Thursday 26 August 2010

No Time to Post, Again!

Pretty busy right now with the holiday cottages and falling behind with blog entries so sharing something one of my friends sent me which made me laugh.

The Fairer Half
It is important for men to remember that, as women grow older, it becomes harder for them to maintain the same quality of housekeeping as when they were younger. When you notice this, try not to shout at them. Some are over-sensitive and there's nothing worse than an over-sensitive woman.

Let me relate how I handled the situation with my wife, Julie. When I took early retirement last year, it became necessary for Julie to get a full-time job for the extra income that we need.

Shortly after she started working, I noticed she was beginning to show her age. I now usually get home from the pub about the same time she gets home from work. Although she knows how hungry I am, she nearly always says she has to rest for half an hour or so before she starts dinner. I don't shout at her, instead I tell her to take her time and just wake me when she gets dinner on the table. I generally have lunch at the pub so eating out again is out of the question; I'm ready for some home cooked food when I get home.

She used to do the dishes as soon as we finished eating. But now it's usual for them to sit on the table for several hours after dinner. I do what I can by diplomatically reminding her several times each evening that they won't clean themselves. I know she really appreciates this, as it does seem to motivate her to get them done before she goes to bed.

Another symptom of ageing is complaining. For example, she will say that it is difficult for her to do the shopping during her lunch hour. But we take them for better or worse, so I just smile and offer encouragement. I tell her to stretch it out over two or even three days. That way she won't have to rush so much. I also remind her that missing lunch completely now and then won't hurt her. I like to think tact is one of my strong points.

When doing simple jobs, she seems to think she needs more rest periods. She has to take a rest when she has only half finished mowing the lawn and several extra breaks when she's vacuuming through the house. It does annoy me, vacuuming when I'm trying to watch 'Match of the Day', but I try not to make a scene. I'm a fair man. I tell her to make herself a nice cup of tea and just sit for a while, and as long as she is making one for herself, she may as well make one for me too.

I know that I probably look like a saint in the way I support Julie. I'm not saying that showing this much consideration is easy. Many men will find it difficult. Some will find it impossible! Nobody knows better than I do how frustrating women get as they get older. However, even if you just use a little more tact and less criticism of your ageing wife because of this article, I will consider that writing it was well worthwhile. After all, we are put on this earth to help each other, eh?

EDITOR'S NOTE:Ron died suddenly last week. He was found with a 24-inch Stanley screwdriver rammed up his backside with only 2 inches showing. His wife Julie was arrested, but the all-woman jury accepted her defence that he accidentally sat on it.

Saturday 14 August 2010

Time Off

My friend came to visit for a week so I managed to escape over to the west coast of Scotland for a few days. I've always wanted to visit Applecross and drive the twisty, turny, high road through the Applecross Pass. It was an experience! We also visited Skye, Inverness, Aviemore and Pitlochry before heading back to the farm so lots of miles covered. The following week I had a few days in Edinburgh with my sister and niece as the Edinburgh Festival is on and we spent some time visiting galleries, watching street performers on the Royal Mile, and just relaxing (and eating). I finally did the Mary King's Close tour too, something else I've been meaning to do for a long time but never got around to it. All this time off, of course, meant that I was waaay behind with my work at the farm so been extremely busy catching up!

The Real You

Found this through a Twitter post and liked it so thought I'd share.

Wednesday 21 July 2010

So Much To Do, So Little Time!


Time just seems to be flying by right now and it's been over a month since I last blogged.
I've had a trip down to England for an AGM and 2 days helping out with a therapy workshop which I always enjoy. My friend came up to Scotland for a week so we could work on our therapy website and that was hard work. Neither of us is very good at getting the admin side of things done but at least the sun shone that week and we were able to work outside on the deck. We managed to escape to the beach at St Andrews one afternoon and into Perth on another so that kept us sane. I also had two days of therapy swaps with a group I haven't been in touch with for a long time and I enjoyed re-connecting.
The Hayloft was busy in June and both holiday cottages fully booked for July and will be again in August. Then, it's into Scrapbooking weekends starting the first week in September so I've been up to my eyes in cleaning, laundry, ironing etc.
My friend in Edinburgh took 2 of my ponies down to her stables for kids there to ride so that leaves me with 7 and I'm currently getting my big boy Max (15.2hh) used to loading into the horsebox as one of her friends wants him for a project. Max hasn't had much handling but he's being very good and it was quite easy getting him to go in the box with one of his pony pals the first time we tried him. He now goes in on his own with me but I've still to close the partitions on him and get the ramp up. Hopefully, that will go as smoothly as loading him. I'll take his little pal to Edinburgh and back so he has company on the journey and he'll be with my other two when he gets there. Max was extremely traumatised when I bought him at six months old and it took a long time to gain his confidence. He's also a real mummy's boy and gets jealous when I give any of the others my attention. I'm sure Scot will have fun with him when he gets to Edinburgh - good practice for someone who's training to be a vet. I just hope he doesn't spook at anything and flatten Scot when he's leading him. We had a 'Scooby Doo' moment when he was younger and tried to leap into my arms when he got a fright. My ribs were very sore and bruised for a while!

Not much time for scrapbooking, as usual, but my sister and two nieces are over on holiday from Abu Dhabi so I'm sure I'll have a visit soon so we can have a play in the craft room.

Oh, and I've been playing around with Twitter so that's been taking up a bit of time. I find it extremely irritating at times. I can get tweets on my phone but don't know how to reply and am still adjusting who I want to have forwarded to my phone anyway. Some people just don't know when to stop and I find myself wondering where they get all the time. Which reminds me...time to go!
Hopefully, be back soon!


Friday 28 May 2010

EFT Global Event

The EFT Hub Global Event is being replayed for 24 hours. You can now hear again for 24 hours only, over 30 audios featuring over 50 leading Practitioners and Masters of EFT tapping. Starts - Sunday the 30th of May at 3pm EST that is 8pm in the UK. http://theefthub.com/Table/EFT-Hub-Global-Event-Reloaded/

Wednesday 19 May 2010

Found this website while following someone on Twitter. It's compulsive viewing, such a brave lady to do this kind of thing and put it out for all to see. Well done, Amanda.
Here's what it's about -

"I’m Amanda. I’ve tried everything I could think of to lose weight, make money, and become an enlightened being, and nothing’s worked. It is now time to try things I can’t think of, think through, or think about- it’s time for ACTION, and it’s time for the guidance of a mentor.
So, each Monday, I sit down with iKE to discuss my progress. He then gives me a PATH to complete that week, which might be anything from skydiving to nude modeling. This task is always a SURPRISE on Monday morning, and is meant to show me the impact of choices. It is my job to set it up, film it, create the webisode before the next Monday, and get my slowing shrinking behind back in iKE’s chair to receive my next path.
Also, each week I will be receiving SUPPORT from my community, getting treatments from experts who will help me strengthen the new relationship between my mind and body. Another way I will practice RECEIVING what I want for myself will be by recruiting businesses to offer their services to me for FREE, in exchange for promotion on this site. This will force me to practice true WIN-WIN relationships.
That’s it! If you would like to watch, help, respond, or join the journey, please leave a comment and let us know what YOU think! "

Looking forward to Path 8

Co-ordinated flocking

Found a way to make my own flocking to co-ordinate with my layouts on Fiona's blog. Here's the link to the video .

Thelwells


Here's a pic of two of my little ponies, Mischief and Cheeky (I know that's rude to say in the States but not here. It just means impudent, and she sure lives up to her name!)

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Tagged!

I read the warning at the top of Kai's post and dreaded reading my name at the bottom of it, but here I am, tagged!

Blogging is somewhat alien to me as I've never been very good at putting things down in writing, especially about myself, but I persevere in the hope it will become a habit and not feel so difficult (although I haven't 'blogged' in over two weeks). Even most of my scrapbook layouts are still waiting for the journalling to be added!

But here goes with the questions and answers

1 - What’s in your garden, and if nothing, why not? Mainly grass in the garden with a few daffodils and an apple tree that was here when we came. There's a large area of gravel which was supposed to be low-maintenance but sprouts weeds at an alarming rate and the yard's block paved with some flower borders and some tubs, hanging baskets and a wonderful wisteria climbing up the wall. We're not really gardeners but David likes to potter. Besides, we have another 38 acres to think about.

2 – What’s your favorite retro era and why? 60's - carefree, colourful, good music, no responsibilities.

3 – What’s your favorite thing to do for pure entertainment (e.g. see the Opera, movies, have some beer at a pub with your friends, etc.) 'Doing' the Edinburgh Festival. Finding a real jewel of a show and sometimes seeing three shows in a day. So much to choose from and so diverse but I like the music ones best. One of my all-time favourites was 'Gumboots' from South Africa.

4 – Do you have pets? If yes, what kind and why do you have them? If no, why not? Do I have pets? Oh yes, I do. Two dogs, three cats, a horse, and nine Dartmoor hill ponies. We rehomed the chickens, pot-bellied pig and the two goats. People ask me why I rescued the ponies and the answer is here. We often read things and say to ourselves 'that's terrible', 'something should be done about that' and then there's the times when that little voice whispers to us and we know we have to do something ourselves, hence all the ponies. I got my first three from the 'next' sale that Rosemary speaks of. Her follow up report is here and the Chagford sale I went to is reported here . I went back to two sales the following year, but that's my lot. I've rehomed nine so far and still have the other nine to sell or loan out. It's an expensive business keeping them and I just can't afford it anymore but I won't part with them until I find the right homes even if it means beans on toast for the rest of my days! :o)

5 – You have a secret. Does it eat at you and you have a hard time keeping it in, or does it settle well and it’s safe with you forever? Your secrets are safe with me! Maybe it's my counselling training, or my work with the drug project, but I just learned to keep things in confidence and it usually doesn't bother me.

6 – If you could have professional help in any way, what would it be (e.g. professional landscapers, professional cleaning crew, professional chef, etc.) and why? I would definately have a professional housekeeper. Someone to cook, clean, and do all the things I hate doing, forever. Wonderful!

7 – What one actor or actress, still alive, would you want to have a private dinner with and why? None, I can't think of anyone who would interest me enough as I don't know enough about any of them. It would have to be someone from another profession.

8 – You are behind a locked door, perfectly safe for as long as you need to be. Something on the other side of the door gives you a weird feeling… a little scary, a little exciting… makes the hair on your skin stand on end, you don’t know if it’s good or bad. Would you open the door and confront it, or would you stay behind the door forever? (Deep one, huh?) Depends which side of the door I was on. If on the outside, I might leave it be unless it felt more exciting than scary and it would depend on how scary and how brave I felt at that moment. If I was on the inside, I would definately want to get out and face it, but I might just have to call a friend (big brave one) to come and check it out for me from the outside. No definitive answer there then! lol

9 – If you could go back in your past and change one single thing within your power to change, what would it be? Me, and hopefully I'd get to where I am with myself now sooner.

10 – What’s your favorite dessert? Please, be descriptive. :) I have a sweet tooth today. Hot, gooey, chocolate brownie with lots of pouring cream, fresh Perthshire strawberries and extra chocolate sauce. Yummy, making me drool just thinking about it!

Monday 3 May 2010

Crop Night

We had our monthly crop night last week and we had two new members which was nice. I hope they enjoyed themselves. I'm working on a few LOs so I'll post some pics tomorrow. We also had a new Scrapbooking group booked in over the weekend and they must have enjoyed themselves as they booked a return visit before they left - sorry ladies, even more competition for booking times :o). I think they were amazed at how much they got done. It's great being able to leave everything out overnight and start where you left off the next day and it's even better with no family/friends/phone/doorbell interruptions.

The new South Littleton website should be ready soon so I'll post a link when it's up and running. I like it a lot and it's a great improvement on the current one. Watch this space and let me know what you think.

The Car


Thought I'd post a pic of my special car. Still tapping!!

Some Blog Candy

Check out this blog candy here . For Tim Holtz fans.

Friday 23 April 2010

Sad to See it Go

I sold my car yesterday. This may seem like an ordinary thing to do but this car was special, part of the family. We've had it for nearly 20 years and I adored it. A pearl white Audi Quattro coupe, 20 valve, sport. I've collected quite a few business cards over the years of people who wanted to buy it. I could tell when they approached me what they were going to say. They'd offer the card and I'd say along with them 'If you're ever thinking of selling your car, give me a call'. Finally I met someone who I felt OK with. Someone who would give the car the kind of attention it needed to bring it back to pristine condition. I'm sure the others would have too but this time it was different. I would have loved to keep it forever and if I'd had the money would have paid for it to have all the TLC it needed, but I don't, so the car finally had to go. It needed to go before it started to deteriorate and the thought of it sitting in the yard rotting was worse than the thought of selling it. If you love something, you'll let it go. I'll miss the deep growl then purr of the engine when I turned the ignition key, like a great, powerful, big cat. The guy looked under the bonnet and immediately said 'This car's been modified and chipped' then 'It must be fast' 'Oh yes', we said in unison, 'really fast!' Back seat passengers had to peel themselves off the seats if you accellerated too hard but I didn't drive it like that. I could still get over 30 mpg on long journeys and averaged 28mpg on normal routes. Proof that I didn't push it too hard and really good mileage for a car of that type and age. I'll miss the way it could overtake, and hug corners, and stick to the road. I got a thrill just looking at it. It's a huge wrench and I'll need some therapy. Tap, tap, tap!

Just Be Yourself

Got a link to a new YouTube clip of Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling working with an Arab gelding. It was very depressed and in poor condition when it came to him but he worked his magic as usual. Find the clip here.

Thursday 22 April 2010

Subconscious?

When I was in Kitty Krafts at the weekend buying alcohol inks, I bought three sheets of paper too. I had no idea why I wanted them and must have passed them by many times before as Louise said she's had them in for a while. Then......I thought about my lovely scrappy chocolates and looked a little closer at the pattern on the top of some of them. The subconscious mind at work?

Not too Pretty to Eat for Me!

This is all I was able to capture on my phone of the remainder of my six delicious chocs before they too were gobbled up. Top one was lime, the middle one raspberry and the bottom one ginger. I feel another visit to the choc shop coming on!


Tuesday 20 April 2010

Chocolates for Scrapbookers


I've been promising myself a trip to Legends of Grandtully for ages and I finally went on Saturday. This is where Iain Burnett, The Highland Chocolatier, has his chocolate kitchen and I always make sure there are leaflets in our holiday cottages so any chocoholics can make a visit while exploring the countryside around us. I felt the need to sample them myself - purely for the benefit of our visitors of course, lol! Being at the heart of the soft fruit growing area I like to find local products to leave for guests and when the raspberries and strawberries are out of season that means finding things made from them. I usually leave some of Willie's award winning jams from Scottish Preserves and now I'll definately have to get some of these chocs for my Scrapbooking groups, they're just sooooo pretty. I would post a picture of the six extremely pretty, scrappy looking, chocs I bought but unfortunately I succumbed and ate most of them before I could do that. I didn't have my camera to hand, when I got home the light wasn't good enough, excuse, excuse, excuse. They were delicious! You can see what I mean here. I also bought two packets of white chocolate covered raspberries and strawberries so I've managed to take a pic of that although one pack has already been devoured and I'm eyeing up the other!

Sunday 18 April 2010

De-Stress

I love this short music video by Mark Romero. 3.13 mins of de-stress time! Find it here and another of his short videos here

Thank You Kitty Krafts!

Had to go get some more alcohol inks this weekend as my friend's Young Women group were here for their Easter visit of egg decorating, egg rolling, egg hunting and, this year, journal jar making which meant 18 glass jars to decorate (pics to follow). While I was in Kitty Krafts Louise's husband showed me how to do the 'here' bit so now there's no stopping me. Thank You.

Friday 16 April 2010

Great Song

Found a link to this singer in Brad Yates latest newsletter and I really like this song. Find it here - http://m1e.net/c?98472458-mTPMisSMKfRPo%405227577-i8lRObEwRy43Y . I still don't know how to do the "here" bit where you click on the word and it takes you to the URL. Anyone out there know?

Thursday 8 April 2010

EFT World Summit

The EFT World Summit has ended and the bonus seminars are still rolling in. I didn't plan on signing up to the event this year as I couldn't afford the time listening to all the teleseminars so I ignored the invitations but Nick Ortner sent me the links anyway and I managed to listen to a few. As usual the standard was excellent and very informative.
The most recent bonus is a series of four teleseminars with Pamela Bruner on 'Breaking the Cycle of Stress and Overwhelm'. I've listened to the first one three times already, great stuff! I'll be tapping along with it every day for a while!

Just Walkin' the Dog


I love this pic of my niece walking one of our dogs along the lane last summer. Definately need to do a LO with it. The grass is so long on the verges and there are so many different types of grass.

Still waiting for everything to burst into life. We go from moaning about there being no grass for the horses and ponies to complaining about there being too much in a relatively short space of time. It won't be long before we have to start dividing the fields with electric tape to strip graze them.

Hurray, the Sun Came Back!

After two solid days of rain, the sun finally returned yesterday and after a damp start this morning, I'm hoping for a similar sunny, warm day today. Still trying to catch up with outdoor work I didn't do in the rain. Just couldn't face getting soaked again.

Skip to My Loo





This little guy lived across the road at North Littleton and spent a great deal of last summer under these boards advertising portable toilet hire. If it rained, he was under the boards and when the flies got bad, he took cover under the boards. I don't know how he managed to get in and out of there so often without hurting himself but he did. Ponies are so funny and very resourceful!

Wednesday 31 March 2010

British Summer Time???

Clocks changed this week so we're now officially in British Summer Time. BUT, the whole country seems to be covered in snow apart from a small patch around us. Snow on the hills to the south, snow on the hills to the north and gale force winds. The weather forecast for yesterday was as follows -
"Sleet and snow turning heavier and more persistent this evening, some heavy falls. Combined with gale force North winds blizzards will quickly develop widely with severe drifting. Very severe conditions inland over upland areas with severe blizzards in places. Minimum temperature 0 °C."
BRRRRRR, it's just sooooo cold!

Digital Communications!!

I attended a Networking and Information breakfast meeting run by Perth College’s Centre for Enterprise on Monday morning. The presentation was given by digital communications and marketing experts, Precedent, who told us how we should all have websites and be using such things as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Flickr and yet another new one to me, Linkedin. We need to know how to keep track of our online presence and raise our profile so search engines will find us. I attend these things because of our holiday cottages so I can, hopefully, find out how to best market them and raise their profile in a fast expanding market and after several seminars, workshops, information meetings, I still find it all a bit baffling, not to mention very time consuming. We need to spend at least one hour a day on our computers to keep up, says the man. Does he mean one hour of time for an expert like him or one hour of time for a mere beginner like me? Most of these things are easy to set up and free, you don’t need to spend lots of money to do it, says the man. What about the old saying ‘Time is Money’? Time spent at the computer for me means less time to do all the other pressing things I need to do and usually means working into the small hours of the morning, like now. I do have a blog, Facebook, and Twitter. The blog, I manage to update occasionally, Facebook, I tend to avoid as I spend most of my time deleting ‘stuff’ people send and we have 38 real acres to look after so I won’t be accepting any invitation to Farmville and I won’t be helping anyone with their Farmville crops! I really don’t need to know that a friend has had a good lunch (although I’m pleased that some of them have time to sit down and eat) or that they’re tired and are off to bed early (it’s just so exhausting doing those Farmville chores). It’s all very well telling us what we ‘should’ have but I need someone to actually take me through it all. I have a twitter account and have managed to link it to one of my Facebook accounts but I can’t remember which updated which and I don’t know how to get ‘tweets’ on my phone although I did manage to send one out from it. I even gather a Twitter follower occasionally – how do these people find me and why do they add me? I have no idea who they are.
I’ll stick with my blog for now, I know whose on it and linked to it, although there could be others who ‘lurk’ but that’s OK because I do that too. Can’t leave everyone a comment. Computers are OK but I’d much rather be scrapbooking or doing therapy! And yes, I go for some too. :o)

Tuesday 30 March 2010

Pussycat with Purrsonality




Here's another layout I did at the weekend retreat. Again no journalling yet. This is Ruby and she's my daughter's cat not mine. Ruby is very affectionate and also very vocal, especially when she wants fed. She also forgets her place in the household as the other pic clearly shows. I found her in my bed one day, under the covers with her head on the pillow! I actually pulled the cover down a bit to take the pic as all I could see were her ears.

When we first bought the farm and were still living in Edinburgh, we travelled the 60 miles every weekend to Perthshire to work on the farmhouse and the dogs and Ruby came too. Ruby, especially, loved the trip in the car and as the noise she made when restricted to the cat basket became unbearable we bought a harness and lead for her and she would go from person to person using them as a platform to see out of the car windows. When we moved here permanently I think she wondered when we would be going 'home' again and used to jump in any car with an open door or window. My son took her down to the supermarket with him one day as she jumped into his car and installed herself on the back window shelf, refusing to come out again. She still likes to take short trips in the car and is fascinated by all she sees.



Wednesday 24 March 2010

Crop Retreat




Well I survived the crop retreat and actually managed to get some LOs done for a change. The retreat was held in a hotel near Peebles and organised by 'Aunty P'. She did well to find such a good venue and great value too. From 2pm Friday to 5pm Sunday with full board (lunch & dinner were 3 course) it only cost £130. I haven't seen any other crops advertised for that kind of price. Well done, Phyllis. I was already tired when I got there so didn't stay up too late, or get up too early. My friend and I started scrapping after breakfast (which we didn't have 'til 10am) so nice and leisurely. Phyllis had brought along some jars and alcohol inks so anyone who wanted to could make a journal jar. As I'd already made about twenty, I stuck to doing LOs but it was really interesting seeing the way everyone else chose to decorate their jars.
I did these two LOs of my little schnauzers playing in the garden when we lived in Edinburgh and tried to incorporate lots of embellishments. I'm not doing Shimelle's class but I've been following the prompts on other people's blogs. Both dogs loved to play football and Lizzie loved trying to catch the water as it came out of the hose but Sam always steered well clear of it. Lizzie also liked me to dig a hole and bury her tennis ball so she could dig it up again and bring it back to me to repeat the process. Happy days!

Tuesday 16 March 2010

Craighall Castle


Not long to go now before Craighall Castle changes hands. It's been the family seat of the Rattrays since 1533 and the current Laird has sold up and will leave at the end of the month. Sad day. The balcony outside the main drawing room is suspended over the cliff about 200ft above the river and standing out there isn't for the faint hearted. The gorge is believed to be the second deepest in the country. Stunning house and stunning location.

Decisions, Decisions!

I'm going on my first Scrapbooking retreat this weekend and I've had one attempt at deciding what to take in the way of stash which wasn't very successful. I decided to go through my pics instead, choose some to scrap and then go back to choosing papers, etc. Didn't work either. Far too many pics in the pile! Oh dear, back to the craft room tonight to have another go. I don't know how the scrappers who come here cope with the decisions. lol. How do you choose?

Monday 8 March 2010

Beautiful Buzzards



Just had to share this clip of the buzzards flying around in front of the house. They were much closer but had moved away a bit by the time I got my camera out. They eventually flew down to the trees behind the stables to annoy the crows. We had a couple of people stayed in one of the holiday cottages last year who went on a Highland Safari specifically to get some pictures of buzzards but I didn't find that out until the day they were leaving. Although they enjoyed the trip, they didn't see any buzzards and it was a pity I didn't know sooner or I could have sent them on a ten minute walk to where some were nesting on the farm!

Quickie Christmas Cards


.

As usual I ran out of time when making my Christmas cards and resorted to using Costco gift tags instead of stamped images. Here's the result. I also made a stack of sour cream cartons to put sweets in.

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Journal Jars




I decided to make Journal Jars to give as Christmas presents since it was the year of 'Homecoming', but I bit off more than I could chew and still haven't finished them all. Christmas will be very late this year for some old aunties.


Things I Can't Do Without




I took these pictures last year in response to Shimelle's Prompt (no. nine I think). Most people would have posted Scrapbooking items since the class was all about Blogging for Scrapbookers but these are my current essentials - quad bike plus trailer and poop-scooping tools and wellies! I tempted fate, however, by taking the pictures as the quad then broke down and I had to revert to our dinky toy one which struggles to pull the trailer when it's full or in wet conditions.




Wednesday 17 February 2010

Back at Last!

Well it's been a while but I'm determined to be a better blogger this time. The winter has been horrendous with everything frozen solid and when you have to get hay and water to nine ponies in treacherous conditions it takes up quite a lot of your time! The sun's shining today and luckily the snow has all gone for us but is still on the ski slopes. We had some skier's from England in one of the cottages this week and they had a ball up at Glenshee. Never been skiing in Scotland before but have gone home determined to free up more time in the next few weeks to come back for more. They couldn't believe how good it was.

I was at the Perth & Kinross NewBiz conference yesterday and left determined to make lots of changes to my life. The keynote speaker was Michelle Mone (Ultimo) and she was excellent. A very inspiring lady. I also attended Rene Looper's Marketing - Web & E-commerce workshop and even though it's the third time I've been to one of his workshops I came away having learned several new things which I can hopefully use to raise our profile on the web.

I'll post some pictures later of things I'd planned to add in December but just didn't have time to. A few from Shimelle's prompts and some of the journal jars I made for Christmas presents. I should've taken lots of the beautiful snow scenes and amazing ice formations but when you're trudging around with buckets and hay bags/nets it's not exactly the first thing on your mind.

Back soon.