Snow Snow go away !

I know, I sound like a right bah humbug but really .... this snow is not good news. The children have been off school for 2 days now because of the snow, I've got orders coming out of my ears and I haven't even started my Christmas shopping !

I was hoping for a flying visit to Bluewater today to try and at least get some shopping done, but with the children off school, it just wasn't going to happen.

And the other Christmas Shopping problem I face is that my 2 break up from school next Thursday ! Arghhhhh - what to do ??!!

There is, however, a little ray of hopefulness on the horizon. The Parents Association at school have organised a coach trip up to Harrods for the day on Saturday (weather permitting of course !) Now, there is absolutely no way on this earth that I will be Christmas shopping in Harrods but there are rather a lot of other lovely shops that I can visit and hopefully do some Christmas shopping in. The plan was that we would mooch around Harrods for a couple of hours, then go and get a lovely lunch somewhere and then window shop and look at all the lovely Christmas lights and displays. However, with me still needing to buy presents for virtually everyone, I fear a mad Christmas Shopping Trolley Dash is on the cards for Saturday. Never mind, I'm sure we'll have a lovely day whatever we end up doing !

Look at those icicles on our garages !!

In the meantime, my Paypal account will be taking a hammering with, I've no doubt, purchases from Etsy, Folksy and Dawanda .... and many of the other lovely handmade websites I have bookmarked ! If you sell through any of these channels ... look out - I could be visiting you very soon !

PS. For anyone awaiting my felty delivery, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be here sometime next week

Stay warm
xx

Let it snow

let it snow, let it snow ...... a LOT !!

Last Thursday evening we got 6 inches of snow. They'd been predicting it all week, but I have to say that I didn't really believe them. Although after the 8 inches of snow we got back in February I should have been a bit more trusting of the lovely weather people at the BBC.

Today is the first day that the temperature has risen above freezing since it snowed and it looks as though it's finally starting to thaw. Having said that, I've just looked out of the window and seen its snowing again, so maybe not !!

It's all very Christmassy though, looking out of the window whilst we put our Christmas decorations up on Saturday we could have almost been in an Alpine country !

So, the Blooming Felt website is now CLOSED for the holidays (although you will still be able to place orders - they just won't be despatched until 4th January). All of the last minute orders have been despatched (albeit a little late due to the snow hampering my efforts to get to the Post Office). The Christmas tree and decorations are all up and the Christmas presents are NOT wrapped (nowhere near it !).

Instead of wrapping presents (I'm hoping that Father Christmas might take pity on me and do it for me !!) I've been shopping on Etsy again. I just can't help myself with that website lately - everytime I go on there, I find something else that I just MUST have. And what I love most at this time of the year is that everyone seems to be offering free shipping, which is fantastic especially as all of the stuff I've been buying is coming from the USA. I've bought hair bobbles for Grace (not a Christmas present as it's far too late for that), a set of alphabet stamps for Sam and MORE clothes for me !! I know, I know, it's Christmas and I should wait and see what I get, but I'm pretty sure Father Christmas won't be bringing any of the things I bought, so I might as well buy them myself.

Lots of lovely new stock for the website is starting to arrive. I'll be putting a new section on the website over the holidays entitled "Just Arrived" and all of the new products will be popped in there so that you can easily see what lovely new goodies there are.

I will also be starting my "Sale" in the New Year as well - this section will contain all of the ready-made products that didn't sell before Christmas, as well as end of line products. I usually list all of my sale items at between 40% and 70% off their original price, so you really are getting some good bargains. But, as with all sales, stock is limited and once it's gone ... it's gone, so you'll need to be quick if there''s anything in particular that you've got your eye on !

Right, as it doesn't look as though Santa is going to send his elves to help with the wrapping, I suppose I'd better do it myself.

This will be my last post before Christmas, so I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you if you've visited the Blooming Felt website this past year and if you haven't, well then I'll look forward to seeing you there next year !!

Have a lovely Christmas everyone !!

Sarah xx

Snow & Surprises

Hiya

Welcome to our winter wonderland !!

The weather forecasters finally got it right and it snowed .. and snowed ... and snowed. And is still snowing right now. At 10am this morning, my little madam and little man (both of whom are at home because school and nursery are closed) took their ruler out into the garden and measured the depth of the snow - 3.5 inches. It's now 3pm and as it has been snowing for last 3 hours, I'm sure it is at least another inch deeper. Beng in the south east of England this amount of snowfall is very unusual - so if you're reading this blog from another part of the UK that does gets lots of snow or from abroad that also gets lots of snow - sorry. This is probably a little boring to you !

Of course, snow means great excitment in our house, not least because it means we don't have to go to school, but also because we get to play out in the garden and be snow angels, make snowmen and roll the biggest snowball you've ever seen (well, in our garden anyway !)

I'm hoping that hubby will make it home shortly - he just called and said he was at the train station and there is severe disruption on the trains and he might not even make it home. NOT impressed !

So that is the "Snow" part of this post.

The "Surprise" part is that last Friday, I got home from the school run to find a parcel sitting on the doorstop. Not unusual, but I wasn't expecting any parcels, especially not from the USA. So I rushed it indoors and with great excitement opened the box to find this little lot !!

What a lovely surprise and how exciting. I then realised that it was a "sample box" from an etsy seller who had contacted me way back before Christmas asking if I would like to take part in their monthly sample box. Basically, I contribute some free samples of my goodies each month and it gets put into various boxes which are then sent out to subscribers of this person's shop - they pay a certain amount and get a box full of lovely samples. If the contributors to the box supply 40 or more samples, then they get a freebie sample box of their own ! I'd completely forgotten all about it - although I had noticed that sales of felt balls to US buyers from my own website had increased, but didn't think anything of it. The box contains all sorts of lovely roving, knitting needles, various wools and threads etc and lots of lovely money off coupons for other etsy shops. If you click here you'll be able to read Jesse's really lovely blog post about Blooming Felt. Thanks Jesse !!

Right - that's it for today. If you're experiencing the same amount of snowfall as us, then have fun. If not, bad luck !

See you soon xx

Happy Easter !!

Hope you're all having a great Easter despite the horrid weather !

This is what I saw when I looked out of the window this morning ...

Unfortunately though there is no sun and it's that wet sort of snow that doesn't really stick to anything, so is useless for making snowmen, much to the children's disgust !

Yesterday should have been our Easter Egg hunt but once again, rain stopped play (for a while). After last year's debacle of the squirrels and magpies running off with the lovely sparkly wrapped chocolate eggs, I decided to tie ribbons to the trees, fences and anything else I could find. When we realised the sun was shining we quickly dragged out the wellies and went out into the garden on a ribbon hunt rather than an Easter Egg hunt. Despite it being freezing cold, everyone had a great time and were rewarded with felt goodie bags (sorry, I forgot to take a photo before I dished them out !!)

This is our Easter Tree. It's sitting in our dining room and received lots of lovely comments from our friends yesterday. It also doubles up as a display stand for my craft fairs (minus the eggs of course) and will get another outing in a couple of weeks time when I do the Spring Fair in Chelmsford.

While I think of it, I've had a new shipment of goodies from Nepal. This time, hair bobbles (blue or pink) and a new design of felt balls (all of which have been hand embroidered). All of these are on the website. I've also got some lovely felt necklaces (which I haven't had time to load on yet). I'll let you know when they're on.

The next 4 weeks will be rather manic because school has now broken up and my little man doesn't go back until 16th April (groan). Fortunately my little lady is still in nursery for 2 days a week, but I shall be going like the clappers trying to get things ready for the Spring Fair on the 6th April. Last night was spent sewing Blooming Felt labels onto all of the bags, purses and pencil cases.

And I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of spring flowers in our garden (taken before the snow came !)

See you soon !!

Sarah x