Meet my friend, Ashley ……

Rather than coming up with ten thousand excuses for my long silence, and my many promises of updating this blog every other day, why don’t I write a little about my friend Ashley. Even though we have not met (sure hope we will one day), it is such an honour to even know of her existence. I am being dramatic? Of course, not!  Pay her a visit at Lil Blue Boo, if you don’t believe me.

I stumbled upon her blog last year while looking for a weekend craft project to keep my girls occupied. Till today I am still thanking google for her! I didn’t just find a blog with a chock-full of ideas plus detailed idiot-proof tutorials, I got to know Ashley. She is an amazingly gifted lady who paints, prints, sews, saws and practically everything else I think. She has a keen eye for colours and is able to turn most junk/scrap into art. And the best part is, she spends a lot of her time to teach less crafty people like yours truly here. Despite her talent she is extremely generous in teaching and sharing her gift, which is so rare nowadays especially in the blogsphere. Most are just interested to promote the stuff they sell and/or increase readership (with giveaways) to monetize their blogs.

Ashley’s Subway Art – one of my favourites.

When her clothing business took-off to an extent where her dresses sell out within 18 seconds, she remains the same Ashley that I know before all the success. She continues to provide detailed tutorial and answered all craft related problems ….. wait… she did more than that. She even shares the various printing methods that she uses on the dresses that she sells. Shocking, huh? Truly God sent!

Another admirable trait of Ashley ….. she encourages market place competition. She takes the trouble to visit the facebooks of emerging sellers (her future competitors) and writes them encouraging comments. Unbelievable, huh? Whenever she is bashed by her “selfish competitor”, she takes it with a stride with lots of dignity. She discourages negativity among her fans, and does not expect exclusivity.

Anyway, there are lots more of why I like Ashley….. but I better stop, just in case David is reading. He will be soooo jealous and might insists that he gets his share of exposure here too.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ashley for all the hours that she spent to maintain her amazing blog, to thank Ashley for making craft projects less intimidating and fun, to thank Ashley for detailed idiot-proof tutorials, to thank Ashley for encouraging creativity and to thank Ashley for sharing her crafty side with us.