Slow down, you move to fast.

"Slow down, you move too fast, you've got to make the morning last
Just kickin' down the cobble-stones, lookin' for fun and feelin' groovy"

( Simon and Garfunkel )

I have received some samples of my A3 pocket notes calendar, it's always nice to see the final product but, as with all dated products, fills me full of alarm. As I have got older it seems as if time has speeded up and now we are well into the final quarter of the year. It seems no time at all since I hung my 2009 calendar and yesterday I completed images for a 2011 calendar! Now I am looking at the clock and thinking yet again, what have I done today? Not a lot.

Good news!!!

Recently I wrote about the very sad news that Hudson and Middleton, the old and established bone china factory here in Stoke-on-Trent, had gone into administration following the demise of china production at the Wedgwood factory. The owners of the company were also suppliers of bone ash and when Wedgwood stopped manufacturing here in Britain the effect was catastrophic. I am happy to report that the former managers of Hudson and Middleton have now bought the company and the factory is open for business as usual. This is wonderful news for the ceramics industry in our region as we have seen so many job losses over recent years.

On a more personal level, it is a great relief to me that my new mug designs are going ahead. We are putting the finishing touches to the products and they will be available very shortly. I hope to do a link to the website as soon as the mugs are available.

I have three new ranges of designs, one of which is a bird series. The illustration posted here is a detail from one of four British garden bird mugs. The monitor does not pick up the true colours but the printer has done a great job and captured the colours onto the bone china. I am so relieved that the mugs will go through and even more pleased that valuable jobs have been saved.

Back in the saddle.

First of all I just want to say thank you so much for all your kind and encouraging words in response to my last post. Things have been difficult here, mainly due to the increasing frailty of my elderly parents. I have also succumbed to the nasty bug that has been doing the rounds, anyone who has had the sore throat and cough will no what I mean, and I thought I had escaped it!

It has also been a particularly worrying time on the work front. One of my main licensees, Hudson and Middleton Ltd, who I wrote about earlier, has called in the administrators. This is yet another bad blow for Stoke-on-Trent and has resulted in many lost jobs. The company itself was doing well but sadly, it was owned by another company who supplied bone ash for the manufacture of bone china. One of its main customers was Wedgwood and when that went there was a domino effect. We are keeping our fingers crossed in the hope that a buyer can be found for what was Britain's oldest bone china factory.

Last week should have seen the launch of three of my new bone china mug collections and I was looking forward to my annual visit to the Spring fair in Birmingham. Sadly this was not to be, other licensees did better I am happy to report and although I did not get to see the stands and new products I was delighted to receive a nice package through the post. Padblocks, a company I met last year at the fair, have now produced one of my designs "Garden plot" as note blocks, slant pads, shopping lists and sticky pads. I particularly like the slant pad as the design stays the same no matter how many sheets you tear off, who ever thought that up was very clever, don't you think?

Calendar 2009 samples.

The first samples of my new calendars for 2009 arrived in the post which makes a welcome change from junk mail and bills. It's always exciting to receive the finished products after all the hard work is finished. Both calendars have been published by a British company called Judges and should be available in the United Kingdom shortly.

One of the calendars is a slimline type and the other is called "Pocket Notes" which is a wall calendar with a pocket to hold household items, dental appointments, invitations, etc. I think it will come in very useful, I hope you agree! The green card which you can see in the photograph is for display purposes only and lifts out to reveal a date chart. I don't know about you but I have only just got the hang of writing 2008 on my cheques, the years are speeding up I am sure.