IS IT REALLY ONLY 65 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS?

Hello everyone

65 days left to get everything ready for events, orders and our own Christmas!  Am I panicking?  Of course not!!  Calm, collected and running around like a headless chicken not sure what job to start first, and often not starting any because of dithering too long about which one is the most urgent.

A hectic week - seems to be the norm at the moment.  I spent Monday helping a friend set up/sort out her spreadsheets for her business - not long in business and wanted to ensure she had the break-even calculations set up correctly.

Around numerous other non-crafty activities, I managed to make lots and lots of mini-cards.  I now have two ranges: 3" x 3" and 4" x 4".  Very easy to make and a whole variety covering Christmas and all other events that occur throughout the year, including birthdays. They always sell well at events and I want to ensure that I have plenty of stock for the ones I am taking part in in November - especially the 3-day event I am doing when I want to be able to move stock around so it looks as though each day has a brand new basket-full of mini-cards.

As well as mini-cards, my makes these week have involved ribbon.  I love ribbon, I can never have enough of it and buy it even if I don't have a use in mind - yes, I am a ribbon addict!  This addiction is not helped by my ribbon supplier often having offers of a discount of 25% off all stock and that means more ribbon arrives at Christmas Pie Crafts.  Lovely great big 50 metre rolls of the stuff.  However, I am not a complete nut-case, I am making inroads into my stock and this week I decided on a different type of wreath/wall-hanging made of Black Watch tartan ribbon and here it is in it's nearly finished state (unfortunately, I discovered my camera's battery is as flat as a pancake so I used my iPhone, which seems to have turned the Black Watch tartan blue!):

I bound the ring with the ribbon and I am in the process of making red velvet roses to attach to it - guess what they are made of? Yep, that's it, ribbon!

That's my confession over for the week, but I bet that if you visit the other participants in this week's Handmade Harbour blogging event you will find more addicts - craft addicts that is creating beautiful things and writing great blog posts.

Before I leave my crafty bit of blogging, don't forget to read this week's guest post from Claire of Lady Luck Jewellery - it's all about the good, the bad and the ugly of craft fairs.   It is a great insight into craft fairs from both an organiser's viewpoint as well as that of a stall holder.  Many thanks for being a guest blogger Claire, I really enjoyed your post.

The Other Me

As well as the crafting me, the other me has been busy this week with kittens.  Monkey and Damon went to their new home on Thursday.  As always, it was hard to see them go, but more so this time because Monkey was such an affectionate kitten; you sat down, and so did he - on your lap, neck, shoulder, anywhere he could get to.  I know they will have lovely lives and that is the important thing.

I now have Jasper and Wallace, two little ginger boy kittens aged 7 weeks.  They are very nervous, Wallace more so and although you can stroke them, picking them up to cuddle is not easy - they wriggle a lot.  I feel this is going to be a challenge and I will let you know how things go over the next week or so.  Here is a photograph off them; they are not as keen on having their picture taken as Monkey and Damon were:

Jazz, as always, is fascinated by them and what is very interesting is that Jasper appears to like Jazz as he purrs when he is near by.  Daisy looks at them with a 'oh, no, not another lot' look on her face.

In my pottery sessions I have added ears and hair to my mask.  I have decided it is going to be as you saw last week, not blending the features into the face.  Perhaps this can be my practice mask and the next one will be the 'real' thing.  The hair is not quite hair, but looks (to me) like the top of an acorn, so Mr Acorn it could well be.  I made another pendant this week, but no earrings; I planning on using a shiny black glaze this time, with some 'rubbed out areas to give depth'.  I do enjoy the course and I am really glad I made the decision to join last term and book both morning and afternoon sessions this term.  Hard to believe we are already half-way through this term and I know the weeks after the half-term break will whizz by even faster than the first half.

Time to get back to my ribbons - so many ribbons, so little time to enjoy them.  Before I forget, this week's funny keyword search terms are 'tellero' (er, how did the searcher end up on my blog??) and 'christmas wrapping ribbon'.

Have a great week, don't forget to come back on Wednesday for my mid-week post and Friday for my guest blogger.  I haven't forgotten that I mentioned I will be starting a cat-related blog post on Thursdays, but will be leaving that for a week or so.

Jill