HALOO...Haloo.....haloo (Echo)

I am sooooo soooo sorry.  I confess and repent.

I've been so busy that I haven't posted and I haven't kept up with my blog reading, even though I much prefer reading blogs to fb. All in all, I confess....I have been a bad, bad, blogger.

 I'm not kidding, I have been working 15 hour days.  I'm being strict now though. I am having weekends off to stitch and do nice crafting and I'm stopping work at 6.00 pm weekdays.  

Why have I been so busy, and why do I need to change my work ethics?

Well firstly because of this little girl.  Please meet my grandaughter, Alyssia (Alicia) Shaveen Rutherford, aka Freddy.

The bobbly bits are shadowing.  Freddy is 26 weeks in development..and yes, anything could happen but this baby is as real to us now and is as loved now as any baby could ever be.  She has her fists clenched and a bit of a stubborn look to expression so at least we have prior warning...yup, she is gonna be like her momma and glamourous glam ma (me, just incase you didn't realise from the description).  Isn't modern technology just so amazing?

My daughter flies over tomorrow and is bringing a dvd with her that was taken of the baby. Apparently she can be seen to be smiling and kicking and fidgeting.  Wow.  I know that my hubby and I will weep buckets.  I never, ever thought I would be around long enough to be a grandma! 

Because of my mad work hours I haven't been doing the crafting that I want to do...so I clenched my fists, and set my jaw in a stubborn expression not unlike Freddy's, and I became determined to keep to regular working hours.  Friday came and I packed away the tools and got out the crochet hook.  OMgoodness, it felt so good! Like part of me has been locked up and finally let out to play in the sunshine for the first time!

 I managed to make a first size baby blanket with little pink flowers.  I also added a couple of the bunnies that I made which will be given with strict instructions that the ribbons be taken off if they are played with, rather than used to decorate a baby's bedroom.

I've also nearly finished knitting a first size cardi but that is next to my sofa as I stitch a new design for Valentine's day. 

I've seen February Holmsey and he looks amazing.  I don't mean it in a big-headed way, more in a 'gosh it turned out like I wanted it too' surprised kind of way!  I might give a sneak peek of him next week....maybe.

What else has been going on?

Well I guess I should really say why I've been working so hard,  Not only do I have three new designs coming out in the next few weeks, but an American Distribution company has picked up my designs and is selling them to LNS shops in the USA!  OMgoodness, how exciting is that...well, that excitment dampens when you realise that all the pdfs you spent hours altering for the printers, have to be altered again for the American printers because they have different paper sizes and formats...ARGH...I've spent so long on the computer my eyes are burning lol.

I need to give a couple of shoutouts. First to Gail Pither, who runs Cross Stitch Cards, a fellow designer. She kindly gave up lots of time emailing me to help me work out formats and pdfs and she even converted Holmsey January for me so I could actually see what she meant. You all know what my jelly brain is like these days.  Thank you so much Gail.  Thank you thank you thank you x

And because I hesitatingly put up the newly converted Holmsey Hare, he was picked up almost instantly by Annie Miller of Crazy Annie's Stitching. She will be offering Holmsey on autoship with fabrics and all sorts of different options. Isn't that wonderful? 

Now I can step back a little from the retail side, I can concentrate on the design side which after all is what I wanted to do.  Annie will be selling lots of my charts as soon as I convert them and get them to the distributer.

And talking about retail, I've been thinking about my paper Maids Monthly charts and those of you who have been reading my posts for a while will know how I struggle to get good photos in the dull, moist, Irish light.

Not without good reason did I let my son be indulged in a very expensive camera for Christmas (thank you Granny and Grandad lol)...he is now on photo duty and he seems to very good at it. I'll let him test his skills on the Valentine's cchart when it is done.
 
I've decided to re-photograph my Maids Monthly models for the cover sheets, and as a result that leaves me with two sets of quality printed charts, 12 in total, one for each month looking for a good home on the understanding the cover photo is a bit pants. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the charts, the paper is the high quality paper I chose, felt and practically married, but I'm going to let them go to a good home where they can be stitched for a cheap price rather than see them wasted.

To cover my printing costs, I will let each set of 12 go to their forever home for 15.00 euros each (the set, not the chart) plus p&p.

If you want these poor little charts, just email me on stitcheranon@yahoo.co.uk

They will be folded but not put into packaging as that would put the cost up. I will put each set as a set in a plastic bag to protect them as they travel.

What else? Well I promise to read all your blogs and comment and be a good blog owner.  After all a blog is for life,  not just for er..........well you know what I mean.

Have a great week and see you again soon xx