Black Friday - sales start here...

Today is Black Friday - the day when, in the States at least, the festive shopping frenzy begins in earnest with many stores opening their doors as early as 4am with some juicy discounts in a bid to capture the gift market right from the start. It would seem the trend is beginning to take hold here too with many of our big names offering discounts for the day (which will probably stretch into the week and then, before we know it the Boxing Day Sales...)

The day is called Black Friday because the boost to income allegedly sees retailers begin to turn a profit, or 'go into the black' but the origins of the term can be traced back to Philadelphia where it was used to describe the unusually heavy traffic on the day after Thanksgiving.  This year some US stores have opened even earlier than usual sparking a backlash of 'anti-Back Friday' sentiment as employees are forced to give up several hours of sleep or family time at Thanksgiving...

Well, I don't have any employees (unless you count the Little Man helping me find the lost sticky tape when parcel wrapping....) so the only person getting up early this morning was me (completely involuntarily, I might add) and the beauty of a virtual shop is that is can be open 24 hours a day with no-one to staff it!

So here is my contribution to the Black Friday frenzy...

A very special, ONE DAY ONLY order code that gets you 25% off everything on my website! Just visit my little corner of the interweb, browse handmade goodies to your hearts content, then enter BLACKFRIDAY at the checkout and the discount is yours! International shipping is now available too - so you can bag yourself some HandmadeChristmas charm wherever you are, without having to fight your way through crowds of bargain hunters.

 

Happy Shopping peeps xx

Going Live...

Well after a month of planning, typing, photographing, uploading, tweaking, more tweaking, testing and fine tuning my brand new website has finally GONE LIVE!!!

forestflowerdesigns.co.uk

Please go and have a nose about and tell me what you think!

I had my first sale within 15 mins of launching but I would love some more. As an added incentive all you lovely blog readers can add the code BLOG20 at the checkout for a 20% discount on your order total (excluding P&P)*

Currently my my complete Rustic Country Collection is available - including scrummy, festive Christmas Spice scented options - and gorgeous felt and gingham Christmas Star decorations. I am hoping to add more christmassy things very soon - stockings, garlands, bunting, decorations. Just perfect for a Handmade Christmas!

I am really please with how it has turned out and how easy it was to do. The create.net package as very user friendly and gives you a professional looking shop in no time at all, and you even get a month free trial to build your website and assess how well you get on with the package before you have to start paying. Can't ask for more than that!! 

*discount code valid until 14th November 2011

Forest Flower Designs at The Tube Gallery...

Occasionally I get an e-mail in my business inbox that gets me all excited (and no, I am not referring to the 'Are you looking for some flirty fun?' or 'You've won $1million' ones...).  Back in September I had one from The Tube Gallery in Woodstock requesting some of my new 'Rustic Country Collection' for an exhibition they were running from mid-October all the way through to the New Year. Entitled 'Wonderland' it is an 'electic mix of all that is wonderful and covetable'. (You can see a selection of photographs of the exhibition on their Facebook page)

It was by far the largest order I have had to date and entailed quite a few late nights to get the stock finished in time...

My new Forest Flower Designs tags...

Every item has to be tagged...

A basket full of love :-)

Everything is wrapped up in tissue before parcelling up...

...ready to go!

That was 2 weeks ago...

Today I had another email with a couple of pictures attached showing my collection beautifully displayed in the gallery for everyone to see (and hopefully buy!).

Birds in flight... don't they look cute?

...and the hearts look gorgeous in this vintage suitcase!

It's so nice when someone else sees your creation and shares your vision!
Thank you to Clare at The Tube Gallery for this great opportunity to show Forest Flower Designs to a new audience!

And that's not all... 

I have been working very hard on my brand new website this past week or so. It's nearly ready. The official launch is Sunday 30th October so pop back for a link and a very special, limited time offer to celebrate!