Shirley (aka Grandma’s Corner) says: When I was young one of the highlights of the year was an annual fair held in the local church hall. My parents were involved in organising the event, and for months before we would be making things to sell. Knitting egg cosies and hot water bottle covers; decorating jars …
I’ve recently had a painful, but insightful experience. I fell down the stairs and my phone bore the brunt of it (luckily I wasn’t hurt). But this meant, I had to send it off to be mended (for a lot of money) and I was left for four whole days with no phone. No instant …
Getting the balance right – running a business from your phone Read More »
Do you redecorate/rearrange your house to match each season? I don’t and didn’t really know that it was a thing until recently. But it seems that seasonal home decor is a thing and that maybe I should be making more effort! The reason I don’t change my home decor is purely time. In between working …
I love Gemma’s concrete letters. I think the “MR & MRS” combo would be great for a wedding table or as a wedding gift. But I was thinking there are other combinations some couples would like. I submitted my PhD after we got married, so the “MR & MRS” combo worked. But if it was …
The other day I was talking to a friend about Gemma’s development of a concrete “&” and “@”. I pronounced these as “ampersand” and “at sign”. My friend said that “@” should be called “ampersat”. This was a new word to me and so when I got home I did a bit of research. My …
There’s a lot of debate in the crafting world around when the best time is to start advertising and selling Christmas products, and I don’t think there’s a right answer. I had a sale of a Christmas decoration in February, and that couldn’t be much further from the next one. Generally though, I don’t think …
I wanted to let you all know that there are a few changes which may affect how you view this blog and I wanted to make sure you had plenty of time to adjust. Gem’s Concrete Gems has a brand new name, a new logo and soon, a new website. I am becoming Concrete Gems, …
A couple of weeks ago we were in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and we walked the Ingleton Waterfall Trail. Visiting a series of waterfalls (including Snow Falls in the picture) involves a lot of up and down. In some places there was an easy gradient in others we had to scramble over rocks. We stopped …
I’ve heard that you can’t truly build a successful business on Etsy alone, and I believe it may well be true. Etsy is great, it has lots of traffic, great support and a very user friendly platform. I know their fees are often off-putting, however I do not find them to be too much of …
I started following the “Just a Card” campaign when I saw Gemma mention it. The campaign aims to get people to support small independent business such as Gem’s Concrete Gems, and to realise that every little purchase makes a difference. The other night we were talking at our crochet group about the various businesses people …
