CuddleBuds©

Welcome to our first blog. After just 9 months of trading, we are thrilled to be called a viable business. I'm Antonia, 53 years old, disabled and currently in the final throes of a 3 year English Literature and Creative writing degree. Since 2018 my hobby has become crochet and i love to create characters everyday.

So, what is the story behind CuddleBuds?, I hear you ask. Well, in December 2022 our eldest announced she was pregnant with our first grandchild. As a child herself she had a Rabbit soft toy (have you noticed the rabbit ears in our logo?), which she still has now. It was only natural then that her first child would have one too. Being an active crocheter I hunted out a suitable pattern and made my first-ever amigurumi soft toy. This rabbit along with a crocheted basket full of mummy and baby goodies was presented at the Baby Shower at the end of April 2023. To my surprise, and secretly my joy, there were cries ‘You didn’t make that?’ ‘Did you really make it?’ ‘Can you make me one?’. This stirred both my creative and my business heads. Over the next weeks, I started making more, different sizes, colours and facial expressions. Adding puppies to the group of rabbits that were breeding in our lounge. 

Each character, as I was making them, began to show me their personalities and told me their names. This progressed to each having a backstory too, which is how their individuality came about. I decided to never repeat each character making them individual and unique. So, anyone who adopts a CuddleBuds character will never see the same one again. And so, they became a cherished keepsake toy, a collector's item. By early June I had enough characters to have a stall at a craft fair in our village, and at the end of the day we had sold at least 5 characters to adoptees. CuddleBuds was live.

        We now have over 18 different character types from rabbits to dinosaurs, each one different. We had a very successful run-up to Christmas, and I spent January and February making characters to replenish stock and attended our first Craft Fair of the year at the beginning of March. In addition to our characters, I can now offer the opportunity of having your pet immortalized as a CuddleBuds character. Do get in touch if you’d like your pet as a CuddleBuds character.

Antonia x