1.11.07

Listing

Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. October was full of post strikes mucking up everything, taking time off with Andy, motorbike illness (the bike, not us) and lists. You know - you wake up and you start working your way through The List, by the end of the day you have hopefully crossed half of it off and then just before bedtime you make a fresh one for the next day. Sometimes when I am in the village, someone stops me and asks me how I am. ''I haven't seen you for such a long time!" Whereupon I assure them that I am, in fact, rather boringly stuck in the Hovel, working, most of the time; as if the fact of them not seeing me meant that I had vanished under a stone. Then they ask how 'work' is going. And as I haven't had much by the way of a 'proper job' for a few months, I say - ''oh, you know, this and that''. Because I don't want to bore them - or you - with the List. The List that has everything on it from making tonight's tea, updating websites, and trying to source some decent coloured card, to emailing a b c and d, ordering art prints for my Etsy shop, ordering Christmas cards, designing the darned things in the first place, trying to get 660 Christmas tags letter pressed and - well, as they say, the list goes on. And on. So I dipped my head down and got stuck into it.



Not to mention finishing off card orders. That's right, every card someone buys from me has been lovingly folded, creased and corner punched by my own podgy little fingers. It keeps printing costs down. And yes, there are hundreds to do. Still, it gives me an excuse to put Midsomer Murders on the Box, and do some work at the same time. I've whipped my time down to 150x prepared in 2 hours.


So - pleasant things which happened in October - my Robert Snowflake was kindly reviewed by the Finding Wonderland blog, who said all sorts of nice things about me. I do feel a bit of a fraud sometimes, as I have only illustrated one picture book in my life, (oh yes and a little bit of another one which I don't really feel counts) . I wish I could persuade publishers and a decent agent to change this situation, but most of my work is simply my own cards and artwork, because thankfully
there are a lot of good people out there who do like what I do. So I'm never quite sure what category I fall into...oh let's have a nice random photo before I get maudlin. What shall we have...ah, my nice little new-but-vintage Christmas pony block...or rather, the results.




But - reasons to be cheerful, I have had a gratifyingly big order for Christmas cards and multi-packs of Christmas letter pressed tags from a new shop opening in Winchester, mid-November. 'Your Life, Your Style' is
owned by a lovely person who is aiming to stock quality, unique products not normally seen in the High Street - and giving small creatives like myself a chance to put our goods out there. I hadn't expected my humble printing hobby to actually start making me some money so soon. So I sensibly blew my last 85 quid on 5 pots of block printing ink...when I should have bought letterpress ink. Um. Never mind, if I roll my colour out and leave it for 6 hours or more it does get the required tack for a crisp print.



Next week I am sending off my first American order to a gorgeous shop in Hawaii, (where I believe it is somewhat warmer). Nest will be selling a good selection of Red Flannel Elephant cards and open edition prints - take a look inside, is it not adorable? Now I must fly, as my ink has been tacking for nearly ten hours and should be ready by now. There are tags to press, tags to trim, supper to make, and - where did I put that list..?



13 comments:

Joanna said...

Sneaked off to the computer while K is trying to fix our cranky plumbing, Lovely to see all your prints, love the horse. I hate that question hows work going. I would really rather talk about the weather.

Francie...The Scented Cottage Studio said...

AH, so there you are...and you answered one of my questions to you here so no need to tell me about it LOL.
Hang in there...
(())

Tart said...

Yup, I sympathise. I keep getting asked how retirement is because obviously now that I don't 'go out to work' I must be idling about all day. And oh, the lists, the endless blinking lists....
Delighted to hear about the orders and new stockists, G, and hope it continues.

xx

Unknown said...

Well, I'm certainly glad you're doing well and doing cool new stuff. The ponies look great. It also gives me the excuse to rave about the Anonymous 4-Do you know them? They're a singing group based in NY who do medieval polyphony and rennaissance music. Amazing stuff.

Anonymous said...

Adore the little Christmas pony! Congrats on the new stockists. And don't you just hate it when people ask how work is? We get the equivalent with "And how is the business doing?" and I don't mean to sound hateful but nobody really wants to hear the ans so why ask?

natural attrill said...

Hope one day you'll be able to hand deliver to Hawaii !!
P.xx

Cotswoldgent said...

Was wondering where you had disappeared to, now we know. Good to hear work is picking up. Hope the bike is now OK? Charlotte is moving to Scotland to be replaced by a BMW……….Have I done the right thing?

LITTLE BROWN DOG said...

Yes, yes, and I'm hoping my little order for the Somerford Village Fayre is on your list, Gretel. (Not nagging, honestly - only if you have time, you know).

Lovely to read you again, and I'm glad things are keeping you busy (in a productive - and hopefully profitable - way, of course). My work has been much the same for the past couple of weeks, but I'm hoping that, now Mercury has stopped going retrograde, things are going to start picking up.

LBD x

PS Loved your singing lady papercut so much I couldn't bear to give it away (what am I like?). I thought, as my friend's birthday was such a big event, I didn't want it to just get consumed among piles of ordinary cards, so I'm afraid it's still on my windowsill, where I can look at it and enjoy it every day. Hey, it's my birthday soon - I might just send it to myself!

J x

Rima Staines said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rima Staines said...

Scottish Autumn Greetings to you G .. yes you told me to, and I did... :) Seem to go through days when I like the idea of having a blog, and days when I don't want to write about what I'm up to AT ALL! Am busy Doing things tho, and very happy... hope you are, and as ever - I love reading your very nicely written indeed blog.
Well done on your motivation and continuing successes ..
Love xx Rima
PS - sorry for comment deleting .. bad spellings!!

gilfling said...

Oh this sounds like my list - my never ending list that never ever gets done on any one day - a days list can quite easily stretch to a week! I love the vague looks people give when they ask how 'work' is going - when I realise actually it was a rhetorical question and they are not really 'that' interested in my daily goings on!

Great news about all these wonderful places stocking your cards!

tlchang said...

lists..lists...lists....

I am rethinking my desire to be gainfully employed in this field! Kinda want to curl up on the couch with a book... For the next 6 months maybe...

Hope you are enjoying your productivity.

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

My god, the lists! So glad to know I am not alone. Loved your fungi too. we have been brave for the first time and eaten some we have identified. yummy.