We hope you have found something you like on SheepSheep.co.uk for yourself or your family and friends this Christmas.

To ensure you receive your order in time for Christmas we recommend you order by the following dates. These have been calculated using the official Royal Mail recommended postage dates.

• Orders to be delivered within the UK - 15th December 2010
• Orders to be delivered to Western Europe - 8th December 2010
• Orders to be delivered to Eastern Europe, USA and Canada - 7th December 2010
• Orders to be delivered to anywhere else in the World - 4th December 2010

All items are in stock except where noted (these will show as 'sold out' and you won't be able to order them). However if you do order an item that has gone out of stock we will email you immediately and you will have the option of a refund if the expected delivery date is too late.

We hope you have a lovely Ewe-ltide and a happy N-ewe Year!

Once every now and again we get hold of a sheepskin item that's just a little bit different. Well this time it's quite a lot different. Limited edition St George's Cross sheepskin rugs - the perfect present or homeware essential for the patriotic England (or Georgia) fan.

Now admittedly this isn't something we'd usually have in our range but with the Rugby World Cup well under way we thought this may just be that ultimate piece of England (or Georgia) merchandise.

Is there a more off-the-wall England gift? We challenge you to find it!

• St George's Cross England Sheepskin rug - more information and buy

SheepSheep.co.uk has now been running for over a year and a half and we'd like to thank everyone who has visited our website and ordered from us, we hope our products have been up to your expectations.

I'm very excited to say we have some more products that have now been added to the website. 4 new hats:

As now mentioned on our Mitten product page, due to exceptional Christmas demand delivery of orders for mittens have been severely delayed in the past week.

Any orders for mittens placed from last Friday (10th December) afternoon have not yet been sent as we are still awaiting stock.

We sincerely apologise to anyone who has been affected by this, the problem has been due to a delay in the delivery of a new batch of mittens from our supplier. Our consignment has taken about a week longer than we expected for reasons beyond our control.

We hope that they will now arrive on Monday 20th December. However we have also ordered mittens from another supplier to also arrive on Monday 20th December to provide us with more options.

As soon as they arrive we will process all orders for mittens and send them out by First Class. Royal Mail First Class's stated last posting date for Christmas is Tuesday 21st December so we hope this will ensure a Christmas delivery.

In addition to our apologies we have a couple of options to hopefully limit the inconvenience to any customers ordering mittens:

• We'll deliver as quickly as we can but we'll also send you a Christmas letter of apology (sample letter pdf) from SheepSheep to give to friends or family who you've had to disappoint including a 20% discount within this letter for the recipient (or friends)*
• Or we can cancel your order and provide you with a full refund as well as a 20% discount for the inconvenience caused.

We hope you understand and please be assured we'll aim to deliver your mittens as soon as we can.

- Edward Sexton, SheepSheep.co.uk Founder

PS: We are aware other deliveries are taking a while - a week in some cases - due to Royal Mail suffering delays. All our products are sent First Class and you will be notified on the day of shipping.

*discount code can be used once, for orders placed up until 8pm, Thursday 16th December 2010.

With Christmas fast approaching we hope you can find the ideal present for your friend's and family on SheepSheep.co.uk.

To ensure you receive your order in time for Christmas we recommend you order by the following dates. These have been calculated using the official Royal Mail recommended postage dates.

• Orders to be delivered within the UK - 20th December 2010
• Orders to be delivered to Western Europe - 12th December 2010
• Orders to be delivered to Eastern Europe, USA and Canada - 9th December 2010
• Orders to be delivered to anywhere else in the World - 5th December 2010

Please note these are recommended and not guaranteed. To be sure your order arrives please place it in advance of these dates.

If you are placing your order after these dates but would still like a Christmas delivery please contact us before placing your order and we can look to arrange special delivery - this will cost more. 

All items are in stock except where noted (these will show as 'sold out' and you won't be able to order them). However if you do order an item that has gone out of stock we will email you immediately and you will have the option of a refund if the expected delivery date is too late.

We hope you have a very merry Christmas and a happy Newe Year!

It's been 8 months since SheepSheep.co.uk started selling quality countrywear and hopefully we've managed to keep a few people a bit warmer in the cold and improved a few Sherlock Holmes costumes.

We're not stopping there though, today we've expanded our range with a few more classic and ewe-nique (sorry) items including sheepskin rugs, lambskin gloves, sheepskin slippers and 100% wool scarves.

We've also lost one of our pet sheep - Woolly - amongst the new products, see if you can spot him...

The full list of items added today are:

• Ladies lambskin gloves
• Mens lambskin gloves
• Ladies fashion nappa / palm lambskin gloves 
• Lambswool lined moccasin with sole
• Real sheepskin mule with sole
• Real sheepskin ankle boot with sole
• Standard sheepskin rug
• Rectangular sheepskin rug fully lined
• 100% pure new wool tartan scarves
• 100% wool heavy chunky jumper
• 100% wool men’s cable sweater
• 100% wool ladies swing cardigan
• 100% wool ladies Aran ¾ skirt jacket
  

Please have a look and let us know what you think.

When we started SheepSheep.co.uk earlier this year we needed a logo pretty quickly so a quick search on Microsoft Clip Art and some Photoshop re-colouring led to the following:

However it was always our intention to create one that better represented our brand.

And so our expert designer (thanks Paula!) set to work at creating completely original logo that wasn't built from images that other people can use and most importantly consisted of sheep wearing sheepskin slippers - which is actually a little bit sick in a way but we'll gloss over that.

A number of design options were created some of which we may actually use in the future, and one stood out amongst them all as best serving our purpose. You can see a selection of our design options below including the final one we used (top right).

We're not quite there yet though - as these were all created using traditional pencil and paper so needed digitising. While it was important we kept the essence of the hand drawn image, it also needed to stand out. The sheep also had scarves on this original drawing which complicated the logo a little so were left out. This was built up gradually in Photoshop; you can see the process below.

This all leads to our final SheepSheep.co.uk logo - as unique as the products we sell! And made in the UK. :)

A while back, Richard spoke to a local website about the sheepskin manufacturing process, explaining all the stages.

This was about 4 years ago as you’ll see, however back then we didn’t have a website or blog so before the piece gets lost in the world wide web we’re going to bring it to your attention!

Unfortunately the images and captions of the sheepskin manufacturing process which were the main point of the story don’t seem to be working but the interview about the business is still up. It’s a bit like reading our SheepSheep About Us page page from a different point of view, sorry!

We’ll try and get those images live again with some captions as it’s helpful for people to see how skin gets from the fields to the wholesaler (us). If that fails we’ll get Richard to write a blog piece about the process – watch this space!

Despite selling classic British countrywear, here at sheepsheep.co.uk we like to keep up with the times too. So today we’ve been experimenting with QR codes (or mobile barcodes) to try and promote our website.

Mobile barcodes as wikipedia will tell you were invented in Japan and enable you to take a photo of them on your mobile phone, and via software on your phone will then redirect you to a website.

Why not just use a web address you ask? Well admittedly this may be a bit of a gimmick but they do encourage people to actually try and take a photo of them just to see what it’s all about. Whearas i know that when i see a web address in an advert i usually just ignore it.

So here’s our SheepSheep.co.uk QR code, print this page now and try it out! You may even be able to take a picture of the screen (although that didn’t work on my phone).

In Japan, most mobile phones have code readers installed when they’re bought but not so over here. There are a number of places where you can download code readers, try NeoReader or BeeTagg.

If you want to try creating your own QR codes, try this free QR code generator.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be looking for ways we can use these codes, maybe putting on our labels? Stamping onto sheepskins? Sticking to the backs of unsuspecting sheep (no, we wouldn’t do that of course).

Last week we (Richard Sexton & Co) attended Scotland’s Trade Fair Spring at the SECC in Glasgow. We entered our latest product – the 100% wool Aran throw into their ‘Best Product Award’ and were proud to be Highly Commended!

OK, we didn’t win, but we were up against some excellent products with which we were featured alongside in a presentation cabinet at the show entrance. Hopefully we can improve on this next year, watch this space.

Read our competition entry below:

Our Glencroft® throw/blanket in a Celtic pattern is brand new to our range and we’re excited to be launching it at Scotland’s Trade Fair.

We are proud to say that this throw is knitted in the UK from British wool.

You may recognise the Celtic pattern, commonly associated with warm heavy knit winter jumpers. Which is why we thought it would work so well on a throw, so people can feel like they’re wrapped in a favourite pullover whether they’re snuggled in bed or sitting on the sofa watching a DVD on a cold evening.

This is a premium product at an affordable price for sale by craft and gift shops across Scotland – our core customers. It is important for us that we not only sell high quality sheepskin and knitwear but also maintain competitive prices (even against products not made in Britain) to satisfy our customer’s demand.

We know our customers like to get more for their money so we’ve also made this throw enormous – 4’2" by 5’0" (1.27m x 1.52m) – which means for double the warmth you can fold it in half and still have more than enough.

As with all our woollen items, this throw also has a natural ‘wool’ smell – have a sniff!

View more pictures of the throw and get your own to snuggle in.