World famous in Christchurch

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It's not often you get a full page feature in the local newspaper, so I was quite excited this morning to go and buy a copy of the Press so I could see how it looked. A big thank you to Katy who helps keep up the profile of the local crafting community by writing articles for the Zest section of the Press.

The photo is of my stall at the Christmas Encraftment last year – thanks Emma for taking the pics!

Be in to win a gorgeous soy candle prize pack

After much anticipation, we have recently launched our new soy glass jar candles. One of the main benefits of using glass is that you can see the light from the flame all the way to the bottom of the candle. They also look pretty too!

Glass bowls are often used as wedding centrepieces, but we think you should be able to enjoy them in your home any time you like as well! They are currently available in the following fragrances: rose, vanilla, frangipani, mandarin & mimosa, white tea, jasmine & honeysuckle and red raspberry.

The little votive glasses were just crying out for some colour, so we now have a rainbow of fragrances available in these sweet little candles. These are also available in the same fragrances as the bowls (listed above).

We have also launched a delectable new fragrance, red raspberry. Just try and resist it, it smells good enough to eat! It is currently available in the soy glass bowl, glass votive and tealight candles, along with a one off recycled glass jar candle. We also have some lovely crystal glasses that can be made to order in your favourite scent, perhaps for a wedding, or whatever you like!

To celebrate the launch of these new candles, we are giving away this gorgeous prize pack. It includes a soy glass bowl candle, a soy glass votive candle and a box of five soy floating candles in your choice of available fragrances. To enter, all you need to do is choose your favourite Rose in Thorns candle from our website and Felt shop, then fill in your details in this form and you're in the draw. It's that easy! Entries close at 8pm on Wednesday the 8th May 2013.

Creative Collections

After a delay due to earthquake strengthening work, Art & Company's annual exhibition for 2012 is currently on at the South Library, 66 Colombo Street. It runs until the 9th May, and contains a variety of paintings from beginners through to more experienced artists.

This is my sixth time exhibiting with this group, and I'm always impressed with how well it comes together. Maree always does a great job organising it!

It is well worth a look if you are based in Christchurch, and paintings can be purchased through the Red cafe onsite.

The following are my paintings in the exhibtion:

 Pecking order

 Standing tall

Uighur Beauty

Why it's been a bit quiet around here lately

Clearly my goal to post more often this year has fallen by the wayside! I've been busy organising my office and spare room, as mentioned in my last post (still no new photos yet – soon!). There are two reasons for this – it was long overdue, and the spare room is being requisitioned for a new purpose – a baby's room. Yes, I'm having a baby in June, so I'm having a bit of a tidy up and destash so that I can squeeze everything from the spare room into the office.

It's actually quite satisfying getting rid of things you no longer require, and since I've been downsizing lately, it's become more necessary. Over the years I've accumulated more and more things, and the last flat we lived in had a lot of space to store it. When we bought our house just over a year ago, it was slightly smaller with less storage, so things became a bit more crammed, and the sorting had to commence. Now that I have to downsize by another room, it's become more urgent!

I don't like throwing things into landfill if I can help it, so the second half of the problem becomes what to do with all the things I don't need any more. Fortunately trademe is a good place to find new homes for obscure things, though I'm yet to make my fortune doing that. Charity shops are always another good option, and if you have time for a quick browse when you're dropping things off you can often find something you need to buy, and share the love even more. Once I've put up the last lot of new curtains, the old ones will be going to the Curtain bank, a charity that resizes old curtains for families in cold houses.

I've also got some surplus candles which are taking up valuable space and need new homes as well. I'm trying to streamline my product offering a bit more, to make setting up at markets a bit more efficient. This means I won't be making any more of some older candles. If you'd like to take a look at what's on offer, I have a section on the website for discontinued candles, which includes discontinued fragrances, the small and large tins, and ice candles. So if you are a fan of the rainforest, chocolate or coffee fragrances, then snap them up now so you don't miss out.

I'm also having a sale on selected products which can be found in the sale section. There are also a few bumped and knocked candles in the seconds section. Last but not least, because it's almost the end of the financial year, and stocktaking is boring, I have another incentive for you to stock up on candles. Any purchases $20 and over before the end of March receive free shipping withing New Zealand. This will be automatically applied on the website, and if buying on Felt, just enter the code FREESHIP at checkout.

I'm getting to the end of the sorting now, and can nearly fit everything in the wardrobe in the office. Trust me when I say this is quite an achievement! So hopefully I'll have some new photos to put up in the next few weeks.

It would be nice to make a few baby things before the baby comes as well, so once I've finished all this organising, I might even have some time for this!

New Year

I always like the break over Christmas and New Year as a great opportunity to reflect, and think about what I'd like to do and things I'd like to change in the coming year. One thing was to blog more regularly, but I clearly need to do more work on that one!

I've been self-employed for almost three years now, so I've been thinking about where I'd hoped to be by now, and where I'm at. It has been hard work, and a lot more difficult than I expected. I didn't achieve the growth I had hoped for last year, which means my financial position is only slightly better than a year ago, and still quite far off my goal of earning a living.

This of course raises the question of whether or not it's sensible to continue. The prevailing wisdom is that it takes three years for a business to find it's feet. There has been a lot of trial and error, and the associated costs of this, along with the general costs of setting up a business. I've learned which products work better, so know which direction to concentrate my efforts.

I have a lot of the skills required to run a business, but feel I'm missing something, that spark that brings everything together and makes it sing. I like running my own business, and the freedom it brings, so would like to find that missing piece, and to make it work properly.

To this end, I have a few plans this year. I would like to be more organised, and have been going through everything having a good sort out, and trying to catch up on boring paperwork and filing that seems to get forgotten. I would also like to put some more time into marketing. This is one area that I always seem to leave to last, which means it often gets forgotten, but is an important part of a business. I have subscribed to an online course by Designing and MBA called Marketing for Makers which I hope to complete soon. So once I get my time management sorted, things will be all go!

I had hoped by now the office would be all tidy and I could put up some new photos of it. It has been redecorated over the last year, and I'd been wanting to finish tidying so I could take some after shots to post up. That hasn't happened yet... soon, I promise, but I did find last years photo post, which I posted exactly a year ago. It's quite nice to look back and see how much it has changed!

Manderley Home and Garden Festival

Last year I really enjoyed the Manderley Home and Garden festival, so was looking forward to going back this year. It really is a lovely event, in a very picturesque setting, as can be seen below – this is the view from the back of my site!

It's a great day out, with stalls, entertainment, food and beverages. You can look inside the historic homestead, and you can even take a dip in the pool if you packed your togs.

It's on again tomorrow from 10am – 4pm at Manderley, which is opposite the Lake Forsyth rest area, not long before Little River. It's $15 per adult, with under 12s free.

If you do come along, don't forget to take a look at the sales table – there will be some good specials on tomorrow as well!

The Tea Party returns!

 The Rose in Thorns tea party is back, in a brand new location. If you want to shop in a relaxed environment, enjoy tea and cupcakes with fine china all in good company, then why not come along to the next tea party?

It will be held on the 16th September at 3pm - 5pm at my home in Northcote. If you would like to come, just fill in the rsvp form and you will be sent address details a few days before the event. You can also rsvp to the facebook event if you wish.

There will be some great specials on clearance items, and I will have some candles lit, so you can see them in action.

If you can't wait that long, I will be at Dunkley's Craft Show this weekend at Addington Raceway. It is on Friday 7th through to Sunday 7th, from 10am till 5pm each day. This is the first time I've done this event, and I'm looking forward to it. There is an admission of $12, but if you print out this coupon, you can get a $1 discount.