Where Has the Year Gone!?!

Oh my, it was not my intention to leave blogging so long.  Every week I have thought "I must get onto that", but one thing after another has kept me from all those good intentions.

Soon we will be moving our blog, because it will be integrated with our new look website, which is currently under development.  However I thought I'd recap my mad, mad year for you so you had and idea of why I've not been blogging for months and months.

In January my darling daughter was home for Christmas. She lives in the UK and so coming back home (down under to Australia) is very expensive for her.  We had a fabulous, crazy busy time which must have been good because she is coming home AGAIN this Christmas!  Also in January we had to replace our darling Julie, who, just two days before Christmas was diagnosed with cancer. The news was very, very bad.

Our dear Julie is on the right of this picture with (left to right:  Cathy, Me, Jim)

In February it was the calm before the storm.  Thankfully the wonderful Louise came into our lives, and took over Julie's role in the shop.  Louise buzzes with energy, matched by her talent and she is a wonderful, wonderful addition to the shop.  But it was hectic trying to get in training before April, which was looming as a busy month.

In March, darling Julie lost her short battle with Cancer, too soon.  It was heartbreaking for all of us, and goodness knows how her beloved daughter Michelle managed things.

Our European holiday took in London, Bath, Rome, Athens, Olympus, Istanbul, Izmar, Dubai.

In April, Louise went on holiday (arranged before she came to work for us), and I had my 2014 National Digitising Retreat.  We also had the huge Australasian Quilt Convention and Jim and I left for a huge 27 day holiday in Europe.

In May we were on that amazing holiday!  Drinking in the Ancient Roman Culture, and visiting so many amazing places.  When we got home Cathy broke the news that she was leaving to take a job closer to her home.  Thankfully every cloud has a silver lining and the magnificent Mary joined us.  Mary and Louise had been co-workers in a previous life and so we quickly fell into a great rhythm.

In June Leah joined us taking on a role as In-house tutor.  She took over all the new owners classes, and began working with me, Louise and Mary to develop more classes that will be released in 2015.  Leah came from elsewhere in the industry (no names mentioned) and has many, many years of experience.

In July we had a big show at Jeff's Shed.  I don't think anyone knows the real name of the show since all us locals just call it the "Jeff's Shed Show".  Go figure.  Also in July we announced we had taken on the Bernina brand of products.  Big, big news!

In August we hardly stood still, and seemed to rush from one thing to anther - where did August Go?

A once in a life time experience was a banquet dinner on the Great Wall of China. This is an event that has to be approved by the Chinese Government and is so rare.  We were very blessed indeed to have had this arranged for us by Ernest and his staff at the Blessington Group.

In September Jim and I took of to China as a guest of Blessington, the group that distributes many of our major brands. We had two weeks of excitement travelling around this exotic country.  We also had a weekend convention on the Sunshine coast. Both of these were wonderful, but took extra effort from us to find people to care for our disabled son. Not an easy task!  More stress than I care to mention.

Jim and I collecting an Achievement Award at the Blessington National Marketing Convention 2014.

In October ... .we had two shows, Stitch! Craft Alive and the Stitches and Craft Show.

Now were are exhausted.  Jim is like the walking dead, and I have completely lost my  mojo.  No wonder, it has been such a busy year.

I hope you will now forgive the lack of blog posts.  However I do have something for you in this post....

In a couple of weeks the world will see the launch of the new "Go!Big! from Accuquilt.  This amazing electric fabric cutter is great.  We got to see it at Convention last month and I was impressed at the detail that has gone into the design, not only is it easy to use they have thought of everything safety wise too.

Here is a free pattern to celebrate the launch of the GO! BIG!