Hello everyone ... It's been a hive of activity here. Since closing up for the Christmas break, I haven't stopped! I have happily been busy- making pastry ready for the freezer, sausage meat for Christmas Eve sausage rolls, and the Christmas Eve bread is proving. I am a huge fan of family traditions,  and Marc and I have brought both our families traditions to our own Christmas, as well as developing some new ones of our own.

There is something so satisfying in  old familiar traditions,  and it brings me so much happiness! The house is trimmed to an inch of its life, and even all the wrapping is done!

The table has been set all December ... it makes for festive dining for all of advent, but it also means I get to really enjoy the table setting for as long as possible before it gets demolished under a mountain of pigs in blankets on Christmas Day!

The fire kindling has started ... a few envelopes are in place ready, and tomorrow night I'll be lighting it to warm up the house.

Tonight though, will be a  easy pasta dinner, mince pies, and a large dose of Harry Potter- behind the magic!

Wishing you all a peaceful last few days in the lead up to Christmas.  See you soon!!

Moving websites and blogs has been a big step for me this year. I began my first website in 2010 and learned from scratch how to build one, albeit in a website creator....it was still a huge learning curve!! Towards the beginning of this year though I found the website just wasn't working out any more. I'd seen others use website creators like weebly and create, and aesthetically they were so much nicer. I also found that I needed a much clearer payment system with a straight forward way to allow folks to purchase. I also found this year my blog writing began to wane ... mostly I think down to the fact I was spread to thinly- upadating a website, a blog, twitter, tumblr, facebook, google plus and LinkedIn. So moving the website to a platform that allowed a blog too was important. 

So here we have it, a website with a blog, and I've been so happy!! I've used weebly which I have found easier and more straight forward to use, but also much more flexible than my previous website creator. I've still had to use my own Paypal buttons to create a cart system due to it being a US based company, but it certainly works much better and looks much slicker. I like that with weebly you can create your site using a simple drag and drop system- it makes for a much neater finish, which really matched up with my artwork well.

So 2014 will see me streamlining some more. I find social media invaluable for letting people find me, but I'd like this to be the primary place they come too, or where they end up via that social media. My business is so much more than any one social media outlet, so the website lets me create an online space that suits me perfectly!!

Weebly is so customisable with its buttons and widgets, that I think my new look website is unique to me, and reflects the clean and simple artwork that I create.  What's more, I've really enjoy building it- I like to sit with a cuppa and a biscuit or three and write and design :)  My only issue with it so far, is that to get the shopping cart system provided by weebly and use it with Paypal- in the UK, you have to have the most expensive package, despite getting 10 free items on the starter package that I am on- it wont work with Paypal if outside of the US and Canada.  I have still managed to make up my own with paypal buttons, but it is a drawback as a UK customer.