Highs and Lows

This week has been a series of highs and lows. A change in my blogging habits from monthly to daily is a bit of a radical change, but the weather has been so awful and I'm on a bit of a break from crafting. Having completed a rather large order which was quite unexpected and quite challenging - about 3 weeks of frantic crafting!, I'm now chilling out a bit, regrouping and taking a back seat for a couple of weeks. We have October holidays in a week's time, so I will be concentrating on getting my house in order and looking forward to having a good old family break at home. Not to say that I won't be blogging or continuing with my Etsy shop developments!

Highs

I had a lovely chat with Ebba Redman this week on Domestic Crafts. She has been conducting a questionnaire on this topic for her dissertation (Ebba is a student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design). I don't consider my work to be particularly highbrow! but I love discussions about why we craft, inspirations, cultural influences, etc. She gave me a lovely write-up on her blog which was a great buzz for me - thanks Ebba!

Wholesale Dilemma

Completing my wholesale order and packing it off was a huge relief. It's on its way now so hopefully all will be well! This is how my workspace (corner!) looked while working on this order (what a guddle!):

Selling wholesale has always been a bit of a dilemma for me as it seems to go against the grain of 'handmade'/unique, etc, - it's not always easy to motivate yourself to make 10 items exactly the same! It was rewarding to see it complete though and I was grateful for this order as I haven't been able to attend the local craft fairs recently. I sell 'Sale or Return' to my local Art Gallery shop which is a midway ground that works quite well.

Cuteable High
Another high was being featured on Cuteable this week. I was jumping up and down with excitement when I visited and lo and behold there I was! How cool! Thank you!

Etsy Shop v Original Shop
As mentioned in my last post, I managed to add a couple of items to my Etsy shop. It's difficult to know which to promote my original online shop, or my Etsy shop (which has very little in it yet!). But I'm really enjoying the sense of crafting community that Etsy exudes and had I known about it before ... It's also great to think about selling internationally - very exciting!

Selvedge Fan

Last Saturday, a kind friend sent me a copy of Selvedge. This is not a publication I would have come across but it's a really sumptous magazine on all things 'textile'. I just drool over this magazine, it's really inspiring too and I love the covers - fantastic photography.

Lows

The Central Heating is still on the blink! Boo Hoo!
The Winter Bugs have started to hit our family - Boo Hoo Too!