Buttons !

Life is slowly getting back to normal after last weekend's show (although the washing pile doesn't seem to be going down !) The website has been manically busy, as has my etsy shop, so I'm slowing trying to catch up on orders - if you've ordered from me within the last few days and have yet to receive your order - I do apologise, it will be on its way to you very soon. It's just little old me here trying to keep on top of everything Blooming Felt wise (oh, and organising my little madam's 3rd birthday which was yesterday - Happy Birthday Gracie !)

I've also opened a shop on Folksy, which is currently being loaded up with lots of goodies and am trying to get stock organised for Christmas Fairs that I'm booked to attend. I've got lots of ideas in mind, but finding time to actually make new items is proving just a little bit hard at the moment. I could do with an extra couple of hours in the day really !

So, as promised in previous posts, today I'm posting lots of pictures of buttons ! Yes, I've become obsessed with buttons.

All of these little lovelies are now for sale here and are slowing being added to my etsy shop.

I hate to see them go, because I just love looking at them but hey, I can always order some more !! These were all really popular at the show last week, so I'm sure you'll love them as much as me.

Also, felt flowers ! These are sooooo cute. Use them as brooches, make them into ponytail holders, use them as gift wrapping on pressies etc etc. A set of 6 costs just £3.50, so go on ... treat yourself !

Next time I'll show you some piccies of lots of other lovely things that I showcased last weekend and that will be for sale on the website shortly.

Wednesday is Sam's 6th birthday (where did those 6 years go ?!) so I won't be posting until after then.

Byeeee xx

From this .....

to this .....

to this !!!!!

I can't believe I actually managed to do it !! In less than 4 weeks I managed to go from thinking about possibly exhibiting at the January Stitch & Creative Crafts show, to actually exhibiting at the September one ! And I have to say I am VERY proud at what I managed ! I met SO many lovely lovely people who were all really complimentary about my little stand and spent a good few of their pennies on some of my goodies. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE who took the time to stop by, admire, chat, and spend !! I loved every second of it.

I want to give a quick little wave to the following people who were so kind to me over the course of the 4 days that I spent at the show:

First of all - Pat & Tony Sims who owned the B&B I stayed at (a lovely little 200 year old cottage) - thank you for making me feel so welcome and at home !


Inga of Linen Me who had the most gorgeous stand next to me. Do check out her website, she has the most beautiful linen.

Jackie & Kim of Make the Moment Last, a lovely scrapbooking stand. Again, check out their website.

Sheila Jones who I know is a reader of this blog and took the time to come along and say hi on Saturday (as well as buying some goodies). Thank you also Sheila for mentioning me on your blog - I'll let you know about my next needle felting workshop !

Sally Furniss who popped by on Sunday and was so kind about my stand and who also took the time to email me on Sunday after the show - yes, I will also let you know about my next needle felting workshop.

Sandra of Gotta Craft who was one of my first customers on the Friday and very kindly left a comment on my previous blog post (make sure you get that blog going soon !!)

My very dear friend Amanda and her 2 little monkees who made the long journey round from Essex to come along and support me

My lovely Mum & Dad who came over late on Saturday afternoon to take me out for dinner and cheer me up a bit (I'd had a bit of a bad day)

My lovely lovely hubby and darling children who were always on the end of the phone supporting me


And last, but by no means least, Wendie Rhodes of Wild-Rhodes who is one of the kindest people that you will ever meet. Wendie was the lady who talked me into doing this particular show and gave me no end of wonderful advice and support both before and during the show. Thank you so much Wendie - I couldn't have done it without you !

So, to all of those above - thank you very very much. And to everyone else who I didn't manage to spend much time chatting to, but who took the time to come over and ooh and ahhh over my goodies and then spend some of their hard-earned pennies - THANK YOU !!


Do keep in touch everyone - I'd love to see pics of your various projects using the bits and bobs you bought from me !


Next time I'll give you a few more details of the actual show, but for now it's time for bed -I'm cream-crackered !

Sarah xxx

Winners ....

Could paper-and-string, picciolio and The Flour Loft please contact me and let me have your address details so I can send you your free tickets to the Stitch & Creative Crafts Show next week. I'd hate for you to miss out !! Thanks

I'm sure you can gather, this is a really really quick post. I'm drowning in a sea of felt balls and buttons and am in the final (I hope) stages of getting everything ready for next week. Finally everything was delivered and is now being bagged and tagged.

I'll try and post before the show with a picture of the amount of stuff I'm taking with me !! There's a LOT !!

Sarah x

And the Winners are ....

Well, it was pretty easy actually ! Seeing as I only had 7 comments left on the blog, 2 of which were from people too far away to attend so are happy to not be included in the draw and 2 comments from the same person (sorry Ginny - that doesn't mean you get entered twice !!), that leaves 4 comments and as I've got 4 tickets up for grabs - ALL OF YOU WIN !!!!

So, paper-and-string, Picciolo, The Flour Loft and Peggycrafts - well done !! Bribary in the form of cakes wasn't needed in the end paper-and-string and Picciolo - but I shall still be expecting you to bring me cake - preferably chocolate !!

If you could all email me with your addresses, I'll send your tickets out to you and look forward to seeing you all at some point over the course of the show !

So, back to the show. Remember I said I was drowning in a sea of lists? Well, I'm now well and truly swamped ! Lists get scribbled on so that I then have to make other lists, things get chopped and changed around, I decide that I need to take more stock so need to order from different suppliers, I need to keep running totals of everything that has been spent to date (not good, as my my budgeting skills are zero !). And that's on top of all of my to-do lists

Moo Cards - check
Plastic racking - check
Glass Jars - check
Hanging Rails - check
Wire baskets - check
Perspex stands - outstanding
Label tops - check
Paper bags - outstanding
Leaflets - outstanding
Price lists - outstanding
Grip seal bags - check

and on, and on and on.

But, at least I have now ordered all of the stock that I need and it's starting to be delivered. First up was 18,000 felt balls - yes, you read right - 18,000 felt balls !!

This week will hopefully see the arrival of buttons, buttons and more buttons. I have to say that I have developed a button fetish since seeing the catalogue of the supplier that I'm using (paper-and-string I'm sure you can sympathise with me !)

I'm also hoping that lots of lovely ribbons will arrive, as well as more needle felting kits, more buttons, books, more buttons, wool roving, and more buttons !

I also had a major saving in the display department ! The containers I had decided to buy to display the felt balls were going to cost me around £10 each (by the time I'd included VAT and delivery). So, I could only afford 10 containers - not particularly helpful when I've got 40 different colours of felt balls ! So, after spending hour upon hour trying to source either a different supplier or a different container I had a bit of a brainwave.

A small town near to us has one of those old-fashioned sweet shops where everything is sold by weight out of jars. So, the following day I took my little man with me (yep - he's STILL on school holidays) to visit the shop and asked the lady if she could possibly tell me where they got their jars from. Unfortunately she couldn't answer that question as they came from the sweet supplier, already filled with sweets. BUT, she said that they sold the empty jars. "How much"? I asked. "5p" she replied. "5p" !? I replied with a look of absolute amazement on my face. "Yes" she said - "is that too expensive"?? I nearly fell over laughing ! Once I'd digested exactly what she'd said, I could have kissed her !!! 5p each !! That means I can have the 40 that I needed and still have money left over to buy - hmmmmm - maybe some more buttons !! YAY - I was one happy lady. So, the lovely lady at the sweetie shop is very kindly saving up all her empties for me to collect next week. RESULT !

OK - that's enough rambling from me. Hopefully next post I'll have some photos to show you ... of buttons !!

Sarah xx

What have I done ??!!!!

This week has been a very strange but exciting week in my little Blooming Felt world.

Firstly orders started flooding in .... and about time too ! The last couple of months have been very quiet and I was starting to panic slightly. However, I think people are now getting back from their hols and are keen to start crafting again.

I then received an email from the deputy editor at ScrapBook inspirations magazine asking if I could send her samples of some of my fabric covered buttons as they were doing a feature about children's layouts in the November edition and my froggie and car buttons would look great in the feature ! Hooray - press coverage.

The next thing that happened was this. One of the orders that I received was from a lady called Wendie Rhodes. Now, if you aren't aware, Wendie is a TV presenter and demonstrator on the Create & Craft TV channel here in the UK. She purchased a couple of my Felt Ball Grab Bags. So, being the inquisitive (read nosy!) sort of person that I am, I checked out Wendie's website and found that she was running a number of workshops on "Embellishing with Felt" at the upcoming Stitch and Creative Crafts shows being held around the UK over the next couple of months. So, not being one to miss an opportunity I emailed Wendie to let her know that her felt balls were on their way to her and enquired about the show she was doing in Surrey next month.

Over the last month or so I have been seriously considering attending one of these sorts of events as an exhibitor and was planning on trying the Surrey event in January. So, I asked Wendie if I could pick her brains about the events etc and she said that I would be far better off trying to get a late booking at the Surrey event next month (arghhhhh - NEXT MONTH !) as September is generally far busier than the January event. AND, as she would be using my felt balls to demonstrate with, I would have a ready made customer base of people wanting to try out the projects she was demonstrating.

So, the upshot of all this is that I'm now an exhibitor (albeit a very little one) at the Stitch & Creative Crafts Show at Sandown Racecourse in Surrey from 19th to 21st September 2008. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can somebody PLEASE tell me I'm doing the right thing ?! I'm starting to panic that I'm trying to run before I can walk and that all these big professional exhibitors will be there and I'll be trying my best to compete with them for business (although I've been reliably informed that there is no-one else selling similar stuff to mine). I've got the smallest stand size available, although it's in a pretty good spot - directly opposite the demonstration area where Wendie will be showing off my felt balls !

I'm currently drowning in lists, lists and more lists and panicking at the cost of everything. There's me thinking of a ball park figure that I could do it all for, and I'm already at double that. Me thinks I'll have to cut back somewhere along the line and not take as many product lines as I was planning.

BUT .... I've got 4 freebie tickets to this event up for grabs !! They're good for any of the 3 days and are worth £7.50 each. All I ask is that if you are lucky enough to get one of these tickets, you pop by to say hello and perhaps collect me a nice cuppa and a sarnie (if it's near lunchtime) from the restaurant bit and perhaps man my stand for me whilst I take a quick loo break. I won't be long, I promise (the loos are quite close to my stand !) Even if you don't win a ticket, but do decide to visit, it would be lovely to see you.

So, if you would like to be in with a chance of winning a freebie ticket all you need to do is leave a comment on this post and on Sunday 31st August I'll put all the comments into a random number generator and draw the winners.

Good luck !!

Sarah x

PS. My embellisher is still up for sale (see previous post). If anyone is interested in purchasing this, I would be truly grateful as the proceeds will go towards lots of lovely new stock for my event next month !!!! You don't want me to be standing there with an empty stall now .... do you ??

FOR SALE

My Janome Xpression Embellisher machine :o(


Used only twice so in immaculate "as new" condition, in its original box. Offered to a good home for £150 INCLUDING POSTAGE to the UK only. RRP on this machine is £250, so this is a real bargain !!

This is what the Janome website has to say about the machine:

No threads ... No bobbins … No limits

Xpress yourself!

Bring out the artist in you, select from your palette of fabrics and threads and blend together to create unique textures and surfaces

It’s easy, by simply moving the fabrics freely under the needles you can quickly and easily create beautiful surface embellishments…. watch your own design develop….. anyone can do it!

The Janome Xpression will help you create fabrics which can then be sewn into a finished garment, furnishing or be simply used as a work of art. It has five barbed needles which mesh the fibres to secure two or more pieces of fabric together. Every design you create will be unique .. experiment with colours, fabrics, yarns and a whole host of other creative materials.. a fantastic use of all those scraps of fabric and threads you never want to throw away!

A built in needle guard is provided for safety and there is easy access to the lint collection area under the needle plate. It even has a free-arm facility. The accessory kit includes a spare 5 -needle unit, a single needle unit ( plus spare needles ) for finer work and a single hole needle plate for heavier fabrics


If you'd like to give this fantastic machine a new home, please contact me.

Sarah x

SALE NOW ON !

Yes, as promised, my SALE is now ON !!

Lots of the items are single pieces and won't be restocked so if you see something you fancy you'd better be quick because when they're gone.... they're GONE !

And whilst I was rummaging around sorting out sale items, I decided to have a bit of a destash of my own craft cupboard (well, plastic drawers really !) Lots of these items were purchased on my various trips to the US, so aren't as readily available here in the UK as they are over there. This is just a small selection of what's available at the moment.

Rather than sell these items on my own site, I decided to put them into my Etsy shop and they're selling fast ! I'm putting 3 or 4 items a day into my Etsy shop, so that I can hopefully raise my profile a bit more (as mentioned in my previous post).

As well as doing all of this, I've been looking into new suppliers as I'm hoping to expand the range on my own website very soon. Having said that, I can't believe that some companies are soooo inflexible ! I called one particular supplier this morning (they're actually the UK distributor for the US company) and said I was interested in opening a wholesale account with them. They said that they would need to get one of their regional reps to come and visit me to show me the product range and that their minimum order value is £1000 !! I explained to the girl that I didn't need to see the rep as I was an online retailer and not a B&M shop and I already knew exactly what it was that I wanted to order. I then went on to explain that I couldn't possibly place an order for £1000 to which she replied "well, when the Rep comes to see you we'll see what we can do". Errr - I don't think so !!

So I then decided to call the head office in the US and explained the situation to them and told them about what their UK distributor had said. The girl was really helpful and went away to speak to the CEO. After a short while she came back and said that she'd spoken with the CEO and he couldn't believe the conversation I'd had with the UK distributor. Apparently the UK company has just been taken over and their customer service "obviously isn't quite as it should be". The US were going to call the UK and explain the conversation I'd had with them and get them to call me direct with some new terms & conditions !

Now, why can't we be more like the US? To them, customer service is everything (as it is to me). I wouldn't dream of trying to fob someone off that had taken the time to call me and show an interest in my products. I'll let you know the outcome soon !

Oh, and my funky button drawing pins were featured on Cuteable yesterday. Thanks Cuteable !!

Sarah x