2014 – what a year! And a look ahead to 2015

2014 was an absolutely amazing year here at Bustle & Sew HQ……

And, as is traditional, I gathered together a few images that recall some of the highs (and one of the lows!) of last year.  I don’t want to bore you with the details as I know I’ve blogged about most of these over the months  – but in brief …..

Our year started with the January Magazine – still in the old format and and an early pattern was the lovebirds – very appropriate as the most wonderful event of the year took place in June when our very own lovebirds, Rosie and Dan tied the knot. The picture above shows them on the beach at Lannacombe – one of our favourite places.  There was lots of decorating in readiness for the BIG DAY and you can see Miss Daisy showing off the freshly repainted pink chair next to my Aga.

A low point was being featured in Handmade Gifts Bookazine – with the wrong photo and none of my details either  – oh dear.  But enough of that, and back to happier events with new addition as Tilly, Rosie & Dan’s baby goldendoodle joined the family, and soon acquired her own puppy princess cushion!  But I think the picture that makes me laugh the most is the one of Daisy and Ben at the bottom of the group.  This was taken at Daisy’s birthday pawty back in November and shows the back of Ben’s head.  He had become fixated on the PEANUT BUTTER birthday cake and refused to play any silly pawty games until he’d tasted a sample.

Also in 2014 we decided upon a fresh, modern new look for both the Bustle & Sew website and magazine.  So our little vintage bunny packed her bags and headed off for a well-earned retirement to be replaced by a very modern version.  Along with our new bunny, Rosie also joined the Bustle & Sew Team, bringing lots of enthusiasm, creativity and expertise on board.  She’s introduced lots of new features to our new-style magazine …

Which I do hope you approve of.  We’re going to be sending out a survey to all our lovely subscribers very soon, so please do watch out for it if that’s you and let us know your thoughts.

Another introduction in 2014 was regularly uploading the magazine to Amazon so that paper copies are available for those who prefer this format.  This works well as once I’ve uploaded the (very large) file, Amazon take care of everything else – the printing, packing and dispatch, paying me a (very small) royalty for every copy sold meaning I don’t have to invest in lots of stock and make multiple trips to the post office with everyone’s magazines!  I’ve just uploaded the January 2015 issue and it’s available now on both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Now we’re busy planning all sorts of goodies for the year ahead.  Following the success of our pincushion mouse kits (as part of the 2015 annual subscription offer) I’m going to introduce limited edition kits over the coming months – beginning with some more pincushion mice, and then the Lovebirds I think.  If there’s a project you’d like to see available as a kit, then please do let me know – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’m also working on my first-ever Bustle & Sew class.  I haven’t been able to offer classes before as my broadband speed has been ridiculously low.  But now … we are all very excited here in Chillington … following lots of digging, rewiring and general upheaval as new cables containing lots of semi-magical fibres were installed … superfast broadband has arrived!!  This means my internet speeds will be around TWENTY TIMES FASTER than they are now!  So I will be able to upload video and my first class should be available before too long.  Again if you have an idea for a Bustle & Sew class, then please do let me know.

And that’s all for now – sorry this has been such a long post, but I am feeling so enthusiastic about the year ahead I think I got a bit carried away!  I’ll be back soon with a new “Meet the Maker” post.