Made, Listed, Sold - all in one day!

Well! Talk about speedy turn-round! I made the second of my funky "Nonsense" paper mini-books this morning.  After lunch I set up my little white photo-box and took pictures of it, then I listed it on my Etsy shop in the afternoon.  I spent some time updating photos in my shop, as some were really rather rubbish and my new box means I can replace the bad ones with better quality images (yay!).

I went down for tea at about 6pm, with 29 items for sale in my shop.  When I came back and logged on to see my e-mails at 7pm - the book was Sold! Amazing! That is definitely my quickest sale ever.  It's really rather exciting.  So I now have to package it nicely and head for the post office, to send it on its way to Wyoming in U.S.A. I hope its new owner will be very pleased with her purchase (as pleased as I am to sell it to her!). Cheers, lovely customer!

I think I will make another of these tonight. I still have enough papers to make at least one more, with a few modifications to the original design.  The nice thing about making books is that each one is different, even when I make several "the same"!  Every person who gets one of my books has a unique item.  I really like to think about that - it makes me feel special! I also love to give my books to people, especially ones I have designed and made specially for that person.  I made several as presents last year and it gives me a great feeling to make someone a special item, just for them. I get the same feeling if I make someone a scrap album or layout too.

I need to get organised, as I have loads of book ideas buzzing round my head! I'm also going on a course in 2 weekends' time. I need to sort out what I want to take with me, in terms of materials to create my book. It's so exciting!

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Other Stuff from Today

I was logging on with the intention of posting about my day.  I took a couple of photos of the garden birds, which are quite nice, so I will post those. 

Our garden has been thronged with birds this week.  We put out seed, mealworms and fresh water, which they appreciate very much.  Yesterday and today I also grated a chunk of cheese (cheap cheese!) and put that out as well, to give the poor chilly birds a bit of energy value. 

We have watched in amazement, this last week to 10 days, as the number of Blackbirds in the garden has gone up, and up, and up... Usually, the most Blackbirds you'll see in the garden will be two, except when there are fledglings being fed in Summer.  They are very, very terratorial and will chase other blackbirds - in fact any other birds at times - and even fight them, to preserve their territory.  They will only tolerate a mate, during the time they are starting and raising a family. Then they go back to the "one bird per territory" rule!

Well... about 2 weeks ago, Mr. Blackbird began to court a lady Blackbird.  She was a bit unsure at first, but soon came round to the idea that he might be her Ideal Husband.  She was further convinced when a couple of other females came hopping around and chased Her Mr Blackbird round the garden! She chased them away very fiercely.  We watched all this with amusement. 

So 10 days ago, there were up to 4 blackbirds in our garden - three females and one very harrassed male! 

Then it snowed. More birds came to the garden to feed and we put out more food for them.  More blackbirds appeared - mostly females - and were chased by Mr. & Mrs. Blackbird.  However, they stayed around and Mr & Mrs were a bit more tolerant.  It's interesting that the birds do share more when the weather is bad - so long as there is plenty to eat anyway!

Gradually, over the last week, the number of Blackbirds has gone up... two, four, six, seven, nine... yesterday there were 10 and we were amazed. 

Today I counted 18 blackbirds, of both sexes, eating seed and drinking water, in our garden!  It's almost as if the local Blackbirds have decided to host their annual conference on our lawn! We are gobsmacked! 

Sadly, I haven't been able to photograph this amazing thing. Firstly, my camera battery ran out when I did try.  Secondly, they just don't keep still!  They hop and flap all over the place, chasing each other away and dodging about.  They sit in the trees, watching for a chance to nip down and snatch a quick snack..  But they do not all sit nicely, waiting for me to say "Now then, Group Shot, please.  Say 'Birdseeeeeed'!" 

Maybe they will tomorrow.... Meanwhile -

A starling and a greenfinch snatching a few snacks at our seed feeder.

These two lovely goldfinches were eating Niger (thistle seeds) as fast as they could, before the starlings chased them away.

We are so lucky with our bird visitors.  Yesterday there was a Blackcap in the garden! We have never seen one before.  We think it has come South because it's so cold further North just now. Or else it lives quite happily in some local woodland, but was hoping to find a few snacks in the village gardens.  They do live all over Britain - according to our RSPB Birds book - but we have never seen any before.  There was also a Pied Wagtail (one of those cute little black, grey & white birds, with long white-barred tails, that they waggle up & down).  They don't come very often either.

The Redwings are still regular visitors.  There are usually four now, who we think must have decided to stick around for the winter. I did take a couple of photos, but they never come close enough to the house and the photos are too blurry to bother with really.  Just a brownish blob on the grass or tree!

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J's school was closed again today.  He was less pleased about this when we got a text message from school, to say the children could pick up some Maths, English and Science work from school, or the school website!  He was quite good about trying to do some work this morning though, then he went out to play snowballs with some friends.  He came back for lunch, then was off again, with his sledge.  Later on he turned up, all tearful.  It seems that he and the other boys had piled snowballs up on the sledge, but some other boys had ambushed them, stolen the sledge and thrown all the snowballs at them.  J. was pretty miserable about it, as they were hurting him and wouldn't stop.  He had managed to retrieve his sledge, but obviously felt that home was the best idea.  Poor man! I gave him a warm drink and a pep-talk and he was soon okay again.  His dad was home by that time too - supposed to go to a meeting in London, but no trains for his colleague and ours were all delayed. Dad gave J. some moral support and he's fine now.  I suppose the other boys were a bit over-excited.  They probably didn't mean to hurt anyone, but it was a bit much for J. to handle. His two friends arrived to check he was okay and then they went off home too (D. had bumped his nose on the slide - unrelated incident - and it was growing a fine bruise. I sent them in search of a parent with an ice-pack!).  So, J. and his friends have all had an exciting sort of day!

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Sherlock thought his day was looking up too....

"You got a new Cat-Tent!"

I had to tell him, kindly, that this was not his new bed, but an Important New Piece of Business Equipment.  He wasn't impressed by that - cats don't care about business. He doesn't even care that I sold a book today, in record time. But we love him anyway.

He has just come into my room, to ask what I'm doing... he has found the photo-box, partly folded, under the desk and has sniffed it hopefully... Now he's having a wash - I expect he'll settle down on my "guest chair" and go to sleep.  Love that daft old cat!

I'm off to cut the men's hair... D. starts his new job on Monday and wants to be presentable. Just now, if he's not careful, he bears rather a resemblance to the Boss in the old Dilbert cartoons!  (In case you don't know what I mean, you can see Dilbert and his Boss here). J's doing a good imitation of Cousin It just now too... so the clippers are comin' out! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Bye all! Mind the Snowballs!