some of the Old Look Stripe-Less Tiger Puppet - because Isobel does intend to return to the original arrangements - mainly because we get more fabric for our money, than with the new version.  

The Honey Plush is narrower in width, so we don't get as much for 2 metres of that material, whereas Khaki Premier Plush comes in a much wider format.   Also, this week, we learned that we'll not be able to travel to the Peterborough Warehouse for the foreseeable future, as the firm has decided that they're going to carry on supplying customers on-line for the time being, as they were not sure it was the right modus operandi for them to have people in their building as happened previously.  The Pandemic basically showed them the way forward, so we might as well carry on getting our supplies from old, trusted sources.  

Another view of the New Tiger Who Lost His Stripes, minus its usual Operator's Arm/Hand

So, while all the Tiger orders were coming in, Isobel also began to get more requests for Clerical Bears.  We made a Bishop Bear for starters (one of two orders that arrived on the same day!), after the Wisconsin Tiger left for its Forever Home (or rather the Buyer's home), because like most of the Activity Toys, they tend to be presents for younger members of the buyers' Families and often far distant from the Buyer's actual home.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/628372290/bear-novelty-collectable-fun-gift-for?ref=shop_home_active_1

The destinations for the two Bishop Bears were well apart from each other.  One went to Parkville, Maryland and the second was, this time, not too far away from Cuddlies HQ in Kirkby in Ashfield, Notts.  He only had to travel to Evesham, Worcestershire, England,UK.  Isobel applied her newly acquired skill for making multiples of the same toy, and both of the Bishop Bears were sent off within a day of each other.  

One side-effect of all these dispatches, is that Isobel's injured hip is having more exercise than usual - as we now can walk to our local Post Office, whereas, since May 2019, she's been going to the Town's more central Post Office, which has meant reliance on the local 'bus service to access the services needed.  It is taking her about 40 minutes each time she does the round trip, and it's not a flat surface she walks on either!  (Now that the local 'bus service has resumed, she will have the choice!).

While Bishop Bears production was under way, we received an order for a Treasure Yellow Rabbit - from Isobel's older daughter, Philippa.  Fortunately, we still had one in stock, so he/she was on his/her way within a day or so.

These live in the Coldham Rabbit "Burrow", and replacements for many of our Baby Rabbits are now required, including these!

Incidentally, the very first Yellow Baby Rabbit was actually made for her when she was a baby and it was named "Treasure", because that was what her Grandmother called her at the time! The name has stuck ever since for this particular version of our baby plush rabbits. (https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/coldhamcuddlies?ref=seller-platform-mcnav&section_id=18803204)

 At the same time, out of the blue, another order arrived - this time for one of our Halloween Spiders.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/587570247/yellowblack-spider-finger-puppet?ref=shop_home_active_2

This one - which we then found was the last one in the Shop, for the time being - is on its way to Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA - because MsVQ saw it while she was visiting and "liked the look on its face".    So, the replacement To Do List is now getting longer, although we're planning on adding some new faces/toys to the Shop before we attack that particular task.    

We've got two new additions to tell you about as well - one is a Clerical Bear, which was a Custom Order for one of Isobel's fellow Members of the St. Barnabas Cathedral Arts & Crafts Guild, as well as a brand new Toy - made with one of the "mistake" fabrics recently purchased while the Tiger Saga was under way.   Isobel has got patterns for at least another two more new Cuddlies she wants to make, so as you can see, she's been kept on her toes over the past three months while the Lockdown  has forced her to stay within the confines of our Flat.   

She's still somewhat restricted - by official edict, as well as her walking ability.  In November, thanks to one of our vigilant doctors at the local Surgery, she discovered that her injured leg is now 2.2cms shorter than the other one. (No wonder she'd been walking like Donald Duck and beginning to walk with a stoop!)  But it now means she has to have any future new shoes altered to account for that difference, so that she can walk upright.  Because she'd been going from side to side while getting over the May fall, her pelvic bone was tilting in the direction of the shorter leg, so recently she's had to almost re-learn how to walk again.  It's still painful, but she's getting there.  Being "confined to barracks" during that time has therefore not been too much of a problem for her, although it has meant that she's not been able to see her local family as much as normal - which hasn't been nice for anyone concerned.

I'll be back to tell you more, next week - hopefully.  Meanwhile, stay safe, everyone and have a good one!

Your Friend

Cy Bear

An Inundation of Tiger Arm Puppets - And Some Consequences

Hello there Everyone:  Cy Bear back once more, and a little later than intended.  Nevertheless, we are back again.

In last week's post I said one of the reasons we stopped posting last October was because we began to get several orders for our Arm Puppets, most of whom were based on our Tiger Who Lost His Stripes. ( https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/650644825/tiger-puppets-without-stripes-tiger?ref=shop_home_active_7    Well, while preparing this week's chat, Isobel went through the orders she had received, made and sent to their various homes (all over the United States of America), and we thought we would share the locations of where these members of the Coldham Cuddlies family now find themselves:

Listed in the order in which they left us - starting in October 2019, the Stripe-less Tigers are now living in:

          Perkassie, Pennsylvania
          Boyds, Maryland
          Longboat Key, Florida
          Indianpolis, Indiana
          Iowa City, Iowa
          Saint Louis, Missouri
          Lancaster, Pennsylvania
          Flushing, Michigan
          Raleigh, North Carolina
          Medina, Ohio
          Walkersville, Maryland  - where two now live together

All of them were made with what has become Isobel's fabric of choice for making our Arm Puppets (where possible), Premier Plush - except for one, which is what this post is going to be about.  We normally get this from the fabric shop Isobel used to frequent when she and I lived in Wiltshire, prior to moving to Nottinghamshire in 2014.  Called Fabricland, they have several "brick and mortar" shops in the West of England, and she used to buy the materials needed for Cuddlies over the counter from their Salisbury Shop mostly.  She could easily reach it using the local 'bus service  then. Since arriving in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, thanks to the internet, we've been able to maintain our links there with no problems - until now. 

Because our flat is considerably smaller than where we previously lived, storage space is more limited, so Isobel buys replacements in 2 metre (just over 6.5 yards) at a time.  Due to the orders coming in at such a rate, and with the arrival of the Covid19 Pandemic in the UK, our usual supply line became somewhat less reliable.  Being a fabric warehouse, materials needed for the specialist needs of the UK National Health Service understandably had a priority rating for the Fabricland staff, who were working with fewer people in their Warehouse as well.

That seems to have coincided with Isobel having a "senior moment" on two different occasions.  First time around, she ordered the wrong colour:

A selection of the fabrics from which Isobel usually buys for our Tigers taken from the Fabricland online Shop site.

The colour we usually go for is called "Khaki" and is shown here on the right side of the photo, next to the white version.  For some reason, and we can only think it was because Isobel ordered it just before going to bed that time, we ended up with what is called "Rose", next to the Red and Black versions.  Quite understandably, when fabric is cut out, and the customer makes a mistake, he/she has to take what arrives, and get on with life.  Isobel was cross with herself and when checking to see which WAS the right colour, again she must have been not concentrating, because the replacement for the replacement that  arrived looked  like the fabric on the other side of the red material shown in the photo! 

That, we discovered is called "Mustard", and Isobel cannot for the life of her understand how the mistake happened once again (except that it could have been in the evening again, and colours look different when seen under electric lights these days).  It was her fault, as she had clearly ordered "Mustard", rather than Khaki.  We had to accept that the mistake was once again ours  So, valuable space was being taken up by 4 metres of potentially non-usable material!  (However all is not lost .... that could mean at least another blog post or two!!)

However, back to the Tiger saga:   Fabricland were unable to guarantee the second replacement delivery in the time needed, because they too were awaiting delivery of the Khaki fabric! (Another possible reason for the wrong colour choice:  the Khaki having been temporarily withdrawn while delivery was awaited?)   Isobel just HAD to find matching material for the back of the second Tiger Who Lost His Stripes that was due to head for Walkersville,Maryland! within days.   Thus we were faced with the dilemma of all Crafters worldwide.  Matching exactly fabric from a different source, whose dyes and original fabrics might not be an exact match. All knitters regularly face this problem: but so far, in the 10 years that COLDHAMCUDDLIES has been operating, this is the first time we've had to! 

Not really an exact match, was it?

Following a frantic on-line search (aided and abetted by daughter Clare) Isobel was able to contact a fabric warehouse which is located about 1.5 hours drive from us - rather than almost the other side of the country, as is Fabricland!  However, the lock down regulations in place in the UK meant that we were unable to actually drive to the new fabric source.  We had to rely on their judgement about the colours we were only able to provide via the internet - not always the most reliable medium when one needs a perfect match.   Driving to Fabricland HQ, located in Bournemouth, on the South Coast of England,  would have meant at least  6-8 hour drive, even with the wind behind us - and equally forbidden in present circumstances.

Isobel contacted the Mother of the two children who were looking forward excitedly to getting their own Tiger Who Lost His Stripes to play with and explained the situation.  MrsLB was wonderfully understanding, and more than open to the possibility of having one Puppet look slightly different from the other.  (Fortunately the missing piece would actually be on the back of the finished Puppet).  So, Isobel went ahead and ordered just enough of the "Honey" plush fabric stocked by the new supplier, Plush Addict - based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.   Prior to this  "hiccup", Isobel had offered to embroider the initials of each child in the lining of each Puppet, so that there would be no mistaking which Tiger belonged to which youngster.  Now, with one with a slightly different coloured back, there COULD be no argument!

The Plush Addict replacement:  definitely more acceptable

We were lucky in that the material arrived almost by return of post - and when actually compared to the original front of the Puppet (and its arms) the new arrival was not that different, and certainly unlikely to worry a young man, intent on playing puppets with his bigger sister!!  Whew!!!
The project was eventually finished and both puppets travelled together early the next week after all the excitements.  Our usual Farewell Ceremony took place, and here's a photo of the three of us before they were packed up and dispatched on their way to their Forever Home.

So what happened next?  Well, I think I've said enough for this week - and if I'm going to get back into our usual publishing regimen, you'll only have to wait a couple of days (instead of a whole week) to find out!

Until there, do hope everyone has a good end of week - and see you all again, (hopefully) on Sunday.

Your Friend,

Cy Bear