#rainbow summer socks supplier

[stimtoybox]

I really wanted a Scentsy Buddy (a plush with a zipper for scent packs)... but they have a plush supporting Autism speaks. :( My favorite sensory thing is plush things and smells... any ideas?

As far as I’m aware, only sales of that plush contribute towards A$. However, if you don’t want to touch a company that has any connection with A$, I absolutely do not blame you - it’s all about our individual comfort level, and we have the right to feel good about the stim toys we buy.

I do have ideas, though, about DIY alternatives, and @pink-rainbow-sparkles and @thesensorybox have posted on very good alternatives available in Australia and New Zealand.

If you don’t want a weighted plush, the simplest solution is to literally drop essential oils on a plushie/soft toy you already own. Some essential oils like lemongrass are yellow-tinted and will stain; other essential oils, like lavender, tea tree or peppermint, are clear and won’t stain. (I’ve been dropping lavender on my pillow at night, to help me sleep, for four or five years. You wouldn’t know it to look at my pillow or pillow case.) If you want to change the scent, wash the toy and add a new oil. (My pillow case does not smell of lavender after machine washing, and I use fragrance-free laundry powder.)

If you want more info on which essential oils don’t stain, I’ll gladly go through my oil collection and swatch test them for you, but I’ve been dropping lavender oils on my weighted soft toys to refresh their scent and there is absolutely no staining. None. Do use pure essential oils and not oils blended with a carrier oil, though, or else you might make your toy tacky or greasy to touch.

(Note: I have no idea about the stainability of perfume/fragrance oils when dripped on fabric, because I don’t use them. Can anyone advise on this?)

The other options involve using weighted heat bags inside a plush animal case, very similar to the Scentsy toys. These toys are a cover designed to contain a rice or wheat bag that you remove, microwave and then replace, so they’re ideal for the switchable scent pack function.

@thesensorybox wrote this post on how to find them in K-Mart stores; @pink-rainbow-sparkles wrote this post on how they use their unicorn, also from K-Mart. There’s several different ones listed on K-Mart’s website, $9 AUD. Big W, another Australian department store, also has several different kinds, also $9 AUD. The bunny looks really cute!

I checked out Amazon, but I was having trouble finding toys with the removable pouch, since that is part of the function we want here. I’d recommend checking out your local department store. If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, it may be harder to find these as you’re moving out of cold weather. My local department stores, albeit with less stock, did have them throughout the summer just gone, so I’d consider it worth a look.

If you want the switchable scent pack function, for different scents, you’ll likely need to make or buy packs of a similar size to swatch them out, and either scent those packs with essential oils or fill them with a scented filler (dried herbs, lavender heads) in addition to stuffing or something weighted (rice, seeds, grains, soup mix, dried beans, poly pellets). You can scent rice very easily by tossing it in a container (an old ice-cream tub works well) and adding a few drops of oil, and I’ve scented plastic poly pellets the same way with no problems. I’ve also mixed poly/soft toy stuffing with dried lavender heads with no problems, just by layering: one layer of stuffing, one layer of lavender, etc.

The wheat packs, if you make several, are no different from a bean bag (two tutorials linked on this post). Cut two pieces of fabric the size of the bag inside the toy (usually a rectangle or a square), sew or glue up three edges, fill with scented rice or wheat or weighted pellets (if you’re not going to heat it, it doesn’t matter what you use) and sew or glue closed the fourth edge, making a sealed-shut pocket. Since it goes inside the toy, it doesn’t even have to be neat - just keep your stitches small enough that the inside filler can’t come out. The seams can be as messy as you like!

You can also refresh this pouch with a few drops of essential oil, and because it goes inside the toy, you can even use those oils that stain, as you won’t see the inner pouch.

If you don’t mind rustling plastic, you could even use several ziplock bags to contain the scented filler. I’d recommend using the thinner, cheaper kind, as the smell of the oil will seep through the plastic more easily. (I never find one ziplock bag to contain scent all that well, but the cheaper ones are much worse at it, which is what we want!)

Either way, it’s a little involved if you want to have the multiple scent options. Just dripping a toy with essential oils is the easiest, but it will still involve the purchase of several oils. (This said, oils last a long time and you can use them for scented necklaces, slimes, burning in oil burners, bean bags, personal care, cleaning…) The heat-up pocket plush toy will require sewing or gluing, and the purchase of fabric (or ziplock bags), bag fillers and oils. I can’t find a way that’s less complicated, because I don’t think perfumes and body sprays will last as long as essential oils, in terms of the filler or plush toy holding the scent.

If anyone has any suggestions, or a supplier for something similar that isn’t Scentsy, by all means, suggest away!

ETA: @ninjacacti says,

a good scent thing that isn’t oils are tea bags! they never stain and last a super long time I have a little pocket I’ve sewn on teddy bear that sits in my bed with a tea bag in it and it works great! if you can’t sew or just don’t like it you can get Velcro or just glue

Oh, very cool thought! It’d be so easy to remove and replace different tea bags from the heat bag soft toys! Thank you!

ETA the second: @2hon5 says,

Also, if you don’t have the spoons or motor function to sew or glue your own bean/rice bags, you can use those little zipper wallets. Just make sure the zipper is entirely plastic (no metal) if you’re going to microwave it. If you can’t find one like that, you can always use a sock and fill it up, tie it off, microwave it, and put it in the plushie.

I bow before your genius. Seriously. Very, very good suggestions. Especially the sock one, because that’s so simple and accessible. Thank you.          

[normalforglastonbury]

Even Glastonbury can seem dull and grey on a cold November morning when the Winter light bleaches all the colour from the Town. On days like these, we need reminders of sunshine. As I pass through the narrow alleyway of the Gauntlet, the rainbow colours of the crockery in Steve and Jan’s shop always catch my eye. I’m reminded of a Winter I spent in Andalusia in Southern Spain, where these jugs, bowls and dishes are made.

Popping into the shop, for a pair of tights or a gift, I’ve always received a friendly welcome and inevitably ended up in a conversation. Steve and Jan display a genuine warmth and interest in their customers and the community. They tell me they started off with one tiny unit in the Gauntlet ‘Steve and Jan’s Mini Emporium’ but have expanded to three shops selling clothes, ceramics, kitchenware, tights, bags and scarves, The new outlets are ‘Socks, Crocks and Frocks’ and ‘Our Other Shop Ltd’. They joke that they are running ‘Glastonbury’s Smallest Department Store’.

They were keen to offer one essential item – pants. Jan tells me “We’re sinking the myth that you can’t buy knickers in Glastonbury!”. They thought about calling the clothes shop ‘Pants on Fire’.

Jan first came to Glastonbury in 1985, as Purchasing Manager for a large printing business. She has also worked in the construction industry, including 7 years at Glastonbury firm Snows Timber. Steve moved to Somerset in 1993. He’d not heard of Glastonbury but found himself drawn to the town. They met in 2001 when Steve was working for a large building materials supplier and fell in love over a conversation about insulation materials. This must have kept the warmth in as they married a year later.

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They started off their business doing markets, selling Steve’s homemade preserves, bread and cakes, then they added ceramics and kitchenware. Steve loves Spanish ceramics (each village has its own style) and olive wood. They were thinking to do more markets, but Jan’s sewing business was taking off and they realised it was cheaper to take on a shop. Facetious as usual,  I asked them why they weren’t selling crystals, unlike most of the shops in town. They explained they ‘aren’t really new agers’ but are more interested in the ‘pretty and the practical’.

The clothes they stock are made locally by Jan, Vivienne and Marie, others are ‘pre-loved’, fair trade Indian and Italian and French fashion. They cater for everyone, but the layered style of the Italian designs are flattering for the ‘larger lady’. They also sell moccasin slippers that are made in Glastonbury, men’s clothes and will soon have a range for children.

The Glastonbury  Cancer Research Shop 2019 Calendar

Steve appears naked, but for a carefully placed jug, in the Glastonbury Cancer Research shop’s 2019 charity calendar. Jan volunteered Steve, and the shop, to appear, then presented it to him as a fait accompli. The photo shoot was at 7.30am on a Sunday morning, it amused Steve that passing locals “didn’t bat an eyelid” at the 15 naked men and a Stormtrooper gathered in front of the Cancer Research charity shop.

They are selling the calendars for £5 from the shop (or from one of the other outlets featured in the calendar), or you can phone 07936 529044, pay by PayPal (there will be a P&P charge) and they’ll send you one mail order

Why Glastonbury?

Steve and Jan love being part of a town with a High Street full of independent retailers, “Most small towns are bland and soulless in comparison”. They also feel that Glastonbury’s locals and visitors are refreshingly aspirational – “everyone is looking for the solution to their problems, their ‘pot of gold’”. They are proud to live somewhere where over 70 different belief systems are practised, that has visitors from every corner of the world. Jan speaks German, French, Italian and Russian and is studying Spanish, she enjoys chatting with customers in their own language. Not to be outdone, Steve points out he is fluent in Brummie and doesn’t need subtitles for Peaky Blinders.

They are both interested in the spiritual and the unexplained. Steve feels energy and Jan did a course in Parapsychology with Serena Roney-Dougal. Jan is drawn to Dion Fortune, Steve is more drawn to football, cider and Led Zeppelin. With so much to do running the business seven days a week, they don’t get a lot of time to develop their interests.

The Glastonbury Community

Steve has been on the Assembly Rooms Committee for 3 years and is now Treasurer, bringing his business acumen to the aid of this important community building. He tells me they are looking to re-launch in 2020, bringing a more diverse programme of entertainment, including theatre productions and classical music to the town.

I spot a tin for the Glastonbury Community Christmas Lunch on the counter,  Steve has recently become involved, last year over 240 people who would have otherwise not had a ‘Christmas Experience’ got together in the Town Hall. Steve is also keen to become actively involved in helping the homeless in the town. We chat about the recent outrage over anti-social behaviour in Glastonbury during Summer and the consequent bad publicity. Steve is forthright on the issue “The BBC presented Glastonbury as an urban wasteland – which is completely and utterly false. I hate the way people are demonized, they may live chaotic lifestyles and be a nuisance, but they are human beings

Jan has volunteered with the Credit Union and the RSPCA but now finds herself too busy with the shops.  she’s even had to close the sewing business in order to search for quirky stuff to sell. Like other Glastonbury businesses, they are keen to minimise their environmental impact. I notice there is little plastic packaging in the shop, Steve and Jan tell me they recycle everything they can. The three pairs of knickers I buy (which cost me the grand sum of £4.50 and, I can happily report, are very comfortable) are popped into a paper bag.

Glastonbury resident Nikki pops into the shop:

“Oh My God! You’ve got knickers! Have you anything sensible for children? I nearly left Glastonbury when my 6-year-old refused to wear elf outfits anymore.”

It’s clear that Steve and Jan’s business and their passion for the community are intertwined, “A business is about touching as many people as you can, it doesn’t matter if they are spending £1 or £50. We are serving local people what they want, not just chasing the tourist buck. Our local customers are important to us, we need to be trading successfully in January, not just in Summer”. There’s something reassuringly old-fashioned about Steve and Jan’s attitude toward business, customer service and community.

Before I leave Steve tells me:

“I’ve been normalized to Glastonbury. It happened by degrees. I don’t even notice bizarrely dressed people in the High Street anymore, but I notice people noticing”.

This post was kindly commissioned by Steve and Jan. Would you like to commission me to write an article about what you do, for Normal For Glastonbury? You’d be reaching thousands of readers who love the Town. Please click here for more information. Text and photographs copyright Vicki Steward.

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Glastonbury’s Smallest Department Store Even Glastonbury can seem dull and grey on a cold November morning when the Winter light bleaches all the colour from the Town.