A new home !!

Hurrah .... we've moved !!!

Well, I say hurrah, but I really was sad to leave my old Shedquarters in our garden.  Tuesday was moving day and fortunately for us it was a lovely sunny day.  The removal guys were fantastic and didn't complain once that they had to make another trip when they had only quoted for one.

Everything fits perfectly into our new shed

The pink carpet is REALLY pink (but I absolutely love it)

We've even got some spare shelves now that we can spread everything out and we've got loads of room left over to fill with new units (when we've got a bit more money!) and also lots of new product lines, which is just as well because after spending a rather large amount at the trade show  last Sunday, we'll need the extra room !

Unfortunately, the store room is still a bit of a mess - but we just shut the door on that and pretend it's not there !!

We've got a lovely new sign on order that will take pride of place on the outside wall

and once I've put a couple of pots of spring flowers and a couple of hanging baskets outside, our new home will be ready to receive visitors !!

Once Easter has been and gone, we'll be telling you all about our regular open days.  We're hoping to open 1 day a week and then occasionally on Saturdays for those of you that can't make it during the week.  Keep your eyes peeled for more info

xx

A new home !

WARNING .... this could be a long post so you might want to get a cuppa and a biscuit before settling down to read it !

OK - are you ready ??  Then I'll begin ...

As I haven't been around for a while, I haven't been able to tell you the exciting news ... we're moving !!  

Yes, after 3 brilliant years in our little purpose built Shedquarters in my garden, we are now bursting at the seams and working not only from Shedquarters, but also using my summerhouse as a storage unit and renting a mini warehouse !!  Sadly, it has become impossible to continue working like this .... we spend a lot of our time going backwards and forwards to the warehouse bringing stock back, which then goes into the summerhouse and is then transferred to Shedquarters when we run low on stock in there.  We also spend an awful lot of our time looking in boxes for stock that might, or might not be in there !!  We're not very organised at all !

So, I had to make a decision.  If I want to grow my little business into a bigger business and offer lots more fantastic product lines, get the wholesale side of the business up and running and have regular "open days", then we need to move.  It was a hard decision to make, after all, Blooming Felt was born and has grown up to be nearly 7 years old in my house, but I'm pretty sure it's the right decision.

So, the hunt for suitable premises was on.  You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find the right place.  There wasn't a huge amount on the market anyway and I was quite specific about, not necessarily the type of building, but where it was located.  Craft businesses, in my mind, shouldn't live on industrial estates.  We don't want to be looking out of the window at giant lorries delivering goodness knows what to other premises, or hear the constant sound of cars being mended / revved up etc.  We want to be somewhere relatively small and quiet and close to home.  So, despite being on the books of all the local commercial premises agents, no-one could offer us what we were looking for.  I decided to take matters into my own hands and start looking at the classifieds section in the back of the local paper and spied an advert for workshop / office space in the next village to ours saying the following "NO MOTOR TRADERS".  Hmmmmm - that's interesting I thought and called them straight up.  Half an hour later I was at the address looking at 2 vacant "sheds".  And they really were sheds ... former chicken sheds.  It's fate, I thought !  We have a Shedquarters and we need a new Shedquarters - it's perfect !!!!  Well, sort of perfect.  It needs quite a lot of work to get it to how we want it but it will be fantastic once it's done !  (It's also nowhere near as pretty as my current Shedquarters, but I suppose chicken sheds aren't particularly pretty!)

Fast forward to today and I have just signed the lease !  My lovely builder friend is starting work on the unit today and I have ordered .... wait for it .... hot pink carpet !!!!!!!!  I know, it's mad to have a pink carpet but d'you know what ?  I don't care !! It's Blooming Felt Shedquarters and if we want a pink floor, we'll have a pink floor !!!!  

All of the walls will be white and with a hot pink carpet I think it'll look perfect !!  White is, of course, the perfect backdrop to show off all of our lovely colourful felt goodies so I foresee a number of trips to Ikea to get lots more storage units (thank goodness for Ikea !!) 

I'll try and post "in progress" pics on a fairly regular basis - we're hoping the conversion works won't take more than a couple of weeks so you won't have too long to wait to see the finished article ! 

Stick with us everyone ... it'll be worth it :o)))

  

xx

New Goodies !!!

We've had rather a lot of lovely new products come into the Shedquarters over the last week or so (with more still to come) and I've been busy photographing and getting it all uploaded to the site. Here they all are .......

Cute little ribbon bows - £4 for a mix of 20

Fabric Covered Buttons - £4 for a set of 12 (6 different colourways to choose from)

Mini Felt Rolls - 6 sheets of wool mix felt sheets - available in 5 different colourways - £9.50

Hairbands - sets of 5 - available in either brights or pastels - £5 a set

Rolls of Wonder Under (aka Wunderweb / Vilene / Bondaweb) - 180cm x 43cm rolls

£8.50 a roll

Blimey I've been a busy bunny !!!!

ps. You can see a full list of our latest products here including our new range of Liberty Print bias binding & cover buttons

xx

More new stuff !

Just a real quickie - it's Sunday night, I've been updating the website for the last 2 hours and I need to have my tea !

A few new bits that I've added to the website today ....

Cotton Remnant Ribbon - like the silk sari ribbon that we stock, but cotton ! It's FAB !!!

Polystyrene Cones ! Cover them in felt balls and make a felt ball Christmas Tree !

Limited Edition Colour of 10x10 inch felt sheet - Christmas Red .... while stocks last

I finally managed to get the ivory / white die cut hearts, flowers and circles on the site today as well - many, many apologies for the delay

And one last little treat for you - I've reduced the price of our 100% wool felt bags for a LIMITED TIME - now only £10 each. Grab 'em before they go up again !!

I'm hoping to get the latest newsletter out later this week, so watch your in-boxes !!

xx

Royal Wedding Fever

Here at BF Shedquarters, Royal Wedding fever is starting to take hold.

My little madam is getting VERY excited at the fact that she is going to see a "real life Princess" get married and the school has announced that they will be holding a "street party" the day before the wedding and that there will be prizes for the best homemade crowns. So, I got to thinking "What can I use to make the most fantabulous crowns" ? Why - felt, buttons, ribbons and balls of course !!

In my quest to find the best things to use it suddenly came to me - if I'm looking for stuff to make Royal Wedding themed bits and pieces, then so will others.

So, I give you ..... The Blooming Felt Royal Wedding Supplies section. Stuffed full of Blooming Felt's red, white & blue coloured supplies. Buttons, Balls, Ribbons and Felt Sheets galore !

We'll look forward to seeing all of your creations very soon !

Have Fun !!!

PS. A quick reminder that BF will be operating a reduced (once a week) postal service from Saturday 2nd April until Wednesday 27th April. Sorry for the inconvenience guys - it's Easter !

xx

Oh Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas Tree

How lovely are your branches ??

Well, not really branches, more felty circles really, but how beautiful is this tree ?

This has been made by one of my lovely customers (and her little daughter). Made from one of our thick felt stacks, you can see how to make your very own felty Christmas Tree by visiting Julia's blog.

Thanks for letting me share your wonderful photo and tutorial Julia

xx

I'm so lucky !!

Woo Hoo !! At the risk of blowing my own trumpet .... I've been featured in Sew Hip AGAIN !! This time, I've been extremely lucky to be featured in their monthly "Sew on the Net" feature.

I'm starting to feel like royalty !

Thanks Sew Hip !!

xx

A Sneaky Peek

Helloooo !!

Hope you're all enjoying the glorious weather we've been having ? Doesn't the sunshine make you feel happy ?

As I haven't got a huge amount to tell you about lately I thought I'd show you some latest pics of my studio.

It's rapidly filling up and I am starting to get slightly concerned that I'm going to run out of space !! The buttons still haven't been organised properly although my assistant Alison says she'll be on the case very soon as she's fed up with hunting through drawers trying to find what it is that she's looking for - sorry Alison :o(

I had some of those lovely floating shelves put up to display lots of "samples" (oh, and my digital radio which is tuned to Absolute 80s !)

The metres of thick felt sit on the bottom shelves (I think you can just about see them below) and the lovely Gillian Gladrag felting kits reside on top of the shelving units (that just shows how little space I have left !)

Whenever I get a delivery of felty goodies in, I always end up with giant boxes sitting around for weeks because I don't have enough room to put everything away - you can see one of the boxes in the photo below

There is still one wall left which doesn't actually have any storage units so I really need to get myself down to Ikea and pick up another couple of units. I feel the need for some more sweetie jars to be displayed on them, especially since I have a new line coming in very soon (watch this space !)

Now, do you remember this picture ?

Well .... look at it now ! Unfortunately, our field is still not properly fenced, and is now also home to a large digger (not ours sadly), but it has now at least been cut down so we can use it. The children love to go out there and have little dens in the trees which border the farmer's field. A very expensive, but worthwhile purchase.

See you soon !

xx

Today is ....

..... HAPPY ELF JOKE DAY !!

Yes, according to my 3 year old monkey, today is Happy Elf Joke Day and you need to walk around playing jokes and tricks on everyone all day ! Like the trick where you have a pretend packet of chewing gum and when you pull the chewing gum out, the little mouse trap thingy flies over and whacks your finger ... HARD ! Oh how we laughed (the first time). It's starting to wear a little bit thin now and my finger is rather sore. Roll on next Monday when half term is over !!

Now, I was being a complete numpty recently and ordered the wrong colour felt squares !

So - I've got twenty 10x10 inch darkish turquoise squares (I guess you'd call them aquamarine) in the 4mm thick range, which I don't really want (I stock the the lighter colour) and wondered if anyone could make use of them? They're listed here on my website and I'm only charging £1 a piece instead of the usual price of £2.25.

If you want to grab yourself a bargain, then be quick because when they're gone ... they're gone !!

And this is a little sneeky peek of the new buttons that will be making an appearance on my website very very soon

Have a very HAPPY ELF JOKE DAY EVERYONE !!

Sarah x

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 !

11,500 Felt Balls !!

This is what 11,500 felt balls looks like !!

Well actually, it's 11,100 felt balls because I'm missing 400 of a particular colour (boo hoo). This evening will be spent loading them all on to the website for all of you lovely people to buy ! So don't all rush at once now - there's plenty to go around (I hope)

I also received these fantastic felt sheets - remember me telling you about these in a previous post? All 100% wool felt, handmade and luxuriously thick (sounds like an M&S advert !). None of your acrylic craft felt here !!

These will also be loaded onto the website either tonight (if I don't fall asleep) or if I do, then sometime over the weekend. They'll be for sale in colour sets (I think).

I've also devised some rather nifty packaging for the felt balls, so if you are kind enough to order some, this is how they will arrive (apologies for the poor photo).

And due to popular demand, I have signed up for the Charity Craft & Gift Fair in the High Chelmer Shopping Centre in Chelmsford on Sunday 6th April. It will be open from 9.30am to 4.30pm and if anyone lives close to Chelmsford and fancies coming along to say hello and take a look at my goodies in the flesh, then it would be lovely to see you.

While I think of it, now in stock are the Betz White "Felt so Good" felting books. This book is absolutely fantastic and has some beautiful projects and ideas (some requiring felt balls!).

Oh and another thing (sorry about this), if anyone was kind enough to sign up to the mailing list on my website (front / home page), would you mind doing it again please? For some reason the emails / details haven't been reaching me, so I haven't been able to add you to the list and I would hate for you to miss out on the special offers I will be running soon. Thanks

I'm off to list felt balls !

Have a lovely weekend

Sarah x