Hello! I'm back.... sort of...

Hey I'm back! Did you miss me?

Well I really haven't had much luck with technology - my poor little netbook is still soldiering on, albeit with no Internet connection, no touch pad functionality and no working SD card slot. Only two of it's four USB ports work though - one for a mouse and the other for my memory stick - but, thankfully, the battery charging point still works so it's not all bad.

Time to focus...

You may have noticed I have been a little quiet over the past couple of weeks.

This is mainly because I have been pretty busy trying to get my dress finished for the 60's dance and getting a couple of large Sweet Kitty orders started but also, after my post last week about what makes a good blog, because I have been having a long hard think about what I actually blog FOR and where I see myself and this blog heading over the next year...

Truth is I need to be making some money ( which reminds me - see that Mollie Makes banner at the top? If you click on that and subscribe to Mollie or any of the other magazines available I get a small commission. It all helps.) Trouble is I don't drive and live out in the styx so the only real job opportunities that are open to me are stacking shelves in the local supermarket or care work, neither of which really appeal...   I already have a part time job book keeping for my other half's motorbike shop and I do a day's cleaning every couple of weeks. I recently took in some ironing for a friend who is just too busy (and hates it anyway) and will be doing that regularly too but what I REALLY want to do is earn a living - or at least a regular income - from Forest Flower Designs.   I love designing and making my products. I get a warm glow every time someone else likes them enough to part with their cash and take them home. I really want my little Forest Flower to grow and grow and grow...

With that in mind I have set up a new blog - dedicated not just to Forest Flower Designs but to handmade business in general. I know I could have just posted more FFD posts on this blog but I really felt it deserved a home, and a URL, of it's own.

So now it does - www.forestflowerdesigns.co.uk 


I will still be blogging here (albeit not quite as regularly as before). It's taken me best part of 4 years to build this blog up to the place it is now  and I am not about to abandon it just yet! I still have plenty of makes, tutorials, recipes, days out and reviews to share with you but from now on I will be focusing my energy on growing my business and getting my own little brand of handcrafted cuteness into as many homes as possible.

I would love it if you would join me - my google friends box is looking a little empty right now although I'm sure it will fill up in time - I can't wait to share my new designs and inspirations with you not to mention all those other fabulous crafty businesses out there! 

Thanks for your support, dear readers, over the past 4 years and here's to many more blogging years to come!

xx

What makes a good blog?

image courtesy of Nujalee/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you are on Twitter you may have come across 'Twitter chats'. Usually based around a particular theme, hobby, interest or TV program and usually accompanied by their very own 'hashtag' to enable users to follow the conversation.

Tuesday nights see not one but two Twitter chats I like to make an effort to follow - #craftblogclub I have mentioned before, hosted by Emma @livepeachey and #CBUK hosted by Hillary at @craftbloguk 
Both chats are aimed primarily at craft bloggers (although if you are looking to find NEW craft blogs to read then these hashtags are a great place to start), and both are a great source of inspiration and advice.

Last night's #craftblogclub chat was all about Pinterest. You know how much I love Pinterest - it's a great place to store ideas and get inspiration! You can read Emma's round up of that chat here.

#CBUK concentrated on the tricky subject of engaging readers.
The whole point of blogging for most of us is that we are sharing our thoughts, images, ideas, knowledge with the world wide web (does anyone actually still use that term?). In return we like to see that people are interested - whatever people say about not caring about the stats, in the end we want people to visit our blogs, look around, comment and, perhaps most importantly, subscribe, follow and come back another time.

Now I am not one to worry myself too much about keywords and SEO - I like to think I write descriptively enough for searches to find me and I always make sure I use a number of different phrases within each post to ensure that I have covered several search options. For example my tshirt yarn projects posts include phrases like 'tshirt yarn projects' 'tshirt yarn tutorial' 'making tshirt yarn' 'crochet with tshirt yarn' and 'recycling tshirts' - phrases I would hope anyone actively searching for tshirt yarn related blog posts might use.  That said I have had more vistors to those posts via the images I have pinned on pinterest. I know there is room for improvement and I realise I am going to have to take SEO a little more seriously if I am to get more visitors...

But once they are here, how do we keep them here, get them to contribute and better still get them to return?

I don't know if there is a set formula that works - great content obviously is the key. You have to be writing stuff that people WANT to read or else they will just click away. Great images help tremendously, particularly if you also use Pinterest to promote your blog. I have noticed a distinct upturn in visitors via Pinterest over the last few months - never underestimate the power of a beautiful photograph, particularly if it illustrates a tutorial/recipe/how to!

But most importantly you must LOVE what you are doing! If you're not mad keen on your latest blog post how can you expect anyone else to be? Content written because you feel you HAVE to will never be as good as content written that you really love/believe in.  I have always said that when blogging becomes a chore it's time to step back and re-evaluate.

So what do you think makes a good blog?
What makes you hit the 'Subscribe' button? (top of right hand column by the way ;-) )
What makes you want to keep coming back?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Useful bloggy stuff...

You know Pinterest right? Lots of gorgeous images of hazy summer days, beautiful continental back street cafes, cake, cute kittens, incredible art, crafts and interiors I could only dream of reproducing, more cake, even more cute kittens, some inspirational quotes, designer outfits, famous people wearing designer outfits, some famous people wearing no outfits at all... and so on. Oh, did I mention kittens? And cake?

But there is more to Pinterest than kittens and cake. Honest.

I can happily spend an entire Sunday afternoon/football match/episode of Top Gear scrolling through pin boards repinning anything that catches my eye. Some of it is even quite useful (recipes, craft, DIY's etc). I began one board 'Useful Bloggy Stuff' a few months back. It's packed full of hints and tips on improving your blog, making it pretty and using social media (including Pinterest) as a way to promote it effectively.
Yesterday I thought it might be a good idea to actually apply some of the tips and pretty up my blog a bit.

The first thing I did was take a fresh look at my template - I have removed the background image, adjusted the column widths slightly, changed the font to one that is a bit easier to read (I loved the curly 'Crafty Girls' font but it is quite difficult to read, worse on some browsers than others!) and simplified things by using only 2 fonts - one for the actual posts and something a bit more fancy for the titles, tabs and side bar.

Then I tidied up the side bar - getting rid of all the different social media buttons and adding some funky matching buttons instead. Can you see them at the top of my side bar? aren't they a bit cute? Now it's easy peasy to click through and follow my facebook, twitter and pinterest accounts or subscribe to the RSS feed.  There's room for another so who knows - I may start a YouTube channel next ;-)  You can find loads of different styles of buttons (including hearts and stars) in many colours to download for free at Bourne Creative along with basic HTML coding to add them to your blog.

Another great piece of coding I found was pinned from a lovely blog called Something Swanky - this one is what is known as a Blogger Hack - basically some clever person has taken a popular and useful Wordpress widget and coded it for use on Blogger blogs. This one is for the horizontal bar running across the top of the blog (look above this post) and showcases recent posts with clickable pictures. Cool, huh?




Finally (and this is the best one!) I have added a 'Pin It' button that appears over any picture on my blog and allows other people to pin what they like to their own boards!
Go on try it - let your mouse hover over the image, click on the 'P' and you are ready to add it to your own pinboard!
Again, just a simple bit of HTML applied in the right part of the template coding from KEVINANDAMANDA.COM and now my blog can fully join in the Pinterest party!!

Source: kevinandamanda.com via Anthea on Pinterest

There are a few more tweaks I still want to do - I love this idea from Living, Laughing and Loving. She has created cute co-ordinated side bar titles to really tie her blog design together. I also want to have a go at creating a 'library' of tutorials and recipes like this one from The Crafty CPA .

I'm sure I will find more tweaks to try as my 'Useful Bloggy Stuff' pinboard grows. But one thing at a time :-)

Do you have a blog? Fancy having a go at some of these tweaks? Why not turn your little corner of the internet into something a bit more special. (Please remember to back up your blog before you start. Just in case)  If you do please let me know - so we can all pop over and 'ahhhhhh' at your gorgeous blog!

Dear spammers . . .

Go away!

Seriously.

I am getting tired of logging in to my blogger dashboard, seeing that I have 10 comments for moderation and finding every single one of them is some gobbledygook, very badly translated from whichever language is your native one (it certainly isn't English), that bears absolutely no relevance to the post you have chosen to contaminate and ends with a link to your website that wishes to sell me cheap (fake) makeup/sunglasses/bags/cigarettes or, worse, inviting me to 'enlarge my manhood' (stop sniggering at the back there!), lighten my skin or get rid of my acne scars forever.

I work hard on my blog. I like to think I write well and I take care to include content I think others might be interested in. I spend a lot of time choosing the right images to illustrate my posts - 99% of them are my own photographs which I edit to look their best. I value every single one of my readers and love getting their point of view which is why I have comments enabled and why I don't use CAPTCHA coz I know just how annoying that is. I build up relationships with regular readers, some have even become friends. I am pretty certain none of them really want fake cigarettes either . . .

I'm glad that Blogger's own inbuilt spam defences work well and send most of it directly to the spam folder. It's smart enough to recognise most other types of spam to. In fact pretty much any comment with a link in it goes into my 'awaiting moderation' folder and most are swiftly deleted.

So it's very rare that any spam makes it onto my actual blog.

Which makes me wonder why you actually do it. I mean, do you really think any self-respecting blogger will allow that spam to sit there undeleted? And if it does get missed do you really think anyone would actually click on your link?

Does ANYBODY ever click on a spam link?

Really?

There is one upside - my stats (page hits) look pretty good (and however much we say we don't care about that, we do really don't we?) but as with everything it's quality rather than quantity that counts. 400 hits a day is amazing (for me). It's shame that 300 of those are from sources that have 'xxx' or 'adultblog' in the address!

I want to keep writing and sharing my life, my passions,  my makes, my pictures and my random ramblings but I really wish that those of you who wish to use my blog as a platform for your own (probably illegal) money spinning schemes would just bog off.

no love,

Me x


* If you blog, do you get plagued with spam comments too? Is it a sign that our blogs are doing ok and ranking well and we should just put up? I would love to hear your thoughts (and I may even add some of the spam comments - without the spam link - that come through for this post too, just to illustrate my point)

This post has been linked up to Mummy Barrow's fab 'Ranty Friday' 

Please click on the badge above to read more ranty posts :-)

Handmade Heart Swap

I love blog swaps! It's an opportunity to get to know other bloggers a bit better and even discover new blogs you may not have read before. I took part in my first proper blog swap a couple of months ago - a button swap - and thoroughly enjoyed rooting through my button stash and picking out 50 buttons for my swap partner.

This month I have taken part in Mary Poppins' Handmade Heart Swap

The Little Blog Awards

I had an email today to tell me that my blog has been nominated for the coveted Dorset Cereals 'Little Blog Awards' How lovely is that? Many of my favourite blogs have gained this prestigious award and it's a real honour to be in the running.

For those of you who don't know how this one works, all nominated blogs collect votes throughout the month and the blog with the most votes wins the award for that month. The winner gets a lovely goody bag from Dorset cereals, including the exclusive Little Blog Awards egg cup (which I want. Sooooooo badly.) and a lovely badge to proudly display on their blog.

It's not about the prize though (although maybe a little bit. Did I mention the egg cup...?) but about the recognition. I blog because I love to share, but I would be a liar if I said other peoples opinion of my little corner of cyberspace didn't bother me. Of course your opinion matters to me. I get a little glow whenever someone takes the time to read and comment on a post or share my blog with their friends through Twitter, Facebook or Google+ (although I am still struggling to figure out that one...)  So to think that someone considers my blog worthy of this award is making my heart sing :-)

I am having trouble uploading the 'Vote for Me' badge onto my sidebar at the moment but if you could take the time to click on the link below and vote for my blog I would be ever so grateful. And if I am lucky enough to win the award I will come up with a way to say thank you to you all for your time, your vote and your continued support xx

Please vote for my blog in the 'Little Blog Awards' here

Dynamic Views no more...

Ok, so I have been fiddling a lot with this blog since I got my laptop back in February.

I do apologise.

I had tried the new Blogger template 'Dynamic Views' when they first released it but didn't like that fact that it removed ALL my sidebar gadgets - you know the lovely followers bit, the badges, the blog archive and the tags. All they had included was the email subscription tab. I felt it took away the character of the blog, After a week or so I went back to my old template.

That said I did like the clean lines. It looked different to all the other bloggy templates out there...

Bring back the Peace and Harmony...

In my last actual blog post I mentioned that I would be easing off on the blogging for a while to concentrate on my health, family, the Other Half's business and Christmas. I had planned to continue posting Silent Sunday photos and write a post or two when the mood took me but, once again the Universe just had to step in and make sure I took a proper break.

By blowing up my netbook.

Four days before Christmas.

The cable to the webcam shorted and burned a nice black hole in my screen. The screen itself is simple enough to replace. The cable, however is a whole other kettle of fish. Apparently it's only available from three sources - Acer direct, a supplier in Japan and another in the US - and with a delivery time of 21 working days wherever it came from. Factor in the Xmas/New Year holidays, the inevitable backlog of orders due to aforementioned holidays and the shitty weather that is bound to come in after the holidays and delay everything further still. Then add a dash of my extraordinary (bad) luck when it comes to anything technical. What you end up with is no netbook for best part of a month!

And it is driving me nuts!!

Yes, we have a PC but it's situated in the corner of the room so you have to sit with your back to everyone - not ideal when you have a little one running riot with felt tip pens. Besides which Little Man gets jealous when I have PC on anything other than Cbeebies, Nick Jr or the newly discovered Sesame Street website. 

That was the beauty of the netbook. It was perfectly proportioned for stealth blogging. And stealth tweeting...*

In the evening the PC is reserved exclusively for the Other Half to tweak his website, list stuff on Ebay, read crash.net and play cards. Which is why, of course, I got the netbook in the first place. It allows me to write, edit photographs, build my own website and tweet to my hearts content from the comfort of my sofa. It saves us getting into fisticuffs over keyboard rights and having shouty conversations that begin with "wait until I win a game of Spider Solitaire..."  Not for nothing did I name it 'The Bringer of Peace and Harmony'.

Even if I could get on the PC it can be so slow that I can bath the Little Man and get him to bed in the time it takes to delete that last sentence, and there are so many pictures of bike spares (Ebay fodder) stored on it that the photo editing suite takes about 15 years to load...

So I have been reduced to drafting this post ON PAPER. WITH A PEN.  The idea is that it will only take 15 minutes to transcribe it to Blogger and publish it. I surely should be able to grab 15 minutes at some point during the day. It probably won't be that simple. It never is.**

I wonder if it would be easier to just scan the sheet of A4 and then post as a picture but I fear you may not be able to read the coffee-ring decorated, handwritten scrawl.

And, besides, the scanner doesn't work either...

*Yes, Twitter I have missed you terribly, in case you were wondering.

** It was, actually, surprisingly simple. Apart from the Little Man constantly saying "Are you nearly done yet? Can I go on Cbeebies now?"

Something has got to give...

My life is slowly disintegrating into utter chaos.

I have far too many things to do - there is keeping on top of all the paperwork for the OH's motorcycle retail business; developing a website for the charity my MIL works for (that was founded by her mum, OH's Nan); developing my own website for Forest Flower Designs; keeping up with the orders and commissions for Forest Flower Designs; keeping the house in a half decent state of repair (OH doesn't do DIY) on an extremely limited budget.Then there is general housework, cooking, washing, ironing, cleaning, tidying up the mess everyone else thoughtfully leaves for me to do. And last but by no means least being a mummy to my Little Man and keeping him occupied in a positive way throughout the day whilst trying to do everything else (which means not just allowing him to sit in front of the TV all day...) Is it any wonder why I am permanently on the edge of exhaustion? Sometimes it only takes one tiny little thing to tip me over the edge and the whole day lies in ruins as I huff and puff and maybe slam a door or two. Or dissolve into a useless, tear-streaked mess.

Something has got to give!

Me me meme

I love these meme thingies - here's one I got tagged in a while back by the lovely Julia at I need Curtains... 

The Me Me Meme

If you could go back in time and relive one moment, what would it be?

First proper cuddle with my little Man after an exhausting labour and a stint for him in intensive care was an amazing moment

If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be?

There are many things I wish I had or hadn't done, opportunities wasted, snogs that weren't really a good idea... but if I changed any of them I wouldn't be who I am now...

What Movie/TV character do you most resemble in personality?

Back in the days of 'Friends' there was a bit of character comparison going on. I, apparently, was Rachel. I'm not sure but I suppose, given the opportunity I could be pretty 'mean on the boat'...

What TV/Movie character would you most like to be?

Dana Scully - she was cool, intelligent, didn't take no shit and got to snog foxy Mulder

If you could push one person off a cliff and get away with it, who would it be?

how could you even suggest such a thing...?

Name one habit you want to change in yourself?

My inability to make up my mind...oh hang on a sec...maybe not...

Describe yourself in one word.

Ticklish

Describe the person who named you in the Meme in one word?

Cute

Why do you blog? (Answer in one sentence)

Juggling words into something that reads well, makes sense and is vaguely interesting to other people is a challenge I kind of enjoy.

There, now you know me a whole lot better don't you?

So now I pass the meme on to three more lovely bloggers and fellow #MUMenTUM mums...
Clare at Seasider in the City
Liska at New Mum Online
Anthea at Blue Bear Wood
If any of you ladies have done this one already I apologise... :-)

Good Bloggers Pay it Forward...

It so nice when a fellow blogger likes your blog enough to recommend it to their readers and that is just what Pay it Forward is all about! So many thanks to the lovely Kerry at Multiple Mummy for tagging me and all the other MUMenTUM ladies (thanks for tagging ALL of us!)

And now - the Rules
1. Put the badge at the top of your post.....DONE
2. Refer to the lovely blogger(s) who awarded it.....DONE
3. Pay it forward to five others....

So here are five blogs I pop along to regularly
1.  Michelle at Lost in Translation is new to blogging and would really appreciate some more blog love :)
2.  Tracey at Painted Ghost makes gorgeous things for babies and is right on my wavelength
3. Erica at 92three30 A lovely blog full of great reviews and gorgeous photos. And possibly the best named 'parent of school age kids' blog ever!
4. Him up North at The Blog up North He always makes me chuckle. Even when that's probably not what he intended. Probably already been tagged but what the hell...
5. John at Files and Records Father of 5 lives much further up North than Him up North! Cooks a lot of curry...

So there you have it - five very different blogs. Hope you find something new you enjoy :)

#TheGallery My Blog

Well thanks Tara for giving us another toughie...

When I first set up my blog almost 2 years ago, I didn't really have any 'plan'. It was just a collection of random ramblings - you can read one of my first posts here. Over the next few months I grew more confident using digital photography and the Picasa editing programme and included more pictures to illustrate my stories. Linking up with other bloggers and actually gaining some followers (you are all fab btw) has spurred me on to blog more consistently and Twitter has proved to be a brilliant way to share my ramblings with the rest of cyber space!

To be fair I could probably wax lyrical about my blog for several well padded paragraphs but trying to pin down just exactly what it is all about and then translating that into a photograph...well...that's a little more tricky.

Not quite as hard as trying to get any blog posts written during the day with an inquisitive nearly-three year old wanting to type alphabet on 'mummy's little puter' but that's another story...

So here is my little man with my lovely camera. My blog would not exist without either of them.

The camera is an 8.2 MP super slimline pocket digi camera by a little known but long established Japanese company Yashica - my dad's old SLR (which I still have somewhere but could not find to photograph for this post) that he bought back in the 60's was a Yashica. I bought this one from my brother for £25 and it is quite possibly the best camera I have ever had! It has some great functions - probably more than I will ever use but I can't wait to try out the 'fireworks' setting :). The macro setting is fabulous, as you can see here.

My little man is a 2008 vintage. Didn't come with a manual so I am learning new functions everyday! Can be a bit temperamental (can't we all?) but nothing a big hug can't sort out. He is priceless.

Everyday he gives me a reason to get out and discover new things and find joy in the most mundane occurrences. You should have seen his face when I told him we would be going on the bus the other day! He takes an interest in everything I do and wants to be a part of it all and, yes, it can be a bit wearing at times but I recognise his insatiable need to 'know' things (well he must have got from one of us...). He has shown me that it's the little things that are important. And he has shown me that, invariably, a cardboard box has far more potential for imaginative play than whatever was inside it...

He is a constant source of inspiration :)

Now why not hop along to Sticky Fingers and discover a whole load of blogs and their inspiration.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the pictures for this post were actually taken on my phone (as someone else had the camera, obviously) which has a respectable 5MP camera and is perfect for those 'Oh I wish I had my camera' moments...

Look! I got an award!! :)

I have my first blog award!!
Many thanks to Anna at The Light Boat for nominating me for a Kreative Blogger award. This a lovely twist on the 'pay it forward' theme that's been featuring quite strongly in my universe lately. A great way to show your appreciation to the authors of blogs you enjoy reading, introduce them to your readers (that's you!) whilst at the same time reveal ten facts about yourself so your new readers can get to know you a bit better :)

so... Ten Things You Didn't Know About Me

1. I am an archaeology geek with particular interest in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods of pre-history
2. When I left school, I didn't go to college, I joined a band!
3. I make amazing pastry - a skill inherited from my Grandma
4. I lurve marmite (ok, I know I've possibly lost some of you with that one...)
5. I haven't been to the dentist since I left school (oops...there go a couple more! )
6. I have been working (on and off and on again) on two novels for best part of 20 years. They WILL get finished one day...
7. I have a soft spot for Louis Theroux
8. I have a green belt in Shaolin Kung Fu
9. I love the films of Terry Gilliam
10. I swear FAR too much

And the ten blogs I would like to nominate are:

• Poetry, Prose and Real Life
• A Life Less Simple
• Creating Trouble
• Mopshells Musings
• Teens N Twincesses
• Painted Ghost
• Live Otherwise
• Seasider in the City
• The Gingerbread House
• Mummy from the Heart

They are all bloggers I know personally, or have got to know recently via the Bloggiverse and Twitter.

What's in my fridge...

Ok so I have seen this meme floating around blogland recently - one fridge of particular note can be seen here at The Blog Up North. I had hoped that, as I am relatively new in the Twitter/Blogging community I might escape unscathed, but alas I have been tagged... (Thanks Clare at Seasider in the City )

So for your visual delight I present...my fridge

In case you want to re-create this fridge at home you will need...
2 lt semi-skimmed milk, 3 lt orange juice, Tip Top squirty cream, pickled onions, balti paste, sundried tomatoes, olives,4 eggs (free range of course;) ) baking margerine, carrots, potatoes, onions, spinach, baby leaf salad, grapes, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, small vacuum pack of cooked beetroots, cooking apples (I promised to make apple crumble this weekend), nearly empty tub of houmous, half a tin of Alphabetti, baked beans, jam, pickle, mayo (reduced fat - I am on a diet after all), lemon juice, Very Lazy Chopped Ginger, some homemade marmalade, cheese, Dairylea in all it's forms, kids yoghurts, low fat fruity yoghurts, fruity jelly pots and some buttery spread, something unidentifiable in a tub (which has been thrown away you will be relieved to hear!). Oh, and a cling wrapped lump of gingerbread biscuit dough...

There, I bet you're impressed! Thank God I cleaned it out and stocked it up this week. Had I been required to do this last week all you'd have seen was a tub of old beef stew, some squidgy veggies and half a tin of KiteKat...

Now I am supposed to pass it on. As I mentioned I am fairly new to all this so I hope the 'chosen ones' a: haven't already done this and b:don't mind getting tagged :)

Liz at Me and My Shadow
Julia at I Need Curtains for the Window...
Kelly at The Wonderful World of Kokokelli
Elaine at Fun as a Gran
The fab McCaskie Clan
Have fun with it all of you. :)

August A-teamers part 2

I am afraid to say I have been a little lax in the blogging department these past couple of weeks. To be honest I have been a little lax in just about every department! The house is in desperate need of a day of cleaning, sorting and tidying. The paperwork for both businesses is piling up and really needs looking at and filing before I forget to pay people I should! We've all been laid low with a tummy bug this week too, which hasn't helped!

I have however managed to keep up (more or less) with the A-teamers at Folksy listing a new item (almost) every day! Here is a little selection of things that have been added to the Forest Flower shop recently...

I have had a few other Forest Flower developments too.

The 'Fairytale' Mini Bunting range I have been working on using the gorgeous fabrics from Makower and featuring pirates, mermaids, fairy princesses and cute farm animals is coming together nicely and will hopefully be in stock at our wonderful local independent bookshop - The Forest Bookshop in Coleford in time for Christmas!

(For a little look at the Pirate bunting click here.)

I have also been looking into increasing the range of 'scented' products I make and expanding on the actual fragrances available. After all, homegrown lavender is lovely but not to everyones taste and, besides my harvest is almost depleted! I know a little about essential oils but was concerned that just adding a few drops to the stuffing would a: not be enough and b: possibly leave oily patches on the fabrics.

So after posting a question on the fantastically helpful Folksy forum and doing a little online research I have found a great product called 'Aromabeads'.

These little plastic granules literally soak up the fragrance oil and lock it in creating strongly scented beads I can add to my stuffing. There are hundreds of cosmetic grade fragrance oils to choose from - it was difficult to know where to start but I have settled on five for now and we'll see how they go!

So keep a look out for new scented birds and hearts available from Forest Flower soon! 

(Shame we don't have a virtual 'scratch and sniff' button but you'll just have to take my word for it that they are all GORGEOUS!)

The Folksy A-Team!

After taking part in the June Loons and thouroughly enjoying myself, even if I did have to bow out halfway through when life kind of 'took over', I was itching to get back and do another monthly listing challenge.  July Jesters came and went and here we are in August with the A-Teamers. I have been doing my best to keep up to date, making and listing one item per day and so far so good...

Here's a little collage of the items I have listed in my shop this week. Unfortunately I just haven't had the time to blog daily this time but there are plenty of fabulous items on offer.

If you want to keep up with all the new pretties being posted each day and you are on Twitter keep an eye on the #augustateamers. Not only are the daily listings posted by those who tweet but also any related blog posts.

One of the best parts of being part of the Folksy community is that we all do our best to help, support and promote each other. Folksy Friday is one way to show your own personal pick of items for sale - usually with a theme. I do one on the second Friday of the month (ooo which means there's one due this Friday - I had better get searching for goodies ;)). Another way is with Showcase Sunday - this is where we pick one seller and promote their shop to all of our friends. I post this one on my Forest Flower facebook page and this week featured the gorgeous SnailEmporium.

Whatever you do a trip over to Folksy is worthwhile if you are looking for presents that are beautiful, handmade by artists and crafters in the UK, unique and unlike anything you'll find on the highstreet.

Forest Flower Logo Dilemma...

It's hard work trying to run a home, work for my partners business, set up my own business and design and make all the stock and keep a lively, inquisitive toddler amused so I am constantly trying to find ways of entertaining the little man whilst being productive. Today I introduced him to coloured pencils, having been successfully scribbling with crayons for some time now, and whilst he had a great time taking them out and putting them back in the tin and experimenting with colours, I did this...

Which, thanks to the digital wizardry of scanners and the Picasa photo editing program became this...

and this....

and...urm...this as well....

I love them all - the colours look great on the top one, the simplicity of the black and white version is gorgeous and I love the vintage feel of the sepia coloured one....

So now I have a dilemma - which one should I use as my new logo?

I would very much appreciate some help with this decision so please, lovely people, don't be afraid to leave a comment and let me know what you think...

pass it on...

Here is a wonderful and inspirational post from a fellow Folksy forum poster and shopkeeper Leanne Woods (Visit her lovely shop here - Leanne Woods Designs)

"I know a lot of people are feeling down at the minute, May’s been a slowish month and the usual panic regarding prices starts to kick. Sales are offered, freebies are offered, first borns are offered all in an attempt to draw in a sale.




This is really an amalgam of great advice I’ve been given and some I’ve doled out myself in the last year.


I know we’ve all been guilty of under valuing ourselves, I did it too when I first started, barely charging minimum wage for my time, if even that, but let’s face it we could all earn minimum wage and have nothing in the world to concern our little minds other than waiting for the beep to tell us the fries are done or making sure all the tins of baked beans are facing forward.


Instead you chose this. Instead you can be found at any given time of the day rushing at break neck speed between umpteen different jobs and tasks.


You could have spent your days asking “do you want fries with that” and pocketed the paltry wage at the end of the week but instead you are …


The boss


The boss’s secretary


The boss’s whipping boy


The marketing manager


The photographer


The buyer


The web designer


The accountant


The postie


The delivery guy


The cleaner


The childcare


The cook


The driver


and the lady who makes the tea.


And in between all that, you somehow find the time to design and make stuff too.


Never forget just how bloody brilliant you all really are and don’t let anybody tell you different because chances are, they’d crumble to pieces after a week in your shoes.


Never mind minimum wage, you’re worth your weight in gold!"

Thanks, Leanne, for those words of wisdom... I just had to pass them on and I hope other crafters will to.

June Loon - 1st listing...

Here is the first one of my 'list an item every day in June' items...

Very sweet mini bunting in blue

I will be back later with my pick of all the other June Loons first offerings.

Keep an eye out - it could be you! ;)