PARKINSON'S AWARENESS WEEK

Hi everyone

What a beautiful day it was yesterday in Christmas Pie land and it looks as though today will be just as lovely (although the sun has just popped in).  Wall-to-wall sunshine after a very frosty start which didn't seem to do any damage to tender plants in the garden.  The temptation when it is sunny is to bring everything out of the greenhouse, plant up pots and baskets and think 'yipee, summer's here'.  Sadly we can still have frosty weather for several more weeks and having carefully looked after many tender plants throughout the winter, I would hate to lose them now.

This week is Parkinson's Awareness Week.  Some of you may know that my sister was diagnosed with this early last year; it was a shock to her family and friends, although she had been feeling it was a possibility for sometime.  Apart from being a get-up-and-go and rarely sit-down-person, she used to be the amazing front-of-house person at my events in Godalming and was a great help in increasing the footfall throughout last year.  Sadly, she is not able to do this for me now as she becomes tired easily and a busy day can often mean two or three slow and painful days to recover.

My sister is a third generation family member to have Parkinson's and we, as yet, do not know if the next generation has or will be similarly affected.

She has been busily posting on Facebook and Twitter today to get peoples attention about this week and I have been sharing, liking and re-tweeting her posts and those from Parkinson's associations.  I have posted separately on Facebook and asked my followers to share, like and visit the various Parkinson's Facebook pages to share, like and help raise awareness, and I hope my blog followers will show their support too.

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

TODAY'S THE DAY

Hi everyone

Today is the day to submit a photograph of your card for the World Card-Making Day competition if you haven't already done so.  Please email your photograph(s) to me at christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.

I have received lots of really gorgeous cards so far and would find it very difficult to choose three of them as winners.  That's why I am asking my blog followers, fellow-Tweeters, Facebook fans, Crafts Forum members (and as those requesting a record to be played on the radio always seem to say, anyone else who knows me) to vote!  All you need to do is visit my blog on Saturday to view all of the cards that have been entered and leave a comment saying which 3 you want to 'vote' for.

As you know, new craft magazine Make and Craft has generously donated three prizes for the competition and once the winners have been chosen, I will contact them.  Their details will be passed to Katherine Jewitt, the Editor of the magazine, and she will arrange for the prizes to be posted to the winners.  All very exciting and thank you Katherine for your support and good luck with the launch of the magazine on 12 October.

In my competition post on Saturday, I will not include the names of the card-makers, I will give each card a number.  I am hoping there will be lots for you to view, and I know you will enjoy all of them.  This is a competition for all skill levels: there will be cards from professional card-designers, those who make them for family and friends, those who have been thinking about making a card and have taken the plunge now, photographers who have been thinking of turning their work into a card as well as those who are making their first venture into card-making.  A competition for everyone really and I wish you all good luck.

Don't forget to come back to my blog on Saturday to view all of the entries and 'cast your vote'

Jill

THE LAST BANK HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR

Hi everyone

I know it isn't the last one, but the next one is Christmas and it seems a long way off - I'll forget the fact that at the moment I am surrounded by material for making Christmas cards, gift boxes, etc.

1 Crafty Tales

I haven't done a lot of craft work this week as I have tried to concentrate on my website - yes, I know I have probably written those words at least ten times in my blog, but it is getting to the point where I know I really do need to get a move on and get it published.  As you know from my blog, I love bright colours and originally my website was black (text mainly and some accents), white and lime green - the lime green was rather prominent.  I liked the colour scheme but have come to the conclusion over the last week that it really needs softening.  I therefore decided to introduce purple, well lilac really, into the colour scheme.  I have used lilac as the background side-strip colour and also in some of the accents.  I decided to use dark purple for the text, but still kept some lime green as I think it is a fresh bright colour.  I may still go for a lighter shade of lilac on the side strips, but am playing around with that at the moment.

I am ploughing through adding items, but the dilemma is that a lot of my card stock is at Bourne Mill - it is my bricks and mortar selling point, so I keep very little stock is at home.  This means I need to make stock that only goes on my website, not something that I am relishing really as it means working twice as hard (oh dear, sounds pathetic).  However, with long winter nights on their way (sorry to mention winter, almost as bad as mentioning Christmas) I should have more free time to work on stock production.  My big problem at the moment is that when the weather is good, I really want to be outside either working in or enjoying my garden.

In the meantime, this is my home page - so far.  What do you think of it?  Do you think the lilac should be a shade or a few shades lighter?  I have had some feedback that the green doesn't go well with the lilac, but the green is 'me'.  It's one of my original colours and I don't really want to lose it - plus a lot of my promotional material uses this shade of lime green.

I plan to 'go live' on 1 September, even though not all of my sections will have stock, but I think I have dragged my heels long enough and a small presence (growing regularly) on the internet is better than no presence at all.  I really cannot attend any events this year and to the many people who ask if I have a website, reply 'it's nearly ready' - especially if they asked me the same question last year!

It's time for the Handmade Monday bloggers to visit the other participants to catch up on their makes and 'doings' for the past week, but before you go, it would be great if you would consider being a guest blogger here on the Christmas Pie Crafts blog.  If you are a regular Friday visitor you will know the posts have been really great and just as good are the ones I have ready to be published.  It's a great chance for you to increase traffic to your blog and website as well as other social networking that you are involved in.  Interested?  Email me on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com - it would be great to have some more Handmade Monday-ers take part.  A bit of free promotion for your new Christmas stock?

Did you read Krissy's guest post on Friday?  I really recommend you visit while you are here to read about how Krissy decided to open up her boutique.  Many thanks Krissy for being one my guest bloggers - I really enjoy reading about how people came to the 'today' stage of their life.

2 The chitter, chatter bit

News of the day: Trio broke out of my neighbour's home!  Smashed her way through the cat flap, wandered around the garden, jumped up and landed on a 6' high piece of trellis and miaowed to be rescued!  This is the cat with one hind-leg missing who has only been 'in residence' for about two weeks!  She has been exploring in sheds and garage, brought out many cobwebs (better than a duster) and seems very happy to be free.  Shadow is completely confused by her, but Jazz is interested as he likes the 'older woman' cat.  Another one of our neighbours had a very elderly lady cat and Jazz would follow her everywhere - she was a bit grumpy (Holly by name and by nature) and this irritated her very much.

I met up with Caroline on Tuesday and over large cups of coffee we attempted to solve the crafting riddle of the day; we didn't find a solution, and after lots of coffee think we had forgotten what the original question was, but it was great to take time out and catch up with what each of us has been working on.

I had a call from Cats Protection last week asking if I would be able to feed some kittens next week.  A cat-fosterer who lives near to me is going on holiday for a few days and I am the nearest CP person to her home.  I went to meet my charges on Thursday and they are so cute: one long-haired ginger girl called Fifi (18 months old) and two long-haired black kittens aged 4.5 months.  I also met some of the fosterer's own cats - three tabbies, and all gorgeous.  Not sure I can do this work without increasing the size of my own cat population.  My biggest concern, apart from wanting to take all stray cats and kittens home with me, is how I will cope with a case where the kittens or cats are not as healthy as those I have met so far.

I don't know if any of you have come across BlogFlash2012?  It is a blog-post-a-day event organised by Terri G Long (Terri's blog is about the Art and Craft of Writing Creatively).  Terri has provided a topic for each day of August and as you can imagine it must be hard work writing something new every day.  I haven't had a chance to read all of the posts, but particularly wanted to dray your attention to those created by Lesley Beeton (one of my favourite guest bloggers).  She has written some very interesting posts and I feel that most of them (all really) have a chapter 2 waiting to be produced.

I read a post on Twitter a short while ago with a link to a YouTube video about the Follow Friday (#FF) activity.  Like a lot of people who use Twitter, I take part in this and have tended to follow the crowd with a group FF tweet.  I am embarrassed to say I cannot remember who produced the YouTube (I am sure someone here will), but their recommendation was that if you want to encourage people to follow, just FF tweet one person at a time with a reason why they should be followed.  It was suggested that group tweeting can sometimes be viewed as spamming, so I decided to keep with the single FF tweet and I will continue this in future.  I did this on Friday and limited time meant I only managed two, and thank you to those same two who included me in their individual Follow Friday tweets.

The garden beckons as my neighbour has given me some lovely Primula Denticulata to plant - the garden is also the best place to be as Richard is removing the fireplace from the dining room!  The noise of the chisel and hammer are bearable, the moans and groans are not.

I hope you have a good Bank Holiday Monday - sadly I think the weather is going to be pretty grim.  I will be back on Wednesday with my mid-week catch-up and don't forget to visit on Friday to read this week's great guest post.

Jill

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS.....

Hello! My name is Krissy Worth!  I am the owner of Krissy's Boutique!  A lot of things have changed for me in my personal life within the last year and half, which led me to starting my own company.  Back in January 2011 I resigned from a job that I loved!  I was working as a lead teacher for an after school program.  It was great working with children.  After many jobs in my 30 years of life, this was the one that I called my 'career'.  You know that saying "when you do something you love it's never work"?  Well I was doing something I loved and to me, it wasn't work.  It was a new adventure everyday because as you all know children are very unpredictable.  I was at this job for about 3 years when certain things happened that brought me to the decision to leave.  Finances changed in my household and the job just wasn't paying enough, so my husband had a job opportunity to work at a place that offered far more money, so he took it and his hours interfered with mine, so one of us had to stay home.  I became a stay at home mom to my son Preston! 

Later in the year, in June, I found out I was pregnant!  It wasn't something we planned, but it was a happy blessing.  We had just moved into a new home a few weeks prior, so we were excited to welcome all these new and positive changes in our life.  My second son Cullen was born this past March!  Taking care of 2 young boys is not an easy task, but it's one that I would never change.  They sure do keep me on my toes and make me smile and laugh all day long.

A new baby meant we needed more income, so that is what brought me to the idea of starting my own business from home.  I thought of everything I was interested in and what I was good at.  I have always loved crafting and jewelry.  I decided opening an online boutique was a great idea.  It was something I always wanted to do and the chance was right in front of me to grab so that is what I did!

I started off by going to my local craft store and buying a bunch of different items.  I came home and started brainstorming some ideas. I came up with a few things and I knew from that point on, I could really do this! I started with some trinket boxes.  They were my first projects I completed. The more comfortable I got with different objects, the more ideas would come to me and by the time I knew it, I had a whole collection of items!  Frames, jewelry boxes, earrings, necklaces and so much more! I decided to name my shop "Krissy's Boutique" and I started a website on Facebook: www.facebook.com/krissysboutique and little by little I gained new fans, friends and customers!  I now have over 1,000 'Likes' on my page and the numbers keep climbing each and everyday! I am getting very good feedback on my items and I am so grateful because I do my best to make things I think people will love.  I know there are a lot of people not on Facebook, so I decided to open a store on Storenvy: KrissysBoutique.storenvy.com.  The prices are the same on both sites, but if you are a fan of mine on Facebook, you also get specials that only my Facebook fans can see, so be sure to join me on Facebook if you haven't already!

Krissy's Boutique is not like any other shop in your local town that you may have shopped at.  My items are good quality items that are 99% handmade and the prices are very affordable. I did not want to open a store that the average family couldn't shop at.  I know right now people are having a hard time in this current economy.  I know what it's like to be on a very strict budget, so this shop is for everyone!  Right now the prices in my shop range between 2.00 to 20.00!  I have beautiful jewelry, frames, tote bags, crochet items and so much more! I recently just launched a new collection that I am very excited about.  It's called the "Midnight Moon" collection.  I have always been into mystical, mythical, magical items and I wanted to convey my love for those things into jewelry and other items.  I hope when you visit my shop, you do take a peek at it.  Recently I have been very busy with a lot of custom orders.  The holidays are approaching and there is nothing better than a gift that you put that extra special thought into! Give me your ideas, and I'll create something special for you! 

Well I thank you all very much for taking the time to read a little bit about me.  I would also like to thank Jill for giving me the chance to be a guest blogger!  I hope to 'meet' more friends along the way, so get in touch with me and say HELLO sometime!  I am also on Twitter: www.twitter.com/krissysboutique.

Have a great week everyone! 

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS.....

Firstly, I'd like to say thanks to Jill for kindly offering me this opportunity to guest blog.

Secondly, allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Rich Leigh and I am one of the co-founders of www.bloggabase.com, a service I launched recently to try and improve the relationship between bloggers and marketers.  I've worked in PR for about five years, and blogged for longer.

In my day-to-day job, working with bloggers has become more important over the last couple of years, as clients have realised that niche audiences are sometimes more useful from a brand sales perspective than traditional media outlets.  Despite this, there is only one real way to identify bloggers to approach, and that's by good old-fashioned desk-based research (otherwise known as Google).  Trawling through lists of potentially relevant bloggers is something that takes a lot of time, and as such, across the industry, often falls to junior agency members, or professionals who are simply too stretched to make a good, thorough job of it.  This can lead to sloppy, irrelevant pitching, with a greater emphasis still placed on media relations, or talking to journalists.

That's where I think we are missing a service to help make 'blogger engagement' (or 'blogger relations' as you might also know it) easier and better for both parties.

Bloggabase will be a way for bloggers to send requests, receive targeted products and service review opportunities and also hear from guest posters and marketers who have stories to tell that bloggers might want to hear.  Through making contact with these marketers, it may also be a way for bloggers to make money from their blog, though for me, it's about the relationship, first and foremost.

My hope in launching it is that marketers will only contact bloggers about things they and their readers might care about, rather than the 'throw enough and some will stick' approach I have been subjected to when wearing my blogger hat.

If you're interested, please do take a second to sign your blog (or blogs, if you run more than one) up for free, here:

www.bloggabase.com (we're on Twitter @bloggabase)

It's for all bloggers, no matter what subjects they write about - we've had bloggers sign up with all sorts of interests, and even if you have a blog that is just personal to you and about nothing in particular, you may still find the service of use.

At the moment we're recruiting blogs - we aren't opening up to marketers until we hit 2,000 blogs just to ensure a useful proposition - so any help sharing the service to reach the target faster would be greatly appreciated and will of course make the service of use to bloggers sooner.  We're currently at more than 1,000 blogs, so I'm confident we'll get there soon and, I hope, find a way for marketers and bloggers to work together in a mutually beneficial way.

Rich Leigh
Co-founder

www.bloggabase.com and @bloggabase)

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS......

Alexandra Beech on Becoming the Person I am happy to be

How nice to be a guest blogger.  It is lovely to be in someone else's space and having a natter.

As you read this I am a bit older than when I was writing it, as it was my birthday yesterday the 28^th June.  I am now 44 and I don’t feel embarrassed about sharing that with you as I feel I am in that happy place where I never expected to be.

It is not that I have had a bad life. On the contrary I had a happy childhood and averagely happy adulthood so far.   It has been pretty...average.   I met my husband in my thirties, and had a child at 35.  That was better than averagely happy.  From then on I have been on the path to who I really am.

I do not want you to read this and think ‘uo oh- she is wittering on about herself’.  Well, ok yes I am a bit. But I am more talking about how you should feel confident in being you.

It has taken me some 40 years to be happy being the odd person I am.  Happy enough to wear yellow t-shirts and dye my hair a vibrant red and happy enough to say – yes I am self-employed and I sew, I make buttons.

I work with children (when I am not making buttons).  You can see their fear of being different but their desire to be who they are.  I remember that, do you?  I try to explain that it is ok to be different, to stand out, that the people who do are the ones who become something in the world.

My daughter is a huge Tintin fan, and this year she dressed as Snowy, Tintin’s dog. I made the costume and she was so very happy to wear it.  Of course, some children laughed and she was in tears.  I felt terrible and I blogged about it, and received lots of lovely support from my readers and crafty friends. I tried to tell my daughter that she looked great and that other children might be jealous, and pick on anyone that looked a bit different than the usual Disney Princess.  Now, a few months later she is talking about next year’s competition. She wants to be Captain Haddock (complete with beard).  I asked her if she would worry about people saying anything because she was not dressed as a pretty girl. ‘No,’ she replied ‘it is good to be something different’.    Of course I was pleased and I hope that her confidence in herself is growing so that she can cope with outside knocks, and that it will not take her 30 years to be happy with who she is.

Until recently, if someone asked me what I do,  I was really embarrassed and used to laugh and mutter something about sewing, blah, blah.  I am confident to answer now that I sew, I make buttons and accessories.  I mean if I am embarrassed about it for goodness sake, why should someone else be interested in what I do?  It has also helped greatly to have the support of like-minded people that I have met in the crafting world, through Etsy, Folksy, forums like Crafteroo and Popular Crafts, and on Facebook and Twitter.  Also, I have become better known and have had tutorials and been featured in a couple of magazines.  I have even made buttons for the film industry (details to be released later but it is all rather exciting!).  It is a circle of confidence: - I become happy and confident - I am proud of my work and want to show it - I become better known - I become happier and confident, etc

So this is what I want to say – dye your red red and.., no not that.  Be yourself, you are great!


http://www.bigbluebed.co.uk
http://www.bigbluebed.blogspot.com
http://www.etsy.com/people/bigbluebed
Twitter: @bigbluebed

JUST CHECKING

Hi everyone

As you know, I am a cat-lover, well an animal-lover really, but our lives and home are shared with two amazing cats: Jazz and Daisy.  They have occasionally been photographed and mentioned in my blogs and both have contributed many times by walking over my keyboard - sadly their spelling is the pits, so I have to proof-read their work very carefully.

I follow a cat on Facebook called Hugo Boss - yes, it's true, that's his name.  He is a gorgeous black and white boy who recently disappeared.  Thankfully his owners tracked him down after he had been missing for about 6 days - as you can imagine they were frantic with worry.  Having had a cat of ours go walkabout a few years ago, I can understand how they felt.  As we all know cats are hunters, very inquisitive, love to play and think there are no boundaries to their world; because of their tendency to 'walk right in' they often get 'shut right in'.

My mid-week post is really a reminder to check your sheds, garages and summerhouses before you close them up for the night.  We all tend to leave these sorts of buildings open during the day at this time of the year, and cats wander in, find somewhere cozy, drop off to sleep and sometimes get shut in.  Most cats will run off as soon as they hear an unfamiliar voice, but there are those cats (Jazz wants to be friends with everyone!) who like to stop and chat for a while, so it is important to bear this in mind when closing the door.

That's my mid-week post, but thought it worth adding that as well as following Hugo Boss on Facebook I also follow Larry the Downing Street cat on Twitter (@Number10cat).  Believe me, they are both very good on the computer so do check them out.

Enjoy the rest of this week everyone - I will be back on Sunday with my weekend post.

Jill

SUPER SUNNY SUNDAY

Hello everyone

It's the beginning of a gorgeous day as I am writing this - very appropriate for Mothering Sunday really.  The daffodils in the gardens look so lovely - I wonder if any colour other than bright, sunny yellow could represent spring better?  My Forsythia is flowering and a few flowers are showing on my Kerria.  What a beautiful time of year this is.

I hope you enjoyed Eva Godden's guest blog post on Friday?  Eva is an old friend - in the sense of having known her for a long time that is.  We taught on the same course many years ago and are both lucky to now be doing work we really enjoy.  We meet up every so often with other shared 'old friends' and we are also frequent Tweeters and Re-Tweeters.  Many thanks Eva - I am already looking forward to your future guest posts.

The Friday guest blog spot is going well - fully booked up to and including 13 April and one booking for May.  Lots of lovely posts on the way - some craft-related and some not.  If you are interested in writing about a topic that is close to your crafting heart, or on something not craft-related, please do get in touch: christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.

Our massive clear out continues.  My biggest problem is that although I know I should dispose of so much, especially as I haven't used it or needed it for years, I am a hoarder and getting rid of things is so very hard.  Any tips anyone?  I have been more ruthless this time around - mainly as I think we are running out of space!  Went to the RSPCA at Chobham this week with a big bag of goodies, books, some old towels and some cat food - how I didn't come away with a few more cats I will never know.

A bit of plugging here: the RSPCA Chobham have a Car Boot Sale on Sunday, 15 April.  If you are local, how about either taking part or going along to buy lots of goodies and have a look at the gorgeous animals there in need of homes?

Had lunch with friends on Friday and one told me about an event at the end of March that she is involved with - it is very local to me and I will definitely be there.  Once I have full details I will add them to my blog.  Who knows, by then my website may be up and running too.  My background is IT (and accountancy) and Richard is always saying that he will take me to A & E to have my computer surgically removed from me, yet I seem to find it very hard to get my website set up.  Lots has been done on it, but not enough for me to feel happy releasing it on to an unsuspecting public.  It is almost as though I feel that spending time working on my website takes away from the time I should spend making cards, etc.  Odd?  Yes, I know - must be the time of year!

Handmade Monday is with us again (tomorrow, I know, but I am keen) and I used to hate Mondays because it meant the beginning of the working week.  It still does in a way, but working for me, not for someone else, so that 'oh dear where has the weekend gone', no longer exists.  Yippee.  While you are checking out the other great blogs participating in Handmade Monday, don't forget to look at Wendy's new 'baby: Handmade Harbour - full of great tips and information for makers.  Well done Wendy - look forward to reading your regular HH blog.

Hannah Blavins (a recent Friday guest poster of mine) opened a topic on the Popular Crafts Forum on Friday asking what everyone had in their 'Craft Bucket' - by this she means what are we  planning to do or what would we like to do that's crafty.  A long list has been drawn up by Phoebe Moore and this thread made me think about what other crafts I wanted to do.

I would love to have a go at glass fusion - the work I saw at the event in Godalming by Fran McCaskill was beautiful.  However, the financial outlay would prevent me taking that up seriously.  When I finished work (well working for someone else that is) I had planned to enrol on a Calligraphy course (did a taster day last summer and loved it), but didn't pursue it - planned to do lots of courses, and got no further than looking.  It seems that the majority of craft work involves a lot of expense, so if I took up something new in a business-sense I would have to be 100% sure of its success and I think that is not really possible in the current climate.  But that doesn't stop me doing something new for fun, so I have enrolled on a pottery course.  I did pottery at school and loved it and have looked frequently at courses that are available locally, and done absolutely nothing about joining one.  My course begins in April and I am really looking forward to throwing some clay around again.

I have had two card orders this week but as I know both of the people who will eventually receive the cards are readers of my blog, I can't post the pics here yet.  My make for Handmade Monday comes from a card kit I bought recently.  The pack contained four pre-decorated cards, with bits to be removed and embellishments to add.  I made up three of the cards, but changed each one to something slightly different: for one I hung the salutation in the 'knocked-out' hole, for another I added the salutation to a ribbon and fixed that to the card and for the third I used the circle that was from the knock out of another card to add something different to the inside of the card.  I hope you like them.

Off now to enjoy some more of the sunshine, dig some weeds up, prune some more shrubs and generally soak up the warmth.  Hope you all have a good week - don't forget to email me if you would like to take part in the Friday Guest Blog spot.  I will be back on Wednesday with my regular mid-week post.

Jill

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