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

Helloweeeee !!

Hiya !!

We've made it back from Cornwall, wet and bedraggled unfortunately, but we did have a good time :o)

I was rather brave whilst down there and visited a number of shops and galleries with some of my felt accessories. I just want to say a massive THANK YOU to Sara of all-about-eden who had very kindly done some groundwork for me the week before and checked out a number of places that were suitable and then sent me an envelope full of business cards and leaflets and suggested that I visit some of them. Sara - you're a star !! A little thank you will be winging its way to you very shortly.

As a result of visiting some of the places, I managed to secure quite a large order of my loopy felt brooches and also needle-felted brooches with Crafty's Country Store in St Ives. I also spoke to a lovely lady in the most fantastic litle bead shop in St Ives and she gave me a tip off about a few other places I could try and also a couple of websites that might be worth contacting. Of course, it would have been rude not to buy something from her shop after spending so long chatting to her, so I purchased these lovely little seed beads which will be used on my Christmas stock. They also have a website where you can buy beads online - so if any of you beaders out there are interested, the website is http://www.gjbeads.co.uk/

I also dropped leaflets and business cards off at a number of other places and spoke with a lady at the Duke Stret Gallery in Newlyn who also happened to own another gallery in St Ives and she is quite interested in some of my felt corsages. So ... a busy time all in all and added to that, I also received 3 orders through my website whilst I was away, so spent all of last night packaging orders up to be shipped off today.

I really should go away on holiday more often because when I got back I checked the answerphone and there was a message from a lady who is organising a charity christmas shopping event (for "ladies that lunch" !) and wondered whether I would be interested in taking a table. Of course, I said yes and she then gave me 2 fantastic contacts, both local to where I live, who she thought would be interested is stocking my felt accessories, so I shall be contacting them both tomorrow and will let you know how I get on.

Another thing that was REALLY exciting was the fact that I received a phone call (whilst I was sitting in the pouring rain on the little Lappa Valley Railway) from the features editor of Crafts Beautiful magazine. You may recall that last month I placed a joint advert with Sarah from paper-and-string in the magazine? Well, the features editor wants to do an article on me and my needle-felted accessories !!! YAY - fame at last ;0) She wants to me to send her some of my hair bobbles, fridge magnets and hairclips for them to feature and also a piece about how I got into felting and what I like about it. Fingers crossed it will kick start the felting supplies side of my website.

I've just realised that this post sounds a bit like a self-promotional article, which I really didn't intend it to be, but I was just so excited about all of the things that happened whilst I was away - I just had to tell you lovely like-minded crafty people. Apologies if it seems like I'm blowing my own trumpet - I'm really not.

Of course, going on holiday means spending money and I couldn't resist this lovely card for my hubby as it's our wedding anniversay on Sunday (although Paul will be on his way back from Snowden as he's taking part in the 3-Peaks 24 Hour Challenge this weekend). I shall be dismantling the card in the future though because I want to reuse that lovely ceramic button. You can buy the buttons from Stockwell Ceramics

We also splashed out on this beautiful print which will take pride of place in our hallway (apologies for the flash in the middle of the picture !). It's entitled "St Ives on a Foggy Day" and is a little reminder of Paul's roots back in Cornwall.

and these little coat pegs for Grace's room and towel clips for Sam & Grace's towels in the bathroom

And now, it's back down to earth with a bump - sorting the piles of washing and ironing out.

Sarah x

A busy week

Hiya

What a busy week I've had ! I can't believe so much can happen in such a short space of time :-)

First things first - Congratulations to Karen Oh of Malaysia (yes, Malaysia !) who is the winner of the April freebie !! She wins one of my felted flower keyrings. I hope you like it Karen :-)

Earlier this week I received an email from a lovely guy called Robert of www.mrandmrashouse.co.uk . He is interested in stocking some of my products and has asked for some samples of my textile pictures, felted flower brooches and has also asked if I can make some purses. I am very excited about this, especially as Robert is keen for his items to be "exclusive" to Mr and Mrs House and also because I haven't ventured into making purses before, so I need to get my thinking cap on for this one !! Here's a sneek preview of the felt picture I've done for Robert - I hope he likes it.

Yesterday morning I popped into my local craft shop to get a few bits and bobs that I couldn't get whilst on holiday and was chatting to the owner as there was a leaflet on the counter about a Craft Jumble being held in June. What a fab idea !! Basically they ask people to donate any unwanted craft related items, including sewing machines, fabric, zips, buttons, threads, craft mags, pinking shears, embroidery hoops, wool, needles, knitting needles, knitting machines etc etc ... anything craft related that they don't want anymore. Then they hold the Craft Jumble and all proceeds go towards the Essex Air Ambulance - what a fantastic idea !! Anyway, I asked her about the sewing machines as I have been thinking about getting one for a while now - just a little basic one that I can use to make purses (for Robert), curtains for the children's playhouse etc. She said that a lady had been in the shop a couple of weeks ago and had bought in a brand new basic Singer machine that she had bought and couldn't get on with and so gave it to the shop to be sent to the Craft Jumble. Amazingly she said that I could have the machine for a £20 donation to the Essex Air Ambulance !! How lucky am I ??!! Of course, I haven't got the first clue how to use a sewing machine, but Vicky said she would call me once she had it up and running and give me a quick lesson. I'm really excited now and can't wait to get the machine. I'll still go to the Craft Jumble though because a. it's for a good cause and b. I'm sure there are lots of bits and pieces I can pick up.

I'm particularly interested in wooden embroidery hoops because I have a great project in mind for them. I bought this material (below) from ebay today (because I didn't spend enough money in the US !!) and plan to use this in the projects. Watch this space !!


Also, I don't know if you remember me mentioning about an advert in Crafts Beautiful magazine in my last post ? Well, my good friend at Paper-and-String has very kindly agreed to split the cost with me so that we can do a joint advert. I can't thank you enough S and am sure that the advert will be a good investment for us both :-) Our advert will be alongside the needle-felting article in the July edition. I will be advertising under the name "Blooming Felt" for this advert as I feel that all of the felt bits and bobs that I sell sit really well under this name. I won't be changing my main website name Picture it in Stitches, but if you type in

www.bloomingfelt.co.uk it automatically redirects you to Picture it in Stitches. I shall be redesigning my site (yet again) to incorporate this new name (as if I don't have enough to do !!!)

As I've had such a good week I've decided to offer another freebie to my loyal blog readers (including Cooper's nanny in Brentwood !!). So, if you would like to try and win one of my felted flower keyrings, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post between now and Sunday evening. I will then draw one name out of the hat on Monday morning and then post the name of the lucky winner during Monday.

Good luck and I look forward to hearing from you all :-)

Sarah x