Holidays are over!!

Holidays are over!!

Bet you thought it was going to be another year before I posted again, lol. Well, it has been 23 days, which isn't good.

But here I am, large as life, relaxed after a good break through the school holidays.

Well..... the school holidays aren't over yet but it's not long until they go back.

We also took the time to go away together, all 13 of us, including 2 toddlers for 2 of those weeks.
Takes quite a bit of organising but was so worth it.
We have had shorter breaks together but this was the longest. Despite a few mishaps we all survived and had a great time with lots of laughs.

Helped along by quite a few of these I have to confess.

 It's amazing though, how much you can miss your work when you love what you do. I did much less for most of the holidays and nothing at all for just over 2 weeks of that time. Good job that the 2 weeks was very busy while we were all away on holiday, it also helped that for much of the time I didn't have internet and most of the time when I did have it we were all out and about. Siiiigh!
Will tell you all about the holiday in the next blog.



I love creating my artwork, it's something I don't think I will
ever tire of.

Every one is different, because the words are different, so each one is a fresh challenge, which is just what I like.


I am also loving learning Affiliate Marketing, its a lot to learn but its an even bigger challenge. I did think I would find it wasn't difficult but it's another steep learning curve. Some stuff I get through fast because I have worked online for so long, other parts are much more challenging.
I have loved learning how to create a wordpress website for my affiliate marketing, still finding my way with various aspects and it isn't anything fancy but I did it myself.

Just as I put my original Weebly website, Uniquely Your Designs, together myself.
For me, creating something myself gives a greater sense of satisfaction.
In the early days of starting my business, it cost a small fortune to have a website built, so I either did it myself or went without.
After a while of having a shop on a big site, it was a natural progression to have a website of my own to increase my online presence.
Anyway ..... right now I am loving life! I get to set my own hours, go visiting and stay with family for a long weekend every month and 3 days every other week. (different family members) I couldn't do that if I had a regular job. Every 4th week I am only home for 1 day in an entire week. I love it.
It's a laptop lifestyle in a smaller way as I'm not jetting off here and there all the time.
It's taken a long while to reach this point but all the choices I have made in the last 10 years have led me to this point. A life I love.

 I'm living the life I choose
 a laptop is the tool I use.
 I changed my life, yes ME.
 By making choices, you see.
 Each one took me a step nearer
 the way couldn't have been clearer.
 Long hours and a lot of work
 but only rarely did I shirk.
 Many thought it was a waste
 of time but success I could taste.
 I knew that I would win
 took criticism on the chin.
 I didn't do anything by half's
 and now it's me that laughs.
 Ignore them, all the rest
 keep going to reach the best!

Hope you enjoyed this blog of my meandering thoughts along with the verse or ditty.
If you did please share for others to enjoy.
Thank you for visiting and please come back soon.

My Trials & Tribulations

I started off so well, writing again. Now here I am weeks on and only just writing another post. That real life stuff keeps getting in the way

I finally did get back here after changing my domain hosting and to my horror, discovered the blog was down. I could get in the admin side but the site wasn't showing up.
Now this was scary stuff.

 I was sent information on what to do next but it might as well have been in alien speak for all the good it did me.

Now what was I supposed to do. I kept messaging the support, kept getting links for help/what to do?
Still looked like an alien language but with the blog down I had to bite the bullet and try. Well I learned about 'nameservers' 'A names' 'C names' and 'DNS'. Apparently that's not the same as DNA. Who knew?😂
Well, I just followed instructions until all this stuff was changed.

Could the impossible become possible?




Would I get it right?



The good news is that big red angry writing only appeared once and disappeared when I redid that bit, then everything seemed happy, nice green ticks.✅

But the blog still didn't appear.
Yes I know I was supposed to wait at least 24 hours but who can wait that long?

Well me apparently ......... because it didn't matter how often I checked there wasn't any change.

BUT!!!

Wait for it...... oh you know what I am going to say because you are reading this saga. So yes, this morning it had reappeared, large as life.

YAY!!!!


I just get busier by the day,
life seems to get in the way.
I try to find extra time to write
but Father time will not bite.
I rise early, retire late
lack of sleep is my fate.
Still there aren't enough hours
to even get to smell the flowers.
Then disaster appears, no blog.
now I have a mental fog.
My poor brain is churning
there's technical & tricky learning.
Orders waiting but this has to be done,
oh woe is me, this isn't fun!
I will not be defeated
kept going till twas completed.
Finally, at last, victory is mine,
many green ticks in a line.
Then at last the final test...
a click, my fears are laid to rest!!


I hope you enjoyed this blog, now it is finally back up and running. This is true and was very annoying and time wasting at the time.
The moral of the story is: Check whether anything will happen, good or bad, before you do things. Don't be impulsive like me.
Will I check first  next time? Probably not, I can be impulsive. LOL.
If you enjoyed the read, please share for others to learn from or laugh at.
Have you had anything like this happen? Would love to hear about it!

More Fathers Day Gift ideas.

Well, it's getting ever closer. I know with online shopping you can leave it quite late and still get it in time but wouldn't it be better to be more organised than that? Of course it would. You know it makes sense.
What if you have your heart set on a particular gift that you know your Dad will love? You leave it to the last minute and there aren't any left. It is possible and happens more than you think.
This series of blogs for Fathers Day is to help you to find the perfect gift for you to give that special father figure in your life.
I am aiming to give you a variety of goodies so there is something for everyone, for price and style.
As usual, to see a bigger picture or a description, just click on the item to view it in the shop.
ENJOY!!!

Don't leave it to the last minute
this is a race, you want to win it.
A special gift for a special man
and you are his number 1 fan.
Showing appreciation for the sharing
of so much love and caring.
Everything he did for you,
cheered you up when you were blue
Always there, on your side
a ready ear when you confide
those hopes and impossible dream
you work together as a team.
He helps you make a map, to plan
because he's also your number 1 fan.
Now you go back with a special gift
because you know his spirits will lift
to see you, knowing you care
and this is a day you want to share!














Hope you enjoyed today's fabulous array of delights for your Dad. If you did enjoy it, please share for others to enjoy.
Thanks for visiting, please come back soon.

The present day.

Not much left to tell about my trip down memory lane. I spent months building up a data base of base pictures, before creating each one and printing it to photograph. When I look back at those photo's, I shudder.
Still, it's all a learning curve and with each metamorphosis the photos improved along with the way I displayed the prints. I show them in a frame so people can see how they could look.
Anyway as time went on I got busier and busier especially in the run up to Christmas. Looking back now, I'm not sure how I did it. Sleep became an optional extra, lol. I did learn to slow down work wise though, when 2 new grandchildren arrived into the family for me to help with. It reminded me that some things are more important than excessive working.
I do love my work and I love a challenge so it's fun and exciting when I am asked to create something I don't already have a picture for. Many customer requests have become best sellers.
I can do the same picture and not get bored with it as the challenge is always to create that perfect gift for the new customer with their words.
I get official reviews but rarely remember to look at them. The ones that mean the most are the little messages saying how pleased/happy/thrilled they or the gift recipient are with it. That makes my day.
It's funny though, that even after all this time, every sale still gives me a thrill. I just love my job and can't believe how lucky I am to be able to work from home and even take it with me when I travel to see family.

I love what I do
cos I do it for you.
if someone should enquire
it sets me a fire
to hear the words, can you.
I am not a can't, more a can do
especially when it's for you.
Always willing to give it a go
don't know till you try, you know.
I love the challenge, want to try
you won't hear me sit and sigh.
I won't be sitting having a rest
I'll be struggling to do my best.
I'm stubborn, I like to win
when I do, I have a big grin.
I love nothing better than hearing you say,
I will be returning again, another day!!!






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Thanks for visiting, please come back soon.

Continuing down Memory Lane!

Soooo...... where did I get to on the trip down memory lane?

Hmmmm.... needle felting and painting, methinks.
I love painting and drawing so did more of it for a while. I was still crocheting and needle felting bt I wanted something more, something different. For a while I did printable quotes. It was interesting for a short time but I was still looking for that certain something that would continually stretch my brain, be very enjoyable, continually grow and be viable as a business. Something I could give up my job for.
I started to come across pictures created from words but they were all very basic. It was interesting but I wanted to be able to make better pictures that had movement and looked more interesting.

So I set off on a quest to find out if I could take this where I wanted it to go. Then began months of searching for software, trying it and working with it, to see if it could produce the type of pictures I envisioned. Finally I found the software that best suited me, that could produce the pictures I wanted. Then began many more months of testing, trying different pictures. Drawing, adding more, tweaking each one until it came out the right shape perfectly each time.
It was slow going but the challenge enthralled me. Each one took a long time but that would improve over time, I was sure. After working out the actual base picture, I then spent time trying different fonts, to see how they looked and if they printed well.
Once that was settled I had to build up my base pictures before creating each one from start to finish. Now that was laborious work, especially when it cam to photographing. Photography is not my forte I feely admit. But, it had to be done otherwise I couldn't show my work to sell. When you sell online, the photo of what you sell is the first point of contact with a prospective buyer, so its important for it to look good and show your goods clearly from every possible angle.
When I look back at my early photos now, especially of my crochet work, I am amazed I managed to sell anything.
Well I think this is a good place to end this part of the tale, more in the next episode.


A trip down memory lane is fine
but somewhere you have to draw a line
because you no longer live in that place
you are part of the human race.
We keep moving forward regardless of strife
because its all a part of our life.
The future beckons whatever your age
every chapter is just a stage
of your life leading you on
right up to the moment you are done.
So enjoy your life, live in the now
live life and have fun anyhow.


Hope you enjoyed today`s blog, if you did please share.
Thanks for visiting, please come back soon.

A trip down memory lane.

You didn't think I would be back this soon did you?
Well.... to be fair my track record hasn't been that good for the last few years. Before that though, I used to blog every day. I would write each post the evening before, finding a variety of crafts from different platforms to display.
Not quite sure what happened, I think life got in the way. You know, life in the real world. I worked, helped out with grandchildren, my sales increased and suddenly there was less and less time to fit everything in. So the blogging slipped and days missed became weeks and months.
My work changed from designing and making crochet items. I wanted to try different mediums to be artistic with.

I branched out into needle felting and really enjoyed it. I loved watching pictures appear on the felt. I made them into needle cases and sometimes would make a smaller picture that would become a matching pin cushion.
After a while I took up painting and enjoyed it. I could lose myself in the process, it was very meditative.
Then every so often I would write a blog post, remembering how much I used to enjoy it. I always wrote a rhyme/verse/ditty of some sort, even when I did it every day. It became so I used to often think in rhyme at times. Sitting on a bus or train, I would watch the world go by making up rhymes about what I saw. It just becomes a habit, a thing that you do.
However, when you stop for a good while, it no longer comes so easily. Rhymes then have to be really worked at until you get back into the swing of it again.

Crafting is very de stressing
so calming to be messing
with paint, or needle felting
no one to care if you are belting
out the songs you love to sing.
Enjoying the pure joy they bring.
You can play all day long with clay
creating beautiful things every day.
So much can be created with sewing
the needle busy flying and flowing.
Jewellery too, creating much to wear
some often sell at fete and fair.
Knitting, crochet, lace making too
which will be the one for you?
So many different types you could try.
What will make your imagination fly!

A pattern I created after making and selling quite a few. I don't make them anymore so now the patterns are quite popular instead. Crochet is very easy to do once you get the hang of it and it grows much faster than knitting.



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New blog with Personalised word prints & fun verse!

Who knew it would be so long since my last post. The middle of 2018.
Life was busy before and now is hectic, business, children, grandchildren and everything else that goes with day to day living. You think you couldn`t possibly squeeze in anything else and you do. Trouble is other things suffer a little bit or something drops off the radar, like this blog.
It might be crazy busy but I do love my life. Creating word art is a passion that I never tire off. Now I am learning new ways to earn a living online too and loving that.
Well, since I last wrote my blog my word art pictures have increased quite a bit. This is mainly due to customer requests. Amazing the amount of these new pictures that become very popular.
I am going to try and update this blog more regularly, even if its only weekly. Do I hear a sound of derision? I don`t blame you, all I can say is that I will do my best.


My verse it just used to flow
now there`s barely a glow.
I need to fan the flames
and play some rhyming games.
When I blogged every day
in my head the rhymes would play.
Every thought became a rhyme
can be tiring some of the time.
Once a week or maybe twice
I think would be rather nice.
Cross those fingers and I`ll try,
so don`t forget to drop by!






Hope you enjoyed today's selection of personalised word art prints available in my shops or website.
Thank you for visiting, please come back soon.
If you have enjoyed this post please share for others to enjoy.