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! :)

X

Gee whizz, time flies!

June was the last time i posted?! I think life may have got in my way a bit, or should i say the monotony of life! 2012 is destined to be a good year so i intend to be a lot more on the ball!! for now though seeing as my last post was about my little man Elvis, here's a few up to date picture of my not so little man now!!

My other brand new little nephew meeting his cousin!

 Whinging asking for more food!

With his big sister Betsey opening their christmas presents! terrible pic but one of the only ones where they're together for longer than a millisecond!


I have so many new pictures to put up and stories to tell, I'm excited for launching back into this!