Jerry the Cat

I've had a bit of a 'printer crisis' this week which has involved a lot of time chasing around trying to find a solution so today's post will be somewhat shorter than usual. But I don't think a lot of words are necessary when it comes to my daughter's photographs of her 16 year old cat, Jerry. She's a much better photographer than I am and her pictures just seem to convey that you don't need to be young to be beautiful!

The photo above was taken in April - trust a cat to find the best spot to sunbathe, even that early in the year!

And here he is again in all his 'cuddliness', relaxing but managing to keep an eye on what's going on at the same time!

Cat Greeting Card by helikettle
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Also on a mug -

Cat Ringer Mug by helikettle
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...and a tote bag:

Cat Jumbo Tote Bag by helikettle
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And of course, on a mousepad!

Cat Mousepad by helikettle
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Lavenders Blue, diddle, diddle, Lavenders Green...

Did you have to sing that silly song at school? I did and it always annoyed me because even as quite a young child, I just knew that lavender is neither blue nor green - it's, well, it's 'lavender'! Though I'd probably have described it as 'purple' as a child.

About five years ago, I bought five miniature lavender plants from an artist friend who had given up painting to help her son set up a garden centre. I had fond memories of the lavender bushes in the garden I grew up with but knew that my present garden was too small for lavender on that scale so the miniature ones seemed perfect for the job.

But there's nothing miniature about them now!

This one almost blocks the pathway round to the French Doors of the dining room where I mostly work! But I don't really mind because, even in Spring and Autumn, when there are no flowers on them, they give off a wonderful scent. Very relaxing if I happen to be working close to them, planting bulbs or sowing seeds - and the butterflies seem to adore them!

Now I could write about the wonderful properties of lavender, the many comforting and healing uses for its essential oil and how it got its name from the Latin word 'lavanda', meaning 'thing to be washed'. But you probably know all that and if you don't and are interested, Wikipedia will tell you all you need to know!

Just one thing I will mention though, that Wikipedia leaves out - a few drops of essential oil of lavender, even fewer of Ylang Ylang and fewer still of Vetivert, sprinkled in a warm bath will give off an aroma that has to be experienced to be appreciated! Sadly I lent my excellent book of aromatheray 'recipes' to an aromatherapist and never got it back but that mix I do remember, even though I haven't been able to remember the author's name to try to track down a replacement!

I think lavender is sometimes associated with old ladies, which is a pity. Perhaps it's because nobody except VERY old ladies puts lavender bags amongst their linen to keep the moths away these days or dabs their brow with lavender water. We've grown more sophisticated in our tastes though sometimes 'old' ideas are recycled and become all the rage! I was pleased to discover that lavender is making a come-back as wedding confetti, as an alternative to rice or those paper horseshoes and bells that just hang around on the pavements after weddings, looking untidy and a bit sad.

So I've created a few 'lavender' products for my Zazzle store - I think these stickers would add a special touch to the envelope of wedding invitations, or even a letter or card of condolence -

'Sweet Lavender' Stickers by helikettle
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And, of course, I had to make a mug!

'Sweet Lavender' Mug by helikettle
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'Lavenders Blue, diddle diddle...'  - oh really!!!!

It's felt more like March this week...

...but I haven't minded that too much as it's been a particularly busy week, beginning with my daughter in Sweden asking me to send a couple of dozen of my cards for her to try to sell at a kind of flea market her friends are having - so lots of printing, folding, trimming, packing etc. And then getting ready for a friend to 'drop in' with some of her friends for a glass of wine and a chance to see (and buy!) some of my cards on Election Night - and the very good news is that she has offered to arrange a 'cards' get-together with some more of her friends as soon as her kitchen refurbishment is finished!

And then, of course there was the election itself! I watched and waited - and waited and watched until the dawn chorus began and I realised it was getting light, having hoped to go to bed with some indication of who would form our next government - but here we are 48 hrs later, still not knowing what's going to happen, and I'm still feeling slightly muzzy-headed from lack of sleep. Which wasn't ideal for sorting out all the catalogue numbers on my website and coordinating them with my paper catalogue yesterday, some of which had got in a bit of a muddle to say the least! But I needed to do it sooner rather than later as I was expecting an old friend from Norfolk to place the first order for my 'party-plan starter pack' (which includes the catalogue!) and the first order of cards chosen from my website!

Luckily she didn't get around to doing it on Friday - probably because of the election! - but phoned her order through this afternoon, by which time the numbers were all present and correct! So another hectic week ahead as I now have another 20 or so cards to print (and some of the collage 'name' cards to make from scratch!) and get in the post to reach her before she goes away next week! She is hoping to sell them at her church for a charity she supports, which is a whole new selling angle I hadn't really thought much about.

So I've had a whole week with no new designs made. But I have managed to fit in making a few more 'Age-specific' and 'Relation-specific' greeting cards and uploaded them to Greeting Card Universe. I used a screenprinted design that I made more than 20 years ago! I had always liked the colour combination but it seemed to need something to 'lift' it - 

Pink Geranium Notecard by helikettle
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- and I think the white lettering has done precisely that. It seemed almost as if I'd purposely left the space in the top right-hand quarter to fill with some text!

I'm very fond of those salmon pink geraniums and this design was based on one given to me by a friend when my son was born - in 1978. I've had a few in pots in my garden ever since, some of them from cuttings from the original and a few more I've bought over the years. Sadly, this year the very low temperatures in January killed the last of them in my front porch where they've previously over-wintered happily - the end of an era!

But they are preserved in my design! 

Recently I haven't been spending as much time on Zazzle as on GCU, where I seem to sell more, though my recent little flurry of sales ended as abruptly as it began! But I did 'create' a mug -
 

Pink Geranium Mug by helikettle
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 - and some more floral slip-on Keds:
 

Pink Geranium Mini Slip-on Keds Shoe by helikettle
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And now, after all that fun with 'creating', I'd better remove my Mother's Day cards from the front of my GCU store and replace them with Father's Day! It's certainly a busy life so if I don't write anything more this week, you'll know why!