BLOOMING FELT SALE NOW ON !!

THE BLOOMING FELT SALE IS NOW ON !!!

Get 40% off all sale items (price shown includes discount)

A selection of Buttons & Ribbons have now been added to the SALE !

Done !

The tree is decorated, the presents are wrapped,

hair was chopped off (!)

and nails are done and the man from Ocado delivered the turkey !

This morning my little madam and I made the Gingerbread House from the kit that I bought at the Country Living Fair. I think it turned out ok !!

This afternoon we will hopefully be attending the crib service at the village church (depending on what time hubby gets back from work - relying on trains on Christmas Eve is not good !) and really getting into the Christmas spirit !

So all that remains to be said now is "Have a fantastic Christmas and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year !"

Sarah x

PS. Don't forget the Blooming Felt website sale starts on the 27th December !!

Nearly there !

Yes, I feel that Christmas is nearly here. Well, I hope so anyway ! I really thought that my various online shops would have slowed down now we're getting closer to Christmas, but how wrong was I? People are still manically buying all sorts of items, which I won't complain about, but I'm hoping that by the end of the week it will be a bit quieter and I can have a bit of a rest.

Being so busy and still working in my part-time day job and being a full-time Mummy has left me absolutely exhausted so much so that I think my body just gave up on me on Friday night. I was due to attend my final Christmas Craft Fair on Saturday morning, but my body obviously had other ideas. I really wasn't very well during Friday night and consequently couldn't do the craft fair. I spent all of Saturday afternoon in bed asleep and got up to watch Strictly and then went straight back to bed again and slept all night ! I must have needed it because the next day I felt much better. I even managed to redo the Christmas tree which the children had attempted to decorate while I was in bed on Saturday afternoon and unfortunately I am Monica (from Friends) and just couldn't leave it like that, so completely rearranged it all while they were out swimming on Sunday morning - fortunately they don't seem to have noticed !

Sam has now finished School for the Christmas holidays and we attended his absolutely fantastic School Carol Concert last Thursday evening. The whole school attends at the local church and it's just beautiful seeing and hearing all the talented children take part. To me, that is the real start of Christmas.

I've been thinking that maybe I should restructure my blog in the New Year. I've been reading lots of other blogs lately and they always seem so much more interesting than mine. So I've decided that I need to add much more content and links to relevant articles etc. Hopefully you'll see the difference and it will make for more enjoyable reading, rather than my never-ending ramblings and constant website plugs.

Talking of which (sorry, I just can't help it !) the felt balls below were delivered today - YAY !!! I just LOVE these designs. I'm going to call them Carnival (spott), Fiesta (spiral) & Jamboree (mixed) Balls and you'll be able to buy them in Grab Bags and also singley (apologies for the bad photos - I'm going to try and retake them tomorrow).

And, I've been researching lots of lovely new stock for the New Year - bear with me and I'll be back to plug it all very soon !

Oh, and while I think of it - my website SALE will be starting on Saturday 27th December. Lots of end of line stock will be up for grabs and if you join my website mailing list (on the home page) before I issue my next website update/newsletter, you'll get an extra discount - you'd better be quick though because as soon as I retake those photos, the newsletters will be emailed out.

So go on .... what are you waiting for !!

Sarah x

General Ramblings

Hiya !

Today is going to be one of those general rambling posts - so bear with me.

First up is a bit of a strange one. I found out today that some people have a fear of BUTTONS !! Can you believe that? The poor people, I can't imagine what it must be like to be afraid of buttons ! Hubby informs me that he is scared of them, but I don't believe him for one tiny second - he's just getting fed up with the amount of buttons that are starting to take over our house - although he could be afraid of the fact that he might actually drown in a sea of buttons (which is quite possible judging by the amount of buttons I've got .... with even more on the way !!). Personally, I think that would be a lovely way to go ;o)

Now, the Christmas spirit is starting to take hold in our house. Whilst we haven't yet put the tree up (that's next weekend), we've got Advent calenders to open, Nativity plays and Carol concerts to attend, Christmas cards to write, presents to wrap and a candle-light lantern parade to attend whilst watching Father Christmas arrive on a narrowboat .... that should be interesting. No doubt my little madam will want to know why the reindeer aren't on the boat !! .

I did virtually all of my Christmas shopping online this year, with the exception of a few lovely gifts that I purchased at the Country Living show. Everything has now been delivered and is squirrelled away, waiting to be wrapped, although quite how I'm going to wrap a rather large wooden dollshouse, complete with furniture, is starting to worry me. Any ideas gratefully received.

And whilst I'm here, I'll give you a quick website update.

Today I've added the most gorgeous sets of sparkly, feathery, tinselly trim & ribbon to the site. Available in 5 different colours this trim will certainly glam up your Christmas pressies !!

The felt flowers are now back in stock, as are the mirrored, embroidered and tie dye felt balls. New designs of felt balls include spiral balls, swirly balls and knitted / crocheted balls - all available to buy individually and in Grab Bags.

I've also got a number of new designs of felt balls arriving later this week, so my next post will be all about them ! Oh, and I've added some new colours of 100% wool felt to the site. More colours will be on their way soon.

And ... remnant silk sari ribbon is a lovely new addition to the site as well. All hand-dyed and stitched end to end, this ribbon will make a fantastic embellishment on all sorts of projects. £5 will get you approximately 25g .... and that's a lot of silk ribbon !!!

Right - time to go. Those Christmas cards won't write themselves !

Credit Crunch?

What credit crunch??

Today I did my little man's school fair - I couldn't believe the amount of people that turned out for it. It's not a big school and to see people queuing up to get into the school hall this morning, was just lovely. All of the school fundraising events are extremely well supported by the families of the pupils and the Parent's Association did a fantastic job this year with organisation, advertising and generally getting some of the best local crafters to attend with their wares.

Whilst I did really well with my usual goodies, my secret weapon today (and it's the first time I tried this) was a Lucky Dip. £1 got you 1 go and Mum had very kindly wrapped up lots of stock that had been sitting around for far too long, not having been sold previously and popped it all into a Christmassy box. Well, they were like bees round a honeypot. And once word got round about the sort of gifts they were getting (generally pen & pencil covers, keyrings and hair bobbles), I actually ran out of gifts ! So there I was, trying to find other stock in my numerous boxes hidden under the table, that I didn't mind off-loading for £1 a piece. In the end, I ran out of that too !!

Of course, the rest of my stuff was things like bags, corsages, and lots of pocket money priced items, which always sell well at School fairs, but I have to say, all this talk of the credit crunch just doesn't ring true when you attend events such as that and everyone is so kind and complimentary about your goodies and will happily part with their hard earned pennies.

Thank you Elm Green School PA - for organising such a fun event and helping to support small local businesses !!

It's happened again !

Yet another 2 weeks seem to have flown by without me realising it !!

I did a school fair last Friday evening which turned out to be a complete waste of time. The only stuff I sold was to my friend, another stallholder and the Headmistress !! Never mind - you win some, you lose some. Last night's Pamper Evening was better, but not fantastic - I think possibly the credit crunch is starting to take hold. Personally, I would much rather buy handmade gifts than some of the junk that you find elsewhere, but each to their own !

Talking of handmade gifts, last Saturday was spent at my favourite Christmas Shopping venue - the Country Living Christmas Fair ! I LOVE that place - I know I keep raving about it, but if you've never been before and live near to London or in Scotland (Glasgow I think also has a Country Living event), next year you really should go. I bet you wouldn't leave there without spending something !! Sadly I can't show any photos of the goodies I bought in case the intended recipients read this blog !

As well as spending lots of money at the Fair, it's great to just wander around checking out all the different stalls and chatting to the stallholders - many of whom I know as they are either suppliers, customers or just people that I've come across in the blogging or my Blooming Felt world. And it's amazing to see some of the handmade creations - it's at times like that, that I wish I had more time to sit and create, but as my various online shops are all so busy, particularly at this time of the year, it's impossible. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love it and feel I am very lucky to run a business that I love, but my creative side sadly has to take a backseat for the time being. I'm really hoping that I'll find some time to make some felt ball garlands to adorn our Christmas tree this year !

Now, a quick website update. This last week has seen the arrival of lots of lovely new ribbons onto the site. Vintage style cotton ribbon sold on lovely 3 metre spools, in a lovely selection of colours and designs (vintage red is shown below)

and cards of 5 metres of the most gorgeous muted colours of ric rac !

All of these ribbons are priced at £2.99 each and are perfect for wrapping those pressies and using in all of your crafty projects.

I've also added a new button bag mix to the website - entitled "Christmas Pudding".

These lovely button bags contains all sorts of shapes, colours and sizes and are VERY Christmassy !!

I'm awaiting deliveries of lots more goodies in the next couple of weeks, so as soon as they get here I'll let you know !

Enjoy your weekend and if you're visiting any Christmas Craft Fairs ... have fun !!!

Time Flies !

I can't believe nearly 2 weeks have passed since my last blog post. I'm so sorry !!!

Things have gone absolutely bonkers here - my first Christmas Craft Fair has been and gone and was a great event - although I do think a little too early for Chrismas.

I've got a school fair this coming Friday evening and then next Saturday I'm off to the Country Living Fair in London. I just LOVE this event - it's my favourite favourite place to go and I've been saving all of my hard earned pennies (or rather Paul's hard earned pennies) to do all my Christmas shopping there.

I've realised that I'm booked to attend 5 Fairs before Christmas and am slightly panicking over my stock levels and wondering how on earth I'm going to find time to make new goodies for these events, as well as keeping on top of my own website and in particular my NOTHS shop (which is turning into a complete nightmare saleswise as they don't give you the option to put how many of each item you have and I've been selling out of stuff and not realising it !!) Added to that I was fortunate enough to have my fabric covered drawing pins featured in Cosmpolitan Bride magazine last month, so have had a run of sales on them.

So, last week was Halloween and my little madam and little man wanted to go trick & treating, but as we live in a village which is what I'd call a "drive through" village, and there aren't many footpaths, thought it was a tad dangerous to go wandering about in the dark knocking on the doors of people that we don't know. So, we jumped in the car and drove over to my parents and did trick or treat on them instead.

And we also did our Bonfire Night last night. Fortunately, last night was cold and clear (unlike tonight which is wet & windy) and we'd bought some of those single ignition firework boxes and lots of lovely sparklers. After a false start on one of the boxes with Paul lighting it and it not going off, we finally managed to get it going. I have to say though that I think those all-in-one boxes are a bit of a rip-off. The just fire up into the air for about 20 seconds and that's it !! Never mind, the children enjoyed it.

And today was spent taking Sam to a friend's go-karting birthday party this morning and then this afternoon, I managed to sit and cover over 100 teeny tiny buttons to use on various projects.

Oh, while I think of it - I've had a new delivery of felt balls - this time I've got embroidered felt balls, mirrored felt balls and tie dye felt balls. They're all available for sale on the website right now ! I'm hoping that on Monday I'll get my new shipment of plain and beaded felt balls, which I've been waiting nearly 2 months for ! Never mind - I know they're worth the wait !!

Right - Saturday night is "Strictly" night - I'm off !!

Eye Candy

When will I learn? Last year, I nearly bust a gut making stuff for Christmas Craft Fairs and my NOTHS shop. My NOTHS shop got so busy that I actually had to shut it for a short time because virtually everything was out of stock. Now, at that time, I didn't have my own website up and running, so all of my time was spent creating. This year (and this is where I should have learnt !), I'm still doing all the Christmas Fairs, I still have my NOTHS shop but I've also got my own website, an Etsy shop, a Folksy shop and a Dawanda shop. Because my website has been so busy lately I've spent all of my time fulfilling orders and not actually making anything of my own to sell at the Fairs and in my NOTHS shop. However, last weekend I did manage to make a few bits and bobs:

Gigantic Button Bookmarks

Spotty Button Bracelets

Fridge Magnets

And then today, I received these gorgeous goodies. I got these with the intention of putting them as exclusives in my NOTHS shop, but I'm sooooooo pleased with them that I'm going to take them to Saturday's Christmas Fair and see how they go. If they're popular, I'll then put them as exclusives in my NOTHS shop. What do you think?