IT'S BEEN A BIZEEEE WEEK

Hi everyone

What a gorgeous day it has been.  We went to a good friend's birthday lunch today and it was great and the fantastic weather was a bonus.  I made the name cards and menu's for the meal in West Ham colours, as our friend is a great supporter of their team.  It was a lovely day.

I have had a hectic week.  As well as the name cards and menus, I also had two card orders to finish, plus get everything ready for my first event of the year in Godalming.  This is the second event I have attended that was organised by Loretta and she really does work hard getting everything right - in addition to regularly checking that we were all OK, she spent a lot of time outside encouraging potential customers through the door.  Although the event wasn't all handmade, there were some great stalls there.  I was next to Fran McCaskill who is a fused glass designer - her work is absolutely beautiful and I do recommend you visit her website.  I bought one of her glorious big red hearts - it looks so lovely with the sun shining through it.

Events are interesting in that people will pay a high price for things that are not handmade, but  refuse to pay what, to us who make handmade, are reasonable prices.  Do you find this happens at events you take part in?  My mini-cards did well again, so I need to get making more.

One of the card orders I had has been posted and received by the recipient, so it is safe to put it on show.  I used various layers of gold card and other lacey and numbered papers and then topped this off with two champagne glasses with a figure 50 in the middle - I added gold star glitter to the figure.

The 21st birthday card should have been received by the birthday girl this time next week, so I will be adding that to my next Handmade Monday post.

The week before last I spent a Spa Day with a good friend and as usual it was more chat than spa - I did do some gym work though, so felt pretty good about that.  During the day, we talked about business life in general and crafting in particular and decided that we would have a go at a joint-venture later this year, so watch this space.

My Friday Guest blogging has taken off again, and I have some great posts coming up over the next few weeks - not all craft-related, so look out for some great topics.  It would be lovely to host some Handmade Monday bloggers, so if you have a topic you would like to share, please do get in touch: christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.  Thank you Hannah (Spans Studio) for your post last Friday - it was great and certainly struck a cord with the handmade community.

A bit of a short post today as I am so tired - it has been a week of hard work (as well as socialising).  Next week I have some more card orders to complete, plus we are still battling our way through all of the 'stuff' that we have accumulated over the years.  Why the walls haven't fallen over trying to contain the things we have 'held onto just in case' I will never know.  Phyllis Tuckwell, the RSPCA and Cats Protection are benefiting from our 'down-sizing' and I hope it helps them.

Have a great week everyone and thank you to everyone who stops my my blog and leaves a comment - I love to read them all.  I don't always get the chance to reply to all of them, but I do appreciate them especially the great advice and helpful suggestions many of you leave for me.  Don't forget to visit the other Handmade Monday bloggers to read this week posts and see everyone's lovely makes.

I'll see you all on Wednesday.

Jill

SUNDAY POST, plus MONDAY'S MINI MUSINGS - PART 6

Hello everyone

This is my first Sunday-combined-with-Handmade-Monday post.  It seemed like a good idea, as they say, to combine the two rather than having two posts so close together.

I hope you have had a good week.  Such gorgeous sunny days, but aren't the nights chilly?  Bye-bye summer, not so welcome winter; I checked on the BBC weather site today and discovered that the temperature is going to drop to 10 degrees on Thursday.  Jazz and Daisy are enjoying the leaf fall - they think the leaves are falling just for them to play with.  Great fun if you are a cat, not so much fun if you are a gardener who has to sweep them up.

A busy week making cards and continuing with the massive clear-out.  How can two people accumulate so much stuff? Actually, I think the question should be 'how can two people hang on to so much stuff thinking they may use it again'?  It didn't all go to the local recycling place, we also delivered lots of things to the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice shop in Farnham - including my old guitar.  I just never got to grips with learning how to play it, so I hope someone else will enjoy it.  Emptied (books and dust!) a large bookcase in our dining room in readiness for work being carried out this week.  I am sure someone comes along in the night and empties dust everywhere as I know it has nothing to do with my housework habits.

On Friday I received my copy of the Popular Crafts magazine which featured my Blog (along with several other great blogs).  Thank you Popular Crafts, it is very exciting, and I am really pleased to be 'in print'.  I hope to be able to share my blog witterings with lots more people and it would be lovely to have some new customers, and blog followers, too.  The magazine is out on Tuesday, 19 October and although I would encourage you to buy it just to look at the piece about me (OK, head size needs reducing), it is a great magazine and has some lovely Christmas makes that I am definitely going to try, so off to the shops you go.

It was a difficult decision what to post for Handmade Monday as I really am (or perhaps that 'should be') working hard on Christmas cards and thought it would be nice to post something different.  At one of the events I attended I was asked if I had a With Sympathy card - I didn't, but it did make me realise that a card-maker should consider designing and creating cards for all occasions, not just what seems to be the most popular.  Often the restriction is space - a lot of crafts people work from home and as we all know, as much as we try to contain our work area to one particular spot, we do occasionally spill over into other rooms.  So, the more stock we make the more rooms we spill into!  I have found at events that I often get requests for cards that I don't stock and unfortunately 'I need it tomorrow' doens't always leave time to make one to order.  Although I know I cannot stock a card for every kind of occasion, perhaps I need to think of adding to my range at least one card for the 'unusual' events.

My Handmade Monday card is white card that I have covered in black corrugated light card that is slightly larger than the under-layer.  The letters were created from the negative part of large peel-off letters, the negative was trimmed close to the edge and then fixed to cream card and then cut again around the shape.  The letters are quirky and although With Sympathy cards are for sad occasions, I like my cards to be a little different and I think this one is.  I thought about adding embellishments, but couldn't really decide what sort and felt it best to leave it simple and clean.

This week is going to be very busy with card-making as I have my first pre-Christmas event on Wednesday evening.  I spent Friday evening with a group of friends indulging in some wine tasting and they will be coming along - hopefully with very long Christmas card shopping lists.  The event is at Wyke Primary School - have a look at my 'Where am I' list for further details.  It would be lovely to to see any local blog-followers.  I am having a Spa Day with another friend the day after the event - lots and lots of chatting, relaxing, a facial and pedicure, and some (a little) gym work

I think there is a Blog-Gobbler on the loose - perhaps he is a relative of those Halloween goblins?  Did I leave a comment or did I not?  Am sure I have, go back and find I didn't.  Or, am I losing the plot?  Perhaps the Halloween goblins are offended because I haven't made many cards to celebrate the event?

Time to post my double-whammy blog.  I hope you all have a great week.  Don't forget to check out the other Handmade Monday blogs - always great to see the lovely things other crafts people make.

Jill