Easter highs and lows

Hello!  I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break and enjoyed the glorious sunshine - how beautiful was it for the long weekend!  It seems a very long time since I last did a blog post - I've had a few ups-and-downs over the last few weeks with work and things, which has left me feeling a bit fed up with everything. Humph.

Firstly, I've been having problems getting paid for a lot of freelance work I've undertaken, and I always resent having to chase payment.  It really ruins a working relationship, and as a freelancer you have to trust that people will honour payment as you are always doing the work up-front.  Any suggestions for how to overcome this??.... I'm sure it's a common problem for freelancers - its a fine line of trusting people / companies whilst also ensuring you aren't left out of pocket and will receive payment.

Secondly, I've been working hard towards getting my own range of melamine plates produced (you might remember I posted a while ago about the samples and different designs I'd been working on).  I selected 10 designs to launch a new range, and ordered multiples of each design to be shipped to me from the UK where they are being produced.  I was really excited when I received my first shipment of goods a few weeks ago - but this quickly turned to disappointment when I realised one of the designs had a fault.  Of course I assumed the fault would be rectified straight away given it was a production issue, and I had paid in full for the goods to be produced and shipped half way round the world.  Sadly this doesn't appear to be the case, and is resulting in e-mails not being returned and long periods without communication.  Its such a frustrating situation, and makes you question the relationship and trust you have worked hard to build up.

On a brighter note I've been badly neglecting my Me Old China Etsy shop due to feelance work and developing the melamine plate range - but I finally got round to listing some new designs at last!  I have lots more designs that have been cut from plates, but I still need to get round to sanding these and transforming them into the pendants.             

These two designs are part of a collection made from this very cute English retro plate called 'South Pacific' - they would have been perfect for the summer if I'd got round to listing them in time!

These two rather funky designs are also from an old English retro plate with a pattern name 'Tyrol'.  They are a little more 1970's in feel - and very bold with the red and yellow florals on the black background! 
And this shows the plate after it has been cut with the pendant shapes.  More designs available over at Etsy!

And I also had my 'Knife & Fork' cut-out plate featured over at Kaboodle as part of an Etsy round-up of designs for Earth day.  Thanks Etsy and Kaboodle - this helped to cheer me up!