Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

Well what a year. I have to admit I am glad that one is over, good things outnumbered the bad in numbers but there was one really bad thing that overshadowed them all. I haven’t got around to blogging about this yet as I wasn’t sure it was something I wanted to share but I think I need to try and move on as I know that she would hate for me to dwell.

In July last year, exactly one month after she celebrated her 98th birthday my amazing Grandmother passed away, at the time I actually coped with it a lot better then I thought I would, which I think was due to the time I spent visiting her in hospital prior to her death. She had a fall at home a couple of weeks earlier and broke her hip, had an operation to put in pins and was going well, in fact the physio was talking about rehab and then I suppose the best way to put it was that her body just gave up. She had lived an amazing life surrounded by her family, 5 sons, 9 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren, and I was lucky enough to spend a lot of my childhood with her and most of my memories involve family occasions with her.

Anyway as I said at the time I coped quite well but in the lead up to Christmas I started to miss her and while I did not realise it at the time, I know now that I threw myself into too many projects, markets etc to try and keep my mind busy. That is the main reason why I failed so badly at the advent blog-a-long I just didn’t have time to sit at the computer and blog and my IPhone app (Blogpress) didn’t seem to be working so I couldn’t blog via my phone as I had originally planned.

Moving on I have had a lovely week since Christmas with Andrew and my boys and I have been able sleep late, recharge my batteries, sew and reconnect with some online friends, Car, Rachel, Kayscha to name a few and am quite excited to have made plans to catch up with them in Nov this year.

Other plans for this year

1. More sewing for me (I will post more about this tomorrow)

2. Expand Two Little Monkeys, after the success of our Santa sacks i am hoping to find some new product ranges that are as successful, and have already booked into a market at the end of January and Mid March, here are my two newest items, personalised cushions and toy sacks/play mats

3.Get more organised, this is a must as this was a plan for last year and I can safely say I failed big time. I have realised that I don’t want to give up anything but at the same time I am struggling to fit it all in. which isn’t to say that I am doing to much but more that I have terrible time management skills.

4. Connect more with others, notice I didn’t say blog more, while I do plan to try and blog at least once a month I am not holding myself to it, instead I will try to comment on others posts more, post of Facebook and Twitter more and be a good on-line friend

Before I go I will leave you with two photos, the first is my gorgeous boys in there Christmas pj’s that I whipped up for them Christmas Eve

And a photo of them in there Santa Sack’s we took the same photo last year and I think it might be turn it into a nice yearly tradition.

Blogtoberfest–Day 9

Opp 9 days in and I have dropped the ball twice, I will try and make it up this week.

I got the bunting sign finished late late Friday night, but sort of miscalculated how big it is (this thing is huge) but was able to use it on our stall on Saturday.

The market was okay, it has just started a couple of months ago but hopefully over the next couple it can improve.

I have decided to apply to some larger markets over the next couple of months before Christmas so fingers crossed some miracle happens and I actually get in.

Oh and with the all the changes happening on Facebook, I have decided to list some of our items on MadeIt as well, which actually leads me to a questions, Does any one have any experience selling on MadeIt vrs Etsy and which do they find better (not costs but exposure)

Blogtoberfest -Day 6 - My Creative Space

A bunting sign for our stall at a local market this Saturday if you are in the Frankston area come down and say Hi.

See more creative spaces over here

Facebook 200 fan giveaway

To celebrate reaching 200 fans (likers) over at our Facebook page we are having a giveaway of a $15 voucher.

To enter just leave a comment by 9pm Sunday 10th July 2011. Only one comment per person please. Please leave a contact name & email address if you don't have a google account/blog.
Terms & Conditions of the voucher: Must be used in full in the one purchase. Any extra costs over the $15 mark are the responsibility of the voucher holder. Voucher expires 31st August 2011.

This giveaway is now closed and a winner has been drawn

My Creative Space

Opps it has been over a month since I last blogged, and here I was planning at least a post a week this year, oh well.
Why I have not been posting, no major reason, I just have not had time
In fact I have had so little time to sew that it was around 4:30 the afternoon before Bastian started his first session of Kinder that I realised that I had yet to start his Backpack, I had bought the material and this pattern ages ago but had put it aside to “do when I had a chance” over the Christmas holidays. Well the holidays were over and while he did have other backpacks he could use I was determined that he would use the one I had planned. Well 9 hrs later (yes that is correct I was up to 2am) in between feeding Lachie, having to settle him back to sleep on multiple occasions and of course eating, it was all finished. Bastian loves it which made it all worth the lack of sleep, although my darling husband almost got a kick in the shins when he asked me in I had just recovered an existing backpack.

 

You may have noticed a Facebook page link over on the right hand side, that is one of the reason for my lack of time, my Mum and I had set up a little business selling a variety of handmade items. So far we have had a stall one two occasions at Mornington Wednesday Main Street market and hope to get a regular spot there closer to Christmas.
As for other quilting news I have finished Bastian Plane Quilt, but will blog that in a separate post later.
I have also decided on my material that I am going to use for the SIT name bag swap

I had a lot of trouble choosing these as I don’t have a lot of orange in my stash and nothing that is bright and cheerful like all the other badges I have seen around. I was just about to give up and make a trip to buy some more fabric when I found this one which I think will work well with what I have planned. That is my project for this weekend, what’s yours?
More Creative Spaces here