Book releases for Christmas

Aldeburgh Book Shop shares their literary Christmas present recommendations with the EADT

So much for a Book Mecca, huh?
About six months between posts, I'm setting a record.

Before I start properly I just wanted to say that my thoughts are with all the people effected by the atrocities in Paris.
I wasn't sure whether to write this post, it seems so petty and unimportant in the face of such life-changing events. But carrying on with our lives is one of the best ways to stand up against these people. I'm not saying posting on a tiny blog is somehow going to bring down terror, but by continuing to do what we love we are showing defiance and living must go on.

Anyway, I have to post this today as it's in connection with the Christmas supplement that appears in today's East Anglian Daily Times newspaper.

Myself and my colleagues have been working on the supplement for the last few weeks and it's full of everything festive, from recipes and events, to fashion pages and gift guides.

One of the pieces that I put together was the book page. It sees a local book shop provide its top recommendations for reads for Christmas. This year John from Aldeburgh Book Shop provided his top picks.

He really covered all bases with his choices, appealing to all tastes and he even got a local author in there too. He provides excellent descriptions and I for one have put most of them on my Christmas list.
I'm not going to post them all here as there's still time for you to go and buy your copy of the EADT and read the article...
but here's the local one: Love is my Favourite Thing by (Aldeburgh based) Emma Chichester Clark.

It features Plum, her dog, who became famous on her blog and was previously featured in Chichester Clark's book Plumdog. The new release has lovely illustrations: "We particularly like the illustration of Plum destroying a feather cushion," said John.

Go and buy a copy, there's still time, just!

Papercut Practise

A little while ago I tried my hand at papercutting.

My friend and fellow blogger Emma Daniels, who I've known since we were this big...

...is a very talented papercutter and she's recently started running workshops at Baker & Barista in Ipswich. She was holding her first craft workshop over the Christmas period and she wanted to try it out on a few friends first. So myself and a couple of others got together to have a papercutting lesson, complete with wine and snacks.

Emma started us with some simple designs that she had drawn; we started cutting along straight lines and then graduated to curved ones.

Eventually, when we'd got the hang of using the scalpel, we created our own designs for a Christmas bauble papercut. My incredibly unimaginative design included my two pets, Jack and Otis, in a cheesy festive motif.

It took me forever to cut, but it was a lot of fun.

Finally, I had my very own Christmas papercut.

I was pretty proud of it, but I don't think it really compares to any of Emma's work.

Papercuts by Emma Daniels

Amazing, huh? I don't know how she has the patience.

The Christmas workshops at Baker & Barista went really well; in fact they were so popular that Valentine's Day and Mother's Day papercutting workshops have now been scheduled. If you're in the Ipswich area and want to create a unique papercut for a special someone then book yourself onto one of the craft evenings. There's also free cake, amazing incentive!

Check out more of Emma's work on her blog: www.made-by-ed.blogspot.co.uk

P.S. Apologies for the rubbish photos, they were taken with my rubbish phone.

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Never Work with Children or Animals

I don't have much experience of children, but I can definitely agree on the animal front. These two did their best to stop me working today.

I think I'd best give up for now.

Still Going: Freelance Copywriting

I know I haven't written anything for ages.
You'd be fair in thinking my freelance writing career had crashed and burned. Luckily it's quite the opposite. I have gradually built up some regular clients and have quite a mixed workload, varying from writing product descriptions for children's clothing to informative articles on haemorrhoid treatment (I kid you not).

I'm still writing for children's fashion and gift company Kidsen, as I described in my previous post. I've been writing descriptions for some of their Christmas stock, including this cherry print dress which I want in adult size.

Mini Rodini Mon Cheri Dress from Kidsen

I've also been working for a medical information site called Health Beacon, writing informative articles on subjects like pregnancy and, yes, haemorrhoids. Here's a link to a few of my health articles, I'm afraid the haemorrhoids one isn't up yet.

As well as that, I'm also writing freelance for www.ineedlinks.com, which, as the name suggests, helps websites build links and increase their audience. I write website copy for their various clients and I've also written a few blogposts for them, including this one on building links.

It's really great to work for these websites as it gives me a chance to increase my knowledge of web writing and SEO. Plus, they pay me, which is always good.

As you can see, I've been pretty busy with work and blog posts have got a bit left behind. I've also been busy as my boyfriend and I have recently adopted a puppy.

Jack

This is Jack. He's about seven months old and was a stray in Bulgaria before he was rescued and brought over here by dog charity K9 Rescue. They do great work helping stray dogs and increasing the public awareness of the plight of Bulgarian street dogs.

Jack's lovely but still a little nervous so we're working on increasing his confidence and socialising him. He already likes hanging out with our cat Otis (who we got from Suffolk Animal Rescue, another great animal charity).

Jack and Otis - Cat Selfie, Dog Photobomb

I don't want to be one of those people who ramble on about their pets all the time, but Jack's part of my excuse for not posting more regularly. He's cute but he's hard work.

So that is what I have been up to. I'll attempt to post more regularly now, when I'm not looking after Jack or writing about bodily functions.