Welcome Spring & Goodbye Shoveling!

Spring came on Wednesday! And although it has been raining pretty much since then, at least the temperatures are mild. Unfortunately, last weekend, just when I thought it was safe, my region got hit with one last nasty storm. The worst of the year actually, mainly due to the fact that it pretty much sleeted for hours upon hours, coating everything with layers of ice.

My home has a small driveway, 3 cars fill it to the brim, and we have a small sidewalk out front (luckily we aren't a corner lot) but let me tell you, the ice storm beat me when it came to shoveling out after it. My husband and I didn't even get our driveway and sidewalk shoveled until Sunday afternoon, on our fourth attempt of the weekend to do so. And even then, it was poorly shoveled, but I didn't even know if my arms would ever work again so I decided it was good enough!

Luckily, the temps warmed up on Monday and melted most of what we had left, and now that Spring is here, I hope we won't see anymore snow or ice this year. Or rather, ice, I don't mind shoveling snow so much but the ice was awful. I noticed most of my neighborhood, which is usually quite good at getting into gear after a snow, left their sidewalks unshoveled, even the few with snow blowers.

So even though southeastern Pennsylvania had a fairly mild winter this year, it certainly ended with a bang. I love Spring anyway, love Summer even more, but it is greeted even more openly following a winter ice storm.

That's my round-a-bout way of saying, Welcome Spring! Of course, Spring has its own issues, rain which leads to my yard becoming a swamp, that my two dogs love to run around in and then bring all of that mud inside, all over the floors....etc...oh boy...welcome spring.

~Erin

And Here's Goober the Bear's Video

***For some reason these videos are messing up the sound a bit and it is not syncing with the mouth movement. But please note, Goober's mouth actually moves along quite well with the singing, as does Arnold's to his snoring.***

Okay, I got to it while I was thinking about it! So here's Goober the Bears video debut singing, "Don't Worry Be Happy," while he leisurely reclines and taps his foot.

Even if you don't choose to buy either of these cute sound and motion plush, I hope you at least got some entertainment from watching their movies!

~Erin

Arnold the Snoring Pig, from Gund

***For some reason these videos are messing up the sound a bit and it is not syncing with the mouth movement. But please note, Goober's mouth actually moves along quite well with the singing, as does Arnold's to his snoring.***

Isn't this pig adorable and fun! I took this video of him so that you could see what he actually does when he snores and wiggles in his sleep. Sorry about the quality, looked better on my end before it went through the upload to YouTube, but I think the cuteness of Arnold shines through the poor video! I have a Goober Bear from Gund that sings "Don't Worry Be Happy" and taps his foot, I will try to get some video up of him as well so that you can all see what these guys actually do. I know it can be hard to know what you are getting with sound and motion items when you buy online, so I hope this video helps!

~Erin

March is here and Easter's coming!

It is March, how did that happen? Not that I am complaining, because on March 11th daylight savings time begins and March 21st is the first day of Spring! And even though we had a short (and compared to much of the country, quite uneventful) winter here in South Eastern PA (it didn't really start getting cold until January) I am still looking forward to spring. Bring on the warmth and extended sunshine!

Of course, as it is already March, that means Easter is quickly approaching as well, it falls on April 8th this year. I have quite a few cute items in stock that would make fabulous gifts, find them here. One of those items is JustaBunny, the critter in the picture. Isn't he endearing? He's a beautifully made plush from Gund and he's sure to delight the lucky person that gets to partner up with him for the big egg hunt!

I still have quite a few of my plush Easter presents from years past, usually given to me by my parents and paternal grandparents. I certainly got my fair share of bunnies on Easter, though each was unique and special; my large and simply crafted pink and white bunny, my all snowy white bunny with a cute belly button, my brown bunny holding a carrot that came in its own basket, etc...etc... That's why I love plush, because there are so many wonderful items out there and I know for myself, they are a beautiful way to display items that contain special memories from special times. I can look at most of the plush I own and give you its history, particularly if it was given to me by a loved one...

~Erin

Cuddle Factory is Closed

After this cute guy sold out on my store, I went to reorder more from the distributor, The Cuddle Factory, and found out that the company has closed down. It wasn't purchased by anyone and all of the inventory is gone. Too bad, they had some cute items that I really liked, including Merlin the Dragon and some cute dinosaurs, not to mention Snappy the Crocodile.

So if you are looking for anything from The Cuddle Factory, I do still have a few items, found here. But once they are gone, that's it, no more reordering. Aww, I wanted my own Snappy and now I can't get one.

In some good news, for those of you that love bulldogs, First & Main has told me that they are returning to their old style of "Spike" the bulldog and I can't wait to get him back in stock. Right now they are telling me he should be available in early May. Of course, I just took the description off of my site as I hadn't heard anything for awhile and thought it was a lost cause. So if you are a Spike fan, check back with us in May and hopefully we'll have him back. If you just like bulldogs in general however, take a look here to see the versions we currently have in stock.

Speaking of dogs, I made an annoucement that we were expecting a variety of dog breeds in and we still are, they are just delayed. I won't be receiving most of the dogs it looks like now until April, but once I get them, they will be up in the store. I was supposed to be stocking a chow-chow from Aurora, but as beautiful as most of their plush are, I was not happy with the chow so I sent it back and will not be stocking it.

Out of that list, here are the ones you can find in the store now:

Bulldog – Winston from Aurora & Norman from Douglas
West Highland Terrier – Ava from Douglas
Shih Tzu – Moon from Douglas
Pekingese – Buttons from Douglas
Chihuahua – Paco from Douglas
Dachshund – Spats from Douglas
Weimeraner – Hans from Douglas
Husky – Rainier from Douglas
Bernese Mountain Dog – Bernice from Aurora
Maltese – Magnolia from Aurora
Bearded Collie – Harvie from Aurora
Papillion – Butterfly from Aurora
King Charles Cavalier – Prince from Aurora

So we do have the above and more in stock now, easiest way to find them all would be to go under the plush menu tab and then click on dogs & cats. Or if you are looking for a specific breed, just type it in the search box.

Goodbye Cuddle Factory, it was nice doing business with you and you made some cute stuff...now destined to be coveted items by the lucky people that were able to get them while they could!

~Erin