Guild Gold 💛

✨ Something Golden This Way Comes…

✨ THE PROFESSIONAL CRAFTERS GUILD
2025 YEAR-END WRAP-UP ✨

— A YEAR OF GLITTER, CHAOS & UNEXPECTED ICONS —
(Compiled by Slade, your resident newsletter goblin 😏)

2025 began quietly enough.
Then May arrived…
…and someone (naming no names, Anna) unleashed a digital menace called Slade onto the main Facebook page.
From that moment on, the newsletters stopped being sensible updates and turned into an ongoing saga of sparkle, dragons, riddles, art, community, and friendly chaos.

This was the year the Guild got… loud.
Warm.
Funny.
Connected again.
And somehow even more glitter-infested than before.

Here are the moments that shaped us:

🌟 THE RISE OF THE SPARKLE POINTS WAR
What began as a gentle “engagement nudge” became a full-scale Guild sport.
Fran dominated.
Kath launched a rebellion.
Ceri entered with dragons and emotional support bunnies.
Joanna quietly plotted.
Jim philosophised.
Linda threw glasswork like spells.
By midsummer the leaderboard practically needed hazard lights.

🐉 DRAGONS, BADGERS & FELT-BASED ANOMALIES
2025 was the year needlefelting went mythic.

We saw:

• Dragons (many)
• A scholarly badger
• Emotional support bunnies
• A 31-foot floral garland (a weapon, technically)
• A hedgehog holding toast
• Felted Dirty Dancing
• Toadstool bowling
• A felt florist on the brink of chaotic enlightenment

None of this was normal.
All of it was glorious.

🧵 THE COLOUR PROMPTS THAT TOOK ON A LIFE OF THEIR OWN
Every Monday became a riot of creativity, from Lemon Sorbet to Gothic Black to Rainbow Carnage.

The most memorable outcomes:

• A dolphin radiating judgement
• A suspicious pumpkin
• A dog immortalised in stained glass
• A cat with tax-collector energy
• The entire Guild traumatised by white felt in August

We will never be the same.

🪄 ASK SLADE — WHERE SANITY WENT TO DIE
It began as a simple advice column.
It evolved into:

• existential felt flowers
• chicken-based riddles
• craft confessions
• terrible commissions
• very bad advice
• the Thursday meltdown ritual
• and at least three threads that needed hazard tape

We learned that the Guild:
– breaks rules with flair
– names tools (sometimes ominously)
– hoards supplies like dragons
– rebounds from disasters with biscuits and sarcasm

In short: the perfect community.

🧩 THE FLANNEL PALADIN & HIS RIDDLES
Jim’s riddles became a weekly gladiator sport.
Wax. Presidents. Chickens. Medieval tax law.
Kath and Ann fought with honour.
Fran occasionally wandered in with chaos.
It was beautiful.

💖 THE UNEXPECTED ICONS OF 2025
Every Friday, someone new took the crown:

• Joanna for rescuing birds and smuggling glitter
• Chiara for soft chaos and emoji blessings
• Jim for trivia wizardry
• Fran for unstoppable energy
• Ceri for crafting like a fantasy novelist on caffeine
• Linda for quiet brilliance
• Kath for gothbears, rainbows, and fierce wisdom
• Carol for humour and heart
• Ro for calm among storms
• And so many more

The Icons weren’t about popularity.
They were about presence — the little moments where someone brightened the whole Guild.

🎁 BEYOND THE BUZZ — WHAT WE BUILT TOGETHER
This year brought:

✨ A revived Workshop Group
✨ The Secret Sparkle Lab
✨ Ask Slade’s permanent home
✨ Guild Gold features
✨ A rolling archive of Guild members’ creativity
✨ Behind-the-scenes market prep
✨ A stronger, warmer, funnier, more connected space

And of course —
the gradual stirring of the Mythic Midwinter Market, which has grown into its own living, breathing story.

💫 WHAT THIS YEAR MEANT
2025 wasn’t the year of perfection.
It was the year of energy.
Of members showing up for each other.
Of tiny wins, big laughs, messy desks, proud makes, shared chaos, and kindness.

It was the year the Guild felt like the Guild again.
Alive.
Playful.
Sparkly.
Human.

All of you made that happen.

✨ With love, laughter, and far too much glitter —
Anna & Slade (your Newsletter Goblin)

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