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Showing posts with label Versatile Blogger Award. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Versatile Blogger Award. Show all posts

Sunday, 15 April 2012

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

Hello everyone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Jill

Tuesday, 10 April 2012

THE VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD

Hi everyone

I had a lovely comment on my Sunday/Monday post this week - Rachel at House of Pinheiro has given me the Award of Versatile Blogger.  Thank you Rachel.  I think it is a great compliment to receive awards from fellow bloggers, particularly fellow crafting bloggers.  There is more information on this Blog about the Award and you can also collect your Award Blog Button .

I had to chose 15 bloggers to pass the Award on to and the decision-making part was incredibly hard to do - there are so many fantastic blogs that I have come across, read, followed and commented on that to keep it to 15 was difficult.  Now if it had been 50, no problem at all, although I have a feeling I could add many more than 50.  I apologise if I have missed out a great blogger, but as each person I have given this award to has to pass it on to another 15, you may be one of that group.  Good luck.

My nominations are:

Caroleecrafts
Carol's Ditty Kingdom
Dragonfly Jersey
Fiddly Fingers
Handbags by Helen
Hannah Blavins
Jam Dalory
Little Harriet
Mad Dog Woman of Shackleford
Mcrafts
Pickle Lily
Planet Penny
Raindrops 'n' Roses
Rumpy Dog
You Love It You Do

The reasons for my 15 are that each blog post these bloggers 'create' is great fun to read, often inspirational, always full of news and most (not all are crafting blogs) contain pictures and details of beautiful work that the blog owner has made during the previous week; some contain pictures of the blog owner's gorgeous animal(s) and some are interesting posts about life and how the blogger sees it.  I have also included one fairly new blog, which has got off to a great start.  Some of you already have this Award, but hey, you can never have too many awards, can you?  Thank you all for being part of my blogging world and enabling me to be part of yours.

In addition to nominating other blogs, I also have to add 7 things about myself to the blog of the person who nominated me.  I am off do to that in a moment, but have added them here too:

  • I love strong, bright colours - both in my garden, my home and in my craft work 
  • I am a big fan of Christopher Lloyd and the gorgeous planting schemes he used
  • I am a big fan of John Brookes and once met him in his garden (I was on a garden design course at the time)
  • I love going to the theatre and don't go as much as I would like to
  • I read anywhere and everywhere and always have 2 or 3 books on the go at any one time, plus craft books open at various pages
  • I love New York
  • Something you may not know, I love cats - kept that well hidden didn't I :)
Enjoy your Award everyone - I will be visiting your blog today to let you know about the Award.  

Jill