Tuesday 3 November 2009

Cards

It's time to make this year's Christmas / New Year cards (via VistaPrint, as usual). As has become my habit, I'm doing two: one which gestures vaguely in the direction of "picturesque", and one which doesn't. If you have commented on this blog before now and would like to receive one, just email me your terrestrial address if I don't already have it.


I was heartened to see my statistics take an unexpected leap upwards earlier this week. On closer investigation, however, I discovered that this was because a website specialising in "corporal punishment" had linked to an earlier post concerning my primary school, which happens to mention the use of the cane. Be assured, you very strange people, that spankings and "severe French lessons" do not and will not figure prominently in the subject matter of this blog, so you might as well stop reading now. Unless, that is, you have enjoyed what you have found. But don't even think about asking for a Christmas card until next year.

6 comments:

Kent Wiley said...

My god you're on top of things! Our "holiday" cards usually go out - if they go out at all - after Valentine's Day, or pick another convenient holiday.

Perhaps material for another blog post? How to get so motivated?

seany said...

Mike would love one of your cards but your email address is not recognised by Yahoo
Michael

Mike C. said...

Kent, people often ask me "How do you find the time?" and I think the answer is (a) I seriously neglect household maintenance, as does my partner (we live in comfortable squalor, and spend money on a solution when the paint peels off), (b) I don't watch TV, and (c) we are seriously lacking in the "social life" department...

Michael, I can't understand that, I'm mic "at" soton.ac.uk and this works for everyone else.

Kent Wiley said...

I'm with you on a) & c), and have only begun within the last two years watching more Netflix than humanly healthy, so "time" is not the issue for me. How do you motivate yourself to create not one but two designs this many months in advance?

Mike C. said...

Kent, if I could answer that, I could probably make a respectable living as a lifestyle guru...

Part of the answer would be that I have kept the same few friends for 30 years or more, and we are widely scattered geographically (though perhaps not by US standards).

The other part may be that -- having worked for so long in a professional / managerial capacity in the public sector -- I've acquired the habit of planning ahead (despite my natural disinclination). I have simply learned that to design, order, receive and post cards in time for the end of the year, now is the time to start.

Of course, the other element is VistaPrint. They send me "free" offers several times a week -- I'm hardly going to forget! In the past I used to make the cards by hand. Compared to getting out the bone folder, steel rule and sharp blade, to simply drag and drop an image into a template, upload it, and hit "Pay" is such an easy job you could make ten cards in an evening and still have time for TV!

Mike

sheeza said...

wow nice and creative work

so lovely and beautiful