Latest notebook

This is my latest notebook. It's another abstract spiral notebook with a red felt cover with blue needle felted design and stitching. It is for sale on my Etsy shop for £16.00 or for a discounted price of £10, (offer only available on this blog) by contacting me at mcleanbookarts@virginmedia.com and I will arrange discount on Etsy for you.

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/McLeanBookArts

I have a new commission. It will be an A7 notebook, the client has still to choose the colours and number of signatures. The design will be the clients initials needle felted on the front.

Talk soon
Love & hugs
Angela xxx

Notebooks

The last few days have been quite productive. I finished an A6 coptic bound notebook. It has a blue needle felted cover with a tree on the front. The spine is sewn in brown embroidery thread to match the stitching around the cover. It also has a coloured spine, the signatures have been wrapped in different shades of blue, with a dark blue in the middle, moving on to lighter shade next to the cover boards. The spine wrap is cut with a decorative trim on the inside. This is the first one with the coloured spine I've done, I can definitely see me using it again.

The commission I was doing was finished. It's a traditional binding. I'll write a description  and a photo on the blog once it has gone to it's new home.

Talk soon
Love & hugs
Angela xxx

Business Gateway - Edinburgh

I attended a Business Gateway (absolutely free) course about networking a few nights ago at the City of Edinburgh Council HQ. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a speed networking event. One half of the delegates stayed at the seats they were in and the other half moved around from person to person for a timed mini meeting. It was great for me, as I'm really quite shy, not that good at making conversation, so I could just sit and people came to me. I found that I really enjoyed talking about my work. They say it's not really work, if it's something that you love doing, I must say, it's really true.

Business Gateway is a Government organisation where you can get free practical help, advice and support for your new or growing business in Scotland. They had loads of great free workshops about all aspects of getting a business going, such as finance, SEO, marketing, etc.

I met a lot of lovely people, who had started up a new business. There were all sorts of business and it was great to hear their stories of why they were starting up and how they were going about doing it. There were a few web designers, a piano teacher, a personal trainer who goes to the homes of new mothers to help them get back on track and a lovely charted accountant from Bolland & Burke in Edinburgh who helps people in small businesses get through the more of business finance.

Business Gateway in Edinburgh have loads of free courses that anyone can attend and believe me, they are really worth it. I intend going to all of them, even if I get one piece of information I can use in my business or even personally, it was was going to. Keep up the good work guys.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

New Improved Website Launched

The new and much improved website created for me by Marco Argentina is now up and running. The problems with my website for the past few days has now been fixed (thank you Mr Hosting Company). While it was down, I thought it would be a great time to upload the new version, so that when the site appeared again, it would be all sparkling new.

I've been making some books and started the Spirals' abstract series. It's Coptic bound and in the lower prices range which starts at £14.00 for the A7 size (this one is an A6).

I have a commission ongoing. I've done the book block and I'll start cutting the boards and covering paper this week. I'm looking forward to seeing it completed, should look great.

Go a few things on this week, including 2 courses (one is online which is great), a Sci-fi book group and I'll go and see the Mary, Queen of Scots exhibition at the museum either this week or next, I'll see how things pan out.

Heading off to Marseille soon with Ricardo. Really can't wait. Lovely weather, beautiful sights and wonderful food and wine and some Ricard of course. Planning to buy some Savon de Marseille, lavender oil and some herbes des Provence.

Talk soon
Love & hugs
Angela xxx

Get Up & Go Awards

Just a quick post. I'm getting ready to go to the Get Up & Go Awards.

Get Up & Go is an activities and opportunities programme aimed at people living in Edinburgh who are 50 and over. The magazine is available in libraries, etc. I volunteer for a mental health charity as a befriender for older people, so I got an invitation. It's being held in The Studio at the Festival Theatre.

Looking forward to it.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

PS. My website is down, no idea why. I've contacted the hosting company. Hopefully, it will be fixed soon.

PPS. Congrats to Communities Connecting for winning an award.