SUNDAY SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

Hello everyone

I didn't begin my main post on Saturday as I normally do - only managed to produce the title.  We had one of our regular big family get-together's at my cousin's house in Kent.  We all grew up together, so share lots of childhood and other memories.  The weather was great and as always, the time went far too quickly.  One of my cousin's, Maralyn Wimble, has been approached to hold an exhibition of her work - she is a very creative and imaginative artist and when I have more details about the event I will post them on here.  If you are in or around the area her exhibition is being held, I really do recommend you visit.

The Cycle tour is scheduled to hit Guildford today - my sympathies go out to the riders as Guildford High Street is paved in cobbles!  As it is the end of the race, perhaps the juddering feeling will not be too horrible for them. 

16 September is Celebrating Womanhood Day.  the main part of my post today is focusing on women, and the fabulous contribution we make to the world of handmade, as well as my normal craft and chatty stuff.

My post is not about a specific woman but about all of us involved in the world of handmade. Starting a business is very hard work, starting a business that is about handmade work is even harder.  Not only do we have to deal with the legalities of setting up the business, but we have a mammoth (ongoing) task of persuading and convincing the public that handmade is to be valued, it has been designed and created with care, imagination and expertise and will no doubt last much longer than something that can be bought on the high street.  Handmade today no longer means the knitted tea-cosy or the knitted crinoline doll covering the spare toilet roll.  However, the majority of the public still perceives handmade this way and subsequently undervalues our efforts and we must keep plugging away at changing their minds.  Do we give up?  No, of course not.  Why?  Because we are proud of our work, we believe in what we do and know that not everyone sees us as women who frequent craft fairs lurking behind tables with piles of knitted tea-cosies in front of us.  But, the added bonus here is that as we are women we don't believe in giving in, it's not in our nature.

To all those women who have been thinking about developing their skill into a business, go for it.  It is hard work and initially there will be more tears than smiles, but it is worth it.  When you make your first sale, get your first thank you, your first positive feedback you will know it is the best decision you have ever made and your smile will be bigger than you can imagine.  Good luck, we are not behind you, we are alongside you.

I hope you have been able to read this week's guest blog post?  Madeleine of the Craftsite blogged about cards and her post includes some great tips and beautiful pictures of her work.  Her cards are really lovely - thank you Madeleine for being a guest blogger again, I really enjoyed your post.

This leads me nicely into the World Card Making Day which is on 6 October 2012.  Last year I set up a competition for this event, but it was so close to the actual date that very little time was available for people to take part.  This time around, I am hoping there will be sufficient time for lots of you card-makers to join in.  I am planning on getting a sponsor (or even sponsors ) for this event as I feel it would be so nice to recognise the winning card (or cards) with a gift, so watch this space for news on this as it becomes available.  The theme this year is floral - absolutely anything to do with flowers.  It could be something made of flowers, flowers you have photographed, painted or decoupage - anything really as long as it is floral and it is a card.  Your photographs need to be with me by Wednesday, 3 October please and I will ask the sponsor (or sponsors) to vote for the top three. I do hope you will join in - I have featured some fabulous cards in my guest blog posts and do hope you guest bloggers will take part in this competition.

This also leads me into news about a new magazine (and website).  Have you heard of Make & Craft?  A magazine for the craft community that is edited by the dedicated crafter/craft supporter, Katherine Jewitt.  As the website says: Make & Craft magazine is an inspiring environment featuring contemporary tutorials and projects using a wide variety of supplies and techniques, as well as, reviving traditional crafts worth cherishing.  Make & Craft magazine also brings you  the latest trends, up-to-date products, craft books and supplies, new techniques, sneak peeks behind the scenes of Artists and Crafters, the best online sites, news round ups, a diary of craft events and a whole host of competitions and giveaways.  I recommend you check it out and see all of the goodies available both in the magazine and on the website.

Life is hectic at the moment (it's that tough time of year for crafters isn't it?) as I am rushing towards events that I need to have plenty of stock for.  My first one is on Saturday (details to the right of this post) and I am slightly panicking as my stock is low.  I keep making excuses telling myself that my main ones are in November, so there is plenty of time - however, it would be very wrong to not pay the same attention to my first one this week.  I have discovered that I always have excellent reasons for not doing something!  Perhaps I should write a blog post just using the list of excuses I have invented.  

Around, over, alongside and in between kitten fostering, I have been working on Orders of Service - I am pleased with how they look and very near to finishing them.  Next?  The table plan.  Here is a photograph of the Order of Service - names, etc removed, but I hope you like it.  The ribbon has not been fixed to the card yet, but that's the next job.  The original brief was for the main card to be pearlised cream, but was recently changed to the dark purple used for some of the trims on the invitations - I wasn't too sure at first, but think it is a striking colour combination.

Some time ago I mentioned the weird and wonderful search terms that have led people to my blog - I haven't added any for a while, but couldn't resist including these today (again, no change made to the grammar or spelling):

crafts with bricks
my oh my apple pie and country craft
posh crafts for christmas

Aren't they wonderful?

That's me finished for today - back to work now.  Do get in touch if you would like to be a guest blogger or if you want to join in the Card Making competition.  Everyone is welcome and if you are not a card-maker, why not give it a try - you could discover a new talent or an addition to your business.  I will be back on Wednesday and don't forget to come back on Friday to read my guest blogger's post.

Last but not least, some up-to-date pics of Ash and Micro.  They are growing very quickly and should be very soon be off to their new home.

Jill

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

A TALE OF TWO KITTIES

Hi everyone

While it is not normal in my home to have four cats, at the moment I do.  Jazz and Daisy and my two little lodgers, who (oh dear) are going to their new home today.  Even though they have only been here for a few days, I will miss them - they have been such great fun to have here.  I hope the closeness that they demonstrate goes on throughout their adult life, because at the moment they clearly love each other.  They sleep cuddled up, they play (OK, they occasionally thump each other, but it is kitten play-fighting) together and share each others food.  Watching their antics has been very off-putting where my work has been concerned, but considerably better than what is currently on the television.

They are off to the vet's this morning for a health check, first jab and to be chipped and from there they are going on to their new home.  As difficult as it will be to say 'goodbye' to them, I am so glad they have a new home - so this morning was spent packing their little suitcases, collecting their cage and pen and putting them in my car and off to the vets we went.  But all is not lost, on Thursday afternoon I will be collecting Ash and Micro; two more gorgeous kittens who need some TLC while their fosterer goes on holiday.

Yesterday Daisy nipped indoors with a mouse, dropped it in the lounge and then wandered off!  Why do cats do this?  Do we look hungry?  In need of fresh meat?  Or is this payback for bringing two kittens into our home - she isn't so keen on them.  I think that what goes through her mind each time she sees them is 'I had four like you once and that was enough, so don't think I am going to look after you as I have enough on my paws looking after Jazz!'  Not much mothering instinct there.

To round off the tale of two kitties, I homed two kittens yesterday!  My neighbour, who as I have mentioned in other posts, loves black cats, is going to adopt two little black girls from Woking Cats Protection.  They are very nervous - poor little things were abandoned when very young (they are six months old now).  So very soon two new kittens will be moving in with Diva, Shadow and Trio.

Enjoy the rest of the week everyone.  Don't forget to come back on Friday for my guest blog post and I will be posting my usual bumper scribblings on Sunday.

Jill