Free Maileg wooden decoration!

In a shameless attempt to gain some more links to Cottontails (that's my website, NOT this blog) I am giving away some lovely wooden Christmas stockings.


It's simple - please just link to Cottontails (details below), then email me your address and I will send you a Maileg wooden stocking. I have quite a few left so unless I am inundated (which would be nice!) I shouldn't run out, but if I do I'll find something else nice. The stockings are quite large (40cm) and a kind of Scandinavian shaker style. They're gorgeous.

The key things about the link are that it must be to a specific page on my website:

http://www.cottontailsbaby.co.uk/brands.asp?brand=moulin_roty

And must mention the words Moulin Roty in the link.

(A clever friend of mine tells me this will work wonders with my Google ranking... we will see!)

If you have a website as well as a blog and don't mind linking from there, EVEN BETTER! And I will send an extra stocking. (A pair of stockings!)

And don't forget to email me your address.

Thank you!

Fun with photography...

Despite the rain today I managed to find a dry spell and set up my photography stuff in the garden for an hour. Some of the things I photographed on Sunday didn't come out very well so today was 'take two' and I am really pleased with the results.

The things I had struggled with were the little badges and mirrors from Snapdragon - I think it's because I am not used to photographing such tiny things. So today I decided on a new approach and tried placing them on complementary backgrounds, rather than my usual product-on-white technique.

Here are the results and I'm really pleased with them!

This is the little dog hand bag mirror - I have put them on a page of my really old copy of The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck, chosen in a rush as I flicked through my children's books looking for a page mentioning a dog! (Although actually you can't read that bit, but it does mention the "his coat was spotted brown and white"):


The christmassy badges - the robin and Christmas pudding - are on a page from an old copy of The Velveteen Rabbit because it mentions Christmas, obviously!




And the little cottage badge is photographed on the picture of the doll's house in The Tale of Two Bad Mice.



And finally I used some bits of my old Moulin Roty tea set to display the cake badges and handbag mirrors.



So I feel quite chuffed with myself today and hope I will sell a few of these little bits and bobs before Christmas. (Especially the Christmas Puddings obviously!!)

You can see all these things, along with other goodies on the new section on the website for Lovely UK Designers.

Luxury string and the winner is...

I am chuckling to myself at the moment as I can't quite believe I have just listed a ball of string under 'Treats for Grown-Ups' on my website. But is is a very nice ball of string in a gift box from the lovely people at Maileg. But all the same. Can it be considered a treat? Well, there isn't anywhere else for it to go on the website so a treat it is!

In fact I didn't even order the string - Maileg sent six boxes in error and I have had them in my 'must return' pile for ages. Several weeks later I realise I have already paid the invoice, I am never going to get around to sending them back and might as well just put them on the website and see what happens.

Also I have just done the draw for the poorly Maileg mouse (something else I didn't get around to returning!). Sorry the pictures are so rubbish but I did try to capture the 'drawing process'. First I wrote names on little bits of blue tissue paper, then I rolled them into balls and decided to use the Mr String box as the 'hat' as it were.


I asked Sylvain bunny to do the honours...


But had to give him a hand...


And the winner is: Jennifer! (You can just about make out the name in the photo I think!)


Well done Jennifer :-) You can read her diary here: http://theprairiegirl.com/

I have a few more poorly animals around here so think I will do this kind of giveaway again, it's more fun than sending them back for credit notes.

Anyway, it's been another busy weekend sales-wise - as you would expect for December - so I haven't had that much time for working on the website, but a few late nights and a concerted effort mean that I have managed to finish adding some new stock. Have a look at our lovely things from Made in Pixieland, Belle and Boo and Snapdragon. Here are some of the new items:





And finally here are a couple of photos of the product shots ' in the making'. I turned our garden room / building site into a mini photography studio yesterday to make the most of the winter sun...



Right, better get on with packing up some parcels then!

Tis the season to be jolly busy!

Cannot believe that I am writing my first post of the week at 6.30pm on a Friday - a good indication of how flat out I have been this week really. It's all good though - I am just about coping (with the help of mum and the cheering presence of Humphrey rabbit) and am enjoying the somewhat novel feeling of having a brisk, thriving business. (Well, it's only taken six and a half years!)

Still haven't drawn the names for the Maileg mouse giveaway yet but will do it this weekend. For how here he is holding the fort while I have a coffee break. Can you spot him sitting in the chair? It's just a tad too big for him.

And the picture at the top of the post is Humphrey in the doorway to the office - I get the feeling he is saying 'Come on in, how can I help you?' We actually had a 'real life customer' this week (a local lady rang up and asked if she could collect in person rather than mail order) and I think she was a little surprised to find a rabbit as part of the team here!

Anyway, my plan for the evening is to relax a bit and catch up on reading other people's blogs... bliss!