MILLY'S DIARY

Hello everyone

Not much sunshine today, so I am spending time inside - snoozing!  It's something we cats do pretty well, need no training for, can do at the drop of a whisker and, it has been said, something we do for about 17 hours a day.  Not me though, too much to do outside.

However, I haven't been outside much for the last couple of days because the 'visiting cat' is scary!  Yes, I know I don't scare easily and I normally take no notice of other cats, but he keeps chasing me and because he is about 6 times bigger than I am I have spent a lot of time recently hiding behind sofas, under chairs and in cupboards.  This is not the image I like to project!  I may be small, but I think big!  He argues with Jazz, but doesn't seem too bothered with Daisy, Coco or Poppy.  He sometimes nips into our neighbour's garden and rolls in her cat mint - probably high as a kite when he chases me!

Scary Cat hasn't been in our garden today, so it might be safe for me to go outside for a while.  Have to keep my eyes open though because he does sometimes curl up and sleep in one of the flower beds - ready to chase me as I wander by.

A mini post today, I am going to give the big outside world (my garden that is) another reccie - come back next week to see how I am managing my life with Scary Cat.

Milly

JUST NICELY BLOGGING ALONG

Hell everyone

It's raining!  Not much rain has fallen, but my garden is loving it.  Fingers crossed we get some more.  Okay, I prefer it to rain during the night, but at the moment I am grateful for any rain.

Talking of rain, I went with a couple of friends to the RHS Wisley last Monday.  Although it occasionally rained, we had a lovely day wandering around the gardens.  So surprised at how busy the car park was and how quiet the gardens were - until we went for coffee and then later for lunch!  Clearly the eateries are more than/just as popular as the gardens!  It always pleases me to see weeds growing in the Wisley flower beds - I don't feel so bad when I look at my bindweed, mares tail and other pesky weeds!

In celebration of Lewis Carroll's 150th birthday, Wisley have a display of Alice in Wonderland sculptures and this is one I particularly liked:

Now, I wonder if this could be my next pottery project.......  As always the lips would be a problem, but I have mastered noses.

I love Clematis and this is a very pretty one, Princess Diana, that is beginning to get established in a container in our garden:

Another favourite flower is this beautiful Calla Lily - we have three pots of different colours place around the pond.  One variety is almost black and when in full flower, I will photograph it - at the moment it only has one flower on it.

I got home from Wisley to the disappointing news that my application to take part in this year's Farnham Maltings Christmas Fair had not been successful.  However, onward and upward and I finished the week on a high having been accepted to take part in the two-day Packhouse Antiques Centre Christmas Night Market.

This week has been a catching up with friends week.  After Wisley Monday, met up with another friend for a quick chat and coffee on Tuesday morning and spent Friday with my sister.  In between tried to keep up-to-date with event organisation work and making stock - the good weather makes it hard to work inside, but lucky for me 'making' can be done outside.  We finished the week off with a BBQ at a friend's on Saturday - great fun and with 25 of us there, the 'Chef' did an amazing job: everything ready at the same time, nothing burnt - very impressive.  Well done Hugh.

We have a very beautiful cat that keeps visiting our garden.  Apparently he lives locally, but not too sure why he would want to be with us.  Five cats and four next door - not an ideal place for a strange cat to linger.  He has beautiful blue eyes:

Back to work now - it is still raining so I am a happy bunny.

Have a great week everyone - 'see' you soon.

Jill

CRAFTER OR EVENT ORGANISER - CAN I BE BOTH?

Hello everyone

Wow!  What a hot week it has been.  If anyone dare says we haven't had a good summer, I will be just a little bit upset.  Okay, I know we still have lots of potential summer-time to go, but so far, so good.  The garden loves this weather, means lots of watering, but everything is blooming (including the weeds!), my tomatoes are doing very well and the sweet peas are gorgeous.  We planted some near to our back door and they have done really well, they are in a position where it is easy to water them, which really does help.

This week was spent getting work ready to photograph to send with my application to take part in the Farnham Maltings Christmas Fair.  This was a very successful event for me last year, so I really would like to be part of it again this year.  One of my submissions was a hessian bag I had decorated with glittery butterflies - these bags have proved to be and still are very popular and I do enjoy working on them

I don't take part in many fairs these days, I am more 'this side' of the table and working on my application did make me stop and think about where I am going.  Organising events is incredibly time-consuming and hard work and even though I have planned for my events to take place in the last four months of the year (one or two at the beginning of the year as well), they still take up around 2, sometimes 3 hours a day on admin.  I have also added a new string to my event organising bow: Surrey Village Vintage.  The aim of these events is to have all things vintage, but only vintage - I am being helped with this new venture by Fee Fraser, who is my 'Vintage Consultant'.  Fee has a lot of experience in this area, lots of contacts and great ideas to help the events go well, standout and become established.  If you are into vintage, check out the events on the website and make a date to visit one of them.

As the title of this blog post says, can I be a crafter and an event organiser?  The event organiser part of me wants to continue with them because apart from the hard work, I really do enjoy them and the chance to see an incredible amount of beautiful handmade work all in one place makes if worthwhile.  Much better than a department store - and the staff are often much more fun and friendlier.  When I begin work on an order or to make some stock, or browse a website of gorgeous card-making materials, fabrics, ribbons and buttons, I wonder why on earth I am spending so little time on what was my original craft-world, and craft-love.

It isn't decision time in Christmas Pie Crafts, but possibly time to become more organised so that both crafting and event organising can be part of my life without feeling one misses out.

Off to the garden now - our pond is looking a bit too full of water lily leaves.  Beautiful though they are, they are rapid growers and soon cover the surface of the pond.  The fish just about manage to peek out - mind you it is partly their fault that the lilies grow so well.

Have a great week everyone - see you at my next blog post.

Jill

MILLY'S DIARY

Hello everyone

How are you coping with this very hot weather?  I am very sensible and stay in the shade for most of
the day - being black and white means I have some sensitive bits and have to be careful.  We cats are struggling in this weather, but Jill and Richard make sure we have plenty of water - plus you can't beat a drop of pond water, water from a plant saucer or from a puddle.  Yum!

I forgot to tell you last week that Jazz had to go to the vets.  That boy is a regular visitor there and I understand there is talk of him having his own named seat.  Jazz had a very poorly eye and Jill had to give him half an antibiotic tablet twice a day and squish some eye ointment into his poorly eye.  Poppy, Coco, Daisy and I thought it was hilarious watching Jill and Richard trying to get Jazz to take his medication.  Not sure why, but they didn't find it so funny.  I have said it on many occasions, humans are weird!

Poppy caught a magpie last week, but it got away.  She dragged it into the hedge, and it shot out squeaking and squawking, followed by a rather embarrassed Poppy.  She doesn't appear to have tried to catch any since then.

It's hot inside, so I am off to find a cool spot.  I will be back next week and paws crossed, the weather will be a little cooler.  Before I go, please don't forget to take care of your animals in this heat:

Don't leave them in cars
Make sure they have plenty of water
Take dogs for their walk very early or late at night when it is cooler.

'See' you next week.

Milly