Rejuvenation of Big Koala

This looks like being a joint production between Cy Bear and myself - since he mentioned my involvement in the various stages of rejuvenating Big Koala (as opposed to the Little Koalas (Etsy Listing #55190188) already in the ColdhamCuddlies shop at www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com.  This turned out to be a much more involved job than I had originally anticipated.

When Big Koala arrived as an in-patient at the ColdhamCuddlies Soft Toy Clinic (Etsy Listing #79124185) in mid-summer 2011, he was a very heavy toy indeed and really could not be described as either cuddly or soft.  He was very heavy and hard and as his Best Friend, RE told us, had sat on a bed for all the time he could remember - never having been played with at all.  He really did not encourage cuddling or playing.  He just SAT - as this picture of him shows:

In the garden, with his friend Ed Ted

When I began to assess him, it became obvious that he was not going to be able to get the same treatment that Ed Ted had received for example.  Although looking in a lot better shape than Ed Ted had on his arrival, once I began to unpick the stitching, I found that his skin was actually real hide, very tough (through being over 40 years old) and quite unsuitable for recovering with a new fabric coat.  So, while still being careful to keep all the pieces in the same order, I resolved to create a new template, and once that had been achieved to discard the skin all together.

Koala's back pieces ready for a template to be drawn

The rest of Big Koala's bits and pieces, with his base on the right

I then separated the skin from the stuffing - which was absolutely rock solid, felt somewhat sticky to the touch and had a very faint whiff of eucalyptus or some such odour.  This caused me to conclude that the stuffing could well have been eucalyptus bark.  I had to use my hand-held "Dust Buster" vacuum to clear it from the hide and collected some of it in a plastic bag - shown below - prior to discarding everything to do with the original Koala toy.

Koala's original stuffing

Once this process had been completed, the cardboard templates of New Big Koala were put in my usual envelope filing system to await his reconstruction.  The Christmas Bazaar, Christmas itself and other family events intervened, so it was only last week that I was able to get down to cutting out the new member of the ColdhamCuddlies family, and start the sewing process.

Cy Bear taking over from here - at Isobel's insistence!  She found the reconstruction process a lot easier than taking Big Koala apart had been.  The sequence of putting the parts together is also completely different, apparently, to the way she does the rest of us Bears, but in the end a lot easier.  There are a lot fewer seams involved and, of course, no joints to be taken into consideration.  His eyes went in much easier than Isobel has found to be the case when making some of the other Cuddlies, so she is very pleased with the new pattern she now has to offer friends, family and visitors to our Etsy shop at www,coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com.

She made the head first - and to begin with wasn't too sure that she had got the seams in the right order.

As it looks here, his muzzle is far too long and pointed, and she was somewhat concerned that the leather nose would not show up properly.  When she came to put the head on the body (shown below), she realised her mistake - she had not sewn up enough of the neck area, apparently! - quickly corrected it and the result was much more satisfactory.

Body, without stuffing, but with claws in place

Big Koala's claws are made from some of the dark brown leather off-cuts Isobel has been able to source from the Dents' Glove Factory in Warminster, Wiltshire, and taken from one of the only original claws on Big Koala in his previous guise.

Isobel then had to stuff both pieces of the new Koala frame.  His eyes were put in before she began stuffing the head and ears - the other Bears' ears do not need that treatment, but Big Koala's do.  Then the two bits were sewn together, leaving an opening at the top of Koala's back through which the stuffing has to be  pushed.

Please ignore the electric tooth brush, and broadband connection hub in the background, if you can!

This picture shows Big Koala with his two pieces in place, but minus any stuffing.  Once that had been done, Isobel closed the gap, and hey "voila" (as the French would say), there was the new, modern Big Koala ready to be introduced to the world, once Isobel had embroidered in his mouth.

When measured up against Hairy Bear 4 and me, he is just about the same size in height  - 36cms  from his base to the middle of his forehead over his nose (14-1/4 inches).  He is actually fatter than any of us Bears, but doesn't have the separate arms and legs like us.  However, his girth is 58 cms, if he is measured between his arms and legs (22-3/4 inches) and Isobel says he took as much, if not a little more, polyester fibre to complete.

Showing the different shape that Big Koala is

So, when she's done this blog tonight, Isobel  is going to list him in the Etsy Shop (www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com) at the same price as she charges for all of us Bears (except me, of course). As the Official Mascot to ColdhamCuddlies, I'm not for sale!).

As a final picture - here is one of  the ColdhamCuddlies' Koalas all together. 

Good night to you all - Cy Bear and Isobel.

Decorations for All Seasons

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 Fan pages.
Commitment to this common goal is what makes our team the BEST!  

 Having now had a chance to visit some of my fellow team members since my first, tentative steps within the BESTeam fold, I am going to have another attempt to feature some of their shops which have taken my eye.

 I've noticed many of their blog posts have a theme or thread running through their features, so am taking Decorations as mine for this essay.  The first three sites I hovered over had samples of flowers used to decorate different items/sites that really appealed - to the extent that they are going to feature today.

Autumn (as we call it in the UK) or Fall as it is known in Canada (where I lived for 12 years) and the US could be described as my favourite time of the year.  Whilst it does herald the onset of winter shortly, the colours are so bright and warm, and the hot summer temperatures have been lessened by the cooler winds and shorter days, that one tends to concentrate on enjoying them - and let's forget about winter, until it actually arrives!  So, when I saw the Fall Silk Flowers in a Scarecrow Basket, I couldn't resist including it in my selection.  This is an offering from Debbi and Amanda, a mother-and-daughter team specialising in vintage, jewellery and other enticing products, of which this is a prime example.

Debbi and Amanda's work can also be seen at their Facebook, Twitter and Flickr sites, as well as at www.ourhometoyours.etsy.com.  They suggest this as a home decoration.  However,  I can't help but feel that it should have a wider audience.  I could see it gracing a church window or sitting on the step below an altar or lectern as a Harvest Festival decoration as well.  It's dimensions (22"wide x 182 high x 14" deep)  would not be drowned by a medieval church window, of which we have a considerable number here in the Heytesbury area of Wiltshire, England, UK.  You could say, we are spoilt for choice!

My next selection is a great deal smaller - still a decorative object -  but this time balancing delicately on someone's head.  I can see an auburn headed lady going for this - although brunettes and those with raven black hair could also find a use for this lovely head-band.  How about calling it a "fascinator" though?  These do seem to be the latest "must-have" headgear these days.

This comes from the KnitfulDezigns Shop owned and operated by Veronica Grace - whose range of decorative headwear knows few bounds.  There are some delightful children's headwear that will definitely feature in a future post, but for today, I'm going to be satisfied with highlighting this delightful floral object.

My final selection for this feature is this beautiful Charmeuse Silk Hand-Painted Scarf.  Measuring 45" square, it is surely far too attractive to end up draping someones neck - however gracefully it is arranged (and Joy Silk who is responsible for this lovely object - as well as some equally decorative jewellery - actually provides the requisite instructions for achieving a satisfactory result with each sale.

Left to me, I'd mount it and frame it behind chemical free glass and have it as a well-hanging.  It has already been a featured item during Breast Cancer Awareness week in Joy's locality and I think it deserves more publicity than just being an adornment in someone's wardrobe.

I'm blown away by this partiicular item (although all her products look lovely).  Painting on paper is hard enough:  painting on silk is a whole new ballgame!  Joy's work can be seen at her Etsy Shop  (www.etsy.com/shop/Joyflower),  Twitter:  @JoySilk;  Her blog can be read at http://www.joysilk.blogspot.com and her email is joy@joysilk.com.

As a newcomer to the Etsy BESTeam, I've been made very welcome.  There must be many other Etsy bloggers/shopowners around who would be similarly welcomed and helped - while simultaneously promoting your own Etsy shop.  Why not give the Etsy BESTeam forum site on Etsy a visit and give it a try?  If they've invited me, they'll surely give you a berth!

Further Developments in the Cuddlies' lives

Hello there folks - Cy Bear being allowed to put his oar in for a moment!  Isobel seems to have been posting quite a lot recently, and I feel I'm being eased out!  I mean, there she went - allowing Ferdy Fox to go to his Forever Home without my having a farewell photograph with him before he went!  He's one of the most colourful toys in the ColdhamCuddlies Family, and I think we would have looked good together in a picture!  Still, despite, that mishap, I'm quite sure Ferdinand Fox, The Hunting Gentleman is going to be very happy in his Forever Home in Canada.

Now, Isobel tells me that the Golden Bear Glove Puppet  (Etsy Listing #82953359) has been ordered this afternoon, and sometime in the next week will be flying off to his Forever Home in Liberty Township, Ohio, US!  That means there are now only two Glove Puppets living here with me in Heytesbury.  Isobel really does have to get her fingers working and replace the others.  They are the Fox Lady Glove Puppet (Etsy Listing #82957532) and the Brown Rabbit Glove Puppet (Etsy Listing #83387217):  replacements for the Panda, Brown Bear and White Rabbit Glove Puppets are awaited!  I'll definitely make certain there is a farewell picture taken with Golden Bear Puppet and me before he leaves!

Awaiting dispatch to his Forever Home

Madame Lapin is on her way for the first part of her special, experimental photography session.  She was posted to a firm in St. Albans, Hertfordshire called Outsphere UK & Ireland today.  From what I gather (and I'm not a very technical Bear you must understand) the company specialises in taking photographs of objects and creating a 360 degree image as a final result.  This is the first time they've had a Toy as a model - they usually specialise in things like filing cabinets, and specialist engineering items.

They're quite excited by this exercise - as much as Isobel is.   When they've taken the "Before" pictures, Madame Lapin will come back to the Soft Toy Clinic for her treatment.  Once that has finished, she will again go back to St. Albans for the "After" set of pictures to be taken.  Then the whole exercise is going to be posted to the Outsphere website.  PaulN, the person who is dealing with Isobel, told her yesterday that he just got some feedback from a recent client (the filing cabinet manufacture mentioned earllier) who says that they've sold more cabinets since the pictures were taken than they had ever done in the past!    Isobel had better get her skates on then, because if that means more Rabbits are going to find Forever Homes as a result of Madame Lapin's experience, there will soon be none in the shop for us to sell!

There was also another piece of good news for Isobel today.  When she visited The Fine Quality Feather Company earlier this week - to get the new polyester fibre which will be used to stuff my Big Friend, Rusty Bear, she was a little disappointed that there was no plush fur off-cuts to be sorted through.  She was told that the Factory store-room had been cleared out before Christmas (whereas, apparently, last year, that did not happen until after the Festivities).

However, she was philosophical about it, picked up the 6 kilos of stuffing material and headed for our Storage Unit - where stuff that cannot be fitted into our flat is stored.  When Isobel saw the dimension of the six bags, it was obvious that there was not room here for both the stuffing and Rusty at the same time!  So, when Rusty is de-stuffed and sent to the Dry Cleaners, then Isobel will bring the stuffing back here.  Once Rusty returns, he can then be filled with his new stuffing and returned to Philippa, in High Wycombe.

However, the good news is that The Fine Quality Feather Company rang us this afternoon, they've found a whole lot of fur off-cuts after all - and, in addition, have put aside some "silk off cuts" (a new offering!).  They've been bagged up and can be collected from their Frome factory the next time Isobel is in the vicinity.  That would not have been for another five or six weeks - but I bet Isobel will find some excuse to drive to Frome before that, because I know she (and Peter, too - because he enjoys rootling through materials as much as Isobel does!) is itching to see what they've found for her.  That, too, will have to stay in the storage unit, because the cupboards here in the flat are stuffed to the brim with materials - to be used when needed.

While all this was going on, Isobel has been sewing the first edition of Big Koala - who started off as a patient in the Soft Toy Clinic, you will remember.

Big Koala between Ed Ted (still with us!) and me

Isobel de-stuffed him, and will be posting about his treatment when he is completed.  Suffice to say that, so far, she is satisfied that she has been able to resurrect him from where he ended up - in the garbage bin, because he was actually made of real hide, which was far too hard to do anything with once she had undone the stitches!  She's still not sure whether he will be recognisable - but  I've seen his body, and he certainly reminds me of Big Koala, so ..... watch this space.

Right - that's it from me for this post. I've enjoyed being able to tell you all this!  Bye!  Cy Bear

Pre-christmas Publicity for the Cuddlies - plus additional information

This article actually appeared on the Thursday before Christmas week (December 16) and I've been trying to scan it into the computer in a legible form ever since.  I gave up today, because the combination of the newsprint and inks used simply do not provide a good enough result for you good folks to decipher.  A pity, really, because it included a really good picture of all the toys (similar to the my post of December 20) but with the addition of myself as well - and it wasn't a bad one either!  I did promise to post any article that might appear, so true to my word,  here it is - coupled with a repeat of my own photograph of the event, but minus yours truly - have not yet worked out how to self-photograph as yet!
                                                       

Repeating the previously posted picture

                               "HEYTESBURY CHURCH CHRISTMAS FAYRE

"The Heytesbury Church Christmas Fayre took place earlier this month at Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church (December 10, actually).

In spite of a chilly day the event was very well attended with visitors able to browse stalls selling everything from cuddly toys, organic therapy products to novelty clocks and much more.

Organiser, Ali Tebbs said, "I felt that the Christmas Fayre has been a great success today.  We have had everything from home-made produce and craft to exotic olive oil and soft toys.  The tea, coffee and mince pies have been very popular.

Ali's husband Mike added, "The village has pulled together to raise money for the church.  It's great to see the church so full of people."

There was a stall with all kinds of soft and cuddly toys available for visitors to hold, stroke and buy.  Isobel Morrell who was running the stall said, "I've been selling soft toys - rabbits, foxes and bears of all sizes.  I make them all myself and I have been doing it for nearly 50 years;  they are made to last.

I renovate soft toys - not dolls.  Some of those I have restored recently have been up to 85 years old and I give them another 30 or more years of life.

I also run Coldham Cuddlies soft toy clinic and two current patients are 35 plus years old.  I made them and they've come back for re-stuffing and rejuvenation." "

The article then went on to describe and quote some of  the other stall holders' views on their individual successes and views on the event.  However, it is gratifying that my picture was at the top of the three others included.  Apart from the obvious repetitive nature of the report, (I don't think I spoke in that manner!) it's my best publicity yet locally, so I was very pleased.

However, one must not get too excited.  "The Warminster Journal" despite being the local weekly newspaper hereabouts does not have a great reputation within its readership!  Earlier in our sojourn in the vicinity (we've been here over 3 years now), one of my neighbours said that she used it to line the bottom of her budgie's cage!   Hmmm.....  still at least it's some publicity! 

Now, just a further piece of information (as promised in my last post) about Ferdy Fox's Forever Home location.  Mrs.PW kindly telephoned to enquire about Peter's health earlier today - he's suffering the chest bug that is making the rounds in the village and The Hospital of St. John - so I took the opportunity to ask her where Ferdy is going to live.  It is, as I suspected, British Columbia and Vancouver Island specifically.

However - and this blew both Peter and I away - Mrs. PW is actually Victoria, BC born and bred, she knows the location of the acreage on the island to which we originally emigrated to stay with Peter's sister in Metchosin (just outside Victoria itself) and also knows where a couple of our friends currently live.  But, the final co-incidence - believe it or not - is that her father's accountants in Victoria were the same company that I worked for when we first landed in Canada  in 1975.   Now if that doesn't illustrate just how small this world of ours is, I don't know what will!!

On that note, I'll end this post - just two more and the magic centenary post will be upon  me.  Not sure how I'll celebrate that one!  Goodnight .  Isobel

 
  

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.