Things are changing!

Here we are in September - almost October.

It's getting dark earlier and also getting chilly in the evenings even though we seem to be having an Indian Summer.

I may have been quiet here but things have been developing business wise. After I finished at the hospital, I had a couple of weeks before I found another Job ( back at the school where I started!). In that couple of weeks I popped in to a local craft shop just for a nosey. It had recently had a change of ownership and I wanted to see if there was anything different. The new owner is Ruth and we seemed to have lots in  common. I ended up going down to the shop every day during the school hols and just helping out and having fun and a good laugh.

Things have now progressed to the point that she is moving into a bigger building and I have agreed to take some studio and selling space and help run craft classes.

The shop is called Cloth and Craft and it is in Waterfoot, Lancashire.

One small chance meeting and I get the opportunity to do the thing I have been dreaming of doing for a long time.

Watch this space for more details x

Spreading the word

I have been making things for a few years now. It started with handmade cards and progressed through to basic Jewellry making - bracelets and earrings. Always out of re-purposed materials. Long before it became 'the in thing'.

Then I got into cross stitching through a friend of mine that got herself featured in CrossStitcher mag with her own designs. There was a free kit on the front so I thought I may as well give it a go - and I loved it! So for years thats the only craft I did. Stitching till the wee small hours.

A few years ago, I re-discovered card and jewellry making and managed to get them up for sale in a local shop. I did sell a few things but then there was a change in management and my things were no longer wanted. Ah, well........


Then I started doing the Xmas fairs at the kids school and local church because I had so much made that I had to find a home for. Sold a few things, not much, but it got word around that I made things. About 2 years ago, I discovered Etsy and Folksy and opened a shop on Folksy. I have never plucked up the courage to fill my shop yet. I don't really know why.

I also noticed that other folk were showing their makes on Facebook, so last year I started my own page to tell the world about my things. So far I have had one sale - a pair of earrings. Its a start, I suppose! I have found and joined some Crafty Networking Communities on there. It's fun but for someone like me, who is not very computer savvy, it is hard work and takes me a long time. Learned how to tag but still can't do simple things like links. I am learning - very slowly.

I still love to be able to re-purpose things. It's satisfying to make something useful out of something that would otherwise be thrown away. For example, crochet Doormats out of old denim jeans and old duvet covers. Blankets out of 'unloved' wool.  So, still making and will continue to do so because I love it - and thats what counts!!

Dad

As usual, it has been a few months since I was last here!

I have been having trouble getting in the crafting groove really. Horrid family news. My wonderful Dad is very ill. Not that you would know now, to look at him. He has just come out of hospital, after spending 6/7 weeks in there. Sadly he has been diagnosed with Cancer. He is not strong enough to have any kind of treatment, it is only palliative care from now. His consultant has told me that he may only have a couple of months left, and we don't know if he knows this himself. so we are trying to spend as much time with him as we can.

He can be a stubborn swine at times, so we have to try hard to make sure he takes better care of himself than he did before and that he eats better and stays off the beer - oh, and takes his flamin' medication at the right time, not just when he feels like taking it!

so with all this trekking up and down the motorway every weekend, i have had to find something reasonably portable to carry with me in the car. So, I decided to have a root around my stash of cross stitch kits (I could start my own shop, really I could!). And I found one that had already been started - for the Queens Golden Jubilee! TEN YEARS AGO!

Oh, the shame!

I started it when I was pregnant with our girls and needed to be off my feet a lot. When I started it again, I remembered why I must have thrown it in the back of the pile. It took me over 3 hours the other night to do a bit that was just about 2 inches square. There are so many colour changes and complicated lines and back stitch, that I have to stop after stitching after half an hour and rest my poor tiny brain cell!

I may get it finished by the time we get to the next coronation!

I'm going now, it's time to ring my Dad, to check that he has been behaving himself since last night and that he hasn't sworn at the carers..........

Still here!

I said I would be back didn't I!

I have finally finished a cross stitch picture! I finished my David Tennant one last night. Here's a pic of it if you want to see.

I have also been buying again. Yesterday I found some cross stitch kits in a charity shop in town. It's not like I really needed them but it's not often I see Winnie the Pooh kits and they are soo damn expensive to buy 'new'. And I get a feel good from giving money to a charity close to my heart. Cancer Research.

Today I went with the kids to a local christmas craft fair, just to check out what others are making and what sort of prices they were asking, not expecting to find craft goods for sale. There was one lady selling off odd bits of things that she no longer wanted, so of course I just had to help her get rid of some of her excess stash. It was the friendly thing to do, wasn't it?

I got a doll stamp for £3 and 2 paint markers for 20p each. Also, 2 scrapbook kits for 50p each. Well, I thought I got a very good deal there, don't you?

Please forgive me if these pictures look odd or are in a strange place. I am new to posting pics and really i'm a bit of a tech numpty (but I refuse to ask the teenager). I will learn as I go. A couple of years ago, I couldn't even turn a bloody computer on, and now I e-mail and blog!

Hark at her!!!!!

Damn Computers!

Just after I signed up for this blog,our computer decided to need treatment in intensive care! It is now all wrapped up in bandages and limping about on crutches!!!!

It should be getting repaired properly at the weekend and then I can start putting pics and links up.

My artistic mo-jo has also gone and run away. Also all the pics I was using are now on an external hard drive and the printer is banjaxed anyway......

So, for now I have re-discovered my love of cross-stitching and have started doing one that I had planned to sew for my mum. She died suddenly last september and I'm going to stitch it in her memory. I miss her so much. Its the little things that are worst. Like when one of the kids does something funny or new and I think "must tell mum" then realise she's gone. But I know that she's watching over me and she's never far away.