SUN, SEA AND SEAFOOD - WHAT MORE COULD I ASK FOR

Hello everyone

Just back from a week in lovely Xlendi (pictured here) on the island of Gozo.  The temperature was around 30 degrees all week and it was a good excuse to relax, read lots and get a nice sun tan.

We stayed in the San Andrea Hotel which is 2 seconds (well possibly 3) from the sea and I really recommend this hotel for its location, friendly staff and great restaurant (the Zafira).  Despite on two nights having over one hundred guests in the inside part of the restaurant for events, the staff still maintained their usual excellent service for all diners.  This was the view from our hotel:

There are lots of beautiful bays on Gozo, which is a very popular island for divers.  Every morning during breakfast, we would watch the divers from a local school go off for their morning dive.  I used to think 'no way could I get into those suits in this heat'.  On their return they looked as though they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and came back the next day for another session.

There are many beautiful churches on Gozo and this is one that we photographed because of the spectacular paintings on the towers on either side of the building:

As well as being a cat fanatic, I am also a seafood/fish fanatic.  This holiday allowed me to indulge my fishy taste and every day was a fishy treat for me: lobster, prawns, seam bream, squid, octopus and many other delicious goodies.  The restaurants we visited were all in and around the Xlendi bay and throughout our stay they were visited by three lovely tabby cats - did we feed them?  Of course we did, how could we not.  Here is photograph of one of them:

You can see that he has one ear 'tipped'; this means he has been tipped, neutered and returned and is supported by the local SPCA.  Needless to say they are very friendly because they are hoping for food.  The restaurant staff are very tolerant of them and the majority of diners are too.

It's back to work now, although I did try to keep an eye on business communications while I was away.  My new venture, Village Vintage is up and running and I am recruiting stallholders, so if you are 'strictly vintage' and would like to take part in my vintage events, please do get in touch.  The Surrey Bazaar events are filling up nicely and I am planning to spend more time on my wedding stationery business.

I hope you all have a good week and I will be back again very soon with more Christmas Pie news.

Jill

A POST-IT NOTE SIZE BLOG POST

Hello everyone

I hope your week has been good.  My post title says it all - this week's Sunday post is a mini one.  As usual a million and one things to do and as usual running to try to keep up.

I completed a wedding card a friend ordered from me, produced a wedding stationery quotation that was requested last week, made some gift tags and sourced materials for decorating bags.  A 'lots done' week, but not lots to show for it really.

For the gift tags I located prints of flowers which I attached to card.  I will punch a small hole in the top and add matching ribbon.  Gift tags always seem to sell well at craft fairs, so I am hoping these will be popular.  Here is a photograph of the tags:

Here also is a photograph of the wedding card I made for a friend:

This wasn't easy to make as the brief was to match the colours of a gift envelope that had been made by someone else.  Er, very difficult because how on earth do you find that out if you don't know who made the envelope?  I managed to find a shade of yellow and pink that were similar to the paper used and added hearts and other trims which also complimented those on the envelope.  A very frilly card.

that's my post-it note sized blog post for this week, I will be back next Sunday with hopefully lots more to write about.  In the meantime have a great week and don't forget to visit my fellow blogging crafters on Handmade Monday.  Milly will of course be back on Wednesday with her cats tails of Christmas Pie.

Jill

COULD IT BE THAT SPRING HAS SPRUNG?

Hello everyone

What a lovely sunny weekend we have had - hope it has been the same for everyone reading this post?  The forecast for this coming week seems to be reasonable - no double figure temperatures, but no sign of any snow.

Another busy week working on websites and card-making for yesterday's event.  It wasn't a great success and it is no consolation saying that the majority of stallholders did badly as well.  One lady I spoke to said she just covered her stall fee, but only because friends came in and bought her paintings, which they probably would have done without attending the event.  It was advertised as a Craft Fair so you can imagine my surprise when I saw Pheonix Cards (PC) were taking part.  In addition to PC the world and his wife were there selling cards along side their other goods.  Such competition is hard to cope with.  I had forgotten to ask if PC were taking part, just took it for granted that Craft Fair meant craft, as in handmade.  A fellow crafter, Snowflake Gems, taking part in the event sought me out as she had recognised my business name as being that of my Facebook page - her jewellery is lovely, so it's a good idea to nip over and have a look at her work.

The event was held in two halls: the smaller one seemed to have a much friendlier, buzzing atmosphere; someone said it was possibly because people were a little more closely packed into the smaller hall.  It also had a lot of natural light, which the larger hall didn't - apart from roof windows which were about 10 - 12 feet above our heads.

Here is a photograph of my stall.  I normally have a black cloth, which sets things off well, but this time I didn't have it ready and I felt there was no dynamic 'come and look at me' colouring to show my work off:

However, that was yesterday and I return to the guns I had planned to stick to early last year: reduce the number of fairs in the January to August period, restrict venues to within a 10 - 15 mile radius of my postcode and try not to pay above £15.00 for a stall.  For most of last year it worked well and although I seem to have veered a little off-track this year, I think I am back on it now.

Having organised an event and taught event organisation for a few years, I know what is involved and how it can be hard work for very little income or other reward.  What is the answer?  Yesterday's event was well organised, good publicity: radio, local newspapers, flyers, Facebook and Twitter.  I know that the area the event is held has a lot to do with it - aim for affluent areas in the hope the residents will spend.  However, does that guarantee those who live in an affluent area will attend a craft fair?

Apart from working on websites and card-making this week, I also confirmed my attendance at two wedding fairs later this year.  In addition to my card-making workshops, this is an area of my business that I want to concentrate on, so I will be looking into doing perhaps a couple more wedding fairs this year.

I treated myself to a Big Shot machine this week; despite having a lovely Cricut Expression machine, loads of punches, etc I don't have an embossing machine and really like the effect this can produce.  In between gardening today I have been embossing sheets of paper and rubbing some down with sand-paper - lots of fun.  I want to get some cards ready this week for my wall at Bourne Mill and also hope to have some to display in my post next weekend.

Have a great week everyone, let's hope we have lots more sunshine and the temperature gets to somewhere near what it should be at this time of the year.  Don't forget to visit the other Handmade Monday bloggers to find out what they have been doing this week - always great to catch up with them.

I will be back next Sunday and Milly will be here on Wednesday with her view on life.

Jill

END OF A BUSY AND EXHAUSTING WEEK

Hi everyone

It's raining and apparently it is going to be soggy all day today, and on and off for most of this coming week. Yesterday was such a gorgeous day - the last day of warm sunshine this year?

This last week has been frantic - I feel exhausted and plan to take today off, well making cards, etc so less mad than last week.  I eventually finished the finals bits of the wedding stationery at 7.15 pm on Friday!  I had visions of handing out the Order of Service to the guests while still collating them, then on to the Reception Hotel to finish putting together the table plan!  A very close shave.  The  church service was lovely and both the bride and groom looked perfect.  The groom, best men (yes, 2) and ushers had waistcoats similar to the cream of the invitations and their button-holes were of a similar orange to the ribbon used.  The bridesmaids dresses were also a matching orange colour and the page-boys had waistcoats similar to those of the groom.  It was all very beautiful and a lot of hard work had gone into all of the arrangements.  True to tradition, and to the wedding stationery deadlines over the past few weeks, the bride was 10-minutes late - was I surprised?  Not at all.

Here is a photograph of the table plan when it was about to be 'stuck' down- not all tables had the same number of guests on, but the request was not to make the cards the same size as some would look a little empty.  It matches the design of both the invitations and order of service and I had a lovely message from the bride on Friday evening saying how pleased she was with everything I had done

Sadly, I had to leave while the register signing was taking place.  I was at an event in Pirbright and although a friend was covering for me, I had been away nearly 2 hours and felt it wasn't fair to be away any longer.  

The handmade event was very successful in the number of visitors - but I don't think it was successful for all stallholders.  I noticed that someone selling knitted toys (Postman Pat, etc) didn't do very well.  There were 4 stalls selling jewellery (too much competition?) and lucky for me only one other card-seller, whose cards were completely different to mine.  My mini-cards were a big success again - so the next few days will see me working hard to build up my stock.  I was very pleased that my friend, Linda, who covered for me while I was at the wedding, did very well with her cakes.  This was her first event and as anyone knows who has been at a craft event, not doing well at your first show is very disappointing and so de-motivating.  She sold lots of cup-cakes and took orders for her Christmas Cake (lots of tasty samples to try made it very popular).

It's Handmade Monday time so do nip over and check out the other blogs taking part.  Lots of gorgeous makes and great posts.  Don't forget that even if someone doesn't take part in Handmade Monday and you are normally a regular visitor to their blog, it's still nice to drop in and see how they are doing.

I hope lots of you Handmade Monday bloggers are going to take part in my World Card-Making Competition.  Make & Craft are sponsoring the competition and have generously donated three prizes.  Even if you are not normally a card-maker, why not join in?

The non-crafty stuff

Did you read Eva's latest guest blog post?  She certainly has a knack of making you want to immediately book up to go to the places she writes about.  Many thanks Eva, a great post and as always the photographs are lovely.  I hope you are enjoying your holiday in Budapest.

I attended a fund-raising dinner on Wednesday of last week.  Almost needless to say it was for cats - Woking Cats Protection.  The proceeds of the raffle raised £1,250 - a brilliant amount and one very generous person bid £250 for a 4-ball game of golf that was donated by Club where the dinner was held.

My two lovely foster kittens, Ash and Micro, left home last week - well my home that is.  They went to their new family on Thursday and I know they will have a very happy new life.  My temporary kitten-fostering has come to, what I hope it to be, a temporary end.  I was due to have two 'new' ones on Friday, but one has been homed and the other one has gone to a different fosterer.  So, the pen is empty, no more squeaking kittens calling for me, no water-bowl tipped up, no biscuits thrown around the place (on the plus side, no litter trays to empty!) - sad.

My pottery course began again last week and this time around I am doing the morning and afternoon sessions.  I spent last week working on pieces created last term and this week will begin creating a major project (or two) and finish off the 'left-overs' as they become 'cooked', etc.  It is good to be back with everyone, a really nice group and one new person this term, so I no longer feel like the 'new girl'.  I worked on a test piece to identify possible colours for the necklace and earrings I made last term; the firing may not be carried out for a week or so as there needs to be a reasonable number of pieces to ensure the kiln is full.  All great fun and I really enjoy myself.

Lots of catching up to do over the next few days: card-making, tweeting to people who have either tweeted me, RTd my blog posts, mentioned me, etc - I have been very neglectful recently (particular apologies to Dawn and Lesley).  I have three card orders to make - one of which is urgent (this is beginning to feel familiar), blog posts that I must comment on, and website work, and, and, and.....  

Have a good week everyone.  If you would like to be guest blogger or enter the card-making competition, please do get in touch: christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.  I will be back on Wednesday with my usual mid-week post and don't forget to drop in on Friday to read my guest blogger's post.  How about joining in Caroline's UK Handmade Thursday blog hop? Have a look at the posts from last week's contributors and make a diary note to join in this week

Jill

WORLD CARD-MAKING DAY, 6 OCTOBER 2012

Hi everyone

It has been hard work keeping up with everything this week.  My (what seems like a) mammoth wedding stationery order is taking on even bigger proportions!  Two steps forward and one step back and the wedding is on Saturday!  I keep telling myself that this time next week, everything will be done and dusted and I can get some semblance of normality back into my life.  As if!

However, my post today (which will also be taking part in Caroline's UK Handmade Thursday blog hop) is about the World Card-Making Day competition I am running via my blog.  I have been lucky enough to get a sponsor for the competition and they have kindly donated three prizes.  A big thank you to Katherine Jewitt, the Editor of new magazine Make and Craft - the first edition of this magazine is due out very soon.  I have subscribed to a digital version of the magazine because I felt that it would be good to have online access to it always as I spend an incredible amount of time super-glued to my computer.  Plus, so much easier for me to store than a paper version.  However, both are available and the subscriptions rates are great value - have a look here for the details and you can even try three copies for £1 of the digital version to see if you like the magazine.  I promise you, you will.

The theme for the World Card-Making Day competition is floral - absolutely anything to do with flowers.  It could be something made of flowers, flowers you have photographed, painted or decoupaged or perhaps like one beautiful card I have already received photographs of,  a quilled design.  It is beautiful and I really wish I could create something like that.  The photograph(s) of your card need to be with me no later than Wednesday, 3 October please and once the judging has taken place, contact details will be passed to Katherine and she will arrange for the prizes to be mailed to the winners.  All cards will be posted on my blog on Saturday, 6 October and I will be asking for everyone to vote for their favourite three.  Prizes will go to the top three.

Some of my guest bloggers have created beautiful cards and I am hoping they will take part in the competition.  In the UK we send more cards than any other country in Europe - so let's keep it going by designing beautiful and original handmade cards.

Jill