THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE............ AND A CRAFTER

Hello everyone

Do you find that no matter how much you plan to do you never ever achieve half or even any of it?  I am pretty bad at not writing down what I should do (sometimes I do and the rest of the time I forget to!) - would it make things more achievable if I was confronted (or frightened) with a list of urgent, must-do's?

I had planned to attend the RSPCA Car Boot Sale at Chobham today (as a seller) and managed to come up with all manner of excuses not to do so!  Too cold, too windy, ground too wet, not enough 'stuff' to sell, too many other things to do - so almost needless to say, I still have the boxes of books, plates, other bits and pieces of china sitting in my hallway!  Do I feel guilty?  A little, but in the immortal words of Scarlett, tomorrow is another day - or another car boot sale if I can find one.  I think in future I am not going to say 'I plan to do...........', think I will change it to 'I hope to do...........' - perhaps that way I won't feel so disappointed when things I want to do don't get done.

I was very pleased to have been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award this week - not once, but twice.  How complimentary is that.  The first time by Rachel of the House of Pinheiro - thank you Rachel.  I went on to nominate 15 other lovely bloggers - so please do check out my Wednesday Post as I am sure some of you Handmade Monday peeps do not yet realise you are one of my nominated Versatile Blogger's too.  I did post a note on all of the blogs involved, but think some of them may have been missed.  My second Award came from Dawn Hart who writes some really great posts and I recommend reading them - thank you for my award Dawn.  In the tradition of the Versatile Blogger Award, I will be nominating another 15 bloggers in my Wednesday post.

Still on the past week, I hope you have all read about Chester and Taffy's cake-making event in my Friday Guest post by Alison of Fiddly Fingers.  On Handmade Monday posts, we have met Chester but can now see what a very versatile cat he is - I can see Alison will have to hire him out as a chef.  Thank you for joining in with the Guest Blog spot, Alison, your tale (or is that tail?) and pics are great.  Alison will be guest-blogging again for me, so keep an eye out for another great post.  As always, if you have a story, topic, new range that you would like to write about/promote, do join in the Friday Guest Blog Spot - contact me on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.

The dreaded lurgy has struck in Christmas Pie - you know the one that men get soooo much worse than women?  Richard has a cold and a really grim cough - not sure who gets woken up at night with it the most, him or me, or the neighbourhood!  As you can imagine, his ailment is verging on double (perhaps triple) pneumonia.  How lucky we are not to suffer as much as men do!  However, having sounded very unsympathetic, he is quite poorly - or so he keeps telling me.

I haven't completed all of my card orders yet, will post pics as soon as I have.  However, another order placed this week is making me wonder whether Surrey is becoming the English home of Whiskey drinkers!  A second order for a card for someone who likes their Whiskey.  Oh well, as long as these Whiskey-lovers like my cards, I don't mind what their tipple is.

Before I forget - a cat update: Shadow is doing very well and adapting to life without his left leg.  He has had all of his stitches out and has settled into his new home very well - he will be kept in for a very long time though.  Jazz is doing well and still keeps holding up his paw!  Boy, what an attention seeker!

It is Handmade Monday time and in addition to my card orders, I have also begun to add to my other 'new' ranges - still working on what and how and where and why, but I am pleased with this particular one and feel that it would look good in other colours.  I have already bought some gold, pink and lime green material in preparation for my next makes.  I have bound the heart-shape with gorgeous dark red chiffon material strips, then with thin dark red ribbon and finally I added two roses.

Despite the cold and the wind, I am back out to do some gardening - everything grows faster at this time of year than I can keep up with.  The weeds that I looked at last week and thought 'oh I will deal with them next week' now resemble trees!  OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I am sure the gardeners among you know what I mean.

I will be back on Wednesday with my mid-week post to which I will add my list of 15 gorgeous bloggers that I am passing on the Versatile Blogger Award (VBA) too.

Have fun everyone - don't forget to visit the other bloggers taking part in Handmade Monday this week and also the blogs of those  nominated for the VBA this week.

Jill