News & Updates from Exclusive designer Gail Collins

Heather Howes has helped me and taught me so much my journey on craftsuprint.com we got chatting years ago and shared comfort to each other when we both lost our other halves with in about a year of each other, then we drifted apart for a while learning to cope and mange with our new way of life but i always though if i ever get anywhere near where Heather lives i want to go and Meet her, So what a surprise it was last Year when Heather and Mick Came to Swindon so we met up in Royal Wootton Bassett Where my son has his business, it was so lovely to meet her at last but i was so surprised at how tiny she is always pictured her as being much taller.

What a lovely day that was to meet Heather Howes my best Cup friend and we are in contact nearly every day again now which is lovely and earning some money again.

I do community gardening in my Area , i get a fee ticket +1 to visit this ,it is stunning and me being like most crafters and like any thing sparkly or glittery i just lovely fairy lights etc i have been 3 years Running , the first year there was x cold thick fog which made it look very mystical The second year it was a bitter cold frost , for me who feels the cold so much it is not much fun although it was beautiful, this time it was lovely , no frost, no fog and not too cold , every year it is different , so it lovely to go every year, This is in the Town Garden in Swindon a very popular place all through the year and even more so on the enchanted Garden s every year.

Now the rain is giving us a break i am busy getting my front garden ready for the competition, i was one of the winners the year before last, It is Hard work and you never know if what you have grown for it will be gone over by Judging or not even open yet , This year i am doing a white Pink and red theme on one side of the garden .The judging might also coincide with my Holiday , So many thing could go wrong , but it does not matter to me if i win or not because so many people stop to admire my garden it makes it all worth while , but of course if you win its a Bonus .

we have had such turbulent summer by me .

I work on a community garden across the road from me, an idea i had two years ago to enhance the lake area across the road from my house , we worked on flower bed got the council to add benches and bins and a picnick bench, people came from all over to see it, to walk, jog, ride bikes walk children and dogs and feed all our lovely Swans and Geese but a month ago disaster struck in the form of Avian flue and from 26 swan we were down to 3 a day ago and half the geese have died too and it is affecting other birds in the Area and there was a dead fox we dont know if that was affected by eating infected birds it has been heart breaking and has spread to other lakes in the area now, .

Just after Christmas or i started a group to cheer people up , lonely people , sick people, Depressed people, special Birthdays etc and it has been working so well some people might get up to 30 cards , and they love it so much some laugh and some even cry ,some get them out every time they feel down and read them all again .Robert Buckland asked if he could join as he works with and supports lonely people .

I was so pleased to see he has shared this to different places that help people , so our members are increasing , I had all but given up card making but this has got me crafting again and a lot of the other members ,so in turn i have started buying from cup again and even started to design again,