SORT OF BACK TO NORMAL

Hi everyone

Feeling guilty as I didn't write a blog post last weekend and really missed out on reading everyone's posts too  It never takes very long to write a post, although thinking of a witty title does, but it's one of those things that occasionally keep getting moved to the bottom of the list.  Hopefully I should be back on track now - fingers and paws crossed.

It was, as always at the moment, a busy week.  I have re-named the Godalming Independent Market to the Godalming Bazaar.  I have never felt 100% happy with a name including the word market because it gave the impression of an outdoor market and it isn't.  Two friends (Dawn of Stone Pit Crafts and Lesley, the Mad Dog Woman of Shackleford) and I put our heads together and came up with the Godalming Bazaar.  We felt it says it all and is portable - I hope to 'open' the bazaar in other areas of Surrey and needed a name that could easily be changed whilst retaining its purpose.  Thank you Dawn and Lesley for your help and support with this new venture - lots of ideas and hard work for you both that I do appreciate.

A new logo, Twitter page and email address have been created.  I am trying to re-name the Facebook page, but having numerous problems.  I know how to do it, but hit a barrier each time and have come to the conclusion today that it is because I was added as an Admin person by the previous owner of the page and it seems to be that I can only access it through my Christmas Pie Facebook page.  A hurdle to be jumped, but I am sure I will get over it eventually.

I have a card order for a 50th birthday.  The card was to have flowers, a red butterfly and the figures 50 on the front and here it is:

Yesterday was an away day spent in London with friends - we were celebrating a 50th birthday and a retirement.  We had planned to start off on the London Eye, but the queues were too long and as we had a river cruise booked, we had to miss out on spinning around in the sky.  The river cruise was lovely and I was so surprised how many glass buildings are popping up throughout London - they just don't seem to sit well with the lovely buildings that have been around for centuries.  We finished the evening with a meal at Altitude 360 which is on the 28th floor - absolutely incredible views.  We eventually arrived home, exhausted, just after midnight.  Feeling very, very tired today, but it was great fun.  A few pics of what we saw on our river trip:

This was one of the many static boat restaurants that are based along the Thames.

A shot of the London Eye at dusk through a window on the river cruise boat.  It looked so lovely all lit up.

One of the numerous glass buildings popping up in London  - it rather resembled an Armadillo.

It was a fantastic day and it's now back to work,work, work.  I have an advertisement to prepare for a local magazine - it has a distribution of appx 23,000 so I am hoping it will help increase the footfall for my next event.  

Don't forget to drop in on this week's Handmade Monday bloggers - I missed them last week, so have two weeks worth of posts to catch up with.

Have a great week everyone

Jill

PHEW! WHAT A WEEK.

Hello everyone

Hard to believe that this time last week we were awaiting the arrival of Hurricane (later known as Super storm) Sandy.  I know we weren't expecting it here, but sometimes the tail end of weather in New York nips over to us.  More important though was those of us with family and friends in America who were worried for their safety.  I am so pleased that my brother and sister-in-law are safe.  The news and photographs of the devastation throughout New York and New Jersey are very hard to take in and I know that everyone there is working very hard to return things to as near-normal as possible and I wish them well.

I took part in my first Christmas event of the season yesterday (Godalming Independent Christmas Market) and I am really pleased to say it was a great success - in fact I did better at this one than at the same event this time last year.  A sign of improving times?  Not sure, the public are a fickle bunch when it comes to handmade aren't they?  right place, right time?  My mini-cards sold really well and always seem to be very popular - long may it continue.  I had also made up some packs of 5 different-design cards, but of a similar theme, and these sold well too.  I sold two of my fabric decorated hearts and my best 'bit' of the day came when one of my Twitter friends, Lesley ( known on here as a guest blogger under the name of the Mad Dog Woman of Shackleford) came to see me and ordered a Christmas fabric wreath.  Thank you Lesley, a lovely order to receive.

Here are a couple of pics of my stall.  I had ordered a new banner from Vistaprint and hoped it would arrive before yesterday - as so often happens it arrived yesterday.  A great shame as the wall behind me was crying out for some information about me.

It wasn't successful for everyone and as we all know, this is often the case.  One stall holder was selling very beautiful jewellery she had made but it was priced in the £100 region - people visiting these types of craft events are not necessarily looking to pay that sort of price.  A couple of other stalls didn't sell anything, and it seems Craft Fairs are still very hit and miss.  My cake-making friend, who had the stall next to mine, did well - her cup cakes were very popular, as were her gorgeous coffee and walnut cakes.  She is still taking last-minute orders for Christmas cakes, so if you would like one let me know and I will ask her to get in touch with you. 

Some more news 'of the week' is that I won a book in the blog hop managed by Make and Craft to celebrate the publication of the first issue of their magazine.  Each day was hosted by a different person and on the day that it was hosted by Hannah Blavins (Spans Studio) I decided to enter as I very much liked the look of the book prize: A Compendium of Mosaic Techniques.  I had decided that if I didn't win, I would buy the book as the projects looked great.  You can imagine how pleased I was to receive an email from Hannah telling me I had won - wonderful news.  Thank you Hannah and thank you Make and Craft - there are lots of projects that I plan to have a go at, in particular the dragonfly which looks beautiful.

The next two weeks will be, almost, non-stop work making things for the event at Secretts.  I am looking forward to it, but also thinking 'oh, boy, have I done the right thing booking into a 3-day event'.  Well, he (or she) who dares and nothing ventured, nothing gained, etc.  I have also booked into the next Frensham Pond Hotel Wedding Fayre in February 2013 - seems a long way off as Christmas is still to be managed, but as you all know these bookings have to be secured early.

Wallace and Gromit (oops sorry, Wallace and Jasper) are still with me.  They are slowly becoming less nervous, but it is a long process to get them over their nervousness.  They are lovely and it is great fun to sit and play with them.  Richard was Senior Kitten Looker-After on Saturday while I was at the event and I know Jazz and Daisy will have kept an eye on them too.  Of the three black kittens I wrote about recently, I am pleased to say that Mo has found his fur-ever home - hopefully it won't be a long wait for Jessica and Bradley to be adopted.

Compared with normal weekend posts, this one is a shortish one but don't forget to visit the bloggers taking part in Handmade Monday this week.  Blog posts now are getting very Chrismassy.  I hope you all have a good week and  I will be back with my usual Wednesday post and my Friday Guest Blog post - it has become such an interesting part of my blogging week and I really missed having one this week.  I have some spaces in November and December, so please do get in touch if you would like to be a guest blogger (christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com).

Jill

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS.....

My garden palette

Lesley Beeton

Some of you may know me as the Mad dog woman of Shackleford, but you may not know that I had a life-changing experience last year.  My mother was diagnosed with, and died from, cancer.  She was only 68 years old, too young, and the most upsetting thing was that she felt she hadn't done everything she wanted to in her life.  I left my job as a research scientist to care for her, and discovered another way of life, away from science, exploring my creative needs, becoming re-acquainted with art and photography.

I had always had a tendency to natural themes, and as I set about developing a portfolio, I realised that my garden could be a wonderful palette of colour, form and structure for my art.  At first, I drew from real life, floral still life if you like.  But I found I was too detached from the subject.  Then, I remembered my old point-and-click camera and found that by framing objects through the camera lends, I was engaging more with the subject.  After a couple of months, I bought a pre-loved Canon digital SLR camera.  I'm no camera expert but I love this camera.  The depth of focus it offers means that I can view objects in close-up detail.  This is important for transferring my ideas to canvas.

I have kept a diary of my garden this year, which has included my veggie patch, spring and summer garden, and rainfall (very interesting in this year of drought and deluge)!  This has made it a much more rewarding and engaging project, and as I have been constantly on the look-out for new material for my portfolio, I have felt less guilty about spending those extra few hours a week in the garden.

I am now exploring ways of publicising my work, starting with my blog Unfinished Untitled, and moving into stationery and photographic canvas, as well as design ideas like Fantasy Flowers (below) and working in black and white, which reminds me of looking down a microscope at a specimen.

Many thanks to Jill at Christmas Pie Crafts for hosting my guest post.

Your feedback would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Lesley x.

@Shackleford_LB

WEDNESDAY ALREADY?

Hi everyone

Is it me or is it getting a little warmer and a little less soggy every day?  Could it be that the long-awaited summer is on the way?  In between crafting (which is perhaps the only reason why I don't mind the rain in the summer) and rain, we keep nipping out to get some more gardening done.  I find that as soon as I turn my back on a particular patch, up pops a Mare's Tail or a nettle shoot.  Yes, I know nettles are great for all sorts of things, but there are certain parts of my garden that I don't want them to take up residence in.  They seem to sprout around our pond and digging them up is hard work as the roots tend to travel - although they don't pierce the liner, they do occasionally dislodge the edging.  We are expecting a delivery any time soon of Heucheras that I ordered from Plantagogo; their bed is already for them (weeds permitting) and I am looking forward to getting them settled in before Autumn.  The colours are gorgeous and I will post a pic on my blog as soon as they feel happy to pose for me.
   
I received an email from Blink Collective yesterday regarding their Experiences venture, which sounds really exciting: Blink allows skilled and passionate people to list 'Experiences' for others to buy.  Experiences are things people can: Make, Learn, Do or See.  We're a bit like Etsy, but rather than selling goods we allow people to sell their skill and knowledge.  We're UK focused and with over 600 listings we already have some traction.  As with any email that arrives out of the blue, I was a little concerned.  I checked on the Crafts Forum  I belong to and discovered that several members had also been contacted, carried out research and had signed up with Blink Collective.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I have signed up too and as I have been thinking of and planning card-making classes for some time, this looks a great way to promote them.


I want to highlight three of my favourite blogs (and bloggers) today:


Lesley who is the Mad Dog Woman of Shackleford 
Dawn of the Dawn Hart Blogspot
Badger Boo and his daft adventures

I love all of their blogs, but my main reason for mentioning them today is to thank them for always replying to comments left on their blogs - not just mine, but everyone's.  Commenting on blogs isn't always carried out and I know it can be time-consuming but taking the time to reply to comments left is great and means your comment has been read and appreciated.  Thank you both - oops sorry, Badger Boo - thank you too.


Still not raining, so perhaps a little more weed-pulling fun is on the cards.  Don't forget to come back on Friday for my guest blogger's post.  I will be back with my normal Sunday/Handmade Monday post

Jill

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS........

A foreigner in my homeland

by Lesley Beeton

I have lived in the UK for nearly seventeen years, the last twelve years in Surrey, and more recently in Shackleford, a village in the commuter belt to London. Last month, we travelled back to South Africa, our first visit in eight years, and it was not without some trepidation. This story board aims to capture the dichotomy of South Africa, tell you a bit about our holiday and inform you about two wonderful education projects. It also marks the first outing of my new camera, a pre-loved Canon 350 D, so please accept my artistic license with some of the images.

My story starts in Johannesburg, a sprawling city built on a rich seam of gold, which attracts workers from all over Africa. It is dogged by stories of violence and crime, and I'm pleased to say that we saw neither on our holiday. We visited the family at home, with an immaculate garden, cared for by an army of Zimbabwean gardeners. In this photo, you can see a lovely white rose, and one of South Africa's favourite noo-noo's - the praying mantis.

 We arrived in Johannesburg on a bank holiday weekend. As it turned out, it was a five-day weekend starting with the Day of Reconciliation on 27 April and ending on Workers Day on 1 May. Many people were off work, enjoying the unseasonably warm autumn weather. Here, spent an afternoon at Zoo Lake, a beautiful boating lake set in park lands. There used to be a rather posh tea shoppe, which served a delicious baked cheesecake; now there is a bar and a gift shop. Like good tourists, we purchased trinkets and curios for our friends back in the UK. We stayed at the Rosebank Lodge, and we can highly recommend it.

 This prickly fellow is the aloe, a common plant in South Africa. I loved the aspect of the close up of the aloe with the family skipping into the park.

  

We drove from Johannesburg to the Drakensberg, roughly translated as the dragon's back mountains. The Drakensberg marks the boundary between Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal provinces. It is a mountainous escarpment. The journey takes one through the Free State, where rock formations such as this mesa are commonplace.

 As we approached the escarpment, I couldn't resist taking this photo of the Amphitheatre, a popular hiking region in the Drakensberg and probably the most famous features of the mountains.

 This is the view from the hotel. We stayed at The Cavern Resort and Spa, see our review here. The plants in the foreground are red hot pokers, characteristic of this area, and below, the praying mantis.

I woke up early on our last morning in South Africa, to capture the magnificent African sunrise from our room. There is nothing warmer than the African sun on your face.

We spent some time with Megan Bedingham at The Cavern Resort. Megan and her family have set-up and built a school, The Royal Drakensberg Primary School, for local children. This local school means that the parents of little children no longer have to find the money to travel an hour by taxi to school. No money means no school for many children. The South African government provides no financial support for the school, so it must find funding for teachers and supplies from other sources. Parents are, however, expected to pay R400.00 (about £30.00) a month for each child at the school, and that is a huge sum of money for most of these parents whose main employment is at The Cavern Resort or the neighbouring hotels. The remainder of the school fee is generated by tireless fundraising.

I have previously written about Thandulwazi, a maths and science academy in Johannesburg. And now, I’m asking you to consider the Northern Drakensberg Khanyisela project. Khanyisela means to enlighten. Thandulwazi is the love of knowledge. Two projects inspiring brighter futures for South Africa and its children.

This photo shows just how rugged the landscape is for the local people to move around, and why local services are severely limited.

The herdsman just let his herd cross the road in front of us. It is common place, and we weren't travelling fast, so it was OK - this time. Amusing for the onlookers, but I wonder what might have happened if the cars around us had been travelling at speed?

 And finally, this creation is a reminder of our childhood. A lime milkshake, double thick with ice cream, with a squirt of cream on top - and don't forget the hundreds and thousands!

It was a happy trip, full of nostalgia, although we did rather feel as though we were outsiders. South Africa has changed fundamentally, in many ways for the good. We felt as though we could go around unobserved and unharrassed, like foreigners in our homeland.

Thank you, Jill, for inviting me to guest post again. To read more of my adventures in Surrey, please see Mad dog woman of Shackleford or follow us @Shackleford_LB. You can see my TripAdvisor profile here.

Photo credits: Lesley Beeton, 2012

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS.........

Lesley Beeton whose has a great blog called Mad Dog Woman of Shackleford

Thank you to Jill at Christmas Pie Crafts for hosting my guest post. What a really good idea, and very friendly blogging.

A puppy saved my life – Brin’s story

We never thought it would happen to us.  Growing up in Johannesburg, crime was all around us, but somehow we were much more aware of danger then.  We moved to a village in Surrey. It all seemed idyllic, just what we had imagined, and longed for.  A large garden, neighbours separated by woods, no street lighting.  Surely no evil would be lurking here.

How wrong we were.  Just three months after moving in, still unpacking, decorating and renovating, a burglar broke in to our home.   He forced a bathroom window and ransacked our property. Nothing was left untouched.  And he stole just about everything of value, some items of great sentimental value.  Our lovely old rescue cat, Rosie, never quite recovered from the fright of it, and we lost her a few months later.

The Police came and rattled off the statistics about burglary in Surrey.  It wasn’t very reassuring but we withstood the assault and moved on with our lives.  It wasn’t going to happen to us again.  We beefed up window and door locks, fenced the garden and secured the garden gates.  No alarm system, we said. We don’t need it.

Oh, but we did need it.  Four months later, coming home from work early on a Friday afternoon, I saw a man at the front door, inside the front door, inside the house.  Almost in slow motion I jumped out of the car, trying to get the key in the front door, while dialing 999 and shouting at the operator for the Police.

Luckily for me, the burglar escaped through the broken window at the back of the house.  The Police dog arrived minutes later and gave chase, but never caught him.  He took nothing with him, but had caused several thousands pounds of damage breaking into the house.

We had a terrible weekend.  I suffered from flashbacks, thinking about what could have happened if he hadn’t run away.  I had run into the road to shout for help, but no-one could hear me. There was no-one around.

We ordered an alarm system, with monitoring and a link to the Police.  We paid a security company to be first call, so that I would never face a choice like that again.

And we found our darling Boxer dog, Brin.  My saviour. Brin has the most effervescent personality. He’s a real human dog, very sensitive. And he loves his walks. It was because of him that I started to leave the house again.  He depended on me and I needed to be brave. Slowly, the terrible migraines lifted.  The little panic attacks receded. I actually started to enjoy the walks, too.  And Brin grew into my steady companion.  He’s a big boy, so provides quite a presence to strangers, too.

I can honestly say that little puppy saved my life, gave me courage, and showed so much commitment to our relationship.

Five months later we brought Themba home. Themba means ‘hope’ in Zulu, and I will continue with ‘Themba’s story’ on my blog Mad dog woman of Shackleford. You can follow me @Shackleford_LB.