JULY 2021
July 15: Waffles is setting out for his new home today. I love that face and his newly-improved polar pear body. I seriously considered letting him stay with me permanently--but we both only eat the muffin tops, it was never going to work. Today, I picked out a silky ribbon for Waffles' neck and posted him to my site to find him a new home. He's the first bear to leave me with my new company tush tags.
Then my site malfunctioned--because, of course it did. The first time I've rattled around in the storefront in ages, and I find out the hard way that some of the rules have changed with my hosting company. In the time since I last updated my store listings (seventy-five years ago), Wix implemented some updates that prevented buyers from completely submitting an order form. It seems that now the cart-checkout is only available to sites linked up to payment services. Yeah, miss me with that. There's no sense in paying commerce-level hosting fees when I hate the cart checkout like I hate olives. I prefer to process orders through a web form that sends all the info to my email so that I can prepare the PayPal invoice manually.
Wix customer service (I do love them, though.) taught me a workaround for the issue. Because I prefer to prepare invoices myself through PayPal, they taught me how to add a cute lightbox contact form that buyers can use to submit their orders. It's impressive-- you'll love it. You won't even notice the cart is gone. Maybe. Unless you left your wallet in there.
Also, as my gift to you: I think one lightbox pop-up is quite enough, so I've nixed the obnoxious GDPR pop-up that was blocking my site (and wouldn't respect cookies!). I'm no longer living in England, so I don't care about your privacy anymore. Just kiddin'.
I'm still not storing customer's information beyond the time it takes to fill an order (though I'm required to maintain purchase records for tax-filing the following year), and I don't share your information with anyone but PayPal and the Post Office.
UPCOMING and IN PROGRESS: Aside from the aforementioned Mr. Waffles, I have one completed smallish Tissavel brown bear (smallish = 12 inches or less), as well as one grizzly-colored Largish bear (15 inches or more) in progress. Photos soon.
**Apologies to my UK customers: I still can't ship anything to you because I'm not registered for the new (effective January 1, 2021) VAT requirements for non-UK sellers. I will tackle that issue ASAP so that I can once again offer the bears worldwide. In the interim, I will only be shipping my bears within the USA.
Feel free to stay tuned for updates here, or at The Peach Peddler page on Facebook. I don't maintain an email list because I don't want to be a bother. 🤓
I understand that a lot of people avoid social media. (I try not to share family photos or personal information anywhere online -- so trust me, I get it.) For the sake of fairness, I'll try to post here before updating social media sites.
I hope that you're all staying safe and healthy. Have a great summer!
Chris
NEW BEAR TAGS
Teddy Bear Times & Friends Issue #246 (April/May 2020) pages 18-22
SAFETY WARNING: The Peach Peddler bears are collectibles, intended ONLY for display. Our bears are not toys and should not be handled by anyone under the age of 14. Fragile glass eyes, steel pellets, and other internal hardware could pose choking hazards or otherwise harm children.
The Peach Peddler offers one-of-a-kind artist bears from the highest quality materials available. Each bear is brought to life with lots of love, time, and attention to detail.
Shown inPublications:
My bear, Pudding, was the Feature (Cover) model for the September 2014 digital issue of Bears & Buds magazine, with an article about our company. The Peach Peddler creations have also been included in multiple issues of the print magazine Teddybear Times & Friends (formerly Teddy Bear and Friends), most recently in the April/May 2020 issue.
Awards Received:
2019- TOBY Industry's Choice - Large Undressed Bear "Nilla/Snowbear"
2019- TOBY Industry's Choice - Miniature Undressed Bear "Criswell/Peanut"
2018 -URSA 1st Place Mini Bare Bear "Figaro"
2018- URSA 1st Place Medium Bare Bear " Rugby"
2018- URSA 3rd Place Realistic Bear "Yuri" Polar Bear
2017 - TOBY Industry's Choice (Small Dressed Bear, "Stinkerbell")
2016 - TOBY Industry's Choice (Large Dressed Bear, "Beatrice")
2016 - TOBY People's Choice (Large Dressed Bear, "Beatrice")
2014 - TOBY Industry Choice (Miniature Category, "Moriarty")
2014 - URSA Award "Serenity II" Panda
2014 - URSA Award "Wuzzie" Miniature Category
2011 - TBAAF (Teddy Bear Artist & Friends) "Mini Marshmallow" Small Undressed Bear
2011 - TBAAF (Teddy Bear Artist & Friends) "Serenity" Novice Category