Christmas contemplations!

Christmas is upon us once again! It crept up like a cat on a field mouse this year!! I've been flat out with work and the stall at the market so haven't had as much time for Christmas shopping. Probably no bad thing seeing I usually over-buy everyone haha!

This Christmas has been busy but now t in the same sense as my usual Christmas experience. In my previous job I would have been stressed to the hilt making sure all customers had their orders, brides had their albums, all bills were paid, the offices were tidied and locked up  and staff all got paid in time. this year was pretty much stress free and that in itself is one of the best Christmas gifts I could have wished for.

I haven't been pulling 12 hour shifts, I haven't woken to the feeling of dread at having to face whatever mood my old boss would have been in, I haven't had to deal with the aforementioned boss ordering the wrong frames or not caring if customers orders were right and having to deal with the aftermath.

This year has had so many ups and a hideous amount of downs but has gladly ended on a happy note with my new job being made permanent and my little business becoming an increasingly big business!!

I am so excited for what 2014 will bring and will quite happily say farewell to 2013 as some of the sorrows it brought can never be quashed.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night x

Busy busy bee!!

So things have been a tad chaotic of late!! The good news is that it's in the best way possible, the bad news is I don't get time to blog about it haha!!

My new job is going really well! I'm happy, I work with great girls and am pretty much stress free!! It's only when you move away from a stressful situation that you realise the seripus effect it was having. I don't meam just during work time either. My entire family have noticed a massive change in me since changing job. I'm "back to my old self" as my mum keeps telling me. Hate the fact that I let a job effect every aspect of my life. Never again!

The market stall has been going from strength to strength each week! We're at st George's Market every Sunday now selling bunting, signage and all manner of things that can be made from Hama beads!

I've signed up for a few Christmas craft fairs in December so really looking forward to those! It's such a great feeling when someone buys one of my designs or photographs, especially when they're visiting from a different country. Pretty cool to think something I made will be adorning someone's home, sometimes on the other side of the planet!

My lovely friend got married in Florida in September, so for her home party of course I had to make some special bunting as well as a tonne of mini cupcakes. I also made her a giant cupcake....which sort of collapsed so we'll just pretend that didn't happen haha!

All in all I'm having a pretty good time!! I'm flat out but so grateful to be working and really excited that my little budiness is starting to take off!!

Hopefully after the rough awl ride that was 2013, 2014 will bring only good things!

Work Wear...

I've been working in my new job for a month now. It's been weird adjusting to a "normal" office environment where not everyone wants to watch funny videos of cats on their lunch break haha!

It's pretty straight forward stuff, general admin and I get to make posters/flyers/newsletters so haven't stepped out of the design world completely! It's hard to get used to not being the person who has pretty much sole responsibility for everything running smoothly, but also pretty nice.

I must say though the lack of stress in this new job is a beautiful, beautiful thing! No longer do I come home in a foul mood, complain about work all night and dread the next morning. Nowadays I come home and get stuck into work for my market stall or design work, cook proper dinners and even squeeze in some crafting time!

Another benefit is getting to dress like a grown up every day! Finally get to wear all manner of accessories!! I've accumulated soooo much jewellery and accessories over the years I'm so happy i get to put them to good use! 

Like this little number, i bought on holiday in Westport last year and never got to wear it because in my old job we had the dreaded polo shirts, which don't quite go with necklaces!

All in all it's going well, everyone in the office is friendly and good for a giggle so I really can't complain! Now if I use this stress free time to figure out what my life plan and long term goals are that would be perfect!!

Yayyyyyy!!

At long last, I am now employed once more!! It's only taken 3 and a half months, but can honestly say I have never been so relieved!!

I'm excited too because I think I can really make a difference to this new job and bring my skill set to the table to improve what they already have, so really keen to get started!

This job search has really brought out the worst in me and I have never felt so low and worthless, so I will be doing my upmost to make sure this never happens again.

Main lesson learned is ALWAYS have a plan B no matter how safe you think your job is!

I'm going to carry on with my design business because I don't think this job will call for as much creativity than I'm used to on a daily basis.

Exciing times!!

A new beginning...

It's finally happened. I have kicked myself up the backside and I've started to createy own little design haven!

I've been doing a lot of work on making a logo, sorting my portfolio and creating a very pretty website! In all fairness I've used a web template site to make the site, I have no clue where to begin on the web front so best to leave the foundation for that to the experts!

This is just the beginning. I'm hoping wonderful things will grow and develop from this, afterall this year I feel I've paid my dues!

Scary putting yourself out there, but the only way to do it is to dive in head first, so let's go!!!!

I love craft!

I have loved arts and crafts since I can remember! I would spend hours painting little scenes and drawing cartoons on long car journeys. The problem always was that I can't actually draw! Makes it much harder to become good at something when you don't have the general grasp of how to draw even simple things!

In school I loved art and the only thing I ever drew successfully was the inside of a kiwi fruit! I spent hours on the blessed thing and was so proud I still have the drawing to this day!

After being made redundant I tried to find things I am passionate about and think of ways to earn money using my skill set and interests. My main interest is design and this was a huge part of my job, mainly based around photo editing and wedding album design.

I've made a few things like invitatons and flyers etc for friends and family so figured if they want them some other people might want them too, and more importantly pay for the privilege! 

So I'm embarking on starting to design things for real clients! I even rediscovered my love of trying to draw and made a little card detailing the timeline of my mum and dads life together!  Who knows, maybe one day it will be worth millions! Ha!!

29 Years later...and back to square one!

I've been applying for jobs for a few months now and am at a bit of a loss.

It seems even though i worked for a company for 5 years, turned it around form 2 staff to 13 staff and made us the biggest and most successful independent studio in the country, I'm not qualified enough to do even simple admin work.

It's a hard time for anyone right now in the current economic climate and new jobs really are few and far between, but I'm getting to the stage where i am doubting myself and my capability. 

I think of myself as a pretty well rounded professional, with experience in so many different areas i find it hard to narrow down anything i don;t think i could have a go at. But after months of applying and not even being invited for interviews I really have started to wonder what on earth i have been doing with the past 10 years of my life.

Should i have bothered with university? i studied advertising and marketing, never really felt like i learned anything and excelled in modules that i never though i would, like political lobbying and creative writing. Kind of wish i had studied something practical, like plumbing, or how to be a seamstress. I imagine there's not much call for seamstresses these days, but i could make dresses and really where's the downside in that?

College was really the best time of my life. I had hope that i could do anything i wanted to do and be anyone i wanted to be. i was already pretty settled on who i was, identity wise, but the possibility for self improvement was always there and we were always encouraged to explore and experiment.

Sadly now the big bad world decided if you want to study at Uni you have to choose very narrow subject matters that limit what you can do with your career and i really would have appreciated if someone had told me that and i would have made different/better life choices.

This isn't a rant at the world or schools or anything really, just somewhere to let off some steam and frustration at not finding a job as quickly as i thought i would. I've already started a small side project with my Dad's company and maybe that will turn into something wonderful, who knows! I always thought of myself as a positive person with an optimistic outlook, but gee wizz being jobless drags you down!

Well, as my wonderful friend told me, it takes an awful lot of poop to grow the prettiest flowers, so I'll cling to that logic and hope for the best!

Onwards and upwards!!

Introducing Norma-jean!

It's been a really tough few months trying to cope with losing Betsey.

On top of this we have had a pretty terrible year so far and now the cherry on top of the sundae from hell that is 2013, comes the news that i no longer have a job! Not really what you need to hear after dedicating 5 years of your life to a company, then given 24 hours notice that the company is no more. It's been rough, but finally some good news!

We decided that we needed a new addition. One of the hardest parts of losing Betsey was the lack of affection we get from Elvis. He's a real daddy's boy, so always makes time to give Mark cuddles but will never come to me. The affection he gives Mark is often a technique he uses to get food too, but with Betsey she gave affection without asking for anything in return, apart from your undivided attention of course! So we thought it might make things a little easier if we added a new furry member to our family to re-introduce that affection.

Please let me introduce Miss Norma-Jean Richards!!

She is a dark torti and absolutely beautiful!! We adopted her from Cats Protection Belfast on Sunday. She's settled in really quickly and is very cuddly and loves nothing more than a face bump, which melts my heart every time!!

It's good for us and good for her because she was found abandoned and starving in the snow, so she's getting a second chance and a forever home and we get to give her all the love she deserves.

Now the hard part...getting her and Elvis to become new best friends!!

Bye bye Betsey...

Our little girl was killed by a dog nearly 4 weeks ago. I can't even begin to describe the pain her loss has caused.

Yesterday would have been her 4th birthday :(

Miss my wee woman so much. I don't think many understand how much its affected me because i do a really good brave face impression! Only those who really know me realise i haven't been the same since we found her.

Our house feels empty, even though we have the little man but he's not the same kind of cat. She was so affectionate and loving and he's a lil ball of crazy! A new addition to our little family might make things a bit easier, missing her cuddles at night is by far the toughest thing to deal with, so maybe if we had that again it won't hurt so bad.

Bye bye Betsey Booboo

09-03-09 - 08-02-13

Blogger app?! Universe you read my min!

I have been the same with blogging as i am with diary keeping...awful.

I saw someone tweet about a blogger app and voila!!

I'm hoping this will make me much more active because I've been meaning to post so many stories and pics, just never seem to get the time!!

Fingers crossed this goes the way i plan! :)

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