Springing Forward

If you've visited my Etsy or Big Cartel shops this week you'll have seen that I've been taking a short break.

It's been a busy week, with a jam-packed Nice Day Out in London, then a trip to Manchester (for my first proper holiday in years, hurrah!) and now lots of designing and typing and sewing as I catch up with emails etc and work on some projects with looming deadlines.

My shops will both re-open on Tuesday (1st April) (how is it almost April already???) and I'll be blogging about my recent travels as soon as I get a chance to sort through the photos. I've been to lots of awesome places this week, I can't wait to share them with you guys!

Obviously it's never too fun to get back to work after some time off, but I feel really refreshed by my break and excited about the stuff I've got planned for the next couple of months.

Here on the blog I've got some awesome guest posts lined up, lots of new tutorials in-progress, a whole bunch of cool craft books to review and there'll be some giveaways too! I'm also really looking forward to the next crafty tutorial link-up in May (this time the theme is flowers - check out this post for all the details).

Behind the scenes I'm working on a bunch of fun projects for different books and magazines which I'm delighted to be contributing too - I've got to keep them secret for the moment but I will of course share details as soon as I'm allowed to!

I'm also determined to schedule some more Nice Days Out now that the weather's getting warmer... especially as lots of the National Trust properties I can get into with my Art Pass are re-opening after their winter closures and there's a whole bunch of exhibitions in London that I'd like to see before they end.

As I'm sure I've talked about before, I've been finding it so rewarding to schedule proper time off instead of working every day (even if just for a little bit) like I used to. Okay so sometimes it doesn't quite work out and I work long days for two weeks straight but most of the time the prospect of going somewhere nice / seeing an exhibition I really want to see / etc proves to be a great incentive for me to get my act together and get my tasks for the week finished... or just to force me to take some time off instead of being a bad boss and making myself work all the time and never switch off.

Having resolved to have 50 Nice Days Out this year (plus two short breaks) is working very well for me, as it's roughly one a week but I can fit them in as and when it suits me. I'm going to be trying the same "system" with Making Days to "force" myself to make more time in my schedule for being creative and working on new designs.

Oh, and I've also bought a ticket to this year's Blognix which should be fun! :)