Hi there crafty friends!

No photos in this mini - it might be for my craft sale.... eventually!

What a cutie - Pablo my crafting companion!

As this is the first post of the year I'd like to start by wishing everyone a very happy new year! Now that we're all back to business as usual I thought I'd check in and load up a few pics of what I've been making over this year's festive season. At the start of the year I made a list of craft things I wanted to get round to doing - no deadlines, just realistic goals to aim for, sort of! So in my little book of ideas I have gently suggested that I might aim to make enough cards, a few minibooks and other bits and pieces to hold a little "craft fair" of my own either here at home, (you know,  have a few friends round, make them drink wine, hopefully by one or two things...) or get my mum to show them round at hers - her friends are really appreciative of handmade goodies as they all seem to have their own skills, from knitting to stitching - that type of thing. So the deal goes something like this... make a coupla cards each week and however many mini's I can put together (- I need at least 6) some bottle tags, gift card envelopes, (and the dreaded) recycled christmas card tags etc, but, woah, that sounds like a commitment and you know I don't like the sound of that word... Maybe if I change that C word to something more Jacqui friendly like, I know... PLAN! There, that sounds a lot less scary and a bit more flexible heehee! So, as well as the pics I've posted here, I have been doing a bit of digital stuff on our beautiful adorable iMac we now have at home. It has been a bit of an investment on our part as I'm sure you can appreciate we aren't made of money here but it's the tool both myself and my OH both use in our field of work and designing on a Mac is just way superior to a little home PC (but that's just my opinion!) So, when I actually get a turn on it, I have been exploring Adobe Illustrator and making up patterns and following youtube tutorials so I can maybe design some patterened papers of my own. Millie got a drawing tablet for the Mac for her Christmas - she's a budding illustrator and knows her way round Photoshop as well as I do - which is very handy for me also as it's my tool of choice instead of a mouse! Isn't Santa clever! Hopefully, one day, something else I'll maybe get round to doing at some point is an etsy shop, where I can sell the stuff I enjoy designing\making. Ah, New Year! - such an optimistic time of year, I dare say by March I'll be well on the way to chronic jaded-ness though LOL!
   On another subject, there's more crafting going on in the background Chez Strachan that may or may not see the light of day... I'm not one to tease - it may or may not be work related (that's my real job in real life)...so that's all I wanted to say... just in case I go off the radar again for a bit...
     Anyways dear bloggers thankyou as always for popping by - I'm off for a snoop round your blogs now as it's time for a catch up and a reload of all your lovely inspiration, which always fires me up and gets me feeling all creative and purposeful!
Take care everyone - let your Sunday be a happy and creative one!
Jak
xxxx