A LITTLE BIT OF RAIN WOULD BE NICE, PLEASE

Hello everyone

It has been a good week - a little too hot, but hey, it is nice to have sunshine.  On Monday, I meet up with Lara Beardall of Lovecow to collect the rosettes she had made for me.  These match the lovely bag I also bought from her.  You can see pictures here of the beautiful items that Lara has made for me.

I decided recently that instead of a Friday Guest Blogger spot (although if you are interested in being a guest blogger, please get in touch) I would have a Friday Review post in which I write about a website I have found that I like, a product I use, am keen to use or something I have bought - all handmade related.  Lara is my first Friday Review - don't forget to come back and see who has been blogged about next Friday.

This week has also been spent locating and booking another venue for a Christmas Fair; this one is in Tongham Village Hall.  It is not a large venue, but I am hoping it might be a good place for other events next year.  I have hired a Town Crier to promote the Godalming Bazaar events for the remainder of this year.  This particular venue/event needs a lot more oomph to get it noticed and I can't make up my mind if it is the venue or it has run its natural course.  The Town Crier will spend one hour on the day of each event 'encouraging' people to come in and buy.

I love to try out new techniques and something I had a go at this week is hot crystal fixing - embarrassed to say I have had the gadget for a long, long time and as with so many things, put it away to use another time!  I have some work-in-progress pieces that should be completed by next Sunday's blog post and I will add some photographs of my makes then.  I can imagine just about everything in my home will have crystals on it!  Nothing dares to stand still for too long.

I have been working on my Christmas Pie Crafts website and my events one and although not completely finished, here they are for review:

Christmas Pie Crafts

Surrey Independent Markets 

I am not completely happy with the SIM website as the pictures on the home page are slow to load - not very slow, but I don't like what looks like white blanks when it opens.  Let me know what you think.

I started writing this weekend's blog post yesterday while quietly (as if!) waiting for a delivery I was expecting to arrive between 7.06 am and 9.06 am.  9.06 am came and went, no delivery, no phone call, no email.  I checked the courier's website to find a message saying the delivery company (City Link), City Link, were running late and my package would arrive before 12 noon.  

Like everyone, I hate waiting around for deliveries, the time we waste is gone for ever.  I rang Wilkinson's (my order was for 5 flip-top packing crates) and explained the situation.  They were very sympathetic, checked their records and told me that the delivery driver had marked his records to show that the delivery had been made at 12.15 pm.  I don't know where to because it certainly wasn't to Christmas Pie Crafts.  

Shock, horror!  A 'white-van-man' turned up at 2.50 pm with my parcel!  I asked what had happened but unfortunately, he didn't understand what I was saying and just kept replying 'thank you', 'thank you'.  I rang Wilkinson's to let them know the order had arrived and I have been busily filling the crates since 3.00 pm with more craft materials, stock, etc for my storage unit.  (Sadly, one of the crates is badly damaged, so the saga hasn't quite ended.)  I did a quick check on the City Link website and it said my delivery had been made at 8.06 am yesterday morning and signed for by me!  

No parcels expected this week - thank goodness, I couldn't take the stress!  Decision time - pack more 'stuff' or do some gardening?  As it is a little cooler today, gardening wins.  Have a great week everyone and don't forget to drop into Handmade Monday to see how one has been coping with this 'gorgeous' weather.

See you next week.

Jill

AN 'EVENT'FUL WEEKEND

Hi everyone

Fridays on my blog have always been reserved for guest bloggers who have a post they want to share about their products, a hobby, a favourite animal and sometimes an event they are either organising or are involved in.  Just for today, I am using the Friday Guest Blogger spot to promote the two events I am taking part in this weekend.

19 October 2013: 11.00 am - 4.00 pm: The Play Kenya Craft Fair at Lord Pirbright's Hall, Guildford Road, Pirbright, Woking, Surrey, GU24 0JN

The event is hosting a wide variety of craft stalls to raise funds for Play Kenya - have a look at their blog to see what they have been doing recently.  As an organisation, Play Kenya is devoted to supporting emotionally damaged children through therapeutic play.  The aim is to support and give skills to local communities so they can make a difference to their children

20 October 2013: 10.30 am - 3.30 pm: Wedding Fayre, Frensham Pond Hotel, Churt, Farnham, Surrey, GU10 2QB

This is a beautiful venue for a wedding fayre, and en even better one for a wedding.  There will be a great mix of wedding businesses taking part in this event and you will get the opportunity to spend time collecting ideas and advice for your special day.  I will be there with my CPC Wedding Stationery hat on showcasing my beautiful range of hand-made wedding stationery, so come along and enjoy the day with us.

Hope to see you at both events and come back on Sunday to read my review of how they went.  Have a good weekend everyone.

Jill

FAREWELL SUMMER

Hi everyone

Summer seems to have disappeared rather quickly, although (ever the optimist) I am still confident we will have a few more sunny days before the bad weather sets in.  Perhaps we will have a warm autumn.  The forecast for today is pretty grim, although at the moment (early morning) it looks lovely outside.  Cool, but very sunny - hope it lasts longer than predicted.

This week has been full of bag-decorating, card-making, list producing (for what I need to get ready for Christmas events), an 84th-birthday supper, collecting kittens that I am fostering and, despite the frequent soggy weather, gardening.  It seems to be a bit of a rush to get things tidied up in the the garden for winter now that the weather has changed.

The working week began with decorating bags with my cake-making friend, Linda.  We made some lovely cupcakes (sadly not edible ones), which we lightly padded and then fixed them to the jute bags.  I forgot to take photographs (what's new?), but will do next time we meet up - they do look good and I hope they will be popular.

Decorating jute bags seems to be a popular activity at the moment and it is interesting to see the variety of methods that are being used: ironing on pictures, material, etc, making things, ie cupcakes, to fix to the bag, as well as printing - not sure how this is done, although I know you can buy pre-printed ones using your own design.  Here are a couple of photographs of ones I have decorated this week:

This was produced using a panel of fashion and sewing pictures that I found.  I have cut the small pictures up and using Bondaweb, fixed them to the bag.  A slow process really, lots of cutting, trimming and ironing.

This is a work-in-progress as I want to add glittery mini-butterflies to the design.  I used a similar process to the above bag, good old Bondaweb.

Last week I promised that I would post pictures of some of the beautiful Heucheras I bought from the Wisley Plant Fair and here are some of them:

The colours are so gorgeous.  The first flower bed nearest to the back door into our garden was turned into a Heuchera bed last year and the plan for this year is to move the table and chairs on the patio well over to the left so that when we look out onto the dark, grim and grey winter days we will see these beautiful plants and the weather will not seem so grim and grey.

Many years ago we purchased two geese (no, not real ones).  We put them in various places around the garden and have to anchor them to the ground because various members of the Pie Five like to jump on them or knock them over!  Here is a rare photograph of them upright.  We, unimaginatively we know, named them Goosey and Gander:

Final picture for this week is of my two new foster kittens - I was able to name them and in keeping with my love of plants I called them Rosie and Violet.  They are 9 weeks old and, as you can imagine, very small.  On day one (Thursday) they were nervous, Violet more so - she is on the right hand side of the photograph.  Three days later they are bundles of adventurous inquisitive fun.  You can find out more information about them on the Woking Cats Protection website

Last but by no means least, don't forget to visit this week's Handmade Monday blog posts.  I love to see the variety of work the contributors to this event make - everyone is so talented.

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog post last week - I love to read your comments and the feedback and help is always appreciated.

My Friday Guest Blogger spot is 'open' if anyone would like to join in.  I have some lovely bloggers signed up already and I am looking forward to getting things up and running again.  If you would like to be a guest blogger, do get in touch: christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.

Have a great week everyone - 'see' you next weekend.

Jill

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS....

DragonBright – quality tools and supplies for craftspeople

Hi!  My name is Alison Lloyd, and I’m one half of DragonBright Ltd.  Along with my business partner, Nigel, we’re a new company stocking and making tools for craftspeople.  We also carry some basic supplies, and we’re focussing on lamp workers to start with.  Jill has kindly allowed me to post an introduction as a guest post on her blog.

Our flagship product at launch is a low-cost extraction system.  We have spoken to a number of glass workers, and we’ve tried to tailor the extraction to what they asked for, but this would also be suitable for any craft that needs to remove fumes from the work area.  The prototype version is running on our glass bench!  The base extraction system consists of a mains-powered fan, 2 meters of aluminium ducting, a hood, and a gravity grille cover (to keep birds etc. out of your ducting).  We also include a mounting stand for the hood and a mains cable with 13A plug for the fan, as well as complete assembly instructions.  The system is designed to be installed with the outlet exiting through a hole in the wall (6” diameter), but where this is impractical, the end of the hose can be temporarily draped out of a window or other opening when in use.  The fan is capable of up to 230m³ per hour flow rate, draws a maximum of 25W, and is almost silent.  At launch, we expect the entire system to retail for £60 plus delivery, with additional options (such as multiple fans or more ducting) available.

Our tooling line is specially manufactured by ourselves, and we have lots of ideas that we will be developing in the near future.  We can supply threaded mandrels in almost any size, and we will be launching with a speciality 2-part 18” mandrel, that breaks down into 12” and 6” parts; this allows a bead to be made in the middle of the mandrel, without the difficulty of having to fit an extra length of rod into your kiln.  We are also working on a rod holder (to make using the last little bit of a rod easy), made out of stainless steel, that should be available shortly.  We don’t have firm pricing just yet, but expect these tools to come in around the £20 mark.

We can also create custom tooling, to your specifications.  Examples include tungsten shapers and rakes (with custom or selectable end shapes) and mandrels with thicker sections or other add-ons, right through to more complex systems, such as electric mandrel turners (to save your wrists).  We are planning to stock a range of sundries, such as nuts to be used with ring cabs, as well as a line of 90 CoE glass.  If you have an idea for a tool, or you have a problem we may be able to help with, please drop us a line – you can contact us via our website (http://www.dragonbright.co.uk) or via email (info@dragonbright.co.uk).

We have some great ideas going forward, too; we’ll be working on new

tools, but we’re also looking to set up a line of work lights.  These will be 12V LEDs, designed with flexible (gooseneck) stands, to allow positioning on the fly.  We’re working on the design and manufacturing, but the finished system should be flexible, with a single power supply capable of running multiple lights, and a variety of fixing methods (screw down, magnetic, etc).  At this stage, we’d like to launch the lighting system in the second half of 2013, but you can see a prototype version in the picture of our bench above – it’s mounted just to the right of the extraction system.  We are also looking at display systems for beads, primarily made out of wood.  These will range from simple, cheap stands to custom, one-of-a-kind hand-crafted versions.

As you may have gathered, DragonBright is passionate about what we do, and want to make a difference to craftspeople in the UK and beyond.  At the time of writing, we are sorting out the final logistics, but we intend to launch officially in the next few weeks.  Our website is http://www.dragonbright.co.uk, so please look us up.  As always, we’d love to hear from you!

FROST, HAIL, RAIN, SUN - NO SNOW PLEASE

Hello everyone

Hailstorms yesterday that made the ground look like it was covered in snow and thick frost this morning - I think spring is here, but don't quote me on that.

A big thank you to everyone who commented on my blog last weekend - I had hoped to, as much as possible, respond to the comments that are left, but the days whiz by and here I am again back at Sunday.  It reminds me of school: 'I must try harder' and I will.

A few weeks ago, a friend and I went to an indoor country market in Cranleigh to check out a potential sales outlet.  Following our visit, I did some research into this type of market and discovered, as per their website:

'The Country Markets organisation has roots going back to 1919.......  There are currently over 350 Country Markets throughout, England, Wales and the Channel Islands.  Each market belongs to one of 65 Country Market Societies, which have a legal responsibility for ensuring that their markets are run in accordance with statutory requirements.

I found a country market venue in Pirbright, which is close to me, but unfortunately it is held on Thursday mornings and takes place at the same time as my pottery course.  I located another one in Jacob's Well, appx 6 miles from me, and contacted the market manager and arranged to meet with him on Friday so that he could assess my work.  I had been told that there was no space for more cards as they already had 3 card sellers - is card-making the most popular craft?  Does it have equal shares with jewellery-making?  I decided to take my scented candles and fabric makes.  However, I did take some of my cards along, just in case.

The result is that from next Friday I will be at the Jacob's Well Country Market selling my candles and my fabric goodies.  I won't be able to do it every Friday, but that is not a problem, I just need to let the manager know when I will not be available.  The people I  met were very friendly and helpful and despite the fact that I threw a mug of coffee all over the table I had my work on, I was made to feel very welcome.  The fees are 5p to join the organisation - a one-off cost (a bargain) and I will have to purchase an invoice book and a handbook and 12% of my takings are deducted by the centre's committee to cover expenses.  I think 12% is fine and means I will probably make more money than attending a craft fair every week.

I know it may not be everyone's idea of a selling platform, but I am looking at it with three hats on: the opportunity to work with people who have a genuine love of handmade work who want to encourage the public's interest in it, an outlet to sell my work and a regular opportunity to promote it.  I will let you know next Sunday how my first event works out.

My stock of 'cuppa candles' is low, so I visited the charity shops in Godalming yesterday morning.  How lucky am I!  I bought a complete, undamaged Wedgewood tea set for £8.99 and a beautiful red/gold coffee can set for £6.99.  I am not producing the antique- cup-and-saucer candle range which is very popular a the moment - I want to do something different so I am going for what might be called every day cups and saucers, but just that little bit different.   I have a busy week this week, so will be fitting in candle-making in between everything else.

Candle making is calling, so time to hand you over to the other crafters taking part in this week's Handmade Monday.  I have had a quick look at Wendy's post on Friday and I am definitely going to ask if I can join in her digi-stamp testing.

Have a good week everyone.  I will be back next Sunday and Milly will be here on Wednesday with her kitten tails.  Plus, I very nearly forgot, I have a lovely guest blogger here on Friday, so don't forget to drop in on my blog.  If you would like to be a guest blogger, please do get in touch on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com as it would be lovely to get this up and running again.

Jill

SURREY SOGGINESS

Hi everyone

Plenty of snow, but not really settling - thank goodness.  Fed up with the heavy rain though.  Quite a lot of flooding around here and coupled with new gas pipes being laid in our road means lots and lots of mud.  However bad it is here, it seems to be 20 times worse in and around New York.  They have had some really bad weather recently and I am sure some of those who are currently without electricity suffered badly during the last lot of bad weather.  The worry always is that occasionally we get the tail end of the bad weather.

Last week was busy.  Spent time tracking tools for my workshops - although they can be used over and over again, the initial outlay is always a bit frightening.  I did get a very good deal on Ebay for size A3 self-healing cutting mats - postage free, so even better.

I had an order for a valentine's card from a friend - the brief was red card, a simple heart on the front and if possible a frog prince. I created a red and silver layered base, added a raised heart and popped on a frog prince:

Photographing mirror-card is always tricky as it picks up any reflections.  I really do need to work on my photography skills.  I have a tent with all the supporting equipment and am embarrassed to say that I rarely use it.  One for the 'To Do List'.  I am sure the bloggers who take part in Handmade Monday will also have some lovely Valentine's goodies to show, so don't forget to catch up with them.

I met up with my cake-making friend, Linda, on Tuesday and we spent our time sourcing carrier bags and reviewing plans for both our individual businesses and our joint-ventures.  We want to produce bags that carry details about both of our businesses, but don't want to spend a bomb whilst ensuring the product is of good quality.  The decision to be made is do we buy bags with an appropriate picture on them and have our details printed, do we buy ordinary plain bags and produce our own stickers to place on them or do we buy plain bags and have the stickers produced elsewhere.  We found several suppliers of bags, some with pictures, some that carried out printing - it seems the initial printing charge is high because of paying for the plates/design.  Back to the drawing board at the moment.

The next few weeks will be spent making cards for a couple of events I am doing in March and April as well as getting together packs for my workshops.  I have massive stocks of card, paper, envelopes and embellishments and need to sort them out and not get persuaded (by me) to go out and buy more.  So tempting as there are always lots of lovely things in craft shops.

As promised last week (and, erm, the week before) a brief review of the new magazine Homemade with love.  Lots of lovely crafting goodies: hearts, cake stand. photography (just for me I would think), in particular I enjoyed the section on up-cycling which included information about 7 projects.  A good magazine, and it will be interesting to see how it develops.

I don't have a 'next stage' photography of my pottery plaque to show this week, I forgot - as usual.  However, I will photograph it at the beginning of this week's session to show how it has changed (quite a lot) and also at the end of the session as I hope to finish it this week.  Next week is half-term and we only have 4 weeks after that until the end of term.  I want to try to make some more jewellery and am planning on adding the coloured glass to some of what I make

I went to a get-together on Friday evening with the Pottery Gals at which a magician was performing   Very good card and money tricks - had hoped he could change some of mine into higher value notes, sadly he couldn't.  On Saturday I went to a Fund-Raising Quiz Night with the Woking Cats Protection people.  Great fun and the team I was in came second - we were only beaten by a whisker!

The lovely Badger-Boo has awarded me the Super Sweet Blogging Award - how good is that?  Thank you Badger-Boo, my favourite Friday Guest Blogger.  There are three rules associated with the award: 1. I have to answer five questions (see below); 2. I have to pass on this Award to A Bakers Dozen of Sweet Bloggers; 3. Say thank you Badger Boo for the Award.

The five questions are as follows:

1. Cookies or cake?  I love both, but it has to be cake.

2. Vanilla or chocolate?  Definitely chocolate.

3. What is your favourite sweet treat?  Chocolate, chocolate and even more chocolate.

4. When do you crave sweet things the most?  When I am trying very hard to avoid them.

5. If you had a sweet nickname, what would it be? Choca-Looney.

I will post my Bakers Dozen of sweet blogs in a separate post on Friday of this week, so don't forget to come back and check it out.  It's back to work now as I am running behind - need to catch up with the other Handmade Monday blogs too. Milly will be here on Wednesday with her mid-week post (she is doing very well following her op - stitches out this week).

Enjoy the rest of the week everyone - I hope you don't get any snow

Jill

EVENTS, CARDS AND KITTENS

Hi everyone

Another beautiful day - days like this are very welcome at this time of year because we never know what is around the corner.

This week has been busy, busy making stock for this week's 3-day event at Secretts in Milford.  The marquee goes up tomorrow and we can start piling in at 7.30 am on Friday.  Exciting and nerve-racking really, but really looking forward to being with lots of lovely crafters and, yum-yum, food sellers too.  Just in case your are local or likely to be in the area it would be lovely to see to see you - complimentary mulled wine and mince pies are being offered.

A few years ago I used to be a big fan of Jolly Nation (or was it called Paper Nation then?) and made lots of different cards using their decoupage sheets.  As with most crafters (and customers) tastes change and I 'filed them away', but came across them during the week while ploughing through the massive stock of craft materials I have accumulated.  I am still trying to reorganise everything in a tidy way so that I don't keep doing crazy things such as buying something and then discovering I already have it!  I decided to make up a few for my bigger mini-cards range and these are some examples:

I love decoupage and also spent time making up some A4 Christmas cards with decoupage poinsettias on, which I will photograph and add to my next Sunday blog.  My problem at the moment is that as soon as I make something I pack and price it ready for loading into my boxes for events, this means no photographs.

It's Handmade Monday (although we all post on a Sunday) time and I am linking up as usual.  Lots of great blogs to read and all posts are getting more and more Christmassy.

I am in the process of setting up another 'bricks and mortar' (B&M) spot for my cards.  I am going to visit the shop and meet the owner next week, and I will add some more information to my post-visit blog post.  I hope it works out, it certainly sounds good, and the rental terms are also good, so watch this space.  My plan (or rather my hopes) has always been to have other B&M outlets in addition to my spot at Bourne Mill, so this, fingers crossed, may be my second venture.

I hope you had a look at this week's guest blog spot - a really great way to use what must be our most favourite confectionery, chocolate.  Thank you Vicki for a great post and I think your chocolate sounds gorgeous and really is a great promotional idea.

I have one more guest blogger for November and then I am going to 'hang up' the guest blogging spot until next year.  Everyone is very busy and I know it is hard to write our own blogs, let alone a guest spot.  Thank you to everyone who has been a guest blogger and thank you to those who have visited and commented on the posts.  The spot has been running for ten months and only two Fridays have not had a guest blogger.  I hope it has been successful for everyone who took part - I have really enjoyed the variety of the posts that I have received.

Here is a photograph of Jasper and Wallace; Wallace is the kitten on the right hand side and the reason Jasper looks as though he is about to jump off of the chair, is because he has seen a biscuit on the edge!  He is a little bit of a piglet and nothing much appears to put him off of his food.  I have a family coming to see them this afternoon with a view to adopting them - I hope so as it would be lovely to see them settled into a new home.  They are still rather nervous, but so gorgeous and I am sure with lots of TLC they will soon become fantastic feline friends.

We went out for a meal with a friend on Friday to the Harrow in Compton.  We go there quite regularly and the food was, as always, very good.  Massive portions, so if you go to this place don't have a starter!  We forgot our own warning, but did have a Meze-like meal between the three of us, so we managed (just about) to eat the main course.

The pottery hair cracked on my mask - soooo sad.  He now just has a very small toupee.  Oh well, all good fun and I learn something new every time - what not to do more often than not.

Back to work now, plenty to do and I might try to get a little gardening done.  The weather is too nice to not try to get some outside time.  Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone. I will be back on Wednesday with my post, which will be a cat-related one for Woking Cats Protection.  My last guest blogger of 2012 will be here on Friday, so please come back and read their great post.

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

WINTER HAS ARRIVED - ROLL ON SUMMER

Hello everyone

I know colder weather had been forecast for Friday, but it still came as a bit of a shock.  So far no frost in Christmas Pie, but very cold.  In certain areas of our garden that are protected from cold winds, there are still some summer flowers blooming - hanging on until the last possible moment before they give up until summer.

Have you read my latest guest blogger's post?  It is mouth-wateringly good and just look at the pics of those cakes and cookies.  Thank you Mrs Crafty B, it is a great post.

This week has been busy - my first Christmas event is on 3 November and I am working to ensure I have a good variety of stock.  I have done this event before and it has always been good - perhaps helped because it is based opposite a Waitrose supermarket with free car parking for 2 hours?  I started to make some snow-globe cards this week and hope to have a few ready for next Saturday.  No cards to show really as I have been making and packing as I go, so my 'make of the day' is some more of my pottery work:

This is a half-circle tall candle holder made of porcelain.  The pattern is from a piece of embossed wall-paper and I cut the top to the shape of the pattern and then pierced holes all over following the design.  It is currently 'drying' and will be biscuit-fired the week following half-term (next week).  I haven't decided on the colour yet, but definitely something very glossy.

I haven't completely finished the wreath I displayed last week - I changed the embellishment from red velvet ribbon flowers to white roses.  The colour difference is more striking, but I haven't completely forgotten the red velvet flowers and they will appear on another wreath.

It's a good time to visit this week's Handmade Monday post to see other great blogger's work as I bet there will be lots of lovely Christmassy things to read about.

Following the Wedding Fayre I attended recently, I checked out one that was taking place the following week very near to where I live.  I emailed the organiser asking if they had spaces and what the price was.  They asked me to ring, which I did but the price was outside of my budget.  I told them this and they immediately reduced it by £25.  Still too high and they said 'well it is going to be a good event'.  Ten minutes later I received an email reducing the fee by a further £25!  I replied stating this was still outside of my budget (which it was, it wasn't me applying any stall price-reduction tactics) and they responded dropping the price to nearly half the original cost!  I couldn't decide whether this was a genuine offer to help a small business or a desperate plea because the 'two spaces left' really had a zero after the two.  I didn't do the event and felt sorry for anyone that had paid the full price if others came along later in the pre-event stages and paid considerably less.  I know it is possible to negotiate (sometimes) the prices of stall rental, but how fair is it on others?

I placed an advertisement with Adgo - I used this to specifically promote my wedding stationery.  If you place one of Adgo's banners on your blog or website, your advertisement is permanently free - how could I refuse?  Thank you Adgo.

Outside of my crafty world

The other side of my crafty world has been sociable this week.  I spent Wednesday helping a friend with her website - embarrassing really as I am still slowly, very slowly working on mine.  I am trying to convince her of the value of a blog, but not succeeding so far.  I am also encouraging her to use Twitter more to promote her work and the events she is taking part in.  As we live is a world that thrives on social media, I feel every opportunity should be taken to use them to support a small business.  I know my friend's priority is her website, so I am sure once that is up and running everything else will follow.

I helped out at the Woking Cats Protection Christmas Fayre yesterday and it was a great success.  Lots of visitors who contributed to making it a great fayre and help raise much-needed funds.  I won a prize in the tombola and bought some cat nip twists for Jazz and Daisy and the kittens: Jasper and Wallace, who are still with me.  They are progressing very slowly - no longer spitting, purring more and hissing less, but still a little nervous.  They are off to the vets on Tuesday for their first jabs and to be chipped.

I hope you have managed to read my post about National Black Cats Day?  Three gorgeous black kittens waiting for new homes - have a look at their pictures on the website.

I met up with friends for a meal on Friday - we re-visited a restaurant we had been to before, but sadly it wasn't as good this time.  The service was poor, food not very hot and does it really take 15 minutes to make/serve a cup of coffee?    One off of the list for either future visits or recommendations.

A day of kittens and cards beckons.  Don't forget to come back for my mid-week post.  At the moment I don't have a guest blogger for this week, so if anyone would like to have a guest blog spot, please let me know (christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com).

Have a good week everyone

Jill

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS.....

Hi, 

My name is Allison, I'm 43 and I live in Harlow, Essex with my partner Simon and my gorgeous labradoodle called Henry. I'm a primary teacher and in my spare time I love making cards but I also enjoy making bookmarks and tags. Sometimes I just like to chill in front of the telly doing cross stitch.

I've been making cards for a number of years and initially made them for family members, friends and colleagues. About a year ago I decided to try and sell to a wider market so I had a stall at a local Christmas bazaar and then another at a big arts and crafts Christmas fayre. I really enjoyed both and had some lovely feedback which in turn, spurred me on to open a Folksy shop (http://folksy.com/shops/allystamps).

When I was growing up, I used to sit and watch my mum knit and crochet. She also used to make all of me and my sisters clothes (we were often dressed identically!) and I vividly remember her laying out material on the living room floor, attaching paper patterns, cutting them out and assembling them on the sewing machine. She was never idle and I guess she was my main inspiration for crafting in general. I can't knit or crochet (much to my mums despair) but I do follow her in always having something to do.

We are very lucky at home, in that we had an extension added to the back of our house. This is our office. Desks run all along the back wall and along part of each side wall (imagine a u  shape). My partner and I are able to sit side by side working at our computers. I then have space along the side where I do my crafting and have lots of cupboards for storing my crafty stash. Mind you, if I don't stop soon, we will need another extension to fit it all in! When I'm making my cards, I often look on the Internet for inspiration and may see card layouts that I like. I particularly like Splitcoast Stampers for that. I also enter a lot of card challenges. This keeps the ideas flowing and card sketch challenges particularly help with card designs. 

I promote my business through a few different mediums. As mentioned before, I have a Folksy shop. I also have a facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ally-Stamps/209704535743430?ref=hl) and you can find me on twitter (https://twitter.com/AllyStamps). I also have a blog (http://lovinglyhandcrafted.blogspot.co.uk/) Although I've been doing this about a year, I still consider myself a new business and am constantly looking for ways to promote my cards. 

I love sitting at my desk making cards, especially thank you cards, or playing with paper, but I hate not having enough time or energy to do it whenever I want. I guess my ideal for the future would be to give up work and craft full time, but I'm under no illusion that this is most likely a pipe dream. Unfortunately, selling cards does not bring in much money.

So that's me, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

CARDS 'N' CATS

Hello everyone

It's a gorgeous sunny morning and not too chilly.  Days like this at this time of the year are few and far between, so extra special.

I hope you had a chance to look at the cards entered in my World Card-Making Day Competition?  Weren't they all so good - hard to decide the winners and it is a pity everyone wasn't able to win a prize.  The contact details of the winners have been passed on to Make and Craft, and I am sure their prizes will be on their way to them very soon.  Don't forget that I am planning to hold another competition end of November/beginning of December and I am looking for suggestions for a theme.  One suggestion was anything but cards - any other ideas?

The main focus of my post today is about cats, one cat in particular.  I promised the Mary Morgan, the Branch Coordinator of Woking Cats Protection that I would include a mention in my weekend blog post about this special cat, but I didn't as I felt it would get lost amongst everything else I had to write about.  If you are a cat-lover I know you will be interested in this particular boy and if you are looking to adopt or know someone who is, then please point them in the direction of the Woking branch's website.

As you can see, Simba is a gorgeous white cat.  He has been with Woking Cats Protection for a while and is looking for his 'fur'ever home.  The link above to the branch's website goes straight to Simba's page, so please have a look and read more about him.  If you can give him a home, please contact the branch on the number provided.

While you are looking at Simba's page, have a look at the other beautiful kittens that are looking for homes.

Good luck Simba - I hope you get a new home very soon.

I hope you all enjoy the sunshine today - I will be back with my main blog post on Sunday, but don't forget to drop in on Friday to read my guest blogger's post

Jill

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS....

My name is Karen and I am a craftaholic.  There I have said it out loud. 

I love Christmas, for me it starts in the latter half of the summer holidays, bringing out my Christmas Creative blog and dusting off the cobwebs.  There are always those people that complain about Christmas starting early, but for many crafters there is no choice as the stock needs to be made up well in advance. This is of course something I have learnt from experience (the hard way!)  To get in a Christmas mood, I pop on Christmas music, normally Nat King Cole or  Celtic Woman  and let their dulcet tones transport me into a winter wonderland.

Every year I develop new Christmas ranges and decorations, but I still get asked for the Karen specials, so they get made every year.  My most popular product is probably the one I love making the most, it's a Christmas story bracelet.

Each of the beads and components represent a character or event in the Nativity Story.  I make each bracelet up individually so that no two bracelets have the same components.  The bracelet comes in a gift box with a card that has the nativity story told in poem that I wrote and also the key to understanding your bracelet.  Over the years, people who have been given the bracelet as a gift, often ask me to make them for other people too which is a wonderful joy to me.

These are my embroidered curtain ring decorations and have proved to be popular over the years.  last year I published the tutorial so that other people can make them too .

 At any time, I have several projects on the go and one of mine at the moment is in association with the UK Crafts Form.  I'm part of the Quill A Long.  It's being led by resident quilling expert Indri and members of the forum are quilling Christmas decorations.  Anyone can join in and there are some amazing creations.

In the run up to Christmas I will be teaching several Christmas decoration workshops  for WI's and other groups.  It's always a fun time and I enjoy sharing my knowledge (and also picking up tips from other people).  You can find out about my workshops and anything else that may interest you on my web site

CRAFTING TOWARDS CHRISTMAS

Hi everyone

Not sure if the title of my post should be crafting towards Christmas or panicking towards it.  I can successfully find a million and one reasons for not doing something, and that is exactly what I seem to be doing at the moment.  33 days before my first Christmas Craft event in which I have to make Christmas cards, every-day cards, gift bags and boxes, Christmas wreaths and if time is on my side, candles (these have appeared on my mental to-do list since last year and have tended to not move from the bottom)!

I have taken the plunge and will be attending a Wedding Fayre on Sunday, 7 October at the Frensham Pond Hotel.  The couple whose wedding stationery I created recently recommended me to the event organiser at the hotel, so this coming week will be spent making some display items.  There is apparently one other wedding stationer at the event, so I am hopeful it will be a great success for both of us.  Do I feel  nervous?  Yes!  I am using the purple and cream card from previous work to create one range for next week (I have plans for others) and include everything from Save the Date to place name cards.  Here is a photograph of the invitations - not too sure about them yet, but only mocks so can play around with them some more this coming week:

As my blog readers/followers know I have a competition running on my blog to mark World Card-Making Day (6 October).  I have received some really beautiful cards already, and I know more are on the way.  There is still time to join in, so please do - as mentioned in my recent posts the competition is being sponsored by new craft magazine Make & Craft who have been great at supporting and promoting this event (the first issue is due for publication on 12 October - very exciting, so don't miss the launch party).  There is still time to enter (the closing date is Wednesday, 3 October), so why not join in?  I will be posting all cards received on a special blog post on Saturday, 6 October and I would like to ask everyone who visits and comments on my blog post to drop in on Saturday and comment on your favourite card (or cards) please.  There are three prizes so the three cards that receive the most comments will be the winners.  I will announce them on Facebook, Twitter and the Crafts Forum and in my blog post on Sunday, 7 October.

I hope you caught this week's guest blog post from Emma Louise Szostok.  Emma's cards are really beautiful and look at her gorgeous wedding invitations - being someone who likes black and white, I think they are stunning.  I think a lot of us can understand Emma's feeling about being 'hidden away' at a craft event.  I once attended one where I was place in the refreshments room with two other crafters.  Great, I thought, bound to stop and buy - sadly, no because all visitors were interested in by the time they got to my room was food and drink.  It's a learning curve that seems to have no end.

I have had 5 invitations this week from local schools to take part in their Christmas Fairs as I attended last year's events.  It is nice to be remembered, but I am sticking to my decision to do few and hopefully more high-profile ones this year. The right decision?  I will let you know once they have all taken place.

The non-crafty stuff

First of all a belated, but nonetheless grateful thank you to Julie at Anglers Rest.  Julie held a Books Giveaway blog competition recently and I was lucky enough to be the winner - I received my lovely prize of the book Toast by Nigel Slater.  Thank you Julie.  I do recommend to those of you who are local to Guildford and of course Christmas Pie that you visit Julie's other blog.  She has some incredible pictures on there of life in this area in days gone by.

We are back to being a two-car family again - thank goodness!  Transport where we live is not very frequent and if one of us is out, it means the other one is very restricted as to what they can do.  I know in these times it may seem extravagant and I am sure when we both retire (do crafters retire?) we will have to re-think the car situation, but at the moment they are both necessary. The good news is that the new car seems to run on fresh air (I wish), and costs considerably less than the previous one to tax and maintain.

I went to the Godalming Independent Market on Saturday - not as a stallholder, but as an assistant stallholder.  I helped a friend set up her stall, 'hung' around for about an hour when the event opened and then.  This was the same friend, Linda, who helped me out last weekend.  She makes gorgeous cakes and one in particular, walnut and coffee, was very popular.  However, one 'customer' informed us that she had seen another cake-maker (not local) selling a similar cake for £3.50!  How she had managed to do so to cover ingredients, time, power and make a profit I have no idea!  I was just waiting for the customer to tell me that this cake-maker was 'only doing it as a hobby'!

I started my main pottery project last week - a mask made of porcelain.  I have made the basic face part, and spent some time rolling porcelain into worm-like shapes for hair.  I haven't quite decided on the mask's features, but I do fancy a wild hairstyle.  I also dipped my necklace and earrings and if they have been fired this week, I hope to be able to add them to my next Sunday's post.  I chose Denby Blue - when I did a test piece this came out as a purple colour, which was lovely.  Problem is, will it be the same this time around.

Don't forget to send me the photographs of your card(s) for the World Card-Making competition by Wednesday of this week - please send them to christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.  I have some great guest bloggers lined up for October, and if you would like to start the ball rolling for the November bloggers, please do get on touch on the same email address for the card competition.  Don't forget to visit the other bloggers taking part in this week's Handmade Monday event - I know you will find lots of lovely makes and posts

Have a good week everyone - I will be back on Wednesday, my guest blogger will be here on Friday and I will be posting all of the card entries here on Saturday

Jill

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS....

Hello There...

My names Emma Louise, I’m 21 years old and I live just outside of Manchester with my family and my lovely kitty cats Sasha and Susie. I’m currently going into my last year at Salford University studying Illustration. I’m new to the craft world and don’t have many crafts under my belt but so far I’ve made a variety of different things. From Sketchbooks to Headbands, Cards to ATC’s and a few bits in between.

Being creative has always been a passion but recently got enhanced when I decided to take it further and begin crafting. It’s pushed me further as a person and an Illustrator as I’m combining the two together and producing what I believe to be better work.

I first found my love of crafting after being asked to make Wedding Invitations but the couple didn’t want just your run of the mill invitations that could be mass produced they wanted bespoke, one off’s that nobody else will have had and they wanted 200 of them! I loved every minute of it. From start to finish and seeing the smile on the couple’s faces was the best feeling in the world. To know that I had contributed to the most special day of their lives made me feel fantastic.

That’s when I realised I wanted to make anything I possibly could to make people as happy as they where!

After deciding I wanted to get involved in more craft work I trawled the internet for little projects I could do and that’s when I came across the idea of making paper beads and making up bracelets. I started immediately!

Making the beads is great fun but hard work on your fingers after a while when rolling the paper into shape. Almost like friction burn but the outcome is worth it and I had friends and family requesting for their own bracelets. I haven’t sold many of these as personally I think people prefer more eccentric looking jewellery. For example polymer clay charms have taken over in all there cute and quirky little shapes and sizes.

Following on from my bracelets I went on a girly rampage and thought making headbands and clips would be something fun and could sell but yet wear myself and I already had all the equipment so I gave it a bash. I only made a few to start with and then a little flier came through the door saying that one of the local schools was having a craft fair and I jumped at the chance and got myself a stall. That was my chance to go mad and make anything and everything I rummaged through my crafts box and made a list of everything I could make to sell that included more headbands and clips along with more bracelets and even better a chance to print out some of my illustrations to try and sell. I got to work straight away!

I made up several headbands and several pairs of clips to sit alongside my bracelets, illustrations, cards and painting and invited my grandma to add some of her beautiful baby knitting to finish off my stall. Little did I know I was going to be put in a back room with 3 other great crafters and sellers for 5 hours to sell a blanket and 2 pair of clips!

I was gutted I put in all that hard work for the opportunity to get my work and crafts out there for nobody to seem interested. Thinking back on it though I got to have a good look around to see what others where selling and take note for if I decided on doing another fair. 

After that disheartening day I had a little break from crafting and concentrated more on my Illustrations and studies and where one door closed another one opened and that little break was where I came up with the best collection of prints and drawings I had ever done and with my new found energy and happiness for creating something that I was truly proud of I thought it was time to have another dip back into the crafting world and I’ve never left since!

Below are a few more pictures of crafts I’ve done

Notice board

Sketch book

ATC's

Thank you all for listening to me babble on about me, myself and my crafts and I hope to speak and swap tips with you all soon. If you have any questions for me then please comment or send me a message through any of these channels.....

Blogger - www.emmacrafts.blogspot.co.uk

Facebook - www.facebook.com/emmalouiseszostok

Twitter - @em_louiise

Email – emmalouiise_@live.co.uk

Thank you all again !

Emma Louise Szostok x