LOTS OF GORGEOUS SUNNY SUNSHINE

Hi everyone

What a fabulous week!  Okay, the nights are cool and the mornings a little chilly, but the days have been amazing.  Warm (well hot really), sunny, little breeze - just wonderful and so very welcome.  Long may it last.

A crafty week - or not

Because it seems to take me ages to write my BIG blog post, and I normally begin doing so some time on Saturday, at this stage I am not too sure if I will have anything ready to post for Handmade Monday - a 'make' that is - but, who knows, by the end this may have changed.

First of all I have a request for my fellow Handmade Monday-ers.  As you know, I have a guest spot on Fridays and what you may not know is that many of those who have taken part are members of the Handmade Monday bloggers.  I know blog-commenting can be an issue and is very much a personal choice, and I do not want to get into the rights and wrongs of commenting here.  What I am asking is that as our aim for Handmade Monday is to support fellow crafters, will you occasionally spare a few minutes on a Friday to visit my guest blogger's post and leave a comment please?  There are some fellow bloggers who visit and comment every Friday without fail and that is very much appreciated by myself and the guest bloggers.  Whilst we all love writing our own blog posts, it isn't easy to write a guest post - we are never 100% sure if what we have written is going to be what the host blogger (or their followers) is looking for.  Support from you would be very welcome for those guest bloggers that take part in Handmade Monday and I guarantee you will read some really great posts.

How about making last Friday's your first visit?  It is a great post by Kat Shenton about 5 ways to make yourself a better crafter.  It is a serious post written with humour; a great post and one to make you stop and think.  Thank you Kat, I really enjoyed it and you can see there are already some comments for you to read.

Unfortunately, by the time I completed this blog post I didn't have anything handmade to post on here, but as I have spent time this week advertising and working on getting my craft workshops sorted out, here is a pic of my post-card ad that I have been placing around the village noticeboards (I will let you know in future posts how things progress):

Before I forget, I am no further forward with Vistaprint and the problems I have been having with my website!  Boy oh boy, how hard can it be to sort out the width of a website and the resulting colour?  I am fed up receiving emails telling me: You will receive a response from us regarding the issue you are having after the Technical team have managed to resolve it.  Perhaps there is only one person in their Technical team and they are overloaded with website problems.

The Christmas Pie every day news

It has been a jam-packed kitten week here at Christmas Pie Crafts (I am taking regular photographs as I think they may make some lovely cards in the future - er, do I need to get their written permission to use their photographs??)  I parted company on Wednesday with my two little black kittens - following their second jabs and micro-chipping they went off to their new home in Windlesham.  However, they were soon replaced with Ash and Micro - Ash (almost needless to say) is grey and Micro is black and white - so called because she was very, very tiny when born.  They are lovely, great fun and exhausting!  A family came to view them on Saturday afternoon and will be deciding over the weekend if they are just what they are looking for - I hope so because they deserve a nice home.  An update: yesterday's visitors are going to adopt Ash and Micro - they rang the Woking office not long after their visit, so the kittens clearly made a big impression.  Here is a pic of the now-homed kittens:

A friend and I had planned to go to Wisley yesterday, but didn't make it after all.  However, I did manage to get a whole lot of plant moving and new planting completed yesterday, so it was a successful day.  So nice not to have a hosepipe ban as there was a lot of watering needed.  More gardening this morning as well as the car we sold last week is being collected this afternoon.  Existing with one car will last a little longer as the car we are buying is not available until late-ish September.

A friend (the afore-mentioned Wisley one) is spending the afternoon with us and I can see much sparkle (liquid that is) along with nibbles and natters.

Another busy week looming.  I must finish the Orders of Service for my bride and groom and also work on their table plan.  Trips to the vet with Ash and Micro are also in my diary, plus meeting up with a friend who is starting up a jams and chutneys business.  I also need to get down to some Christmas stock-making as my first event is only two weeks away.  No more booked after that until November, but I feel that it would be crazy not to have some Christmas stock available for this first event.

I am off to lounge in the sunshine now - hope you all have a good week and don't forget to visit the other blogs taking part in this week's Handmade Monday event.  If you would like to be a guest blogger, please do get in touch on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.  I will be back on Wednesday with my mid-week post and don't forget to drop in on Friday for this week's guest blog post.

Jill

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS....

5 ways to makes yourself a better crafter:

Some of you I know, some of you I don't. Some of you I will have met, most of you I won't. So here is me in a nutshell:

Okay, on a serious note: Me in a Nutshell, near 17 year worth of retail and sales experience in the Rat Race and looking to tear down the shroud and jump from full time bored monster to full time craft monster.

So I thought I would share with you my top 5 tips on what I strive to achieve that helps me to be a better crafter.

1. Don't stress out!

Might be easier said than done, and I will put my hands up, I am my own worst enemy. But be honest - what is it going to achieve? Screaming at your other half you have to get 13 orders done by midnight tonight isn't going to get the order done any quicker is it? Nope, in fact it will give you a headache, bad back, sour disposition and your family ain't gonna be impressed! So do what I do. If I feel that red eyed monster peeking at me from under a cushion I stop what I'm doing and take my mind off of things by jumping on the computer, reading a book, watching a film or running down to Iceland to buy a bag of potato smilie faces (not joking - how can potatoes that smile not chill you out?).

2. Never forget your dream.

If you think you are running into a rut by doing the same thing day in and day out, then remember this. Every item you create it is a little part of the dream you want to create. For every plaque you knock out, regardless of how much you have come to hate that phrase, someone will own that - in turn they are owning a little bit of your dream. For every bit you sell, the bigger your dream gets! So down the frown and put up pictures that inspire you. Art that gets you thinking. Surround yourself with the things you love... and I love these guys ;)

  

3. Plan for everything, but plan for nothing.

By that I mean create a plan. I have a 2 year plan that started but a month ago. On the very top it's basic - I want to give up my 8-6 job in two year time and become a full time craft seller. Then I break it down (please pop over to my blog to start reading how I have set my plan up). However, and here's the key, if you plan everything down to the last minute... you will achieve nothing. It's the unwritten law. So, have a plan, follow the plan, but fit the plan into the time you know you have not the time you think you have.

4. Mix it up.

I started out with nothing but beads and pliers and I knocked out jewellery after bookmark after brooch. Then I started to get bored and was annoyed when I got asked to make yet 'another of those lovely bracelets that you made Aunt Jane' (I don't have an Aunt Jane by the way). So I went out and bought myself a sewing machine. Knocked out a couple of denim bags. Bought some embroidery hoops. Knocked out... well I am not sure what I was trying to create on the first couple of tries but I have improved ;) What I'm saying is variety is the spice of life - just don't spill it on velvet because you can never get the smell out.

5. Finally...

Live hard, die young and leave a good looking corpse ;)

Thank you very much I'll be here all Friday :D

Kat Shenton

with-u-in-mind.blogspot.co.uk

www.folksy.com/shops/WithUinMind