Simply Crafty

Re in the spirit of sharing

My goodness it seems like ages since i posted. It probably has been. My other life has taken over completeley.

This is a really short post to say that this book passes on to Judy over at Maccabags. Judy I will contact you with postage details

For rules see this post

Sorry for the short post i will be bloging more regularly once my other life settles down

Oge
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In The Spirit of Sharing

I have been awarded this Brilliant Web Blog Award for content and photos by Anne over at Fabric and bags. This is despite me not updating my Blog as regularly as I'd like to and i am absolutely chuffed to bits. Its also my first award so really treasured.

I feel like I should be going:- and this for my mum for giving birth to me and this is for  my producer for discovering me and this is for all my friends who believed in me....... but truely truely this is for all you crafters out there and for all your support.

So in the spirit of sharing I am going to award it to 6 other fant- happening blogs

Judy over at maccabags this is for creating those lovely purses

Myam for your courage and creations

My craft ways for those beautiful friday uplifters

Maria over at sew love to love  because I love to sew to

Dyan over at flowerchilde i'm digging the logo

Kyoko what can I say have a look at her blog for yourself

Ps if you've already received this award take it as a double confirmation of your lovely- ness

I've been catching up with some reading lately and i couldn't put this one down.

Its a beautifully written and provocative book about 'the reluctant fundamentalist' following the events of 9/11.

I don't tend to read books again once I've finished them and they end up in boxes in my cupboard so in the spirit of sharing if you're interested its yours to read.

Leave a response to this post indicating your interest. If there's more than one person i'll pull a number out of a bag on Sunday 17th August

All I ask is that you sign and date it when you've finished (something like this) and pass it on to another person in Blogdom

This is my idea of a little game to see how far round Blogdom this book will go so please feel free to join in

Ps I will post free to anywhere in the UK but if you are outside the UK I will ask you to make a small contribution towards postage

 

who send me job... in otherwords why am i doing this

I've lost the will to live sew.

This is what the inside of my head lounge looks like at the moment as i grapple with sewing for this d****d festival on saturday.

At this stage am wandering why I committed to this. The table is paid for bla bla bla. At the time, it seemed such a good idea :-)

I spoke to Lisa a while ago about fairs and stuff and she recommended I have at least 20 bags.  20 bags where am I going to get the time to do that. I have managed 12 and a half

Anyway people!!!  What do you do when motivation has done a runna. Wimbledon is on so that doesn't help cos I love my tennis.

don't get me wrong I do want to do this festival thing but at the moment am bagged out.

Seriously how do you keep yourself motivated and focused cos am struggling and stressing.

What ticks my blogging boxes

I popped over to Alis blog today and she had an interesting post on what ticks our blogging boxes. so I dropped by Tree Fall to get the low down Lots of food for thought.

Its been on my mind all evening and it wont go away so heres my response to those questions

What makes you enjoy a particular blog (not just this one, any one that you read)?

It depends on what am looking for. If I go to a craft blog then I want to see more stuff on craft and less on family for example. For me a blog has to do what it says on the can and I don't like waffle. I like simplicity so if a blog is cluttered I'll simply skip.

Great pictures trip me as well. You know those blogs where the picture says everything.(I aspire to take great pictures still working on it)

I like to see the passion and the person shine through the blog and I like quirky- ness

Here are some blogs that do it for me. They do exactly what they say on the can in simple ways and straight to the point

• A blog about blogging

• A fun blog on making handbags

• I always get the sense there's a real human being behind this blog with real human experiences
  

• I like the clean uncluttered format of this blog

• This one is like popping out every Sunday for a magazine its so diverse and interesting to read. The pictures are cool too

• No pictures on this one but her no nonsense writing style and the content is captivating ( to me anyway)

What type of post is your favourite?

inspiring posts that get me thinking whether its about my next craft project or how to deal with life challenges. it doesn't have to be serious sometimes my inspiration come from moments of humour

How important are the photographs?

I like good photographs but they're not too important. If the content is good and there's quality in the information that's good enough for me.

Does the design of the blog attract you or even stop you from reading it?

If its cluttered I am less likely to read it

Do you like blogs to be colloquial/regional or fairly generic?

I am more interested in seeing a persons personality shine through so if colloquial does it that's cool with me

An equal amount of craft and family, or does too much of talking about the kids put you off?

It depends on what am looking for from the blog. If am learning a new craft and I visit a blog for information, harping on about little johnny can be off putting. Am interested in the technique thank you. I do have blogs that I visit that is more about family and I visit them specifically for that

What else? What are the best words of advice you can give a blogger?

I am fairly new to this. What I would say from my own experience to other new bloggers is

• chill and enjoy the process it takes time
  

• Look at blogs you like and learn from them

• Experiment with style and content until you find a format that works for you ( don't just copy other people if its not your natural style)

• connect with people. don't be afraid to make the first move

• A kind word goes a long way

Really good questions I'd say .........

A happy red letter day and a tutorial to go with it.

Photo by McGun

I've been looking for a house mate for the last 5 weeks endless e mails, phone calls, people viewing bla bla bla and not feeling it. Yesterday, it finally happened I have found someone.

She's a clone of me. well maybe that's exaggerating a bit

• She sews handbags( This could work or go horribly wrong)
• Likes walking
• Enjoys cooking
• Enjoys Gardening
• Likes reading
• ...and the list goes on

not that I was looking for a best friend or anything but it does help to have some things in common and share similar values especially if I am going to be sharing my living space with this person.

and here's the best bit I sold one of my bags to her colleague who had come with her to view the room. Its the black and white one with the turquoise lining in this post.

A perfect end to a perfect day I'd say.

She also liked the curtain I had sewn for the Window in her room. I've made a tutorial for it. Check it out here. Its quick, easy to whip up.

Lean Times Ahead Cont...

Ok the chest of drawer runners- the one I referred to in this post- finally arrived.

They did arrive previously but I'd ordered the wrong ones so had to send them back.( they were way too short)

Whoooaa  nobody told me that Blog-dom would be such an emotional experience.

I switched on my computer yesterday and logged on to my blog site I noticed someone had commented on my site. so I switched it off  just in case I'd logged on to a parallel universe. An hour later I switch it back on and the comment is still there.

Frozen and looking at the screen am thinking OMG what do I do next.

Now this is me 24hours later kind of recovered and responding.

I am sooo chuffed.

Thank you Teresa you are the first ever person to make a comment and I feel like I am properly initiated to blog world now.

Thank you every one else who has commented and thank you for looking

Thanx Lisa for pointing every one in this direction

Lean Times Ahead.....

Essential commodities (rice for example) is becoming scarce so we're told anyway. Price of everything is going up well... except house prices and wages.

Everywhere you look there's a crunch the credit type.

So its with this picture in my mind that I decided against chucking out my old Ikea chest of drawers and will be attempting to repair it instead.

I've had a look at it and it looks a fairly straight forward job

• New runners
• Change the hardboard thingyme on the back
• New handles
• and a good old clean

I am curious as to how easy it is to source the material I need and how easy it will be to put this baby back together

Am taking out most of those runners and the back. you cant see from this photo shot but the back is pretty much messed up.

Side view and the room it lives in.

Am painting the room as well and prettying it up ready to rent out to a lodger in the next few weeks.

I've got the easiest of easiest of tutorials for a simple window dressing coming later on so stay tuned

The beginning

Phew. I've been wanting to do this blog thing forever...

so I got myself an account and here I am blogging yeaaah.

Please take time to read About Me I will be coming back over the next few days. As you can see from the title this is about my crafting adventures.

I've got some time off my daytime job so I will dedicate some time to sharing. Am planning on doing up a room in my house and will be sharing some of that adventure with you.

Tomorrow and Friday I will be out and about walking with my friend Tresa and enjoying the sunshine. The sunshine is a  rarity in this part of the world (UK)

Some time in the future I hope to share with you my bag making tips and things I've learnt along the line

So all in all I am looking forward to this and hope its a union made in crafting heaven

ciao for now and will chat soon

Oge
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