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.

New soy pillar and floating candles

After what seems like forever, I have finally uploaded my new candles to my website and Felt shop. The floating candles have been in progress for quite some time. I wanted something small that could fit inside a teacup, which required a lot of testing to get the right wick. These last for 3-4 hours, which is longer than the old floating candles I was making.

I also wanted to try my hand at making soy pillars. As you may have noticed, most soy wax used is a blend designed for container candles. However there are pillar blends available, which is the wax I use for the melts. My supplier recommended blending it with a palm wax for the best results, but to me that defeated the purpose of making a soy pillar. After some testing, and a lot of tinkering, I have produced a 100% soy pillar candle that burns really well. Soy wax is different to paraffin where it needs to keep a wall of wax around it while it burns down, because if it leaks, it leaks a lot. I maybe able to conduct further testing to combat this in future candles, but in the meantime I have produced a lovely candle that glows nicely through the wall, and burns for over 50 hours.

Both the floating and pillar candles are available in rose, vanilla, frangipani, mandarin & mimosa and white tea fragrances. I hope to add some more fragrances to this range. These will be available at both the Craft Invaders market and Methven Craft Fair. If you would like a $10 discount voucher for the soy pillar candles, all you need to do is sign up to the newsletter, which you can do here. If you are already a subscriber, there is a coupon in the email sent out yesterday. Offer ends 5th August 2012.

Market update – Craft Invaders & Methven

Today I've been figuring out how to fit all my stock onto one table for next weeks Craft Invaders market. I've got used to having two tables in my outdoor gazebo setup, but I'm grateful to be inside next weekend, so happy to downsize to be warm!

The following weekend I will be out at Methven for the annual Methven Craft Fair at the Memorial Hall (the same building as the info centre). It is on the 4th & 5th August from 10am – 5pm on Saturday, and 9am – 4pm on Sunday.

I will have specials on clearance stock at both markets, but it's first in first served on discontinued items. I will also have eftpos available for the first time. It's something I've been wanting to offer for quite some time, so I finally made the leap and organised it. I will be still accepting cash too, of course!

If you can't get to either of these markets, you might like to pop down to one of my new stockists. Pepperberry at 919 Colombo Street now has a selection of candles, along with Cadeaux at Shop 2, 7 Joll Road in Havelock North, one of the new stockists from the recent Gift Fair.

Winter Gift Fair

Last week was my first foray into trade shows, when I exhibited at the Winter Gift Fair, a trade show for retail buyers. It was a little different to the markets I usually attend. There were a wide range of exhibitors, ranging from large importers to small scale owner operators like myself. There were some other exhibitors there I knew which helped make the whole experience a bit less daunting.

It was a worthwhile experience, a great way to get my name out there. I got orders for some new stockists around the country which I'm currently working away on. So keep an eye out for Rose in Thorns candles in a shop near you! There were also some other shops interested in stocking my candles, so the list of new stockists may keep expanding.

I launched some new products at the fair – soy pillars and small soy floating candles, which I will add to my website and Felt shop in the next week or so. In the meantime, I have some older stock I'd like to clear out, so I'm having a sale to help create some more room for the new products. Everything in my website is discounted by 20% - 50%, and I have discounted most of the teacups in my Felt shop, along with some other items. The sale ends on the 30th June, so don't miss out!

A big thanks to everyone that helped out, friends that offered advice while getting organised, and those that were also exhibitors. Also to those that placed orders, and showed interest in my products. I'll keep you updated on my new stockists as I despatch their orders to them.