Happy New Year and New Year Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone. It was my New Year resolution to make the effort to restart my Blog and keep it going but my plans have been foiled from the very start. Instead of enjoying the first day of 2015 I spent the day nursing my sick Gambian Pouched Rat but despite all my efforts he died in my arms last night.

He was the last of my rats and so for the first time in about twelve and years we do not have any pet rats. It is such a strange feeling not having to feed and secure the rats for the night.  Rats make wonderful pets and I will miss them.

So here I am, a day late, writing the first post of 2015 and I will try to post on a more regular basis for the rest of the year.

Christmas Card Club

Can you believe it's October already!!! Well, as it is the 1st Thursday of the month that means that it is Christmas Card Club night in the Stoke Ferry Village Hall.

If you don't know what that is I will explain it for you. During each two hour class you will make eight Christmas cards, two each of four designs. You will take your cards home with their matching envelopes so you can write them out and keep them safe ready to be posted the first week of December. So much easier than having to do them all at one time.

If you would like to join in  the fun, all I ask is that you let me know you are coming before the class date so that I have enough kits prepared for everyone

I'm Back

I can't believe it has been a year since I posted on here!

So where have I been. Well, the biggest thing is that we moved house. Although we moved to a smaller house I now have a Craft Room which is wonderful, or it will be once I get everything unpacked and put away. It is so nice having everything in the same room. I have to get some blinds for the windows in there, I will need blinds bigger than generally available so that means having them custom made. Why does everything always have to cost the most possible...lol

I have been busy crafting as well, which is what keeps me from going mad from boredom and daytime TV! I have started selling what I make at craft fairs, I don't earn a lot but I do it for the social side as much as anything.

Well. I am going to leave it there but will post on a  more regular basis from now on.

A Little Off Topic

I was watching the news last night when a report came on about the proposed Badger cull. The reporter announced that by killing 70% of ALL Badgers, Bovine TB could be reduced by just 16% over 4 years! I had to back the program up and play it again to check what I had heard I was so stunned. How can killing an animal, who we should remember is a protected animal (Protection of Badgers Act 1992) to near extinction for so little benefit be logical. 

When the Government wanted to control TB in humans it introduced the BCG injection. The TB vaccine for cattle has proven to be between 56% and 68% effective but it cant be used because of existing EU legislation! Madness in my opion, utter madness.

I have provided the following links so that you can see for yourself the facts and figures and then please sign the petition.

Protection of badger Act 1992
The Badger Trust
defra.gov.uk/bovine-tb-vaccination
League Against Cruel Sports

*Important. If you do nothing else, Please sign this e-petition

Dogs

The longstanding campaign aims to raise awareness of the consequences of treating dogs as gifts or toys. Every year hundreds of thousands of children plead for the latest fad or top toy on the market, only to discard them a few weeks after Christmas when the novelty wears off. Unfortunately, the same perception is also apparent with dogs. We are continually seeking to change this.

"A dog is for life, not just for Christmas".

If you agree...copy and paste this into your blog....thank you x

Give Big

I want to bring to your attention a wonderful campaign that Kristen of Saturated Canary is running. She is trying to raise funds for   St Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis Tennessee who are trying to find cures for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Now before you say 'Yes but that's in USA' please remember that research anywhere will benefit children all over the world and lots of British children have gone to America for treatments of one kind or another.

But if that is not a good enough reason for you to donate to the cause then how about this; Krista is giving away 2 digi's in exchange for your donation! Now surely that alone is worth a small, or even a big, donation to her cause.


Read about her campaign for yourself here and if you are not familiar with her work have a look around while you are there.  

All Change

Wow, so much has changed in my life recently, for the better I hope. So where do I begin, well we finally did what we had been saying we would do for the past 3 years and sold our house and moved to a smaller one. We really did not need a large 5 bedroom house for just the 2 of us and the utility bills alone were huge. Now we have a 200 year old 3 bedroom cottage in Norfolk complete with beams in the ceilings and an inglenook fireplace with a wood burning stove. The only problem is that even though we sold some furniture and gave more away before we moved we still have too much and some pieces are too big! So we are still unpacking boxes and deciding what to keep and what has to go and in the meantime we are making the best of the situation until we can get the house the way we want it.

I have also signed up as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I hope this will be a good thing for me and will help me in more ways than one. I have been using Stampin' Up! products for some time now and love the quality of them. The lady I bought from was the one who suggested that I start selling for myself but I resisted for a while and finally decided that the time was right for me a couple of weeks ago. I love helping people craft so I am really looking forward to getting started. If any of you lovely people want to have a party, you know who to call....ME!