{"id":14271,"date":"2014-12-03T08:19:22","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T13:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/?p=14271"},"modified":"2020-10-18T09:51:28","modified_gmt":"2020-10-18T13:51:28","slug":"december-update-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/december-update-3\/","title":{"rendered":"December update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m still concentrating on nursing myself back to health at the moment, so I can enjoy the upcoming Christmas summer holiday (the advantage of living in the southern hemisphere!) and have a fresh start in 2015. <\/p>\n<p>Taking this time off to rest was a very hard decision to make &#8211; especially at this time of year: the best time for doing business &#8211; but as I slowly inch back to my normal self, I know it was the only choice I could have made. Thank you all so much for your messages of support on <a href=\"\/blog\/balancing-business-and-health\/\">my last post<\/a> (and on Facebook and by email) &#8211; they&#8217;ve meant so much to me in this very frustrating time.<\/p>\n<p>Now I&#8217;m finally starting to feel a bit better, and I have some fun news to share&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>Crochet Award Nominations<\/h2>\n<p>What a lovely surprise to discover I&#8217;ve been nominated for three Flamies:<\/p>\n<div class=\"halfright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecrochetawards.com\/vote-here\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/Badge-Ive-been-nominated-for-Flamie-300x300.png\" alt=\"Badge - I've been nominated for Flamie\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Category #2: Best Crochet YouTube Channel (for <a href=\"\/youtube\">PlanetJune<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Category #9: Best Instructional Crochet Book (for <a href=\"\/amibook\">The Complete Idiot&#8217;s Guide to Amigurumi<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Category #11: Best Home Decor (for <a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&#038;cPath=20&#038;products_id=214\">Pine Cone Collection<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecrochetawards.com\/vote-here\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cast your vote<\/a> now<\/strong> for your favourites in crochet &#8211; you don&#8217;t need to make a choice for every category, just the ones you care about. <\/p>\n<p>(And I&#8217;d be very happy if your choices include me in the above categories!)<\/p>\n<h2>Fan Mail!<\/h2>\n<p>Today I received an amazing surprise in the mail: Monica (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.etsy.com\/shop\/MagicalAmigurumi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MagicalAmigurumi<\/a>) made me a mini-me using the <em>Girl<\/em> pattern from my <a href=\"\/amibook\">CIG to Amigurumi<\/a> with some clever mods &#8211; she&#8217;s the spitting image of me, even down to the miniature glasses and a tiny version of my <a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&#038;cPath=30&#038;products_id=151\">Lacy Bobbles Cowl<\/a>. Isn&#8217;t she great? I feel like a superstar now \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/mini_me_june.jpg\" alt=\"me and my mini-me from Monica\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/images\/mini_me_june.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/images\/mini_me_june-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><br \/>\n<em>me and my mini-me from Monica<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>ServInt Spotlight<\/h2>\n<p>And, just in case my head hadn&#8217;t already got big enough, my excellent webhost, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.servint.net\/index.php?refid=DCD863926249\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ServInt<\/a>, just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ServInt\/posts\/10152960272201177\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">featured PlanetJune in a spotlight on their Facebook page<\/a>. (FYI, if your traffic has outgrown your shared hosting, I highly recommend them for a fast, reliable, easy-to-upgrade server solution.)<\/p>\n<h2>Review and Win contest<\/h2>\n<p><em>You&#8217;re automatically entered in the next monthly draw every time you <a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=page&amp;id=16\">write a review<\/a> for a PlanetJune pattern you&#8217;ve enjoyed &#8211; and you&#8217;ll also be helping future customers make an informed decision about patterns they are considering buying.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&#038;cPath=20&#038;products_id=214\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/pinecones1.jpg\" alt=\"Pine Cone Collection crochet pattern by PlanetJune\" width=\"450\" height=\"377\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/images\/pinecones1.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/images\/pinecones1-150x126.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By complete coincidence, November&#8217;s winner is <strong>Andrea M<\/strong>&#8216;s review of my Flamie-nominated <a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&#038;cPath=20&#038;products_id=214\">Pine Cone Collection<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I just downloaded the pattern on Saturday and made 7 cones over the weekend, they are totally addictive! They are really a lot of fun and this is a very versatile pattern that generates all possible sizes of cones. I will make dozens for gifts and decoration this year, four weeks to go!<br \/>\nVery well explained tutorial with helpful photos and a lot of good tips. Love it, June!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thank you, and congratulations, Andrea &#8211; I&#8217;ve emailed you to find out which pattern you&#8217;d like as your prize! <\/p>\n<p>Now I&#8217;d better get back to resting and knitting and listening to audiobooks, and trying to ignore that persistent voice in the back of my head that&#8217;s telling me I <em>really<\/em> should be working. This recovery is a slow process, but now I think my health is actually improving, I&#8217;m going to enjoy relaxing and taking it easy for a while longer&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m still concentrating on nursing myself back to health at the moment, so I can enjoy the upcoming Christmas summer holiday (the advantage of living in the southern hemisphere!) and have a fresh start in 2015. Taking this time off to rest was a very hard decision to make &#8211; especially at this time of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}