Enjoying the snow.

I'm shocked by myself - no blogging, yet again, for such a long time, but it has been an incredibly busy time ending with a nasty cold. All better now, and I did enjoy the snow. I'm hoping I may have some more material for some new designs later in the year - I've just been having a play with some of them, but nothing's ready to be revealed yet.
Here are a couple of photos - not a huge amount of snow, but quite a lot for Norfolk and it did transform the countryside.

This is my studio, looking much prettier than usual:



And this is our village church:

Rescued juvenile hedgehog

Driving back from a lunch meeting recently, I drove past a hedgehog in the road. It was heading for the grass verge, so I drove on. Seconds later, I realised I'd have to go back - turned round as soon as I could, and just got onto the road again in front of a large grain lorry. Got back to where hedgehog was, and of course it'd changed direction and was right in the middle of the road, just where the lorry would have crushed it.

I stopped my van, and made the lorry stop with arm gestures to die for, and scooped up the sorry little creature. I let the lorry continue with a big thank you (he must have thought I was nuts, but who cares), put the hedgehog in the passenger footwell and drove home.

I left him there because I had loads to do to get ready for a show the next day - I needed to bring everything up from the garden studio before it got dark.

I then googled looking after hedgehogs - I've done it before but needed a refresher. The main thing they kept saying was keep them warm. Oh my goodness - I'd left this one in the van all afternoon!
I rushed out to bring him in - he was a bit chilly, but after a while on a warm hot water bottle, all seemed well.
He's now functioning extremely well (oh, does he smell!), and very active at night, and living in a very tall cardboard box in the bathroom. He got out of the normal size box with no trouble.

When we over-wintered one before, he managed to rattle the door of the rabbit hutch where he lived until the door opened. He'd fall to the floor, some 3 feet below, and was off. All this happened several times, always in the middle of the night. I'd go to sort him out in the morning and the wretch had made a run for it. But he was always found curled up in an awkward corner - the dogs always smelt him out!

He's so cute!! Or she, of course.

British Wool Marketing Board won't allow welfare standards on British Wool

Izzy Lane has a wonderful business - ethical fashion from the fleece from her own flocks of rare Shetland and Wensleydale sheep. It's an amazing story - read more here

This is Izzy with one of her Wensleydales:









But the following is one of the issues that she and many sheep farmers are up against. This is her press release:

"For several years Isobel Davies has been working to bring attention to animal welfare standards in wool production, as well as give support to, as well as to create markets for British Wool and aid the ailing British Textile Industry. While continuing to use the wool from her won600 strong rescued flock, a deal was pending to break into the mainstream with Tesco having sought out Izzy Lane for a diffusion range.

Izzy Lane was to deliver the first wool cloth ever with an animal welfare standard on it.

The cloth would be made in Britain using some of the last scourers, spinners, dyers, weavers and finishers in the country and located in areas now depressed and with a high unemployment as a result of the demise of the textile industry. It was a glimmer of hope in a struggling industry, British wool heading for the first time to supermarket rails and with an animal welfare standard to boot.

In the initial work, Isobel was supported by certain employees of the Wool Board who helped to identify farmers who met her strict criteria which included:

No sheep from the flock to ever be live-exported
No sheep to ever be sold in livestock markets, with the exception of breeding stock
No sheep to ever be transported for more than 120 miles or a maximum time of 3 hours, with the exception of breeding stock.

Each farmer by law has to send their wool to the British Wool Marketing Board. Once it arrives, it goes into the bulk and loses its source and identity. It is then auctioned off to the wool merchants. The farmers are paid so little that many just burn and bury it as it doesn't even cover shearing costs.

Britain's wealth was founded on the wool trade in the Middle Ages and it is what later fuelled the industrial revolution. But it is now sadly deemed a "waste product".

The wool for Isobel's project was sent to the wool board, all tagged up and ready to be sent off to be processed. Then the shock, that the Wool Board would not endorse the use of animal welfare standards in the promotion of British wool as it didn't think it was fair to those farmers who do not meet the criteria.

British wool in British supermarkets, Britain setting the precedent for animal welfare in the fashion industry, the support of the British mills in these difficult times, premiums paid for the wool to the struggling farmers. There was also a deal to supply the fabric for coats to export to Japan.

Isobel Davies"

If you are surprised, or shocked by any of this, please let others know.

I'm currently using fleece from Shetlands, Portlands and Manx Loaghtans among others for my work - you can see some of it here. I love them all, with their fine fleece and beautiful colours.

The bonuses of fund raising

We've just dispatched the younger daughter off to Sri Lanka with a group from her school - all very exciting, but also very expensive. We've not paid for this trip - she's had to raise the funds herself. But I did help - I decided that my stiffening fingers could do with a work-out, so I got out the crochet hook and made flower brooches and hairclips - loads of them!! We've been selling them at all sorts of events and they've been really popular, so I keep on crocheting. Here's a few of them:

These are made using left-over bits from hand spinning years ago - Wensleydale fleece and camel wool. I enjoyed making these, and may even get out my spinning wheel again.



And these use bits and pieces from the wool bag and have been really popular with youngsters:




And these ones have leaves!

The great bonuses in all of this are:
Nicola has learnt to crochet and has made some of them herself
And my fingers are benefitting from their work outs.

Big Red Bag went to Autumn Fair trade show

Big Red Bag - you may remember it: I won this amazing canvas bag in a business raffle at a Wire meeting. It was donated by Toy Tidy who supply great storage solutions for all that stuff that kids have.

I had a problem at the Autumn Fair this year, because I had to take a delivery with me for a customer to collect from my stand. But there's really no storage space on my stand, especially for a box as big as this one. But then I had a brain wave and rushed to get Big Red Bag. I stuffed it with lots of my lovely dyed fleece that I use on my handmade greeting cards and art work (have a look here if you can't remember what I do - lots of amusing fluffy animals!) and took it off to the show.

And lo and behold, behind Big Red Bag, and hidden beneath all the overflowing fleece, is the box for my customer! (Well, you can't lo and behold it actually, because it's hidden...)


That fleece is so scrummy - soft, warm and with a lovely smell. I can't resist it! I do find myself emptying my supplies onto the studio floor sometimes, just because of the warmth and the colour!

An unusual afternoon snack

Please don't get us to send our dog back to the Dog's Trust - we do feed him, really, but he obviously doesn't think so!



Here's he's taken some mount board for his mid afternoon snack, but really he prefers some nice offcuts of handmade Himalayan mountain paper!

A fresh start

October already and not a blog posted for weeks. Oh dear.

September is traditionally a busy month for us with the Autumn Fair trade show and the start of a new school year both falling together in a the first week or two, along with both daughters' birthdays in the middle of the month.

But this year we had some added "busy-ness" with Emma leaving to go to university, and a couple of business market place events falling at the same time as the birthdays.

But here we are, in October, and the start of a hectic time preparing for the Christmas season. The office has been blitzed, with all the filing up to date, raw materials have been ordered, and the team are busy putting together the outstanding orders for our customers - Christmas cards, calendars (lots of these!), pictures and clocks.

Order your cards and gifts soon, from the website, while stock levels are high. We'd hate you to be disappointed.

Here's one of our most popular Christmas cards for this year:

this was a cat I sketched while in Germany a while back - she was just lying on the pavement enjoying the sunshine, so I thought she could now just relax in front of the Christmas tree and contemplate playing with the fallen bauble.

Autumn Fair Birmingham

Well I've not been good at posting here - it's been an incredibly busy and eventful summer - but it's officially the start of autumn here as I'm off to Autumn Fair at the NEC in Birmingham in about an hour. The van is loaded - amazingly this was actually done last night! Now I just need some sustenance to keep me going - apricots, nuts, that sort of thing - as it's hard to get off the stand during the show - I shall be on my own this time as Emma, my trusty co-pilot, is off to Birmingham University in a couple of weeks and has lots to do herself.

I'll certainly know the way to Birmingham!

It's been a challenge helping Emma to prepare for uni - student finance being the biggest challenge. She's still not heard about her finance yet.... But everything else is finally falling into place and it's getting quite exciting. She's even got herself a Facebook page - reluctantly!! My 2 daughters must be very unusual teenagers - neither are bothered about Facebook - yet!!

The Big Red Bag will be coming to the trade show with me - filled with lovely goodies... It may even get into another photo. I'll post something up on my return.

Since I've decided that it is now autumn, I shall just go and put raincoat and boots in the van.

If you're coming to the show, do come and say hello - Stand 3 X19 - if not, why not leave a comment here so that I can see if anyone actually reads the blog!

Big Red Bag goes to Norfolk Show

On Tuesday this week I won the business card raffle, amazingly! and I won my Big Red Bag - more of this next time, but this is to show his first day out, up at the Norfolk Show yesterday. I think he enjoyed himself and thought he fitted in very well! He's packed and ready for another day there today, so here he is, and we must go:

Royal Norfolk Show

Plans are in place now for the Royal Norfolk Show next week. Not everything has gone quite according to plan, but being a flexible kind of girl I shall work with what I have. There's still lots to get ready, but the work looks great. I'm very pleased with some of the new designs, so let's hope the visitors will like my offerings.

There will be some special offers for the show (but they're still a secret) - and you can come and commission work too.

I'm hoping to go out and about with my camera - I always seem to take lots of photos of sheep!

Wedding penguins in action

I recently supplied some of my penguin wedding cards to a customer in Ireland, for a wedding in early June, where quirky was definitely considered good.
This is what she did to them, and I love it!
I love people to adapt, modify and write on the cards that I design - such great team work! And it's even better when they send me a picture of them.

You can see more of Mark's photography here

Drawing Trees

I decided that I needed time to myself away from the hustle and bustle of A level revision and business, so I booked myself onto a workshop to draw trees for a day - up near Acle in Norfolk. I had no idea what to expect, so just decided to enjoy, whatever.
It wasn't such a brilliant day in terms of weather, but we managed to get outside for a walk alongside some beautiful trees - mostly ash, and mostly magnificent - and we sat and sketched for a while. Then the rain came and we went back indoors.
Lunch was followed by some painting - poster paints, big brushes. Painting like I hadn't done for years, if ever really - very free and the results are not astounding, but it was such fun just pushing colour around the page - well, actually quite a few pages because I do have a tendency to work quickly.

And now it's back to the grindstone, because I don't think this is material for my greeting cards! But I do think I want to add more colour, so watch this space....

Scottie dogs

I've recently supplied some of my Scottie dog products to The Scottish Terrier Emergency Care Scheme and as I didn't know about them before thought I'd give them a mention on my blog. There seem to be lots of Scottie dog fans out there - I have friends who have recently moved out to France with their 3 and have since got a 4th one. We've had their Scotties to stay in the past, while they were away, and I have to say they are quite full of character and determination! The first thing Gordon did when he arrived for his weekend was to "mark his patch" by peeing up one of my boxes of greeting cards!! A bad start to our relationship, but we made friends later!
If you want to rehome a Scottie or have any Scottie dog queries, this would be a good place to start: www.stecs.net

I've got a movie clip of some puppies when they were just 36 hours old - if anyone can tell me what to do with the clip so that I can post it here, I'd be very grateful (at the moment it's 134MB and 1.15 minutes long - it's obviously way too big to be able to put on the web...)

In the mean time, here are a couple of photos:

Here's mum with the puppies at 36 hours old:




And these are 3 of the same puppies at 2 months:

And if you'd like to see some of my cards, giftbags and other gifts, have a look at my website and put Scottie dogs into the search box

Some new designs

I've had an excellent response to my advertising in The Lady which has been great. But it's brought it's own problems because many readers of the magazine don't use the internet, so I'm still having to produce printed catalogues - time consuming to keep up to date, and expensive. I really could do with help producing a decent mail order catalogue.... I need to do some more thinking here.

However, it is easy to put new greeting card designs up on the website which is just what I did yesterday. A few new designs came in from the printers yesterday morning including a few summery beach ones with seagulls and the popular little dogs, so they are now finished and up online. You can have a look here - I'd love to hear what you think, or if you have ideas for designs I should be doing. What am I not doing that you would like to see?

The Lady Magazine

The Lady Magazine has been in publication since 1885 - that's an amazing 124 years. It's current publisher and chief exec is Ben Budworth who is the great- grandson of the founder - that's amazing too, don't you think? A real family business.

In celebration of being almost 125, the magazine has had a make-over or a face lift - colour is in, amongst other things.

It's not a magazine that I've much looked at, I have to confess, although I do remember my mother and stepfather putting in adverts years ago when they had a little holiday cottage round the corner from them in Devon.

It's the place to look for all sorts of holidays or if you need a gardener or nanny - that's quite well known. But they are introducing additional headings for their classified columns such as fashion and home furnishings, arts crafts and gifts, entertainment. So that's where I will have an advert in the next issue - in the arts, crafts and gifts section.

And there are some interesting articles too - gardens, theatre, places to visit (even with some special offers), an article on taking care of your tax allowance.

And I might try their version of fish pie (it does look very similar to the recipe I use which my mum gave me - so who knows, she might have got the recipe from The Lady herself!). Fish pie is great in our house, simply because everyone enjoys it.

And I'm sure there must be many readers of the magazine who really love to send fabulous greeting cards...

Seriously responsible printing

Do you want to lessen the impact your business printing has on the environment?

I'm working with a great company in Norwich who are seriously environmentally friendly with their green and ethical printing business - not only do they use the latest technology to lessen the environmental impact, but they also bale you out when you get into a pickle (I speak from experience!)

So if you have a printing job, care for your environment, and want excellent customer care, contact them. They're called Seriously Responsible Print Ltd

New home page for the website

I would really appreciate comments on the new layout of my home page. There's now a slide show of some of my products - do you think the slide show is at the right speed? Is it of interest to you to see a range of products in this format?
I also now have a button to enable you to sign up for a newsletter and another to come here to my blog.
As a tiny thankyou for any useful comments, I will send you out a little sample - so do please email me separately to let me have a postal address: info@pennylindop.com

Thanks!
PS. The border terrier was the most popular breed for me at the Country Living Show, so here he is!

An Episode in the life of a primula plant

So I've just done the Country Living Magazine's Spring Fair, well a week ago now, and this is a little story about my primula plant that I took there.
I have a wonderful friend who came over to help me load the van before the show. She then went to our very brilliant local post office in Garboldisham (Norfolk) and found this very pretty primula plant - lots of flowers and lots of buds still to come, and a lovely orangey pinky colour. She bought it for my stand, so I dutifully put it by the front door along with my bag and the important show paperwork, just before leaving the house so that I wouldn't forget it.
It's obvious what would happen next, but I wasn't into the obvious at the time - the border collie sat on it!
Looking a bit sadder, it sat on the dashboard all the way to London.
At the show I tidied it up a bit and it spent 5 days under 12 spot lights, just like I did. We both wilted a bit.
But no end of customers admired it with comments like "I've never seen such a pretty primula; the colour is beautiful"
It must have listened to this because it looked great for the whole time - sorry, I forgot to take a photo
Then it got put in a crate along with other stuff for the journey home, and then of course it was forgotten until the crates got unpacked, which wasn't for a day or two.
A bit of water helped to revive the poor thing and deadheading.
But it's not happy - it's getting it's own back, because it's now just an ordinary yellow primula with not a sign of orangey pink left.
I guess it had been drugged!
And I'll continue to give it some tlc.

Online marketing strategy with networking opportunities

I attended a fantastic workshop yesterday on building an effective online marketing strategy up in Norwich. It was put on by takeITon and run by Derrick Cameron of Eximium. I came away with a really useful list of what I need to do for my online marketing. If you get a chance to go to any workshops run by Derrick, then I'd advise you go - clear plain English and lots of enthusiasm. You can actually view his seminar "Fight the credit crunch with IT" on the takeITon website

However, I sat next to Tessa Shepperson who runs www.landlordlaw.co.uk and thought I'd like to let more people know about her services and her website. This is an extremely useful website for landlords and tenants alike and, as I have a daughter about to embark on a few years at university, thought that this would be a useful site for all students and their parents to bookmark. It would be a good place to start if you need help with a tenancy agreement and the like.

I'm now off to Birmingham University with my daughter to visit the School of Government and Society. We'll have a look around the campus too which will be very odd for me as I went to Birmingham Uni way back in the 70's. I read Archaeology and Ancient History, and look at me now, designing greeting cards and prints!

Count Down to Country Living Spring Fair

The count down has started - 12 days to finish getting ready for the Country Living Spring Fair in Islington, London. Sounds quite a long time, until you make yourself a time table and fill in the slots and then realise there are not enough time slots to fit in what still needs to be done. But it always gets done, and I rarely work late into the nights (I just get up much earlier instead!)
I'm usually quite chaotic when it comes to organising my time in the studio, and usually find that I'm working on lots of things at once. The work surfaces get over cluttered, and when I need a piece of equipment I often can't find it because it's so well buried. So, I'm using these next 12 days to become more methodical and more organised. I'm determined to be calm, fit, rested and ready for the show so here is what I'm putting in place, and let's see if I get my intended results!:

• Divide each day into 3 slots, morning, afternoon and evening.
• Block in those times where I'm already committed to be away from the studio
• Set precise tasks for each of the other slots, but not so tightly that if one job takes longer than anticipated I get into a pickle
• Allow time for office admin tasks, checking email, fulfilling orders, etc but to be ruthless
  
• with the emails - delete those that really aren't relevant, reply immediately to those that need a reply.
• Take time out for short coffee breaks, meals and family
• Feel a great sense of achievement for each task done, and give myself a pat on the back (or a glass of wine, or whatever)

All you guys are probably really well organised and never find yourself playing solitaire or clicking interesting-looking links and the like - but when you work on your own it can be hard to be disciplined (and it can be dull too - clicking on those interesting-looking links can take you to some great places - but there's a time and place, I suppose)

And it's only for the next 12 days! And hey, if this works, I could try it again....!

Here are a couple of photos of a couple of our animals who make me laugh - Whisper is the border collie, and Stripe is the house rabbit. He's eating a brussel sprout stalk, by the way!

A little information on the Hebridean sheep

It's mid February already, and the sun is shining. My log cabin is much warmer and lighter today giving me a feeling that spring is on it's way. For me this is a time to clear out some old designs and some old raw materials, clean away the cobwebs a.nd piles of dog hairs from the corners. I'd love to be able to make more of the very small space that I have, but that will have to go on a wish list.

I've been reading through some of the comments from customers, and it's so interesting what you can learn. I'll share a couple with you here:

25 Jan is the Welsh Valentine, Santes Dwynewn, not February 14th

Rachel is a Hebrew name, meaning sheep or ewe

And talking of sheep, I've recently added a couple of Hebridean sheep designs to my sheep range of cards - well, they are black sheep and have horns.

The Hebridean breed, sometimes called the St Kilda sheep, is one of our rare breeds of sheep and can often be seen in nature reserves, parks and stately homes. They are a small breed of sheep that may well have died out if they had not been kept at such places. They are fine animals to look at with their dark fleece and horns - they are often multi-horned, usually with 4 horns - which is one of the reasons they have been a popular breed for stately homes.

The fleece is black or dark brown, often with grey tinges as they get older. It's a fairly course fleece, but nevertheless is popular with handspinners. It is often used in rug weaving.

They are related to other North European breeds such as Shetland, North Ronaldsay, Manx Loghtan and Icelandic. These breeds are all small and hardy, and thrive in poor condions.