Christmas In July!

Well, it's turned nice & hot this weekend, so we've been out in the garden or in the local pub gardens almost all the time.

The kids have had a great time playing and hubby & I have had a lovely
time relaxing with friends!












But now we're back to Monday and no more sunbathing for me, as I have just re-opened my Etsy shop after my "holiday" month (i.e. time to panic about the Home & Gift Fair in less than 2 weeks - EEEEEK!)

And very excitingly I'm taking part in the Etsy-wide "Christmas in July" promotion, which is an American tradition, whereby shops offer a discount on Christmas goods halfway through the year for organised shoppers to get a head start!

Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

In some western countries, July has a minor number of marketing opportunities. In the United States and Canada, there are no national holidays between the first week of July (Canada Day on July 1 in Canada and the Fourth of July in the United States) and Labo(u)r Day (the first Monday in September for both the US and Canada), leaving two months with no holidays. (Some Canadian provinces hold a civic holiday in August, but this is not a national holiday.) The late July period provides relatively few opportunities for merchandising, since it is typically after the peak of summer product sales in June and early July, but before the back to school shopping period begins in August. Therefore, to justify sales, shops (such as Leon's in Canada) will sometimes announce a Christmas in July sale.

As a lot of my funny goodies could be bought as Christmas presents, I thought I would offer a store-wide promotion, not just the Christmassy items, although they are all in the shop now too:

So you just need to use the code CIJUK10 at checkout to get 10% off all orders over £10 for the whole month!

Now I'm off with a cuppa for a slightly belated hop round Handmade Monday :-)

Happy Birthday to Me.....!

Morning campers (have various old Hi-de-hi lines going through my head today for some reason!)

So, today is my 1 year anniversary of selling on Etsy! I've had an incredible year and it has been getting better and better!

Here are some pics of the last year in the Grace's Favours household:

1st item made & sold - thankfully my photography's improved a bit since then!

The 1st campervan - now our most popular item!

1st attempt at a fascinator

A handmade birthday present

Kids modelling their crowns for the Jubilee

Learning to make fascinators properly!

New bear is MINE!

The latest campervan

I am part of some wonderful teams on Etsy, which has meant I've met some wonderful people along the way, all of whom are really supportive and friendly, which is invaluable when you're working on your own.

There is one person I couldn't have done any of this without and that's my lovely husband Brian, who not only provides all technical and graphics advice & support, but who also has taken on a much greater role in looking after the house and children - thank you Gorgeous!!

To celebrate Grace's Favours being 1 year old not only am I giving away a gorgeous Christmas Wreath but I'm also offering 20% off any item in the shop today only... so any early Christmas shopping you wanted to get started on will save you money too!

1 Year Etsy Anniversary Giveaway!!!

It's been in my mind recently to hold a giveaway as a thank you to all my lovely customers and Blog, Facebook & Twitter followers and what better time than now, for the celebration of my Etsy Shop being 1 year old!

So the giveaway is running from today, for 1 week and I'll do the magic with the random number generator on Thursday 18th October (the date of my anniversary!)

Here's what you can win:

There are 4 ways in which you can enter and each will count as a separate entry, giving you more chances to win:

Required Entry:

Become a follower of this blog & leave a comment on this post saying you've done so (1 entry) 

Optional Extra Entries:

1. 'Like' our Facebook page and post a comment here to say you've done it (1 entry)

2. Share the competition picture on your personal Facebook page & leave a comment here to say you've done it (1 entry)

3. Tweet about the giveaway & leave us a comment here (1 entry)

4. Post a snippet on your blog about our giveaway and leave us a comment here with the link (1 entry)

The giveaway will close at midnight on Thursday October 18th 2012 (GMT) and the giveaway is open to all countries.

Please make sure I can contact you via your comment - leave an email address with your comment if it's not available through your profile. If I can't get in touch with you by the 22nd October 2012 I'll re-do the draw.

Good Luck!!

There will also be a special 20% off sale from 18th October for one week, all you need to do is use the code BIRTHDAY2012 when you checkout at the shop