Planning a romantic meal for Valentine's Day ?

If you are, then why not make it extra special and make your own candle wreath holder, felt heart coasters and felt napkin rings ?

If you fancy giving this a go (it's really, really easy !) then you can download a copy of the Tutorials for FREE from our website !

They're on there NOW !!!

No rest for the wicked !

Goodness me - how busy have I been this last week ?

Since I last posted, you seem to have gone crazy for our new products and orders have been coming in thick and fast.

The new colours of wool roving are going down a storm. Actually, felting as a whole seems to have become extremely popular over the last few months. So much so, that we will be introducing a number of exciting new products very soon !

As well as the usual website stuff, we have been busy looking into a number of other exciting projects. Our stand at the Knitting & Stitching Show has been booked - even BIGGER than before and we have also been looking at another project in particular which may or may not come off. It's still in the "mulling it over" stage at the moment but if anything comes of it, I'll of course share it with you all.

Now, for those of you in lurrrrrve, you will know that it is Valentine's Day next week. To celebrate this wonderful occasion, our February Tutorial is a fantastic Heart Wreath (or it could also be used as a candle holder !) Click here to get your free PDF download !

We've almost managed to reach 200 followers on the blog - don't forget, as soon as we do, the new monthly giveaway will be launched !!! Get Following !!!!

Sarah xx

Pottering

In between dispatching orders and attempting to build the new storage units, we've been busy chopping up bits of felt !

You can expect to see these on the website by the end of the week.

Also, look what Steve the Postie bought me this morning - oooooooooooh. Me thinks I might have to buy some more before you lot start ordering them - NO, I won't tell you where I got them from !!!

And - I'm attempting to get our blog followers up to 200. Once we hit the 200 followers, we'll be launching our monthly giveaway competion. So, if you're a new visitor, please help boost our numbers. If you're already following us, please spread the word around. You never know, it could be you who wins our first freebie !

Oh, while I think of it - check out the lovely new ribbons that were added to the website this week. Here's a taster and you can see the rest of the range here

and the latest tutorial is also available to download FREE - it's over there, on the left

The Blooming Felt SALE is NOW ON - grab yourself a bargain .... you know you want to !

See you soon

xx

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

Oh I do like to be beside the sea

Oh I do like to stroll along the prom, prom, prom

When one of my best friends buys a funky beach hut !!

OK, so the last bit doesn't rhyme, but it's true !!

My very good friend Amanda has decided to buy a beach hut at lovely Frinton on Sea on the Essex Coast

and asked me to go along and "view" the beach huts with her.

This was our favourite - it's called Uncle Albert's. It needs a little bit of tarting up, but when it's done, oh my, how lovely it will be ! We already decided that it will have bunting and lots of wooden seaside themed stuff (think East of India goodies) to make it look lovely. How exciting !

We went back to the Estate Agents to put in the offer only to be told that the current owners were away on holiday until the 29th May. Never mind, we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that no-one else looks at it in the meantime.

Ok, as promised last time ... this is a craft blog so it's about time that I showed you some crafty stuff.

Mrs J, my tutorial lady has come up with a fab idea. A felt ball coaster ! How cool is that ?! After a couple of attempts, she managed to come up with the perfect design and has even written down a set of instructions to go with it.

If you fancy having a go yourself, click here to be magically transported to the Tutorials section on my website where you will be able to download a pdf of the tutorial.

AND DON'T FORGET - I WANT TO SEE PHOTOS OF YOUR FINISHED PRODUCTS !!

People are being a little bit slow in coming forward with their wonderful creations lately. Maybe it's because I've been a little bit slow in updating the gallery section on my website, but worry not, it is all in hand and I'm hoping to have lots of lovely new photos of customer creations to show you very soon !

Just a quickie on the restock front - a had a rather large felty delivery the other day so the 10x10 inch squares and also wool roving are now completely restocked. I am also now holding small supplies of 1 metre square 4mm thick felt sheets in the same colours as the 10x10 inch squares. All 3-4mm thick, 100% wool and completely handmade - priced at £18 per square metre. Just give me a few days to get them loaded onto the site.

See you soon !

Sarah x

Yoo-Hoo .... I'm Back !

Hi there !

I hope you all had a lovely Easter - I certainly did ! We were very lucky to be able to visit my parents' home in Florida over the Easter holidays so had lots of warmth, sun, rest and relaxation.
We swam


Saw the Space Shuttle Discovery launch

Had a fab time at the Aquatica water park

Were amazed at the Lego Indianna Jones

Saw our favourite cartoon character, Curious George

Shook our tail feathers with The Blues Brothers

Saw some very scary men with very long legs

Played golf

Laughed uncontrollably at my beauuuuuuutiful children until I had tears rolling down my face and most of the customers in the shop were laughing with me (or maybe at me !)

and just generally had a lovely time.

But now it's back to real life and after managing to oversleep big time this morning which resulted in Grace not getting to nursery until 11am (yes, 11am !) when she should have been there at 9am, I am slowly getting back to normal with general day to day life and, of course, Blooming Felt.

Whilst I was away lots of lovely felt deliveries arrived so I'm now fully stocked on the plain and beaded felt ball grab bags, as well as the grab bags of hearts, stars and pebbles. The mini felt stacks are back on the website, and the 1.5mm thick felt sheets are here, but just need to be cut to size.

2 wonderful new children's craft kits have been added to the website - Canvas kits featuring either a dinosaur

or a fairy.

These kits are suitable for children aged 3+ and make wonderful gifts. Do please take a look.

Now, Tutorials. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get the March tutorial on the website as one of the main components was out of stock and it would have been a bit silly of me to publish a tutorial if you couldn't buy all of the "ingredients" you needed ! But, that particular ingredient is now back in stock and so I've published March's tutorial in April. It's over there on the right-hand side and is a very lovely mobile ! Thank you to Mrs J for her wonderful work on this particular tutorial which I am absolutely thrilled with.

Oh, and one last thing. If you've got a few buttons that you don't know what to do with ... sew 'em on yer flip-flops (please excuse my chipped nail polish) !

See you next time!

xx

Nearly there !

I've been working like mad trying to get the studio properly organised and also getting completely up to date on all of the orders that everyone has been placing this last week. I think that once people realised that yesterday was the last posting date for Easter, some people went into panic buying mode and tried (but fortunately failed) to completely clear me out of stock !!

However, I am now up to date on all of my orders and have also managed to get myself more organised in the studio.

The electrician came and installed the storage heater so I'm nice and toasty down there now and the carpenter came and made me the most fantastic workbench.

Most of my supplies are now on the shelves and are organised (sort of!), but .... and I knew this would happen - I've run out of space !! Arghhhhhhh. Well, when I say I've run out of space, I mean I've filled up all of the original storage that I bought and still have rather a lot of stock that won't fit on the shelves so is still living in boxes on the floor. Grrrrrrrr. So, I feel another trip to Ikea coming on to buy yet more storage so that everything will have a home and I won't be hunting through boxes for certain things.

All of my jars of felt balls are organised (they do need filling up though)

All of the felt sheets are colour co-ordinated

The ribbons, yoyo makers, crochet flowers and flat pad findings have a home (although I am planning on having a couple of wooden rails installed that will house all of the ribbons so that I can just pull them off the reel when I need to cut them, rather than unstack them all first before having to cut them) - that should hopefully free up another couple of shelves.

The wool roving, needle felting supplies and books are all organised and the buttons .... well, that's a bit of a sore point at the moment because they're not very organised.

I won't show you the other side of the studio because that's where the extra boxes are still sitting on the floor awaiting new homes and that would just spoil everything !!

I haven't had a chance to pretty the studio up yet - I've got lots of lovely pictures that I want to put up, my Blooming Felt sign (which I'm still waiting for my Dad to make !) and the wonderful pictures that I WON - yes, I can't believe it - I actually won a giveaway from the wonderful Julia Crossland's blog - you really must pay her a visit and admire her beautiful artwork. Thanks Julia - can't wait to receive the goodies !! And I've also got a number of other "projects" that I and Mrs J (my tutorial lady) have made up, all of which need to be shown off in the studio.

Actually, talking of Mrs J - she is busy working away on some new tutorials. I know I've been a bit slow in getting this month's tutorial onto the website, but that's purely because one of the main components has been out of stock. However, it finally arrived today and so I will try my very hardest to get the Tutorial on the website this week - if not, it will become the April tutorial !!

So, that's enough jabbering from me for the time being. I'm having a bit of a rest now and will be back on the 14th April, raring to go (and with lots more new stock hopefully!). The website will remain open and taking orders, but nothing will be processed until 14th April. Once again, apologies for any inconvenience this might cause.

See you soon

Love one happy lady xx

Soooooo busy !

Hellooo !!

I'm so sorry I've been away for so long !! I've been trying to get this blog post done for almost 2 weeks, but it has been very busy here at BF these last couple of weeks. Half term got in the way a little bit (I'm not complaining, but when you've got orders coming out of your ears and 2 children wanting lots of attention it's not easy). I was also horribly sick last Monday with "the winter vomitting bug" - erghh, and we also laid my lovely Grandad to rest on Friday - thank goodness the sun came out and cheered us all up !

So, when none of the above were being dealt with, I was receiving lots of lovely deliveries, doing lots of website updating and chatting rather a lot on the phone and emailing backwards and forwards to a particular company. I don't want to tell you name of the company at the moment (it's not a very revealing name), but then you might go and Google them and find out why I have been speaking to them ! So, for the time being, my lips are sealed (probably for another couple of blog posts, but then all will be revealed in glorious technicolour (I hope !)

So, - first up are the deliveries:

3 fantastic new books !

The first is a lovely new book by Danish author Anne Cool. Entitled "Falling for Felt", this book features a whole host of felt projects, complete with beautiful step by step colour photos. Available exclusively at Blooming Felt !

Next is a just released book entitled "Button and Stitch". If you love your buttons (and let's face it, who doesn't ?!) but are bored with keeping them in their button stash tin looking pretty, then this book is for you. Lots of lovely projects to use your buttons on

And finally a new needle felting book featuring lots of great projects from bracelets and cards to figures and even a cup and saucer !

Next up are some tools ! If you liked the heart and flower shaped yo-yo makers, then you'll love the butterfly shaped yo-yo makers that are now available (available in 2 sizes).

Also, pom-pom makers. I've gone pom pom mad since I got these tools - save yourself the job of cutting out cardboard rings all the time and use these plastic templates, specifically designed to be reused over and over again to produce perfect pom-poms ! And finally on the tools front, I've added some rose molds to help you make perfect needle felted roses.

A couple of items for Easter now - polystyrene / styrofoam eggs available in 2 sizes. Perfect for needle felting directly on to so that you can make the most beautiful decorated eggs for your Easter tree. And also available are polystyrene / styrofoam wreaths - great for covering in ribbons, felt balls, paint, buttons, wool .... the list goes on. Send me your photos so that I can add them to my customer's gallery.

And finally, some new children's sewing kits. Produced by Stitch Club, these lovely kits will introduce children to sewing (suitable from age 7) and feature 2 projects - Cute Cupcakes and Love Hearts.

All of the new items above can be found in the "Just Arrived" section and also their own particular sections.

Remember me telling you about the new "Tutorials" section last time ? Well, it's up and running - the very first Blooming Felt tutorial is now available for you to print off ! We're aiming to add a new tutorial every month and the next one is already done, so keep an eye out in March for another lovely project. Photos of new tutorials will appear in the Tutorials section over on the right of this page.

Whilst you're checking out the new items, you might notice my all new singing and dancing website ! I'd love to know what you think !!

Last Sunday I braved the snow and did a quick (!) trip up to Birmingham for the annual craft trade fair that I always attend. I have to say that I didn't think it was quite as good (or as big) as in previous years, but that certainly didn't stop me finding 2 fantastic new suppliers - more news about them next time ! I also visited a few of my regular suppliers and checked out their new ranges .... oh wow - you are SO going to love the new stuff.

That's it for now - I'll be back next week with more exciting news (hopefully !)

Sarah xx

Happy News and Sad News

I have news.

Exciting news.

2 lots of exciting news actually !

I have STAFF !! Can you believe it? I can't really, but how cool is that ?!

2 lovely new ladies have joined the world of Blooming Felt so we are now officially a team !

If you read the piece about me in issue 13 of Sew Hip you might recall that one of my "things for the future" was to look for someone to help out with my little business. Well, that happened sooner rather than later. I finally admitted to myself that I couldn't carry on the way I was, spending 90% of my time picking and packing orders and dividing the remaining 10% up between updating the website, replenishing stock, general admin, researching new products, analysing website data etc. So I decided that the time had come to find someone who was of a similar mind to me in that they loved craft (felt, buttons and ribbons in particular) and who was happy to help out with the day to day running of the business, whilst listening to 80's music and drinking cups of tea.

Enter SUE !!

Sue has very kindly agreed to help me out a couple of times a week. She's a mum, like me and lives about 5 miles from her new place of work. And the best thing about Sue ? She's enthusiastic, has some great ideas, is happy to muck in with whatever needs doing and is great fun !!

The next addition to the BF team wishes to remain anonymous. But what I can tell you is that she is a very lovely customer of mine who has the most fantastic ideas. She was always sending me photos (and pressies) of various projects and items she and her daughters had made with their Blooming Felt goodies, so one day I had a bit of a brainwave. How cool would it be if Mrs J (that's what we shall call her) would agree to pass on some of her fantastic ideas in the form of tutorials, for publication on the Blooming Felt website ? Did she agree to my job offer ? Of course she did !! So, very soon you'll be able to see Mrs J's fantastic tutorials on the website.

However, just as Sue and Mrs J enter my life, very sadly someone leaves it.

As with some things in life, happiness is balanced and sometimes tipped by sadness. My beloved Grandad (Pop-Pop to my 2 kiddies) sadly passed away this week. I've never known life (neither have Sam & Grace) without Grandad and his passing has left a huge hole in not only our lives, but of course my parents, my sister, his sister and her family and so many of his friends. Everyone who met my Grandad always, without fail, commented on what a lovely man he was. He brought happiness to so many people and it's extremely hard, in fact at this moment in time, almost impossible to think of our future lives without him. Of course, he would probably be very cross with me for writing all of this in such an open way, but I hope by doing so (even though it's a little selfish), it might make me feel a teeny weeny bit better. He was so proud of all of us and in the last month or so eagerly awaited my visits with Blooming Felt news and copies of magazines that I had been featured and mentioned in. My determination to make Blooming Felt a success is now more of a goal than ever. I'm sure he's looking down on us now and willing us all to succeed in our own goals and lives.


Sleep well Pop-Pop - we'll miss you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx