END OF A BUSY AND EXHAUSTING WEEK

Hi everyone

It's raining and apparently it is going to be soggy all day today, and on and off for most of this coming week. Yesterday was such a gorgeous day - the last day of warm sunshine this year?

This last week has been frantic - I feel exhausted and plan to take today off, well making cards, etc so less mad than last week.  I eventually finished the finals bits of the wedding stationery at 7.15 pm on Friday!  I had visions of handing out the Order of Service to the guests while still collating them, then on to the Reception Hotel to finish putting together the table plan!  A very close shave.  The  church service was lovely and both the bride and groom looked perfect.  The groom, best men (yes, 2) and ushers had waistcoats similar to the cream of the invitations and their button-holes were of a similar orange to the ribbon used.  The bridesmaids dresses were also a matching orange colour and the page-boys had waistcoats similar to those of the groom.  It was all very beautiful and a lot of hard work had gone into all of the arrangements.  True to tradition, and to the wedding stationery deadlines over the past few weeks, the bride was 10-minutes late - was I surprised?  Not at all.

Here is a photograph of the table plan when it was about to be 'stuck' down- not all tables had the same number of guests on, but the request was not to make the cards the same size as some would look a little empty.  It matches the design of both the invitations and order of service and I had a lovely message from the bride on Friday evening saying how pleased she was with everything I had done

Sadly, I had to leave while the register signing was taking place.  I was at an event in Pirbright and although a friend was covering for me, I had been away nearly 2 hours and felt it wasn't fair to be away any longer.  

The handmade event was very successful in the number of visitors - but I don't think it was successful for all stallholders.  I noticed that someone selling knitted toys (Postman Pat, etc) didn't do very well.  There were 4 stalls selling jewellery (too much competition?) and lucky for me only one other card-seller, whose cards were completely different to mine.  My mini-cards were a big success again - so the next few days will see me working hard to build up my stock.  I was very pleased that my friend, Linda, who covered for me while I was at the wedding, did very well with her cakes.  This was her first event and as anyone knows who has been at a craft event, not doing well at your first show is very disappointing and so de-motivating.  She sold lots of cup-cakes and took orders for her Christmas Cake (lots of tasty samples to try made it very popular).

It's Handmade Monday time so do nip over and check out the other blogs taking part.  Lots of gorgeous makes and great posts.  Don't forget that even if someone doesn't take part in Handmade Monday and you are normally a regular visitor to their blog, it's still nice to drop in and see how they are doing.

I hope lots of you Handmade Monday bloggers are going to take part in my World Card-Making Competition.  Make & Craft are sponsoring the competition and have generously donated three prizes.  Even if you are not normally a card-maker, why not join in?

The non-crafty stuff

Did you read Eva's latest guest blog post?  She certainly has a knack of making you want to immediately book up to go to the places she writes about.  Many thanks Eva, a great post and as always the photographs are lovely.  I hope you are enjoying your holiday in Budapest.

I attended a fund-raising dinner on Wednesday of last week.  Almost needless to say it was for cats - Woking Cats Protection.  The proceeds of the raffle raised £1,250 - a brilliant amount and one very generous person bid £250 for a 4-ball game of golf that was donated by Club where the dinner was held.

My two lovely foster kittens, Ash and Micro, left home last week - well my home that is.  They went to their new family on Thursday and I know they will have a very happy new life.  My temporary kitten-fostering has come to, what I hope it to be, a temporary end.  I was due to have two 'new' ones on Friday, but one has been homed and the other one has gone to a different fosterer.  So, the pen is empty, no more squeaking kittens calling for me, no water-bowl tipped up, no biscuits thrown around the place (on the plus side, no litter trays to empty!) - sad.

My pottery course began again last week and this time around I am doing the morning and afternoon sessions.  I spent last week working on pieces created last term and this week will begin creating a major project (or two) and finish off the 'left-overs' as they become 'cooked', etc.  It is good to be back with everyone, a really nice group and one new person this term, so I no longer feel like the 'new girl'.  I worked on a test piece to identify possible colours for the necklace and earrings I made last term; the firing may not be carried out for a week or so as there needs to be a reasonable number of pieces to ensure the kiln is full.  All great fun and I really enjoy myself.

Lots of catching up to do over the next few days: card-making, tweeting to people who have either tweeted me, RTd my blog posts, mentioned me, etc - I have been very neglectful recently (particular apologies to Dawn and Lesley).  I have three card orders to make - one of which is urgent (this is beginning to feel familiar), blog posts that I must comment on, and website work, and, and, and.....  

Have a good week everyone.  If you would like to be guest blogger or enter the card-making competition, please do get in touch: christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.  I will be back on Wednesday with my usual mid-week post and don't forget to drop in on Friday to read my guest blogger's post.  How about joining in Caroline's UK Handmade Thursday blog hop? Have a look at the posts from last week's contributors and make a diary note to join in this week

Jill