New postal charges in the UK

Oh dear! If it wasn't bad enough for the small artisan business with the recession and all, UK postal price rises came into effect yesterday.

I'm feeling quite conflicted about it at the moment. I'm very happy to pay more to secure our brilliant daily delivery service but I suspect it's just preparation for privatisation.

Only time will tell what the effect will be. The concrete example of an effect I have had so far is my ebay listings. Many were about half way through a 10 day listing yesterday, so I adjusted the shipping on all my listings. Unfortunately, the amount of watchers who disappeared was pretty significant.

I guess with increases of about a third on many services it could be some time before people absorb the impact of the increase. Below are the default shipping for 'Notonthehighstreet' sellers here in the UK (I'm one :) . Pretty painful eh!

Spring offer!

Spring is breaking out in my cactus and succulents patch. To celebrate I have a spring free shipping offer in both stores! It'll be for two weeks ending on 30th April. Happy hunting!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/elinart

http://elintm.bigcartel.com

Great news! At least I think so....

It's funny how things happen...I had just made a firm decision to let my Etsy shop lie fallow and if it died through lack of attention, so be it. The next day I was contacted by Etsy's European arm to be informed:-

"you have been selected for Etsy's Press Kit....Now is a good time to fill your shop with similar items and beef up your descriptions"

What! Not the kind of serendipity I wanted. Trying to stop wasting time on Etsy has been like trying to quit crack!! I was so close....Anyway, after being on holiday for a week, I have returned to find all this relevancy bother, yet another major tweaking session required. Exactly the kind of thing that keeps me hooked on Etsy but hating it at the same time....arrgh!

'Preparing to sell' at Tredegar House

A good time was had by all at the 'preparing to sell' day workshop at Tredegar House, Newport, Wales.

Tredegar house is the venue for 'Made by Hand' in December, (it's also a location for a lot of the filming of the Dr Who series!). My first ever big selected craft fair. Made by hand- Wales is an offshoot of the huge annual craft show in Bovey Tracey.

Ffi..http://www.madebyhand-wales.co.uk

I am very excited and it will be a huge eye opener for me. The list of things I need to get my head round is growing exponentially every week!!

StitchLondon at the Science Museum

I'm very pleased to be exhibiting at the StitchLondon, knitted science event at London's Science Museum. They will be showing the crochet petri dish pictured.

Here's a link to their blog http://pix.stitchldn.com/post/6682957499/petri-dish-full-of-amazing-embroidered-and

mmm...I don't know what to say about the photo they took...4/10...or maybe 3/10. A good reminder that the work is out of our control once it's in the hands of curators.

Giveaway winner announced!

Well done to worthy winner Gina from Staffordshire, the 'Handmade Market' is no doubt travelling up the M5 this very moment!

Gina's Etsy shop is brimming with super felt items, including this fabulous red, white and blue scarf, a tribute to all things British.

Do check out her shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/FeltByGina