Let's Get Crafting!!!!

I'm slightly dopey... no, no really I am. I have the memory of a fish and a teeny tiny attention span so when I received a message from JuJuDollie saying "just looked at Toddler Knits & saw you there! Random but a lovely surprise." My response was "ooo what's that then?"
This is mostly cos my daft little brain forgot that I did a little interview for Let's Get Crafting magazine a while ago and that it was due out this month in their intro to felting section.And here it is! Dopey head aside I am really chuffed with how nice the article looks (even tho it does have my little face in the middle there).Big thanks to the magazine for such a lovely article... now I just have to work out what to do with my balls of wool and knitting needles that came with it!
x
mel

Bird Lovers Gift Guide

Some of you may have noticed my obsession with birds... I'm not quite a fully fledged birdwatcher yet but I reckon I am pretty close to buying some binoculars and spending my days creeping about in the undergrowth! I thought I'd share some of my favourite bird related items for the bird lover in your life!

Kingfisher note book by Inkmeup
Copper Bird Pendant by Alibalijewellery
Springtimebird by Whileshenaps
Kenny The Kingfisher by ME!

Last Posting Dates for Christmas 2010

Crikey O'Rielly people! I can't quite believe it myself but it's almost upon us... the last posting dates to guarantee your parcels arrive for Christmas from my lovely shop are as follows:Sat 4 Dec 2010 South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East (including Japan), Australia and New Zealand

Thursday 9 Dec 2010 Eastern Europe, USA and Canada

Mon 13 Dec 2010 Western Europe

Monday 20th Dec United Kingdom

As always the sooner you get your order in the better... International buyers remember that items can occasionally get trapped and held hostage by customs so order now to be sure! UK buyers... we love our Great British Post Office but remember they aren't always as good as we'd hope!As an added incentive I am running an coupon code in my shop for all my lovely blog friends just enter the code:

CHRISTMASPUDDING

At checkout for a very tasty 10% discount on all your orders... offer is running right up until Christmas eve so you have lots of time to get those great gifts sorted or even just treat yourself because I know you have all been very very good this year!

Robins, Robins and more Robins!

Last Festive season I couldn't keep up with orders for robins so in an attempt to get ahead I have been stockpiling!We have the now traditional feltmeup designs Robins and Chestnut RobinsAnd Little and Big Robinsons Mctweets all decked out in santa hats!Phew... and yesterday I saw the Christmas Coke advert on TV which means folks that we are officially in Christmas mode... sorry guys!

An Online Crafter's Guide to Surviving the Holidays

So the nights are drawing in, the adverts full of Christmas lights are on the telly and this afternoon I heard Christmas music playing in the local shopping centre. Yes It's that time of year again!This will be my third Christmas as in The Felt Menagerie and over the last 2 I have learned a couple of lessons that I thought might be worth sharing in my guide to surviving the holiday season and here they are in no particular order:

Launch your Christmas lines (if you haven't done so already) mine will be hitting the Felt Menagerie over the weekend, have you got your banner and avatar prepared? Do it now even if you don't intend to make you shop festive for a few weeks then it's just a case of changing it and you're ready to go!Sort out your packaging now and set up a packaging station, it's so much easier if it is all set out for you. Make sure you are fully stocked on tape, business cards, boxes, envelopes, shipping labels... what ever it is that usually goes into one of you packages.

Know the last posting dates, last date the UK post office will guarantee a Christmas delivery to the states from the UK is the 6th of December... that's only 1 month away!!! Do your customers know this? You'll need to make sure you let them know early so they can get their orders in! (you can find the dates for elsewhere here if you are UK based)

Preparing your parcels will always take longer than you think it will... and don't forget those post office queues make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to post things, if you do work another job like me (veteran bookslave!) try and avoid doing this on your lunch break... you still need to eat!

Enlist help... John is limbering up for his role over Christmas as Postmaster General as we speak! You can't do it all so even if you aren't getting help with your work ask your family to pull their weight a bit more and help with chores or enlist a pal to stick postage labels on things... I find bribing them with cake helps! Boy is Santa lucky to have an army of elves at his disposal!

Learn to say no... when is your cut off point for custom work? Set one and be firm about it... you already have enough on your plate!Look after yourself, wrap up warm, make sure you get lots of vitamins, make sure you get lots of sleep... set aside some you time because it will get hectic and even you, yes you, need to breathe occasionally!

Enjoy it!... ok it's crazy mad panic but isn't it every year? Find a way to make it fun because it will be over before you know and then you'll miss that buzz!
So now I'm of to put the finishing touches to my Christmas collection, maybe have a Baileys and a Mince Pie and sing some carols while I work....