How NOT to finish anything in a week!

Arrrrrrggggg! This week has been all over the place!

I've been trying to work whilst the kids are on school holiday (as has every other craft-business owner who's also a parent of small/young children) and this week I've spectacularly achieved almost nothing!

I've posted out a couple of these:

Dark Green VW Beetle Hanging Ornament

Red VW Beetle Hanging Ornament

Felt Airplane applique

A rainbow of VW Campervan Hanging Ornaments

All of which can be found in my Etsy shop and on the new exciting website I am proud to be part of Uniquely UK

I've been trying to get a fascinator started for a local customer. The brief was 1950s style, with a veil to match her dress which has shades of grey, cerise and black... I have the exact thing in mind, but it's a fiddly job that I really can't be doing in the evenings after the kids have gone to bed as I'm generally too tired and the light isn't good enough, but also can't be doing with the children about. So I'm LONGING for their nursery day this week!!

I've also had feedback from my lovely Father-in-Law who I made this picture for:

Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II Felt Picture with a personalised number plate

My Father-in-Law worked for a large very posh car dealership in London in the 70s and 80s and these were the type of cars they used to work on every day - so we thought he might like it. His initial comment was delight that he could finally say he too owned a Rolls!!!

So nothing much new with me, but I do have all the school uniform labelled (can't believe my baby is nearly 5 and about to start school!) which was a rather long & boring job! I'm hoping a hop round the Handmade Monday blogs will inspire me to get something new created this week... watch this space!

Being Featured on The Guardian Website

A couple of weeks ago I had a very exciting phone call from someone at The Guardian. The phone call was to ask me as a member of the Guardian's Small Business Network (which I joined a couple of months ago) if I was planning to enter the Showcase they are running:

I was rather taken abact - they'd done their homework on my business, been on my website and even read some of my blog posts and wanted me to enter the Home Business Innovation section.... so I have and guess what? I've got my entry published on their website!!!

That means I've got past stage one - The Editors!! They basically weed out all the entries that don't meet the criteria or that are not suitable for the showcase and then they publish the ones they've selected to go forward to the next stage.

The second stage is the shortlisting, which starts on the 9th August 2013 and this is where the panel of judges will choose 3 companies. These three will have a write up done by a Guardian journalist for the main website and the Finance section of the newspaper and then ultimately there's an awards ceremony next year (May 2014) where they announce the winners of my category and all the other categories.

I don't really expect to get shortlisted as there are some amazing companies already through and there are more to come, but just to have got this far feels wonderful!

Anyway, you know I'll keep you posted!!

Now I'm off for a scoot round the Handmade Monday Blogs with a cuppa and some naughty (but very nice) chocolate brownies!