From Monday 1st April, Royal Mail is bringing in new charges for parcel deliveries. Unfortunately, the price rises are obscenely high - the parcels that I send most often usually cost £2.20 and this is rising to £5.20! Other, larger items will cost even more.
So in an effort to keep costs as low as possible for my customers, I will be using a courier service from next week. They are more expensive than my current costs but much cheaper than Royal Mail's new prices. Today is the last day to order items at the current P&P price; from tomorrow morning there will be a slight rise in prices to cover the extra cost.
Mrs Coleman of Lowestoft was this year's Christmas raffle winner. Mrs Coleman wins a Christmas mug, a Mistletoe and Wine wall plaque and a stationery gift set, all in a lovely basket. Thanks to everyone who participated.
The winner of the lucky draw for a doggy soap dish is Beryl, one of the ladies who attends my Slimming World group. The draw raised £90 towards the cost of rescuing Mutlu the dog from Turkey (see earlier blog post). My dad is rounding it up to £100, so a really good result. Thanks to everyone who took part. I'm sure Mutlu would say thank you too, if she could.
The fantastic Henham Steam Rally takes place this weekend, 15th and 16th September. It's a very popular event and takes place at Henham Park near Southwold, Suffolk. It's well worth a visit; there are loads of displays, events, shows, stalls and also a funfair. I and my friends will be there with our stalls and will be camping there overnight - what fun! Hope to see you there.
In my last blog entry I wrote about the little kitten we'd adopted. We eventually named her Cobweb. Midsummer NIght's Dream is one of my favourite plays and Cobweb is one of Titania's fairy servants.
Our Cobweb is getting quite big now, and certainly isn't anyone's servant - if anything, we're her servants!
Other news - I was in Altinkum, Turkey at the start of this month for a holiday and this lovely good natured street dog camped herself outside our accommodation, Mutlu Apart Otel. Several of the guests, including me and my friends, were feeding her. After a few days we realised we couldn't leave her behind to starve on the streets after we'd gone home. So my friend Dawn agreed to adopt her.
She named the dog Mutlu (in Turkish it means Happy) and set things in motion. Before we flew home, Dawn had taken her to the vet to be microchipped, wormed, be fitted with a flea and tick collar, have a rabies shot and have blood tests. She was given the all clear health-wise, so is now in a boarding kennel in Altinkum, where she will stay for her quarantine, and at the end of the year she will be transported to the UK.
This all costs money, so to help out I'm raffling one of my doggy soap dishes. If you'd like to buy a £1 ticket, please contact me for information via the Contact page.
Yesterday we collected a kitten that needed rehoming - we haven't picked a name for her yet, but will have to soon!
I'm a member of a Facebook volunteer group that helps transport animals to their new homes or rescue centres, saving them from death row. Someone posted on there that this little kitty needed a new home, and as we had already been considering adopting another rescue cat and she was within driving distance of home, we took her on.
She's very sweet, however the two adult cats we already have were terrified of her at first - they sulked in the garden and we couldn't coax them back indoors until 1am! Things are much better this morning, I expect they'll soon all get along fine.
This dish was made for a customer whose dog is called Hovis! I made it from terracotta clay with a clear glaze, and then put a dark brown glaze around the outside to represent the crust.
I hope the pooch likes it!
As promised, I made some more mushrooms and toadstools, this time with red roofs. The one in this picture has already been sold. People do seem to like "gnome homes"!
This windmill was suggested by my friend's daughter, who was remembering the old Max Bygraves song about mice in a windmill in old Amsterdam. My mouse didn't have clogs on though! This has also already been purchased by a customer in Oldham.
At the moment I'm working on a few commissions, but will try to get around to making more toadstools and windmills as soon as I can, probably after my trip to the Loch Ness Film Festival at the end of this month.
From next month, the Royal Mail prices will be going up. This unfortunately will be reflected in costs to my customers as postage and packing is factored into all my online prices. I'll try to keep costs down to a minimum, and if you live locally to me and can collect your purchase in person, you will pay only the cost of the item and no postage and packing.
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