APRIL SHOWERS? END OF THE DROUGHT?

Hi everyone

Yes, I know the title is very wrong, but it would be lovely to think that throughout April we will have had enough rain to ease the drought problems.  The in-between sunshine is lovely - unfortunately, the in-between rain is making the grass and weeds grow too fast to keep up with.

I began my pottery course this week and it was great.  Although demonstrations are provided, it is pretty much a workshop situation, which is great.  Everyone can do their own thing, learn something new, get ideas from others.  There are 12 of us in the group, myself and one other person are new; the others have been attending the course for several years, and most of them do the afternoon session as well.  Even though the tutor has been different during that time they have stuck with it.  Some really beautiful work has been produced and I am looking forward to working on one or two things over the next few weeks.  My first attempt will be a slab-pot candle-holder with a difference - certainly different to my experience of slab pots when I was at school.  Not for some time, but I hope to be able to put some pics of my work in my Sunday/Monday post in the not too distant future.

I have been very busy with card-making this week and also received orders for several more - so as much as I love sunshine, will be happy if it does rain a little so that I can stay inside and work.  Of the recent orders, here are pics of a few of them.  The brief for each of these was interesting to say the least:

The recipient of this card, Philip, has a small herd of sheep, works for a car company and is a Church Warden.  Pretty tricky to combine in one card, but I managed it with a downloaded background of sheep (found this on the Crafts-U-Print site) in a field.  I added a car to the little building in the field, a church in the top right-hand corner and also managed to find a shepherd.

This one was for a lady with the nickname of Queek.  Queek apparently is a shopaholic (oh, I can identify with that), drinks whisky and has a Yorkshire Terrier.  The person who ordered the card wanted a BIG 70 added.

This one is for another whisky lover and I have blanked out the bottle details as it had her name, plus other bits and pieces.

Had one of our great family get-togethers yesterday at my sister's with some of our cousins.  We always have a really good time, we all have a similar sense of humour and as we all lived so close to each other when growing up, we don't have to explain who people are, what particular events were, places we lived, etc.  One of my cousins is a very talented artist and I am trying to convince her to become one of my Friday Guest Bloggers so I can share her work with you.  Fingers crossed this will happen in the not too distant future.

If you would like to be a Friday Guest Blogger, do get in touch: christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.  The topic can be business-related, something you want to talk about/share with others, about your family or pets, I am happy to include non-craft-related posts.  It's a great bit of additional promotion.  You need to be thinking about 600 - 700 words, with 3 or 4 pics (more if your post needs them) and don't forget to add your links: website, blog, Twitter, etc.  Previous Friday Bloggers are very welcome to join in again.

I hope you read last week's post form Jenny who is behind the lovely Rumpy Dog blog posts - they are great and I recommend following the Rumpy Dog blog.  Thank you Jenny for joining the Friday Bloggers Group.

I had an email yesterday from an event organiser in Wallington asking me to take part in a fair in July.  My feeling is that the cost of petrol (it is a 66-mile round-trip), table fees, etc is quite a bit of outlay before selling anything, plus the time the journey would take would make it a very long day.  It would have been nice to attend as we used to live not far from there, but I think travel costs and time are are a big consideration, so sadly I have said no, thank you.

Not too sure where last week went - washed away in all the rain I think, but I need to get a move on during the coming week.  I have an event in Weybridge on Saturday and do not have many cards for sale - although I sometimes raid my wall at Bourne Mill, but would prefer not to do that this time.  So, a week of hard work (well, I can dream).

Have a good week everyone, don't forget to check out the other Handmade Monday bloggers and I will be back on Wednesday.

Jill