Happy New Year !

I for one, am very glad indeed to see the back of 2010.

For me and my family it was a pretty horrible year. I won't go in to details but anyone who is reading this and knows me, will know what I'm talking about. But, from a Blooming Felt point of view, it has been a pretty good year ! We built Blooming Felt Shedquarters in the garden, my trusty assistant Alison joined the team, we had a very good event at Ally Pally and we're looking forward to lots more good times in 2011.

To start off the year, I decided a little visit to Ikea was on the cards. The Blooming Felt studio has unfortunately become extremely messy and muddled since Ally Pally and it was time to put it all in order and get lots more storage.

After measuring up and checking the Ikea website for stock levels, we managed to arrange the loan of a van for the afternoon and headed to Ikea, armed with our shopping list. Car park - extremely busy. Shop (didn't seem to be too busy). We walked round, noted all of the pick up aisles for the numerous items we wanted and headed to the collection hall. On visiting the first aisle we needed, it became apparent that the shelves were pretty much EMPTY ! This continued on every single aisle we visited so I don't think the Ikea website stock levels are very up to date - how annoying !

We did, however, still manage to spend nearly £700 (on the frames as we couldn't purchase a single coloured bin, drawer or shelf). So I now have rather a lot of packaging sitting in the garage, that can't be put together until we get the rest of the stuff. Now that really is annoying ! Fingers crossed if we leave it another week or so, the items we want will be back in stock.

The Blooming Felt website will be open again and processing and dispatching orders from Tuesday 4th January. Thank you to everyone who has been spending their hard-earned cash over the holidays - your orders will be with you very soon.

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and crafty New Year !!!

xx

How time flies !

Well, it is almost upon on.

Another year has absolutely flown by and I've watched my little darlings getting older by the day - sometimes I panic that I can't remember what they were like when they were really tiny and then I have to go and get the videos/DVDs out - and then it all just seems like yesterday.

Every day they learn something new - Sam started school in September and is now able to read quite well along with writing with lovely spidery back to front writing !! Grace gabbles away ten to the dozen and gets more and more bossy every day - she likes to stand next to me when I'm ironing, using her own little iron and ironing board, chatting away like a little old lady. I wonder what I will be saying this time next year ?!

The above photo was taken on Boxing Day when we decided to have a day at home and spend it by ourselves (well, apart from saying goodbye to my sister who was going back to Guernsey). My 2 monkeys wanted to climb the old Mulberry tree in our garden and then insisted I take photos - well of course, who am I to argue ?!

Looking back at the last year craft / business wise, I cannot believe what I have managed to achieve in such a short space of time. At the time, it seemed to take forever to get off the ground and I apologise now for all my grumblings to anyone who was kind enough to listen. I'm just impatient and couldn't wait for things to get going ... of course, once they did things just seemed to get better and better.

I can't believe Picture it in Stitches (as it started out) is a whole year old (even though it has now changed its name to Blooming Felt) and that when I started out, determined to design and stitch beautiful textile pictures, that I would end up with a different named little Company and a completely different product range !

Sadly, the pictures just didn't take off. Despite my very best efforts with marketing, press releases, selling through various websites, knocking on doors of shops etc., it seemed that textile pictures weren't popular and I was wasting my time !! However, once I ventured into the wonderful world of felt, it became quite obvious that I was not alone in loving this wonderful medium. The people I have met through "felt" are absolutely amazing and have become real friends (even though I haven't actually met half of them !) and similarly the people I have connected with through blogging are equally amazing and have also become friends - thank you to all of you lovely people. I really appreciate all of your kind words and support.

As 2007 ends and I look back I can be truly thankful - to have a business (albeit a tiny one) that is slowly getting off the ground and people are starting to recognise and buy from ~ to have met lots of fantastic people through Blooming Felt and through blogging ~ to have a wonderful family that support me all the way (hugs and kisses to all of you) and finally, to be doing what I have always dreamed of doing ... designing and creating lots of crafty items for other people to love, appreciate and enjoy... just as I do.

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR !!

Lots of love

Sarah xxxxx

PS. My SALE is now on !!!