Fancy holding a crafty party ?

Then check out the latest addition to our website .... CRAFT PARTY PACKS !!!

Available for either 5 people

or 10 people

Each pack works out at just £5 per person .... Happy Crafting !! 

Come visit us !!

Hurrah !!  Now that we have a new Shedquarters (with lots of space), we have decided that we'll open to all felt fans, buttonaholics, ribbon addicts and all other crafty peeps on a regular basis.

So, starting on Friday 19th April, we'll be open most Fridays from 10am until 2pm for you to visit our crafty paradise, have a cuppa, take a look at all of our lovely supplies, ask for advice, meet other craft addicts, maybe buy a few bits and bobs, swoon at our pink carpet and just generally have a nice time !!

If you'd like to pop in, our address is:

Blooming Felt

Unit 27 Chamberlains Farm

Sporhams Lane

Danbury

Chelmsford

Essex, CM3 4AJ

Tel: 01245 471690

Parking is available, but bring your boots if the weather is wet as the carpark tends to get a bit muddy !!

Hope to see you there !!

Bonkers for Buttons !

We've had a HUGE delivery of buttons this week - which are your favourites ?

You can find all of our new buttons (and lots more fun stuff) here 

A new home !!

Hurrah .... we've moved !!!

Well, I say hurrah, but I really was sad to leave my old Shedquarters in our garden.  Tuesday was moving day and fortunately for us it was a lovely sunny day.  The removal guys were fantastic and didn't complain once that they had to make another trip when they had only quoted for one.

Everything fits perfectly into our new shed

The pink carpet is REALLY pink (but I absolutely love it)

We've even got some spare shelves now that we can spread everything out and we've got loads of room left over to fill with new units (when we've got a bit more money!) and also lots of new product lines, which is just as well because after spending a rather large amount at the trade show  last Sunday, we'll need the extra room !

Unfortunately, the store room is still a bit of a mess - but we just shut the door on that and pretend it's not there !!

We've got a lovely new sign on order that will take pride of place on the outside wall

and once I've put a couple of pots of spring flowers and a couple of hanging baskets outside, our new home will be ready to receive visitors !!

Once Easter has been and gone, we'll be telling you all about our regular open days.  We're hoping to open 1 day a week and then occasionally on Saturdays for those of you that can't make it during the week.  Keep your eyes peeled for more info

xx

Decisions, decisions

Kitting out new Shedquarters is a hard job ... but someone's got to do it !!

Folders and pens

Paint charts for walls and bookcases 

and funky button style storage boxes courtesy of a lovely friend !!

A new home !

WARNING .... this could be a long post so you might want to get a cuppa and a biscuit before settling down to read it !

OK - are you ready ??  Then I'll begin ...

As I haven't been around for a while, I haven't been able to tell you the exciting news ... we're moving !!  

Yes, after 3 brilliant years in our little purpose built Shedquarters in my garden, we are now bursting at the seams and working not only from Shedquarters, but also using my summerhouse as a storage unit and renting a mini warehouse !!  Sadly, it has become impossible to continue working like this .... we spend a lot of our time going backwards and forwards to the warehouse bringing stock back, which then goes into the summerhouse and is then transferred to Shedquarters when we run low on stock in there.  We also spend an awful lot of our time looking in boxes for stock that might, or might not be in there !!  We're not very organised at all !

So, I had to make a decision.  If I want to grow my little business into a bigger business and offer lots more fantastic product lines, get the wholesale side of the business up and running and have regular "open days", then we need to move.  It was a hard decision to make, after all, Blooming Felt was born and has grown up to be nearly 7 years old in my house, but I'm pretty sure it's the right decision.

So, the hunt for suitable premises was on.  You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find the right place.  There wasn't a huge amount on the market anyway and I was quite specific about, not necessarily the type of building, but where it was located.  Craft businesses, in my mind, shouldn't live on industrial estates.  We don't want to be looking out of the window at giant lorries delivering goodness knows what to other premises, or hear the constant sound of cars being mended / revved up etc.  We want to be somewhere relatively small and quiet and close to home.  So, despite being on the books of all the local commercial premises agents, no-one could offer us what we were looking for.  I decided to take matters into my own hands and start looking at the classifieds section in the back of the local paper and spied an advert for workshop / office space in the next village to ours saying the following "NO MOTOR TRADERS".  Hmmmmm - that's interesting I thought and called them straight up.  Half an hour later I was at the address looking at 2 vacant "sheds".  And they really were sheds ... former chicken sheds.  It's fate, I thought !  We have a Shedquarters and we need a new Shedquarters - it's perfect !!!!  Well, sort of perfect.  It needs quite a lot of work to get it to how we want it but it will be fantastic once it's done !  (It's also nowhere near as pretty as my current Shedquarters, but I suppose chicken sheds aren't particularly pretty!)

Fast forward to today and I have just signed the lease !  My lovely builder friend is starting work on the unit today and I have ordered .... wait for it .... hot pink carpet !!!!!!!!  I know, it's mad to have a pink carpet but d'you know what ?  I don't care !! It's Blooming Felt Shedquarters and if we want a pink floor, we'll have a pink floor !!!!  

All of the walls will be white and with a hot pink carpet I think it'll look perfect !!  White is, of course, the perfect backdrop to show off all of our lovely colourful felt goodies so I foresee a number of trips to Ikea to get lots more storage units (thank goodness for Ikea !!) 

I'll try and post "in progress" pics on a fairly regular basis - we're hoping the conversion works won't take more than a couple of weeks so you won't have too long to wait to see the finished article ! 

Stick with us everyone ... it'll be worth it :o)))

  

xx

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

Wishing all of our blog readers, customers, Twitter followers, Facebook fans and felt, button & ribbon addicts everywhere a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

Thank you all for your support throughout 2011 and we look forward to seeing you all in 2012 with lots of exciting news and website updates etc

With love from

The Girls at Blooming Felt xxx

Even more lovely kits !!

After adding the fantastic Christmas kits (courtesy of Bagladee - go check out her site - it's FAB!), I suddenly remembered our own very lovely felt ball & buttons necklace kits that were sat lurking in a basket in the studio!

Life at Blooming Felt has been so darn busy lately that there are rather a lot of things that need doing - stock sitting in boxes waiting to be loaded onto the website, out of stock products that need re-ordering, advertising copy, blog posts, Facebook and Twitter updates, website newsletters, tutorials, getting to grips with the impending VAT issue, blah, blah, blah

So, to make a start on it all I've put our kits onto the website and am telling you about it here ... that's 2 things ticked off my list !!

Our kits make the most perfect stocking fillers for anyone remotely crafty !

All you need is a sharpish needle with a large eye (which funnily enough you can buy here) to complete the project. Available in 4 different colourways and

priced at £7 each, they're an absolute bargain !!

Be quick though because they've been showcased in the latest edition of Sew Hip and are selling ...... fast !!

xx

PS. Don't forget the VAT man wants his cut from 1st November .... stock up before our prices rise (slightly) x

IT'S FREEBIE TIME !

Hellooooooo !

It's been far too long my friends ! Having been away for nearly 3 weeks, catching up on orders, Easter and of course, the Royal Wedding it seems like I have been away from this little old blog FOREVER !

But, I'm BACK and raring to go.

So, without further ado I shall announce this month's FREEBIE giveway. And it is .........

A Felt Purse Kit !

This fantastic little kit contains one of our turquoise 100% wool felt purses (complete with felt ball zip pull), some felt shapes and buttons for you to embellish the purse with.

As with all of our giveaways, it's open to everyone, wherever you are in the world. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post (only 1 comment per person please) and ensure that I can contact you via your own blog, website or email address. If you win and I am unable to contact you, the prize will be redrawn and another winner picked. Please note - last month's giveaway went to a redrawn name as the original winner didn't provide any contact details. Please don't make the same mistake.

The Giveaway will remain open for 1 week and will close at 5pm next Sunday 8th May when a winner will be picked and the name announced.

GOOD LUCK !!

xx

So many buttons ...

so little time !!!

Wine Gums

Moroccan Spice

Chocolate Buttons

We've had so many buttons delivered recently that I completely forgot to tell you about this little lot !

Country Denim

Wonderland

May Day Parade

All now available on the website

Ribbon Addicts ..... it's your turn next - watch this space !!!

Hurrah - the monthly freebie has launched !

Well, it took a while, but today we finally hit 200 followers and as promised, are now launching our monthly freebie !!

As a special thank you to all of our blog readers, we will be offering a fantastic freebie every 1st of the month from now on.

So, for our first monthly freebie we are offering 2 (yes .... 2 !) lucky followers the chance to win one of our new "Goody Bags". Each bag contains some felt string, felt shapes, buttons and felt balls. In other words, a wonderful selection of Blooming Felt goodies for you to do whatever you please with !

"How do I enter ?" you ask.

Well, all you need to do is leave a comment on the Freebie Post (no anonymous comments please) and once the freebie closes (one week later) all comments will be entered into a random number generator and a winner will be chosen. I must be able to contact you via an email address, or your own blog / website etc. If your name / number is selected and I have no way of contacting you then I'm afraid you will lose your prize and another winner will be selected. All winners will be announced on this blog and an email will also be sent requesting your address so that we can get your goodies out to you.

Our monthly freebies are available to absolutely everyone, wherever you are in the world !

This freebie will close on Friday 18th February 2011.

So go on, what are you waiting for ? Go get those freebies !!!

Sarah x

Lots of lovely new stuff !

In between sorting the new studio out, I've been trying to get some of the lovely new stock onto the website.

It's a slow old process photographing everything, then measuring it all so that I can get the correct details in the website description which seems to take me forever to think about what to write, and then uploading it all to the website, making sure it's all in the right categories etc. But I think I'm nearly there with it all. I won't go into a huge amount of detail here because my poor brain is getting a bit tired, so I'll just show you the photos which you can click on to be magically transported to that particular item on the website. OK, here goes :

New button mixes

Blushing Mushroom (what a fantastic name !!)

and Wuthering Heights

Shell Buttons available in 4 colourways

JUMBO Ric Rac in 5 colourways (with another 2 still to come - my supplier is out of stock at the moment !)

GIANT spotty buttons in 2 new colourways - pink

and teale

A new colour in wool roving - turquoise (code C2)

There are more new products still to come but I'll tell you about these when they get here.

The HUGE felt delivery arrived yesterday and I'm in the processing of updating the website with quantities of 4mm thick felt sheets, felt string/cord, felt balls, pebbles, stars, hearts and wool. All being well I should also be receiving another delivery next week which will contain grab bags and mini felt stacks and as soon as they get here, I'll update the website again with the restock.

Which reminds me .... the LAST POSTING DATE FOR EASTER IS TUESDAY 23RD MARCH. After that, the website will still be taking orders, but nothing will be processed until WEDNESDAY 14TH APRIL. I will be having a bit of a rest so apologise for any inconvenience that the delay will cause.

Things are happening in the studio - the outside step has been built and the carpenter is on the case with the workbench. Paul has put all of the Ikea units together and the electrician is due this week to fit the storage heater and then hopefully, by Saturday, I will have MOVED IN !!

I've started to put a few bits and pieces in there, but I wish I hadn't because now I'm working from 2 rooms again and it's a bit of a long walk down the garden every time I need some felt sheets or some wool ! Never mind ... not long now

More studio photos to follow next time .......

Sarah xx

Normal service has been resumed .....

for now !

I have finally managed to catch up with the backlog of orders that I had and am now panicking slightly that the postal strike will muck everything up !

Along with the orders from the show, everyone seems to be getting ready for the Christmas Craft Fairs, meaning the making season is well and truly upon us. Goodness knows when I'll have time to make my own stuff !

Every year I say that I'm going to make some felt ball garlands for our Christmas tree and every year I never get round to it. This year, I WILL make some. I'm also going to make some lovely decorations with the fantastic sculpted stars that I've got on the website. Once they're done I'll get some photos onto the blog.

Over the last couple of evenings I've been surfing the internet on the hunt for unique Christmas gifts (because I know I won't have time to make my own). As always, I get completely side-tracked and find all sorts of fantastic stuff that I just love, but that isn't really suitable as a Christmas gift (although I think some of them might find their way onto my own Christmas list !) I was amazed when I came across these

Finally, I have a use for all of those acorn cups that are laying in our garden ! I am definitely going to add these to my "making list" - I can just see them all piled up in a lovely bowl on the kitchen table. Will I get round to making them ? Who knows, but I'll definitely try.

Back to the website now and I forgot to say last time that the giant flad pad bookmarks are now back in stock, so if you were wanting some of these, you can order them now.

I've also got a new colourway in the BIG buttons - bright pink (they're lovely !) but are waiting for a brighter day to be photographed and added to the website - check back on these at these at the weekend if you're interested.

Now, if you came along to Ally Pally, you might have seen one of these hanging on the wall or around my friend Amanda's neck ?

It's my felt ball and button necklace kit. As a last minute thing I decided to make up some kits containing all of the components required to make up the necklace, in 4 different colourways. To my complete amazement I completely sold out of the kits !

As Sew Hip magazine did a bit of a photo shoot on these kits and the finished article, I thought I had better get a few more made up and onto the website (they'll be available for sale very soon). Hopefully they'll feature in next month's edition of the magazine and I might sell a few more !

In the kits you get an assortment of buttons, felt balls, maybe a couple of crocheted balls, or some pompoms, a sculpted heart, star or flower, some ribbon and some waxed cotton cord. All you need is a needle to thread them all together. I haven't included any instructions as I would like to think it's pretty self-explanatory, but if you do decide to purchase one or maybe a couple of these kits (perhaps as pressies), and need any help, just shout ! Fantastic value at £5.50 each and as before, in 4 different colourways - Cool (blues & purples), Autumn (browns/red/greens), Monochrome (back & white) and Citrus (lime green, purple, yellow).

I'm also working on a couple more kits which I'm hoping to add to the website in time for Christmas - so watch this space.

I'm also in the process of updating the Special Offers section of the website with a number of items that have been sitting around in boxes for far too long - they should be on at the weekend and then you'll be able to grab yourself a bargain with these special offer items as they won't be repeated !

And if that's not enough to keep me busy, I'm taking the afternoon and evening off tomorrow and am going to see SPANDAU BALLET !! I am SO excited, I can't tell you. Hopefully I'll be able to get some half decent pictures - we've got very good seats (which cost me an absolute bomb), but I don't care !! I've been listening to them in the car over the last couple of weeks and can't wait to see them live.

That's it for today - see you next time xx

I'm BACK !!

I'm sooooooo sorry to have been away for so long !

Ok, so I told a little porky and led you to believe that I was moving premises and stock-taking over the Easter holidays when, in fact, I was on holiday in Florida - sorry !!!

And whilst I've been back for almost 3 weeks now, I've only just managed to catch up with the huge amount of orders that came in whilst I was away. Very many apologies if you were one of those people in the very long queue awaiting your order - I'm up to date now and you should have received your order. Thank you so much for your patience.

It's quite scary going away for 3 weeks and leaving a business on shutdown. The website was still accepting orders (as you were aware), and I have a sneaky suspicion that my spotty and spiral balls may have been featured somewhere whilst I was away because I sold out ! If you've seen those particular balls featured in either a magazine or a blog, I'd love to hear about it.

Of course, when I got back I realised that it wasn't just the spotty & spiral balls I was out of stock of, but everything else is now on order and will be with me very shortly. So if you're waiting for something to come back into stock, it won't be long now.

A couple of new items which arrived just before I went away, but I didn't have a chance to add to the site:

New designs of the Button Sensations range (click on the pictures to go directly the buttons)

A gorgeous zingy new mix of buttons which I decided to call "Tutti Frutti". Those of you who are of a similar age to myself will remember the Tutti Frutti sweets you used to be able to buy in a small packet and all in the super additive colours of orange, green and pink/purple !! If you're into retro this button mix is for you !

Within the next couple of weeks I am hoping to take delivery of a VERY exciting range of new stock, which I just know you are going to love. So watch this space !

I'm also working on another range of goodies for the website, but this particular range relies on me to produce it. So, you might have to bear with me on this one, particularly as time is very limited and I seem to spend my whole time picking & packing orders and not actually being able to restock or produce anything else. But I'm confident that once I do get this range organised, it will be popular.

Whilst we were away we were very fortunate to be granted planning permission to extend our lovely old farmhouse, which will allow me to have a purpose built studio. The last year I have been storing stock and picking & packing orders from virtually every room in the house. This meant it took me twice as long to get the orders done up as I spent so much time traipsing from room to room and searching through boxes of stock to find what it was I was looking for. When we got back from holiday I decided enough was enough and asked hubby if he would be so kind as to dismantle the double bed in the guest room so that I could turn the room into my studio for the time being. What a difference ! I've got virtually everything in that one room with a big table in the centre and can work my way around the table collecting all of the lovely stock, ready to be send off to my lovely customers. And how pretty the room looks !! Sometimes I just go into there to look at the beautiful colours - it always makes me smile !

I've managed to make a start on the customer's gallery on the website - thank you to everyone who has sent in photos - keep them coming and I'll do everything I can to get you featured. I'd also love to see any tutorials you might have - so if you think you've got a project you'd like to share with other Blooming Felt customers, please email me.

Ok - I think that's it for the time being. As soon as I've got more details on the new ranges, I'll let you know !

Sarah x

What do you do ...

... when the sun shines? Well, I'll tell you what I thought about doing and that was tackling the huge mountain of ironing that has been waiting to be done for what seems like forever and is quite likely to kill a small child should it fall over. But then I thought "what the hell - the sun's shining and I need to take some photos .... OF BUTTONS !!"

So that's what I did.

And this post contains pictures of all the new buttons that have been added to the website today and are now ready for you to get your little hands on.

ENJOY x