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!)

Folksy Friday - Polka Dots!

I am just a bit dotty about Polka Dots (some might say I'm a bit dotty full stop, but that's another story...). Actually I'm almost obsessed! Polka dot fabrics appear quite frequently in my work - most notably in my Spotty Cats and the 'Polka Dot and Roses' range. I have a big collection of polka dot fabrics in lots of different colour combinations so hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more dots at Forest Flower in the future.

In the meantime I had a gander round Folksy and found some lovely Polka Dots!

This gorgeous Kitty in Paris bracelet from Fluffs Stuff caught my eye - very cute and very dotty!

Kirsty Elson Designs Owl In The Moon would make a cute, quirky addition to a nursery.

Keeping with the baby theme - these adorable Polka Dot Baby Shoes by Angelic Folk are almost too cute for words!

Something pretty and practical - this glorious Pink Polka Dot Bag is from Polka - a shop so packed full of polka dots I felt I was in polka dot heaven...

Who could resist this fab photo from Miss Sugar Bone Makery.

I must find some space in my kitchen for it :)

And finally, lets not forget that boys like polka dots too...

These subtle polka dot Cuff links from Lilies and Daises will add a stylish finishing touch to a crisp white dress shirt.

I hope you enjoyed my selection - there a loads more fabulous Polka Dot pretties available on Folksy - just put 'polka dot' in the search box and see what comes up!

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.