Blog hop

Have you seen the recent blog hop doing the rounds? I been reading many of them popping up on my reader and finding out a little more about what makes each other tick.
Some of us have been following each other for well over a year and I know we’d like to think we know a little about each other. It’s difficult not to let what goes on in our daily lives spill over into our blog. And in my opinion, so it should.

But there are more recent readers who might like filling in with a little ‘back story’.
It is to my shame that I have been nominated by three bloggers to take part in the blog hop. But it is only until now that I have found half an hour (made the effort) to write this.
My nominators are
Jenny from Iamsimplyhooked, who embarrassingly nominated me back in June, pens a wonderful colourful crochet blog.

Dave of espressococo. Dave is a friend of mine who I went to for advice when I was first thinking about starting up my blog. At a time when I felt a bit foolish about wanting to write about I love to do, Dave made me feel not so daft. Dave is a writer, photographer, coffee-lover, cyclist, bookworm, juggler and stationery geek who blogs about anything and everything.

My most recent nomination was from Sam of StitchedUpBySamantha. I met Sam at the Minerva Crafts blogger weekend. We’ve followed each other ever since. Sam writes a dressmaking blog. Blogging since 2012, her makes bare the signs of many, many years of sewing. My type of dressmaking blog.

And now to down to the business of answering the blog hop questions.

What are you working on at the moment?
I like to have a bit of everything going on. I like my selfish projects when I indulge myself squirreled away in my corner of the study on my sewing machine but I also need my more social projects; my knitting and crochet that I can do when we the three of us are gathered together in the evening.
Yesterday I finished a lovely kimono for my daughter but I’ve three other pattern and fabric bundles that are due to be made up. My divided bucket bag contains my knitting project, my day break shawl, and a crochet bunny that just needs putting together. I have my next Minerva Crafts project to start and a White Tree Fabrics project to plan.

How does your blog differ from others of it’s genre?
Variety is the spice of life and can also be used to describe my blog! Bits and pieces of my life also spills out into my page. This is how it just comes out. Many fabulous blogs focus quite narrowly on their particular craft but the blogs I enjoy the most give me a little insight into their life. Perhaps I’m just nosey.
I hope my blog comes across fairly chirpy. It makes me happy, sharing my makes with my bloggy crafty friends and reading about others. It’s a whole new world that I wasn’t party to previously. My mum says I have a good ‘turn of phrase’. I hope that is true.

How does your writing process work?
I make, I write, I share. I don’t plan, I don’t set myself the task of writing on certain days, or certain number of posts a week;I have enough deadlines at work without setting myself further ones. This is meant to be fun! I generally write 3 or four times a week, mostly written on the day. I don’t like to hang about and I don’t have the patience to schedule posts ahead.
When I first started it would take me 2 or 3 days of fussing to write a post! Now, it’s about 20 mins to hour, depending.
I really enjoy writing posts for Minerva Crafts and White Tree Fabrics. It challenges me to push myself, try out different fabrics and yarn and make sure the project and post is worthy of the value of the materials provided.
I originally started my blog thinking that it would push the sales of my Folksy Shop. And it did, to a certain extent. Then I started to realise that I really wasn’t enjoying churning out stuff; a little sweat shop of my own making! What was I doing? I have enough going on with the day job!

Now I blog because I couldn’t think of not having a blog. You can’t just turn off those relationships you’ve formed and I wouldn’t want to.

And now to introduce two fellow bloggers who have kindly agreed to carry the blog hop forward.

MollieandClaire. Claire was one of the first bloggers I followed. There are not many (if any) posts of each others that we’ve not commented on! Claire writes a blog about knitting and crochet with a whole heap of colour and about her life with her black Labrador, Mollie.

SewDeputy. Amanda is a fellow White Tree Fabrics blogger. She is not afraid to try out any sort of fabric in her dressmaking. Her makes are testament to that fact! We’ve come to really enjoy reading each others posts.

Hope you enjoyed that.
Love,Lucie xx