I'm still here - barely

I am thoroughly ashamed of myself.  I've been back from my travels to England for three weeks now, and I haven't updated this blog of mine.  I have thought about it many times - whilst in the middle of doing other things - but never actually opened it up and done the deed.

My dear blog - I haven't given up on you, and hope you understand that I had a ton of crafting work to catch up on.  Yes, blog, you enabled me to get a few crafting orders that all came in,  not serendipitously at all, whilst I was away and unable to access the internet.

So 100 and a few rosebud bouts later, ten silk button bouts underway, and an order for an entire invitation suite for close to 300 guests, I am not even remotely able to emerge and try out new crafts!   I've even got some stuff to make for family baby showers.  And I am excited to do that because not only is it family, it's different and  I suppose a natural progression from wedding accessories!

 But, dear blog, I have purchased a new item that I badly need to investigate and master.  After learning about it from a post from All You Need is Love Events blog, I took a look at some reviews and some online tutorials.  At the time I decided the learning curve was just too much for me to bother with, so I gave it a very reluctant thumbs half-way down.  But the call of a new craft was just too much to deal with, and I caved.  Daughter and Linker-to-crafts-that-you-must-try-out, sent me to Overstock.com who had this new tool for several dollars cheaper than the regular stores (so I guess it wasn't THAT new).

Oh, guess I should mention its the Silhouette cutting machine, and since it cuts fabric, I thought it might end up being something useful for me.

Anyway, it arrived the other day and on Sunday I bought it out of the box, connected it to the computer, downloaded templates with the freebie gift card and practiced with some old cardstock paper I had in the drawer.

I'm still undecided on it - it's great for scrapbookers and one-off card-makers but I think I still have to investigate it's potential to fit in with my style and type of crafting.  When I have some down-time I will practice actually making items, rather than just cutting.  But I will say that I LOVE the fact you can create
your own designs, and via some connection to a printer and back to the machine, make some pretty interesting cut-outs.  And damn, but there are some GREAT designers out there who have made some wonderful cards and such.   Check out the Silhouette blog.   Only time will tell, and when I actually have some time........Silhouette blog