it's all go

Having sorted out everything from the Craft Fair and had a committee meeting to disect it, I'm all go for Christmas orders.

I wrote up my order board, and having reached the bottom I think I need a bigger board!! This is when I start to panic, and think, 'should I really have promised all those Burra Bears for Christmas?', but hey, I do this every year, so in a few days the panic will be over and I will settle down to working a full week instead of a few half days like normal!

Daughter is looking for a job, so I wrote up an amusing CV and have sent it to a few places, main points 'is handy with a hoover, Mr Sheen and Mr Muscle!', thought that might get a few responses. I did put in the serious points, like what she is interested in and the fact that she can work a sewing machine, glue gun, guillotine and laminator. I remember when I worked in the Toon and you would get these young eens coming in the shop with a dour face saying 'do you hae any jobs goin?', not really the best way to find employment, then you would get the nicely written letters, showing that someone had taken the time to think about what they wanted, it really did make all the difference.

Take note...............

peerie oolets on show

peerie oolets

peerie oolets - ooie bears for your bosie

Our annual Craft Fair was this past weekend. We hold this every year in November to showcase all the Shetland Arts & Crafts Association members, including our associate members as well as the full members (for full members see www.shetlandartsandcrafts.co.uk). This year there were over 50 exhibitors, with some new startups.

I even managed to come up with a new product! It's only taken me about 5 years. After constantly being asked for a 'peerie bear', I did it, and 'peerie oolets' were born. I did my uusual and left it till the last minute, so the weekend before the craft fair I was madly trying to come up with a peerie bear which was practical to make from felted fair isle. Peerie oolets are nothing like the style of the Burra Bear, being more a flat bear you can cuddle to you, and more aimed at bairns, although I did sell quite a few to adults, as one man said when I asked if he was giving his 'oolet' away as a gift, he looked at me, took the 'oolet' out of the bag and said, 'no, I am definately keeping him for myself', with a big grin on his face.

I came up with 2 sizes, 'peerie oolet' and 'peerie mootie oolet'. The word peerie in Shetland spaek means small, mootie meaning very small and the word 'oolet' according to the Shetland dictionary means brat, which would be right as I remember when we were peerie and Mam was annoyed with us, she would shout, 'you peerie oolets!'. I also thought the name might spark a Shetland craze, as the Bratz dolls did throughout Britain. And judging by my weekend sales you never know.

Anyhow, by Sunday night at 5pm (when the craft fair ended) my feet were ready to go home, having been in the Clickimin Centre since 8am on Friday morning, being part of the committee means having to come in early to set up the hall for all the exhibitors, this includes marking out the floor (my thighs are in agony from all the bending), sorting out screens (we never have enough), putting out tables and chairs, and then the fun begins at 2pm when exhibitors arrive to set up, and we realise that someone hasn't been given enough, tables, chairs, screens, and so it goes on. But in the end everything worked out ok, and we look forward to next year.

I hope this doesn't mean I have to come up with another new product?

Technology

I have been up to my ears in leads, phones and computers. Having updated our broadband connection to make it faster (don't know if it really makes any difference up here), we were given a second phone line with another number, so we can receive free outgoing evening and weekend calls, which is fine, if not a bit confusing trying to remember what phone to use after 6pm. So I decided I would update the other phones in the house and I had to get a set with extension's so I could have one out in the shed for when I'm working, which I found, no problem, and even got them at a 'good price'. I bought the phones on Friday and managed to get them out of the box on Monday, ready to get them all plugged in then I read the instructions, 'leave to charge for 16 hours', so they had to sit another day. Yesterday I got them all plugged in and got the old one's unplugged and untangled, now I just have to learn how to work the bloody things, buttons in the wrong place, address book, ringer melody, volume............... bored? maybe tomorrow.
Talking to a friend the other day who was having problems with her Email, we were saying, bairns noo adays dunna keen they're born! we were reminiscing about when we were 'peerie', and we didn't have any MP3, ipods etc, we had to wait for the charts to come on Radio One on a Sunday night and get the tape recorder ready to record our music for the next week, and you couldn't just go away and leave it, you had to stay there so you could quickly turn the cassette over when side one finished, so as not to miss any music, and if you didn't have a radio/cassette player you had to place the radio next to the other stereo that did have a tape recorder and hold a microphone next to the speaker and then make sure that no body spoke while the recording was going on otherwise it would pick up their voice's, god, imagine? and this was all done on a machine the size of a bloody fish box!, none of your portable chewing gum packet size contraptions, and we both agreed, they don't know they're born!

Think this means your getting old, when you talk about the younger generation and reminisce about your past, ahh those were the days!!