babushka!

 I'm trying to get a head start on some Christmas making. 

 I know it's only just the start of Summer but last year I had to stop selling handmade Christmas Decorations in October (I think-can't remember-Christmas was a fun filled /felt filledblur!) This year I want to keep them listed for sale for longer, if I can....last year they were mostly made to order, but this year I plan to have some in stock too.

Four Russian Dolls complete - I find it really hard to work out how many I should be making...has anyone got a Crystal Ball that will help me guess?

for serious button crafters

 All serious button crafters will know how it feels to have *the* perfect button for a craft project.  The perfect size, perfect shape AND the perfect colour.

Sometimes one perfect button is all you need - but sometimes you want to re-make the design and that means you need more perfect buttons.

 I re-make lots of my designs and use a lot of the same buttons over and over - which is why, way back in 2010, I started to dye my own buttons and soon after I started selling my dyed buttons too.

 In February this year I was VERY excited to launch two teeny tiny buttons collections .... both dyed (not by me this time!) to match all 45 colours of my felt --- and now I have BIG button news!

In my shop I have ::  NINE different styles of buttons ALL have been dyed to match my felt (in every single one of my 45 colours) AND they all AVAILABLE in my button pick n mix selection - so if you need 4 purple buttons, you can have 4 purple buttons - if you need 47 red buttons, guess what?  I have them too!
It is button heaven for all serious button crafters.
QUICK LINKS ::
all dyed to match my felt buttons are here
all pick n mix buttons are here  (I do lots of different pick n mix buttons!)

Buttons In Boxes

Remember the other day when I had a MASSIVE button delivery?  And all the empty button trays I had to fill (27 of them)?  and remember how I said I'd tell you about them another day?
Well, today is the day!
These, my lovely blog readers,  are my new and fantastic Button Boxes :: 

 All of the buttons have been dyed to match my felt

 there are five colours in each box

 in 10 different button styles

 and every box has 150 buttons

and each box is only £5!
There are 9 colour collections and you can see them all by clicking here

early morning making

 I got up with the sunshine today and by 8am all these decorations (and flower brooch!) were finished...not sure I could get up that early every day, but once in a while it's OK - and it's a lovely time of day to sit in the peace and quiet and sew, sew, sew!

packing the packs

I feel like I have done a million and one little jobs today but I now find myself sitting down at the computer to blog about them all - and they all seem a little un-blog worthy....apart from these packs that is:  tonnes of hand cut felt flowers (that I blogged yesterday) plus fab buttons equals lots of different flower colour combinations. 
Lovely :-)

weekend stitching

phew-ee!
what a Monday - so many felt-y orders have been parcelled up today and it's good to see it's not just me that likes the new prices :-)

 Yesterday I finished some Owl embellishments, finished cutting out piles of flowers for my craft packs

 and watched some more Columbo whilst on the sewing machine !

Ginormous Important News

I have BIG news...it came out of the blue and it's very exciting!!
It all happened yesterday ~ I'll try and tell how it happened nice and fast .....
Yesterday - a normal day.....I was picking & packing orders, cutting out sewing to sew, working through my new kits spreadsheet and working on last week's accounts.
I then got an email.
whipped out my calculator
double checked it all
emailed again to confirm
went to the pub with John to celebrate
Ta -dah!  and that's how it happened ~ a simple email from me to order more felt (via the spreadsheet of all knowledge), a simple email back telling me that I now order SO MUCH felt that I get a discount.
And the discount is good.
I have to maintain my order levels to maintain the discount, but I think I can do it! 
and this is where the news gets AMAZING!! 
look at what the discount means to my new prices, same special 40% wool felt, same glorious colours BUT at super-dooper-better than before prices!!

How great is that ?????
 Ginormous Important News delivered - I am going to start changing all my prices NOW.  (I think it may take a while!)
I'll pop a note here, with some links when they are all done - if you are itching to order some felt today WAIT - it'll be cheaper when I am finished :-)
If you have ordered felt and it hasn't been posted yet I will send you a refund before I post it.
If you only ordered felt the other day and are a bit peeved - I am sorry - I didn't know this was coming.
UPDATE (2:48pm 15/6/13)
all my felt prices in all my online shops have been changed - you can now shop at the new lower prices :-)

NEW button-y goodness = free buttons for you!

I have button news.
New button products have arrived and been added to my shops - and very lovely they are too!
First let me show you these ::

 Becky and I *love* these - the buttons for these have been here a while and we have spent rather too long than is normal quite some time looking at them and making up the cards

 each button card is different - each has 10 buttons in a colour theme

 and all the buttons vary in size,

 and in design ::

 but they are all gorgeous accent buttons - proudly packaged on my new packaging cards - and we think they look super smart and offer great value for money at just £4 a card.

 Our other new buttons were delivered today :: new colour choices of our best selling button shapes, hearts; in pinks and reds, and flowers in lovely bright colours

I accidentally-on-purpose ordered waaay too many heart buttons so I could share them with you all!

all you have to do to get a 50g bag of *new* heart buttons is make a purchase from my website and enter the code ::
I LOVE BUTTONS TOO
in the special box at checkout (you can't miss it)
and I will add the free buttons to your parcel.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
order must come to £5 before p&p is added
I will send one pack per customer
I have a lot of packs and the offer will run until they have all gone
I will pop a note here when they have all been snapped up

quick links
new button cards are here
new flowers and hearts are here

decisions decisions

Ten different fabrics have been selected (no mean feat I can tell you...I started with about 30 on the table!) and after some uumming and aahhing they have been matched with co-ordinating felt - I've ironed and steamed and cut - next step is the sewing machine .... you may not see these fabrics sewn into something finished anytime soon because tomorrow I have deliveries coming and I.Can.Not.Wait to unpack them!!
Links ::
All these fabrics are stocked in my shop  -  and you can see them all here

up & coming with cupcakes

it's not all technical stuff round here these days - there's still a great big dollop of felt-y, button-y Cupcake-y goodness too!
That said, I did get a nice surprise whilst browsing Bloglovin this morning (addicted? me? well, maybe a little bit)::

If you hover over Top Blogs and drop down to DIY and crafts (my fav section, obviously!)  you'll see a great big list of top crafty bloggers - and there are so many new-to-me blogs to follow....BUT then, once you have finished with the Top Bloggers, you can click on Up & Coming and you'll only see this little bit of blog world at number 5 !!! what a lovely early morning surprise!

yippee - I'm officially Up & Coming (with Cupcakes)
:-)

getting technical -TWICE!

I have *finally* made two long-awaited technical changes round here - the first (you may have seen already) is that I have joined Blog Lovin...I've seen it happening all around me in Blog World, mostly (I think) because Google Reader (my previous Blog Reader) will be shut by July 1st...and how else to read and keep up with fantabulous crafty blogs than with a blog reader gizmo?

 I've been a Blog Lovin member for a couple of days and I 'claimed my blog' the other day, which means if you join and use Blog Lovin as your new Blog Reader too you can just click the Blog Lovin button over there on the right and follow me & my blog. 

The second act of technical wizardry is that I have opened a paper-and-string facebook page ( better late than never, right?) - so if you are a facebooker and want to follow me over there you can!  So far I have set up a facebook app of my etsy shop and another of my ebay shop, changed my photo a couple of times, and checked out how links from ebay and noths work - not a riveting read so far but I think I am getting the hang of it - please check it out and if you have some handy hints or tips please let me know :-)

claiming my blog

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

sewing & spreadsheets

yesterday I started making some new flower drawing pin colour combinations

today I have spent much of the day with spreadsheets.  the John Lewis Christmas forecast has arrived which means a lot of number crunching round these parts; I'm trying to work out which stocks to order and when - I've only really scratched the surface of it all today...mostly I have been full of happy smiles and randomly saying things to John  like 'do you know I need to order 64,240 pom poms?' 
It also brings a touch of panic too - but I will be calm and work my way down the to-do list until I am organised. 
But first I shall be outside sewing my drawing pins - it's sunny out there and the spreadsheets can wait until tomorrow!

that didn't take long!

 the tidying is complete - the office wall looks a bit bare and has lots of empty shelves because I plan to house my handmade items here - they will be packaged in cello bags, all ready for posting...but before I can fill the shelves I need to get making!

all my colourful supplies are now in the making room, where they should be....

...on the wall opposite my felt & fabric shelves (which are under the cutting table)...everything is looking very organised and tidy ...

...so after I have packed today's parcels I shall be in there making a mess being creative ;-)

in the mood to tidy

a few weeks ago (well, it seems like weeks ago, but actually it was waaay back here) I moved all my making supplies into their own room - apart from everything on my office wall

...I started to move it all this afternoon - and hopefully I will have officey things in here and making things in the other room .... but it might take me a while!!!

button fill up :: part two

the table was *finally* cleared of all buttons yesterday and all my jars and shelves are full!

 today I've been busy packing parcels and making some more boxes ::

and John got busy re-planting my window box - the view from my window on to the big flat roof is looking a lot more cheerful now!

button fill up :: part one

the mammoth button delivery is now all unpacked ..... the pick and mix buttons have been filled up ::

don't they look scrummy ??
the buttons by weight have been carried up the stairs (all 91kgs...buttons are heavy!!)  and are now unpacked, checked & online....AND all over the table!!!

and all those empty button trays I showed you yesterday are now filled up....I'll tell you more about these beauties another day....

 first I need to clear this table off!!

quick links
pick and mix buttons are here
buttons by weight are here (colours) and here (shapes)