July Giveaway: Winner!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the giveaway!

Without further ado, the winner is... eatswithfork! Congratulations! Your email address suggests that your name is Kacie, so well done Kacie, I hope you enjoy your Earthy Batik pad and booster.

Commiserations to those of you who missed out - maybe the next giveaway will be your turn to win.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Summer Giveaway

Yesterday my Facebook page hit 100 "likes", which means it's giveaway time! Thanks so much to everyone who's "liked" the page (I have to put that in quotation marks otherwise it's terrible grammar!) - I love reading your comments and chatting with you.

So, who'd like to win a free pad? The winner of this giveaway will get to choose one of these two pads, and will also receive a handy PUL booster (on the left):

Centre: Book Addict pantiliner, 7.5" long, 2.5" wide when fastened. Backed with light pink microfleece. Suitable for light flow, spotting, or as backup for a menstrual cup or tampon.

Right: Earthy Batik pad, 9" long, 2.6" wide when fastened. Backed with cream fleece. Suitable for medium flow.

To enter, simply comment on this blog post and tell me which pad you would like to win. At 5pm GMT on Thursday 21st July, I will use the random number generator to pick the winning comment. Don't forget to leave an email address so that I can contact you!

Please leave one comment only - multiple entries will be disqualified. As always, international entries are welcome. Good luck, and have fun!

Fabric Binge

A few months back I did some temping for a local newspaper, and I promised my Facebook followers that as soon as the money came through, I'd have a fabric binge. Well, after four months of waiting the cash finally showed up in my bank account... and I headed over to Castle Court Quilter so fast that my feet barely touched the ground.

My fabric haul, in a neat pile of loveliness. Almost too pretty to cut up. Almost.

Swallows on blue and sage, and a corresponding blue, white and sage print. These are all from the Floragaphix range that has been so popular.

Bright florals are always a joy to work with. And they make very cheery pads!

Birds and books.

More batiks, as requested. The batik range is small, but I liked this earthy design and the vibrant red floral.

The ever popular "Gypsy" print, this time in bright red. Should look fabulous with black fleece and snaps.

A couple of old favourites that I'd run out of.

Finally, how organised is this?

A print for this year's holiday pads. Hey, I said HOLIDAY, I didn't even mention the C word! This will sit in my cabinet until November, and until then we will speak of it no more.

Speaking of Facebook, I'm 7 "likes" away from 100. It's very exciting! To show how much your support means to me, I will hold another giveaway as soon as I reach triple figures. If you haven't already liked my Facebook page, please do - the sooner I reach my target, the sooner you get a chance to win a free pad! (That's a menstrual pad, not an iPad. Sorry, you can't play Angry Birds on it.)

Closing my custom order service

During the almost four years that Luna Wolf has been going, I've made many changes. I think it's really important for businesses to evolve and adapt as circumstances change. It keeps things fresh, and ensures that you don't become stuck in a way of doing something that doesn't work anymore.

I've been having a bit of a re-think, and have come to a decision: I will no longer be taking on custom orders.

While I enjoy the challenge of coming up with a creation that is just right for an individual, it has become out of control lately. Custom orders often involve many hours of designing and prototype-making, which I do not charge for. This eats into the time I would normally spend stocking the shop. Less time spent on the shop means less choice, and more people wanting custom orders because they can't find what they want. It's a self-perpetuating cycle.

Custom orders also come with a certain amount of time pressure and stress. I usually do them on weekends, to minimise the lost time on the shop. Now that my partner has started working away during the week, the weekend is the only time I get to see her. I've realised that I'm no longer prepared to give up the precious time we have together, for the sake of working a seven day week. Life's too short!

Of course I am grateful and honoured that people want custom orders from me - in a way, the service has become a victim of its own success. But for my own sanity, I need to step back and make my workload more manageable. If I don't, I will burn out. I know you'll understand, and I thank you for it.

I've also made another change, which is small but will hopefully make a big difference. I've changed the channel stitching on all pantiliners to a single wavy line. My signature pointed shape on that small a scale is very difficult to get right, and - you know me - if it isn't perfectly symmetrical, it drives me to despair. The wavy channel stitching seems much more appropriate to the scale of the pantiliners. I've been using it on my own liners for a few months now, and I love how quirky and comfortable it is. More importantly, less time spent unpicking/re-sewing equals more time making pads! Hopefully this will stop me from running out of pantiliners so quickly, and will mean more choice in that section - which is good news all round!

Earth Day Giveaway: Winner!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the Earth Day giveaway. I really enjoyed reading all your comments - it was nice to learn a little bit about you, and you've given me lots of new green ideas to try.

The winner of the giveaway is... Cori!


And this is the pad she chose:


Congratulations Cori, and best of luck with your move!

One of the things my partner and I like to do to help reduce our impact on the environment is to use Freecycle. Items that we no longer use and are unsuitable for charity shop donations all get listed on Freecycle - chances are, they're just what someone else has been looking for. We've met some wonderful people through Freecycle, and helped out some good causes. It works the other way, too - when we needed some old blankets to protect our furniture while moving house, we posted on Freecycle and got several kind offers. My sit-kneel desk chair was also a Freecycle find!

Hope everyone had a happy Earth Day and a happy Easter!

Earth Day Giveaway

This Friday (April 22nd) is Earth Day - a day of awareness and appreciation for our beautiful planet. That seems like a great excuse to have a cloth pad giveaway!

January's "pick a pad" draw went down so well that I have decided to do the same again. The winner of the giveaway will get to pick any pad from my store.

To enter, simply comment on this blog post and tell me about one thing you do to help take care of our planet (other than use cloth pads, obviously!). At 5pm GMT on Friday 22nd April, I will use the random number generator to pick the winning comment. Don't forget to leave an email address so that I can contact you!

Please leave one comment only - multiple entries will be disqualified. For your comment to be eligible, remember to tell me about one thing you do to help take care of our planet. I'm always looking for new ways to be more eco friendly, so I'm hoping you'll give me lots of ideas! As always, international entries are welcome. Good luck, and have fun!

Embarrassing Bodies - A Missed Opportunity

Much to my partner's despair/disgust, one of my guilty pleasures in life is watching Embarrassing Bodies. I'm quite fascinated with how our bodies work, and love the no-nonsense attitude of doctors Christian, Dawn and Pixie.

Having spent approximately the last seven years advocating reusable menstrual products, imagine my excitement when the preview for this week's episode advertised a segment about periods, and showed a woman holding up a menstrual cup. Hurray! At long last, so-called "alternative" products are appearing in mainstream media!

Well. I saw the programme on 4od yesterday, and what a wasted opportunity. Yes, the segment was informative, but the menstrual cups were introduced as if they were some kind of strange medical device solely for measuring menstrual flow. There was no mention of them actually being effective menstrual protection. What a shame for viewers who are allergic to disposable products, and could have been introduced to a healthier alternative.

I was 22 when I discovered reusables. Disposables had caused me pain and irritation since day one, and I was thrilled to learn there were other options. If I'd missed that one thread on an online forum, I might still be struggling with disposables today, and Luna Wolf might not exist. When the Embarrassing Bodies camera panned across a selection of different menstrual wear, why were there no cloth pads or cups to be seen? Why are reusable menstrual products never suggested to women who come into the clinic with vulval pain?

It shouldn't be a matter of stumbling upon the information when looking for something else. Girls have a right to know about their options as soon as they start menstruating. You can bet that if I'd been introduced to reusables when we had the "period talk" at school, I'd have ended the misery of disposables much younger. The Embarrassing Bodies segment was a great opportunity to educate women on the many different options we have for menstrual protection, and it was a disappointment to see it wasted.