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Sunday 26 August 2012

THE LAST BANK HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR

Hi everyone

I know it isn't the last one, but the next one is Christmas and it seems a long way off - I'll forget the fact that at the moment I am surrounded by material for making Christmas cards, gift boxes, etc.

1 Crafty Tales

I haven't done a lot of craft work this week as I have tried to concentrate on my website - yes, I know I have probably written those words at least ten times in my blog, but it is getting to the point where I know I really do need to get a move on and get it published.  As you know from my blog, I love bright colours and originally my website was black (text mainly and some accents), white and lime green - the lime green was rather prominent.  I liked the colour scheme but have come to the conclusion over the last week that it really needs softening.  I therefore decided to introduce purple, well lilac really, into the colour scheme.  I have used lilac as the background side-strip colour and also in some of the accents.  I decided to use dark purple for the text, but still kept some lime green as I think it is a fresh bright colour.  I may still go for a lighter shade of lilac on the side strips, but am playing around with that at the moment.

I am ploughing through adding items, but the dilemma is that a lot of my card stock is at Bourne Mill - it is my bricks and mortar selling point, so I keep very little stock is at home.  This means I need to make stock that only goes on my website, not something that I am relishing really as it means working twice as hard (oh dear, sounds pathetic).  However, with long winter nights on their way (sorry to mention winter, almost as bad as mentioning Christmas) I should have more free time to work on stock production.  My big problem at the moment is that when the weather is good, I really want to be outside either working in or enjoying my garden.

In the meantime, this is my home page - so far.  What do you think of it?  Do you think the lilac should be a shade or a few shades lighter?  I have had some feedback that the green doesn't go well with the lilac, but the green is 'me'.  It's one of my original colours and I don't really want to lose it - plus a lot of my promotional material uses this shade of lime green.


I plan to 'go live' on 1 September, even though not all of my sections will have stock, but I think I have dragged my heels long enough and a small presence (growing regularly) on the internet is better than no presence at all.  I really cannot attend any events this year and to the many people who ask if I have a website, reply 'it's nearly ready' - especially if they asked me the same question last year!

It's time for the Handmade Monday bloggers to visit the other participants to catch up on their makes and 'doings' for the past week, but before you go, it would be great if you would consider being a guest blogger here on the Christmas Pie Crafts blog.  If you are a regular Friday visitor you will know the posts have been really great and just as good are the ones I have ready to be published.  It's a great chance for you to increase traffic to your blog and website as well as other social networking that you are involved in.  Interested?  Email me on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com - it would be great to have some more Handmade Monday-ers take part.  A bit of free promotion for your new Christmas stock?

Did you read Krissy's guest post on Friday?  I really recommend you visit while you are here to read about how Krissy decided to open up her boutique.  Many thanks Krissy for being one my guest bloggers - I really enjoy reading about how people came to the 'today' stage of their life.

2 The chitter, chatter bit

News of the day: Trio broke out of my neighbour's home!  Smashed her way through the cat flap, wandered around the garden, jumped up and landed on a 6' high piece of trellis and miaowed to be rescued!  This is the cat with one hind-leg missing who has only been 'in residence' for about two weeks!  She has been exploring in sheds and garage, brought out many cobwebs (better than a duster) and seems very happy to be free.  Shadow is completely confused by her, but Jazz is interested as he likes the 'older woman' cat.  Another one of our neighbours had a very elderly lady cat and Jazz would follow her everywhere - she was a bit grumpy (Holly by name and by nature) and this irritated her very much.

I met up with Caroline on Tuesday and over large cups of coffee we attempted to solve the crafting riddle of the day; we didn't find a solution, and after lots of coffee think we had forgotten what the original question was, but it was great to take time out and catch up with what each of us has been working on.

I had a call from Cats Protection last week asking if I would be able to feed some kittens next week.  A cat-fosterer who lives near to me is going on holiday for a few days and I am the nearest CP person to her home.  I went to meet my charges on Thursday and they are so cute: one long-haired ginger girl called Fifi (18 months old) and two long-haired black kittens aged 4.5 months.  I also met some of the fosterer's own cats - three tabbies, and all gorgeous.  Not sure I can do this work without increasing the size of my own cat population.  My biggest concern, apart from wanting to take all stray cats and kittens home with me, is how I will cope with a case where the kittens or cats are not as healthy as those I have met so far.

I don't know if any of you have come across BlogFlash2012?  It is a blog-post-a-day event organised by Terri G Long (Terri's blog is about the Art and Craft of Writing Creatively).  Terri has provided a topic for each day of August and as you can imagine it must be hard work writing something new every day.  I haven't had a chance to read all of the posts, but particularly wanted to dray your attention to those created by Lesley Beeton (one of my favourite guest bloggers).  She has written some very interesting posts and I feel that most of them (all really) have a chapter 2 waiting to be produced.

I read a post on Twitter a short while ago with a link to a YouTube video about the Follow Friday (#FF) activity.  Like a lot of people who use Twitter, I take part in this and have tended to follow the crowd with a group FF tweet.  I am embarrassed to say I cannot remember who produced the YouTube (I am sure someone here will), but their recommendation was that if you want to encourage people to follow, just FF tweet one person at a time with a reason why they should be followed.  It was suggested that group tweeting can sometimes be viewed as spamming, so I decided to keep with the single FF tweet and I will continue this in future.  I did this on Friday and limited time meant I only managed two, and thank you to those same two who included me in their individual Follow Friday tweets.

The garden beckons as my neighbour has given me some lovely Primula Denticulata to plant - the garden is also the best place to be as Richard is removing the fireplace from the dining room!  The noise of the chisel and hammer are bearable, the moans and groans are not.

I hope you have a good Bank Holiday Monday - sadly I think the weather is going to be pretty grim.  I will be back on Wednesday with my mid-week catch-up and don't forget to visit on Friday to read this week's great guest post.

Jill

36 comments:

  1. You have been busy. I would soften the lilac just a tad as found when looking at the page made me go a bit crossed eyed, but then you know what my eyesight is like.

    What was the original question? all that coffee addled my brain, lol.

    Good luck with the kitten feeding and Shiloh says well done for your escape Trio. He is still trying but not getting very far mainly because he has to have something in his mouth, ie a toy for comfort purposes as he is a big girls blouse.

    Have a good week and I expect to see that website live on the 1st! no more excuses or procrastinating.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree, think it is a bit too powerful. Have amended to a lighter lilac and think it looks better. Wish it was possible to put something down the sides - must investigate. Definite publish 1 September - no matter what. committed now.

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  2. PS much better without the Captcha code as getting old and cannot always read them, ho hum!

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    Replies
    1. Many thanks for letting me know - would just have gone on as usual. Some of the codes are so tiny, wonder anyone is able to comment

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  3. This bank holiday weekend seems perfect for increasing your stock levels!
    Looking forward to seeing your website up and running:)

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    Replies
    1. Apparently it is going to be raining tomorrow, so could be good time to get crafting done

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  4. I like the lilac colour. It is quite unusual and calming. I also don't have a problem with the green. Good luck with your big day! I think it is the right thing to do to (not that I have any experience in the area but your argument seems plausible!)

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    Replies
    1. Lilac is a very soft colour - I am glad you like it.

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  5. I really like the lilac colour. It is not a colour seen about a lot and it is quite calming. Also like the green. Good luck with the website launch - hope you have a celebration planned.

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    1. The green is my favourite colour on my website, goes well with the lilac too. I think the celebration will be a must-do

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  6. Websites looking good. Lilac and bright green is a fab colour combo

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    Replies
    1. Thank you - they do compliment each ang go well with the black and white

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  7. Lilac and lime is a lovely combo and I think it might work really well. Good luck - it's such a tedious job, isn't it?

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    Replies
    1. Oh, yes it is. Feel like I have been working on it for years

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  8. I like lilac and lime, but I personally would have gone for a slightly deeper tone of lilac- but then, as Caroline said maybe that would be distracting for some.

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    Replies
    1. I agree, I really like strong colours but think something easy on the eye is needed

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  9. Well done for getting some work done on your website - it's always hard work isn't it? And good luck with the kitty feeding!

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    Replies
    1. Oh, yes it is - I sometimes feel it is two steps forward and three back

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  10. Hi Jill,
    I really love the colours...especially the lilac....(but then that's no real surprise is it?) The lime works really well.
    Am loving the black and lime blog too by the way ;) xx

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    Replies
    1. Ah, I knew you would like it. Looks good with the lime green

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  11. i think that the lime green works great with the lilac! the colour scheme looks fab and i really look forward to wandering around the rest of your site once its up and running! :)

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    Replies
    1. Nice colours together, still playing around with designs, etc but plan to stick with those two

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  12. I always think that stock control is such a difficult thing to conquer. I like the lilac website, it is such a good colour to use and I think it is easy on the eye. :)

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    Replies
    1. It's a nightmare - decisions, decisions. Do I make and keep lots or do I just do samples and make to order. Still pondering.

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  13. Loving the colours but then you only have to to see my blogs to know that one green and one purple lol.

    Have you considered streatching the middle box if it won't let you put stuff down the sides, maximizeing use of the page. I have no idea how websites are designed but personally I like to see things big as possible, but that's cos I keep forgetting to put my specs on..

    Looking forward to seeing all your creations xxxx

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    Replies
    1. It is a lovely colour. Just expanded and would you believe lost the lilac colour and having problems getting it back.

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    2. Oops go to where you expanded it, it should say restore default widths or similar...

      xx

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    3. I can swap widths etc without any problems, just not too sure why it sticks with one colour when width expanded. Have contacted Vistaprint who, at the moment, are proving rather unhelpful. Keep sending out a list of instructions which I have followed, oh, at least 3 times without an effect. Very, very fed-up with it.

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    4. Oh how annoying hope you can get it sorted as I love the Lilac xxx

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  14. The lilac is gret, good luck for the 1st :)

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    Replies
    1. Many thanks. It's a nice colour and really soft to view

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  15. I'm a fan of lilac altho I think I'm not always the person to ask about colors going together because I think my eyes are less good at discerning these days.
    Love your kitty stories too, even tho I cannot have cats as my husband is allergic (I'm keeping him, he really is better than a cat and he get's along great with my dogs!) :)

    I agree with what someone else said about the captcha codes and it seems to me lately they have gotten positively horrendous! Some of the Handmade Monday blogs which I love I have to try 6 or 7 times before I can post a comment and one last week I finally gave up. My google ID seems to give me the most grief on that and I wish someone could explain that to me. Sorry off topic!

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  16. The captcha codes drive me potty and I hadn't realised they were on mine - so time-consuming and as you say takes ages to get it right. Glad you like the kitty stories.

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  17. Phew! What a weekend, finally managed to get back to your blog to comment :-)
    You have been v busy too - I think your website will be popular, but I think a slightly darker lilac will make your lime green stand out more.
    Hope the kittens are OK, and gosh what mischief Trio has gotten into!
    Thanks once again for the very kind mention.
    Hope the weather stays fine for you this week - have fun x.

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  18. I really like the lilac. It's quite relaxing and lets the green details stand out.

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  19. I really like the look of the lilac, and particularly like the text being on white because I find it more difficult to read against the green with my eyesight! I think lilac looks great with the green too.

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Thank you for your comment - it is always lovely to have feedback and I hope you enjoyed my post.