I used to be...............................

such a busy blogger. Then one or two things happened. My husband retired and the most important members of my family moved "Down Under" to Victoria, Australia; I opened an Etsy Shop, I got a facebook page and the blogs more or less got forgotten. Posting became sporadic or not at all. I'm hoping to change all that.


The biggest time consumer by far is the Etsy Shop (the Retired Husband is number 2!). Although I've made more than 100 sales since I started it in 2008 and one or two people have liked my work enough to collect five or six dolls apiece Etsy has changed since floating on the stock market and allowing people to contract out their design work and I have become more than a little disenchanted with it. Because the number of views declined and sales slumped I found I was spending my time making things that I thought would sell, rather than exploring and experimenting and making things that I liked.  It was becoming a job and I wasn't enjoying it any more. So I've put the shop on holiday for while, hoping to catch up on some of the things I've been missing.


There are some repairs to make here, where I have noticed that I've started to blog about making an item and haven't included a picture of the finished piece.


I used to really enjoy taking part in various internet challenges that came along - I haven't done that for a while.


I used to be a regular contributor to the Art Dolls Only Group, now I'm a straggler.


The only embroidery I've done for some time now has been on dolls - no experimental pieces at all, I aim to change that.


It's been far too long since I picked up coloured pencils and worked on a painting.


If it was New Year, I would say these are my resolutions - let's see what happens!