They're here......!!!

There are small spotty buttons back in the shop.
One or two new colours... this being APRICOT - a sort of light tangerine / soft peachy colour. Hard to describe 'just right'. We have a beautiful aqua / sky blue which has more green in it than this photo suggests....

So the new 100 mixed bags - as it stands right now - with 10 each of 10 different colours....

AND, the reds are back! Most requested button of all. I know people have asked for 100's of these recently and i only have a few bags HERE but i do have more 'on order'.

Bless you all my button fans x nobody is more pleased than I to have these little jewels back again :)

Palace Buttons x50

New, in the BigFish shop (better go add them to the Folksy shop too....)
They are like the previous "Robin's Mix" but varying colours - so i changed the name to avoid confusion.

Limited - i think? i have about 10 bags and may not repeat them.

Thought you'd like me to share!? x

Beep beep, beep beep, yeh....

There is a song somewhere, sometime... it has that line in it "Baby you can drive my car, ta da da"... New tiny tiny buttons called "Beep Beep Buttons"! The tiny button that make a BIG NOISE..... Another new collection - Limited Edition - 9 bags (no make that 8, i sold a pack last night) of, what i call: LIQUORICE ALLSORTED - you get why huh?

Then a few new mixes / combinations just to inspire people and give a bit of variety / choice to you button bags.... MAMA LOVES DISCO (miaaooww pussycat)

CHERRY PIE... mmm, a good mix of boutons, makes me want to eat PIE!

TICKLED PINK - my favourite of the new mixes. If 50g of each pinkish shade is too much for some customers, you can have a 100g mixed bag of the 3 pinky shades i have on offer.

These are only in BigFish.etsy.com at the moment but i hope to put them on Folksy too :)

Don't fear - that hasn't turned into a complete button blog! I am just in button mode right now... it'll soon be some other mental obsession.... x

Me and My Button Story...

The story of My Buttons and Me, is not a long story - although it feels like one huge, long, winding story that has both thrilled and exhausted me! I thought about it all this morning when i received a beautiful handmade cupcake card through the post from a button customer... it thanked me muchly for accomodating her button obsession and getting the goods to her etc... and there were a million things i wanted to say in reply...

So i thought i would say it all in my little Blog!

BUTTONS are really really very important to some people. I am one of those people. I remembering finding some incredible buttons at a huge Craft Fair, years ago. The buttons inspired me so much that i made lots of new buttony accessories and felt decorations...

I began selling my button covered goodies alongside my cards (that i already sold at Craft Fairs) and they soon took over. Everywhere i went with a buttony Brooch, people asked me about it...

I wore one of my button brooches into an independant local gift shop and, give or take half an hour, i walked out of that shop with a wholesale order for buttony brooches! Feeling a bit happy with myself :) i couldn't believe my craft empire was actually 'launching' so to speak - without me really trying...

I began buying Craft Supplies in BULK as i took on more wholesale orders and opened a shop on 'etsy'. It seemed the best way to increase my profit margins - i couldn't keep buying in small quantities from HobbyCraft anymore.

My first wholesale Button order was £70.00 and i remember SWEATING with fear that i was spending so much on buttons!!! By this point, i had resigned from my Part-Time job and i knew i wanted to be a 'stay at home Mom' but i also wanted to make stuff and try to earn some money, so i had to take big steps....

My need (ok, obsession) for new buttons kept growing and i thought "where do other people buy their buttons from?" Where were crafters buying beautiful buttons from and where could they buy in bulk numbers and not individually or 'on cards' from out-dated haberdashery shops...?

I realised there might be a little space in the market for me to sell some buttons on to other button lovers, but i was worried of course. Would people buy from me, should i open a new 'etsy' store, etc...

What is the worst that could happen - i asked myself? I buy loads more buttons and have to KEEP them all if they don't sell!? No great hardship hey??? so i launched BigFish.etsy.com x

Obviously, if you read my blog at all, you know that the "Button Shop" has not fallen flat on it's face x and i love all of you who have shopped with me. I sort of want to tell you all that:

a) i really care about you and your buttons because they are MY buttons too! That is the joy of buying from an independant dealer! I handpick your buttons myself....

b) it is crazy busy and TIRING and exhausting - searching for new button suppliers / searching for the supplier of a particular tiny button i found somewhere / ordering / finding the money to pay! / organising stock so i can find it all in my tiny home / BAGGING THEM!! can you imagine the time spent weighing or counting these bug..... beauties by hand!? (deep breath Kirsty, and relax...)

SO, when a customer sends me a handmade cupcake card that 'Thanks me' for spending the time finding what she needs and trying to fulfil her button requests... then it means so much to me!

My last button invoice cost me £600. It frightens me silly still, to spend so MUCH money on buttons (they are 'just' buttons after all) but you can understand a little, of how much of my crafting soul goes into buttons...

Thankyou for reading the abridged story of My Buttons and Me x

Pretty Bracelet... "Five for Silver"

It's a long-ish story, but i met Billie and Jan last Christmas at a Craft Fair... Billie is so lovely, you meet her and feel like you've been her friend for decades. Jan is envy makingly beautiful. They have been friends since the beginning of time....
Their husbands run a silver business supplying the jewelery trade and Billie and Jan design silver charms that their husbands then cast for them at their place of work.
Last month i did a sale "At Home with Five for Silver and Friends" type of thing and i FINALLY bought myself one of their bracelets.... It is easier at a House Party because you can sit down with them and basically design the bracelet you want. There are so many varieties: This Bobble stretch bracelet was a bit of one off but they do chain charm bracelets and "Links" style ones.... and, once you've chosen the basic bracelet you want, you can add charms onto it from their huge selection...

This totally appeals to me as i LURVE silver and love charm bracelets.
I chose this GingerMan first to celebrate my GingerMan Xmas Decoration on SnowFish - it is one of theeee most favourite things of mine that i love to make and sell.

Then i added this green ceramic heart which is so pretty. Not at all precious but lots of fun and i can always change it / swap it if i feel like it in the future.

And THEN..... this silver BUTTON! Totally me :) my obsession with buttons solidified in silver. Joy of Joys.

It wasn't a cheap bracelet - but i wanted something quality that will last and that i can add to and change when the mood takes me. Worth every pretty penny.

I am looking forward to meeting up with them again near Christmas and finding a stunning necklace that i can maybe add silver buttons to also!?

This is their ONLINE shop: Five for Silver and this is their (empty) etsy space. If you live near Leamington Spa - fix a date to go round to Jan's if you want one too!