Wednesday 8 May 2013

Introducing the Barn Owl Twins - with pictures taken before one left for Canadian parts!

Sorry to have been away from ColdhamCuddliescalling.blogspot.com for so long - but it has been due to matters somewhat outside my control.  The new computer and I do not seem to the best of friends at the moment - because having got rid of unwelcome visitors in the form of unwanted adware and trojans, connections then got "corrupted".  These various descriptions are not only unfamiliar territory, they sound simply terrifying to one as technophobic as me. The replacement router/hub/call it what you will arrived mid-day today, and after having the computer taken over by a techie based in India, for heaven's sake!, I'm up and almost running at full steam.  There's one more hurdle to overcome:  in the meantime, I'm becoming very friendly with my ISP technical support desks, who have been most helpful and doubtless will be called up again before too long.  The remaining hiccup seems to be the responsibility of either the computer manufacturer (HP) or the software provider (you guessed it, since I'm still struggling to get to grips with Windows8).  It's getting to contact someone that takes the time, I'm finding!

Meanwhile, some replacement ColdhamCuddlies have been made (and two dispatched almost immediately - as described in our last post "Some Hails and Farewells to tell you about" (29/04/2013) - and I now have a potential new line which will be worked on over the summer in time but is principally aimed  for the Christmas market although they will be on offer prior to that future date.  Given the way the weeks pass by these days, that will be upon us before we know where are!  I'll fill in the new line details in another post, but meanwhile thought you'd like to see the remaining new Barn Owl Twin - with most of the photographs taken outside in our garden here in Heytesbury.  The pictures do include the one who safely arrived in Canada by the way.

Barn Owl Twin - Etsy Listing #99686556
The reason I am so sure he's still in our shop at www.Etsy.com/shop/coldhamcuddlies is that his beak is somewhat straighter than the Twin now in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. who is shown in right of this picture taken of them sitting on a convenient nearby tree stump.


The Owl Twins's pictures were taken outside on one of the first Spring-like day in April - when the sunshine managed to pierce the seemingly everlasting gloom that has persisted since the New Year, although the wind was still mighty chilly!  We've also been lucky enough to have some lovely, warm sunshine over our recent May Bank Holiday week-end:  we're all just hoping that means we will have a summer this year - because it was lovely to feel the warmth of the sun on one's back as one took photographs or walked around the village with visiting friends.


Here are the Owl Twins spreading their wings to catch the sun's rays while sitting on one of the many stone walls in our lovely garden here in Heytesbury.  The following two shots are showing them at different angles!



Both these guys took me about a week to make, and although I mostly followed the instructions contained in my pattern book, I'm finding that as I continue to make the Cuddlies, I'm developing my own way of doing things, not necessarily in the order that the pattern states.  Suppose that's to be expected,  but I do admit to feeling a real sense of satisfaction in achieving the final results - DESPITE how the pattern recommends!  In any case, if it looks all right when completed, what's the problem with the actual modus operandi?

In the next post, Cy Bear (or I - depending on how we're feeling) will include a similar photographic story of the arrival of the new Frog Cuddlies.  Meanwhile, it's good to be back, although proceedings will be interrupted for a week after May 15 - when I'm off to Normandy once more, and hoping that this time I'll be able to actually see the countryside with the sun shining.  The portents are not good:  but here's hoping!

Good night and here's to the next time - in a day or two.  Isobel