If you've been reading my blog posts for a while you'll recall last year I put a shout out for artists to collaborate with, using their beautiful drawings, paintings or potentially even photographs along with my cross stitch design skills to create some gorgeous charts & kits.

I've been working with Heidi, of Heidi Made This & I love her work & her quirky style.  If you haven't had a chance to do so already go & check out her fabulous greetings cards.  The kits created turned out even better than expected & I can't wait to do more with Heidi.

I'm now also in a position where I'd like to broaden my range & this is where you lovely lovely arty types can help *flutters eyelashes optimistically*

Here's the original post, it has more details in, pretty much all of which remain the same.  If you think it's something you'd be interested in, whether you just want to do a few pieces or ongoing collaborations I'd love to hear from you & can talk you through how it would all work.

I hope to hear from you soon!

Ok, not me exactly but it's a year ago I registered Miss Red as a business.  Wow, how fast has this year flown by?!?

I have to say a huge thanks to all my 577 followers on FB, the 363 on Twitter (which I'm really chuffed with because I still don't really know what I'm doing on there) and followers elsewhere in that big old land of social media (follow links top right ;)...not forgetting, most importantly, you fantastic customers!!!

It's been a tough year of ups & downs, health issues have done all they can to trip me up whenever possible but I'm more motivated now than ever.  I'm sure I'll still have my "what am I doing?" moments occasionally but I've learned a lot this year...yup, mostly by making mistakes but it's a lot of useful lessons I'll take with me into the future.

So, come on year 2, bring it on!

PS: If you're not on the mailing list yet then click the button below.  There's even a free printable cross stitch pattern when you sign up!

This time last year I'd just received my final wages from my last job.

I'd started as a temp at this government quango & after a year of glowing reports, pay rises & contract extensions I was *promoted* into a permanent role.  Much as I missed teaching I knew my health wasn't up to a full time teaching role so begrudgingly accepted, relieved that my financial situation would at least become stable.

Little did I know it would all be downhill from there, the new role being nothing like the temporary roles I'd done & essentially turning me into a phone monkey.  No offence meant to anyone who works in call centre/contact centre, in fact hats off to you!  As someone with severe anxiety issues & a phone phobia I'd never have accepted the post had I been aware of the change in role!  I approached my line manager who assured me despite being put through phone training I'd soon be back in my administrative post because it would be a busy period for my team & I knew more about the process than anyone on the team (including/especially her!)  Of course just a couple of months later it'd be my word against hers that she'd made these reassurances & she'd convince management that I'd known all along what I was agreeing to when I accepted the job.  (8 hours a day on the phone being told when I'm allowed to leave my desk & watching bimbling idiots around me stuffing up the job I *used* to do really well)

After 5 months off ill followed by being pushed too hard on a phased return & being ill again occupational health & other medical professionals were unanimous in the decision that redeployment was the way forward.  Shortly after this decision was formalised I was brought in for a *redeployment* meeting.  Allegedly there was no position to move me to, despite hiring 3 new staff members to carry out the job I'd managed without illness and with glowing reports for several months.  Since I'd already had my trial period extended by three months it was decided I was incapable of carrying out the role I was hired for (no shit Sherlock!) so therefore I no longer had a job.

Obviously it hadn't been my ideal job but it had been my lifeline for almost 2 years & to suddenly just stop having any income came as a shock as well as causing many sleepless nights & exacerbating my ME .  Having already been turned down for DLA (but in the process of appealing it) I had no idea how I'd pay the bills & no optimism where new employment was concerned with over 100 sick days under my belt.  Already in a very dark place it did nothing for my mental health either, it's very difficult trying to see a silver lining when even somewhere you don't want to work but slog your heart out for doesn't think it's worth giving you a break.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger apparently ;)

Are you an artist or designer by trade or do you just love creating beautiful pieces of art?

Would you like to see your artwork in a different medium?

Would you like more widespread recognition for your work?

If your answer is YES then YOU may be just the person I'm looking for!

(If not then pretty please do me a huge favour & share this with your talented arty friends, I'll love you forever!)

I currently draw all the artwork for my cross stitch kits by myself & this can be very time consuming as well as limiting what I can create - because 
a) I'm no artist &
b) the length of my working day is completely dependent on my health day to day.

The idea is that artists could make my process shorter by creating the original artwork so I can focus on creating the patterns, stitching them out, editing & creating the completed counted cross stitch kits.

• A new medium & line of sale for your artwork
• Professional kit creation using genuine DMC threads & quality materials
• New audience
• Credit for your work on the kit packaging, within all sale listings and in general on the Miss Red website & social media
• Links to your own website on mine so people can see more of your work
• Choice of how many pieces to submit & how often to submit
• Final review of the kit before it goes on sale to ensure it truly reflects the quality & value of your work
• Collaboration with MEEEEEEEE ;D

A choice of:

• A percentage of profits (to be negotiated)

or

• Kits and/or digital patterns to sell yourself (pricing to be mutually agreed)

Here are some of the kits I've already made:

Interested?  Great!

Drop me an email or message me using the contact page - a link to some of your work would be fab too ;)  Thank you for reading.

Just lately when I've started talking to new people "oh, you're so lucky" has been a frequent response when I tell them I'm self-employed.

Well, the short response to that is "hell no!"

The longer response?  Lets see, I've battled for years with my health & struggled to hold down jobs my entire adult life because my M.E means I have more sick days than the average person.  As a (terminally) single woman there's never been anyone to support me financially so working part time was never really an option.  The result - working myself to death in temporary roles until I just can't work any more then having to move on & start all over again.  Oh, and don't forget the gruelling doctor/hospital/dietician/psychologist/specialist schedule in my *spare* time!

After 14 years of fighting each & every day to stay afloat I decided enough was enough.  No employer is going to give me a job that fits around my health.  DWP aren't going to support me in any way because, unlike employers, they believe being able to walk from my bed to the loo on a good day means I'm perfectly capable of holding down full time work.

I decided to set up my own business.  I did the research & courses needed to get up & running.  I searched for funding.  I went to trade fairs, put in the hours of hard work making things & perfecting my skills & tracking accounts, networking & finding out what people wanted & would buy.  I bought stock & supplies instead of food & a social life, ME!


So hell no, I'm not giving luck any credit here!  This didn't just happen to me while I sat idly by, I made all of this happen.  I work damn hard at what I do & will continue to do so because I'm passionate & motivated & sooooo stubborn that I refuse to let this fail (despite the fact that even writing this post has taken me 2 hours because my wrists & back ache too much to do it all in one go)  

I love my work & I love that the credit all belongs to me & the fantastic customer base I continue to build along the way ;)  

Just for me, next time your brain tells you that you can't do something because it's too difficult, give it a little go anyway.  You might be surprised what you CAN do!

Tentacles!

That eye keeps looking at me as I'm stitching the rest...

Also, nearly finished with the bag.  This one has a clear window in the front to display my AVON books. :D

There were some little offcuts so there's also a matching lady bear skirt for one of my little helpers & a ruffle for my hair.

Bit of wandering the streets in the rain delivering flyers in the hope of gaining new Independent AVON Representatives for my team too.  If you think that's something you'd like to do then pop along here and join my team ;)

Manylots of embroidery bits to do next - busy busy.  But for now, it's time for a cuppa :)

This week has mostly been taken over by this:

Little bit more work done on these:

Hoping next week will be a bit less exhausting & a bit more stitchy :)

On your travels browsing the site you may have noticed that I'm not just Miss Red but also an "Avon lady."  It's a completely separate business & AVON is in no way affiliated with Miss Red but the earnings from my second business have helped me pay my bills while I build the first up. 

It's really flexible so I can do as much or as little as I like fitting it around my main business and also my health issues.  I now have a lovely bunch of customers and I'm really enjoying getting to know some of the people who live around me. :) 

This month I went from being an Independent Avon Representative to an Independent Avon Sales Leader...good eh?

That means I'm now on the lookout for some of you wonderful people to join my team!

AVON is one of the world's leading direct selling companies of beauty and beauty-related products.  Why not become an Independent Avon Representative?  Find out more about AVON's fantastic flexible self-employed earning opportunities.  

Contact me with any questions you might have, or join me on AVON Connects now. 

Even if you don't want the extra cash involved in becoming a rep AVON still have some great products for women, men and children, with a range for every pocket so please do pop along & have a browse of the brochure.

Thanks for reading, and sorry if parts came over more sales-y and less *me*...there are guidelines I have to follow when talking about AVON (like having to write it in all caps), and their pre-approved texts all sound a bit more formal than I'd like to have put it.

Please do have a think about joining my team though, it really is a great opportunity!