exciting button-y times

I have had a delivery of 49,500 buttons on my work table since Saturday.  They are new, and exciting but will be launched at the trade fair so they will have to remain hidden from view for the time being - BUT the delivery also contained new colour samples of teeny tinys, and they are all for you and me:

I only have a handful of each colour so they aren't in the shop yet - but I just ordered LOTS more so they will be in there as soon as possible!
mmmmm teeny tinys in even more lover-ly colours!

trade fair news

preparations for my first ever trade fair are continuing - my to do list is growing daily, and I'm juggling lots of projects all at once .... I just worked out that in 16 days time I will be in Birmingham setting up the stand!! *ah! panic!*

My stand is in the section called Bright Sparks and I am super happy to see my Robin Kit in this mailer I received!...

...right.  16 days - no problem!

Tuesday. A mini roll day.

Sometimes different customers from different online shops order the same things on the same day.

Like today.
Today is officially a mini roll day!

Phew-ee what a lot of rolling!

custom orders

A tortoise keyring (adapted from my brooch design)

 and a set of 6 drawing pins  in custom colours

I like hot pink and lime!

free kit button bags

I have so much fun making these button bags, they are part of the free kit when customers fill their loyalty card....counting out keyrings & brooch bars & polka dot buttons...

...choosing a nice selection of flower, heart, star and shape buttons ....

and my favourite of all, delving into the brights bag and picking one of each lovely bright colour

ending the week with colour

this week's blogs have been a bit dull - sorry about that!

but today, at least, there's been some sewing so I can end the week in a colourful way!

packing

 I spend quite a bit of each day standing at my packing table ... I really enjoy packing my orders up - adding my hand written thank you messages and wrapping the orders in pretty tissue might be time consuming but I couldn't do it any other way!!  So it's important that I keep everything at hand to make sure that the process is as speedy and efficient as possible...

...and running low on packing bags isn't very helpful!  Luckily my delivery has arrived and they are now all lined up waiting to be used

imagination needed

in my head I have designed a sign for the trade show stand and in my head it looks great
this is it in stage one ::

not looking great - but in my head i can see what it will become :-)

Christmas Holiday Sewing

I received an order in December from a company I have been in contact with on and off over the past few months....

 ...they ordered 60 each of 6 different embellishments....

....there were not enough hours in the day for work to begin before Christmas....

...so I started once the shops were shut and finished by the time they had re-opened!  They will be posted tomorrow, but I had to take photos first!

the end of the nasty jobs

earlier in the week I managed to cross all my boring things off my to do list - today I have crossed off all the nasties ::
accounts up to date :: tick
VAT return submitted :: tick
pay all my outstanding  bills :: tick

next on the list?
preparations for my first ever trade show! 

that's right - I am going to be at the NEC in February with a stand full of goodies (stand BS29)- and I'm so excited!
I've done a lot of planning, ordering and making over the past few months & I still have tonnes to do, first things first:  I need a new to-do list - and this one will be full of fun jobs - hooray!
*the photos follow on from yesterdays - it snowed a lot and although I know photos of other people's snow are a bit blah I loved it - look the lower roof nearly disappeared!*

snow excited

 yesterday's delivery also contained some new goodies ...

... they are from a range called Spots & Stripes Pastels by Papermania (DoCrafts) and they are designed to co-ordinate with each other

 Perfect for Spring and all things Pastel - my felt pastel pack is one of my best selling felt ranges, so I thought you'd like these as much as I do!

 I tried to buy loads so I didn't sell out too fast but the supplier didn't have very many, but I've put in a request to be told if they get any more :-)

 There's a box of 32 paper Big Bloomers, a pack of 20 ribbon bows....AND a cute package of 60 teeny tiny pastel polka dot buttons

The perfect antidote to wintry snowy weather!

 this is the 9.30am view from my workshop window today - we don't get a lot of snow here so this is pretty exciting - and it's still snowing!!
Quick Links :
All new pastel goodies can be found here, whilst stocks last

a box of goodies

This week I gave myself a big to-do list full of all the not-very-fun tasks I needed to do and kept putting off.

Once they were all ticked my reward was to open the box the delivery man bought on Tuesday and play with take photos of and re-stock the website with everything that was inside

....and there were many many nice things!

 get new car insurance *tick* I compared the meerkat and saved £140 with the very same insurance company!!

 chase a lost invoice and get paid *tick* 3 phone calls and many many many minutes of waiting on hold and I finally sorted it - it was my fault, I gave 2 different invoices the same number and computers will only pay a unique invoice number once. whooops, lesson learnt there!

 count and tidy all the stock used for kit making *tick* (this is a cheat - John did it, but I did turn it all into a boring-but-very-useful spreadsheet)

 fill in another crap-i-o spreadsheet and order barcodes for John Lewis spring/summer 2013 season*tick* not a bad job, but my computer can't use the template the company wants me to and I have to work computery magic to get it to work and I do not really know how to do it!

 order tonnes of stationery and packaging materials *tick* 3 companies, 3 orders : easy, don't know why I put it off

 stock take buttons, threads, zips, glue etc etc and update the website and place an order *tick*

 phone and pay Royal Mail's overdue bill that I somehow missed over Christmas asap otherwise Mr.Postman will stop collecting *tick*

 read the electric meter and pay the electric bill *tick* oops, must turn the fan heater off more, it's expensive!

 phew-ee I feel good now all those jobs are done!
quick links:
sewing thread here
polka dot buttons here
zips here
glue here
pins here
needles here
scissors here
new ribbons here
heart buttons here
ric rac (with a new blue colour) here

counting & bagging

the stocks of my specially dyed buttons have been running low for a while so for a few hours over the weekend and again today I have been counting and bagging and sorting them all out - I've started popping them on the website again and should have it all finished tomorrow - I'll be sure to let you know!

inspired

 Two new bolts of fabric arrived at the workshop just before Christmas -  I opened the box & promptly put them to one side and thought 'gorgeous.  but why the flip did I order these for delivery now, didn't I know I was stupidly busy at Christmas?'

 but now the new year is whizzing along nicely I am glad I did!  I've just photographed them and put them on the website and then inspiration struck.... and now, just a few hours later ,I have a VALENTINE'S category on the website instead of a Christmas one!

It's full of pink and red and hearts galore - and if Valentines sewing isn't your thing then take a look at the new flowers fabric.  That is ace too!
Quick Links:
Valentine's category : click here
Hearts Fabric : click here
Flowers Fabric : click here

packs of felt

 John has been very busy cutting ....

 ...and stacking....

...and packaging a lot of felt!
Doesn't it look lovely?
Me? I've been busy too but I'll show you that tomorrow ;-)