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

Lazy Days and Giveaways !!

What a lovely day I've had !!

This morning was spent sitting in the hairdressers being pampered, followed by a little bit of retail therapy (well, buying Sam new school shorts & trousers from M&S in their "Back to School" promotion - I wouldn't mind, but he hasn't even broken up for the holidays yet !!).

This afternoon I sat here

and watched this

whilst doing this !!

Ahhhhh - bliss :o)

Now, back to business - Monday sees me teaching my first needle felting workshop. I've had a last minute flurry of people registering so am now panicking that the room I've hired isn't actually going to be big enough. But never mind, at least we'll all get to know one another !

To celebrate the fact that people do actually want to learn how to needle felt (and to also show off my new line in fabric coveredness (??) ), I've decided to have a little freebie giveaway.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post sometime this week and all of the comments will be put into a random number generator next Sunday and a winner will be picked.

And the prize ??

A pair of fabric covered strawberry button earrings. These earrings have been made by me (of course) and measure 24mm in diameter. The posts and butterflies are silver-plated and have been attached with a very strong glue, so there's no danger of you using losing these lovelies !!

Apologies for the fuzzy photos - that's what you get when you buy a £200 camera !! Buy cheap I say - they're so much better !!

And now I must go and prepare for Monday's workshop and pack up the rather large number of orders that have appeared through my website today.

I won't be posting on this blog again until next Sunday because I've got a very busy weekend next week - 2 fairs - so the pressure is on to produce lots more pairs of earrings !!

Enjoy your week and I'll look forward to seeing your comments.

Sarah x

They came !!!!

YES !!!!!! Finally, my new needle felting kits came. I am soooooooooo excited about these kits. They are absolutely fantastic and even better in real life than I was expecting. And even more exciting is the fact that I am the only UK stockist of these kits !!

They're all priced at either £9 or £10 - actually, I think it's just the Hummingbird kit that is £10. You get everything you need in the cute little box, including full colour photographic instructions. The only thing you don't get is a felting sponge, but you can quite easily pop one of these in your shopping cart at the same time when you're purchasing your kit ! Each kit is graded easy or intermediate, but with the fantastic instructions, you won't have any trouble creating the animals whether you've needle felted before or not.

Also, my other fabric arrived and this is fantastic too !!

So far I've made up just a few buttons, all of which are available for sale on the website.

I am manically removing the shanks off some of the blank buttons so that I can make up some other lovelies for you - make sure you check back next time for a chance to win one of my new creations !

Christmas is coming !!

Oh yes it is !! I've booked my first Christmas Craft Fair. I can't believe that you have to book them in June, but apparently I'm one of the last to get a table at this particular fair on the 1st November - everyone else booked at the actual event last year !!!

So, I've had to turn my thoughts to Christmas stock. I've got a few ideas in my head and need to scribble them down on paper because otherwise I'm bound to forget them.

But back to summery things !

Friday was Sam's first ever school sports day and what an event that was. I have NEVER been to a sports day like it ! We rocked up at 12.oo, in time for the sandwich lunch at 12.20 which the school was laying on for both parents and children, only to find that the rest of the parents had beaten us to it and had apparently been setting up their gazebos, tables and chairs at 8.30 (yes, you read right, 8.30 in the morning!) So consequently we ended up at the start line, rather than the finish. But never mind, we got out our picnic rug and little picnic that I'd packed in case Gracie turned her nose up at the one the school had laid on. How embarrassing - our lunch consisted of spanish omlette (which I'd made, I hasten to add), crusty rolls and pate, and some fresh fruit. When I looked around me, the majority of the other parents had got proper tables and chairs (with tablecloths !) and were sitting there eating platters of M&S party food, fresh strawberries and cream, and drinking bottles of champagne !!! OMG !!! It's another world ! But next year we shall know and I will be there the night before laying out my towel on the sun-lounger !!

Sam did soooooooooo well, he was in 5 races, the egg & spoon, the sack race, sprint, put the teddy to bed and came 3rd, 3rd, 3rd and 1st and then unfortunately his team came last in the relay race. But he did manage to make up a whole leg, before passing the baton over, so we were really really proud of him. He had a whale of a time and it was one of the nicest afternoons I've had in a long time. The older children were fantastic, helping the littlies with their sacks etc and high-fiving them before cheering madly as the whistle went and a bunch of 5 year olds made their way down the track.

During the awards ceremony Gracie decided that she didn't want to wear her trousers anymore and to my horror pulled them down, along with her knickers, and showed off her little bottom to the crowd of parents standing behind her !! I'm sure she's not really my daughter and they gave me the wrong child in the hospital !

Yesterday was spent cutting the grass, spying these beautiful water lillies in the pond, and admiring the roses along our front fence.

And to prove that I have actually been a little bit crafty this week, I made up some more fabric covered buttons - I'm still hooked !!

Ooooh - while I think of it - the blank cover buttons are now available for sale on my website. They can be bought individually, in sets of 5 and sets of 10. At the moment, I have 2 sizes available, but next weekend, the half inch buttons are arriving, so they'll be available for sale then, along with the fantastic new needle felting kits. They're worth waiting for ... I promise !!!

Byeee x

When will it stop ....

RAINING !!!!! I'm sick & tired of this horrible wet weather.

And it all started off so well. The sun was shining this morning and it was lovely and warm. I managed to hang a whole load of washing out on the line before we headed out to the Suffolk Show. With it being half-term, Paul took today off work so that we could have a nice family outing.

Now it takes, on average, 40 minutes from our house to the A14 junction of the A12. After 90 minutes we finally reached that junction due to a horrendous traffic jam, only to find that the junction with the A14 was CLOSED because a stoooopid lorry had overturned on the roundabout.

So we had to turn around and come back !!! And when you've got 2 small children, one of whom is potty training at the moment, sitting in the back of the car constantly asking "are we nearly there yet", it's all you can do to stop yourself from screaming very loudly.

The sun had disappeared, but it was still reasonably warm, although overcast. After a quick wee stop (on the potty in the boot (that was Grace, not me!)) we came all the way back home and went to the local country park / farm, which was heaving with people. We managed to stay there for 2 hours (including lunch) before the heavens opened. And it hasn't stopped since. My washing, which was probably dry went we went sailing past our house on the way to the farm, is still hanging on the line, wetter than when I got it out of the washing machine this morning. The carpet in the porch is absolutely soaking because the rain is coming in under the door and has resulted in the carpet actually bubbling up and is now stopping the door from opening properly. And I'm hoping that the ceiling in the bay doesn't start leaking again, even though we replaced the flat roof, there's still a leak ! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

OK - moan and rant over - sorry.

Yesterday I covered the remainder of the buttons that I received earlier in the week and am now waiting to mug Mr Postie every day, in the hope that he's bringing me the other supplies I ordered. As soon as they get here, I'll be putting them on the website.

These spotty buttons are covered in some of the fabric from one of the dresses that I purchased at the boot fair last weekend - they look better in real life !!

In the meantime, I've listed a couple of sets of buttons on etsy, so if anyone fancies buying any and cheering me up - feel free !!!

Sarah x

I'm hooked !

Lovely Mr Postman bought me my replacement etsy parcel this morning and look what was in it

So, because it's half term I haven't had a chance to play with the cover buttons during the day and wished desperately that they could have arrived on Saturday so that I could sit all yesterday afternoon covering buttons whilst watching the rain !

But worry not, after giving the children their tea this evening I sat and cut out lots of little circles of fabric and after fiddling about a bit with the tool that came with the buttons (and a couple of botched attempts), managed to produce these ! (apologies for the poor photos, but the light was fading fast and I was desperate to get some pics to show you)

So now I'm well and truly hooked. I could sit making these lovelies all day if given half the chance. And now I can't decide whether to put the 400 blanks that are on their way to me, up for sale on my website, or just be reeeeeeeeally selfish and keep them all to myself for me to cover !! Not really - I'll still be putting them in my shop because I want all of you to get hooked too !!

I'm off to watch The Apprentice and oooooh, let me see, cover some more buttons !!

Sarah x

And the winner is ...

Cooper's Nanny !! Although she didn't leave a comment on my blog (I don't think she could work out how to do it !!), she did leave one on my website, so I included her in the draw anyway !! So, CONGRATULATIONS !! Can you email me your address and I'll get a keyring out to you asap.

ASAP means "when my new felting needles arrive" !! Last night I managed to snap my fine felting needle in 2 :0( and didn't have a spare ... so my needle felting has had to go on hold for a few days. But I will get the keyring out to you asap Cooper's Nanny !

Actually, after having such a good week last week, it rapidly went downhill. First, I picked up my new sewing machine - I was SO excited !! The lady showed me how it all worked, but we couldn't work out how to wind the thread onto the bobbin, so I thought, not too bad, I'm sure the instruction manual will tell me. WRONG !! Mum looked at the machine as well because she also has a Singer machine, and it would appear that the the bobbin winder bit is broken :0( So now I have to drag the machine into town, leave it at the shop for goodness knows how long and lose all my enthusiasm. But it's a cute little machine anyway (and it's pink .. my fav colour !!)

Then last night I broke my felting needle and then at lunchtime today, I noticed that the wall under the window where the french doors are was soaking wet and the wallpaper was peeling off !!!! I can't believe it - we looked outside to see where the rain was coming in, but there was nothing immediately obvious. We can only think that there is a gap somewhere around the window frame and the rain came in through there. What a pain !! We were going to get the windows replaced soon - but only the front as we can't afford to get the whole lot done in one go, but maybe we'll have to get the back ones done instead now. I knew we should have bought a brand new house ... a 250 year old house is going to get problems, let's just hope it is the window and nothing more serious.
At least with my felting needle broken I managed to get the fliers / leaflets for the craft fair done. I'm really pleased with them actually and will have a stack on them on the table and also put one in every bag (presuming I do actually sell some stuff !)

I managed to get the crocheted beads onto the bottom of the baby mobile today and also bound the embroidery hoop (which the flowers will hang from) in some lovely ribbon I bought whilst on holiday. So all I need to do now is attach the actual hangy flower bits to the hoop and it'll be all done (thank goodness !) I'll post a picture soon.

Tonight I shall be making felt corsages from the recycled felted jumpers I got when I was on holiday - again, I'll post some pics soon.

I'm also thinking of doing some fabric covered buttons (I've seen some really great retro fabrics that would look great on buttons), but I don't know whether these would sell - I'd really appreciate your comments on this particular point.

That's it for now ... it's the children's bathtime, so I'm off !!

Don't forget - I need your thoughts on fabric covered buttons !!

xx