Well...

...Things haven't gone as planned.

I said in my last post, sometime last week that I would blog on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and would do site maintenance stuff on Sundays. Then I got sick. And now it's a Thursday. Oops. But here I am. A bit less sick, and a bit more bored.

I work in a school, and that means that I've just started my six week holiday. Well, it's actually five and a half, but who's counting?! On Monday I did nothing other than be ill. On Tuesday I braved up and went to my lovely friend's house and met her kitten and did a bit of knitting. Nothing to show you though - although there will be soon. Yesterday I helped a friend pack up her stuff to move house and then had date night with my boy. Today, though.... Today..... I have discovered Pinterest. Oh my giddy goodness. What an amazing resource this is! I've spent nearly an hour straight just looking at 'stuff' and feeling inspired. I actually got my invitation earlier this week, but have been to ill to have a proper look at it. I love it! I'm still working out how it works, but I've seen a lot of buzz about in the blogging world lately and I'm eager to use it properly. I've found a few people I know, and started following a few people I don't know, but for me, I think its best use or potential is going to be that I can collect all my 'inspirations' together on one page, with pictures! I have folders and folders of bookmarks in my toolbar, which tend to get ignored, but I think pinterest might change that.

I'm going to have a play and come back later.

I hope you're planning on joing the pinterest gathering - looking forward to sharing with you!

x x

ivylou.com is a go!

I am very excited to announce that www.ivylou.com is now live and ready for action!

This has been a long journey for me, and I know that it is only just starting. I have lots of people to thank, and be grateful for, and I hope I have given all these people credit where it has been due.

Someone who has not had enough credit is my Boy. He has put up with my whinging that 'such and such won't work' and 'so and so doesn't do what I want it to do', along with me spending more money than I probably should have done buying things to make things with, to put on the site. He has been patient and helpful, and loving, and he makes the best cups of tea in the whole world. :) I love you, my Boy.

I plan to post on Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays, and to do site maintenance on Sundays. I will hopefully be able to respond to emails asap and get orders out as soon as they come in. (Thanks to my new job meaning I have every afternoon off!)

I'm looking forward to meeting you all and hearing your thoughts and opinions. Please let me know if you have any ideas/suggestions/corrections/questions/thoughts etc. My email address is info@ivylou.com or you can get in touch via facebook and twitter.

Take care, and thanks for joining me on the journey!

x x x

3, 2, 1... Lift off!

I'm good to go!

This is SUPER exciting.

Last night (Monday) I put together my hard-copy portfolio to show a few people who have asked for it at work. That was exciting enough. What is more exciting though is that I am now ready to launch the site! It will have to be a job for tomorrow, emailing everyone, etc, but I can't wait!

:D

Eeee!!! Here's looking forward to seeing you soon.



x x

Goals

So, as I’m so close to being able to launch ivylou.com I thought I’d write myself a blog post to put on record the things I wanted to achieve this year, kind of as a record to look back to.

Back in January of this year, 2011, on the way home from a tutorial for my Open University course, I wrote a list of ‘Things I Want To Achieve – 2011.’ Something like this is particularly uncharacteristic of me, as although I’m a goals-orientated person, I have never in the past seriously stuck to any kind of resolution I have made. However, calling them ‘things I want to achieve’ seems to change my mindset, and not only was I excited about it at the time, I’m still excited about them now. Here they are:

• Knit a piece of clothing
• Start blogging on ivylou.com
• Make prototypes for shop items
• Learn more calligraphy
• Use sewing machine more
• Hand-make more gifts than I buy
• Develop a ‘style’ for ivylou.com
• Find a handwriting style I like
• Cook more ‘new’ savoury dishes
• Watch more musicals (one a month?)
• Read more fiction books (one a month?)
• Become qualified as a proof-reader
• Finish audio-Bible.

Not a bad list really. Some realistic goals in there, and some bizarre ones (…I hate my handwriting!) and some just darn sensible ones.

Here’s my progress so far…

• I crocheted a slouch hat, which I gave to my friend, thanks to a free pattern from Gleeful Things: clicky
  I picked a pattern for a jumper that I like, although I have faaaaaar too many jumpers already, and I’m not sure I have the will power to take on such a huge undertaking. I think I’ve decided I’m more of a crocheter. I have knitted some bunting for a new-born baby though. 
• Here is evidence of the blogging!
• I have made a few things for the shop, but I’m not completely happy with them; they need a bit more tweaking before I’m ready to make them public.
• I have dabbled in calligraphy – I bought myself a few nice pens and nibs and inks and played around a bit – still a long way to go!
• I use my sewing pretty much at least once a week. I don’t do an awful lot (although I snapped three needles in 15 minutes yesterday!) but I fiddle around with bits and pieces. I bought a free-hand embroidery foot – oh, the fun!!
• I have yet to buy a gift for someone this year! :D I bake a lot of the gifts I give, but I think that’s acceptable!
• I’m definitely still working on the style for ivylou.com, but I’m learning a lot in the process
• No further forward on the handwriting.
• Also not that much further with the savoury dishes. As you’ll soon learn I spend a HUGE amount of my time baking sweet goodies.
• I have been very disciplined with the musicals! So far this year I have watched ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ ‘Evita,’ ‘Wizard of Oz,’ ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,’
• I haven’t done quite so well with the fiction books, mostly because I’ve been studying so much for my course. I’m hoping now that that’s over for a few months I can catch up. I have though read ‘Beloved’ and ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ and most of a couple of non-fiction books: ‘Return of the Prodigal Son’ and ‘The Inner Life.’ I’m currently reading ‘The Robe’ by Lloyd Douglas, at the request of my father-in-law, and I’m enjoying it. I started reading ‘Watership Down’ a few months ago, but I just couldn’t get into it. My housemate has told me I have to read ‘The Go-Between’ by L P Hartley, but it will have to wait a while! There is never any end of books to read in the house of ivylou, what with me and my husband both being book-geeks (with me being a Humanities and Literature student, and him being a student of Philosophy) and now the arrival of our housemate who also loves literature. I am spoilt for choice!
• I am very close to becoming a qualified proof-reader, but no closer than I was when I wrote the list. Again, now that the OU course is over until October, I hope to fit this in over the summer.
• And I’ve made it from Genesis to Mark with the Bible. The New Testament is so much cooler than the old.

So there we are. You can all hold me to account to my goals now. I shall continue to post updates about them every now and again, or when something substantial happens.

But for now, I shall sign off. Tomorrow is a busy day, and I don't even know if I have to go to work yet!

See you soon, 

x x x