Meet the Trainee Website Designer!

Yes Me!  As of about 4.30pm today when I handed over my credit card details to Computeach.  I've just signed up for a distance learning course to become a Certified Internet Webmaster.  So today is the first step to getting myself a brand new career. 

It should take about a year (they say!) - I'm hoping that I'll be qualified by the time my son starts at nursery - a year doesn't seem long to become a webmaster but I think maybe it's just the term webmaster that's freaking me out! Watch out spidey!

(Image from here)

I went on maternity leave in November 2003 (can't believe it's been so long) and haven't had a full time job since - the most I've worked is 20hrs a week and not doing anything particularly stretching. I've been thinking for ages what I want to do and I keep coming back to freelance web design every time. I need a job that will grow with me and is portable in case we relocate at any point, which is always a likelihood.  I have a passion for research, writing and design and I'm fairly technically minded so I think it will be perfect for me. I have a completely unused degree in architecture too which is all about conceptual design principles. When I was designing buildings during my degree, I really enjoyed that you could lead people on a journey through a space and that's how I see great websites, visual clues and hints to help you explore a site in a predetermined way, albeit in 2 dimensions.

Anyway, enough fantisising about 6 figure salaries (junior web designers earn naff all, so part time junior web designers probably don't exist!) I'm fairly certain that this course (given it's only a year long) will be pretty basic stuff, and I've already got the heebiejeebies about it having watched what looked like a 17yr old talk about their experiences on their website, she didn't look like the shiniest button I've ever seen.   It's alot of money, but I'd like the confidence of being able to say I have an industry recognised qualification when I set up my own freelance design business. I'm fairly sure I could learn it all from books but I want the security that they offer with regard to recruitment etc in case my dreams of freelance get scuppered by my mortgage interest going up. 

I'm really excited about being able to redesign Craft Blog UK as a website too - it will be awesome...   but in a year or so!  I'll keep you posted about how my coursework is going, please tell me if I'm turning into a geek!  I'm going to go and make myself a new pencil case now and buy a tonne of notepads! I love being a student again already, is it beer o clock yet! 

Video! Bead Kit and Easter Bunnies Wristlet

Here is a video of a Haptree Beadkit so you can see all the little bits inside :o)

Would love to know what you all think!

Beautiful Things

I received the most wonderful surprise gift in the post today from a fantastic folksy seller, she ran a competition on twitter

Lovely packaging!
Very Cute label!


Wow - a Pinny - It's fab!


The stitching is perfect on this sweet little pocket!  Would show you what it looks like on but I'm not feeling very photogenic today - I will wear it next time I'm baking cookies with a 50's up do :o)


Please visit this lovely (and very generous) lady's shop here - http://www.folksy.com/shops/artyfartymack
and her blog here http://beautifulthingsbyclaire.blogspot.com/ and don't forget to follow her on twitter, you never know when she may be feeling generous again! @ClaireMackaness

Jewellery Roll

I made up this jewellery roll a few weeks ago - it was a commision and although it came just at the same time as my CBuk stuff was all going on so I was worried it took too long but I really enjoyed designing it and making it up.  I'd never made a jewellery roll befor and I was really keen not to be influenced too much by what other people had made already, so I made it up in paper, then made a mock up in some old material I had before finally getting it just right! 

My lovely customer, Gail from Florio Designs at Folksy who I met at a fair last December, kept assuring me she had no deadline but still I hate to have things waiting in my to do list for too long and unlike computer work my sewing needs my complete, undistracted  attention (which is a rare occurance!)

 

I was given a great brief with lots of detail about which sections were needed (there are lots) and yet it was broad enough to give me a really free hand.  I wanted it to be recognisable as a 'haptree' creation so I incorporated an internal purse and for the ring holder I used one of my lobster clips.  I also used the same method I use for making straps as a way of controlling pendants, they can wrap around or be clasped around it and then are tucked into a little padded pocket.  Gail also told me she liked cats, and I had just enough of this Japanese material left!  She liked it and left me some really lovely feedback via folksy so I'm really chuffed!

I don't know if you can see from the photos but my camera has developed a little blurry blob - so I'm going to have to take it apart and clean it out, it has had one too many trips to the beach I think! (Oh how I need a new camera!)

If you would like a jewellery roll then please let me know - I'm also thinking of writing up the pattern as a PDF, although with all the little sections and pockets it's going to be quite a task!

Folksy Friday Mini Treasury - Sugar and Spice...

...and all thing nice

Here come the girls!  A selection of very girly and pink items from some of Folksy's most talented artists and crafters.  Dollies, handbags, flowers, softies, ribbons and a bit of fru fru - girls don't stop being girls just because they grow up!  Add these shops to your favourites so you'll know just what to buy next time you are in the pink!

  

Images are clickable for more details!  Have a lovely weekend - I will as it's my birthday tomorrow and Mothers day on Sunday! :o)

Folksy Friday Mini Treasury - Dust off your Wellies...

...time to sort out the garden!

It's March now and it's definitely getting warmer and lighter, so no more excuses, give the greenhouse a thorough spring clean and start preparing your seed beds! I've been growing veg and gardening for a few years now and March is always the time of year when I am most enthused about getting my plot in shape for this years growing season but there is so much to do!

All of the items above are handmade by sellers from www.folksy.com an artisan marketplace based in the UK.  Please click the images for further details. I'd love to hear your comments about my selection this week!

To all of you with twitter accounts!

I'm looking for gardening types to follow on twitter having had a lovely chat about this years growing season this morning with a few folksy sellers @maggie1981 and @wellydogdesigns - please recommend some if you can! I wonder if Monty Don tweets?  

Feedback, Cillit Bang and Handmade Marketing

I have a daily struggle between my 'to do' list and my 'what I want to do' list - I suppose that's the same for everybody.  I've been working really hard over the last few weeks to get the new blog up and running, including starting a fan page on facebook - it's starting to tick over nicely though and I can begin getting back to normality, or just marginally less hectic anyway.  My house needs a bit of TLC and perhaps some cillit bang here and there - so it's back to the to do list and not so much of the what I want to do list (boooooo!)

Last week I sold this purse which has been like an old friend to me as I've used this image in lots of publicity because I love the graduated background - the buyer left me some great feedback , she said   

Lovely quality, very impressed. Thank you!  

No, thank you! For me feedback is by far the most important part of the sale and when I see my feedback number has gone up by one I have to half look away as I click, it's a bit like getting exam results - you know you've done okay but it doesn't stop you getting that heart sinking feeling that something may have gone terribly wrong and that ecstatic leaping about when you find out you got an A+ ! If any buyers of handmade goods are reading you are now aware of the power you wield just by writing a simple sentence!

Late last night I had a google alert to let me know that Handmade Marketing had featured me in a new post! See it here.  I sent them the details some time ago but they were on hiatus and said they'd be back - and now they are!  It's a great site absolutely packed with tips, mostly from etsy sellers - well worth delving into if you have a spare few hours and if you don't then follow them on twitter - they send out a bunch of tweets with every new article they publish so you wont miss a thing.

It was a post I wrote a few months back when they introduced twitter lists onto twitter - I was talking about Listorious and Twibes and also mentioned 6 links that had just about everything you needed to know about twitter. (talking of lists don't forget my folksy and CBuk twitter lists!)

Take a look at the article and please do comment if you have a minute as that will mean I may get more articles published by them!!!

Thanks for reading today, f you sell handmade, what's the best feedback you've ever had - why not cut and paste it into a comment for me and link back to your shop if you have one :o)