Treasure Bin

It’s hard to tell from the weather but, according to the calendar, it’s summer! We’re still selling lots of scarf yarns and have just introduced some new, more lightweight and dressy versions including Rococo and Samba. We also have lovely colourful DK yarns as well as cute kids’ patterns.

Bridal Collection knitting pattern.

The wedding season is well under way so we’re running a little low on headwear accessories, but I’ve just found a company selling a lovely selection of feathers at better prices than my current suppliers, so I’m hoping the next couple of weeks will see our customers able to buy more supplies for less money! 

Fascinators made to order.

Every month I choose a different charity to benefit from our Lucky Dip category. This month, it’s the Make a Wish Foundation,which is being supported by the very brave Aoife McGrory who is doing a sky dive to raise funds!  I’d also like to give a shout out to Sean Cafferkey who is sky diving for Spunout.

Before I go, have you got Father’s Day sorted? There’s still plenty of time to make a card, especially if you use a Die-cut Decoupage sheet (half the work is already done for you!).

Popcorn the Bear decoupage

The days are getting longer and the snow has finally cleared. Summer may not have arrived just yet, but it’s not far off now. I was recently in Belfast where Treasure Bin was exhibiting at the Stitch and Creative Crafts Show in the King’s Hall. I met lots of lovely people from around the country, as well as seeing many of my regular customers again. Everyone seemed very pleased with the variety of craft stands on offer this year, especially when compared to recent years.
We sold huge amounts of buttons and yarn, as well as card toppers.

FREE POSTAGE

Of course, it was impossible to fit everything into my little stand at the show so I promised all visitors that if they’d like to order something from my website, I wouldn’t charge postage for their first order. Now how could I offer a wee freebie to new customers and not to my loyal existing customers and Facebook Fans? Obviously I couldn’t do that! So YOU can get free delivery within Ireland and UK on all orders placed by 6 May when you use code FREEP at checkout. Orders being delivered to other countries will be sent at a maximum charge of just 4 Euro.  
In the past we’ve had glitches with shipping coupons so if this doesn’t work for some reason, don’t worry - I’ll manually refund the excess postage paid when your order has been processed. If you’re ordering from outside Ireland or the UK, I may need to add on postage manually and will contact you accordingly.

NEW PRODUCTS

If you don’t see something you like on our website this time, keep checking back as we have LOADS of lovely goodies waiting to be uploaded over the next few weeks, including the latest cardmaking range from Hunkydory, paper punches from Tonic and Artemio, card toppers from MiC at extra-low prices, and we finally got clear plastic combs back in stock (our previous supplier went out of business a while ago).

Until next time …

Having a lovely time in Belfast meeting crafters from around the country.
So far, our bestsellers have been all kinds of buttons, scarf yarn and Roxy yarn: http://www.treasurebin.com/catalog/roxy-yarn-50g-p-3577.html

Tomorrow (Saturday) promises to be a very busy day, so I’m hoping to see a lot more of you there. :-)
We’re offering great bargains as we clear out discontinued lines, as well as showing the newest arrivals. And visitors have been very impressed with the range of exhibitors present and the bigger hall (the Pavilion).
Don’t worry if you can’t make it - I won’t forget you! I’m planning some nice surprises for you when I get back. :-)

Well, Ireland has been undergoing gale force winds, floods, and several centimetres of snow over the last few days. It’s safe to say that extreme weather has been experienced across the world lately. But the good thing about crafting is that you can do it in pretty much any weather.

It’s Easter next week and we’re well stocked up on chicks and bunnies, as well as yellow candy melts (and other colours) and a lovely new butterfly candy mould.
We also have Easter stamps and peel-off stickers, including religious ones.
PLEASE NOTE OUR HOLIDAY NOTICE BELOW.

Communions aren’t far away and we have cake toppers for these as well, and a knitting pattern for a gorgeous bolero and bag.

Unfortunately we’ve run out of Wilton icing colours because our supplier didn’t have ANY when I last ordered. I’ve now ordered directly from the US and hope to get at least some colours very shortly.

I’m getting ready for the wedding season and will soon be restocking our range of feathers, flowers and self-adhesive pearls and diamantes.  As always, I make headpieces to order and dye shoes and handbags.  Next month’s craft workshops cover a variety of wedding ideas and you can even learn how to make your own headpieces and dye your own shoes.

HOLIDAY NOTICE: I’m taking a short break next week so our website will be offline from now until 2 April.

The Letterkenny shop will be open until Thursday and closed from Good Friday to 1 April inclusive - so be sure to stock up on your Easter supplies in plenty of time.

Today’s date is 1/3/13 … so I’m giving 13% discount to members of my F Club (Friends/Fans/Followers). Just use code 1313 at checkout or in-store. (Discount doesn’t apply to magazines or Lucky Dip items.) www.treasurebin.com

Every year I go to the Creative Crafts trade show in Birmingham to look for new suppliers, touch base with existing suppliers, and attend workshops to learn new techniques and test new products.  
I go with a very long wishlist for myself and my customers and I spent 2-3 days shopping and workshopping and have a lovely, if exhausting time.

This year I saw loads of lovely diamante and sparkly threads (watch this space!) There was a nice selection of yarns. A rather disappointing selection of beads but I did find some nice ones. I’ve ordered lots of lovely cardmaking stuff from Hunkydory, Kanban and Crafter’s Companion. And, by popular demand, I will soon be stocking Pinflair glue gel as well as larger polystyrene balls. I’m also planning to get a range of iron-on motifs. Our candlemaking stuff will be restocked very shortly, as will our paper punches. And I’m not done yet, because I still need to go through all the brochures and websites of the companies I didn’t order from!!!
Details to follow.  ;)

Tomorrow is a special day … no, nothing to do with the Mayans. Some people may think the end of the Mayan calendar means the end of the world, personally I think it just means it’s time for a new calendar! But tomorrow does mark the end of our 2 competitions for the under-12s so they’d better hurry and get those jokes & pictures in. 
It’s the last special date of the century - 20/12/2012 - and our 12/12/12 discount was so popular that we’re doing it again. So, starting at midnight tonight, you get 20% off when you use code TWENTY12 on our website and we’ll also be offering 20% off most items in our shop. Enjoy!

This is a very important day for 2 reasons.
Firstly, there is the once-in-a-century occurrence of this special date: 12/12/12. Treasure Bin is celebrating in-store and online with a discount of …. you guessed it, 12% !  To avail of this discount on our website, just use coupon code TWELVE12 at checkout.

Secondly, we are launching our annual 12 Days of Christmas competition. For the next 12 days on Facebook we’ll set a different task and the winner will get a small prize (which you can either collect from the shop or have posted to you).

But, in case we’re not spoiling you enough, my nieces have insisted on a competition (or two!) for children, which they will be judging. Check our Facebook events page for details.

Treasure Bin is always crafty, but even more so at this time of year. We’ve been getting more than double the usual amount of deliveries for the last couple of months and we’re going crackers trying to get cracker snaps, cake decorations, card toppers, ribbons, wool, felt and OODLES of other stuff unpacked, sorted, priced and out on the shelves. Unfortunately there just hasn’t been enough time to upload these lovely goodies to our website!  I’m uploading  a few photos to our Facebook page to give you a taste of what we have. If you can’t get to our shop, just email a list of whatever you’d like to order that isn’t yet on the website, and I’ll send a PayPal invoice by return. I apologise for this less-than-ideal solution, but I’ll get the website up to date again over the Christmas break. This will include updating product quantities and making sure out-of-stock items are removed. So everything will be ready in time for our January sale.

In the meantime, I will tantalise you by telling you that we have: Airfix kits, cross-stitch and tapestries, beautiful glass beads, angel candles, incense, fairy calendars, clocks. We will very shortly be getting new angel cards and wall calendars.  And if you just can’t decide, we also sell gift vouchers.

There’s just one more newsletter to go for this year - in a few days I’ll be giving the details of our annual 12 Days of Christmas competition. We’ll also be offering a special discount on 12 December, so keep an eye on your inbox for information on that and on our January Sale.

And finally, I’m leaving you with contributions from 2 of my nieces. Lily, aged 9, asked me how I came up with the name for my business and I explained that I want to help people turn old things into treasure instead of throwing them in the bin. She then composed the following poem for me (and also typed the final note herself!) Her sister Isobel, aged 7, drew the picture. They have also insisted on holding their own Christmas competition. All will be explained in the next newsletter!


Come to Treasure Bin today!

Treasure Bin is full of treasure
and also lots and lots of pleasure.
Instead of throwing everything in the bin,
walk down the street and come right in.
The wool is soft and the paper is hard.
You can even get a loyalty card,
which we keep so you do not lose.
We also email our monthly news.
We sell everything from beads to clay
so come to Treasure Bin today.

By Lily Mc Bride, the niece of the owner Teresa Mc Bride 
Lily will be signing copies of this poem in 2013. For a copy, just come to Treasure Bin.