EXCITING TIMES

Hi everyone

I always begin to write my blog 2 - 3 days before it is due to be posted (I forget things otherwise) and at the moment (Friday morning) the weather is grim!  Tipping down, flooding in the garden and very dark, grey skies and it is miserable.  However, I am pleased to say that I feel much, much better - cotton wool has disappeared from my head and my brain seems to be working again and I don't feel dark, grey and miserable.

Returning to this section of the post at the end of Friday hasn't seen much improvement in the weather - a teeny, tiny bit of sunshine and then it ran away!

Daisy is very sensible and settles down to a cozy day snoozing in a comfortable chair with a good book and later on a glass of wine, getting up for the occasional biscuit.  Jazz hates this weather but hates being stuck inside even more, spends all of his time rushing out for a few minutes and realising he is wet, rushes back in and shakes himself over us - firstly having walked over every 'just-cleaned' surface!

I have found that evening crafting is a bit of a no-no with these two at the moment; I often do cutting work for my cards while watching television.  Unfortunately, two cats on my lap prohibits me from even picking up a pair of scissors let alone using them to cut paper.

The reason for the title of this post, Exciting Times, is that I have received an email from Popular Crafts saying they would like to feature my blog in their favourite blogs feature in the next issue!  The feature will include a pic of my blog and the web link.  How exciting is that!  I am so very pleased and really looking forward to seeing my blog in print, so to speak.  In addition to attracting new blog-followers to Christmas Pie Crafts, my current followers and those blogs I follow will, I am sure, enjoy some new visitors too.  I am not too sure of the publication date of the issue my blog will 'appear' in, but watch this space for further news.

The day hasn't been spent only following the USA weather news throughout the day (I have a brother and sister-in-law who live just outside of New York and want to make sure they are both OK) as I have made a start on Christmas cards.  About time too, I hear!  Last year for Christmas I began a range of small (3" x 3") cards and they sold incredibly well at fairs.  They can be used either as greetings cards or gift cards and were popular with children or people who had to buy a lot of cards, but only needed small ones.  I have a big stock of general all-year-round ones, but decided today was the day to make a start on Christmas ones, and here are the first 5:

I have added ready-made embellishments to each card, as well as clear 'jewels' to look like snow.  In addition to selling these as single cards, I also sell them in packs of 5.

As the weather is very similar to how it was when I first began this post, I feel very motivated to carry on card-making - it looks just like winter out!    Raining heavily, pretty chilly and windy.  Roll on summer.

I'll be back blogging on Wednesday - likely to be a late evening post though as 31 August is my final day in my 'day-job'.  I am pleased to be leaving the stress and long, long days behind, but will miss the people I work with.  However, 1 September sees a complete change of work style for me - full-time (or nearly full-time) crafting.  I have a long list of all the things I need to do: clear out cupboards, clear out drawers, empty boxes that have been full for ages - as well as replenish my card stock and carry on putting my new ideas into practice.

Enjoy the rest of the Bank Holiday everyone

Don't forget that on 21 September I will be making a blog post about what everyone (buyers and sellers) expect of Craft Fairs, so if you have ideas, requests or suggestions, please let me know and I will add them to the list.

Jill