There’s a number of reasons letter writing has been on my mind the past few days. The first is that Christmas is steadily approaching and each year I do my best to write a letter to slip inside my cards, telling the recipient how much I value their friendship etc. Secondly, I eventually got round to replying to my penpal from the Letter Writers Alliance (hi Monique!) and, lastly, when I picked up my painting on Tuesday Adam had included some airmail envelopes in it as they apparently remind him of me (awww shucks).

So with all this on my mind I was excited to stumble upon Letterfu. It looks like it hasn’t been updated in a long time but the site has some cute little printable templates for letters you can fold to post without the need for envelopes – great for the environment and your wallet. I particularly like the Spring design but the Christmas one is obviously more apt right now.

Posted: November 27th, 2008 under Freebies.
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Posted: November 26th, 2008 under Events.
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I must admit that when it comes to saving money I can take things to extremes but I’ve very much a believer in the old saying that if you keep an eye on the pennies the pounds will look after themselves. One of my habits is holding out until February (sometimes even March) to buy my calendars/diaries but this year there seems to be so many great free calendars available I may not have to wait until then.

First is a nice little printable desk calendar from Amanda at Vintage Glam. Each page is designed to fit into any CD jewel case and you can customise it with your choice of backing paper (you all know my need for colour co-ordination).

The next was brought to my attention by Holly at the always inspiring Decor8. You have to join the 2Jane mailing list to be able to download the free calendar but the bold graphics mean that, once used, each month can also be cropped and used as print or whatever else you crafty kids can think of. The fact the images involve birds also gives it an extra star from me.

These are just a couple of the free options out there but the sheer volume of gorgeous calendars available for 2009  has even me getting out the cheque book with a smile on my face.

Check out the great round ups on these sites:

Decor8

Paper Crave

All Things Lovely

PoppyTalk

Or you could go for something totally unique and special and get some quirky portraits of you and your loved ones in a calendar over at Kiki & Polly.

So many choices I think my poor wee head’s going to burst!

Posted: November 25th, 2008 under Art/Illustration, Freebies, Inspiration.
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 SPECIAL OPEN WEEKEND (THIS WEEKEND) – 10% DISCOUNT

A special preview of Box of Delights over the weekend of 29-30 November. Drinks and snacks available and there’s 10% off everything in the exhibition!

Box of Delights
1st-23rd December 2008

A treasure trove of handmade arts and crafts infused with flavours of the East.

An exhibition of handmade work by Scottish artists and crafters co-organised by Ricefield Arts and Cultural Centre and the Glasgow Craft Mafia.

The exhibition is based on the concept of Ushigokoro, whereby each artist gets a box in which to display their items in any way they please. All work is available to buy so come along for some beautiful Asian-inspired Christmas gifts.

EXHIBITORS:
The Curious Swift
Madness of Many
t-boo
Asking For Trouble
Miso Funky
Electra French
Towzie Tyke
Kuro-E
Natural Unnatural
Dragon House of Yuen
jiji~punch
BeatKnit
Pumpkinsputnik
Global Guru
Stella My Star
David Gray
Chen Xing Rong
Blair Thomson
Pamela Duthie
Sueling
Lola Piccolola
Kate Robinson
Glenmore A Baird
Li Min
Ricefield arts & crafts

Posted: November 25th, 2008 under Events.
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It seems the longer you leave your blog without updating the more people seem to follow you. Weird. Perhaps they just think something terribly exciting or dramatic might have happened to keep me from posting. Well, I hate to break it to you but I’m not pregnant, dying or eloping with a Arabian prince. I’m just a terribly busy, easily distracted, lazy cow.

In all seriousness, if you want to see how undramatic life is with Miss Crafty, just follow my mundane Twitters.

Craftwise I have unearthed all the Christmas supplies I never got round to using in time last year and am determined to actually put them to use this year (if only to decorate my own place) but also think that given my track record with such things I should maybe decide to start on Easter decorations instead!

The advent calendar I made Him Indoors a couple of years ago has been looked out and we have begun the frustrating task of trying to find each other gifts small enough to fit in its various pockets (all suggestions welcome!)

I also realise I promised a giveaway a couple of posts ago. I haven’t forgotten. I just wanted to include a piccie of the prize and, given I leave in the dark and return in the dark during the week, I’ve not had good photo light when I’m free in weeks.

The ‘Pottering Room’ looks great with our new storage unit but also have to confess somewhat overwhelming to see so much supplies and half-finished projects to tackle. With the craft side of things finally looking a bit more efficient I am giving my old laptop an MOT and should hopefully get it sorted soon.

Posted: November 25th, 2008 under Life stuff, Site stuff.
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Posted: November 4th, 2008 under Art/Illustration, Events.
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So, as regular readers will know, I didn’t exactly do very well with the Blogtoberfest challenge. I guess it was the inflexibility of having to update EVERY day (I have yet to investigate the scheduling posts thing) so once I missed a couple of days all momentum was lost.  It will therefore be a bit of surprise to hear I have signed up for this year’s Nanowrimo. Yup. Write a novel (well 50,000 words) in a month. It’s quite a tall order but at least this way if I miss a day I still have the ability to play catch up (I think odds are on I’ll be pulling an all-nighter on November 30th). I have had a couple of half finished novels sitting around since my days of creative writing at uni down in Sothampton so am relishing the chance to try and get one of those to the finish line at last. Perhaps with all this time online I’ll even get back to regular posts here too. OK, Day 1, here goes……..

Posted: November 1st, 2008 under Life stuff.
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