Ribbons, Lace, Trims and Buttons for Crafters

 

My little blog ticker on the right has been counting down the days for months to get to this day. Its the 1st October (Happy Birthday Mum) and today I opened a new online shop called the Ribbonrie.  Very much a part of my plans for the whole of ‘Design Recollections’. 

18 months ago now I thought I might do this after playing with other ideas. Then after taking the ScrapGenie job I knew that it would never last and made the decision to plan ahead for when Nicholas started school. It has taken me 6 months to build the website myself from a base osCommerce shopping cart. I have laughed, cried, screamed, broken it, fixed it, broken it again and learned a lot in the process. I have had some invaluable help from the osCommerce community and I am forever in their debt. But eventually after all my toils and troubles I opened on time!! Given what a disastrous summer (Florida aside) I had and all that my family has been through its nothing short of a miracle.

I feel as if I have lived in another world for months and today I finally began to feel like me again. Having a purpose helps and I have very much missed my crafty friends and more so, scrapping!!

I am very proud of the Ribbonrie although it has some way to go before it has everything I wish for it. It sells Ribbon, Lace, Trims and Buttons for crafters and stitchers alike. It has cost me a small fortune in nails, money and time but it is more or less how I saw it all those months ago. I will work hard to provide the level of service that I like to receive and have enjoyed from other online craft stores.

More than anything I wanted the shopping experience to be a pleasant and smooth one and for product images to be clear and actually show the detail that I have longed to see when purchasing ribbon in particular. I think for the most part that is achieved although I do need to re-take some images LOL!

I have added nearly 800 products since June. Some of that number comes from sub categories of the same types of ribbon but with different widths or colours or sub cats for buttons but that is the number of items I have had to find a home for here with me. With another 200 + on the way I should have something for everyone I hope. I have prize draws, special offers and most important of all the support I have promised to Cancer Research UK whom I will be fundraising for for the next year. 

As the last hours tick away until I am a year older I am making myself a few pledges for the months ahead.

  • To take a little more time for me.
  • To try and chill a while, just 5 minutes a day would be a start!
  • To get my photographs from this year printed
  • To start scrapping again
  • To get back to blog reading which I enjoyed so much
  • To blog myself as I used to before the summer
  • And to do my best at looking after the Ribbonrie and its new customers.
If I can achieve just the first and last I will be happy enough.
So I am not going to start advertising my wares today. I just wanted to share my news. I want this to remain my scrappy blog with Ribbonrie bits thrown in ;) (This blog is getting a makeover too, watch this space!) 
I want to thank my friends who knew my secret and kept the faith. 
Lubs ya
Until later (but not much later this time)……