Craft Fairs

Well, I'm now booked in for this years craft and wedding fayres. The first one will be at Balerno Farmers Market on Saturday, 14th February. I love doing this market, it's such a friendly atmosphere and because most of us are regulars, we've all come to know each other. Ben loves coming to this one too and helping me out........he's good at it too - a real salesman in the making!

The next one's I'm booked in for are in March. Three evening wedding fayres,

4^th March Kingswood Burntisland 6.30 – 8.30

5^th March Pitbauchlie Dunfermline 6.30 – 8.30

11^th March Victoria Kirkcaldy 6.30 – 8.30

I'm really looking forward to these ones. It's a different atmosphere at wedding fayres, although they're fun to do, they're a bit more serious. Plus, it's always a kick talking to the brides to be about their wedding plans.

....and a few more

Finally got my creative juices flowing again

It's been a while...........I seemed to be stuck in a quagmire of no inspiration at all. Fortunately, I seem to have got myself out of it.

New Toy

My printer died a death at the weekend, so we gave it a decent burial and went out and bought a new one. I love it........it's got so many buttons to mash I don't know where to start. I eventually, after humming and hawing in the shop for ages and driving the assistant mad, bought the Epson Stylus Office BX300F. It prints, copies, scans and faxes.....now I just have to figure out how to get it to do the dishes and walk the dogs and I'm sorted.

Printers

My printer finally gave up the ghost and died on me today. Not bad considering I've had it more than two years, it gets used daily and I paid nothing for it. So I now have to go and buy a new one. I did some research and, good grief, what a lot of choice there is out there now.

It used to be you bought a computer it came with a printer, you plugged it in and off you went. Now, there's mono laser printers, mono inkjet printers, colour laser printers, colour inkjet printers, all in one's with printer, scanner and copier and even all in one's with faxes included with the rest. Confused? I am!

Not only that, the toners or inks all cost different prices too and last different amount of times, so not only do you have to take in to consideration the cost of the printer but the cost of the ink/toner as well. Sense tells me it's more cost effective and I'll get a better print if I buy a laser printer, but my bank balance tells me that it'll probably have to be an inkjet one.

So now, do I buy a regular inkjet or do I get an all in one? Choices, choices!

Creative spaces

I need a craft room! I've been wandering round the web trying to get some inspiration for when, either I win the lottery and can afford a big house with a HUGE crafting room, or...more likely...my daughter finally moves out and I can convert her room. These are a few I've found

Busy weekend

I've had a very busy weekend. I heard about a new craft supplies shop that had opened in Edinburgh so I toddled over there on Saturday morning. Turns out it had been opened for three years........but it's new to me so there!! Tiny little place, but crammed to the gills with all sorts of crafting goodies and very reasonable prices too. While I was there, I popped in to visit with some friends who I haven't seen for ages and spent a lovely couple of hours catching up.

On Sunday I knuckled down and got some work done. I was contacted by an old friend who I used to work with. Her daughter's getting married next year and they asked me to mock up some invitations. I was pretty pleased with the end results. I emailed the pics to the bride to be who contacted me to tell me she loved them. *yay me!!!* It's always exciting to get a commission, but doubly so to get a wedding commission - I just love weddings (as long as I don't have the stress of organising them myself!).

Now I just have to get myself organised for the next couple of months worth of craft and wedding fairs - Balerno Craft Fair every month this year, a craft fair in Dunfermline in April and two wedding fayres in March....busy, busy, busy.

Craft Robo

How very frustrating. I've been lusting after one of these for ages and now thanks to some very generous in-laws I've just taken possession of one. However, it doesn't want to play with my puter!!! I can see a couple of very frustrating evenings coming up until I persuade it to play nice.

Back into the crafting groove

I'd basically put aside my crafting during the holiday season. For two reasons really, (1) I don't have a dedicated crafting area so during the holidays everything had to be stored away out of sight, and (2) i think I overdosed on crafting getting ready for christmas between the presents (all homemade) and the boxes for the table.

So yesterday, I dragged everything back out of the cupboard and set up a dedicated crafting area in the dining area of our lounge. This is now MY space....I've claimed it. I can feel a few ideas bubbling away so I guess over the next few days the family won't see much of me........apart from the mess I generate LOL

Government targets obesity

I spent the morning catching up with the news and lo and behold, the government is now targeting obesity! Ok, so what are they doing?

Are they putting money into the schools to teach children about nutrition and how to make healthy choices or giving the schools more money for the PE departments to help promote exercise? No!

Are they putting money into the community to teach adults about nutrition and healthy choices for their families? No!

Are they promoting breastfeeding? No! (in fact, they’re making it harder and harder for mothers to breastfeed while outside the home by closing down facilities for breastfeeding mothers…but that’s another rant)

So…what are they doing? Oh right, they’re putting adverts on the telly for three months! Hmmmmm that’s going to whip the nation into shape.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in the best of shape myself. I carry a little excess weight but that’s MY fault. Due to the choices I make. I know I could lose the little excess weight I carry by making better choices and exercising a little more……..but I’m an adult. I take responsibility for the choices I make. When I was at school, it was compulsory to take PE twice a week. I had a lot of choices too – we had volleyball, rounders, gymnastics, swimming, basketball, cricket, rugby (yes, even the girls), athletics, skiing….the list goes on. Our parents never had to pay for these things, it was paid for by the local council as part of the school curriculum. We had home economics, which taught cooking, budgeting, planning a menu, sewing, knitting and even a little home decorating and maintenance. Why have these things stopped? Personally, I’d prefer my hard earned tax pennies go back into the community than pay the Wallace & Grommit creators to put a couple of adverts on the telly for three months.

We seem to be living in more and more of a nanny-state where parents are relinquishing the responsibility for their children to the government. Instead of taking the time to ensure that their children receive healthy meals and get out and about exercising with them, parents today want to sit back and blame the government for the fact their children are fat and lazy. Children are a reflection of their parents. If you are polite and respectful to your children and teach them the basics of right and wrong, they will be polite and respectful back. If you plonk your child down infront of the tv, x-box, playstation everyday, what do they learn? Nothing……..well they learn good hand-eye co-ordination. I’m not saying that children shouldn’t have these things, they have their place. God knows, I lived for the half-hour that Barney came on the tv so I could get ten minutes peace and quiet, but my children never spent all day sitting infront of the tv. We got out and about, doing things, learning things, just being together and enjoying each others company. Isn’t that what being a family means?

I think this recession could be a blessing in disguise. It will teach people to make better choices. To stop wasting things…….we have become a nation of ‘wantitnows’. If something breaks, we don’t try to fix it, we throw it out and get a new one. If we have food left over from a meal, we chuck it in the bucket instead of refrigerating it and using it for a meal the next day. We say we’re too busy to cook healthy meals when we come back home, tired from working all day……well, most homecooked meals take approximately 20 minutes to cook – that’s less time than it takes to drive to MacDonalds, KFC or get a pizza delivered.

We’re no longer willing to save up for luxuries – we just put them on the credit card or overdraft and worry about it later. Well later is here! Instead of throwing out the leftover food from a meal, we’ll be forced to use our minds creatively to find a way to use them in the next day’s meals. Instead of nipping out for a MacDonalds, or KFC or phoning for a pizza to be delivered, we’ll have to make meals from healthy foods, like vegetables!!!! These things should be LUXURIES…but these days they seem to be the norm because they’re cheaper to buy than healthy foods. No wonder our nation is overweight…...it’s not the government’s fault, it’s ours because we’ve become lazy and unimaginative.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Here's to 2009
Starting afresh
Learning from past mistakes and forgiving ourselves for them
Getting it right this time round

Happy New Year everyone - lets hope it's a healthy and wealthy 2009