LIFE IS IS HARD - IF YOU ARE A CAT

Hello everyone

What a gorgeous day - chilly, but I just love the sunshine and can't wait for long spring and summer days.  How lovely it is to see the day light after 5.00 pm.  Lots of snowdrops, crocus and fat daffodil buds are in the garden.

The title of my post today reflects the following picture of Jazz:

Having been up since before the birds decided it was breakfast, Jazz spent his morning going in and out of the kitchen door into the garden.  We don't have a cat flap, and as it was just a bit too nippy to have the door open, we were both on 'open the door please' duty.  Jazz loves warmth and the sun - gets really ratty when it is cold and rainy (don't we all).  He has two favourite spots in the garden that get the sun for most of the day, and if he is not off hunting that's where he will be.  However, after a few hours of to'ing and fro'ing, he tired himself out and and took a short cat-nap.  It didn't last long though.

Daisy prefers to wait for the temperature to be in the high double figures before she spends a lot of time outside.  She doesn't like to get her paws cold and very sensibly stays inside in the warm - preferably draped along a window sill with the radiator sending up lots of lovely warmth for her.

Back to my week.  First of all a big thank you to Caroline Nash for her guest blog post on motivation - I hope every had the chance to read it and if you have any feedback about the post, please do let me know.  Secondly, another thank you to my new Twitter and Blog followers - I love your company and I am looking forward to sharing Tweets and Blog Posts with you.

It's nearly 6 months since I gave up my 'day job' and I just love what I am able to do now.  Yes, I miss pay-day (who doesn't) but the stress and heavy work load are things I don't miss.  I work long hours on my business, but it is all for me, not for anyone else to take the credit for what I am doing or producing.  Another thing about being my own boss is that I can have a social life in the week - something that didn't exist during term time as evenings were spent either teaching or marking the day's work or writing material for the next day's lessons.

Last week was busy and seems to have disappeared just a bit too quick - card-making, website 'doing' and everything else, as well as continuing with the massive de-clutter we are attempting.  I say attempting, because we don't seem to be moving very fast.  Oh well, it's been great fun looking at things and saying 'did we really like that enough to buy it?' and realising how much tastes change over the years.

Guess what?  Yes, it's Handmade Monday (HM) again - where do the days go?  My make is another one of the love decoupage items from Moonlight Bay.  Sue has added some to be downloaded so no waiting for the postman.  this one is called Deco Lady and I think will make a lovely topper for a Mother's Day card.  I added some glitter to the headband, shoe and hem of the dress to make it sparkle.  Don't forget to check in with the other HM bloggers - every week brings some beautiful work and good posts - some sad and some funny, but all very readable.

A request now for some guest bloggers please.  When I first mentioned I was going to have a Friday guest blog spot a few lovely fellow bloggers said I would like to write about....................., but sadly I haven't heard anything more.  Come on HM people, blog followers and Tweeters, the crafting community needs your words of wisdom.  It's a good opportunity to get more followers and I am sure more business.

Have fun everyone - 'see' you on Wednesday

Jill

THE 'I CAN'T THINK OF A TITLE' POST

Hello everyone

What a gorgeous day and as it is so sunny and spring-like it should be easy to think of a Blog post title - but it hasn't been.  Never mind, I still (as always) have plenty to say so will stick with the 'working title'.

Firstly, a quick update on my New Year's Resolutions: trying very hard to lose weight (had a few hiccups when a chocolate biscuit just wouldn't leave me alone - so persistent), still working regularly on my website, not yet joined a gym (painful arm preventing that for the time being) and have spent time today commenting on over half of my Blog follower's blogs.  Not all of my followers seem to have blogs, but if you do now have a blog and we haven't 'met' for a while, please do let me have the link to your blog as I would love to drop in for a visit.  On the whole I feel I have made a reasonable start to the New Year.

I have spent a lot of my time this week working on my new products, some of which have involved paper flowers, the small bunches you can buy from craft shops.  I have also spent a lot of time battling with Daisy who thinks they are really toys for her to capture/throw around and chase.  Daisy was a mum when she was less than 1 year old and clearly missed out on all the young kitten games that normally take place at that age - it's great to see her making up for lost time, but I do wish it was without my flowers!

The February issue of the magazine Popular Crafts came out on Friday and if you have had a chance to buy it/read it, I hope you enjoyed my review of the Derwent Card Kit.  They also have a butterfly one in the range and I am going to buy that - butterflies seem to feature in just about every type of craft at the moment.  

As it is the Chinese Year of the Dragon, my make for Handmade Monday is a decoupage dragon mounted on sparkling black glitter card.  The dragon is the mightiest of the Chinese Zodiac signs and symbolises such character traits as dominance and ambition.  They live by their own rules and if left to get on with things in their own way, are usually very successful.  They are driven, unafraid of challenges and willing to take risks.  They are passionate in all they do and do things in a grand fashion.  This description rather reminded me of the occupants of a certain den we are all familiar with.

My dragon will not be placed in a den, but fixed to the front of a greetings card.  I recently found a new range of lovely decoupage made by Moonlight Bay which includes my gorgeous dragon.  They also have a lovely owl decoupage and several other really good prints.

Apart from new ranges, I am also going to begin a new blog posting on Fridays from February.  A slight difference in that I will not have much to say (yes, I know, that is a rare and wonderful thing often not heard or read about) as my Friday blog post will be for a guest blogger.  We all spend a lot of time reading other bloggers' posts, compiling our own, working on our business and trying to find new ways, or reviewing tried and tested ways, of getting ourselves and our business known.  I feel that opening up my blog to other bloggers is a two-way bit of publishing - we should both benefit from the experience.  Slightly different to the usual guest blogger post, mine will be on a different topic each week - all related to handmade.  My first Friday blog will be on 3 February; in my next two posts (Wednesday, 25 and Sunday, 29 January) I will give list of topics.  I won't at this stage allocate them to specific dates, coz if you are anything like me you will pick the latest date - that way I could end up with some pretty empty Friday posts.  I do hope you will join me in this venture - it will be great fun I am sure - if you have a topic you would like to write about without waiting for my list, please do get in touch.

I am off now to battle with Daisy and retrieve my flowers - that is of course if they are worth retrieving and not in a million pieces of paper all over the floor.  Have a great week, I will be back on Wednesday and don't forget to call into the other Handmade Monday blogs - really enjoyable posts and great makes to see too.

Jill