A New Decade Means New Stuff @ The Krafty Lady Fair Trade Store!

Hi everyone and a very, VERY happy new year, and new DECADE to you all! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and enjoyed spending quality time with family and friends 🙂

Thanks to everyone who came by the eBay store: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/thekraftyladyfairtradestore and signed up to the website http://www.thekraftylady.com – we still need some more members so please pop by when you have a minute and join our little community. There’s forums where you can chat with other members about anything and everything, blogs, games (Pacman and Tetris! Old Skool!), news on Fair Trade and charity events we’re helping with, and loads lof other cool stuff so it would be great to see you all there!It only takes a minute or so to fill out a profile and add a piccie of yourself and it’s well worth it 😉

Christmas at The Krafty Lady was truly awesome, and a huge thanks to everyone who bought gifts for their loved ones (or for themselves ;-D ). It kept me really busy and I had great fun. Being back on eBay is much better than I thought it would be! Thanks also to everyone who has left such kind feedback – we’re still rocking at 100% positive and I don’t expect that to change this year! (In fact, I’m *hoping* we might get to Top Rated seller status in the next couple of months… I’ll keep you posted!).

I’m currently listing lots of items – some of them you will have seen at the old shop, but quite a lot of the items coming in next week are all shiny and new so drop in frequently to get the best bits! Hoodies, hats, scarves, gloves and candley things are all selling as soon as I’m listing them at the moment, and I’m starting to list some gorgeous jewellery in time for Valentine’s Day. Body jewellery and ear stretchers will be back soon, too, with some job lots at *Bargain* prices so if you run your own shop, car boot sales or market stalls it may be worth coming by to have a look. I’m also in the process of getting some of the festival bits on ready for the new Festival Season starting in a couple of months – if you missed out on the poi before you’ll be pleased to know they’ll be back, with lots of other cool festival accessories!

We’ll also be doing some charity sales soon and taking part in some local charity events – keep an eye on our blogs for more information on these and to see how you can get involved. It’s Fairtrade Fortnight coming up so they’ll be lots of Fairtrade news soon!

You can sign up to our eBay store newsletter, the website newsletter, Twitter, our WordPress blog and even Facebook and MySpace to get the latest news, special offers and new items.

Wishing you all a fantastic 2010 and looking forward to seeing you at the website or at the shop. Thanks again to everyone who has visited so far, I’ll be back blogging more news soon!

*MWAH*

Viki xxx

www.thekraftylady.com is RELAUNCHED!

Thanks for bearing with me on the whole website issue. It’s taken me a while to deal with and to top it off I was really ill with flu for nearly a week – it’s my first day out of bed today! But well on the road to recovery (although still not recommending visitors right now…. ;-D )

Well, at the beginning of last week I finally managed to finish the new website! As well as being able to get to the new eBay Store where you’ll find the usual (and unusual) array of Fair Trade and ethical clothing, gifts, body jewellery… etc., I’ve even managed to fit a neat little members area, forum, games section, blog, links…………. so it’s pretty packed with some nifty features! 🙂

Now all it needs it some visitors and some members; of course I am relying on all of you for this so it would be absolutely fab if you could jib on over there in a moment of boredom and take a peeky! I know some of you already have…. 😉

I will be listing lots more in the eBay Store this week, too, so if you were getting worried that it was looking a bit low, (as indeed I was…) then rest assured it will be brimming with delightful goodies in time for the festive season that is bearing down upon us 🙂

All you need to do to take advantage of these fandabbydosy new things is to type one of the following URLs into your browser and you will be whisked away to a world of awesomeness (hopefully…. ;-D )!:

http://www.thekraftylady.com
http://www.thekraftylady.co.uk
http://www.thekraftylady.fr

So thanks once again to everyone for your continued support – I know this year has been a bit topsy turvy but hopefully we’re getting somewhere now and we’re making The Krafty Lady even better than before, but that’s only with many thanks to you lovely lot 🙂 I don’t know what we’d do without you!

Have a fantastic week, keep popping by to see all the new items in the shop and don’t forget to sign up to the member’s area on the new website if you’ve got a bit of time spare! 😉

Big love and hugs!
Viki
xxx

Huge Summer Sale – Up To 50% off Fair Trade & Ethically Sourced Products @ www.thekraftylady.co.uk

Hello everyone!

I hope you’ve been enjoying the Summer Festival Season and have been behaving yourselves at the same time 😉

Just a little note to let you know that there is currently a HUGE Summer Sale on at The Krafty Lady, with up to (and over, in some cases!) 50% discount on Fair Trade & Ethically Sourced products, including gorgeous wooden boxes, cast iron cauldrons, soapstone sculptures, beautiful candle kits ideal for gifts, incense, oil burners, pendulums, wands and crystal balls! All of these items must  go to make way for new stock, so please take a browse and pass this direct link to our sale items on to anyone you know who might be interested:

http://www.thekraftylady.co.uk/specials.php

Enjoy the rest of your Summer, and we look forward to seeing you in the shop! Don’t forget to keep an eye out for our special discount code in The Festival Guide, and keep it green, people! 🙂

Viki and Paul

http://www.thekraftylady.co.uk

http://www.thekraftylady.com

http://www.thekraftylady.fr

Hello everyone!

I hope you’ve been enjoying the Summer Festival Season and have been behaving yourselves at the same time 😉 Just a little note to let you know that there is currently a HUGE Summer Sale on at The Krafty Lady, with up to (and over, in some cases!) 50% discount on Fair Trade & Ethically Sourced products, including gorgeous wooden boxes, cast iron cauldrons, soapstone sculptures, beautiful candle kits ideal for gifts, incense, oil burners, pendulums, wands and crystal balls! All of these items must  go to make way for new stock, so please take a browse and pass this direct link to our sale items on to anyone you know who might be interested:

http://www.thekraftylady.co.uk/specials.php

Enjoy the rest of your Summer, and we look forward to seeing you in the shop! Don’t forget to keep an eye out for our special discount code in The Festival Guide, and keep it green, people! 🙂

Viki and Paul

http://www.thekraftylady.co.uk

http://www.thekraftylady.com

http://www.thekraftylady.fr

Fair Trade Hoodies & Tops Now At www.thekraftylady.com !

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all well!

Summer is finally here and Festival Season is well underway! For those of you who didn’t know, Download Festival starts this weekend – whilst you’re there grab yourself a copy of The Festival Guide (which usually comes with a load of cool free stuff), and keep an eye out for our advert with a special discount code! We haven’t seen it ourselves yet, so let us know what you think! :-O

I also wanted to tell you about the new hoodies, tops & party hats we’re selling – all of them are 100% Fair Trade and NO CHILD LABOUR was used at all. Every one of them is handmade and unique so no one will be wearing the same design as you! You can view all of our new items here: http://www.thekraftylady.co.uk/products_new.php?page=1

I’ll let the party hats speak for themselves… but we think you’ll like them 🙂 There are also plenty of other festival goodies to stock up with this Summer, including the ever popular rubber poi and ball poi, more ear stretchers, tobacco pouches, fab Fair Trade shawls to keep you warm on those chilly evenings and lots more being added all the time!

I also want to thank everyone for your support once again; it’s been a tough year so far with lots going on behind the scenes and it’s been great to know that we’ve got so many lovelies behind us! 🙂

I hope all of you have an absolutely fantastic day and enjoy Download, or any of the other festivals you might be attending this weekend! Until we speak again… adios! 🙂

Viki and Paul

http://www.thekraftylady.com
http://www.thekraftylady.co.uk
http://www.thekraftylady.fr

Summer is Coming & So Are the Festivals!

Hey everyone!

It’s been a while since I last posted, but there’s been quite a lot going on behind the scenes! Lots of our ranges have been refined and expanded and we’re still working on a new design for the website but it’s slowly coming together.

So, what’s new?! Check out all of our new body jewellery and ear stretchers – the section is expanding and we’re getting even more over the next couple of weeks. If you need advice on ear stretching visit our “Beginner’s Guide to Ear Stretching” and our “Ear Stretching FAQs” pages – it’s had over 12,000 hits so far and I’ve given advice to literally hundreds of people for free – if the answer to your question isn’t on the page then just drop me an email at: thekraftylady@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.

We’ve also got a fab new “Festival Fun!” section which we’re currently working on filling – they’ll be some VERY special hats in there next week so keep checking back..! And a selection of poi and other fun festival stuff, which we’ll be adding over the next couple of days. There’s also some really nice suede tobacco pouches and Rio carnival whistles!

Our spiritual section will also be expanding soon with a wider range and new items such as chalices, scrying mirrors and tarot cards. It’s taking a while as we’re looking for products that are either fairly traded or made in the U.K. and ethically sourced, so I’ll post again when we get them 🙂

Big news! We have an advert in The Festival Guide which is available from all good festivals in the U.K. throughout the Summer. Keep an eye out for it as it features an exclusive discount code only for Festival Junkies! And it’s also a pretty good read, (the magazine; not the ad! ;-D )

A quick word too on our tube gloves; we can’t get anymore in until the Winter, so what we have left is currently all there is 😦 If you’re planning on getting a pair you need to get in there quick because they’re selling out really fast! Most styles only have one pair left now. We’re desperately trying to find some more but it’s hard as they’re imported, and we only want to get them from a BAFTS supplier to ensure they have been fairly traded.

And finally Paul and I will be taking part in the Kidney Research UK London Bridges Walk again in July this year. If you have some spare pennies any sponsorship would be greatly appreciated; last year we raised over £300 and were hoping to beat that with £500 this year… but so far we’ve only raised £20! I know that asking for money at this time is not really appropriate, but it’s a charity that’s often overlooked and they really do need your support. You can sponsor us at this web page: http://www.kidneyresearchukevents.org/thekraftylady and the money will go directly to Kidney Research UK. If you are a UK taxpayer please giftaid your donation; this means that Kidney Research will receive an extra 28% on top of your donation which comes directly from the government.

I’ll be back very very soon with more news – things are really moving now and there’s lots to do! Enjoy the rest of your day and we look forward to seeing you at the shop! Don’t forget you can keep up with all of us here at The Krafty Lady live on Twitter!

http://twitter.com/thekraftylady

http://twitter.com/VikiCollins

http://twitter.com/Paul_Rawlings

http://twitter.com/SkyTheCat

From all of us, have a good one and speak next time!

Viki & Paul

Fairtrade Fortnight & 10% OFF @ www.thekraftylady.com!

I hope you’re well and are enjoying 2009 so far 🙂 It’s turned out to be quite a busy year for The Krafty Lady – hence the reason we haven’t sent an update out for a while! I’m sitting in my lovely new organised office now, so it’s looking to be a good year! 😀

I just wanted to tell you about Fairtrade Fortnight which is taking place over the next couple of weeks. You can find out about all sorts of cool events going on in your part of the world by logging on to http://www.fairtrade.org.uk and going along to take part. We’re also joining in by offering 10% discount when you spend just £5.00 or more during Fairtrade Fortnight at http://www.thekraftylady.com, http://www.thekraftylady.co.uk, or http://www.thekraftylady.fr . Just type the following code in at the promo code box on checkout and 10% will be magically deducted from the total!

Promo Code: KRAFTYFAIRTRADE

I’m currently listing all sorts of exciting new Fair Trade products, including bags, wallets, hats… and even poi! And you may haave noticed the body jewellery section is looking a bit low – keep checking back over the next couple of weeks for some fantastic new products and ranges! There’s lots to be excited about.

Also please keep an eye out for our ad and promo code in the new Festival Guide which is out in May, and we’ll once again be donning the purple shirts to take part in the London Bridges Walk for Kidney Research UK in July; a 7 mile walk which takes us over the bridges of London – hopefully with better weather this year, although it still didn’t put us off! See our Gallery Page for photos of last year’s event, and if you’re feeling generous please go to: https://www.kidneyresearchukevents.org/profile.aspx?a=1705436132410025504 and sponsor us; the money goes directly to Kidney Research and you can even Gift Aid your donation to make it more worthwhile. We want to thank everyone that sponsored us last year – we raised over £300 for Kidney Research UK, and plan to beat that with £500 this year! 🙂

So that about wraps it all up for now – we’ll be in touch very soon with more updates, but in the meantime thanks for sticking with us and have a fabulous Fairtrade Fortnight!

Viki and Paul

The Krafty Lady January Sale Clearout Thingymabob!

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yay for 2009! I hope it has been treating you all very well so far…

Secondly, SALE! Yup, we’re having a major clearout at the shop (www.thekraftylady.com www.thekraftylady.co.uk www.thekraftylady.fr) to make some room for the really funky Fair Trade items we’ve been promising to get more of. There’s lots of great bargains to be had, and it must all go so we can get the new bits in – it’s really exciting!

http://www.thekraftylady.co.uk/specials.php

 

The festive season saw most of our cool scarves, hats and gloves sold out; I’ve been searching for more but everyone’s in the same boat – it seems Fair Trade is becoming even more popular which is fantastic! We will be getting new stock very soon, so please keep popping back for more surprises:-)

Enjoy browsing through our sale items or simply having a click about the shop, and we look forward to seeing you in the shop in 2009!

Viki & Paul xxx

DIY Jewellery & Ear Stretcher Kits @ www.thekraftylady.com

Hey all, wow, what a mental day…

They said on the news this morning that it is expected to be the busiest day for online retailers – I didn’t take them seriously enough! We’ve nearly sold out of Fair Trade scarves and gloves, so grab them whilst they’re here!

 Anyway, I fought through most of the parcels and packages and survived the day, and even found the time to list the new ‘DIY Jewellery’ section. It’s full of little bits and bobs that you’d normally have to pay a lot for and buy in bulk to customise your accessories! However, we’ve done it more like a pick ‘n’ mix section to make it cheaper and more interesting for you guys and girls 🙂 We’re still trialing the section at the moment, so you’ll see things being added (and taken away!) pretty frequently. Please pop by and take a look!

I’ll also be adding our first lot of ear stretcher kits by the end of the week, starting with spikes and omegas but the range will be expanding all the time from the new year. And look out for some really exciting belly bars coming in very soon as well!

Well, I hope you are all enjoying the festive season so far… Drop by and see us at www.thekraftylady.com, www.thekraftylady.co.uk or www.thekraftylady.fr and we’ll give you a very warm welcome, a virtual mince pie and some top service! 😉

I’ll be back soon with some more updates, but thought I ought to keep you lot posted and well-informed!

Have a great week, folks… until next time……..

Viki & Paul

Nope, We HAVEN’T Closed! Back Online This Week! :-)

Hey all!

Hello!

Wow, it seems like ages ago I started doing a complete overhaul of the shop, but it was actually only a week…. 🙂 Anyway, just to keep you lovely wonderful amazing people updated on the situation, we WILL be back online this week.

Basically, we are desperate to sell more Fair Trade items, because everyone seems to love them, we love them, and they’re really cool products; so you’re going to see a lot more of them in the next couple of months.

Our jewellery section is also expanding – the new stock is coming in over the next couple of days and I’m almost wetting my pants I’m so excited! There’s some really nice pieces.

We will, of course, still be doing body jewellery and ear stretchers – in fact, we’re going all-out and expanding the section, so they’ll be a lot more choice, including larger size stretchers, gemstone stretchers and some other cool surprises!

And our Witchcraft/Spiritual section is also expanding – there are some really nice handmade wands going in, plus lots more which I don’t want to reveal because it will ruin the surprise!

We’re also making sure our office is as green as it can be; We’ve got 100% Recycled Jiffy Bags, 100% Recycled Paper (plus we’re now able to recycle all of our old paper, thanks to the recycling Blue Box scheme we’ve just signed up to), energy-saving light bulbs will also be fitted in my shiny new office, which is nearly ready! Yay! And a whole list of other things we’re planning to do.
On this note, if anyone knows where I can get some eco-friendly sellotape, parcel tape and business cards I’d appreciate the heads-up! We’re still looking – I don’t understand why recycled things are so damn expensive, when they’re made from old rubbish! 🙂 I know, I know, it’s the factory process to get the paper back to paper…. but still 🙂

You might notice some other changes, too; but I’m not going to spoil anymore surprises! I’m working hard at the moment to get  the shop back online, and it should be ready by Sunday, so please bear with me – and thanks so much to all of you who have been to the shop and emailed me to let me know it’s offline! 🙂 We will be back and we are still The Krafty Lady, just slightly new and improved! BUT THE SAME GREAT PRICES.

I’ll send out another email once we are open, thanks again for all your support during this mental time!

Viki

Oh! And don’t forget, we’re now available at:

www.thekraftylady.com

as well as

www.thekraftylady.co.uk
&
www.thekraftylady.fr

Just a Quickie…

It’s been a while now since I had a chance to sit down and do a bit of blogging, but it has been a busy old time! Where to start is the question….

Our holiday/research trip in France was a much needed break and also opened our eyes to the World of opportunity that lay ahead. It was lovely to get back and have a fresh view on things, although we’re both still finding it hard to readjust to the British way of rushing around and spending most of your life working hard with nothing to show for it! France is calling us and we have plans to move ourselves (and the business!) over there just as soon as we can.

We’ve also completed our walk for Kidney Research UK which was a fab day – thanks to everyone who sponsored us, we’ve raised £380 so far and still counting! The weather wasn’t on our side that day – you can see pictures of the event on my Facebook page (search; “Viki Collins”) or go to our website gallery at: http://www.thekraftylady.co.uk/pages.php?page=Gallery but it was still great fun and definitely for a good cause!

I know we’ve been talking about it for what seems like an age now (although this year has whizzed by and left us behind somewhat…), there are going to be some drastic changes to the shop over the next few months. My new office will be finished in a matter of weeks, which means we’ll be a lot more organised and able to get tonnes more new and exciting items. I’ve already reduced the price of some of our older stock ready to make way for the new items. We’re going to be stocking a lot more body jewellery, and as much stock as we can will be Fair Trade. ALL of our make-up section will be transformed into a ‘Cruelty-Free’ zone as we’ll only be stocking products in which the ingredients and the final product is not tested on animals. This is a huge change for us but we think it’s an important one. Fingers crossed things will be in place in time for the new year, but as always we’ll keep you posted!

Thanks so much to everyone for your continued support – it’s even more appreciated during these hard times, but we’re determined to make it through and out of the otherside – and we can’t do that without your help, so thank you!

I’ll be back with more updates soon – see you then!