Filed under: latest news | Tags: button eyes, CE mark, Heavy metal toxicity, Seam test, SITF, soft toys, Toy abuse, Toy regulations, Trade Fair, tweedies
Gone but not forgotten
My dear, dear babies. I could hardly bear to listen to the scientist as he talked me through, with far too much relish, the procedures inflicted upon my tweedie beasts. Stop reading now if you are of an at all sensitive disposition!!
Seams pulled with a force of a small rhino via crocodile clips.
Bunson burner held close to all parts for a while.
Immersed in nasty solution to test for heavy metals.
Eyes pulled with crocodile clips with a 9 kilo weight ( small mini bus or so) for 10 seconds.
And on this last, ultimate abuse my poor tweedies finally gave up their fight to remain intact and popped. Yes they did…the eyes either split or pulled entirely out of their sockets.
So now I have a dilemma. My Tweedies are free from heavy metals, they are flame resistant, they have strong seams (bar the hand sewn bit which is now being machine sewn so that should pass), but their button eyes are a problem.
Do I give up on buttons altogether and machine embroider dots? (I personaly am not keen on this look)
Do I try to convince trading standards that Tweedies are not toys? I reckon I’d have a battle on my hands and all the testing would be in vain.
Or do I make it so that the Tweedies do have a CE mark but are tagged not suitable for under 36 months due to small parts.
It is the latter with which I am trying to proceed and have sent two button eyed Tweedies to my local trading standards officer for assessment. He seems to think this option may be possible. I sincerely hope so since I have 16 button eyed Tweedies waiting anxiously to present themselves to the shopkeepers of this world at the Scottish international trade fair and they may not win hearts quite as effectively without eyes.
Fingers crossed everyone!
Filed under: life on lismore | Tags: life on lismore, Lismore store, Postal service, rural post office
I can’t think how many times David, the post office and his shop have been mentioned in my blog. So many times in fact that I feel all three deserve a post dedicated solely to them. Some may wonder whether I do any work at all outside of the hours spent ambling between aisles, swinging on the office chair next to the post counter and putting the world to right with my favourite shop owner .
The Lismore store (and there is only one) is a most important venue: a social hub for those who happen to stop by…a place where chance meetings and their resulting conversations are the human syrup that turns this island from an environment into a flapjack. I mean community.
For some reason the mind has a tendency to blank and whirr once within the tardis like womb of the shop. One often hears “Now, what did I come in for?” and I think this is because, once in and also while entering, there are so many diversions. Firstly, there are the island notice boards on either side of the front door where minutes of meetings, events posters, obituaries, lost items and more jostle for fame and the occasional drawing pin. Then, upon entering one is faced with a whole array of naughty temptations such as Tunnocs tea cakes, shortbread and sterling bun. It is at this point that I revisit the familiar internal debate as to whether I should stock such items in my house for these occasions when farmers come to visit but at the risk of inducing obesity in my 10 year old who sniffs out sugar like a shark to blood.
How David figures what to and not to stock is a mystery but somehow he manages to stock just about anything one might fancy from bungees to shitake mushrooms, potatoes to crab terrine and any spare eggs from over broody hens are handed by islanders for speedy sale to the henless few. The children’s toy shelf always boasts an ever evolving collection of curios from the far east be it flashing yoyos, pop guns or squidgy dinosaurs. Sometimes I test David with requests for certain items which surely he won’t have ” David, you don’t happen to have any miniature screw drivers?” or “David…coriander?” to which I am warmed and delighted by “Yes I do!”
One of the things I find most entertaining about David is his baffling honesty when it comes to best buys. An honesty which seems to fly in the face of any financial nowce, and yet pays off in customer trust tenfold. Case in point; Firelighters. On certain occasions I have tried to buy branded firelighters only to have them whisked from my hand and replaced with the happy shopper equivalent at half the price. The other day Freda was advised not to buy a certain type of tomato because they didn’t taste of anything. This honesty is a fine, fine quality indeed.
There are certain times when the shop should be avoided if in a hurry , these being primarily grannies visit when the home help minibus brings those elder members of our community on a shop outing. Inevitably the shop then becomes a place where time must bow respectfully to the unhurried and measured pace and chat of the over sixties. The other occasion is any time on Saturday when half day closing induces all and sundry to panic buy whisky, tobacco and maybe cat food to see us and our pets safely through the sabbath. This paragraph is all a little ironic since I suspect I am the ultimate shop delay on this island with my endless bouts of bulky packages to destinations far and wide.
On this point I have to offer massive applause for David’s measured and calm approach to a myriad of postal options over which we procrastinate almost daily, from the pros and cons of 24 hour to 48 hour service, maximum and minimum size, can I stuff it through the large letter slot? why can’t I stuff it though the large letter slot? Can you lend me some parcel tape so I can bind it and then stuff it through the large letter slot? what’s a tariff no? How long will it take to get there?…HOW LONG? Should I track it? what about recorded? guarantees?…ENDLESS! And as yet David has remained as calm and collected as the Dali Llama.
Thank you David. May your shop continue just as it is for many more years to come.
Filed under: in my studio | Tags: affirmations, Cold, flu, Flu affirmations, positive thinking, swing tags, toy character profiles., tweedies
I’ve been trying earnestly to avoid this bum awful cold/flu. Most everyone on the island (apart from my kin) have succumbed in one way or another and I was feeling quite proud of myself in a “heal your body heal your life” kind of way. But alas, no amount of “I am free from all congestion and influence” affirmations could keep this humdinger at bay. It started with a bit of shivers, aches ( I suspected something was up when I just about fell asleep on a parcel at the post office) and then yesterday… snot to drown an army and all dust has been whooshed to the outskirts of my studio with vigorous and prolonged sneezing bouts and I had to curtail a telephone call with a potential Eco client when I launched into an uncontrollable coughing fit.
Hankie pile next to the sewing machine. And that was early in the day. I was just about buried by evening!
But now thanks to the wonders of echinacea and copious quantities of vitamin C I am on the mend.
So…cold done and studio consequently dusted I hurtle head long in to the next venture; The Scottish international trade fair in two weeks. My Loopy Liosach’s have now become ‘Tweedies’ because a) nobody apart from anyone on Lismore knows that one from Lismore is called a Liosach and b)It’s crap and pretentious to name anything incomprehensibly says Sarah from Mogwaii design.
No…my Hamish’s, Lobelia’s and Morags are now Tweedies. Swing tags have now been designed to cement their new generic into my conscious but I can’t show it to you now because the file type won’t publish.
However, I could use a bit of help with Tweedie character profiles. I need to write about 80 words max to fit on each tag about each character’s habits, preferences, past times etc. If anyone feels inspired to have a go I would be most appreciative. I think I’m too attached to them to be at all objective.
Here are the tweedies to go on show at the trade fair:
Clarris Monroe
Hamish MacColl
Morag Macpherson and her twin (with identical characters)
Seamus Monroe
Levinia MacPherson
Diedre MacPherson
Pauline? Pixie? I know you are both mistresses of wit and repartee …what do you reckon?
Free button brooch to those willing to give it a go (OK Pauline I know I already owe you one but this way there could be two!)
xx Sarah
Filed under: life on lismore | Tags: christmas on the island, Fishing, friends and family, Hogmanay
Fishing from Eric's boat
The number 9 I am loving! Don’t know why but I always have. I don’t remember an awful lot about being nine apart from a vague recollection of enjoying the nineness of it and deciding that it was my favourite number ever. Consequently I am finding it surprisingly easy to adjust to this new year and date writing on cheques, which normally has me stumped for at least a month or two. I have decided that this year is to be an exceedingly good one … like Kipling’s cakes but not as sickeningly sweet.
I am refreshed and calmed after two weeks of needle free living and a break from routine of any kind. Yorick’s brother Aaron and his daughter Cherry delighted us all with their company over just about the whole holiday. We were blessed with delicious clear skies and crisp, frosty mornings but alas no snow. We were also blessed with a few too many whiskeys (especially during carol singing, stumbled home close to legless both nights). Christmas was a glorious feast of a day with plenty good food, dodgy music and friendship. Hogmanay was magical. We spent the evening at the house attached to my studio where Collette and Mags were holidaying for a few days. A grand bonfire and fireworks accompanied the new year blasts of every fog horn on the Lynn of Lorn and most memorable, Tom proudly playing in the new year on his new set of highland pipes.
Leaving the camera to rest for a stint was deliciously liberating but I have taken a small number of pics. Here’s one of Tom, still in pyjamas with remote control plane…boy bliss!
Tom flies his Christmas present
