Blogging Home School and New Stationary

So, I think that missing my first post since I set out my news years resolutions to you is the perfect time to sit down and get this blogging shit together. You may have heard me mention the fab ladies at Blogcademy before (who very kindly selected me as a winner for one of their sparkly goodie bags). Well they run two day, in person, workshops for blog owners to help them find focus, get hints and tips from people who really know their business and to hopefully improve their blogs for you, the people who come along and read them.

Well I would LOVE to be able to attend one of their workshops, they look like so much fun, not to mention educational. Sadly though the price of attending is a little more than I can stretch too so that will have to wait until a lottery win I am afraid. However, these lovely ladies have now offered those of us who can't attend for any reason the opportunity Home School with bite size videos full of loads of information for bloggers. They are also pretty cheap. It is my plan to purchase one a month and work through them so I can hopefully create some better content for everyone. They also very kindly offer the first one for FREE so there really is no excuse to not go check it out!

Even Scamp wants to get in on the learning....

But as we all know, new education requires new stationary right? Well it wouldn't be my blog if that wasn't at least brought to you in some crafty form, so I made a fabric book cover for my new note book using my favourite 'by the sea' pink anchor fabric. Do you like? I also have to use some of my favourite ever pens which are Muji coloured gel pens. They sadly closed the shop in Nottingham, but you can still get these online, and believe me, they are well worth it. Honestly, on Christmas day these are the presents we really hope for under the tree, even more so than the years new underwear!

I have high hopes from these ladies so lets see how this place starts looking in a few months once I am well educated in the art of blogging!

Now I think its time to go in for a cuppa, its hard work doing all this learning! 

A little of Everything and Nothing at all

I really feel like all my blog posts should have a 'point' or a specific focus to them to make them as informative and interesting to read as possible, however I have come to realise that that can sometimes be quiet a tall task when also trying to keep up a regular schedule. Sometimes other things in life just get in the way and I either haven't had time to make something to tell you about, or I have had the time to make it and not enough daylight hours to take pictures to be able to show you. So rather than post nothing at all when you expect something from me I thought I would just tell you a bit about what's going on in Fox land.

As you know I am massively busy with all this craft fair malarkey. Its actually really nice to refocus on making things which I haven't made for such a long time, and remember how and why I enjoyed it (more on this later when there is some daylight in my life!). Its also really nice to try out some new ideas and get together with other crafty folk and see all their talent focused into some amazing things. I am really enjoying the process of this, but I am also really looking forward to being able to refocus on other things afterwards.

Mr Fox is ramping up to the last weeks of his dissertation so he really truly is head down in his laptop most of the time. It will be great when he finishes because I feel like we don't spend much time together in the week at the moment. Its not a major problem, just one of those things, but it will be nice to have him back again. It has meant I have had all the time in the world to focus on making things which is good. I am wondering how I am going to find time to make stuff once he has finished the dissertation as most of our other hobbies are actually 'together' hobbies. I think I might try to structure my time a bit and make some designated specific sewing time, otherwise I always feel really guilty when I go off and do something on my own. His favourite is that 'I'll be back in 10 mins' and 2 hours later I come back saying 'sorry, I got distracted and I just wanted to finish xxx' (you know how that goes right?). Do any of you have this kind of issue? I imagine there are many of you with small children to work around as well as husbands and work and everything else.

 

Photo from the Deer and Doe website

I have a sewing list as long as my arm. I have the Zinnia skirt on the go, the lady skater cut out ready to attempt the overlocker and I need to make a velvet circle skirt before it gets too warm to ever wear it. I have some spectacular fabric to match my new shoes which I want to make a dress out of to wear to a wedding in the summer, and I have just bought the Deer and Doe shorts pattern which I know I am not going to be able to resist for long. This is just the tip of the iceberg as well. How do you manage your sewing pile? Priority, whim and fancy, or do you actually make a queue system? I think I need some help on figuring this out!

I also got a fabulous new handbag. You may or may not be aware that Blizzard have released a new free to play game called Hearthstone. I am obsessed with this shit, and literally cannot wait for them to release it on IPad (its honestly not the only reason I wanted an IPad!). But of course if I am going to be able to truly portable play this I need to be able to carry the IPad about with me don't I, cue a NEED for a new handbag. I scoured the internets for days trying to find something big enough for this and all my other crap, with a zip so people can't whip it out from under me. I really couldn't find anything on the 'internet high street' at all, but eventually I stumbled across this Etsy Shop: Milloo. These things are gorgeous and exactly what I was looking for, and the bonus, he is in Greece so lovely EU shipping and no import tax, SCORE. I really wanted the Elessa bag in stripe canvas but he only had one with a yellow trim and you know it needed to be pink. So I emailed him and he very happily offered to make me a custom order which is now listed as an option to buy, yes my taste is awesome haha! Even with him custom making this it took less than 2 weeks to turn up and he provided excellent customer service, I can't recommend this shop enough, so thank you very much.

Photo copy write of Milloo on Etsy 

I think that's about it for now from me. I have a busy weekend planned with Kitchens and Friends and of course Mummy, but hopefully I will find some time in there to take some pictures for more bloggy goodness.

Do you have too many hobbies as well?

As I sit here contemplating a sunny weekend I am pondering what I want to do to make the most of my time away from the office. It occurs to me that I have far too many hobbies for my free time.

My first love is obviously any form of sewing or general craftyness. It gives me such a feeling of achievement when I come away having made something new from effectively nothing. The list of projects I want to try is as long as my arm, and for them alone I don't have much time.

 
Then there are the thoughts of sunshine, getting out and enjoying some fresh air, as well as the company of Mr Fox. I yearn for spending more time out and about, especially as we are so close to the Peak District and all its gorgeous scenery. Then there is the garden, I love my garden, and pretty much do enjoy gardening and spending time in it, especially with the cats who love it when you join them in their outdoor playground. However this time could be spent getting on with those sewing projects, but then the garden will not be as pretty, these two things are a constant juggle.


 I also enjoy a quiet obsessive PC gaming habit with the Mr, and we have probably spent most of our relationship in a fantasy MMO world together. I love this time spent sat next to each other at our DIY two person PC desk, though it does sometimes feel a bit like we are together but not really communicating as effectively as we should. We have made some great friends here as well, who I genuinely miss when I am off indulging one of my other hobbies instead of this one.


 
Then there are my other hobbies like knitting, blogging and reading blogs. I tend to try and utilise spare time at work for these sorts of activities as it seems a good use of portable time, however that doesn't mean I don't enjoy dipping in to them at home.

All in all I have concluded that there just are not enough hours in the day. I think I need to start prioritising, but trying not to see each thing as an 'I must' and just enjoy what takes my fancy in the then and now. Do you have too many hobbies? What are they and how do you manage your time to make sure you get a little bit of everything you love? I would love to hear any bits of advice you have to offer.

Glittery Goodness - Thank you Blogcademy

I was recently the very fortunate winner of one of the left over fabulous goodie bags from the Blogcademy. The one reason I entered this competition was the sheer about of glitter that I could see on the site. Feast your magpie eyes on this lot!

This fabulous treat included glitter shoe clips (which I have decided are my new favorite accessory), glitter hair accessories (including my now second pair of sparkly cat ears from Crown and Glory), sparkly necklaces, glitter nail polish, pretty purses, a gorgeous hand crocheted scarf, goodies from Iron Fist including a tee, a bag, some nail art as well as some other bits and bobs. This really was a bloody good haul!

Ever since Mr Fox proposed I have been following Kat's blog: Rock and Roll Bride because quiet honestly I have not seen a better blog out there for alternative weddings. There is everything you can imagine on there so lots of inspiration to help you get designing your own wedding. But not only is it packed with all this useful wedding invitation Kat is a completely savvy woman, with great style, who gives away no end of her advice and sassy style. It really is a pleasure to read, and I still follow the blog way after the wedding.

 One of her other successful ventures is the Blogcademy which she co-runs with some more extraordinary women Gala and Shauna. These guys truly are amazing, not only do they get to do something they love for a living, but they are more than happy to share their tips and advice with the blogging community to help everyone else with their loves as well! How cool is that! This has become something invaluable to me over the last few months while developing this blog, and I continue to gets useful information from this page and likely will for a long time to come!

So, I realise I might be becoming a bit stalker-ish of these sites, but who can blame me really! And here's hoping that one day I might be rich enough to actually attend one of the Blogcademy events in London to help me to develop my blog into something which I, and hopefully you, really really love (not to mention more sparkly goodies...!).

So thank you Blogcademy xx

Looking to the Year Ahead:

Last year was full of its ups and downs. The biggest up was obviously being wed to my wonderful new husband. However we did suffer a number of losses in both our families, and what with that, the wedding planning, and the stresses of work it wasn't the easiest of years.

So with that in mind it's time to start the new year off with a clean slate, to look forward and to try to shape 2014 into something much better. I do love this time of year because it give's you the time to reflect and think about where you are headed. I know there is a lot of stigma about resolutions at this time of year, lots of grand gestures and empty promises, but I am determined not to go down this route. How to go about that? Well I think that setting some realistic achievable goals is probably the best way forward. So here are my resolutions for the year ahead:

1. To set up a regular blogging schedule, and to review this monthy to make sure that the content is frequent enough, but also good quality. I would rather be writing twice a week with good content than just quick posts with no depth.
2. Improve my dressmaking skills.
3. To make 5 items which I can actually wear.
4. To knit a jumper
5. To start thinking about Christmas early
6. And finally, to try and be a good wife. Now this isn't a very specific goal,but its the little things I want to concentrate on. Things like trying to clear up after myself, spend more 1 on 1 time with Mr Fox, and to remember that he has a stressful job and to try and be a bit more understanding when he comes home and is not in the best of moods.

They don't seem too scary right? The problem is I have just blogged them for the world to see so you will all know whether I managed to achieve these, or whether I threw them out the window in a rage come 31st January. However I think getting them out in the public eye is a good thing as it means that I can't just decide to not bother, just because I didn't actually tell anyone what they were. Do you have any resolutions which you would like to share with the group, get it out your system, you know it will feel good to tell someone. 

On that note I want to wish you all a Happy New Year... here is to hoping 2014 brings you just enough of the things which you really wanted.