So sorry!

Hallo Bloglanders

To all my friends celebrating Thanksgiving - ENJOY!  Another one of the things we don't do in Sunny SA.

I'm so sorry for neglecting you.  My uncle died and I just had a lot on my mind.  Now I'm back to share my Xmas prep with you.  I will start tomorrow and try to get everything done by December 1st.

But first - this is what I've been up to:

I had to do 300 units of 5 different designs!! About half went to a craft fair and the rest were orders.  I can't decide what is worse - making 300 of the same design or packing and mailing everything off.  I shouldn't complain as it is actually a lot of fun and I love wrapping every parcel for it's new owner. Some goes to children and I love doing them.  Anyway, I kept one for myself and it's being utilized as my camera bag. People are stopping me everywhere to ask where I got the cute bag and so I end up with more orders!

Now for something totally different:

I thought I should also tell you why I blog.  For the past 5 years I've been doing 52 projects a year.  Making new curtains, a home made gift, slip covering chairs, handmade cards and lots of other hybrid crafting stuff.  I've been taking pictures, printing it out and pasting it into notebooks with dates and journaling.  So, at the beginning of this year I decided that while I'm doing it anyway, I can just as well blog about it and maybe there will be Bloglanders out there that would find it interesting. The additional benefit will be that I can print all my blog posts and it will be a book for my coffee table. That will be my first project for 2013.

The result of my blogging is that I've already done more than 150 projects and that more than 5000 people actually read what I do.  OK, some projects are really small but in the past I left them as they seemed insignificant and now I see that I actually enjoy them a lot and it keeps the creativity going. Also, I've made lots and lots of new Blogland friends who help, inspire and support.  Without you, my friends, I would have given up after a week.  I really learned a lot.  My computer skills developed X10 and where my children actually ran away when they saw me coming (because I had a list of questions) - they ask my advise now! (OK, just sometimes but still!)

I do a lot of Photoshop stuff because my home language is Afrikaans and most titles, journaling prompts and embellishments are in English - I just end up making my own.  In future I plan to share this right here on my blog and yes, I'll do an English version as well. I also plan to develop my photo taking skills as they are awful but that will go onto the 2013 list as well.  And last but not the least I will be taking pictures and sharing patterns as I go. I have to do them anyway - can just as well let somebody else benefit from them. Another first for me - I've started MY LIFE MY WAY. Kind of Project Life but just the IMPERFECT ME version!  Of course I'll share with you - my life stories and the downloads.

That's it from me. Thanks for being my friends.  I'm off - there are still stuff to learn, places to go, things to do and friends to meet.  Bring it on!

Hazel
XXX