The Folksy One Day Sale

In case you've absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, the Folksy one day sale does exactly what it says on the tin.  Sellers reduce a single item, sometimes by as much as 50% for one day only. 

The items change every day, we have regular sellers taking part so you can always guarantee a good varied selection.  Today's thread includes bags, purses, accessories and jewellery and this gorgeous summery bracelet from Little Dotty Jewellery is only £3!

So if you're looking for a gift or you've had a crap week, got soaked on the way to work every single morning or you just think you've just done a particularly awesome job this week and deserve a little treat why not have a little nosy and see what takes your fancy.
You can find today's thread here and if you're too late for today's party pop along to the promotions forum, each day's thread is usually near the top.

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And new in today

Kindle Case in Harlequin Kaito

A few small changes

I've finally managed to set aside some time for a think lately, about my life, my normal day to day and my shop, more specifically the direction I need my shop to go in.

I don't know what it is about the Summer holidays but they always seem to set me off on a "new things" kick and while there's nothing wrong with that, it can be too easy to let it get out of hand and all this development can put a lot of strain on a girl's time.

And so after a fair amount of thought and planning and stopping myself from making my usual snap decisions I've decided to make some changes, hopefully for the better.

I've decided to reduce the volume of different things that I make and really concentrate on the ones that I love to make, the ones that are my own designs and this will mean that I am more able to make them in quantity for my customers because they aren't (or shouldn't) be available anywhere else:)

The card and coin purses will stay.



I love these little things and it's surprised even me how handy they are, especially when I'm out and about with Chloe and could really do with having two hands free. Sometimes I just don't need a bag to carry as well as anything she happens to need.

The regular coin purses will be leaving as soon as they sell or delist. To help them along they've all been reduced to £2.50 and once they're gone, they're gone.


The large ladies wallet will also be leaving in it's current form, a slightly more compact version will replace it later on this year. The last of the wallets have been reduced to £6.00 to clear.


The Kindle sleeves. I actually quite like making these and would be happy to keep doing so, these started as commissions and I decided to offer them in my shop as standard. The only problem I have is that, on their own, they don't really feel like they belong in the shop. It feels like I should also be offering other gadget sleeves for phones and MP3 players and that will likely just send me off on another "new things" kick. These have been reduced to £5.00 and maybe next year, definitely after Christmas at least I'll give some more consideration to extending the range and adding them back into stock. In the meantime, I'm still happy to accept custom orders for them.


The brooches, pendants, plain cuffs, a couple of bag designs and some homewares are all also going, they've all been reduced to clear as well and you can find everything in my half price sale

It seems like I'm cutting back a fair bit doesn't it, it's not as bad as it looks honestly!

The glasses cases will stay. They're very popular and they'll be joined by a zipped case later in the year.



Everything else that you know me for will also be staying, the kids and adult bike bags have been a huge success and more will be added in plenty of time for Christmas. The clutches will also stay in mini, the soon to arrive midi and the maxi wrap clutch. The shoulder bags will also still be available and will be joined by one more design for Spring next year.

The plain cuffs have been replaced by more intricate beaded and embroidered designs and I'm currently working on more of these.

In place of the brooches and pendants will be 100s and 1000s. It's my second shop on Folksy and managing two separate shops is becoming a wee bit time consuming so over the next few weeks I'll be removing the stock from 100s and 1000s and moving it to it's new home at Leanne Woods Designs.


Hopefully all of this works out to give me a better handle on what I'm doing, give me time to introduce a new range of homewares that having been in the planning and making stages just a bit too long, it should definitely make supplies orders easier to manage and with a bit of luck it should also free up a lot more time for making during the free hours I have to myself which will leave me with a lot more time to spend with my family. If it doesn't, I'm going back to making snap decisions:)

I didn't chase the postie this morning

I do love a morning when the postie brings absolutely no grown up post whatsoever.

NO bills.

NO snail mail spam.

NO election leaflets.

NO appointment letters.

Just oodles of lovely things for me to play with:)

Karen of All Things Blonde was in need of a new name for her lovely bias binding in blues. Now I'm fairly rubbish at coming up with names, but (luckily for me) the winner would be picked randomly from a hat, so I had a bash and my gorgeous new bias binding arrived in the post this morning. Thanks Karen!


I genuinely couldn't make my mind up which colours to choose so left it up to Karen to surprise me and she sent a gorgeous selection of reds. I'm particularly fond of the floral one at the bottom and Chloe has already earmarked it for a little reversible top I had planned to make for her. I think I may go the whole hog, order a few more metres of the cherry red and whip up a sun hat while I'm at it, a few metres of the lime green may sneak into my basket while I'm there ... for a skirt. A girl can never have too many skirts.

In other news, the ladybirds also arrived this morning and so the big green beaded leaf has made it's way over to 100s and 1000s.


After having a featured item on Folksy, the past couple of days have been very busy over Leanne Woods Designs so it's high time I got my finger out and photographed my new range of bicycle bags, the shop seems to be getting very light on stock and I get antsy if it drops below a certain level.

Time to get myself out in that sunshine, don't you think?

A New Venture

I must admit to having a bit of a thing for seed beads.

I kind of like them ... a lot.

And I buy them, lots of them, in all different colours and shapes and sizes and finishes. On the face of it there isn't any good reason for me to have so many, I make precious little in the way of jewellery, nothing at all really beyond the very rare custom order, maybe a wrap bracelet or two and I keep my mum in earrings because as much as she loves them she's forever losing them.

And yet I've drawers full of tiny little glass beads. It was time to use them.

They're like the little work horses of jewellery, almost always there, playing supporting roles to bigger more impressive beads, tying everything together and they're mostly overlooked.


Maybe that's why I like them so much, hard at work and getting very little credit. They're a bit like the wadding in the quilt, all the glory goes to the gorgeous fabric, but it just wouldn't be a quilt without the wadding.

They're fairly time consuming little things to make, usually with anywhere between 200 and 400 individual beads to sew, but I enjoy making them.

They're a bit too different from what I usually make to sit comfortably in my shop, so I've opened another. So far I've been wrapped up in brooches but have plans for pendants and maybe some earrings too.


You can find them all now at 100s and 1000s on Folksy, well all apart from the leaf which is eagerly awaiting the arrival of a little ladybird.

Gift it?

I'm asked more and more often by my customers these days if I'm willing to send items as gifts and the simple answer is that I'm more than happy to send any purchase direct to the giftee if need be.

Image courtesy of Swirlyarts

I get that we're all busy beavering away, between work, kids, housework, school schedules and just trying to find five minutes to sit still once in a blue moon it's all too easy for one day to blur into the next and before we know it birthdays, Christmas, Mothers Day, Fathers Day and all those other days loom before us and sometimes schedules just don't allow for us to make the trip home or to see a friend on exactly the right day or weekend. Even thinking of Christmas this year when travel of any kind was pretty much a no go if not downright dangerous and the thought of a gift making it through the post once, never mind twice was stressful enough.

That doesn't mean that you don't want your gift to arrive on time though, sure you can always visit at the weekend later.

So, if you need something sent directly just drop me a line with the recipient's UK address at the time of purchase and I'll sort the rest. All gifts are sent gift wrapped in simple ribbon tied heavy cream calico gift bags with a handwritten tag and the usual confirmation bumpf (receipt, shipping label) will be emailed to the customer, rather than included with the purchase as they normally would.

The bags are entirely reusable and can be used again and again for gifts or storage or even to fill with dried lavender or herbs and used as a scented bag.

Gift wrapping is free of charge on all single purchase items, however if you purchase more than one item with the intention of each item going to separate UK addresses then the full postage cost of each item as stated in my shop will apply. This amount will be invoiced separately via paypal.

Oh and if you happen to order a purse, coin purse, one of the minis, full sized wallet or whatever it is, it'll be sent with a new penny in coin compartment for luck because you can't give an empty purse as a present.

A very happy bunny

I know it seems an odd thing to be happy or pleased about, but I finally have a new best seller:)

For the past year the top spot has been held (rather firmly) by the big ass daisy.

Obviously you won't get the gist from a photo but that bad boy is about a metre across. I do still love the daisy, I really do, I even have two of them myself but at the final count I'd made 23 of these (not counting my own) and a stack of mini ones too and there are really only so many daisies one girl can make.



I don't mind admitting that it was a bit annoying having an item that I no longer make as my best seller, but I'm very glad to say that my wallets have now easily out stripped the daisy:)

And they're back in stock now too!

Folksy Friday - Kick the leaves

In a garden behind my home there is a huge tree.

I've never really bothered to find out what kind of tree it is, but I like it. It's an absolute monster of a tree and it gives my garden some dappled shade in the Summer.

It's also a very easy going tree. If it were a person it would grow old gracefully, embracing the grey hairs and the little lines that are proof that fun was had.

It gives up the ghost of Summer very easily, turning beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red and casting it's leaves lazily in even a slight breeze.

Autumn comes very early in my back garden and Chloe and I can sweep up all the golden leaves only to kick them all over the garden again and we can do this in the blazing afternoon sunshine.

I'm lucky to live in a place where there is still room for trees and gardens to catch the falling leaves. Do you kick the leaves?

Whimper

I've only gone and done it again.  Since Tuesday I've had a blinding headache and a noticable case of the shakes after standing for nearly two hours waiting for and then watching the bands with Chloe.  It was a great day and Chloe loved every minute of it, but of course I did my usual routine and spent all our time in the scorching sun covering Chloe up and plastering her in suncream and making sure she drank plenty of fluids and didn't bother a jot about myself.  So I'm a little rough around the edges at the minute.

I'd say we live and learn but you probably all know me well enough by now to know that if I did the same thing last year and th eyear before, chances are that I won't be learning anything new in time for next year!

The July Jesters are still going strong and I'm managing to keep up alongside getting ready for another craft fair on 7 August.  I've been making button bird purses again ...

And the rest of the Jesters aren't exactly struggling to keep up either.

Here are some of my favourites today...

Folksy Friday - July Jesters

Woohoo, day 9 and I'm at least managing to keep up with the listings. Hmm, still 22 days to go though, so you'll have to wish me luck.

I'm not alone in challenging myself to list an item every day in July, and I imagine I'm also not the only one with an ever expanding wish list.

Here are some of my favourites ....

Belmont Tower Craft Fair

I spent almost all day Saturday at Belmont Tower Craft Fair. My very lovely mummy and I arrived a little after 8.30am and started to set up my stall. Well, I set up my stall and my very lovely mummy (who knows better, bless her) sat drinking coffee and watching me from a safe distance.

We all like things done our own way, don't we?

I finished up sorting the stall out and with plenty of time left before the doors opened I started having a natter to some of the other crafters. It turned out that all bar two of us were completely new to the fair so we had no idea what to expect.

I sat having a quick coffee and watched a few people taking photos of their stalls once they were ready and I thought, I must remember to take a photo!

Anyway ....
Head like a sieve as usual, honestly where some things are concerned no sooner have I put it in there, than it falls straight back out again. Photos seem to be one of those things. But look ...

Chocolate!


Thought that might work.

I was really pleased with how the fair went in the end. It wasn't the busiest, but because the other stall holders and the customers were of the absolutely outstandingly brilliant variety it meant that I got to stand and have a chat with everyone instead of having to excuse myself every few minutes.

Sales wise I did pretty well, well enough that I've booked again for next month (bagged the last free table) and I've booked ahead for November too. I was very pleased that the first thing I sold was one of my handbags, this one to be exact. The first hour of the fair was very very quiet and all of a sudden a lady appears out of nowhere and declares "Lovely bags, I'll take that one please".

Do you know when it's been so quiet to begin with and then someone asks to buy one of the most expensive things on the stall and it throws you for a second. My mum and I just looked at each other as much as to say "did she just say she wants a bag?", "aye I thought that too, must be the acoustics in here". We just couldn't believe it for a second, but quickly got over it:)

So you'll find me there again on 7 August. Now if I could just ask one of you lovely people to yell, "don't forgot the photos", on my way out the door that would be great. Ta.

July Jesters - Day Four

And I'm already playing catch up! Though I did only miss one day and I have added two new purses today, so I'm back up to date again.

Still I'll have to try better for the rest of the month . . . I will, honest!

Thankfully there have been plenty of lovely new things listed by the July Jesters, though I can't help feeling put to shame slightly when Pipistrelle can manage to crochet an item a day:)

And NOfkants Curios can make a fossil. Doesn't happen overnight you know!

Silvessence can even make things from metal faster than I can plug in a sewing machine.

I really must try harder for the rest of the month because I'm totally letting the side down.

Can I blame the craft fair, I've been blaming it for everything lately and I guess I can probably drag another couple of good days worth of excuses out of it, even though it was on Saturday.

The craft fair? It was great, but that's a post for another day.

Challenge Murphy

One day Murphy will become wise to my little tricks and when that day comes I'm officially screwed, but until then I might as well make his trickery work for me.

I've decided to take part in the July listing club on Folksy. The idea is to list an item every day in July and to help encourage and promote everybody else taking part.

This is my first offering in July



It sounds easy enough, right? 31 items, listing one a day, can't be that hard. Especially if you're like me and have two full boxes of stock sitting in the corner. I could actually list two or three items a day and not run out before the end of July.

The only thing is that the stock in the corner is currently earmarked for a craft fair at Belmont Tower this Saturday. Now there could be two possible outcomes here:

1. Nothing sells at the craft fair on Saturday, I'm a little disappointed but at least I now have a whole load of stock to be listed on Folksy which will allow me to at least keep up with the challenge, or
   
   
2. I sell out on Saturday and arrive home with nothing but empty boxes, which will leave me with nothing to list on Folksy and no way to keep up with the challenge and I'll have to start working like a woman possessed and making as much as possible, keeping in mind that this is the first day of the school holidays so I also have a smallish one to occupy.
   

So, if you were of the 'slightly twisted, loves to take pleasure in other's misfortunes' persuasion which outcome would make you giggle?

Murphy's nothing if not a joker.

And I'm counting on it!

Folksy Friday - How many times have I told you, we don't draw on the walls in this house!

Alternative titles considered were:

• It's not a good idea to slide down the banister when it's screwed to the wall.
• Oh your leg's stuck now is it?
• Stop pulling, you're making it worse and can you not scream when your mouth is so close to my ear!
• Paint goes on the paper!, and
• Do schools really need to close for nine whole weeks.

Oh yes, the Summer holidays are here and following what can only be described as weeks and weeks of glorious weather, I'm now preparing myself for nine long weeks of rain chucking it down.

And because one woman can really only be expected to sit through so many mud pie making sessions, it's time to break out the craft kits:)