A review of 2024
So here we are, we have reached the end of 2024 and as predicted last January, boy, has it been a bumpy one. My tiny world has ticked along nicely, though it's been a lot quieter than previous years, but this has given me the opportunity to write and illustrate my new book, Short Stories for Little Plants, which has been very exciting. For the last Diary of Wonderings of '24, I'm going to look back over the year and see if I have achieved all I wanted to. Next year, instead of these diary entries, I am going to write descriptive short stories to lift the spirit and whisk the reader to an alternative view of the garden, and I'll, of course, still introduce new ranges and any crafty secrets worth sharing.
Happy New Year! I hope 2025 brings you all that you wish for!
January 2024
Pom Pom crazy!
2024 has been the year of the pom, with lots of large orders throughout the year. It is a very personal thing, making made-to-order pom poms, as I am very aware that folks have chosen one of my poms to finish their hand-crafted item, which is a big responsibility. This year my poms have been used for a lampshade on a super yacht, kitten and puppy toys, Lapland UK Christmas costumes and many kiddie party decorations and bobble hat poms. As with each December end, I retake photos and freshen up my Etsy pages. Here is one of the new photos, showing the new ranges of 'snowball' and 'stary' colours, a fabulous, new, unique 'mix and match' pom pom range.
February 2024
Worldly Drafties
Throughout the year, (these go to Australia in the summer), I have made several new draft excluders and had to create a new option to replace hard-to-find coconut buttons that hold the poms together, at each end of the wire they are threaded on. I did manage to find the buttons I wanted, but it was getting harder to find them and they were getting really expensive. I started to put a pom pom at the end and experimented with contrasting or matching colours. This example shows poms in the same colours as the Drafty, though I have made them with the darker colours only, so they stand out. I'm pleased with the button substitute, though it's a shame the coconut buttons are not an option at the moment.
March 2024
Year-round robins
Not only do I sell draft excluders year-round, but I also sell my little robins year-round too. Everybody loves robins and these started out as the little gifties I put in with boxed orders and developed into Christmas tree decorations, with little holly leaves and jingle bells. This year I added an option of an antique bronze jingle bell for an authentic rustic Christmas. I spend most of March making up to 150 little robins, ready to be gifted or sold as tree decorations. I also top up my lavender-filled hares in time for Easter and Paul has to crack on and knit me the squares, especially the huge 'Huggie' hares that take 4 days to knit.
April 2024
Spring has sprung!
Usually by April I am spending most of the day in the garden, but April '24 was a washout. Grey, low light levels and cold, so I spent time on the computer tweaking Etsy listings and adding to my eBay, refreshing all the different parts of an Etsy shop like the bio and all the delivery and return policies. April was fabulous for my wallflowers and tulips as I have been experimenting with apricot, cream and coffee-coloured flowers and the flowerbeds were quite spectacular. So noticeably different, plus I had been good at pinching out, so the wallflowers were the bushiest I have ever seen.
May 2024
Short Stories for Little Plants
With May we had a little bit of sunshine, though looking at leggy seedlings in the greenhouses, it was clear that Spring had been a struggle. I found myself spending most of the month illustrating my Little Plant book. I try to do outdoor stuff when it's nice and computing or making when it's too miserable to sit out and although I had plenty of time in the greenhouses, it was too cold to sit out in the garden. 16 degrees is my sitting-out temperature to read a book, but it hardly made it that high this May. I really enjoyed working on Little Plant and as we sit here nearing the end of the year, I have already written 6 new stories for the next book, which will feature historical stories about plants that have helped mankind, avoiding the obvious choices. I have also written a little tale, 'The Song of the Orange Chest,' ready to brighten up January.
June 2024
Perfect summer colours
I spent most of June dodging rain showers in layers of heavy clothing; in fact, looking back, I didn't pack away my winter wear this year. I usually have off June, July and August, focusing mainly on the garden and the crafting takes a back seat. As a rule, if I have worked hard until June, there isn't much for me to do except the garden, as planned, but this year I struggled to have a full day out there. I love this photo as it shows a tiny corner of blue sky, extremely rare this year, matching perfectly with the flowers amidst the yellow roses. Summer captured forever! I spent the month deadheading flowers I hadn't seen bloom, but at least I didn't need to do any watering. The water butts were full well into August, which was great for the greenhouses, meaning they didn't have to have tap water.
July 2024
Visiting the book publishers
Without knowing it, I had planned a visit to the book printers at just the right time. As a crafter, I am always thinking four months ahead to ensure I am fully stocked for seasonal celebrations and the printing people told me that my book would be available before Christmas, which was great news, as they got very busy in September. It was a wonderful visit to choose the fabric covers and bookmark ribbons and to get to know the company that would be printing my book; it was fortunate that I chose folks who were just forty miles away, as the visit was a great advantage, ensuring the book was just how I wanted it. They liked it so much they asked if they could use my book for their publishing advertising, which I was more than happy with. I don't pay for advertising, but I don't mind free advertising!
August 2024
Ready for Christmas
With a normal summer, I would spend 12 hours a day in the garden, pottering, seed collecting, reading and planning new ideas. However, the year continued as it had started, cool, dark and wet. I know I have been mentioning the weather more than anything else, but as an artist, I actually need sunshine. I have had a terrible time trying to take photographs with natural light. As a gardener, I need sunshine for a high produce yield and I know the garden has suffered because my crops have been very poor. To cheer myself up, I combined some jingle bells and candy cane cotton to make the robin bags a little more unique. For no real effort nor expense, these little calico gift bags look and sound fabulous, very traditional and magical. I don't do traditional Christmas as much as a rustic Christmas, but these bags are very cute.
September 2024
Giant Jar fabric lids
September was incredibly busy as Lapland UK made several huge orders for pom poms. My poms on their costumes were on Channel 4 TV recently; it was very exciting getting messages from a friend, thank you Zoe, that my poms were on the TV. We don't have a TV; I've not watched one for 15 years, so I didn't see the show myself.
I had also decided to decorate large pickle jars, transforming them into lanterns and designed firm, snug fabric lids for the jars, which are absolutely brilliant. I wanted to create a contemporary country cottage look as I use these large jars to store dried pot marigold, chamomile, lavender and rose petals and stood in a row they look brilliant. The lids are extremely efficient at not drying the flowers out too much. I didn't realise I had so many jars until I got them all together and so I was busy wrapping them in tissue paper to sell at a local fair, as they do not travel well and so are not on Etsy.
October 2024
Lantern Decorating
I was asked if I would like to do a lantern-decorating workshop in December and so I set about making a lantern that would be used in the promotional poster. I struggled a little as the workshop was to be of a Christmas theme and although I do do Christmas, my lanterns are very contemporary. I decided to cut squares, circles and stripes out of coloured tissue paper, allowing the crafters to go down their own path with their own interpretation of Christmas. This Christmas lantern is green and red, a troublesome combination, as when overlapped, they make brown. I therefore used cream to separate the two and used sharpies and white acrylic to add detail and highlights. With most of the things I make, I see them finished before I have even started, but this jar kept itself to itself until it was nearly finished. It was only within the last twenty minutes of a four-hour creation that I started to like this jar and it turned out exactly as I had wanted it to.
November 2024
Cute mini bobble hat decorations
I was very late in the day making these little bobble hat tree decorations for this Christmas, but that's OK as they are ready for next year, though I surprisingly did sell quite a few. A family member wanted some of these little hats making and with design development, they became really firm, substantial and of a very high quality. Once I had found the perfect antique bronze jingle bells, they became really magical and their vintage colours added to their rusticity. I think for next year I will offer a mix-and-match set of tree decorations, as I now have the robins, Christmas pudding pom poms and now these little hats too. My little hats are different from any that are available and there are a lot of people making them, but nobody pads theirs out with a matching pom pom or adds a jingle bell inside so they look like little church bells. I may even add the option of a little tag, so they make great Secret Santa or teacher gifts.
December 2024
Lantern workshop
December was so chilled and casual, I could have been mistaken for thinking it was January. There was none of the usual postal delays, no rushing to get things packed for the post and lots of wonderful messages thanking me for a quick, reliable service. As I mentioned earlier in the year, with Etsy you can no longer set your own delivery timeframe and instead have to use Etsy's pre-set delivery options. This meant the 2nd class setting allowed just 3-5 days, whereas last year when I could set my own times for Christmas and chose 5-12 days. International allows just 5 days, but I would have chosen 12-21 days. Therefore, I upgraded everything to 1st class, which, although it cost me a lot of money, it meant I beat the trap of having things arrive late. All of my people were happy, so it was well worth it.
The Christmas lantern workshop went really well and everyone had a really great time, so much so that it went over by nearly 40 minutes. I'd already had an idea for the second workshop, basic drawing skills and doodling. There was a lot of interest and so I am looking forward to doing this one.
What a year!
So, looking back, it has been a strange year, but it was smooth and trouble-free. The weather was absolutely appalling, with low light, rain and a heavy blanket of grey cloud most of the time. My greatest achievement is getting my Little Plant book published and the cutest things are the little bobble hat decorations. The biggest surprise was how much fun the workshop was and how much interest there was.
I made the bunny donation to the same rescue as last year. I usually go with my husbunny as he takes photos, but he was a bit poorly this year, so I had to do the photos myself. Here you can see Wendy, who looks after the bunnies, with a selection of fresh veg and a gift voucher for £175, which she can use throughout the year for bunny supplies. A lot of my Etsy people offer their over-postage for combined orders to the bunny rescue, so I buy fresh veg and fruit as an extra treat for them. Wendy is standing in front of a huge wooden Wendy house, which is home for just two bunnies. They have so much space to run and hop with access to an outdoor run and heat lamps to keep them warm. She has three of these large pens, each with an outdoor run area, meaning the bunnies get grass to nibble and soil between their toes. As I was leaving, Wendy showed me another wooden Wendy house she had been given, meaning she will have lots of space to take in homeless bunnies. I love this rescue; they understand rabbits and always find the best home possible for each rabbit. I wish I could do more for them, but our little donation goes a long way to making life a little better for this wonderful 'Grantham Animal Tracks' rescue. Check them out on Facebook.
I hope you have a Hoppy New Year and thank you to everyone for your continued support, wonderfully engaging messages and all of the fabulous reviews that have been shared. I reached a milestone this Christmas, with my Etsy shop achieving over 2000 sales, making me feel quite confident that 2025 will be a great year of new friendships and creative wonderment.
You have been reading A Gardeners Crafting Diary December 2024
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