This is ...

All About The Buttons!

heart shadow box

Favourite colour?

To wear-blue, to decorate with-sage green but lately I'm loving orange!

Favourite smell?

banana

Robot clock

Favourite place?

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Favourite sound?

Grandsons' laughter

jigsaw puzzle pin

Favourite way to spend your time?

Creating

Favourite item in your shop of all time?

My shadow boxes & bear chairs are my favorite because of the love I really feel when I put them together. I love the texture and 3 dimensional feel and of course, the abundant buttons.


bear chair

What has been the most useful lesson you’ve learnt so far that you’d like to pass on to our readers?

I call it the " Three Ps"...patience, promotion and photographs. Didn't know about the 2nd 2 before I started but learned real fast. All are crucial.

nifty: Very true - patience is a virtue we all need to cultivate I think! Find more about the buttons:

http://www.zibbet.com/allaboutthebuttons
http://twitter.com/aboutthebuttons
http://allaboutthebuttons.blogspot.com

and if you'd like to join us on Zibbet, Nifty would love you to use this referral link *click*

Let's meet...MOLLIMOO

I met Tina from Mollimoo through her folksy shop, but she can be found all over the place - as we shall see!

Quickies for starters:

Cats or dogs?
Dogs

Star Wars or Star Trek?
Star Wars

*boo* says nifty ;-)

Fruit or chocolate?
ooh, Chocolate!



Favourite colour?
turquoise

Favourite meal?
Ginger chicken curry....mmmm

City break or weekend in the country?
weekend in the country

Soaps or documentaries?
Documentaries



Bath or shower?
Shower

Now we’ve got you warmed up…

What brought you to Folksy? Tell us about your shop (or shops) Do you sell anywhere else?
I discovered Folksy last October whilst browsing other people's blogs. I love making fabric buttons & thought what a great place to sell them! What I especially like about making buttons is hunting for unique, vintage fabric from thrift shops & giving it a new little life. The thought that some of my buttons will then go on to embellish someone else's project or even just end up in someone's treasured button collection is wonderful. I'm working on adding brooches & knitted items to my shop as my first love is knitting. I also sell on Coriandr.

What’s the favourite item you’ve made so far?
My favourite buttons are the vintage yellow rose buttons. Someone had made this fabric into a side board cover with lace around & it had ended up in a thrift shop. It is so dainty & pretty!




What has been the most useful lesson you’ve learnt (about online selling) so far?
The most useful lesson I've learnt is that you have to constantly produce new items to list & sell....obvious, I know! I've also learnt that you have to put yourself out there to get noticed by joining different groups, forums & blogging.

If you could start again, is there anything you’d do differently?
I would not spend so much time browsing at everyone else's beautiful products all the time. I did it so much at the beginning that it, quite literally, frightened me! I felt so intimidated at the great quality & originality that it made me have a mental block. Now, I just get on with it.




How do you see your store developing?
Well, I plan to broaden the range of what I sell. I am working on brooches, knitted items, pin cushions, drawstring bags & plushies. I just need to find more hours in the day to make them all!

What have you been doing today that I’ve interrupted?
The school run. I have 2 children, 5 & 2. It's not easy making items when you are cooking, dressing, bathing, feeding, playing & organising....I do love it though.

What’s your top marketing tip for today?
Professional looking photos are important. Blog regularly, dress up your shop & blog in a distinctive, pretty way. Put yourself out there & don't be shy. Network as much as you can. Always believe you are good enough.


Great advice Tina, thank you. Here are the links again:
Folksy shop
http://mollimoo.blogspot.com/
info@mollimoo.co.uk
http://www.coriandr.com/shop?seller_id=499

And the winner is...

... is it you? Well, if you were one of the 40 people who guessed the number of buttons in the jar, it might have been!



















If you guessed correctly, Naughty Nellie might be getting ready to be popped in the post...to you!




Shall I stop tormenting you now? ;-)





Here are the buttons, all laid out and ready to count...there were 91!

Nobody guessed the exact number, so Nellie is going to the person who guessed closest.

FairlyGirly was an early front runner, with her guess of 87 ... and then AMIdesigns guessed 87 too (tsk tsk, you didn't check back properly ;-))


*drumroll*
But the winner, with a guess of 88, was Adorn Me Jewelry!

Congratulations, Nellie will be in the post to you as soon as you've let me know your address.

Many thanks to eveyone who entered, I hope you will continue to follow my blog.

I have an idea for another competition in a few weeks time...this time involving a meerkat!

Competition time!

You may remember that I was joint winner of a competition organised by Folksy back in January?
So much yarn, so little time.: Folksy Make the News...
When I told the sponsor what I would like for my prize, it was with today's competition in mind. So - now that my prize has arrived - it's your turn!



In true school-bazaar tradition, your mission is to guess the number of buttons in the jar!

You can have several attempts.

To enter, one way is to become a follower of my blog. Leave a comment with your guess, tell me you're a follower. If you're already a follower, that's great - that counts too of course!



You can have a second try by going to either my Folksy shop or my Etsy shop and then leaving me a comment here with your guess and your favourite item from my shop.

For a third and fourth try - buy something from one of my shops and leave the details in a comment with your guesses!



If more than one person guesses correctly I will give the prize to the first correct guess, so it might be worth your while checking what other people have guessed.

But what's the prize?

When I started selling my knits I was very naive. I had no idea that buying a pattern did not give me the right to sell the product of that pattern. When the light dawned, I had to remove a few things sharpish!

Your prize is Nellie (seen here doing her Marilyn Monroe impression), knitted from a commercial pattern and therefore no longer for sale in my shop.



This competition is open to anyone and everyone from wherever you happen to live - good luck! I will check the guesses in one week's time on Wednesday March 11th. If more than one person has guessed the correct number I will give the prize to the first correct guess. If nobody has the exact number I will give the prize to the nearest guess. If there are two nearest guesses (one higher, one lower) I will give to the higher guess.

And if there's any other quibble I haven't thought of, please let me know!

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED! I AM BUSILY COUNTING BUTTONS...