feeling quiet

today I got all my necessary jobs done bright and early because I wanted to spend some time on my raffle prize for Jo's Japan Quake Appeal....I have selected some felt colours and some fabrics ...

and I have started cutting and sewing .... it doesn't feel like much, but hopefully I will offer a good raffle prize and lots of money can be raised....I'm aiming to get the raffle up and running on Thursday so please come back and have a look, and get your credit cards ready - it's only £5 a ticket.

progress is being made

I was up bright and early today and have got a lot done!

That's a special order for lovely (and patient!) Kelly *hi*...all finished and ready to go.

I also did the last 2 weeks accounts....I like to do them every week so I keep on top of it all, but the last two weeks were sitting in messy piles waiting for me to get to work on them....

haha but they are all done now!

I also finished these boxes ::

and most importantly of all I have signed up to join in Jo's Japan Quake Appeal

if you have a blog and want to hold a raffle to raise some money Jo's blog is the place to go to find out all about her great idea.

I shall be hosting a raffle here ... this will be the best raffle/freebie/giveaway I've ever hosted, because I want us to raise as many pennies as we can ... more about that soon :-)

perfect piles

I'm ready for a weekend of sewing, so much so it's officially the weekend for me already!

Lovely.

Yesterday I went to London on the train for a meeting about the Secret Project...for now all my work is done and soon-ish I will have news to share...

************************************************

I phoned the solicitor today...we're now waiting for the reply to the lease amendments we made to come back from the Landlord's solicitor...everyone is chasing them so hopefully that will be done soon...then the lease can be drawn up & signed, I can pay lots of money out and then I will be moving

*sigh*

it is taking forever!

in my what time?

my normal* working hours this week have been filled with normal paper-and-string things...cutting out orders ::

and making boxes ::

all the spare** hours have been filled with a BIG secret project of which, here is a sneaky peek ::

Secret Projects really are irritating for people who blog (and even more so for the lovely peoples who read the blog!)...I've done loads & loads of things I want to share here but I can't. Because it's a secret. But I will soon, I promise!

*normal is 12+ hours a day because I love it and can't stop!
**spare hours are ones reserved for eating, housework, washing my hair etc etc

winners announced

wowee!

there are a lot of Ice Lolly fans out there....the lucky two who have had their names drawn from the hat are....
comment #25 Manu
&
comment #34 Steffi
well done ladies!
(I'll email you both in a minute)



and for all those who didn't win something don't forget there's an offer code for you to use in Hailing's Soap Shop...just type PAPERANDSTRING for 10% off

a whirlwind catch up

not many words but a lot of pictures of what kept me busy this weekend ::

boxes

custom card topper (12cm high)

custom card toppers (8cm high)

another box

felt delivery (I also got a load of felt by the metre but forgot to take a photo!)

and ....more boxes!

I hope your weekend was fun too??

freebie day :: March 2011

This month's freebie has been inspired by one of my lovely customers, Hailing.
Hailing has a shop on Etsy called soap pops and she makes amazing Ice Lolly soaps...look ::

Don't they look gorgeous??? well they are and they smell gorgeous too!
Hailing offered to supply a freebie prize & I had to say yes because they are so amazing!
I was a little stumped trying to come up with an idea for what I could offer as a freebie prize to go with these soaps but then inspiration struck and I started sewing!

What goes with soap??? ... a wash bag!

what goes with soap in the shape of Ice Lollies? ...an ice lolly wash bag!!


The wash bag is a paper-and-string one-off...but there are lots of ice lolly soaps in Hailing's shop...she's even provided a discount code for you all...just use the discount code PAPERANDSTRING and you'll receive a 10% discount
Bonus!


The Prizes
prize 1...Ice Lolly Wash Bag & 3 Ice Lolly Soaps
prize 2...3 Ice Lolly Soaps
How to enter
simply leave a comment on this post and your name will be entered into the draw
Rules
I must must must be able to contact you through your comment
(if you type your email address then replace the @ with (at) and the .com with (dot) com and the spam bots won't find you)
only one comment each please
I will post worldwide so everyone is welcome to enter
Comments will close on Tuesday 8th March & winners will be announced shortly after
don't forget that Hailing has a discount code...shop here and get 10% off!
discount code :: PAPERANDSTRING
Good Luck!
*****************************************************
The freebie has now closed (at comment #210!)
winners will be announced in a separate post shortly

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9....

I've been counting buttons!

Stocks of my dyed buttons are running very low and I can't dye any more until I'm in the new workshop (we have a new cooker and I am a messy dyer so I have promised to never dye in our kitchen at home again!!)

I placed an order for more buttons when they started to run out , but had to put it on hold a few weeks ago (when I realsied I wasn't moving in any time soon)

So I have re-jigged the website and every button I have is listed .... more will be coming to replace them but it won't be for a while!

A Blog Spring Clean

I've just added a new page to the blog...look up there...can you see it?

it's called 'Tutorials' and guess what? you can find all my tutorials there, nice and easy without the need for blog trawling!

felt cupcake purse

felt mushroom decoration

egg cosies

felt paper chains

purses with zips

catalogue released

The Spring Gift Guide NotOnTheHighStreet catalogue was released today...and there are my felt boxes (bottom left) The samples I sent in were photographed by a professional photographer...here they are zoomed in ::

This is a huge leap into the unknown for me...I've never paid for advertising before

so this is a scary time...there's a 50:50 fear sea-saw, 50% terrified that I won't receive any orders and 50% of me is terrified I'll have so many orders I won't have time to sleep!

Either way it's exciting to see my product in a shiny catalogue!

sofa time

despite having a lovely big work table in the workshop I do like to do hand sewing sitting on the sofa, watching TV ... the only flaw with that is when I'm working on some new ideas and decide to bring home 'a few' trimmings and ribbons because I don't know what I might need...

...and that definitely leads to sofa chaos!

another colourful day

you guys are so smart...colour does make a bad day into a good day...and today was a good day full of colour so that must mean it was a super-great day!

this morning started with no broadband but it soon got fixed and it meant I had to spend a few hours away from the computer and making rainbows....lovely!

and when I was home for lunch the postman arrived with this parcel of loveliness.

********************************************************

rainbows can always be found here

fabrics are from FabricShoppe on Etsy

and are :: starburst/holiday, remix argyle/bright & groovestripe/summer

********************************************************

new workshop update :: draft lease received yesterday as promised. contacted solicitor today with my notes...all is in hand and going through the motions. (finally).

********************************************************

Easter egg update :: I love it that you all liked my Easter eggs! I will make a start on a couple of sets for the shop as requested and let you know on the blog when they are done :-)

in full colour

here's the custom order that i sneak-peek showed you yesterday

4 Easter egg decorations, based on the bright & cheery colours of the gingham ribbons

my customer (hi Kelly *wave* ) approved (hurrah!) so they are on their way to the USA

:-)

happy colours

Today I put the finishing touches to a custom order...I can't show the items in full because the customer hasn't seen them yet, but I should be able to show them in all their glory tomorrow...for now, here's a sneaky peek ::

Yesterday I had a disaster day.
I spent much of it trying to phone the solicitor, at attempt number 5 I finally got to speak to him (rather than his secretary) and guess what??? he still hadn't done very much!!
Afterwards I was so annoyed that when I picked the phone up to phone the estate agent (who is super helpful) I managed to drop the phone and it went down the back of the radiator and was wedged!! (I'm sure you can imagine this did nothing positive for the bad mood!!) luckily John managed to get it out for me!!



Today the estate agent called and it looks as though my annoyance has been felt and the ball is rolling....I should get the draft lease in the post tomorrow and once I have read all the comments etc I have to send it back, it then gets sent to the other solicitor who sends it to the landlord ...blah blah blah...another 2 weeks* and I should be able to move in!!
Hurrah!
* 2 weeks in solicitor speak = whenever-they-feel-like-it-so don't-hold-your-breath

a photo day

I finished my mammoth sewing mountain of box samples and spent much of yesterday taking photos and updating my NotOnTheHighStreet shop

I've never made so many of these at once and I have left them like this on the table because I like to see them all there together!

Just one more week to go and the catalogue will be published...I'm so excited!

new supplies

I've added lots of new supplies to the shop...

ric rac :: in 5 glorious colours

the mini magnet packs are back in stock

and best of all.....Bulk Button Bags...

each bag has 50g of buttons and they are just £3

there are 5 colours to choose from, mauve & lilac, red & pink, orange & yellow, pastel or aqua & green

the last 2 photos each show the contents of just one bag...you get an awful lot of buttons for £3!

custom orders

a couple of orders were finished today....

...and a great big delivery arrived via UPS just now so tonight I will be sorting all that out & I will show many photos of new supplies tomorrow!

hard at work

I've been very busy working on my box samples....

all the hand sewing and construction is done and here they are just patiently waiting on the table for me to top-stitch and press them....

One of my parcels from the US arrived...it was so quick! and I think the contents deserve a close-up!

I ordered them from Etsy Shop Lucky Kaeru

the top fabric is Michael Miller, Ta Dot

the bottom fabric is Caleb Grey, Groove Dot