Playing catch up this week!

Hi Everyone!

Well, this week has been a bit mad for me - I hope you've managed to have a bit more of a relaxed time.

Busy busy getting ready for our next show over on The Craft Store - next Saturday the 19th. We will actually have 2 new button kits, and both will be exclusive to them for 7 days. As we move forward, most items that we launch over on the channel will be exclusive for a period of time. More about the kits next week.

The real rushing has been for the big job that I can't talk about haha. Lots and lots of extra items at very very rushed timescales now until the end of the month. A case of "oh I bet Gina can do that" I think haha! All very exciting, though time consuming!

Above is the video of last week's "Rain" contributions. Goodness me, every week just gets better, honestly! So many wonderfully creative people!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone xx

Merry Christmas!

Whatever, however, you celebrate the season, we wish you a good one.

For us, it is Christmas, and I will hopefully be in my dressing gown at least until lunch time! I'll have to get dressed for Toby's walk of course. 😄 

Thank you all for your support this past year. We really appreciate it. 

Stay safe, stay well and healthy, and enjoy the season.

 

Sorry for the silence!

It's been one of those weeks (and a bit). Facebook (business) pages is really messing up - I posted thank you's to you all for tuning in and the post has disappeared. I made another posting - nope, gone and then I've had a week where I couldn't actually type anything in. I've also got a thing showing that there is a message on the business page - but can I find it? Nope. Nowhere to be seen. If you have tried to message, best to send it through email, or try again. So, that has been quite a pain to say the least.

We have been busy packing of course, all show orders got out well within the time, including the delayed dispatch items - so thank you again. Our next show isn't until July 24 - giving us some vital catch up time. 

I've been suffering quite badly with my sinuses recently (not anything new particularly) and am now waiting to get back to see the ENT as my usual tricks aren't clearing them up this time. This has meant time in front of a screen is limited, as my eyes don't do so well and I've had a bad earache. Not helpful when it is book keeping time haha. It has also meant the intros to my video can't really be filmed - I look so bleary eyed :) Guess I am more vain than I thought! 

I also have suspected Plantar fasciitis. Again, waiting to see a specialist, as over the counter insoles have not helped (and possible made the problem worse). I now cannot stand for very long at all and walking is incredibly painful. So, by the time we've packed orders I'm sitting down with my foot up trying not to feel lazy.

However - I have been working on an exciting project which involves sitting comfortably, making, and taking lots of step-by-step photos.....

So all in all I hope to be a bit caught up next week and back to making videos.

In other news - this year I joined the National Button Society. I am already a member of the British Button Society, but joining the American one seemed a wise move. Especially as this year their convention is online, so I will be able to attend (ok, some of the things I want to attend will mean some very late nights, but I'll figure it out). But, even more exciting, the Americans do competition "trays". 

It isn't something done here, and it is something I've always been intrigued by. Well, this year one of the categories is fabric buttons. And of course, being virtual, entry is by emailed image. Probably the first and only time I will be able to take part (no way I would post my button collection), so I am really looking forward to having a day or so going through those tins above (and a fair few others) and finding the right vintage and antique buttons to make up the tray. I am sure I won't "win" (there's no prize this year) as there are a lot of rules to follow as to buttons and types and so on and newbies never get it right as I understand, but I am going to enjoy the process!

Stay well and warm everyone, and I hope you are all keeping well yourselves

 

Another jigsaw for you - Ribbonwork

I very nearly forgot to add a jigsaw this weekend! Sorry it is late.

I have spent the weekend re-arranging. And clearing out. I've been doing the filming in the spare room, but it was getting rather silly. I would take things upstairs to film or photograph, inevitably leave something downstairs in my workroom, or later, upstairs. And, as someone who is a lazy crafter, this is not good. Lazy in the sense that I do find it easier to just leave things and start the next project, which translates as messy to an outsider. I'm not messy when working, I just don't like the tidying afterwards! Trust me, there is a difference :)

So, now everything is on one place. Everything. I'll be spending ages setting up the angles of the lights next I suspect!

Have a great week!

Another snow day... or week!

 

Here we go again! Couldn't get out yesterday and certainly can't today. So, if you are waiting on orders do please rest assured they will get sent the moment we can.

As the forecast was for snow, we left the unit on Friday with boxes of components to pack. Yesterday it was button packs for the journal kits - today I think I will be winding wire for ganutell kits.

We have two shows coming up on Hochanda - on the 25th. We'll have a couple of new kits too, so we have at least got quite a lot to keep us busy. Especially when our phone lines have decided to play up again (they went down a month ago). Don't even get me started on that subject. How a nation is meant to work from home when BT can't be bothered to modernise lines I really don't know. We loose our phone and internet at least twice a year - and sometimes more...

Enough of that! 

I also managed to do a little more writing over the weekend. Not as much as I would have liked, but I am starting to wrestle the thing into some kind of sense I think....

(look! old fashioned index cards!)

Stay safe and well everyone

Filming... or not!

 

Today I've been doing a little bit of filming and editing - getting a new button tutorial ready for YouTube. Turns out that I hadn't turned on the camera for part of the video - so when I turned it off, I was turning it on - and filming an empty table... 

We've also decided to start re-filming all of the button DVDs, to make them online content. So many people no longer have DVDs, and to be fair, our equipment is so much better. Not to mention the fact that I've learnt a lot since 2011 (when we released the first DVDs) and now work the odd button in an entirely different way.

But, in between this rather mammoth task, I do want to film the odd little thing for either YouTube, or perhaps other courses. If there's something you'd like to see a video tutorial of, please let me know. I can't guarantee I will be able to do everything on the list, but it would be nice to know what you would like.

Keep safe and well everyone x

If it's too good to be true...

For those of you who buy Au Ver a Soie silks from us, please be on the lookout for outlets / people selling them cheap.

It turns out that between Christmas and New Year, the Au Ver A Soie factory in France was robbed. This is a huge blow to the small company, who really had managed to get themselves back on a good footing after losing virtually everything in a major fire a few years back.

They announced this theft on their social media pages, and it seems from the translations that the majority of what was taken was their Soie de Paris, Tram and Perlee, along with their sewing silks, "surfine" and 1003.

I am not sure how the stolen items were packaged, but they do have loose skeins, and have been using more and more of the reels as you can see in the image above. If the mini perlee has been taken, these are on little wooden spools, and is the tram silk (often used for fly fishing), and occasionally cardboard spools are used. The image shows some of the options.

Please - if you see any of their products sold at prices too good to be true on outlets such as eBay, etc, let them know at info@auverasoie.com - I am sure they would rather be falsely notified of a real seller then not told about a seller that is actually a thief.

Of course, this may mean that some colours and types are not able to be ordered for a while, as they will need to get their stocks back on track.