little_h's big dreams :)

little_h_2

I thought about Bath again, but would cost a bit in fuel from this far east. I didn't get to the Thermae spa last time and would definitely like to go.

so will keep looking for now, will let you know how I get on!

the Royal Crescent welcome well behaved dogs, just to let you know was gutted when I found out as I could have taken mine! ah well!

what kind of pooch?

Souk08

little h, the spa sounds lovely and well done on a few AF days X

mineallmine

A doggie like this:

http://swns.com/blind-german-spitz-dog-uses-echoes-to-find-his-way-round-291142.html

But in black. Had to post that link about the blind doggie *sniff* And thanks for the tip about the Crescent - didn't know that!

Let us know how you get on :A

satchmo1

Hi Little_H, could you haggle with the spa hotel by offering to play the harp for them in return for treatments? There clients would benefit from the lovely relaxing sounds, after all! And, if they are licensed to do weddings you could promote your very specialist services.

Shoe_Gal

satchmo1 wrote: »

Hi Little_H, could you haggle with the spa hotel by offering to play the harp for them in return for treatments? There clients would benefit from the lovely relaxing sounds, after all! And, if they are licensed to do weddings you could promote your very specialist services.

Fab idea :j:j

little_h_2

now that is a good idea! :j hurrah for lots of great advice, thank you all so much!

mineallmine, that was a sad link! but amazing too. my boy is a 12 year old tiger striped (light brindle) greyhound - i will get a picture up some time he is a big lad, 32kg, but his legs are quite short given his bulk so he was never as fast as he could have been we love him all the same though!

mineallmine

The Harp thing is a really good idea. I always wanted to go for Harp lessons with my friend - as we both felt it would be lovely thing to drop into conversation you know, so what do you do for a hobby, well surf the internet, walk the dog, play the harp.... Sadly we never got round to it. We were going to go to Clive Morley harps (in London I think) for some lessons as I'd seen it on a TV show.

You know wedding planners would eat out of the palm of your hand

little_h_2

Clive Morley Harps is just outside Oxford, has been for a while it is lovely there. you can go for a morning's Hands on the Harp session which is like a bit about the harp and a first lesson, it's about £20 I think and I always think it would make a lovely present for someone, maybe you need to drop some hints! The girl that does them is called Ruth and she is great, very approachable. I nearly bought a harp from there but then got mine somewhere else in the end.

It's a fab instrument to play, but they aren't cheap and they aren't the most practical of things to carry around with you :rotfl:

One of my projects for this year is to build my contacts up a bit in my local area - I don't have a website yet and also need to get some decent photos done. My teacher's hubby will do the website and record some brief demo tracks for me, and the girl who was going to do the photos for the wedding will do the publicity photos - she is very reasonable as she hasn't been doing it long so is still building her portfolio. She's not exactly nearby but I don't mind travelling as I know her work is really good.

I need to be really brave and ring up/visit some places with some cards/pictures etc. and I also thought about doing some demos - it is a bit of a schlep loading/unloading but it should be worth it. While I was in Rotterdam on a jazz harp course, I met another harpist who has become a good friend and she says the same thing, hates promoting herself :rotfl:

I do a lot of work around Norfolk for an agent based in Norwich, she is a good friend of my teacher. I had most of my work through her last year and it was really good for me, lots of it was last minute so there were a few late nights learning new stuff but this was all good experience.

So many projects this year, but after 6 months of moping about after the relationship disaster, I finally feel like my energy levels and my drive has come back, and I know that if I want things to happen, there's only one person that can make happen! :eek: so I am on a bit of a roll at the moment. I'm hoping I don't collapse at the weekend as it's all too much

mineallmine

Oxford was it - oh crikey my memory is going! It's funny how the name stuck in my mind. £20 doesn't seem bad. Neither of us played any instruments so it would have been a gigglefest probably

Why don't you post something of your work on youtube? Then the site can have a link to it. You could be doing it in some lovely garden or room. Could you volunteer to play at a forthcoming wedding fayre? Or at a fab hotel near you?

little_h_2

generally the wedding fairs charge you to attend so i have stayed away from this for now. i have had a fair few bookings through word of mouth or through my teacher or my mum (she is a musician too) passing my name on. i hope not to have to pay to get work, especially while it is my 2nd income and I only have weekends available.

i looked at putting something up on youtube for my harp pupil's christmas present but ran out of time. at the moment all i have is my camera and while the sound quality isn't bad, it's better than i thought

your first harp lesson would probably be about hand position and making a nice noise rather than reading music so don't worry about it

i hope to get in touch with the local hotels but want to make sure I have some materials to leave with them first, everyone wants to check you out on a website etc first. I am thinking about a myspace page until I get mine up and running. I have an idea of what I would like it to look like so that's a start!

busy day at work - nice busy apart from the dealings with the IT dept but hey ho. just getting some tea now and then some practice in a bit then shred, what an exciting life I lead!

I have a work from home day tomorrow though so that is something to be thankful for, plus Brownies in the evening. they will be hyper as it's the first week back :eek: but I love going.