paper-and-string

the printed polka dot felt has been restocked (yes!)
 the printed stripey felt has been restocked (even the really-hard-to-get RED?? fantastic!)
 the printed heart felt has been restocked (huzzah!)
 the multi coloured dots now come on seven different coloured backgrounds (flippin' amazing!)
 and what's this?  NEW printed felt??? in 26 different designs??? how on earth will you choose which you need to have???  well, one of you won't need to choose cos one of you will win One Piece Of Every Single Design (that's 26 pieces felt fans !!!!)
so how do you win?  just leave a comment on this post and a randomly chosen comment will win (easy!)
I have two bundles to giveaway to help celebrate that it is my sister's birthday today (happy birthday sisterini!) one is the prize on this blog and the other is being given away on my facebook page.
you can enter both giveaways and double your chances of winning, if you wish to.
I'll draw both the winners on Friday 2nd May, so be quick!

I found a new ribbon supplier & went a little crazy buying loads of new ribbons - I have THIRTY new designs for you to choose from! - these are a gorgeous quality, so soft to touch and just look at the colours and the cute designs!  they come in different widths and vary in price from £1.05 - £1.45 a metre
you can see them in all their glory by clicking here where you'll also see the previous range of embroidered ribbons at discounted prices ... I need to make way for more of these new designs!

 *new* British Made Baker's Twine has been added to the shop :: in traditional candy stripe colours and in pretty two tone colours - sold by the spool, 20m per spool for just £2 each
AND it also comes in CHUNKY twine! 20m spools for £4
all the *new* twines can be seen by clicking here

6 weeks of accounts have been finished which means that my looming VAT return has been filed (yahoooo!  but a VAT return filed means a VAT bill to pay BOOOOOO!)
after that I re-did all my spreadsheets and accounts things ready for the new tax year and then I did another 3 weeks of accounts (the first 3 of this new tax year), which means I am All Up To Date, a very good feeling indeed.....but even though I got all that done it wasn't a completely dull Saturday - I also took tonnes of photos of new things and re-jigged the website so there is room for them to be put on there tomorrow :-)

once all of today's parcels were packed and ready for the postman I *finally* made a start on my weekly accounts - I have 9 weeks worth to do & a looming VAT return deadline - doing the VAT is easy if your accounts are all upto date so I need to knuckle down and have managed to do 3 weeks worth today - which means I could be done by the end of the weekend! yippee!!
 John spent a few hours building my final expedit (ikea) and rejigging the stock area to fit it in...the deliveries to fill this unit up are on their way
the barn is looking good :-)

 making :: a bright and cheerful order of embellishments ...
 ...such lovely colour combos!
 making :: lots of flower craft packs
making :: a very special order for purple brooches - hope you like them Rose? they will be delivered tomorrow so watch out for the postman :-)

when we moved I discovered lots of boxes of felt off cuts - they were all stored away nice and neatly under the table in my making room under lots of other boxes and I have to say that I had forgotten I had even put them there! 
 Today I unpacked and sorted them all out and have made up a grand selection of remnant packs - they are all a good mix of sizes and a random selection of 30% wool and 40% wool felts - some bits are end of rolls, some are mis-cuts and some are off cuts from my making
the thin strips are all off cuts from John's felt cutting table - these are all 40% wool felt and come in a big bag of multi-coloured goodness :-)
I've listed them all at bargain prices and when they are gone they are gone - so be quick if you want a bargain
they are on the website here

I love storage. 
I have wanted to stock my favourite finds for AGES but did not have enough space in the stock room. 
Until now.
Now I have shallow trays...
 ...deep trays....
 ...teeny boxes in cute colours....
...crafty tool boxes AND a selection of other boxes too!
it's all here :: storage boxes if you'd like a closer look :-)

 today I have had hours of fun cutting and folding fabric - I have had lots of new fabric delivered but before I listed it on the website I wanted to re-jig it all...Fabric now has it's own category on the website, with lots of smaller sections inside it to make finding fabric a lot easier - whilst I was sorting out all the categories I decided my photos were a bit blah so I re-took them all today too - and it all took waaaayyyy longer than I imagined - the new fabrics will be on there tomorrow, but I have finished updating all the existing fabrics :-)

 *NEW* wool felt stems - as promised yesterday, in 20 colours
 *NEW* printed felt with LARGE polka dots  -  in 4 fun colours
 *NEW* pom pom makers by craft company Clover - round pom poms & heart shaped pom poms too
Quick Links :
felt stems are here
LARGE polka dot felt is here
pom pom makers are here

 tonnes of green ones ....
...AND loads of other colours too!!!
They will be on the website tomorrow - I know loads of you are waiting for these and I would do it now, but it's John's birthday today and we are going out straight after the postman has picked up all the parcels, so I'm afraid I'm making you wait a day longer - sorry about that ;-)

I have been using and selling American Craft's Black Brads for years!
Last December I received the unwelcome news that they were being discontinued and I could not get anymore :-(
 BUT look what I have! hundreds of packets of them - all bought at a special clearance price in the American Crafts's End of Line SALE - they are the last ones anywhere - I cleared out the warehouse in America of every single pack they had and they are ALL mine Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!
I am sharing them though - they are on the website for ONLY £1.75 a pack - but be quick - once these are gone they really are gone forever!

quick link :: brads on the website :: click HERE

It's exactly a month since we re-opened after the move and today the felt cutting area (John's domain) had a delivery of second hand racking installed (with a lot of hard work by John, seriously - if you ever move John is the person to help you - he's AMAZING, but that said, you can't have him, sorry)...
I love that the racking is orange & grey rather than that horrid electric blue that it sometimes comes in :-)
John made the cutting table himself (see, I told you.  He's amazing!) which means it is the perfect height for excess felt storage and optimum felt cutting too......the white Ikea Expedit Cube cupboards on the left are double sided - John cuts and fills from his side and I pick orders from the other side...so it's all very useful and rather beautiful too - I can't stop swinging my chair round and looking at it all!!

...that I do still sew ;-)
but really I am now an official box un-packer-er
 yesterday's box contained the purple sewing chair (from made.com) ...note the good use of felt samples for make-shift castors whilst I wait for the real ones to come from eBay.... we're slightly terrified of ruining the lovely wooden floorboards of our rented house (and losing our hefty deposit in the process!) so we're being v.e.r.y. careful....
today's boxes held the new dining room table (from oakfurniture land) we truly wanted an old farmhouse table with mix & match old chairs but we didn't want to wait, wait, wait to find the perfect thing, we found a few 'nearly' OK tables but they were all painted (rather badly) and mucho money, so we went with new....we were surprised that Oak Furniture Land had something for us, but this is ace - and Yes.  I did walk round the showroom and knock on everything , just like they do on TV :-)

at work :: a very heavy button delivery arrived which means my empty button jars have been replenished (boo! to empty jars,  yay! to pretty full-up jars!)
at home :: a new armchair has been delivered (it's my new sewing chair) - our new home is too small for both our sofas so mine is in the barn (an ikea worn-out number) and John's (a lovely brown leather comfy sofa) is in the house - we do share, but it's nice to have a sewing chair again! and tomorrow we should be receiving our new dining table - the old flat didn't have a dining room so it was sofa dinners every day (the novelty of that wears off after 13 years!) so we are looking forward to a dining room very much indeed!...and in a few weeks (and the last delivery for home) we will have a bed for the spare room and can start receiving over night visitors ...and I'm hoping that we'll have a nice long list of family and friends coming to visit :-)

 ...and a definite BIG coffee cup day ;-)