As a child, I often suffered the glooms in October and November. These were only lifted by the coming Advent season. The school plays, making decorations, Mum making her own Christmas puddings and most of all the preparation for the Carol Concert. Our school concert took place in a large music venue rather than the school, it involved soloists, reading and both Junior and Senior Choirs and was unashamedly traditional and festive too. Then as time moved on it became unfashionable to admit you were Christian, the season became Xmas and was all about buying, wrapping, sending, receiving - and the sales which followed. Hard on the heels of this came guilt. Half the world was starving and all we could do was gorge ourselves and give expensive presents to each other. The magic had all but died. Christmas songs became protest songs. Merry Christmas, War Is Over is a fine example. Along came BandAid and wonderful things were achieved by top rank musicians - but the joy of a simple family Christmas was eclipsed by all the self-doubt and guilt at consumerism. Of course, none of this ever put a stop to consumerism, if anything the worship of Brand took over from the worship of God, but it gave a respectful face to the festival which was fast becoming "Winterval" to avoid alienating non-Christians. This lens is about a song that tries to put the joy and wonder back. Simply, it is about a little girl who is as excited as she can be about the real meaning of Christmas. O Christmas Tree Vintage Christmas Card by lkraniericard

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This lens is about my cats, my love for cats, the part they play in my life. It is a lensography for cat lenses by myself and other lensmasters too! I thought it would be good to make a hub where lensmasters could post their cat lenses too. Plexo modules make it fun, because you can vote for the lenses you most enjoy. Putting all of these cat lenses in one place should make an interesting resource. If people have a problem, they may easily find help and advice, or they can just enjoy browsing through all the lenses here. Here you can also see links to cat themed gifts, gifts for cats - and some special cat poetry that I wrote myself. I know this lens will be fantastic, because cats make us do our best don't they? I hope that between us all we will make you purr! 

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When I was asked if I knew of any mugs with Christmas Carols on them, I thought "There must be thousands!" When I went to research this for a friend, I found that in actual fact there were not that many. I decided to collect and showcase a few favourites here. I also designed a couple that I hope will fit the bill more closely.   The problem? Not many musicians have time to think about mug design. All sorts of oddities show up in designs by non-musicians - and yet it is a potentially huge market. Musicians are very proud of their skills and interests. These are meant to be fun, so I hope you will enjoy looking at these music note Christmas mugs. Perhaps one day they may become winter warmers in their own right!

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Christmas is Coming, The Goose is getting fat, What better gift for Auntie Than a Calendar of Cat? Seriously, calendars are something many people give and receive at Christmas I look at those I would like to receive, and look back fondly at those I HAVE been given and wonder why? Surely the big firms could be more creative? There are so many wonderful designs out there that never make the High Street shops or the Big Malls. So many artists unknown whose original bright and colourful designs would please me so much more than the predictable! Then I thought - OK - I love cats, I will share some favourite Cat-lendars here, you can tell me at the end if you agree. Are the shops boring or am I just scratching at the wrong tree?

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    Make a selling lens? Well, that was what Mickie said.... So I read the other how to lenses and thought “Hmmmm. I have sold a few downloads of my books a tie, a couple of stickers and a T-shirt, but my sales here still read zero so the sales can’t be from Squidoo. I wonder, what indeed CAN I sell here? Maybe a BIG ice-cream while I think....”

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When my friend Willow says make a lens, we make a lens! This lens was to be about Squid Angels and the blessings they rain down on us, but I want to make it a little more than that. You see, I am named after an angel (specifically, one of the arch variety) and I have had a couple of run ins with angels in real life to which I owe my life. So -  I like angels of all varieties and I hope you do too. This lens is to give thanks for the angels  around us all!

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Anyone who has visited my About Me lenses will know I have some political history. I gained a lot from this and also learned a few media skills. In this lens I hope to apply some of these skills to Squidoo to help any New Squids who might not know where and how to start swimming in this big sea. When you write for Squidoo you may have all or some of these goals in mind: Communicating your hobby or passion and encouraging others to try it. Educating people or making them more aware. Attracting people in oder to make affiliate sales. Publicizing a charity or cause you support. Starting out as a professional writer. Publicizing work you have done elsewhere. Whatever your goal, you need to be able to write effectively and hold an audience. This lens may well help.

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Poet, Tragedian and Musician Oliver Tadpole has a second string to his bow that few people outside our immediate local neighbourhood are aware of. As an artist trained in fine arts (yes, not graphics, I do those) he produces original and sometimes stunning pieces of work. He has an original way of thinking that in an age in love with the simple and stark tends to lie in forgotten corners but many see his work and fall in love with its imagination and delicacy. In this lens I plan to showcase art prints I have uploaded to Zazzle on his behalf.

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My cats have two towers and two scratching posts. One scratching post is wall mounted and they never show any interest. One is a heart shaped pink fluffy thing which keeps Miss Amberleigh content. The other two are more robust affairs. About twenty years ago when we were poor as church mice we saw cat towers on sale and they were out of our range. We designed and constructed one that for a time also doubled as a telephone table while the moggies were content with the lower decks. Then the Persians arrived and evicted the phone! It seemed a kind thing to do to buy them the best that we could afford and so we did. We took it home and assembled it - a five foot palace complete with cave. Four years later and it was in shreds whilst home made Cat Palace was still as good as ever! Both were and still are equally popular, but Cat Palace number 2 needs replacing pretty soon whilst our twenty year old monster needs only "rewinding" with sisal rope. Whilst we decide whether we would rather replace expensively at four year intervals or build another D.I.Y. Palace at the cost of a few days labour and some cheap builders yard items, I decided to write a lens about it.

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The Green Man is a figure of mythology and European folklore and has quite a spooky appearance. We thought it would be fun to do a lens about the Green Man and how to make a special mask of the Green Man in time for Halloween. This little project grew and grew and with the help of artist and sculptor Oliver Tadpole eventually the mask was complete! This lens tells the story!

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