Easter in a tin box and a lot of colour

Hello again.

Since I was last here I spent three days over the Easter weekend here.

This is the "Armadillo" in Glasgow - a large concert/conference hall. And no, it doesn't look much like a tin box. Admittedly I wasn't actually in the Armamdillo but in the adjoining SECC. Definitely a tin box.

I'd been invited to have a stand at the NASUWT ( a teachers' union ) Annual Conference.

Well I thought, a couple of thousand teachers, most of whom would probably be women, would need some retail therapy between conference sessions.....WRONG!

It wasn't exactly a disaster, given that it didn't cost anything to do - apart from my time and sanity - but I could have thought a million better ways of spending the Easter weekend.

See what I mean about the windowless tin box? This was my stand.
It wasn't all doom and gloom though. I met and spent some pleasant hours chatting with my neighbouring stallholder Elaine, who was also having a very quiet time.
And then there was my new love - my iPhone. There was plenty of time to browse all the apps and download addictive games. And best of all the Kindle app. Just brilliant. I got a book I'd been meaning to read for a while. So all in all it was OK.
There was a real need for some colour in my life though after that, and when I got home the garden didn't disappoint. The unusual Spring sunshine had done wonders for my poor neglected garden.

It forgave me for all those months of no attention, and without any help from me just burst into new growth and bloom. Just last month the pond area looked like this.

From the fiery Pieris Forest Flame

to the old faithful cherry tree - The Spring colour in the garden is the best of all the seasons I think.

And what about "our" field!! It's now blue!
Over the weekend they had laid down these long lines of sky blue polythene which will have thousands of strawberry plants in them soon. I do prefer the old fashioned straw which used to spread around the plants to keep the berries clean and dry ( hence STRAWberry). But this is 21st century farming, and it does contribute to the colour theme, doesn't it?

A Bit of Indulgence

Why is it that when I'm faced with a boring job to do ( like the accounts mentioned in my last post) I suddenly feel the need to add something to this blog? No prizes for guessing that it is, as ever, putting off starting the boring job!
Today it's not really boring as such. But I've had a very energetic few hours digging in the garden and my bottom is sore with all the bending and pulling. All I want to do is crash in front of the TV and then go for a long soak in the bath.
But I should (should, I repeat) give back some of the gardening time to the business of work. OK, so it's a Saturday - most people's day off - but we really need to do some work at some point EVERY day in order to keep on top of things.
So there's a pile of cards printed and waiting to have the designs added, but you know...I can't raise the energy.
So hence this post, about nothing really.
Time for a picture...

Mmmmm....Banoffee Pie with double cream and a fancy swirl of vanilla sauce finished off with a Belgian chocolate straw.
I can tell you it was GOOD.
That was the end of our meal last night at a local restaurant and I wanted to try out the camera in my new Iphone.
I've been very good on my diet for months now, so one pudding won't be too bad.
Anyway, I'm sure all that digging this afternoon burned off the pudding calories.
Now that I've worked out how easy it is to get the photos from phone to blog, I'll maybe be able to make the posts a bit more interesting.
And so to the cards...
This is our monthly delivery to Rejects in Kirkcaldy. They have a spinner of our cards and manage to practically sell out every month. Which is good.

Bright and Early

Here I am, 6am on a Monday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed after a good sleep and ready to start the week.
When I woke up and realised that I wasn't going to get back off to sleep  (5am) I thought, right, make the most of it, get up and polish off the monthly accounts and VAT before breakfast! That way I can be up to date and feel smug. Send out the statements to our trade customers who are due to pay, and nudge the ones who are a bit overdue to pay. Then do all the other little chores before whizzing off to the swimming pool for a refreshing 40 lengths, visit a couple of our stockists, post out the weekend's batch of orders from the website....and all before lunch.
Way to go!!
So anyway, here I am, now 6.39 am - I haven't opened my accounts package yet but I have played two games of solitaire, read all the new tweets on Twitter  and caught up on some of the blogs I follow.
And as you can tell I'm also updating this blog.
But as my old primary school teacher was always telling us -
                                                 Procrastination is the thief of time.
So I'm off to another part of the computer now (oh yes I am) and not Twitter or solitaire. Accounts here I come!

Happy Mother's Day

to Mums everywhere! I hope you are enjoying the day.

The sun is shining here and it's really quite warm. The plum tree is just about to burst into flower and the birds are singing.

Lovely.

I've been having a good weekend making patchwork cards. Firstly there were 80 to be used as wedding invitations and the mother of the bride collected them yesterday. I think she was very pleased with them and I would have shown you them here but I stupidly forgot to photograph them before I handed them over.

Then I spent yesterday afternoon putting together this little pile of tartan ones.

Around 200 or so which are destined to go out to shops in St Andrews, Aberdeen and Edinburgh in the next week.

I do enjoy making them as there are never any two the same. It's a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

This is just the first part though. All the little squares are backed with bondaweb and ironed on to the card, from these trays of cut out shapes

which now look a bit depleted.

Then the pile of cards gets taken through to the living room where I finish them off with painted details while I'm watching TV- hearts and thistles for the tartan ones.

Do you see the colourful bracelet I'm modelling here? It's my Mother's Day gift from Laura. I love it- thank you Laura!

And also thank you for the card, Nick - you remembered!

We've been at my Mum's this morning with treats for her and home to chat to Laura on the phone.

Now it's back to work to finish those cards.

(And I got another Mother's Day very special surprise, which has me grinning from ear to ear. But I'm not telling!!!)

One Silly Little Picture

So what's all this about? This, folks is my first photo taken with my new IPhone.
OK, so it's just a corner of my workroom and a glimpse out of the window, but I'm hoping this will be the first of many to appear on this blog.
I haven't been doing much here lately and one of the main reasons is that I never get round to picking up the camera when I'm either out and about, or even in and about.
So I invested in this smart little cookie in the hope that I'll carry it around with me all the time and capture all those interesting moments to share with you.
I also want internet access when I'm away from the computer, so that I can keep up with all the orders which drop into my email box when I'm not looking.
And let's face it, I want to play solitaire when I should be working, download silly apps when I should be sleeping and become one of those morons who never lift their faces from their phones ( unlikely).
I'll start by keeping it switched on, which according to Barbara will be a great leap forward. (My last phone was NEVER on).
I'm going to tuck it into my pocket when we go out for our walk tomorrow, because I've got this app which is a pedometer and will tell me how many calories I've burned so I can come home and eat half a crispbread.
And I might find something interesting to take a photo of as well.
Great stuff.
See you tomorrow.