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Sunday 9 September 2012

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

33 comments:

  1. Thank you for the chance to write the post Jill! It was fun to complete a task away from my own blog.

    I used to really rate Vistaprint but over the past year or so I have to say I am not overly impressed by their services. I recently tried out Moo just for some business cards and whilst they are a little more expensive, the quality and speed of delivery alone were top notch. As for Vistaprint's website space... I can't and in fairness, won't comment.

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    1. You are very welcome, Kat, I love your post. I will have a look at the Moo website. My website is OK, but really do want the wider column - seems hard work to get it sorted out.

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  2. You have been oober busy again this week, those kitties are so cute. Like you Lee has been gardening like crazy this week, all ship shape then we had a family of badgers visit and the grass now looks as if a rugby scrum has been held on it, ahh!.
    I hope you get your web site sorted soon, so annoying and not on from Vista. Have a good week creating for Christmas and hope you get a sit down, looks like rain here.

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    1. Aaah, badgers are lovely. Still nothing from Vista - think they have gone to sleep

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  3. What gorgeous kittens. I'm not suprised they were quickly adopted. I've not had any dealings with Vistaprint I do hope you get it sorted out pretty soon.

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    1. they are gorgeous - so much fun. Still waiting for Vistaprint to wake up.

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  4. You may not have had a crafty week, but you have done plenty, and should be very pleased with that.

    I'm looking forward to the cooler weather around the corner, as I have 100 bulbs to plant for spring :-)

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    1. We started planting some bulbs a week or so ago, then got sidetracked by (not just the kittens) other things that needed to be dome in the garden. It's that time of year when so much needs to be done to put the garden 'to bed' for the winter.

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  5. What a busy week you have had. Wisley is always on our list when we visit family in Sussex, but we never quite get there. Next time, always next time. I'm off to look at your Friday guest blogs. And I would echo the shout out for moo.com I found them so helpful and the cards are just exquisite. Joanna x

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    1. I hope you enjoy the guest blog posts Joanna - they are great and I do appreciate everyone taking part. Some have been a guest blogger more than once. I am going to check out Moo - sounds good.

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  6. good luck with your craft workshops! i really look forward to hearing how you get on with them :)

    i'm sorry you are having so much trouble with your website... if you are thinking of changing host i can highly recommend weebly and their service is free x

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    1. Fingers crossed, there isn't anything similar running around here, so I am hoping there will be lots of interest.

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  7. The website sounds like a bit of a nightmare for you - hope it's sorted soon. Customer service is a big requirement in a web host.

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    1. So surprising how slow their reaction to a problems is.

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  8. I love grey and black and white cats, so I may just stay here and stare at your blog for a while! Ash and Micro are adorable!

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    1. they are gorgeous and so friendly. I am so glad they are going to a lovely home - they really deserve it.

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  9. Those kitties are adorable! I am so happy they have a forever home!

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  10. Ah, don't know how you can cope with fostering kitties - don't you want to keep them all?

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    1. Oh, yes, I do. It is hard seeing them go off to pastures new.

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  11. Beautiful kittens! How do you give them away?

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    1. It is very hard and I have said this to the other Cats Protection people. Their response was lovely - it means they have a nice home and will be well cared for. As most of the kittens and cats had a pretty bad start in life, it is nice that they go on to have good homes once CP has found them.

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  12. Sorry to hear you're still having problems with your site...I would highly recommend Create.net should you wish to try someone else at some point. Good luck with the stock making...it's something I need to get on with soon!! Have a good week
    Sarah x

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    1. It's irritating, and I am so surprised they can be so flippant about their customers problems.

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  13. Good luck with your workshops! You do seem to have been very busy despite no crafty makes. Those little kittens are gorgeous - I do hope they go to a good home, I would find it very difficult to let them go to someone I didn't like!!!

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    1. I think I manage to make small jobs into big jobs because I am so disorganised. Will let you know how the workshops progress.

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  14. Good luck with your workshops, they sound like they could be fun. I love the kitten photo, so adorable.
    Thanks for popping over to see me, I love the idea that your keeping a look out for bunnies in the garden.

    Jan x

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    1. thank you Jan. Think the cats (and kittens if they were out) would love to find bunnies in the garden.

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  15. Oh, those kittens! They are so lovely. I'm such a soppy thing over animals ;-)

    Sounds like you've had a lovely busy week and enjoyed the last of our summer.

    Alison x

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    1. Oh me too - especially when they are so tiny and cuddle.

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  16. Hope that you workshops go well - I will try to remember to visit your guest posts now that I have finished the challenge that I set myself this week. Hope you find time to create this week :)

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    1. Ah, thank you - I know the guest bloggers would love feedback on their posts

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Thank you for your comment - it is always lovely to have feedback and I hope you enjoyed my post.