When Life Gives You Landlords…

Anyone who’s ever rented property, be it house or flat or room knows how it goes. For ninety nine percent of the time, you’re free to live your life how you want to in the way that you want to, to fit in with your life and that of the people you share your home with. You get up when you want, you go out when you want, you live like a king or queen or a slob depending on your style- and decorate (within the rules set on your tenancy agreement) or accessorise to you and your family’s taste.

You go about your daily business keeping to yourself, mixing with those you choose- working, playing, waking, sleeping… and- unless the heating breaks down or the roof springs a leak, barely giving a thought to the fact that someone else ultimately owns your home 🙂

And then notification of the annual ‘landlord’s walk around’ arrives in your inbox, or on your doormat. It’s like a yearly reminder of the fact that you’re only in rented accommodation, that the property you’re living in isn’t actually yours- however much you wish it could be.

I imagine it’s bad enough if you’ve chosen to rent rather than buy, and are happy with your decision- hearing that voice that says ‘don’t get too comfortable- don’t forget who this house/ flat/ room belongs to’. For anyone who longs to climb onto the first rung of the property ladder or who, like us, fell off it due to unforeseen circumstances (in our case a house fire), that stark reminder hits harder each year- especially as I love the house we’ve just spent the last eleven years making into our home

Suddenly the quiet life you were enjoying gets thrown into chaos. You of course get advance warning- in our case it has to be at least forty-eight hours’ notice but is usually around a week, and we are free to change the date if we really need to. However, that one small notice always has the ability to change everything for me- my mood, my happiness, my ability to even think straight, work or eat- so unless it’s absolutely vital, there’s no point in us changing the date. Firstly I know they don’t have to oblige and change it, and can legally let themselves into the house without us being here after giving that notice, and secondly… I know nothing ‘normal’ will be achieved again until the inspection is over and done with!

In my mind the landlord is looking around at US. They’re looking at how we live- what toys the children have on their beds and how messy their floors are, they’re nosing at which books we have on our bookshelves, how much washing up is waiting by the sink (either for washing or for putting away!) and what’s printed on our mugs, how much washing is piling up (again either dirty or awaiting folding, ironing, and putting away!). They’re looking at which shower gels and soaps we use, counting how much fluff there is on the carpets, how much dust on the shelves (along with seeing what nick knacks we have on them), they’re checking whether we’ve got the right mix of windows open and heating on, and looking to see what screen is showing on my computer…
Okay, so maybe I’m a bit paranoid- but then again, if you’ve ever lived in rented property you probably know what I mean! 😀

In reality though they just want to know that the house is still standing, that you haven’t graffitied everywhere, or knocked down walls- that the house isn’t about to collapse from neglect or vandalism or suffering from major damp problems, that you’re not running a drugs factory or subletting the house to twenty other people and making more money out of the house than you’re paying to the agents.

A caring landlord just wants to check that everything’s okay, give you a chance to say if there’s anything minor that you don’t want to make a fuss about otherwise- a panel in a double-glazed window unit steaming up and needing replacing for example. They want to know that the house they’re letting out to you is suitable for your needs, that you’re happy and comfortable and feel safe living there 🙂

Knowing that however, doesn’t stop me living through a week of mild panic- an intensive week of cleaning and tidying everything possible, and losing sleep over the things I can’t change in the time given… the garage full of old possessions that I still haven’t found the heart to sort through following our house fire eleven years ago being just one such thing 😦 (The fire ironically being the sole reason we ended up living in a rental property in the first place, after being homeowners all of our lives previously!)

Belonging to the church, our house also has to undergo a five yearly ‘quinquennial’ inspection along with all other churches and church buildings. This is a more in-depth inspection and leads to them carrying out more major, planned works- painting the outside of the house, clearing or replacing gutters, replacing the sealant around all the sinks, oiling the runners on each and every window etc. This ‘lovely’ inspection was actually due two years before it was carried out, but thanks to the pandemic everything but emergency repairs were postponed for a couple of years and was overdue.

So imagine my ‘excitement’ when last year we were told we had not just the one walkaround, but TWO inspections to look forward to- and only a week apart! At least everything was ready for the second one- although washing up every time a single mug or plate had been used, and hauling the vacuum out to clear up each time a crumb hit the floor just to keep the place ready was maybe taking things just a bit too far… 😉

(Un)fortunately for me, this time the inspections both happened in early February and followed on from me being very poorly with a fluey type bug, which meant I had much more of a relaxed, and resigned attitude when it came to the actual inspections. Being on the mend, I still managed to clean the bathrooms, and make sure the house looked a bit presentable, but my normal manic cleaning and tidying pre-landlord’s-inspection routine went completely out of the window from necessity. I simply had to shrug and accept that it was what it was- if they wanted to judge us ourselves, well- quite frankly at that moment, for once I didn’t really care!

With Mike previously always physically out of the house and at work, it’s always fallen to me in the past to show the landlord (or their agent who always does the actual inspection) around. It always makes for one of those really awkward moments in life- the agent doesn’t really need you following them around like a little lost sheep, but on the other hand- who actually leaves them to wander around by themselves?!

After all of the preparation they never stay for more than a few minutes either, always giving the impression that they’d rather be somewhere else or have an urgent appointment to go to. Minimal small talk is exchanged, and off they go- leaving conflicting feelings of both anti-climax that it was all over so quickly after such a big build up, and relief that (hopefully) all went well and that it’s over for another year! 😮

With home-working now an option, this time around Mike was fortunately able to still be at work and be here for them too. I was back up and about and feeling relatively well by the time it came to the dreaded day, but I have to say I was quite glad of the opportunity to take more of a back seat for once- especially as I wasn’t overly happy about the state of the house, despite my new self-imposed-out-of-necessity laid back approach!

It probably also did Mike good to see first hand what the annual ritual is really like- I don’t think he’d ever really grasped it properly before, that mix of nervous anticipation and trying to appear calm and not guilty, like you’ve just committed a major crime and are trying to cover it up so the agent doesn’t notice. Or maybe that’s just me who feels that way- Mike didn’t particularly seem affected by the visit in any way at all! 😮 He did, however at least understand my point about it all being over so quickly, after all the worry that went beforehand.

Though we were obviously relieved that this more general, annual ‘walk around’ had gone as well as expected (despite my hyperventilating just at the thought of it!), this time we knew that the findings from it would take on less significance than usual- when being carried out alongside the bigger, deeper quinquennial inspection…

Although it still went well, the actions from THAT one would last all year…

Busiest Christmas Ever!

Wow! Just wow. How else to describe what just happened with my little business over the last couple of months?! Apart from calling it how it was- the most manic, most fun, busiest Christmas ever! 😀

I love it when Little Dolly Clothes Shop is busy, and orders are coming in almost daily. The thrill of seeing that email heading of ‘Website order received’ or ‘Etsy sales transaction from…’ still sets my heart thumping and makes me want to do that (almost literal) little happy dance ❤

Last year had been pretty average sales-wise, with orders coming in at an average of one a week most months. A couple of blips- February saw only two sales (nothing too unusual for that time of year), and July saw a little peak of seven, but nothing to be too alarmed or concerned about- either in a good or bad way!

When things began to pick up a bit in September and order numbers trebled in October, I was hopeful that maybe a nice steady little stream of orders would keep coming through in the run up to Christmas- the last couple of years, although not completely ‘dead’ had certainly not been anything to write home about! This hope was reinforced by many of my October customers commenting about how their dolly clothes were going to be part of Christmas presents! 😊

But early November was less promising, and I began to think that maybe the little flurry of orders from the previous two months had dried up instead of increasing into the little snowstorm of them like I’d hoped… I still had orders to work on as some of the October ones were for several items, which at least kept me busy and stopped me from worrying too much, and with the ongoing work on the outside of the house keeping my anxiety levels up nicely (separate blog post coming soon!), I probably didn’t really need too much sewing to do anyway!

But as November entered double digits, I’d still only had three or four single item orders coming in. I began to worry that I had another ‘slow’ Christmas to look forward to- and, as much as I’m incredibly grateful for (not to mention amazed and surprised by!) every order that comes through, I do love that feeling where adrenaline kicks in and keeps me going through long nights of sewing in the lead up to the last Christmas posting date! After a few quiet Christmas seasons with no need for the extra hours of sewing, I’d not had that for a couple of years or so, and had been hopeful of having the excuse to stay up and witness the late evening become the early hours of the morning, sitting sewing with the Christmas tree twinkling away beside me, and some rubbish catch up telly on my computer for company…

Oh well, time to be thankful for the few orders I did have coming in and get on with organising my own family Christmas… and all that…

Thanks again to the work going on outside the house I was way more unorganised with our own bits than I am usually, so having the time to get some shopping and planning done wasn’t really a bad thing. I’d bought some bits back in the January sales (as usual) and had begun popping a few bits into the online grocery shop each week back in September- which I’d then had to stop abruptly when scaffolders and builders took over the outdoors of our house, appearing as and when and rendering it unsafe for shopping deliveries that couldn’t be scheduled around their unreliable work pattern!

The downside of having a larger than average family is the number of presents, stocking fillers and treats that we end up needing- thank goodness we set ourselves limits on what kind of things to put in the stockings while the children were tiny and have never gone ‘over the top’ or gone in for large, expensive gifts! So having the time to backtrack and start building up the present pile, (which I usually do as soon as the schools go back for the new year in September), was looking to be a bit of a blessing in disguise.

Except that I had decided (in my deluded wisdom) to rent a table for my doll’s clothes at the village Christmas fayre and had very little winter stock to display. Which meant some extra sewing, but neither were they things that anyone had yet bought, nor was I likely to sell much either- doll’s clothes are a bit of a niche market, but with the work on the house finally complete I wanted to catch a bit of the Christmassy atmosphere that a fayre offers. That, and of course the chance of coming across someone who might actually want to buy something from me or take my details for future use… 😉

Mid-November however is also Mike’s birthday and, much as it wasn’t a ‘big’ birthday this year it obviously still needed some time and love put into it! ❤
It also marks the time for closing the caravan up for the winter, a deed which takes up a bit more time- an entire weekend dedicated to enjoying one last stay of the year, and then boxing up all of our personal belongings to bring home and keep safe over the winter, before winterising the van and wishing it well for survival through all the coming winter storms of the next few months!

So, with a renewed mindset, perhaps even mixed in with a little bit of relief at the thought that I now had plenty of time to fit all the extras in which normally get forgotten at this time of year, I began to rethink my pre-Christmas planning- allowing for the fact that I would maybe still get a few orders come trickling in, surely?

I bought Mike’s birthday books and card; booked an online grocery shop which included plenty of stocking filler choccies and not much in the way of ‘useful’ food; wrote a list of things to remember to turn off/ pack up/ check at the caravan; begged the home living children to let me know what they actually needed as Christmas presents; and began to make a few little dolly blankets and nappies– the easiest, quickest and cheapest items to make which both look appealing on a craft stall and have the highest chance of selling too!

And then suddenly, quite out of the blue WHAM! In came an order. Followed swiftly by another one. And another one. Over the course of the next two weeks, by the end of November, a further thirty orders had landed in my Inbox!! 😮

Relief and excitement and ‘happy dances’ were quickly replaced by a feeling of mild panic as I watched the number of outstanding orders building up faster than I was able to make them! As grateful as I was to see my website and Etsy shop as busy as they were, I did at one point (the 26^th, when five orders came through in one day!) begin to worry slightly about whether I could actually keep up with the steady stream of sewing coming in… So much for wishing for a snowstorm- now I had a full-on blizzard to battle through!! 😮

Fortunately, where many of the orders which come through my website are for multiple items or the more complicated clothing, most of my Etsy orders are for blankets and nappies- I don’t know why, but that just seems to be how the distribution of customers has been since opening my shop with Etsy as an extra outlet last year! And that was still the case with all the orders coming in now- some needed many hours of work, but this was balanced out by many that would need far less 😊

November passed and December dawned… Mike’s birthday was a distant memory; the caravan was all empty and closed up for the winter; and the Christmas fayre had been and gone- I’d even sold a few little outfits there! And still there was no let up in the flow of orders streaming in…

For the first time I was thankful for only having one remaining child at school- and that the endless round of school concerts, nativities, assemblies and plays of the past were now down to just one, and I wasn’t left feeling like I should be sewing instead of simply enjoying whichever event I was attending at the time!

Late nights spent sewing were becoming part of my normal routine, although I refused to let myself work past about ten o’clock in the evenings until Little Blondie had broken up from school for the Christmas holidays- 2am bedtimes don’t mix terribly well with 6.30am wake up calls!! 😉 Evenings spent watching telly with the family were definitely a thing of the past though!

Our poor Postie was kept busy with all the orders I had for her to collect from me- most days I had at least a couple for her, on a few occasions a nice little stack of five or six were waiting when she called! The last recommended posting date was fast approaching, my last order date was set and published on my website and social media, and I was just about managing to keep up with demand. I was confident that although my life would be manic for a few more days, I had plenty of time to get all the orders sewn and out in time as my cut off date was a few days before the postal one.

My customers obviously thought otherwise though- as the 14^th of December brought with it a record breaking SIX orders!! 😮 By the end of the day, I was almost dreading checking my emails! 😀

My idea of finishing before the final deadline and having a couple of days to complete the family’s Christmas shopping (which had been sidelined as soon as things got busy in mid-November) suddenly went out of the window. The enjoyment disappeared and the mild feeling of panic turned into a feeling of dread and defeat!

It didn’t last long though- as so often happens when I’m beginning to feel swamped by chores, tasks and deadlines, suddenly I was overcome by a calm positivity.

It was nearly 11pm, with a dozen orders outstanding and only about three days to go until the posting cut off… I had a pile of little blankets and bedding sets that I’d wanted to finish before bed and the sewing machine decided to play up and kept jamming, despite several attempts to oil it. I was tired and thirsty and felt like crying…

I stopped, sat back, had a large soft drink and said a silent little prayer for the ability to finish all my tasks on time so that I didn’t let anyone- customers or family, down. Suddenly I knew that it would be okay, that I’d somehow manage to get all the sewing done, all the shopping done, finish Christmassy-fying the house, and still manage to wrap all the presents too…

And I did. Somehow in between all the sewing I managed to get the shopping done for my own family’s presents (without having to resort to paying over the top prices on fast delivery charges!), and all but one order went out before the deadline for first class post. That final one went the very next day- a larger order which I upgraded to special delivery to ensure that it would still arrive with the customer by the big day! 😀

It was the busiest Christmas I’ve ever had, and yet somehow I still had more time spare for the finishing touches around the house- the sewing machine was actually packed away for once BEFORE the dining table was needed for our family dinner; all my online shopping arrived and last little bits were bought from local shops; and all of the presents were wrapped (except for a few last stocking filler choccie bits, which were met with disdain by Games Boy! 😀 ) before late evening on Christmas Eve!

‘Busiest’ may sound scary, but as I found this year- it’s really not. With a little bit of faith and a whole lot of hard work, busiest can actually mean most fun… most satisfying… and one of the best. I know (hope even, maybe? 😉 ) that things will slow down now for the early part of the year, but I’m really hoping for another Christmas like this one next year- I’m already getting ahead with my Christmas shopping now… just in case! 😉

Back to Basics with Writing this Blog

It’s been a bit of an odd year so far- as so many seem to have been recently, and once again I’ve found myself missing the chance to write this blog more often than I have found chances to actually ‘put pen to paper’- so to speak. It’s been annoying me, particularly as I begin so many weeks with one of those infamous ‘to do’ lists, which invariably includes the note ‘Blog Post’!
All too often the week ends with that same note on there- still highlighted, underlined and asterisked instead of being crossed out…

If it didn’t annoy me, it wouldn’t matter. But it does.

Does it really matter though? Does it really matter if I write one blog post a week, or only publish one once a year? Should I be making more of an effort to write this thing, or should I just relax and go with the flow- only publishing a post once in a blue moon when I get too annoyed with myself for not doing so?

Being over-analytical in life has sometimes been my downfall, but all this worrying about my blog got me validly thinking-
Why do I write my blog posts?
Who am I writing them for?
How should I approach my blog and writing it going forward?

Why?

First and foremost I write my blog because I enjoy it.
Long before I did any research into the whys and wherefores of blogging being good or bad for business I began writing my blog because I fancied the challenge. I always enjoyed writing stories at school and have, over the years even written stories to read to my own children. I guess maybe from time to time I’ve even fantasised about writing an actual book- as have so many people! Maybe one day… but in the meantime writing a blog sounded more achievable- and fun.

With so much of my time being spent on my sewing, the idea of doing something a bit creative using my brain instead of my hands appealed to me- bizarrely I enjoy the typing aspect of all the admin side of my business, and writing about my life, facts about my little business or how it fits in around my family seemed an easy way to fit some writing back into my life 🙂

Although I hadn’t come across many blogs when I started up, I knew they were a ‘thing’ and came in many forms, and also knew enough to know that a blog attached to a website and small business was seen as a good thing. Much research over many years later and I now know that Google and the other search engines definitely do see an active blog connected to a website as a positive thing- and it can make a huge difference to where one sits on the results pages of any given search.
Definitely worth all that ‘fun’ writing then- I get enjoyment from it AND it helps my little business to look good to search engines too! ❤

Who?

So this one’s perhaps a trickier one to answer…
Again the quick answer to this would be- I write for me. See above! And these days I write for the search engines too- also see above!

But who else do I write for- potential customers perhaps? Maybe… but then again how often does anyone check out the blog of a little website that they’re thinking of making a one-time-small-purchase from?! Would what I write on here really make a difference to someone deciding whether to buy a £12.50 doll’s bedding set from me, or whether they should go elsewhere?
Maybe not then… or certainly not as a general rule!

How about my followers on social media- my Instagram buddies and Facebook pals? This sounds more likely- if I know that someone I follow closely on social media, and especially someone who shares their real life on there as well as their business life, has a blog too then I’ll quite likely pop on over and take a look.
Does this help with business at all? In the short term- no, it’s about sharing snippets of life with ‘friends’, but in the long term-yes. The more people interact with my blog, the more the search engines will see it as an active blog and push my website up the results pages. All of which has to be good! 😀

Likewise with all the bloggers out there who somehow find my blog, read it, and inexplicably actually like it enough to interact with a ‘like’ or a comment. Again- all good for my business but, it has to be said, also good for my ego!! 😉

How?

So- taking all of the above into consideration, how should I approach writing  my blog going forward, and how much should I stress over whether I’ve written one post in the last few months, or twenty?

Firstly, I don’t think it IS worth stressing over- although it DOES definitely make a difference during those times when my blog is more active. I’ve seen a noticeable increase in website views in the days following me publishing a new post, or when there’s a sudden influx of bloggers finding and liking one of my posts. And of course this can also lead onto an increase of sales- how many of the customers quoting ‘Google’ as the way they found my shop, found it as a result of my site being higher up the results pages? Quite likely, most of them did! 🙂

It’s not an instant yoyo effect though- my site won’t instantly slide way back down the search pages just because I haven’t written a new post in a while, even though my natural instinct is to panic that this will be the case! It’ll obviously take a while for the search engines to catch up with the lack of new posts- especially given that bloggers continually seem to find my old posts to interact with, and the fact that by the time the search engines even notice, I’m bound to have finally added a new post anyway!

Secondly, I don’t think I help myself at times! I can have a tendency to get a little carried away when I write, and what starts out as a quick little post about something that I think would be interesting to anyone who does read my blog, can sometimes turn into a five page marathon which- with the many interruptions of ‘life’ taken into consideration, takes several days to write! This- when I’m busy with other things, can then result in several half written and abandoned drafts sitting unfinished on my computer…
So perhaps learning to write shorter pieces when I have less free time to write could be a useful way of ensuring that my poor blog doesn’t end up looking a little neglected! And saving the longer pieces for when I have more time free…

Maybe I also need to go back to the days of noting down blog ideas when they occur to me- not necessarily writing the posts, just having a list of go-to blog ideas so that if I feel I ‘ought’ to get a post written and published there’s always a topic waiting to be written about?
Taking the pressure off myself of ‘needing’ to continually come up with new posts, and setting a realistic and achievable goal of how many times a year I want to post may be an idea too? After all, it’s a well-known fact that creativity, or indeed any kind of work happens easier when less pressure is applied! 🙂

So you may begin to see more regular blog posts from me. Or there may be many months between published posts. Just know that I’m still here, still blogging about my life and my little business– but enjoying writing it, and definitely NOT stressing over how long it’s been since you heard from me last! ❤

Busy Christmas… Sleepy January

Wow, I can’t believe we’re already half way through February! How did that happen? One minute we were rapidly heading towards Christmas, and now… I knew I shouldn’t have blinked!! 😉

Okay, seriously though time seems to be marching forwards this year far faster than I am. I’m feeling it especially more so because Christmas was manic, with no time to think, and as soon as it was over I managed to come down with some sort of fluey bug which caused me to miss nearly all of January!

After a fairly quiet year last year sales-wise, I wasn’t really expecting much from the lead up to Christmas. Yes, I was hoping to get one or two more orders coming in, but if the previous couple of years had been anything to go by, I wasn’t holding out any hopes of being rushed off my feet! 2am bedtimes after desperately trying to get orders completed and out into the post were a thing of the past- for the last few years I’ve never had enough sewing at Christmas that I couldn’t fit it into a normal standard ‘working’ day.

Back in September, after many months of debating with myself, I’d decided to open an Etsy shop as an extra outlet for my doll’s clothes. I’ve heard so many mixed reviews about whether Etsy is a good or bad thing, whether they take too much in the way of fees or are fair, whether people get good sales through them or struggle, that I wasn’t relying on it bringing in many extra orders. However if nothing sells the fees are minimal, and any extra exposure for a little business like mine has to be good!

I received an order through there within only a few days- there’s probably something set up to alert people to new shops opening or something, but at least it reassured me that I’d made the right decision- however many or few sales I got through them! It’ll never take over from my website, which is beginning to pay me back finally for all of the energy and effort I’ve put into it over the years, but I think I’m definitely going to stick with Etsy as well for a little while and see how it goes. 🙂

And it did definitely contribute to my sales at Christmas. After a slow start to the Christmas season, in early November the orders suddenly started to come flooding in- from both my website, and my new Etsy shop! It completely took me by surprise how popular my dolly clothes were, and the two outlets seemed to work perfectly side by side and complement each other- with larger, more complex orders of several items coming in from the website, and several smaller one-item orders through Etsy, mostly for my dolly nappies and blankets. ❤

When it comes to records, my ‘orders in one day’ bar is set pretty low- I’ve only ever very rarely received more than one order in any one day, and then that being only two! When things started getting busy I secretly thought how nice it would be if I got as many as three orders one day- something to look back on and take a little bit of pride from… Imagine my astonishment when one day during late November I received FIVE! 😮
I don’t suppose I’ll ever top that, and I have to admit that the little ‘happy dance’ that I usually feel like doing whenever an order comes in had actually turned to terror by the end of that particular evening!!

As an added pressure, Royal Mail’s union had decided to hold a series of regular strikes across the company during the whole of November, and into December- including the run up to Christmas itself. Many other small businesses were closing their shops and order books early, as the backlog of parcels caused by the strikes began to have an impact on orders getting through to customers on time. The boundaries kept changing, and keeping an eye on the news to see which parcel services were being given priority, and then changing which postal services I could offer to customers so that there was at least a chance of them receiving their goods in time for Christmas, was actually very stressful.

A lot of small businesses gave up completely until the New Year. Some just gave up completely and shut up shop for good as the stress was too much for them. Being as busy as I was, even I had to make the decision to bring my Christmas cut-off date forward by nearly two weeks- especially when Royal Mail suddenly and abruptly brought their last posting dates forward by a week!!

I’ve always kept my website open throughout the holiday season anyway, but warned that orders won’t be processed over Christmas itself, so all I had to do once I’d published my cut-off dates was to put a Merry Christmas banner on my website, and hope that people would still visit it over the holidays! But when, with only a week to go until the last Christmas post collection I still had twenty three orders outstanding… even I began to panic a little bit- even though I was also running high on the adrenalin that comes from being so busy!

Could I actually get all of my orders made up and sent out? I hate to think that I might let someone down- after all as a mum, I know what it means to spend time and effort finding and buying the perfect Christmas gifts for your little ones and wanting them to arrive in time! The pressure of fitting family life, keeping in touch with the older children, going to both the school Carol Concert and GCSE Awards evening, AND working orders in around Royal Mail’s strikes was definitely far more than I’ve experienced in many years! Add into the mix an extremely (and unusual for us) cold spell of weather, and several coughs and colds- and I really did feel like I was going to fail my customers!

Somehow though, with the help of several very late nights, I did however get though all of my orders, and sent every single one out by the last posting date. Still feeling on a high, I sat back in relief that night- only to have a desperate plea come in from a mum who had left shopping until the last minute, but wanted some doll’s clothes as it was the only thing her little one had been asking for from Father Christmas, and she’d taken until then to find anything suitable! How could I say no?

So, with her happy to pay extra for the super speedy guaranteed postal service, which was supposedly still going to get to her in time for Christmas, I set to. Back out came the sewing machine, and instead of starting to wrap the family’s Christmas presents I spent the last Sunday before Christmas sewing up her lovely order and imagining her little girl’s delight on Christmas morning, if I could pull it off. Parcel sent, and with the sewing machine once again packed away for its Christmas break I was finally ready to relax into (or rather start stressing about!) our own Christmas preparations! 😀

I received a lovely email two days later from my very happy last minute customer to say that her order had made it in time… and Christmas finally arrived- and with it the usual mix of happy times, stress, happier times, family visiting us, family unable to visit us last minute due to illness, and us making visits to other family. A busy but generally lovely time was enjoyed by all. ❤

Likewise New Year came, and New Year went. After the busy-ness of Christmas, we had a quiet time by ourselves planned. I was feeling a little bit lost to be honest- when you’ve been so super busy that adrenaline has kept you going, and then suddenly there’s nothing… you end up feeling a bit like you’re floating lost at sea!

So when three days into the year Little Blondie went back to school, Mike went back to work and both Curly and Games Boy hid themselves away to get on with Uni work ahead of the new term, I knew it was time to get on with some work of my own. First stop- tidying up the website, hiding items that were out of stock, checking correct stock was showing for other items, checking what fabric needed restocking etc. Except that I just wasn’t ‘feeling’ it.

Yes, it’s always hard to get back into any sort of working after a few days off- especially after Christmas when time hasn’t had any real meaning for several days- late nights, lazy mornings, no working days… Good as it is to relax completely for a while, Christmas really does take it to a new level! I think that was one of the more difficult challenges when coming out of lockdown- going back to time keeping and clock watching!

But this felt different, I just couldn’t even get the energy to look through my fabric, or to go through the labels lists and make sure every order had been logged correctly when things were at their most manic. Two days of sitting looking forlornly at the computer, getting nowhere and by the third day I knew why. I couldn’t even face getting out of bed. 😦

Hit by complete exhaustion and all the symptoms of flu without the fever, I basically slept the next week away. When I finally began to spend more of my day awake, I still didn’t have the energy to do more than sit and read, or attempt the games on my tablet that usually sit there taunting me as I don’t have the time to actually play them… Frustratingly my mind recovered far quicker than I did, and more than once I found myself sitting there in bed, making plans for my little business that I was too weak and tired to even think about trying to carry out!

Curly took it upon herself to try to get me eating again- Uni started back late in the term, and even once she was back she only has two days of classes so she was around most of the time to make sure I actually ate something every day! Who knew that the simple pleasure of a hot crumpet and soft boiled egg could be quite SO delicious?! 🙂

Her mission accomplished, I finally began to feel better slowly, and to get downstairs for an hour in the evening to catch up with some of the telly I’d been missing- not that there was an awful lot that actually mattered to me to be honest! But it did help to make me feel a bit more ‘normal’ again and by the end of January I was even getting downstairs for a couple of hours in the day.

Several failed and abandoned attempts at getting the sewing machine out to make up the few orders that had trickled in since Christmas, and finally- already into February, I made up my first outfit since Christmas. We actually suspect my ‘fluey bug’ may have been Covid, the sheer exhaustion certainly fitted with it, but at the time it didn’t even occur to me to test- I was too busy sleeping!

So now, here’s to February- and after such a slow, frustrating start to the year it’ll be just as challenging in its own way- as I try to negotiate my way through to where I actually wanted to be by this time all along! 🙂

The Strangest of Septembers

What a strange month September turned out to be…

It’s always a bit of an odd month anyway- strangely mid-year-but-beginning-of-year at the same time thanks to the start of the educational calendar… Still feeling like summer as we’ve all just come back from our annual holidays and the children have just spent six weeks at home, but with a distinct feel of autumn in the air… Hot summer weather one day followed by mid-winter weather the next…

But this year, just three months after the wonderful Platinum Jubilee celebrations of early summer, our beloved Queen suddenly passed away- plunging the country, and much of the world, into two weeks of mourning.

Suddenly in just a few short weeks it feels like we’re much closer to the end of the year than we actually are- all the ‘back to school’ photos that filled social media just three weeks ago feel like a distant memory, and the leaves that are still filling the branches of the trees feel like they should be laying long forgotten on the ground…

September began for us like it did for many thousands of others across the country, as Little Blondie returned to school after the long summer break. As our only remaining school child it was a relatively easy time for us, compared with that of just a few years ago when we had multiple children at multiple schools, which in turn meant multiple uniform buying and multiple school starting dates!
Getting back into routine was, however, rather more of a shock to all of our systems than ever before as she’d actually been off school for more than two months- after sitting her GCSEs in the summer!

But that time came and went, and Little Blondie quickly and easily settled into sixth form life. Like all university students, Curly wasn’t due back in art college for another two weeks, and Games Boy (who had moved back home over the summer in preparation) wasn’t due to start his new university adventure until the same week. Life actually began to feel more normal than it had for over two years.

September 8^th dawned dull and grey and miserable. The sort of early autumn day that makes you long for the cosiness of winter and makes you turn the heating back on after the summer! I was struggling a bit to get going on my day, so I dusted down the string of Christmas fairy lights that we leave in place along the dining room wall all year, and for the first time since February I switched them on to cheer the room (and me!) up a bit. Sitting opposite the wall that they’re on, as I do all day, I was able to fully appreciate the warmth they bring, and sit at my computer working through some long outstanding admin work.

And then at around lunchtime the news came in that our wonderful Queen was seriously ill. Unexpectedly, I expect like millions of others around the world too, our day suddenly revolved around keeping an eye on the news, and conversations about what would happen ‘if’.
Sadly, ‘if’ became a reality shortly after six o’clock in the evening…

It’ll be one of those moments in history that you hear about, even if you’ve not experienced it in the past yourself- the ‘being able to remember exactly what you were doing when you first heard’… like when people talk about the shooting of John F Kennedy, the Twin Towers or the day that Princess Diana died (I wasn’t born for the first, but vividly recall the latter two).

Having given up all hopes of completing any more work, I’d settled in the living room to fold washing in front of the news on the television. Mike was just in from work, having picked up Little Blondie from the bus station on the way, Games Boy was up in his room and Curly had taken charge of dinner. The poor BBC newsreader, who had been doing a wonderful job of keeping very little information going all afternoon, had the sad task of announcing our lovely Queen’s passing.

I don’t think anyone really expected the news to have quite the enormous effect that it did. No one really expects to feel so emotional at the passing of someone they never actually knew personally, especially if they’ve lost someone close of their own in the past. But for nearly two weeks, time seemed to stand still. I struggled to get the motivation for my little business going again- the fact that I had been just days away from launching my Christmas range of doll’s clothes, along with my End of Summer sale seemed suddenly irrelevant, and disrespectful.

The girls seemed to be very quiet with it all- them being too young to have really ever lived through ‘big news’ (Covid aside), it seemed to hit them quite hard. The strangeness of having no adverts during the breaks in our usual programme viewing the next night, and the constant news updates over the following days as the Royal family moved through each stage of the long processions leading up to the day of the funeral reminding us at every turn that the country was now under the new rule of a King- something most of us had never before experienced with the Queen’s seventy year reign.

Most of the Instagram accounts I follow are small businesses like mine and, almost without exception, there seemed to be an unwritten rule that during the period of national mourning none of us would post trivial, or self-promoting posts. None of us really felt very inclined to anyway, and most of us only posted a couple of times during those eleven days- mostly with tributes to our beautiful Queen, or to share how we were feeling, with very few updates on our shops and businesses. On the day of the funeral no one posted anything; out of respect- yes, in line with nearly every shop and business in the country- yes, but also I suspect because none of us had the mental energy or inclination to.

I didn’t make the girls spend the whole day watching the Queen’s funeral- I didn’t need to, because they chose to. We had the television on from nine o’clock in the morning, right through to the end of the day’s proceedings at five, and until mid-evening when we’d seen enough re-runs of the day’s events on the various news broadcasts to be able to quote word for word most of the services, and walk in time to the steady beat of the marching.

We barely moved from our seats all day- no one working, no one on Social Media, but sharing together one of the biggest moments in our country’s history, the most any of us doing being things that took little concentration- doing jigsaws, absently playing games on phones, or crocheting. We’d planned simple food that wouldn’t take anyone away from the room unless they wanted to- quiche and quick salad for lunch, pizzas for tea. Mike popped out to our local town briefly at six to collect Games Boy who’d been away for the weekend, and that was the longest anyone spent away from the living room all that day.

For most of us, personally nothing had really changed since the beginning of September, and yet it felt like so much had. Taking Games Boy’s ‘first day at Uni’ photos the very next morning, it felt like months had passed since I was out in the front garden capturing Little Blondie’s first day of sixth form, instead of only a couple of weeks! I kept getting caught out by other people’s first day photos too- a friend whose little girls had just started back at ballet classes after the summer break, another friend’s daughter also off to Uni- all of them felt like they were way too late in the term… as did Curly’s first day back in Art College two days later…

And now here we are at the tail end of September, wondering where the last four weeks have gone. Time seems to be flying past ever faster these days anyway, but with the country on pause for half of this month, it’s just simply disappeared.

As we all get back into our daily routines, start getting used to seeing references to the King instead of the Queen in the news, and look out for the new changes which will begin to appear soon- on our stamps, and money and so on, one thing we’ll all remember is this strangest of Septembers- and the spectacular, but very solemn moment in history that we all shared in ❤