Overcoming technology

I am not the exactly the most computer literate person there is in the world. I can use Word, Powerpoint, Excel to do basic things, Outlook and of course the internet. But I feel I have scored a major victory; I have started using Firefox - a thousand times better than Explorer- and got rid of the BT internet security pack in favour of Norton. The result? Much faster computer and no problems downloading & uploading stuff. I am so much happier that I don't have to wait half an hour to download things (Ok, half an hour is an exaggeration but it seems like that sometimes) and I have no problems whatsoever on the Ravelry pattern browser. The latter being the most important for someone who goes on Ravelry three or four times a day.

Things I've wanted to write about over the past few months now...

Shop closing
The retail shop of Crafty Cottage closed in March. Warwick is such a funny place. It seems there are shops opening and closing there all the time. I predict pretty much all of the delis/sandwich bars will have suffered a huge loss in trade thanks to the new M&S, but in all truth there is only one group of people who I blame for bad trade in Warwick - traffic wardens - or rather their employer, the Council. There were two that drove me particularly insane and waited by meters for tickets to run out so they could give me a ticket. I ended up getting eight....

The business didn't take off as I had hoped. Terrible location didn't help. Anyway, there was only one day a week when it was worth opening - Saturdays- and the rest of the week was generally very quiet. While I got loads of knitting done, made some great friends and people were popping in for cups of tea all the time, I was simply not making enough to pay the huge running costs. On top of that, I had got to the end of the reduced rent period and as the bank had taken away my overdraft and refused me a loan, I had to close. Part of me misses the shop, but acutally the majority of me is relieved. I never realised how much hard work is involved in running a shop and if you're doing it by yourself it is a constant struggle, and sometimes you don't get very much sleep....

My highlight of the shop was on 1st March, when we had a Ravelry day. In fact it was when 70 or so Ravellers made my dreams come true. The shop was absolutely heaving and along with the very generous buffet everyone had a great time. It was so nice to put names to faces.

Wonderwool
So I got a last minute stand at Wonderwool and snapped it up. Right next to all the sheep and alpacas. Here's a photo...
Due to the short notice and inability to get a van for under £250, we decided to take as much as we could in our two cars and camp there...
As you can probably tell, the kids though it was a fantastic adventure - we did not. It is the last time I am going camping. Ever.

We met some lovely people at the show and Robbie made friends with Thomas the Alpaca
and with Posh Dee

And by the end of the day, it had all got a bit too much for Zoe, who feel asleep in Daisy's arm (note Daisy's hippy new age festival outfit!)