Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey*

*or Timeline in Facebook speak! Had to get the geeky quote in there :)

Now I'm not one to normally embrace technology but knowing that on Facebook personal pages are moving to timeline on the 11th March and business pages from the end of March I thought I would be proactive and get off my backside and make the changes to my pages before they were forced upon me.

This is my personal Facebook page :) I'm loving the huge picture that you can now get at the top (technical term is cover) and this one of me and the girls was taken by my friend Susan from East Lancashire Photography.

And this is my Swirlyarts page! Illustrated by some of my upcycled stickers :) Feel free to pop over and 'like'

And of course the Cuteable facebook page needed a makeover too. The cover picture is one of mine at the moment but it will be changing on a weekly basis with pictures from the Flickr group.

So today I have been embracing technology. What have you been doing?

The slides from my talk about social media

I'm only including the ones that are relevant for social media - not the ones that contained details about me or any of the screenshots I took for demonstration purposes. There are lots of slides - be warned!

And below is a slide talking about how I personally use social media to help my craft business.

Obviously these are only rough outlines and I actually spoke about each site and how it can be used effectively in more detail (not including Facebook as I don't use it much!) I'm not going to include my notes but if you do have any questions then let me know in the comments and I will get back to you. Not for a few days though as I am stepping away from the computer for a bit to catch my breath. Never fear though as there are posts scheduled for you :)

And I must say a big thank you to my husband, Matt for doing all the hard work of putting the slide together for me. It would have just been me talking otherwise - thanks Matt :)

Links to help you promote your business using social/online media

Here are the list of sites I promised you all at the presentation last night - even if you weren't there then you might find these links helpful for using social media to promote :) The actual slides of my presentation should be up tomorrow!

Craft Juice http://www.craftjuice.com/

Crafts Forum http://www.craftsforum.co.uk/

My blog http://www.swirlyarts.blogspot.com/

My Website http://www.swir.ly/

Cuteable http://cuteable.com/

Etsy http://www.etsy.com/

Folksy http://www.folksy.com/

Flickr http://www.flickr.com/

Cuteable group on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/cuteable/

Craft Juice Tutorial http://swirlyarts.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-use-craft-juice-tutorial.html

Me on Twitter http://twitter.com/swirlyarts

Me on Formspring http://www.formspring.me/Swirlyarts

Haptree - great for lots of advice about tweaking and improving your online presence. http://haptreeandme.blogspot.com/

Rachel Lucie - a great tutorial for how to grab an Etsy Treasury. http://rachelluciejewellerydesigns.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-make-etsy-treasury.html

Google Alerts http://www.google.com/alerts

Kirsten also sent me this link to how to use google analytics effectively. Here is a link to google analytics too!

If I said I would look something up and link to it and it's not included here then let me know in the comments - these are the only notes I made! And this last link isn't social media but it was requested.

UK Scrapstore Directory http://www.childrensscrapstore.co.uk/Uk%20Directory%20of%20Scrapstore.htm

Whooo hooooo - some evidence of craft activity!

Can you believe it? I was so tired this week after the manic panic of the past few weeks with fairs and orders and madness that I haven't been creating much. And admittedly these items were made during that period of madness but have actually been listed rather than languishing in the 'to put onto Etsy/Folksy/Misi shop' folder I have on Flickr!

Some cute Hippo recycled gift tags - they are cuter in person! I also have the covers from this book turned into a small notebook if you know someone who likes hippos! No photograph of the notebook though yet.

Around the House gift tags (set 1) These are great and came from a vintage word book. There are some great illustrations :)

And Around the House set 2 gift tags - from the same word book as above.

That's all so far although there are many items to be listed yet - hopefully next week when I cut back on the Cuteable posts for a little while! 3 a day this week has been tiring me out!

Fair review

Morning! Phew, the fair on Saturday was fairly busy and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I also made the most money I have ever made at a fair so I was doubly pleased!

Here's me on my stall - again I have tweaked it a little as it was slightly smaller than I was anticipating so not everything was put out. I think it looked good though and lots of people admired it :)

As well as selling well I also got the chance to meet up with some fellow crafty people that I 'know' online. Kirsten from Quernus Crafts makes the cutest little polymer clay creatures and she also took the photograph of me above. I also bought some of her things but they are presents so I can't show you - not that the recipients of the presents read my blog but the girls sometimes look at the pictures, if you catch my drift!

I also met up with Tracy from Ruby Spirit Designs, Mich from My Furoshiki, Leigh from Leigh Shepherd Designs and Rachel from Rachel Lucie who were all lovely :) I have also written a feature on the fellow crafters I met at the fair over on Cuteable, including some not mentioned above, so go and check the posts out!

La Pomme Stories

I have admired the work of Apol from La Pomme for a while and I read her blog too. I really like her other shop too La Pomme Sories where she writes beautiful fairy stories and turns them into gorgeous handmade books and cards that are then collaged. I was thrilled the other day to buy one of her fabulous pieces of work - I've tried before and they always sell out very quickly! I bought a Fairy tales for Children zine (there is one left if you are quick) and it is wonderful.

On the cover and in the book itself are pictures drawn by children from the early 1960's interspersed with the fairy tales themselves. The fairy tales are Petit Pierre, Jasmine, Lulu Leloup, Gustave, Loud Witch, The White Owl and Pale Berries. There is also a cute little sewn in bookmark with a charm attatched at the end - you can see the car at the end of the bookmark in the photograph in above.

And the attention to detail is fabulous - this is the back of the zine and features signatures of the children who drew the original pictures in the '60's.

Also included was this pocket fairy tale greetings card. I have featured Apol on Cuteable a few
times before (and who can blame me!) and this was included to say thank you - isn't that brilliant!* I'm not going to use it as a card though - it will be framed to go up with the artwork on my craft room wall!

The fairy tale is about Hale and Hearty Gardeners first Grandaughter and is quite sad and scary - just like traditional fairy tales are. Did you know that Little Red Riding Hood was actually a cautionary tale about going off with strange men (the Wolf) and what would happen if they did? I learnt that when training to be a teacher!

*I just have to say that I don't solicit things from people I feature on Cuteable and I get lots of offers of things to say thank you but I very rarely take them up. Matt thinks I'm mad for not taking the offers but I don't feature people on Cuteable for what I will gain, I feature them because I like to spread the word about gorgeous handmade goodies.

Curtain!

Our bathroom has been in need of a curtain for a while as since the bathroom renovation the toilet has moved closer to the window! I didn't want anything heavy as the light that comes through the window is great. I grabbed a fabric sample book from Sams the other day (before the start of use what you have month!) and it had some fabulous sheer voile in it. Matt and I pulled the books to pieces which was very hard work with industrial glue and staples but we managed it in the end. And I'm glad we did as I would normally have cut the fabric and made it a lot smaller. As it turns out 6 squares are just the right size to cover the window!

I had to hang the curtain over the towel rail as the light coming through the window was too harsh and the colours didn't show through. It's also on it's side!

And this was my workspace this afternoon - the front step! I took advantage of our wireless internet and the fabulous sunshine to write some Cuteable posts.

And it's not a bad view I had either! The girls were playing and Matt was reading - I could get used to this weather!

Phew - busy busy me!

I am very very busy at the moment with tidying the house (yep still doing it!) and with trying to keep up with posting 3 times a day over on Cuteable. I am determined to do it though and having 'themes' for each weekday is making it slightly easier. So I am going to be a little boring on here until I get into the swing of things but rest assured I will still be posting. It may not be very exciting but I will still be posting :) Here is something to cheer you up - a picture of me wearing stripey tights on Sunday. And yes I did go out wearing the outfit, much to the amusement of some people in the pub. Don't care though as I got a huge dessert to bring home - it was my birthday weekend after all!

And yes I do realise that I look scared in the photograph - not sure why - and that I seriously need to do something with my hair!

Another treasury

But one I have made!

It's called Cute Overload! and I have cheated a bit as it is also up as one of my Cuteable posts for today! I'm off ouut now to drop off 2 more bags to the charity shop - I like this tidying up malarkey!! Oh and I meant to say yesterday that I went to drop some stuff off at Sams and I didn't buy anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was very restrained :)

Cuteable giveaway

As I'm sure many of you know I also (alongside being a busy mum and crafter!) run a website called Cuteable. At the moment I am having a huge giveaway on there featuring a basket chock full of fabulous handmade goodies from UK crafters. You can find out more details here and feel free to blog, tweet and generally shout about it everywhere!

This is one of the items we will be giving away - a Mrs Flower from Peggy Crafts. Aren't they adorable??

Treasury!

I love making treasuries!! This one features lots of colourful Christmas items from the Crafting In Colour team.

The link is here if you fancy giving it some love and clicks! This is going to be my last blog post until the new year as we are going to be away with no internet connection!! I'm not sure how I will cope but I'm sure I will :) Cuteable will be updated while I am away (pre planned posts) so if you need something to read then head over there. See you in the new year xx

Too tired!

...to do a proper blog post as I have been out shopping all day and I have a Cuteable post still to do so I will see you tomorrow and can show you some of the goodies I bought!

Here's a sneaky peek though just to keep you interested :)

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I don't know if you know but October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and over on Cuteable I am doing a themed post every day. If you have any pink things to share then email them to me at contact AT cuteable DOT com and I will do my very best to feature them :) Just put pink somewhere in the title so that I can tag it accordingly. And of course here is some of my pink :)

On my desk....on a Wednesday

I'm afraid it's very boring today as I have to crack on and get some Cuteable posts written and things listed in my Etsy, Dawanda and Folksy shops. So no creating for me today but lots of computer watching instead.


Hopefully there will be more inspiring things on my desk next week!

Aaaaah - Cuteable down!

We think it's a server issue as we can't even log in the C panel section on our hosting thingy (see I'm technical me!) I'm not even sure if people from Cuteable check here but I think I'll add something to Cuteable in the future so that people will know where to check if Cuteable goes down. Phew - hope that makes sense!! We are raising a ticket with the hosting company and we'll see if that gets us anywhere!
Fingers crossed it will be back soon!

Update at 6.20 - a card on the server is faulty and they are replacing it - lets hop it doesn't take too long!

Update at 8pm - it seems to be back now - yeah!! just don't breath on it because it might break again!

Celebration and competition!

To celebrate getting 1,000 members into the Cuteable Flickr group I am having a giveaway over on the Cuteable blog. Just leave a comment over there by Friday 4th April at 8pm (British Summer Time) with a chance to win some Swirlyarts goodies!