ILP Progress and Happy 1st Advent!

Samples for all sorts of cards

Wow! That was fast! I sent a request for sample material to make a decision on online business card ordering yesterday, and today it was in the mail. That means that ILP will have business cards soon! Although the design got a bit of criticism already - 'too green blob-ish', 'one can't read it anyway', 'nobody knows what it means',... - I will stick with it, nevertheless.

ILP business card

This hopefully will be a green blob people will never forget again once they saw it, and I quite like the idea that Incredible Ladies has firstly grown into an ongoing project and secondly that its blogs form a landscape in which hopefully a lot of people will feel homey in. Thus 'The landscape' it should be on the card! On the Twitters it already becomes recognised, and although an awkward shape, the blob might become something like a brand... what would be fine by me, anything that works!

Additionally I finished the whole Incredible Ladies Project Landscape yesterday, only a few gadgets, like a gallery, are missing, which I will add as we go along. The general landscape now consists of 12 blogs, plus the old IL site, and I have a spreadsheet to measure performance of the individual blogs. All I have to do now is to write, write, write!

My beloved 'Klick'

Well, I am hoping that this is all I have to do. Examples of how a good blog should look like, show that mine are far... FAR... from that. For example there is a blog about a daily picture from Paris; even if would know how to take decent photos, I am not sure that Ipswich would give me a similar variety of photo story telling. Another one has the most delicious recipes on display, again supported by perfect pictures, while the recipes I am inventing, aim to keep a balance and are not really involving luscious ingredients; I can't win on that one either, do I? Goodness me, and then there is the one combining the two showing off French food in pictures, another one which has a colour scheme going with the dishes, and finally a peep through the pictured keyhole of a Victorian home. 

Too many buttons!

I do have to be careful not to turn yellow of envy and to throw my whole conglomerate of 12 blogs into the bin, as the above are  beautiful blogs but the kind I cannot give you.They all heavily rely on gorgeous pictures and the one thing I am really crap at, is taking photos. I usually use my little pocket camera because I know where the release button is, while my wonderful Nikon is sitting in the cupboard waiting for the day that I eventually will subscribe to a photo course. So this is to all my photography friends: If you would like to see good photos here, then you will have to send me some, otherwise you will have to get used to reading!

So my dears, I at least posted you some links with nice pictures. And now I would like to wish you all a wonderful first advent with some pictures I shot with my beloved 'Klick'.

They are taken at Redhouse Barn, a lovely place which is a bit in the middle of nowhere, yet only a good half hour from Ipswich. The owners won a competition to become this years supplier for the Downing Street 10 Christmas tree and the trees are gorgeous; we got ours, too. 

The barn is so lovely that I got all emotional and Christmasy, they have a father Christmas, costs a fiver, and the reindeers are real, although very sleepy when we were there. 

The nicest thing however, was to see the joy and pride the owner is taking into his business when we talked. He told me that the Blue Peter people will be out there filming next week. This is a brilliant place to get into the Christmas spirit and we are already looking forward to next year. 

Happy 1st Advent to you!
Love
Rika
  xx

Wishing you a wonderfully lazy 1st Advent!