It’s been a while since I did a bit of a life update post, so here’s all the crafty and non crafty bits I’ve left our for the past 6 months or so!
Work and Side Hustles
I’ve been working a lot lately as my contracted hours have gone up. I work in a supermarket and there are quite a few surprising perks…like the free flowers above! They were past their display by date and would have been thrown away so I took a couple of bunches home and they lasted over a week.
I also get the odd ‘score’ in the free colleague section in the staff room…potatoes, bread, carrots, herbs…they all have best before yesterday dates on but most of the fruit and veg is still edible!
The downside to working more hours at my actual job of course, is that the side hustle side of things inevitably slows down a bit. But May was prolific!
After months of not being bothered or doing the bare minimum, May was like someone lit a fire up my ass and I was away!!
I started to write and post more regularly on Medium and the stats have definitely gone up over there because of it. I’ve been working on a second WordPress blog about writing, doing all the boring backend stuff like banners and logos etc. Now it’s just the actual content to finish before launching.
I even opened a new Print on Demand store on Zazzle a couple of weeks ago and yesterday I got a couple of things with my design on to test the products – a keyring and a tote bag. Boring but useful products!
They came from the US within a week and a half of ordering, which is really fast for both manufacturing and shipping and I love the picture quality on both products. Sometimes when you print on fabric the design can get a little blurry, but not this time! Zazzle is looking to be the best platform so far.
The daylight is a bit weird so the light isn’t the best in the photo! But I’ve used it for shopping already!
Zazzle has hundreds of products with the ability for the customer to personalise the designs which is unusual, so I still need to do a bit more research on that one, but the shop is live now. I also figured out how to put one of my designs on the sidebar of this blog. I mean, am I technical or what?!
As for my other print on demand sites...Society 6 has 44 designs as opposed to 12 at the beginning of May, and RedBubble has over 300 although that needs a thorough sort out!
So, print on demand is going well!
Some Random Garden and Plant Pics
And it was my parents wedding anniversary this month – a big one! So, naturally, they got lots of flowers!
My cactus that I called Mr Whippy (after a type of ice cream in the UK) has nearly doubled I size since I bought him. He’s a Cereus Forbesii Spiralis if you’re interested…and just look at the Mammillaria below it – my babies are having babies now!!
Books
I’m slowly getting through my to read pile.
I’ currently reading Walden and Side Hustle In Progress. Recently I finished Design Your Lief andBird By Bird with Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg finished at the end of April.
BUT… I bought another one yesterday, so as the pile diminishes, so does it accumulate!
I bought The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins. I read The God Delusion by him a couple of years ago and the language was so hard to read…so many big words, lol! This looks easier and more interesting!
So, that makes the current To Read List as follows:
- The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
- The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins
- Side Hustle In Progress by Elizabeth Ogabi
- On Writing Well by William Zinser
- Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Knitting and Crochet and Sewing
I finished a blanket in the previous post, but I’ve not been crafting an awful lot thanks to doing a lot on the writing and designing side of things.
I have a few balls of neon yarn left from previous projects and a little bit from this project so I might just do a few more granny squares and see where that takes me.
You can’t really go wrong with a granny square can you?!
I want to finish a couple of projects so I can make a start on some summer knitting, but I have no motivation to craft at the minute…it’s writing and reading, but that’s OK as it comes in waves, doesn’t it?
Priorities
Pinterest is something I’ve let slide in the past few months. Considering it’s such a useful tool for side hustles, it’s a shame I did neglect it, but you know what? I find it both easy and awkward!
Easy to create and schedule pins in Canva and the whole uploading process isn’t difficult, it’s just it seems to take ages to get anywhere. Followers mean nothing as it’s more about trends and what people are searching for.
So, Pinterest is a priority for me in June and July.
As is knitting a summer top! I have a couple of vest patterns for cotton yarn – see below.
And I really want to finish a leather handbag that I started dying a few years ago, but just never got around to sewing it together!
And sewing! Gotta get back into sewing somehow!
This has sort of caught you all up on stuff.
There’s always more planned than I have time to do, never enough crafting time!!
But right now, it’s writing and print on demand that’s the main focus, not crafting.
But I’m sure I’ll get back into knitting and crochet soon!
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Woolly Orbit 