all finished!...

 yippee!! the new website layout is finished!!...hopefully it's all a lot more user friendly and a lot easier to see the huge range of felt & crafty things that we sell ... and hopefully it'll be a lot easier for me to add tonnes of new things too :-)
check it out by clicking HERE

yay! it's Friday!

it's always nice to finish the week with some actual sewing :-)
30 flowers & 30 cupcakes have been sent to my regular customers for use on their range of children's blinds

visitors

 

 yesterday John climbed on the roof (very carefully!) to take a look at a really rather ginormous moth that was on the window

John loves Moths (and Spiders...all things insecty really) me? I think they are pretty especially when they are  outside the window ;-)

and the BIG moth (we now know - thanks to Springwatch's forum) is a Poplar Moth.

 today's visitors were of the human form (hi Julie *wave*) - and ones that bought monkey biscuits and chocolate cakes!  yUmmMMmmY which seemed a pretty good deal to me - good company and cake swapped for a barn tour and a box full of felty remnants for a dementia craft group :-)

nearly nearly finshed

I'm more than half way throught the website re-jig ...only two sections left to go now! Yesterday and today I've been super busy picking and packing parcels so haven't had a chance to look at it, let alone fiddle with it be a technical guru and get it finished!  I'm just hoping the HUGE piles of orders mean you like it?

my half re-jigged website is here :: click

making progress

the website redesign is going well so far!
Yesterday I finished the Fabric section and the Button section - today I tackled the ribbons

 All the ribbon products are now in the correct place and should be much easier to find (and much easier for me to add loads of new ones soon!) - once I've done the 'mechanics' of the whole website I plan to go back and update all the product listings too!  phew-ee this website building is hard work!
quick link :: click here for the website - but remember it is a work in progress ;-)

one technical experiment : one special offer

I have wanted to redesign my website layout for a while, but I have been stumped by my own lack of know-how - which is very frustrating indeed.

here's the problem -  at the moment my menu looks like the one above...and when you hover over each category a sub-divided menu appears...like this one ::

This does work perfectly well BUT it isn't very pretty - and I want to change it....and now I  *think * I have sussed out how to do it so when you click the menu at the top...*ahem* can you spot which one to press?

 ...you get taken to a page of lovely photo menu of all the sub-categories instead of that yucky grey wordy menu

 and here's where you lot come in .... on my website I have removed the old FABRIC category and have put up a new shiny PRETTY fabric category (called FABRIC PAGE TEST, it's in a weird place and I can't move it).....please can you all go and look and tell me if there's anything wrong with it?  I think it works great and I love how it looks, and if you agree it means I will be changing the entire website, and that is a BIG job, so I'd like your feedback first please :-)
As a BIG thank you (cos I'm nice like that) I have reduced all of the fabric from £3.25 a fat quarter to just £2.50 (apart from the flannel fabric) even all the new ones I listed today!!  I'm thinking you'll like the new Halloween one ::

thanks! and fingers crossed I've done magical web development stuff with out *quite* knowing how I have done it!!

thread rainbows

 it's all about rainbows around here ~ yesterday it was a rainbow of pom pom trims and today it's rainbows of embroidery threads in the making!

 there are 36 different coloured threads in each rainbow pack ~ £6 per pack
click here to see them on the website

pom pom rainbows

 

restocking the shelves sounds like a boring job doesn't it?....well it does until you know pom pom trim is involved - then it's a shelf stacking kind of heaven!

 teeny tiny pom pom trim from the card and from the spool is available by the metre - I have two suppliers because it's hard to get and keep stock levels up...it's rare to see so much of both kinds it in one place at the same time!

a happy worker

weekend sewing.  thank goodness because my other weekend jobs were not photo worthy at all :: accounts, insurance document reading & paying invoices.... Y*A*W*N  ;-)

time is running out....

it's the last day of our Mini Rolls special offer

 for those that have missed it so far here are the details:  to celebrate 3000 facebook likers we are having a Mini Roll extravaganza - on the website (and only the website) the mini rolls are on special offer - reduced from £3 to only £2.50...there are 30 of each colour on offer (30x black, 30x charcoal, 30x grey...you get the idea) - that's a grand total of 1350 mini rolls!!  the offer runs until the end of Sunday 18th May or until they have all been sold, whichever comes first!
they are on the website here

be quick - they'll be back to the normal price tomorrow :-)

rolling rolling rolling :-)

the mini roll special offer is going down very well! 

just look how many John & I cut rolled and posted out today!!

it was hard work but well worth it - the barn looked lovely filled with buckets of colour sitting in the sunshine :-)

 all 45 colours are still available at the special price (please see previous post for all the details) but you'll need to be quick to snap up White, Blush & Pale Pink ~ they are selling FAST!!!

3000 facebook likers = a fantabulous special offer for yooooou

 over the weekend our facebook page had it's 3000th liker!  YIPPEE ...but what to do to celebrate?!?

 John and I took a good look round this felt filled barn of ours and looked past the glittery, printed fancy stuff and homed in on our amazing felt.  Premium Wool Felt - 40% Wool - that extra 10% makes a tonne of difference!  Those of you (of which there are many!) who already use it know just how fab it is ....

 ....and you know that we were the first to bring you 45 glorious colours in Mini Roll form (and mini rolls are the best thing ever, so easy to unroll and chop a bit off, and so beautiful to look at too!)

so what better way to celebrate 3000 facebook likers than to offer a whole Mini Roll extravaganza? - on the website (and only the website) the mini rolls are on special offer - reduced from £3 to only £2.50...there are 30 of each colour on offer (30x black, 30x charcoal, 30x grey...you get the idea) - that's a grand total of 1350 mini rolls!!  the offer runs until the end of Sunday 18th May or until they have all been sold, whichever comes first!
they are on the website here
ps once the 30 special price of each colour have been sold I will relist them at the normal price so don't get confused if some are £2.50 and some are £3

the swatches have landed!

 the *new* heathered felt range is now complete - with it's very own swatch set

 the swatch set comes on 6 cards and they do fit inside the Premium Wool Felt swatch box so you can keep all your felt-y swatches together

click here to see them on the website :-)

new swatches (nearly)

 the swatch cards are designed & printed - I've just got the felt cutting and sticking to do! 
I would have been finished yesterday but John and I went on a Jolly instead - we each took one of John's classic cars and drove to Crewkerne (about 30 minutes away) to join in the fun at Swedish Day - a car show dedicated to all things Swedish!  It was ace :-)

 The photo was taken on the lane to the barn by John in his Saab (she's called Veronica) , looking at me in the Volvo (he's called Olaf)

30 *new* felt colours

*new* felt has landed at the barn! 
it's Heathered Felt - and each and every *new* colour is officially AWESOME!

the Heathered effect happens in the making process which means each and every piece is slightly different and it has a more natural feel

 this *new* felt has slightly less wool than my Premium 40% wool felt (between 20-35% wool, depending on the colour) but it's a tad thicker and just as soft and gorgeous :-)

9" squares are 75p ....

 and 9" x 36" rolls are £2.85

quick links:
heathered felt squares are here
heathered felt rolls are here

Christmas In A Box

that cardboard box is very precious.
it contains the results of hours and hours of work.
all my new Christmas Kit ideas and samples are in there and it is winging it's way to the desk of John Lewis buyers for the all important selection meetings - good luck little box, may you arrive safe and sound (and on time!) and may you wow the buying team with your Christmas Cuteness ;-)

in non-Christmas news I have re-stocked a couple of craft room staples:  felt glue (it's £4 and can be found here) and the ever popular 3" embroidery hoops (£1.25 and click click click your way to them here)

a little bit of silly!

 haha! look what landed here today!  super cute monster buttons.  they certainally cheered me up**!

 they are on the website (click here) if you too need some silly monsters in your sewing stash :-)

**I paid the VAT man today BOOOOO

a messy craft table = a GOOD holiday weekend

It's May the 6th and I spent all weekend working on Christmas samples!  I know!
I don't ever really stop thinking about Christmas - but this year the move put a stop to actually doing anything about my Grand Christmas Plans - but this weekend I got busy, finalising patterns, choosing colours and cutting out all the pieces to make all the final samples.  It's a fun process and the entire weekend whizzed by - with no time to clear the table up afterwards ;-)