Blooming Felt - News from Shedquarters

Welcome to the Farmyard !

This little piggy went to market ... but got lost along the way.

He somehow managed to find himself in a little box in Blooming Felt's Shedquarters and is now looking for a new home !

Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken ... lay a little egg for me !

This pair have also found their way into our Shedquarters and they too are looking for new homes !!

Come see our little farmyard animals - available to buy in our Craft Kits section (NB. You'll be buying the kit ... not the finished articles - it's up to you to make them all your own !!)

Postage increases - BOO, HISS !!

Yes folks - it has happened. Royal Mail have, as promised, increased their postage costs which does of course, unfortunately mean that online retailers such as me have to also increase our postage costs because if you don't, you lose money (not that I make any money on postage at all), but if you do ... you risk losing customers.

So, after a lot of umming and ahhing I had to take the decision to increase our postage costs in line with Royal Mail's increases.

There is good news though ! We now have a 2-tier band of postage costs. If your order value is up to £9.99, then you'll still get our low FIRST CLASS postage rate of £2.25. If your order value comes in between £10 and £49.99, then you'll pay a flat rate of £3.50 for First Class delivery. And if your order value is £50 and over, you'll get FREE delivery ! And of course, EVERYONE is eligible to get Loyalty Points on all orders placed with us (you just need to make sure you've set up a little account thingy with us).

So maybe it's not so bad after all ?

Right - that's the boring stuff out of the way ! Today at Shedquarters (on top of despatching all of your lovely goodies), we've been thinking about that word that begins with C.

I know, I know, I can hear you shouting now. But really ... in the crafty world of buttons, ribbons and all things felty, you really do have to start thinking about these things now !! The other reason we've been thinking about this particular event is because once again, we'll be exhibiting at the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London in October and all of those lovely customers LOVE to see our ideas and stuff to make for Christmas !! (more about Ally Pally in another blog post though)

We think we've pretty much got our ideas sorted out - now we just need to make up some samples and check they're going to actually work, before placing orders with our suppliers for all of the components needed to put into the kits !

Oooh - one other thing I wanted to tell you about ..... Alongside our Facebook and Twitter pages, we have also signed up to "Pinterest".

If you're unaware of this particular website, it's a sort of giant pinboard where you can "pin" photos of all of your favourite stuff ! It's really good !! Why not pop along to our page and see what's inspiring us right now ? www.pinterest.com/bloomingfelt . You can also "pin" any of our products to your own boards direct from our website - just click on the "pin it" button beneath the product descriptions ! This is a great little tool if you want to share your own likes, inspirations, remind yourself of where you've seen stuff. Go and try out it ... but be warned, it's a bit addictive !!

What news ??

Well hello there lovely people !

I'm so sorry the blog posts have been a bit sparse lately. The Easter holidays meant it was time for my own family holiday to the USA for 3 whole weeks !! We were lucky bunnies and were able to spend the whole of the school holidays with my parents in Florida. Taking the chance to completely relax and not having to keep a constant check on the website, emails etc was a real treat.

Fortunately for me, I have 2 wonderful ladies that work with me and who were able to hold the fort whilst I was away so I knew that Blooming Felt was in safe hands, and I didn't have to worry about a thing.

But now, of course, it's back to normal. Wading through the pile of paperwork along with a VAT return once I got back was no mean feat. And of course, finding that we were low on quite a few of our lovely goodies meant lots of stock re-ordering. Fortunately, most of the out of stock items have now been re-ordered and should be back very soon. So if you're waiting for any of the Woolpets kits keep an eye on our blog / Facebook page / Twitter feed and you'll be one of the first to know when they're back. We'll also be introducing 2 new kits to our little Woolpets menagere !

So, what other news?

Well, whilst I was away, LOTS of new goodies arrived at Shedquarters. Here's a little taster of what we've added to the site over the last week or so ....

They're all now loaded onto the site (see them in the "Just Arrived" section) and are ready to go to new homes.

Sadly, Royal Mail have decided to hike their prices by a considerable amount. Because of this we will, unfortunately, be having to increase our own prices slightly and will let you know the new prices shortly. In the meantime, take advantage of our current low 1ST CLASS postage cost (a number of companies will try to tempt you to them by offering a lower postage rate, but you'll find that it's a 2nd class postage service which can take up to 4 days to get to you, and of course, we all want to receive our goodies asap don't we, so don't bother with offers like that !). Don't forget that if you register with our website, you'll also be eligible to receive Loyalty Points on your purchases with us. These loyalty points can then be used against future orders with us - it's just our little way of saying "thank you for shopping with us".

Other exciting news is that we have, this month, been featured in both Let's Make Cards magazine - we were the Guest Expert for all things FELT related and there is also a fabulous 2 page feature in Simply Homemade magazine showcasing a number of our felt products. We are very pleased to be partnering with Simply Homemade and you'll be seeing quite a few of our products within their pages over the coming months.

So - where have you been featured ? Do please let us know - we'd love to hear about it

xxx

A little bit of Pomp & Ceremony !

If there's one thing we Brits know how to do, it's how to put on a show. And as the eyes of the World will be on us this Summer we need to show them why we're called GREAT Britain !!

From our iconic Guards in their bearskins that can been seen guarding Buckingham Palace

to black cabs, red London buses, our fantastic Union Jack flag

all of these things make us feel proud to be British

and the thousands of visitors to London this summer for both the Jubilee and the Olympics will be wanting to see these icons in all their glory !

Are you ready to celebrate ??

We are !!

Check out our fantastic new Jubilee & Olympics section on the website. It's stuffed FULL with all the supplies you could want to make celebrating this year absolutely fantastic. From red, white & blue goody bags, to Union Jack Ribbons and pompom trim - we've got the lot !

We've also placed all of our usual red, white & blue supplies into this section as well so if you're looking for a red purse to decorate with a blue flower complete with navy & white spotty button in the centre ... you'll find everything you need in one place !

Get crafting now so that you're ahead of the crowds and have your flags, bunting, corsages etc. all ready and waiting for the big events this summer !!

Great Britain needs

YOU

Check ... them ... out !!!

More new goodies ..............

Buttons Galore

Tins of pins !!!

New colourway of Merino Wool - ANIMAL !!!!

and ... perfect for Easter ... a fab new needle felting Easter Bunnies Kit !

If you have trouble with the links not working by clicking on the pictures - you can find all of our new products here

See you soon 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