To Do...

 Its happened again, what is going on, the rain comes and I just seem to hunker down in my little sewing studio and lose track of time.  Actually getting a little business off the ground is maybe taking up a lot more of my time than planed.  No sooner did I pass my exams the school year ended and I was jobless, so here I am...with a list of 'TO DO's' like I have never had before.  My sewing studio is in need of a good tidy as its getting hard to find things...

One of the 'To do' points was to sort out a desk area for laptop and Dotty Red paperwork.  Would you believe it no sooner was it typed up in the business plan a friend offered me this beautiful desk, it looks like it has always been there, I love it, am sat at it now typing away, best of all at the end of the day I roll the top down and no one but me knows the mess inside...

 I have been working on numerous things ranging from Elephants (picture of their tails). Through to many of these little pretties...

 and some more...

 and would you believe it, I am working on some idea's for Christmas...

My fabulous boys are now off school and this week has been spent working on getting all my orders completed, just one more to finish, burning the midnight oil here, then its time to close up DOTTY RED for a week and spend some quality family time.  Some great county walks with Rosy the dog, some time with friends and I am sure we will manage a few days to at the beach...

My blog is on the to do list, I have a half written post to finish, so many pictures to share...I feel I have neglected you badly and for that I apologise.  I am struggling a little with blogger, with all its new singing and dancing gizmo's. However I just don't have the time to learn what does what and how do I do what I usually do... I will get there but for now I bid you goodnight and for a week - Goodbye.  I hope you have a fabulous week and manage to make some very happy memories, apparently the sun is going to SHINE!!!

Going Dotty...

 What can I say...

Time is passing by so quick...

So much to do and so little time to do it it... and what suffers,? My Dotty Red bloggy home...
 Trying to establish a good routine of work and family, not balanced at the moment but I will get there. So I am preparing a post following on from my award...Still smiling at this and grateful. But rather than neglect you further I thought I would write a few lines and show what I have been up to.

Thank you for the warm comments and emails with love and support for my venture... couldn't do it with out you.  Thank you.

needles and pins

What an incredible couple of weeks, my main focus has been Dotty Red and here at the home of Dotty Red its been none stop sewing, needles and pins, pretty fabric and the sweet smell of lavender.

 Each day brings a new design to the lavender hangers and as I match up the ribbon and fabrics I bask in my love of colour.

 But its not all play, my book keeping has had to have some attention, trying to make myself more organised and I am revising like mad for my Math GCSE exam. To be taken on Tuesday!

Fortunately the week away at the sea side was the place and time I needed to rest and recharge my batteries.

 To be able to feel the warm sand between my toes, lie back and let the sun shine on my body and listen to the waves gently lapping in whilst my giddy children run in and out of the sea until they eventually get so wet they give into the water and swim... yes swim, you wouldn't catch me in the sea without my wetsuit on at this time of year....

 We spent all the sunny days at the beach and on the less, more wet, days we walked through the beautiful countryside.

A celebration party for the Jubilee with friends and family in true British style sitting out with our BBQ food trying to shelter from the rain!!!

Our little pup had her little legs walked off and was indeed a truly wet dog after many an impromptu run into the sea as she chased seagulls. Yes a great, if somewhat wet, week.

This was the first school week in six years I have not gone into school, oh how I missed it, but life moves on and as much as this makes me sad I guess I have to admit the career path of a teachers assistant has now ended for now and I am concentrating on Dotty Red.

I am a bit behind in my blogging duties, I have a wonderful interview to share with you and a fabulous award to accept.  Will be back later in the week, just need to get through my exam...

I thank you all for your wonderful words of support and encouragement on my last post, it means so much to me and I feel very blessed, thank you form my heart.

Introducing ...

The busy thing I talked about, well its still happening, but its turned slightly, its gone from stressful to really kind of exciting.  Its complicated, 'what isn't' I hear you say!  So I have just about completed my Level three Teachers Assistant course, but heck... there are are no jobs out there, a couple of vacancies advertised but when I went to college I found that the trainees in the schools had already got the job but the positions had to advertise. How frustrating is that. So whilst I still want very much to get a career in school I have to face the reality that the jobs are just not available.

 But I have to feed and dress my children... EK!!!  So here is the exciting part... I have taken the rather scary decision to make DOTTY RED my career.  I have been working with a business adviser to make sure everything is as it should be and I am walked through all the details that scare me, registering, tax, insurance etc... but its all good, did you hear that, its all good!

 I had to pitch my business idea and write a big and ever evolving business plan, it all felt a bit Dragons Den-ish, but here I am launching my new line of textiles. Lavender hearts have been a big part of Dotty Red and I will always make them, but I wanted something a little more designer in feel, with my passion for free form embroidery I designed these hangers.  Hangers as in you can hang them, on your coat hangers, on the wall, in your bathroom, add it to a gift or as these ones are filled with lavender you can pop them in your smalls draw and let the lavender smell waft out and do its magic. Pop one under your pillow for a sleep filled night!

 I loved making these, I drew and sketched, used my colour pencils and then once I had enough ideas, I started to put them together.

 A huge fan and collector of ribbon, modern and vintage not to mention my passion for buttons and a little liking for wool felt...

 Each day I designed a different hanger, I have to confess I have a pad filled with many more ideas, I have been asked to make Love Heart ones to, oh the possibilities...

 each one could be personalised, a babies name or date of birth...

 These Happy Birthday Bunting have been the most popular today, I think the country has gone bunting mad at the moment and long may it carry on, love a bit of 'smile inducing' bunting.

 But by far my favourite and I have a couple for myself, are the 'Beach Life' ones, designed after a fabulous weekend at the beach, (see previous post) they hold a memory for me, a special time that keeps me going when the rain falls.

So its been busy, but good busy, it saddens me more than I can share with you that after two years of serious study and over six years voluntary work in school my plans for the future have had to change, but with great support around me I am following my heart, something not many people actually will do, its scary and gives me butterflies, but it is thrilling and exciting and you know... I am going to give it my best shot because I don't want to say... if only!

After all the planning and the designing and making... I have my beautiful, funny and ever growing boys for a full week, so we are packing our bags, buckets and spades, picnic basket and the odd waterproof jacket and we are heading out for a beach week.  I am longing for long walks with 'Rosy the pup' on big open beaches, popping into the best beach cafe for a tempting bacon butty and a side of chips, pottering around the art shops and beachy places, there will be nights snuggling around the camp fire and the toasting of marshmallows. The diary is full on my return so this week, no watch, no meetings, no school runs... its all about family, play, relaxing, friendships and being in love with life... Then the work begins...

Have a fabulous Jubilee weekend, smile and as I keep being told by numerous people, you gotta role with it.  Have a blast!

Beach life...

You know when things just go mad... super busy... actually a little stressful. Well that's the place I am in right now. My little business is doing really well and I am trying to get my stock updated with the all the summer lines, yes a lesson to be learnt here and that's start it earlier, its all a learning curve.

 The house viewing did not result in a sale, very disappointed and seriously out of pocket having spent money on preparing the house, redecorating a room and summer planting in the garden, still its nice to enjoy it. The people viewing viewed my house and a neighbours, I was too small and my neighbours too big, it is the same house with two more rooms...Hey ho!!! Looks like we will be here for a little longer, the children are overjoyed, they get so upset about this process, its their home they want to stay and they are not afraid to let me know about it... Oh the guilt!!!

 Add into the pot my final assessment at college and sitting my Math GCSE... Oh help!!! Setting up the legal side of the business is daunting but I have a great mentor who is helping me through, oh my when did the liability insurance get so high! When you cant see it getting more complicated... a letter arrives with the news that my ex husband is returning to the solicitor, yet more pennies to be spent.

 So someone very kind took me away for a weekend away from it all at the beach.  Bliss Bliss Bliss...

 We met up with friends, took a couple of chairs, wine and nibbles and spent the day on the sand soaking up the warmth from the sunshine.  The first evening fire of the season as we pitched up as close to the flames as possible on a cloudless night, the doggies had a ball playing together...and balance was brought back in to perspective. Sometimes this single parenting thing gets a little overwhelming especially when three years on I am still fighting my corner, but you know, when you take time out and see the big picture... Life is good!

So what do you do when you have found the house you want and you cant move until yours sells, me and how many other I am sure... But I can dream cant I...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-22866378.html

PHOTOS... Lavender Hangers...part of the summer range! Making me smile!

Jubilee...

So here I sit at nearly midnight, with my cup of Lady Grey and a very nice fried egg buttie, oh yes tonight I am all about class... seriously though its been a hectic few days... and I am a believer in going with the flow and that flow is pretty fast at the moment so it calls for a late night unhealthy snack to keep me going whilst I finish my post and prepare for the day ahead...

 School uniforms to iron, pack lunches to make, dishes to wash, meetings to prepare for  and dogs to feed etc. Usual Mum stuff.

 Who said the Bank Holiday was a time to relax and catch up... get 'behind' more like... Actually its been a time shared with friends and eating far too much whilst hours have passed by and important conversation of 'putting the world to rights' have taken place while wine was sipped.  My kids have also had all their friends round to play at some stage of the three days and I have had very little time to spend in my sewing room.  A play date sleep over which settled down to sleep at eleven and started again at five the next morning!  More coffee please.

 However, I was inspired to put together a few Jubilee lines when I sneaked off for a few moments in my sewing room, I wasn't going to work on anything linked to the jubilee but I was asked what I had...

 So a few ideas have come together and a few ideas still need to be tried out. The nice thing about this weekend was I had a viewing on my home, so I gave up two days to do housework, 'stuff' was hidden away in boxes, bags taken to the charity shop and a day spent in the garden with some new plants needing homes.  The house was clean and homely. The viewing lasted twenty minutes, oddly the agent did the viewing and it all felt a bit uncomfortable being asked to step aside while these people went through my home, mind you I disliked poking around other peoples home, it feels very invasive.  The viewers seemed really nice but the house isn't for them but it took five days to find that out, oh the stress.  The rush of house hunting for me has slowed down now with great relief, the advantage to it all was I had a lovely clean and tidy house all weekend and all the housework was done... A TREAT!

I could almost hear the intake of breath as they stepped into my dinning room, which of course is my sewing room/studio.

Hope your weekend was filled with fun and laughter and you surrounded yourself with nice people.

The elephants came by two by two...

A little break from the norm. Two weeks to kick back, find a new groove and just go with it. How I love holidays, I ignore time... completely! No appointments, no rushing around, no time waiting for things... I love the way my body just adjusts to this rhythm, waking up when I want to not when my alarm clock tells me (well maybe when my children choose to start playing) to eat when hungry not grabbing a sandwich between appointments, walking the dog as long a we like instead of rushing her around before we fly out again, which made for some super long walks.
All Dotty Red orders had been made up and posted so that meant some time without committing to my sewing room... which meant play time... Oh my and I so love my play time, these little family of Elephants just kept getting bigger as I wanted to use all my fabrics... It all started whilst I was surfing the net with my little one, we had a peek at the Retro Mama blog and my wee one got very animated and wanted an elephant just like he saw on her blog... the joy, Retro Mama sells the patterns, so we ordered it there and then and we popped off to my fabric stash and he picked the colours he wanted... the next he thing he knew he didn't know which one he wanted... too many to choose from. Oh Happy sewing momma!
We took off for a few days and the weather for the first and last day was SUPERB!
Oh how I have longed to feel the sand between my toes and the sea breeze through my hair.
Bliss Bliss Bliss...
I went to bed at the end of that beautiful day and a storm blew up and it rained, hailed, the wind blew and the snow fell...

Not to be put off by the weather we still had our fish and chips on the beach, however due to the howling storm taking your very breath straight out your lungs and the sand whipping at your skin like razors, we sat in the car, with our favourite music on and sipped our hot chocolate. Do you remember the advert with the girl who sat in her car listening to 'I can see clearly now the rain has gone' making herself a cuppa with the heater element you could plug into the lighter socket for a mug of hot water? Oh how I loved that advert... I was in that happy place!!!

So we hunkered down for the next few days and chilled out, chatting, playing board games, watching movies and this Mom got to sew... a little spare of the moment hand sewing... Oh happy days!
We returned home as some special friends joined us to celebrate Easter. So with the house full of mischievous laughter from the five children running around having the best time and us grown ups chatting, cooking and generally catching up, I was reminded of New Year, my home full of people I loved, I adore cooking and looking after friends it warms my heart and is so good for my sole as it really balances me. Cooking to me is a big part of how I show I care for someone.
Eater day was started by the children hunting the eggs (thanks Caroline. Er I forgot to buy the eggs). We sat and worked out the meal plan and how long we had before dinner needed to be started and we all pulled on our walking boots and went for a walk... my version of a walk and my friends is slightly different, I would have called it a hike!!!

The meal was cooked in a relaxed way, all doing our bit in the kitchen and then we all sat round for a somewhat 'chaotic' meal, not enough chairs etc... it had a real feel of Christmas day, but without the stress!!!

Sadly I had to say goodbye to my mate and her super family once again.

Then before I had time to get all miserable and sad about them leaving the boys and I had an invited to share a birthday meal... a delicious family Chinese banquet. An honour to share this family event.

Yes this Easter holiday has made me count my blessing... surrounded by friends I care about, laughing, the children happy, good food, beautiful walks with the Rosy the pup and lots of sleep...

After my divorce I lost so much confidence I found it so hard to relax and just couldn't ever imagine being in a position again when laughter filled the house and the people I was with I felt loved by. Yet this week has taught me, if you hang on in there the good stuff happens...