A Day Off

Hiya

Today has been a day off for me, Paul and Sam. We decided to treat our little man to a day in London before he officially becomes a big boy and starts school next week. Grace was in nursery all day so Sam could have a whole day of mummy & daddy's attention without little sis butting in all the time !

After having to deal with the stresses of late running and overcrowded trains, we finally arrived (late) for our trip on the Eye, so had to postpone that until this afternoon after our boat trip and lunch at TGI Friday in Covent Garden.

Amazingly, after we got back to the Eye at 2.30 the queues had virtually disappeared and we were able to walk straight on.

After that we had a go on the carousel and looked at all the real life statues, which amused Sam no end, particularly the headless man who kept waving and giving Sam the thumbs up - "how can he do that mummy when he can't even see me ?"

Then battle our way back to Liverpool Street on hot and busy underground trains to get the train home, only to find the previous train had been cancelled so there was 2-trains worth of people crammed onto one ! So Paul decided to upgrade us and we came home First Class. Oh how the other half live !!!

I must just tell you about my new obsession - FLICKR. For anyone that hasn't looked at it - you really must. It's SO addictive. I could (and actually do) spend hours looking at all the wonderful photos on there and joining up to all the Groups that interest me. It has certainly increased hits on my website and has even bought in a couple of sales too ! Go on - have a look. You know you want to !!!

Sarah x

And the winner is.......

Sarah from paper-and-string !!!

Thank you to all 3 of you that entered the competition (obviously not many people want to give needle-felting a go!) even though it was open to everybody and not just people called Sara/Sarah !!! But I really appreciate all your keyword suggestions and they will all be included in my Adwords campaign.

So paper-and-string Sarah, CONGRATULATIONS !! Let me know whether you'd like a pencil case or purse, and your choice of 3 colours of wool from my shop and the whole prize will be winging its way to you very soon ;o)

It has been VERY hot here the last few days and I was planning on having a restful weekend before I start manically producing Christmas stock. Unfortunately that didn't happen because I decided, in my wisdom, to do a Boot Fair today so spent all of Friday evening and most of yesterday afternoon sorting out boxes of stuff in the garage that we never unpacked when we moved last year and then pricing it all up. It was worth it though because I made a nice little sum (even though I only managed to sell half of it). Although I'm not sure my back and shoulders will thank me as I very stupidly didn't put any suntan cream on so am suffering this evening :o(

Last week I finished the wholesale order of scarves and was very pleased with the way they turned out.

If you are interested in one of these scarves, just email me (sarah(@)pictureitinstitches.co.uk) and I'll happily do one for you.

I also did a custom order of beaded felt bracelets for a customer via NOTHS

And managed to knock out 10 of my felted and beaded keyrings for the NOTHS Christmas press campaign. I really hope they go to some of the nice mags/supplements and get featured.

And talking of features .... I was extremely lucky to win a competition I entered recently. The prize was to have my press release and a number of my products distributed by a top PR agency to all of the National and Local Press !!! How lucky am I ??!! So, if you happen to see any of my little old products featured anywhere, I would REALLY appreciate it if you would please cut them out and send them to me.

Enjoy the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend.

See you soon x

50 today !!!

Hiya


Well, this is my 50th post and I can't quite believe that I've managed to rack up that many. I have to say that I'm finding blogging quite addictive !

I've met so many lovely people through blogging - people I would probably never have met in the "real" world. So thank-you to all of you lovely people who read my blog on a regular basis and to all those of you who take the time to leave lovely comments, who I chat with via email and send me lovely pressies and that I count as friends. THANK YOU !!

So, hands up who wants to try and win a freebie??

Well, as a celebration of my 50th post I've decided to give away a freebie. BUT, I'm afraid you'll have to work for it !! I have decided to try and drum up some new business via Google Adwords (seeing as I can't get anywhere near the first couple of pages). But what I need some help with is keywords.

For those of you who don't know about Adwords, basically it's a pay-per-click system whereby I specify a maximum cost per click that I'm prepared to pay Google everytime someone types in one of my keywords and then clicks on my website link.

So, what I need you lovely lot to do is provide me with a list of keywords that you might type in if you were looking for my website (not Picture it in Stitches obviously) but anything you might type in if you were looking for something specific to do with my site. I've got a basic list, but it would be great to hear other ideas and suggestions. After all - lots of heads are always better than one !

Anyone that leaves a list of keywords for me (doesn't matter how many) will be entered into the draw and I'll pick a winner on Sunday evening. The lucky winner will receive a needle-felting set which will consist of either a purse or pencil case (your choice), a choice of 3 colours of felting wools (again, your choice), a felting pad and needle. So, if you fancy giving needle-felting a go (and I think everyone should try it !!) .... for FREE ... then you know what you need to do !

Can't wait to hear from you all.

Sarah x

Interesting Articles

Greetings !

Unfortunately I haven't got much to report Picture it in Stitches wise today, so I thought I would put a few links to various other sites that I visit on a regular basis.

Feeling Stitchy (click on the link above) - is the Embroidery Blog of one of Flickr's Groups that I'm a member of. They have some great members who have submitted some fantastic photos of their work (including me of course - haha !)

Sublime Stitching - is another fantastic site which sells great stitchery/embroidery patterns - the fact that their selling line says "This ain't your grandma's embroidery" will give you an idea of the type of thing they do (or don't do !!)

SYKO - this is a link to a lovely lady that I have come across on both Flickr and Etsy. She creates the most beautiful hand stitched applique items and has inspired me no end.

Little Quilts - one of my favourite Etsy shops

Kenshop - another Etsy shop which I just have to look at every so often because it makes me laugh !

Gifts Define - another of my favourite Etsy shops that makes the most gorgeous felt softies

Jan Constantine - this lady has the most amazing talent for creating embroidered pieces. I first met her at the Country Living Christmas Fair last year and spent a long time chatting to her about her gorgeous work and also gleaning any tips I could from her on setting myself up as a craft business. She's such a lovely lady and I'm looking forward to catching up with her again this year.

Willemien Stevens - This lady is my hero !! I attended one of Willemien's courses back in May this year and this lady has given me SO much inspiration it's untrue. I have ideas buzzing around in my head and little notepads full of sketches and ideas that I'm hoping to use in a new range of textile pictures that I will be producing. She also exhibits at the Country Living Christmas Fair and I shall be popping along to say hello and have a good old chat

My next post will be my 50th !! To celebrate I will be giving away a freebie, so please make sure you check back next time to find out all about it.

Sarah x

Normal service resumed

Hiya

First of all I would like to say thank you to everyone who contacted me regarding my last post. It was really kind of you to send me your good wishes and cheered me up no end. THANK YOU !

As a result of all your good wishes, I managed to get my skates on and produced all of the following items over the weekend:

These will all make up part of my Christmas stock for the various events I've got coming up, the first of which is on the 14th September. I'm hoping that this event will give me an idea of the most popular items, so that I can sort out stock for the other 2 events. Of course, if you are interested in purchasing any of these items or commissioning something similar, do please let me know - sarah(at)pictureitinstitches.co.uk (replace the (at) with an @.

Last night I sat and beaded 10 keyrings, so I'm slowly managing to cross things off of my list.

I have also been very busy with my new Flickr account. Look over there on the right of the page and you'll see a few of my items. I've uploaded photos of lots of my products to Flickr and also joined a number of groups and have had an amazing amount of views of my photos. I've also had quite a few of my photos added to people's "Favourite photos" lists, which is very flattering !

That's it for today.

Until next time xx

Stressed

Hi.

It would appear that my little run of good fortune has come to a rather abrupt end. Today I'm afraid this will be a whinging post. This last week has been nothing but trouble and I'm getting stressed and slowing getting worn down by it all. This is what has happened in the past 7 days:

1. The boiler on the swimming pool packed up


2. The swimming pool pump packed up


3. I managed to hit a parked car


4. Our neighbour is hassling us to cut down a 250 year old juniper tree which he says is stopping sun from getting into his garden


5. My computer at work packed up


6. I wrecked the iron by getting bondaweb stuck all over it


7. We had an absolutely torrential downpour the other evening (I've never seen anything like it) and had water coming in the back and front doors, as well as through the shower-room window (which wasn't even open at the time)


8. Half my tooth fell out

I have been looking at the children today and thinking how wonderful it is to be their age and so carefree. Only having to worry about whether mummy is going to make them eat something they don't like for tea seems like a lovely thing to have to worry about. Oh how I wish I was little again.

Unfortunately, because of all this stress I haven't done much actual sewing or felting and the To Do list I shared with you last time hasn't had a single thing crossed off of it. Now I'm really starting to panic.

However, I have been trying to chill out a little and have spent some time looking at all the wonderful images on Flickr. So many things are inspiring me at the moment and I'm desperate to get going, but just don't know where to start - I suppose the To Do list would be a good place !!

Anyway, whilst surfing Flickr I came across this most wonderful book which I am desperately trying to track down a copy of. It seems to be a US edition though, so I might have to spend a few pennies (or more likely lots of £s) to get it shipped. It's a Robert Louis Stevenson book entitled "A child's garden of verses" and is illustrated with the most beautiful embroidery by Virginia Tiffany.

So sorry for whinging, but hopefully next time I'll be in a better mood and have lots of pictures of things I have finished to show you.

Sarah x

Fame !

Hi

September's edition of Crafts Beautiful is now out in the shops and I managed to get myself a copy and frantically thumbed through it to find the little article about me.

Sadly it wasn't quite as good as I had hoped as they didn't use the quote that I was asked to provide (not too worried because it probably wasn't the best in the world) but I was disappointed that they didn't use either my beaded bracelets or my felted strawberry hairclips.

But, it did mention me by name, called me a "Designer" which cheered me up no end, and said that my felted goodies were "wickedly original" !! Now that I am happy about !!! Hopefully it will bring some nice new customers to the Blooming Felt part of my shop.

Yesterday afternoon was spent lazing in the sun watching the children (and hubby) splashing about in the pool. I decided that I should make a list of everything that I needed to get done for the Christmas events I'm booked for. This is my list :

• 50 loopy corsages
• 50 beaded bracelets
• 60 sets of hairclips
• 20 scarves
• 1 "Name in a Frame"
• 2 Funky daisy textile pictures
• 2 hot air balloon textile pics
• 2 boat textile pics
• 2 car textile pics
• 2 ballet shoes textile pics
• 1 dinosaur textile pic
• 1 butterfly textile pic
• 3 embellished felt bucket bags
• 5 embellished felt purses
• 5 embellished felt pencil cases
• 40 felted and beaded keyrings
• 2o felted fridge mangets
• 20 yoyo ponytail bands
• 15 appliqued calico bags

The first event is in September. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - I'd better get going !!!!

Sarah x

Black & White

Hi

As promised in my last post, here are a couple of pics of the black and white loopy corsages (the finished article did actually have a black button in the centre, but I jumped the gun and took the photo before I'd finished it - durrrrr ) and also the beaded felt bracelets. These are available for sale in my shop if anyone's interested.

These, along with numerous other goodies were taken into Yum Yum Jelly this morning (at last !)

I've also had a bit of a splurge on fabric (for my Personalised "Name in a Frame" pictures). I couldn't resist after spending over an hour on the Super Buzzy website. Unfortunately, the shipping came to more than the cost of the actual order but I suppose the weight of the fabric did bump up the price. I've received notification that my order has been shipped and it will take 7-1o days to reach me (that's being optimistic because if this postal strike carries on for much longer, goodness how long our post will take to reach us !!)

Now that I've got all of my wholesale orders out of the way (for the time being anyway), I can concentrate on actually building up some stock and producing lots of bits and bobs for the Christmas events I'm booked to do. I'm also hoping to try out a few new things and will, of course, post pics here once they're done.

I need to try and source some fabric labels to sew into some of my goodies, but am struggling to find a good supplier. If anyone can recommend someone I'd really appreciate it.

At the time of writing this post, September's edition of Crafts Beautiful hasn't hit the shops yet, so I am desperate to see the little piece about me and my felted bits and bobs. As soon as I manage to get my grubby little hands on a copy I'll try and scan it and post it here so you can see it in all its glory !!

Enjoy the sun (while it lasts !!)

Sarah x