Monday 26 December 2011

A Bit of Fun, A Bit About Me And A Bit About How I Blog

I think most craft bloggers have a day or two off over Christmas, but I’m such a creature of habit,  I don’t like the thought of  an empty page on my blog, so I thought I might open up a little and tell you a bit about how I blog. DuchessofFiddleFart4_thumb2
I started “Fiddle Fart” on 20th August 2009 http://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.com/2009/08/wecome-to-my-craft-room.html , after a few false starts, (though I had blogged Mum’s Monkey for a year or so before that, in fits and starts, for my own amusement). It was my old pal Craft Fairy Lisa who kept on nagging me to do something and in the end I relented and have been hooked ever since …. (I see my craft room was a lot neater back in 2009)
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However, I soon discovered what a time consuming activity blogging  was and realised that I couldn’t keep it up a daily basis without being very organised and always one step ahead, so the greatest thing I ever got to grips with was the “scheduling” facility on Blogger, which I also use on Mum’s Monkey, although not so far ahead, as I have to keep their activities more current with the news, TV, special days etc. But for Fiddle Fart I always make sure I have at least a month of ideas in “the can”, allowing me time off for holidays, and crafters block etc.
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I do most of my “making” at weekends and the school holidays, (a lot of my Christmas posts were done in August!).  Sometimes, when I am on a real roll, I can come up with 8/10 ideas in a day, so it’s not too hard to stay ahead.  Once scheduled I can jiggle the days for a post around, for example, I might have all my posts done for October, but then all the Halloween stuff arrives in the shops … so I’ll move some of the ideas I’ve scheduled to a later date in order to accommodate my Halloween ideas (if that makes sense). 
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Some posts I have scheduled are always being moved about  …. mostly because I’m not that happy with them, I have some fiftieth birthday cards that have been moved constantly for about a year and have still not been published!
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I photograph everything I make from all angles and then post the best.  Until about three months ago I used a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W310 which was very simple to use but unfortunately died on me in September and though Sony offered to repair it for me under guarantee, the cost was an awful lot more than I had actually paid for the camera, plus I had to pay up front for the repair and then invoice Sony, which I just couldn’t afford at the time,  it all seemed a lot of  trouble, for a camera that was already “dated”,  so I decided to bring out my old faithful Olympus FE-120 out of mothballs until Santa bought me something new.  (of that, more later) …… it may be old, but it has taken some cracking pictures since it has been out of retirement!

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My big problem is taking good photos during  the dark winter nights and dull days in a craft room where the lighting isn’t wonderful, all my photos seem to take on a yellow tinge!   I would like a really good (photography) lamp/light, but at the moment I don’t have a clue what I am talking about or what I would need, so that’s on the back burner until I have done some more research.

The pictures of me are a just bit of festive fun … I wanted something to break up all the text and thought it would give you a good laugh to see how this mad woman looks when working on her ‘puter!