reflections

 Happy new year, a little late I know, but if you follow my blog you will realise I haven't posted since September, my how time has flown by, Ive been so busy doing all sorts of things I have let my blog fall asleep, but its a new year, new schedule, a more proactive me?, well maybe we'll have to see. Some things form last year that I have missed out on here include going to London on a coach trip with my youngest, we had the best time, its the first time I have been away with just one child, it was so nice to connect and have that one to one time. We whizzed around London in 3 hours and then stayed over in a lovely hotel, watching movies in bed, we then went to legoland, he loved it but it was hot and rather busy, the queues are crazy long.

 We enjoyed a few days of sun last year, the weather has changed so much here in UK, the summers are not long and hot anymore, we barely have sun for a whole week so on the days when it was sunny I spent them in the garden growing veg, going to the beach with our new puppy who is now 1.

 I had lots of success organising big fairs at the winter gardens, I did 3 last year, in June, October and December, I had over 140 stalls of handmade and vintage goodness, full entertainment over the weekends and a vintage tearooms, I ended up with holey socks from walking around so much and learnt a lot and fast, I learnt how to deal with people more and tried to show tolerance (which is hard sometimes) to others who can't follow direction well. I also made some new friends and realised how wonderful the crafting community is, its like a massive family reunion every time I do a fair now. There are some really talented people out there waiting to be discovered.

 I also attended a few fairs as a stallholder and went on some days out with my lovely friend Colette Halstead who fuses glass, she uses real leaves you know. We always have a real laugh and a good old chinwag when we get together which is not very often as we are always both so busy with work but you know those friends who you might not see for a week, a month or even years and then when your back together it seems like you saw them yesterday well that's what our relationship is like so its all good.

I opened a collective shop with people I had met through the crafting world and an old friend, it was a craft and vintage clothing shop, unfortunately I felt rather used as some of the others couldn't put any time into running it and there was clashes in personality and ideas of running a business so I left. A week later they all left the building too and as it was a friend of mine who was letting the building I got in touch to see if I could still rent it. I contacted a lady whom I had met and got on wit straight away, who had the same ideas as me, we took over the shop, gave it a makeover, renamed it Penny Lane and filled it with vintage/retro/collectibles/mod wear and much more, we also have a tearoom at the back of the shop filled with vintage tea sets and crafting things. I really enjoy going to work there, each day we get to meet interesting people and have a lovely time sourcing things.
Doing so much last year was wonderful but did give me the guilt's, I realised homeschooling/working/being a housewife is hard to juggle. I spend an awful lot of time on the computer organising things, dealing with emails etc. I find it hard to squeeze in sewing/knitting/reading/children/date nights etc so when I heard the other day about a facebook friend had come up with a phenomenal idea of breaking everything down into hour slots I thought this is it, the way forward, I started today, it works, it actually blummin' works, I got more done today than I have done in a long time, the things I would of put of till last minute I managed to do because knowing you have a deadline and just an hour to get things done make you move your ass and not mess around.
I'm going to implement it into home school too and spending time with the boys, I know you may think that's cold and clinical and I should always have time for my children especially as we choose to home educate, but this is the real world, as much as I would love to be that mum I was years ago when they were little its not possible to do that, have a life and a job even if I am self employed. So if this works for us then brilliant, at least I wont get the guilt's.

Some low lights of last year was my father in law died of cancer and my mum died just before Christmas. Its a funny feeling having no parents (my dad died 8 years ago), even though I have been an adult since I was 18 (when I had my first son and moved out) I feel a little bit lost now, like I have to grow up, I'm an orphan. Its funny how I'm ok most of the time and then I see or hear something and I cry. I can be anywhere, at home, at work, out shopping, on the bus and it happens, I try and stop myself from reaching the point of tears but I cant. I know it gets easier, it did with my dad but things will never be the same again.

So onto this year and our dreams coming true, we have a plan, a big plan, one that involves changing our lives forever, we are going to get together and get a big sheet of paper and write down our plan, with dates - now that's the scary bit because what if we get to those dates and nothings changed or we haven't reached our target? I know I'm not meant to think that way, I'm meant to be positive and know and feel we will reach our targets but...
So after we have done this one evening in front of the fire with tea and cake I will reveal our plans to you.

I hope you had a good 2012, wishing you a very happy new year, tell me some of your highlights of last year x
* all photos are of our trip to Legoland and London