Lots of Lovely Felt !

Yes - IT CAME !!! My eagerly awaited delivery of 100% wool felt finally came at the weekend.

And this felt is NOT your ordinary craft felt. This felt is the sort of felt that you want to stroke. The sort of felt that feels like your favourite jumper. This felt is all 100% wool felt (NOT a wool blend mix) and is all lovingly hand-dyed meaning it has the most beautiful one-of-a-kind look.

Available in 20 different colours, sold in 8 x 8 inch squares and priced at £2.00 per square, this felt is the sort of felt you will come back for time and time again. This felt isn't just any sort of felt - this felt is BLOOMING FELT !! (hehe !) It will make your projects look ultra special. Go on - buy some .... you know you want to !!

OK - M&S type-advertising over .... now onto the other loveliness that arrived. A complete restock of flat pad findings AND for use with your flat pad findings ... flat back cover buttons !

Why faff around removing the shanks from your self-cover buttons, when you can buy flat back buttons all ready and waiting to be covered and then glued onto your favourite flat pad finding !! You'll need to give me a little more time to get this particular loveliness onto the site (EDIT - now loaded onto the site)

Right - that's enough website plugging for the moment. I hope your weekend was good and you weren't washed away with the all the rain we've been having? Little man and little madam went to a friend's 4th birthday party on Saturday. Fortunately the weather was kind to us and stayed dried - unfortunately this meant that I decided to try and prove that I was still young enough to take part in a scooter race, but failed miserably when I lost complete control - yes I know, it was a scooter - and ended up flat on my back with the scooter on top of me. Not impressed - I really walloped my knee, scuffed my most gorgeous suede boots and got a horrible mark down the sleeve of my favourite white shirt !! Hubby just stood there looking disgusted and didn't even bother to try and help me up - THANKS !! Needless to say, I have decided I am TOO OLD to be scootering around and will not be trying that again. I'm just hoping that no-one was camcordering the horrible moment and is thinking of submitting it to "You've been Framed" If I see myself on that particular show - I shall be round your house like a shot claiming my £250 !

OK - I'm still collecting photos and tutorials (desperate for tutorials) of your Blooming Felt crafty projects - don't forget to email them to me. If you'd rather I didn't mention your name against the photos, it's not a problem - just let me know when you email the photos.

One of my favourite project photos that arrived last week was from Anne Davies.

Anne is a Freelance Crafts Teacher (what a fab job to have !) and created this gorgeous woven felt heart from felt and buttons that she purchased from yours truly and which can be filled with all sorts of loveliness (like chocolates for example !) especially for Valentine's Day.

Anne will be running some family workshops where you can learn to make these particular hearts (in time for Valentine's Day) - why not check out her website?

Thanks Anne - a pressie will be winging it's way to you with your latest order which I noticed contained lots of colours of my lovely new wool felt !!

Right - I'm off to add the flat backed buttons to the site. Next week I hope to be back with even more loveliness !

See you then !

Hooray !

Hooray - the new battery came for my camera and it's all working ok again - photos will be further down in the post.

That was the hooray - the BOO is the fact that I came into the kitchen the other morning to find water pouring through one of the spotlights in the ceiling !! I then went into the lounge to find water coming through the roof of the bay and then saw water coming in under the back door ! The torrential rain that we had experienced through the night had done its worst and was trying to flood us out ! Fortunately, I had a number of buckets I could put under the drippy bits and they had to stay there until I'd done the school run ... still in the pouring rain. A very nice man came round when I got back and looked at it all and said that luckily (?) the flat roofs didn't need replacing, and it was the angle and sheer amount of rain that had found its way into little gaps where the roofs joined onto the main section of the house, and it would just need sealing. Thank goodness for that !!

So, to celebrate the fact that the camera is repaired and that our roofs aren't going to cost us a fortune, I decided to play with some buttons and get a few new mixes onto the website.

This time round I've got some lovely gingham buttons ! A perfect match to my spotty buttons and available to buy singley, in bags of 20, bags of 60 (1o of each colour)

and bags of 65 (mixed spotties and ginghams, which can be found in the button bags section on the website !)

I also managed to take a decent photo of my mixed button bags of flowers, hearts & squares. For some reason my website just did not like the original photo I took and wouldn't let me load it on- fortunately, it likes this one !
I've also added lots of colours of "Clown" buttons to the site. I've called them clown buttons because they look just like the buttons that a clown has down the front of his jacket. Available in loads of different colours and priced at 30p each, they're a great way to update your wardrobe (and I promise you won't look like a clown !!)

While I think of it, my SALE is still on. It was supposed to finish on the 10th January, and whilst the majority of the sale items have now been sold, I've decided to have a bit of a destash and put some of the supplies that have been hanging around at home in various drawers etc and are unlikely to be used anytime soon, onto the website for sale. All of it is new, unused and in it's original packaging, where applicable - so do check out the SALE section and see if you can grab yourself a bargain (give me a few days to get it all loaded on though !)

At the weekend I will hopefully be taking delivery of some lovely lovely LOVELY new supplies - I can't wait !! As soon as they arrive I shall be taking lots of photos and getting it all onto the website - so watch this space !

I'm also waiting for a complete restock of the handmade 100% wool felt sheets - the choice of colours will increase to 20 and they'll all match the colours of felt balls that you can buy individually on my site - I'll let you know once they're here.

Don't forget - I'm on the look-out for photos and tutorials of projects completed using your Blooming Felt purchases. They're starting to come in slowly (thank you to all of you that have sent photos in) and as soon as I've got enough, will start to post pictures here and get the "Customers Gallery" on my website up and running. You can email your photos to me.

See you next week !

Sarah x

Feeling grumpy

Today I'm feeling a tad grumpy (apologies now for this moany post !)

It all started last Friday when the oven packed up. Not the first time this has happened and probably won't be the last. That oven is starting to cost way more than it's worth but I refuse to replace it because we're hoping to get planning permission to do some major building works and if we do, then the kitchen will be moving into what is at present the dining room and that oven will be replaced with an Aga (fingers crossed). A nice shiny new turquoise or lilac coloured Aga would be fantastic, but after having just looked up the prices, maybe a plain cream reconditioned Aga is more likely !! Anyway, I'm drifting off the subject. So, the oven broke, then yesterday my camera decided to stop working for no apparent reason (hence the lack of photos in this post). This is VERY annoying because I wanted to take photos of some new buttons that came and also some different photos for this blog. It would appear that it's a problem with the battery and the manufacturers are aware of it and will send a replacement battery free of charge - thank goodness !

But, as I was sitting there getting more and more cross with the silly camera (before I was aware of the fault !) I suddenly realised that in 3 weeks I will no longer be my current age. My new age will start with a 4 and end with a zero. I am panicking. When I was 30 it all seemed quite funny to be getting older but 40 seems to be a whole different ball game. I know everyone says 40 is the new 30, but I'm not convinced. I am consequently burying my head in the sand, slamming the brakes on and generally trying to completely ignore the fact. I DO NOT WANT TO BE 40 !!!! I feel like crying. I wish everyone would stop going on about it - even my little man decided to broadcast the fact that I would be 40 to anyone who would listen as we were walking down the lane to school this morning !!

So, I shall try and console myself with the fact that at the end of next week I have lots of lovely new stock arriving - let's hope that the new camera battery has arrived by then !

OK - moan over. The new series of Hustle is on so I shall go and snuggle up on the sofa and try to banish all thoughts of that particular number !!

Blooming Felt Needs you !!

Hiya

If you don't subscribe to my website mailing list then you won't know what the latest products that I've added are ! So today I'll be doing some shameless plugging and also be asking for your help !

The latest products to be added (just this week) are:

Gingham, Spotty and Pencil Stripe ribbons. You can see a photo of some of the ribbons over there to the left of this paragraph - they're really popular so if you fancy some ... be quick !

Also, and I'm very excited about this one, I've added flat pad craft findings to the site. I've got bracelets, earrings, cufflinks, hair/bobby pins, rings, brooch pins and giant paperclips/bookmarks. Low stock on the bookmarks at the moment, but they'll be fully restocked at the end of January if you were wanting to buy some. Glue lots of lovely buttons and felt balls to any of these findings and create something really special !

A new selection of individual clown buttons have also been added to the site - choose from 14 different colours (a small selection shown below) - and at just 30p each they are a really cheap way to update your wardrobe - why not change the buttons on your coat and give it a complete new look ?

Now - I need your help.

I've been wanting to add a "Customers Gallery" to my website for quite some time now and have decided that the start of the New Year is the time to do it ! So, I'm looking for your photos and tutorials of projects you've created using your Blooming Felt purchases. In return for me using your photos on my website, you'll get full credits (of course) along with a free one-way link (and we all know how important these are for Google rankings !) to either your website, blog or another internet site of your choice. AND .... if I feature your project on this blog, you'll get a freebie gift as well !

To start you off, here's a photo from an Etsy customer in the US who bought one of my felt ball grab bags - how lovely is this ??

So, what are you waiting for ?? Off you go, buy something lovely and start creating ! I can't wait to see what you come up with. Click here to email me your photos and tutorials, or just go to the Contact Me page on the Blooming Felt website !

I'll look forward to hearing from you soon !!

Sarah x

Happy New Year !!

Happy New Year to you all !

I hope you all enjoyed your various celebrations and aren't suffering too much today.

I won't ramble on about the past year - it's gone and we're now in 2009 with lots to look forward to !

If you haven't visited my blog since before Christmas, you might have noticed the layout has changed slightly. I promised that I would change it and post more interesting stuff on here, so hopefully you'll like all the new links that I've added down the left hand side. I'm going to be regularly adding new links, so that the blog will become (hopefully) a source of useful information, with tutorials, hints, tips and inspiration for all of your crafty projects.

Today has been spent playing with buttons !! I know, we should have done something more family orientated and gone out for a walk or something, but it's just so cold here at the moment and the sun didn't want to make an appearance, so it's been pretty dull and miserable. So what better time for me to sit and play with buttons !

My Christmas Pudding button mix is now sadly surplus to requirements, well, for another year anyway, so I decided to split the mix up into red & green piles and make up "Emerald City" and "Ruby Slipper" mixes. A bit of a Wizard of Oz theme going on, don't ask me why because I can't stand that film, but for some strange reason, they're the names that came into my head when I was sorting through them, so that's what they've been called.

They've been listed in both my Etsy shop and also on the Blooming Felt website and are ready and waiting for new homes.

A few things that I'm planning for 2009 include lots of lovely new stock and product lines on the website - I've been busy ordering it over the Christmas period and some of it is already on its way to me - fingers crossed it will be here very soon and I can share photos of it all with you. I'm also planning another needle felting workshop, hopefully in either February or March, and possibly exhibiting at another retail fair - I enjoyed doing Sandown in September, even though it was really hard work, and would love to try and do another - but we'll see.

Whilst I was playing with the buttons this afternoon, I was listening to one of the new CD's that hubby gave me for Christmas - The Ordinary Boys. And I suddenly heard the words to one particular song "I've got the best job in the world" and do you know what ..... I really think I do !!

I'm off to play with more buttons - see you soon !

Sarah x