Hello , is anybody there?

You would be forgiven for thinking that I had vanished into thin air, but having been inspired by some truly wonderful blogs over the last few months, I've decided to get myself organised and restart mine. Now I'm not promising daily updates, but I will 'do my best', as my son Jamie recently promised when he became a Beaver.

I had a little op last week, which has allowed me some time to reflect on my first year of my online existance, what I've achieved, the effect it has had on my family and thinking about what I would like to do in the future. So here we go...

I celebrated by 40th Birthday last week as a happy wife, loving mother and self employed crafts woman

I listed my first item online on the 2nd January 2010, the first on Etsy on the 7th January 2010, with the hope that I would sell 1 item per week. By the 31st December 2010 I had made 104 sales on Etsy alone, thank you to all that entrusted me with their orders.

My items have made the front page of Etsy twice in 2010 and I am very chuffed to have been included in lots and lots of Treasuries, thank you so much!

Whilst there have been successes, there have also been some casualties, Little Kitten Fairies is no more. Whilst a thoroughly enjoyable past time, painting peg dolls is to be confined to a crafting activity I undertake with music playing in the background when I fancy a change from sewing.

On a personal note, running a sewing business has enabled me to spend many a happy hour surfing the web searching for gorgeous fabric. Along the way, I have met some lovely people and made new friends.

I've also discovered the Macro button on my camera, how to edit photo's, open a website, use my scanner, fill in my first tax return, to name just a few techie things.

On the homefront, we survived 4 months of my darling husband being away on detachment. I must confess however, my parents had to lay down in a very dark room for quite a few days when he returned. My son Jamie is turning into a gorgeous young man who now holds very grown up discussions, can read a book and is a loving helpful little chap. My baby Poppy, (now 3) started Pre-school, takes a 'pack up' 2 days a week, loves to sing, skip and jump! Andy continues to be my rock and is now in charge of the family every Saturday to enable me to sew. He now cooks at least twice a week and thankfully he discovered that he actually enjoys it.

So what now............. well apart from blogging, I intend to focus my attentions on my Etsy shop, it has always been my favourite site and it is my intention to have my own website shop up and running before the year is out.

I've also recently rediscovered how much I enjoy embroidery and I'm currently working on a new exciting project (more about that another day) I shall also be doing some patchwork, I'll keep you updated with how I get on............and finally, I really am going to try and keep Sundays as family day (ok I know I've not achieved that today) but I am going to try.

Until next time