1 year old today !!!

I can't believe that it is exactly a year to the day that I first started boring you all with my ramblings !

So much has happened in the past year and I'm sure if you were to go back over all my old posts you would see what I mean (I won't bother recapping it all now !) But thank you for sticking with me and allowing me to ramble on at you - it's lovely to know I have so many readers from all around the world !

Anyways, back to the present !! My embellisher arrived earlier in the week and I could barely contain my excitement. Unfortunately I wasn't able to have a play about with it until the following day because it became apparent that my website wasn't playing nicely and a very very lovely lady by the name of Nadine came to my rescue and offered to fiddle about with it a bit. Well, I say a bit ... really I mean a LOT ! And boy did she do a good job ! It had been pointed out to me that I didn't have a "view cart" button on my website so when people were adding stuff to their baskets it was very difficult for them to get to the checkout (not very helpful) and I wonder how many sales I lost because of this. Fortunately Nadine came to my rescue and while she was at it made a few tweaks to my website which has resulted in a much more streamlined look. Thank you Nadine !! Nadine has her own website(s) hosted through EKM - why don't you take a look?

www.icegems.co.uk

www.identify-me.co.uk

So, because of all this the embellisher had to wait. However, the following day I managed to spend approximately 10 minutes on it before Grace decided she wanted to have a go and all hell broke loose ! So it's now back in its box, waiting for a child-free day when I can have a real good play about with it. A couple of my friends came up with some fab uses/ideas for using it and I'm looking forward to trying them out.

My next shipment from Nepal won't unfortunately be here until sometime next week (DHL charge way too much for shipping so we've had to resort to standard airmail). So if you're waiting for felt balls, I really do apologise for the delay ... but they'll be worth the wait, I promise.

I've been contacted about doing a charity shopping event in one of Chelmsford's shopping malls in April and am seriously considering it. It would be a great venue with lots of general shoppers and would really get my name out there, so I'll let you know my decision soon.

Unfortunately my camera is playing up so I can't post any of my own pics but I just wanted to wish all you Mums out there a very Happy Mother's Day for Sunday and hope you all get pampered !

Also, Happy Birthday to my sister for today as well !!!

Look what I got !

As if spending lots and lots of money on lots and lots of lovely new stock wasn't enough to keep my shopaholic tendencies in check, I spied this rather lovely contraption on ebay yesterday (and at a very good BIN price too), and after pleading with Paul that I really, really, really did need it, I managed to convince him that it was an absolute necessity and he let me buy it !!

Introducing one nice new shiny embellisher machine !!

Of course, I don't really know what I'm actually going to do with it (ssshhhhh - don't tell Paul pleeeeeease), but I'm sure I'll find a fantastic use for it (I had a quick go on one at the trade fair on Sunday) and I've been scouring flickr for lots of great ideas. I've got a couple of Easter themed things in my mind, but until the machine actually arrives, I don't know whether they'll be possible. So all suggestions gratefully received !!

I've also been scouring all of the fantastic catalogues that I picked up at the trade fair and have a rather long list of "must haves .... when I've got some more money!" Or maybe I should just speak to the bank manager and convince him that he really does need some hand dyed ribbon, and wouldn't he just love some felt garlands and little fabric flowers to brighten his office up ?!!

***** Felt Balls Update *****

A new shipment of felt balls will be arriving on or around the 29th Feb and will be uploaded to my website shortly after !!! Please contact me if you wish to receive email notification on their arrival

Sarah x

A very Productive Day

Today I visited the Craft, Hobby & Stitch trade show at the NEC in Brmingham.

As I said in a previous post, I had made a list of all the exhibitors I wanted to see, and amazingly enough I did actually get to see them all !! Of course, I was side-tracked by lots of other lovely stands and felt like a real lurker at some of them. One in particular had the most amazing space dyed threads and fabrics which I became slightly obsessed with and kept telling myself that I didn't really need to stock these lovely things and they weren't felt based, so I really shouldn't be buying them ..... but a little voice kept saying "buy me, buy me" But I was strong and even though I was extremely tempted, I just made do with taking away a brochure and a couple of free samples and told myself that I should take some time to think carefully about it before placing an order.

However, I did order some fantastic felting books ... a couple of which haven't been published yet, but 1 of them has been and copies should be on their way to me very soon. Keep an eye out on the website and on this blog for when they arrive. I don't think you'll be disappointed !!!

I've also decided to stock a number of other fantastic items that I think will add to my little range and I hope that once they arrive, you will agree.

My new website seems to be behaving itself now and I have to say I am absolutely amazed at the amount of hits I've been getting. Lots of them have been direct hits, but I've had a huge amount that have come via search engines, which never used to happen on the old site, so it looks like all my hard work on identifying keywords has paid off. I've received a fair few orders as well, so all in all, I'm very pleased.

And now I must sew some labels on to purses !

See you soon
Sarah x

PS. Apologies for the lack of photos in this post !!

It was too good to be true ...

if you've been trying to look at my new website since my last post, and are getting a UK2 frame come up around the website, I do apologise. Some bright spark at UK2 decided to change the name servers back to themselves from the hosting company of my website and so the site isn't now working properly !

As you can imagine I am VERY VERY cross and someone is going to get a rocket over this !!!

I've changed the servers back to the hosting company but it could take up to 24 hours to propogate around the internet and the world, so if you could just bear with me for a little longer, I would really appreciate it.

Sorry !!
Sarah x

IT'S LIVE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woo hoooooooooooooooo !!!

At last - my new website is LIVE !!! And all of the new goodies have been loaded on (with more to come). The only thing I would say is that some of the felt balls are showing as out of stock :o( This is because I had a rather large order for felt balls last night that almost wiped me out !! Not that I'm complaining of course - but it would have been nice to launch the new site with everything in stock. However, I am mainly out of stock of plain / unbeaded balls rather than the beaded ones, but due to the way the website is set up, it shows the particular colour as being out of stock, rather than whether it's the plain or beaded balls. So - if you are interested in purchasing any beaded balls that are showing as out of stock, just email me or contact me through the website and I can send you a paypal invoice.

I've got an order of, ooooooh let me see ......... approximately 11,000 balls in with Nepal. They are going to be busy !! I'll let you know when they're all back in stock.

And to add to my excitement, I had my very first Etsy sale today ! A set of the pink felt balls.

I'm a happy bunny !!

Have a great weekend
Sarah x

They came !!!!

At last ..... look what came yesterday ! I was soooooo excited and have to say that I am very pleased with all of it. I felt like a child at Christmas - I couldn't contain my excitment and ripped open the box like a mad thing, to find numerous amounts of these gorgeous, gorgeous items .. along with lots of other stuff like lovely felt beads, felt mats (more about these at a later date), pencil cases & purses (shown in previous posts).

Pen / pencil covers

Coasters - to be sold in sets of 4

More coasters ... I'm also hoping to have both of these designs made up into place mats

Spotty pink heart garlands

Rocket pencil cases, to go with the caterpillar pencil cases I already have

A rather lovely bag, in gorgeous shades of brown

This is a felted doorstop which just needs to be filled with a bag of rice or sand - I have to say I'm rather proud of how this one turned out.

A redesign of the felted money box - the coin slot is on the roof, as you can see, and you can get your pennies out through a small velcro opening just beneath the roof.

This evening will be spent uploading it all to the website ready for sale to all of you lovely people ! And then I'll be spending evening after evening sewing on my little Blooming Felt woven labels that I purchased from etsy a few weeks ago.


I'm hoping the new site will go live tomorrow or Friday, so you should be able to buy from then. There are still a few items outstanding that will be added within the next couple of weeks and I am then hoping to add new designs / products on a regular basis, so do please keep checking the website and this blog regularly for updates - you can always join the mailing list on my website as well to be kept up to date.


And of course, I'm hoping to get some new suppliers at the trade fair on Sunday so will be adding a number of different items to the site after that. And don't forget, all of these items are in addition to the numerous other products that I've shown you in previous posts.

Do let me know what you think - I'd love to hear your comments.


My next post will be to inform you that the site is live.

Until then ...

Sarah x

Etsy Update and Trade Fairs

Sadly my shipment from Nepal didn't arrive today so I STILL can't put my new website live yet. But I've added the following items to etsy today. Hopefully these will generate a bit of interest and I might get my first etsy sale !!

Next weekend I'm off to the Craft, Hobby & Stitch International Trade Fair up in Birmingham. I'm really excited at this because last year, despite not having a clue what I was doing, I found 3 fantastic companies that I now use on a regular basis to buy items / supplies from.

This year, I know what I'm doing and won't be wandering around aimlessly getting totally confused at everything that's on offer. Of course, I'm sure I'll still get confused and side-tracked by all of the fantastic products, but this year I've gone through the exhibitor list with a fine toothcomb and made a list of all the companies that I definitely want to see. These include a publisher that stocks a really fantastic book that's not yet available in the UK. I really want to get copies of this particular book to sell on my website. The next is a German company that sells the most amazing colours of merino wool, also a couple of companies that produce great craft kits for children.

I'm sure there will be plenty more once I get there, but I must try to be focussed and not get carried away ! And the great thing about trade shows is that they satisfy my shopaholic tendencies because what's the point of having a webshop if you don't actually have any stock to sell !!! Well, that's what I tell hubby anyway - the fact that a lot of the items I buy are because I secretly have to have them, even though I have no clue what I'll do with them - has absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever!

Enjoy your weekend

Sarah x

Weekends away and birthdays

Hellooooooo !!

Well, we had a really lovely weekend away - lots of lovely antique browsing and shopping, cream teas in front of roaring log fires, wandering along and admiring beautiful tudor houses in Lavenham, eating lots of lovely food in the fantastic restaurant that we stayed in etc etc. A truly relaxing weekend.

This is a picture of the Crooked House in Lavenham - it's not actually a house anymore but a gallery, but what a fantastic building - all crooked like that !!

And today was my birthday ! So I awoke to be presented with a brilliant ipod nano from my 2 cheeky monkees and yet another weekend away with hubby... this time in ROME !!!! Wey heyyyyyyyy - how lucky am I ??

So to my wonderful husband, 2 cheeky monkees, the rest of my family (including my lovely in-laws), and friends ..... THANK YOU ALL !!!!!

Sarah xx