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
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