Fancy holding a crafty party ?

Then check out the latest addition to our website .... CRAFT PARTY PACKS !!!

Available for either 5 people

or 10 people

Each pack works out at just £5 per person .... Happy Crafting !! 

Come visit us !!

Hurrah !!  Now that we have a new Shedquarters (with lots of space), we have decided that we'll open to all felt fans, buttonaholics, ribbon addicts and all other crafty peeps on a regular basis.

So, starting on Friday 19th April, we'll be open most Fridays from 10am until 2pm for you to visit our crafty paradise, have a cuppa, take a look at all of our lovely supplies, ask for advice, meet other craft addicts, maybe buy a few bits and bobs, swoon at our pink carpet and just generally have a nice time !!

If you'd like to pop in, our address is:

Blooming Felt

Unit 27 Chamberlains Farm

Sporhams Lane

Danbury

Chelmsford

Essex, CM3 4AJ

Tel: 01245 471690

Parking is available, but bring your boots if the weather is wet as the carpark tends to get a bit muddy !!

Hope to see you there !!

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

AUGUST FREEBIE TIME !!

I'm so sorry - we're late AGAIN with the monthly freebie ! Blame it on the school holidays !

This month's FREEBIE GIVEAWAY is a set of 6 American Crafts Elements Ribbons in one of three colourways - blues, sage greens or lime greens - the winner gets to choose. Each box contains approximately 24 feet / 7 metres of ribbon

This isn't our standard stock, sadly, but I found them sitting in the bottom of a box and thought it would be nice to give one away to one of our lovely customers / followers !

So, as always, you just need to leave a comment on this blog post (for our Facebook readers - please ensure you leave a comment on our actual BLOG post, and NOT on the FB post, as it won't count)

All comments need to be received by 5pm on Monday 8th August and we will draw the winner via a random number generator later that evening and then post on this blog.

VERY IMPORTANT - please read the rules below, particularly the point about me being able to contact you !!

RULES:

• The giveaway is open to everyone - I'll ship worldwide
• Only 1 entry per person
• I MUST be able to contact you via your blog or website. If you don't have either of these, please ensure you leave your email address on the comment. If your number is picked and I am unable to contact you, the prize will be redrawn and offered to another participant
• All comments to be received before 5pm on Monday 8th August

GOOD LUCK !!!

It's FREEBIE time again (and it's late !) - Sorry

I can't believe it's June already !! It sort of crept up on me all of a sudden and consequently I've been in a flap trying to decide what to offer as this month's giveaway.

So, I'm afraid it's a bit late, and it's a bit of a last minute thing but I've decided that for June's freebie, the prize will be ....................

5 metres of ribbon, or pompom trim, or bias binding, or waxed cotton cord, or beading elastic ! You can have a mixture of all if you want - it's up to you. (Prize subject to stock availability)

To enter, just leave a comment on this actual blog post (NOT the facebook blog post), before 5pm next Sunday 12th June.

RULES:

• The giveaway is open to everyone - I'll ship worldwide
• Only 1 entry per person
• I MUST be able to contact you via your blog or website. If you don't have either of these, please ensure you leave your email address on the comment. If your number is picked and I am unable to contact you, the prize will be redrawn and offered to another participant
• All comments to be received before 5pm on Sunday 12th June

GOOD LUCK !!

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

Just another day

Well, I'm still waiting for the postman to bring both the lovely stitchery and peggarty kits from Primitive Beginnings and also an order of merino wool I purchased through a website over 2 weeks ago !!

I'm really hoping that the Primitive Beginnings order arrives tomorrow because I'm keen to get them listed for sale on my website and also because the winner of the monthly draw (which will take place on Saturday) will be able to choose one of the lovely kits. Don't forget - to be entered into the monthly draw you need to sign up to my website mailing list (on the front page of my website).

The website I purchased the merino wool from is being SO slow in delivering. I've emailed and left voicemails for them to try and find out where the order is (it's holding me up!), but they haven't responded. My final email to them on Friday told them that if I hadn't either received the goods or a reponse to my messages by Tuesday, then I would request a refund from Paypal. It's just not on !! I wouldn't mind if the goods were out of stock or something, but when I ordered it said all items were in stock and delivery would be within 2-3 days. Grrrrrrr

I visited the Hylands House Gift Shop on Saturday with some of my textile pictures to see if they would be interested in either buying from me or selling them on a commisson basis. Unfortunately they weren't interested. I then read a very interesting article that a friend told me about on the Whip Up blog about how best to go about approaching possible buyers of your items and read, to my horror, that the worst thing you could possibly do was to just turn up unannounced and expect them to look at your products. How could I have got it so wrong ??!! I should really have thought about it much more before bowling up like that - how unprofessional must I have looked? :-( So, the upshot of this is that I shall be producing a mini catalogue of all of my items and sending it out with a nice introductory letter to all of the outlets I feel might be interested in stocking my products and asking whether it might be possible to arrange an appointment to show them some samples. I'm so THICK sometimes - and to think I used to be in Marketing !!!!! Durrrrr

This leads me nicely on to showing you all of the textile pictures I have produced to date - if you haven't yet had a chance to check out my website, all of these pictures are available for sale through my site - just click on the link below to view them. All of the pictures are priced at £20 each, except the "Name in a Frame" pictures, which are £30 each, as these are made to order.

Picture it in Stitches - Textile Pictures

I'm on countdown now to our holiday which is in just under 3 weeks time. We're off to the US and I can't wait !! I've started buying stuff from US ebay and US etsy sellers so that I can have the items delivered to my parents house and so save on postage !! This is a great big bag of gosgrain ribbon I purchased from the US ebay site. It only cost me $5.00, so about £3.00 - I shall be using it to make up "Grab Bags" of ribbons, buttons and fabric etc to sell at the craft fairs.

I'm off now to see what else I can buy !!

xx

A Day at the Country Living Fair

What a lovely day I've had !

After having to stand on the train all the way in to London this morning (honestly, cattle are treated better than train passengers !), my lovely Mum and I hot-footed it over to VV Rouleaux in Marylebone. What a LOVELY shop - tons of gorgeous trimmings and ribbons, but I was a bit disappointed that they didn't sell buttons though. I had set myself a £20 budget to spend in this shop because I wanted to save the rest of my money for the Country Living Fair, and I thought I did pretty well - £21.70 later and this is what I bought

Not an awful lot to show for £21 I know BUT the trimming is beautiful and the little flowers - there are actually 30 there and I plan to use these in some new pictures I'm designing. The trimming - well, you'll just have to wait and see what I do with that !! I've got an idea in mind, and just need to buy a couple of other bits to go with it. Watch this space :-)

After spending the best part of half an hour in VV Rouleaux, Mum and I jumped on a bus to the Design Centre in Islington and got to the Country Living Fair just before lunchtime.

My heart started beating ten to the dozen as soon as I stepped into the Fair and I was like a child in a sweet shop - all those lovely stands with gorgeous goodies on them shouting out "Buy Me, Buy Me" !! So, off we went and buy we did !!!

First up - these beautiful little personalised angels for all of my NCT friends' daughters. We're having an Easter Egg Hunt at our house over the Easter weekend (of course!) and rather than stuff them full of chocolate (actually, I'm not that mean, they will get some choccies), I thought it might be nice to give them one of these each to take home in their goodie bags. Sadly they didn't have anything suitable for the boys, so any suggestions you might have would be greatly received.

Next (we did actually look at other stalls in between buying all these bits and pieces), this gorgeous mohair wool which I shall use for felting - sadly the light was fading when I took this photo, so it doesn't show the colour of the wool particularly well, but they are the most gorgeous grey blue and grey green

Then, after stopping to chat to numerous stall holders, including Samantha from Plump Pudding, who has been working like a trojan the last few months preparing for the Fair, and I have to say her stand was gorgeous and she's such a lovely lady. I really hope she does well at the Fair, she certainly deserves it. I then came across a stand selling some lovely ribbon, which I just couldn't resist especially as I will be making a couple of Mother's Day cards this week and can use the ribbon on them (sorry about the not particularly bright photo) - there is some lovely pale pink polka dot gosgrain ribbon (on the reel), a lovely brown and cream polka dot ribbon, a cream and grey heart stamped ribbon and a lovely gosgrain ribbon with some little hearts and the words "Special Mum" printed on it

Of course, there were so many stands at the Fair that I couldn't possibly have bought something from every single one (even though I wanted to!) and there are far too many to mention in this post - but I will list a few of my favourites in my next couple of posts, just so that you can see what you were missing if you didn't make it to the Fair.

I also bought a giant lump of handmade vanilla and belgium chocolate fudge ... mmmmmmm LOVELY

Sorry - it's half eaten !!

A lovely Bill Brown bag for my Mum for Mother's Day, some tasty organic sausages, a hot chilli sauce for my hubby, some beautiful hand painted wardrobe knobs for Grace's bedroom (pic to follow next time because they're in my Mum's bag !), a nice new pale blue leather purse for me and these lovely lavender filled hearts for my Mother-in Law (hope she's not reading this otherwise I've spoiled the surprise for Mother's Day !). Unfortunately I couldn't find anything for Sam ... well, that's not true actually, I did see the most amazing recycled rubber tyre horse swing to hang from the tree in our garden, but I needed to check it out with Paul first, so will hopefully be buying it online

My final purchase was something to keep all of my material and bits and bobs in, and I have to say I am extremely pleased with these, not just because they are lovely, but because I can also use them to hold lots of my goodies that I will be selling at the craft fairs

So, I am now absolutely knackered and broke, but was truly inspired by the most amazing craftspeople and their gorgeous items and of course, like I said before, had a really lovely day. Thank you to everyone at the CL Fair xx