OK, so I haven't posted anything here since February. I must get back into the habit. I will try to give you a quick precis of my year so far.
March. We started rehearsals for an amateur production of Hayfever. I went to Southwold for the weekend with friends, which we do every year. I made paper cuts to sell at the first Aldborough Creative which was to be on the 30th May. I started planning an auction of Studio Pottery to be held in September.
April. My youngest daughter flew off to the far east for 3 months, so I didn't really relax again until the end of June when she got back! She had a fabulous time and apart from missing her, I thoroughly enjoyed following her around Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam as she posted her photos up on facebook.

I worked on promoting Aldborough Creative, advertising the auction of Studio Pottery and learning my lines for Hayfever.
May. I designed some greetings cards and had them printed. Framed my paper cuts. Put up posters for Aldborough Creative and invited people to the private view. My dad had a heart attack – the low point of my year. Thankfully he seems fit and healthy again now.
Our Aldborough Creative exhibition was a great success – this was my corner.

June. After many hours of rehearsals Hayfever finally hit the stage for 3 nights. For many years I couldn't bring myself to go anywhere near the stage, but enjoyed being involved with the props, set and costumes. Then I got sucked in, and now I love it! I think that, because I work at home alone most of the time, I really appreciate achieving something as part of a team for a change.


We started planning the next Aldborough Creative to be held in November as a pre-Christmas show.
July. My daughters, family and friends came and went. This was one particularly lovely day.

I went to the Lounge on the Farm festival in Kent, which was a breath of fresh air after Latitude which has recently become so horribly crowded. We discovered Ellen and the Escapades, a great young band.

They are coming to Norwich in January if you like their sound.
Also discovered Dry the River who are a lot more intense.

Then I came back from my festival and Tim went to Perth in Australia for 10 days on business. Lizzy went to Turkey with friends. Jenny came home from Uni and then went back again. I met up with old school friends in Framlingham. I went down to the west country to collect Studio Pottery for the auction in September.

While away I sold some of my greetings cards to a gift shop in Newnham, and they have ordered some of my Christmas cards too. Maybe I should put on my 'salesman' hat and go round chatting to some card shops locally. If anyone wants to buy any of my greetings cards they are £2.50 each. Wholesale price available for 30 or more.




August. I went to the Art in Clay exhibition at Hatfield House, talked to lots of potters, advertised my auction. Jenny went to Portugal. I went to the Edinburgh Festival with friends. We had such a brilliant time – 19 shows in 4 days! Exhausting, brilliant, exhilarating, eye-opening, fabulous. Got back and straight into producing the catalogue and website for the Studio Pottery auction. www.knightsdecorativearts.co.uk
We had a really lovely picnic at Blickling to celebrate a friend's birthday.

September. Then it was my first auction of Studio Pottery. Nerve-wracking. We sold the best stuff, but I definitely need to build up my client base of both buyers and sellers before the next one in April.
Fabulous fancy dress party to celebrate 25 years of the Norfolk Children's Book Centre – http://www.ncbc.co.uk/NCBC/Home.html

The Three Musketeers – it had to be done! Any excuse to dress up and drink too much wine!
Then Lizzy went off to start her degree at Leeds and we became a household of two for the first time in 20 years! Plus the dogs, of course. And both girls come back often, which is lovely, but they both complain of an empty fridge when they get home – we don't seem to need very much food these days.
On 26th September we went to Venice for 3 nights. I've never been before and it really took me aback. It was visually stunning, and not always in a pretty pretty way. What an incredible place. It was like going back in time, or finding yourself on a different planet. I took over 500 photos – just couldn't help myself. I'll restrict myself to 3 here!

Fabulous ancient buildings on Murano.

Classic mask shop. I like the way Venice is reflected in the glass.

The Grand Canal. Big boats, little boats, gondolas, taxi boats, ferry boats... And the most amazing architecture as a backdrop.
On arriving back in Britain I discovered my youngest red setter, Nutmeg, had a very sore toe.

This transpired to be a tumour, which meant £275 worth of toe removal and a lot of crashing around the house in a very large Elizabethan collar for a couple of weeks. But she seems to be all better now.
October. The month started well with a trip to see Ellen and the Escapades at the Bicycle Shop in Norwich. It was the very warm week and gosh it was hot in the basement there, but we enjoyed the small venue and the band managed bravely on the tiny stage. Then Jackie Morris came to the Book Centre and launched her new illustrated nursery rhyme book, which made a good birthday present for my nephew, especially with the hand drawn cat and personal inscription. Then I went to Centerparcs for the weekend with a group of seven girl friends – our 13th year. As the particular property we had booked was being re-decorated, we were upgraded to a top of the range 'games' chalet, which meant on top of the hot tub, sauna and steam room, we also had a pool table and a cupboard full of board games. We had a great weekend catching up with each other, eating, drinking and window shopping in Cambridge.
In addition to all of the above, my husband has held five auctions this year, for which I do all the imagery and catalogue work. Here are our two auctioneers in action last weekend at our final auction of Sporting Memorabilia of the year.

David Robinson, on the right, manages our website as well as being our main auctioneer, so if you ever need a freelance auctioneer or a website developing do get in contact with him.
And Sean Cannon, on the left, is our second auctioneer, and is just about to put all his energies into an exciting adventure that he and his brother have been developing over the past year or so. Cannon & Cannon sell quality British artisan charcuterie, and have just been granted a pitch at London's famous food venue, Borough Market, starting at the beginning of December. So visit them there for your Christmas cured meats, or order a hamper online.