Bear Up!

For anyone who might need a little encouragement or support during testing times, I have come up with this little character:

Talking of encouragement, I have felt uplifted this week by my horoscope (I don't normally take any notice of them but this feels particularly significant):

"When something ends, it's a chance for something new to begin. That's the message your planets are sending: the future is where your focus should be. Creative projects in particular look promising. Precisely where you're going doesn't matter yet."

So, with this in mind, the only way is up! :)

Folksy Friday - Hedgehogs!

It's been a while since I've done a Folksy Friday but I decided to do a search for spiky woodland creatures and found many lovely items!

Kicking off with this felt hair clip from May Crimson:

This cute Valentine Hedgehog from Quernus Crafts:

These fabric buttons by Cwtch:

This appliqued bag by velvetpaws:

These egg cosies by So Choosy:

and these cute Hedgelogs by Trecelyn Crafts:

All very sweet, I'm sure you'll agree!

Sob! Sniffle! Waaaaahhhh! :(

Well, that's it folks, as of Saturday past, the little shop where I worked and spent three happy years has ceased to trade. Poop. We've spent the last couple of days clearing out the last of the fittings and fixtures and now it is little more than a shell. Sad, indeed. To commemerate the end of an era, we indulged in an enjoyable night out on Saturday with our friends from Cotton Traders, whose shop is directly opposite ours; it involved pizza, alcoholic beverages and much merriment. A fitting end to our time together. And I don't think I embarrassed myself (much).

So now it's back to the job search and some crafting. I've made tags to put in with customer orders:

And a new Little Horse card for the Folksy shop:

He's quite a cute fellow!

And to those of you who were concerned; I'm not really going to give Himself the reject Valentine's card with the gluey splodge on it! That wouldn't be very romantic now, would it??!

Stocking Up

With the demise of my workplace imminent, I have been buying up lots of stock to keep me going until I find an alternative supplier (and I've got someone in mind, so don't worry if you're reading this, Kim!).

So that means lots of envelopes to fill my shelf:

Lots of glues:

And of course lots and lots of paper and card:

That should keep me going for a while!

Cards I've made using my Valentines designs will be going into my Folksy shop tonight. Well, all except one that I managed to ruin by getting a sticky smudge of glueyness on the front - blah! I couldn't think of any way of disguising it, sadly.

I might just have to give Himself this one!

Fairground Rides Card

Crafty Mushroom likes custom orders!

I really enjoyed designing this card for my cousin, Niall, who is a big fan of amusement rides - it's bright and cheery and colourful and I think we all need a bit of that in our lives, as January is soooo dreary!

No news on the job front yet, but I'm "dabbling" in all sorts of possibilities with regards to my crafting; I really hope that something positive comes of it all! Fingers crossed!

Blog Candy!

Hi folks, just stopping in briefly to draw your attention to a great blog candy comp brought to us by Sharon over on her blog. There's some lovely stuff up for grabs and it closes on 6th Feb at 9 a.m so don't miss out! Plus, she makes some fab cards to ogle over! There's a pic and link on my sidebar.

I've not been up to much myself; had a few appointments to dash to yesterday in the name of crafting, and work today, which was manic (I've never seen soo many people in our shop - folk looove a bargain!). There's not much stock left now, in fact, the place is half-empty! Tonight I've just had some French Toast (slurpo!) and I'm going to make Valentine's cards. I'll be back with pics of those soon, I hope!

Byeee!

An Award

Ironically, despite the fact that I have been a very bad blogger lately, I have been given an award by the lovely Sharon , which cheered me up, because I've been having up and down days of late.

So, many thanks to Sharon (the rats are cute and your cards are fabby!) for that! I now have to say eight things about myself and pass the award onto four others. As one of the questions in a job interview today was "Tell me about yourself" and it completely flummoxed me, I might struggle with this too, but here goes:

1. When I was younger I used to be a majorette and did all the baton-twirling and got to wear cute little outfits with tassley bits on.

2. Despite the above suggestion of childhood girlyness, I was also a bit of a tomboy and used to dismember any dolls I was given (maybe this also means I'm a closet serial killer!).

3. When I left school I trained and worked as a veterinary nurse for many years but gave it up because dealing with ill animals day in, day out made me too sad to do my job properly.

4. I've got very small feet (size 3) but I never use this to my advantage and save money by buying kids' shoes.

5. The only time I've really been drunk was at my 30th birthday party and there are bits of the evening I just don't recall, worryingly.

6. At one point I planned to change my name to Briony.

7. I'd love to have worked in forensics as an alternative career because I find the subject fascinating (definately psychotic tendencies there!).

8. I'm a great believer in the philosophy of Zen. I only wish I could live my life accordingly!

And now for the four other blogs (in no particular order)

1. Toni

2. Sarpreet

3. Helen

4. Lesley

Well, I hope that meets the criteria! Other than that, life has been a blur of job-hunting and planning for the future. I've finally got my last two Valentine's designs ready for printing and making into cards - about time, too!

Birds seem to feature quite heavily in my work!

So do terrible puns!

Busy weekend coming up for me. Have a good one, everybody!